1. "It is one of the defining marks of our time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal, but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable."

2. "Angels must be amazing. I've never seen an angel. I've seen great and powerful people by this world's standards. I've seen amazing brains at Cambridge. I've seen powerful people down at the Capitol. But I've never seen an angel."

3. "Friend, if you come in today thinking Jesus was just an angel or a prophet or a great moral teacher, I think that simply shows you might not have read the Gospels very carefully. The Jesus of the Bible presents Himself as God."

4. "Jesus is our picture of God. We can enjoy philosophically natural law, conversations about one God. Friends, we're not talking about the same God because He's revealed Himself most clearly in Jesus of Nazareth. And when they reject that one as God, we are not talking about the same God."

5. "You can be moved emotionally and have tears coming down your cheeks, but I tell you, if you are living in rebellion against God, I don't care how emotionally moved you are, you are not worshiping God."

6. "We are not a collection of the really best people in Washington or on Capitol Hill. We're a collection of sinners so bad we know that we need to be killed by God, and that there is a Savior who has been killed in our place."

7. "Some people sit around thinking they're in neutral. I don't know. I'm not really against God. I'm not really for God. There's no such speed as neutral in the Bible, my friend."

8. "I can only think you're bored by God because you don't yet know enough of who He is and of what He's like. If you are one of those who in your own honest self-knowledge knows yourself to be bored with God, what will you say when you face Him?"

9. "Is this life the feast for you, the best it will ever be in comparison to what's coming? Or have you heeded Christ's call to repent of your sins and trust in him, and so been prepared for the wedding feast of the Lamb, which is coming and which will never end."

10. "Oh friend, why would you rather starve than come?"

Observation Questions

1. In Revelation 19:6, how does John describe the sound of the heavenly multitude's praise, and what specific words do they shout?

2. According to Revelation 19:7-8, what two things have happened that prompt the call to rejoice, be glad, and give God glory?

3. What does the fine linen that the bride wears represent, according to verse 8?

4. In Revelation 19:9, what specific group of people does the angel pronounce "blessed," and what does the angel add about his words?

5. When John falls at the angel's feet to worship him in verse 10, how does the angel identify himself in relation to John and other believers?

6. What command does the angel give John in verse 10, and what reason does he provide regarding the testimony of Jesus?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that the heavenly praise in verse 6 is described as sounding like "the roar of rushing waters" and "loud peals of thunder"? What does this imagery communicate about the nature of worship in heaven?

2. The sermon emphasizes that the angel rebukes John for attempting to worship him. Why would an apostle like John, who knew better theologically, be tempted to worship an angel, and what does this teach us about the danger of misdirected worship?

3. How does the image of a wedding and marriage supper (verses 7-9) help us understand the relationship between Christ and the church? Why would God choose this particular image to describe the culmination of His redemptive work?

4. Verse 8 says the fine linen "was given her to wear," yet it also represents "the righteous acts of the saints." How can our righteous acts be both our responsibility and a gift from God?

5. The angel declares that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (verse 10). What does this mean about the central focus of all true prophetic witness and biblical revelation?

Application Questions

1. The sermon asked, "Does God bore you?" What specific activities, relationships, or pursuits in your life tend to capture more of your attention and excitement than God does, and what practical step could you take this week to reorient your priorities?

2. If Christians are called to praise God with their words, how would you evaluate the way you speak about God in everyday conversations—at work, with family, or with friends? What is one specific opportunity this week where you could intentionally speak well of God?

3. The passage teaches that the bride's fine linen represents "the righteous acts of the saints." In what area of your daily life—your job, your home, your relationships—could your actions more clearly reflect the character of Christ and bring Him praise?

4. The sermon challenged believers to talk to friends specifically about Jesus rather than vaguely about "faith" or "church." Who is one person in your life with whom you could have a conversation about Jesus this week, and how might you begin that conversation?

5. Reflecting on the doctrine of election and God's gracious call, how does knowing that your salvation rests on God's choice rather than your own merit affect the way you approach struggles with doubt, failure, or feelings of unworthiness?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Ephesians 5:25-32 — This passage explicitly compares Christ's love for the church to a husband's love for his wife, expanding on the wedding imagery found in Revelation 19.

2. Isaiah 61:10-62:5 — The prophet uses bridal and wedding imagery to describe God's salvation and His delight over His people, providing Old Testament background for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

3. Philippians 2:5-11 — This passage describes Christ's humiliation and exaltation, explaining why He is called "the Lamb" who humbled Himself and is now worthy of all praise.

4. 1 Peter 2:4-10 — Peter describes believers as a royal priesthood called to declare the praises of God, reinforcing the sermon's emphasis on our obligation to worship God alone.

5. Romans 8:28-30 — Paul's teaching on God's effectual calling and predestination provides theological depth to the sermon's discussion of election and the blessing of being "invited" to the wedding supper.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Weightlessness of God in Modern Times

II. Who Should We Praise?

III. How Should We Praise God?

IV. Why Should We Praise God?

V. A Call to Respond to God's Invitation

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Detailed Sermon Outline

It is one of the defining marks of our time that God is now weightless.

I do not mean by this that he is ethereal, but rather that he has become unimportant.

He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God's existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television. His commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence. His judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news.

And His truth less compelling than the advertiser's sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness.

In such days, David Wells observes, an interest in religion can be nothing more than a fascination with ourselves. As religious beings, quite distinct from our standing before the true God?

Does God bore you?

Does God bore you?

That very question would have been shocking, even scandalous, in earlier, more Respectful days. But today, to many, God is taken at most as a means to some more exciting end. Inner peace, health, a job, money, position, friends. But God Himself fails to interest. He is a point to be debated.

By the atheists, or to be posited by the philosophers, or to be used by the politicians, or to be reconstructed by mainline theologians.

The God of the Bible requires our interest, our fascination, our admiration. Even our praise. This is what we've seen as we've looked through the last book in the Bible, the book of Revelation over the past few months. This morning we come to a cascade of praise. Part of it actually the text for Handel's Hallelujah Chorus in which the multitudes of heaven respond to the arrival of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And from their response in John's recorded In these few verses in chapter 19, we learn about God and how we should praise Him and why. So those are the three things that I want us to consider this morning: who we should praise, how we should praise Him, and why.

And I pray that as we consider these, you will find yourself taken up by God and fascinated by Him and praising Him, giving yourself wholly and completely to Him and to His will.

To begin with, let's turn to Revelation chapter 19, Revelation chapter 19.

You'll find it on page 1229 or on page 1301 or someplace very, very near the end of your Bible. So if you're new to looking at your Bible, just take it, turn it over, open the back cover and turn a couple of pages and you'll be very close to it. When I say chapter 19, those are the larger numbers in the text. The smaller numbers after it are the verse numbers. We this morning want to look at chapter 19, just a few verses, verses 6 to 10.

As you're turning there and finding it, let me just remind you of what we've seen in the book of Revelation. John, once the youngest of the disciples of Jesus, is now an elderly pastor and apostle. And he had been exiled to a small Greek island, probably for not worshiping the Roman emperor. While on this island, Christ appears to John and dictates letters to seven churches and gives him visions about and His plans of judgment and redemption. In the chapters immediately before the one we're considering this morning, so chapter 17 and 18, we've seen God's judgment on the godless world system, including the religion and the government that set itself up against God and persecuted Christians, just like John was persecuted.

In the beginning of chapter 19, the heavenly multitude praised God for these judgments, and then in verse 5, the command comes. Verse 5, Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, both small and great. And in response to that command, we come to our passage this morning, Revelation 19:6-10. Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting, Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel said to me, 'Right, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.' and he added, 'These are the true words of God.' At this I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, 'Don't do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The first question that we find in our passage that we should settle is this. Number one, who should we praise? Who should we praise? I bring this up first because not only is this the most basic, the most foundational, but it's the most striking thing to many when they first read this passage. Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, you wouldn't have recognized this.

You wouldn't have sort of stubbed your toe on it as you were walking through this passage. But verse 10 for Christians is striking. It's even shocking. You see, we Christians are monotheists. We don't think religion is essentially something interior to us that's just an expression of who we are, a kind of self-expression that we can call the force or the divine.

No, we understand that there is a God, there is one true God, and that this God has life and being quite apart from us, that He created all that is, and that this God alone is to be worshiped. And so when we come to this passage and we see John who has been faithfully leading us through this revelation. John, who was an apostle, who was persecuted for the faith. John, who was one of the disciples of Jesus, even the beloved disciple. When we see John falling down to worship an angel, we are scandalized.

We don't understand. We wonder what's going on. Angels we know are just as the book of Hebrews says, ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. So how on earth could the disciple John even be tempted, let alone begin to worship a creature, an angel?

I wonder if you have any good answers for this. I looked around and I found none. This is not really the kind of question commentaries think about. This is the kind of question Christians think about, pastors think about when they're going to preach on the passage. How on earth could such a person worship an angel?

Here's the only answer I could come up with. Angels must be amazing.

I've never seen an angel. I've seen great and powerful people by this world's standards. I've seen amazing brains at Cambridge. I've seen powerful people down at the Capitol. But I've never seen an angel.

I can only guess that in their appearance and in this angel's message that he had been sharing of these marvelous, wonderful things with John, he must have been so amazed that he was taken up with it all and simply got carried away. He knew better theologically. But friends, we're going to find him doing it again in another couple of chapters. Keep reading Revelation. You'll see he does it again.

I think as a result, what we find very clearly is another time in Scripture where we are taught that there is to be one and only one object of our worship, God Himself. But the splendor of this creature, the wonderful nature, the manners he was explaining, I think that's what's going on.

And so we see here in verse 10, At this I fell at His feet to worship Him. And you know, John's not bragging when he writes that sentence. John is confessing. But he said to me, Do not do it. I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus, worship God.

Christians, have you realized that you have an obligation? To worship God.

It's not something you merely get to do on those Sunday mornings when you wake up and you kind of feel like going to church. No, as a Christian you have an obligation to worship God. We read in 1 Peter 2:9, you, are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. We exist to praise Him. We've been saved to praise Him.

And we're to praise and worship only Him. The Ten Commandments that we began the service with a little bit ago began with the Lord telling us, you, shall have no other gods before Me. This is an important concern for this book of Revelation. John was in exile, remember, for rejecting idolatrous worship. Now he himself becomes an object lesson to drive home that very point.

Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, have you considered that the Bible teaches that all worship is not good? Some worship is good, but there is worship that is bad. Now that puts you in a bit of a challenging position because all of us who are humans are made in God's image. We are made specifically as worshipers. We are by nature made to worship.

The question is, who are we to worship?

Friend, how do you sort through that question? I can tell you how I do as a Christian, but I'm curious how you do that. One of the most interesting things about Jesus when you read through the Gospels is that He accepted worship.

Unlike this angel, Jesus, when Thomas worshiped Him at the end of John, Jesus accepted it. Friends, if you come in today thinking Jesus was just an angel or a prophet or a great moral teacher, I think that simply shows you might not have read the Gospels very carefully.

The Jesus of the Bible presents Himself as God. My Christian friend, what part of creation is so splendid that you are tempted to worship it? The physical world? Do you have your quiet times watching planet Earth?

Maybe for some of you who are more liturgically minded, the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper?

Fellow Christians from earlier generations, angels, other teachers, money, success, promotion at work, other people's opinions of you, especially for those of you who are single, that person whose eye you're trying to catch, whose heart you're going after.

All these, when worshiped, Heaven calls idols.

We are made to praise God and to praise only God.

So how do we know who this God is? Well, we can only be certain about Him if He reveals Himself. Look there in verse 9 at that last sentence that the angel says. Where it says, He added, these are the true words of God. Now the angel almost certainly meant those in reference to the few sentences right before this.

But his concern here is one which has always marked Christianity, and I want you to notice that because today in many circles this is not seen to be an appropriate concern for religion, questions of truth.

But it makes sense. If in fact we are called to worship God, how do we do that? I remember when I used to be an agnostic. One of my objections to the idea of worshiping God was, well, I've never seen Him. I had heard stories about Him when I went to church, but I myself didn't have any firsthand knowledge.

How, friend, are you to worship a God whom you've never seen? A God whom you've never audibly heard?

How do you worship a God who is not present for us to interrogate Him or question Him? The God of the philosophers is little more than a cipher in their mental equations, an unknown factor, the God of the gaps it's called. My friend, how do you know God if He doesn't reveal Himself?

But he has. John teaches us that Jesus is the Word of God who became flesh and lived for a while among us. Jesus spent much of His three years in His ministry on earth teaching the disciples. Christianity is a religion that has always been concerned with words and sentences and truths. Who was the novelist who referred to poor, talkative Christianity?

But Christianity is a talkative religion. It is a religion based upon God's verbal revelation of Himself.

So God has revealed Himself in Scripture. We believe His Holy Spirit inspired the words in this book. In this book we believe we find the truth about God and us, about how we're to relate to God and how we're to relate to each other. So, my Christian friend, I would exhort you, read your Bible. It is God's true revelation of Himself.

We see that point again and again and again throughout Scripture, even throughout this book of Revelation. I don't know if you've noticed it as we've been studying through it, but even back in the first chapter there's this concern. In chapter 1, verse 2, John testifies to everything he saw. That is the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then down in verse 5, Jesus Christ Himself is described as the faithful witness.

And then when you go over to the end of the book, in chapter 21, verse 5, God Himself tells John to write down these words, saying, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. God in the Bible is represented as being concerned about trustworthiness and truth. These are not enlightenment issues. These are human issues. These are divine issues.

And then again in chapter 22 verse 6 the angel says, these words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place. Friend, do you trust your Bible?

Do you realize that you are meant to come to know God in large part through these words that His Holy Spirit has inspired?

And that He will teach you about as you read them. This is the book that tells us about God and calls us to give our lives in loving service to Him and to others. That's why we Christians over the years have expended such tremendous efforts in translating the Bible into languages that people know and can read, like Wycliffe 700 years ago into English or members of our own church right now. Elsewhere in the world. Friends, take advantage of the Bible's availability to you.

Learn what the one and only true God has revealed. It's because these words are true that we spend time in our services reading them, hearing them, that we have preachers who teach them to you. So last week when I knew that I and the rest of the staff would be away, I made sure not just that we had music to sing, but that we had someone here to preach God's Word to us, and that it was someone who would open up the Bible and read the Bible and explain and apply the Bible to us. And I hear that Mike McKinley did that very faithfully. Friends, that's what we do as Christians.

We feed off of every word that comes from the mouth of God. Friends, in reviewing your last week, your last month, your last year, have you found that other things have begun to take up your time and the time that you used to spend, perhaps when you first came to Christ, ravenously reading the Bible and sort of fallen off, fallen to the side, fallen down? Let me encourage you to pick that back up again. To read your Bibles, because these are the true words of God. I also just have to note here that we see in verse 10 that Jesus Himself is the clearest picture of what this God we are to worship is like.

Look again at the last sentence in our passage, verse 10 there at the end. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now that spirit here is not a reference to the Holy Spirit. That spirit is a reference, I think, simply to the purpose or the essence. More like we would commonly use the word spirit, the purpose, the essence of those who are witnessing to the testimony of Jesus, the truth about Jesus.

And their spirit, their joint testimony is about Jesus because Jesus is the point of all the true prophets and preachers of the Old and New Testaments. Prophecy here isn't predicting the end of the world. It is simply telling the truth about God. So witnessing to the truth about Jesus is faithfully bringing God's Word. Like the prophets before us, we are called to bear the truth, to give witness to the Word of God, to the Word made flesh.

And the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the center of both Old Testament prophecy and New Testament preaching because God was revealing Himself in Jesus. Jesus Himself claimed to be a revelation of God. In fact, He taught His disciples in John 14, Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. What an extraordinary thing to teach.

But that is what Jesus taught. Friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, I just return again to this question. Who do you think Jesus was? Have you considered it very carefully? Have you read one of the Gospels in order to help answer that question?

One of the ways that I speak with Jewish and Muslim friends about God when they tell me we worship the same God because we believe in one God is I say, I don't think so. And that always starts them because they know we all have common stories of Abraham. And they say, what do you mean we don't worship the same God? And I say, well, the God that I worship has revealed Himself most clearly in Jesus Christ. How can you look at that most clear revelation of God and reject that and say we worship the same God?

Illustration I've used is saying it's like I go to a high school class reunion and we're both talking about the same person, having a good time remembering the stories about them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then finally I go, oh, I got a picture right here and I show a picture and the person goes, oh, that's not who I was talking about. Jesus is our picture of God.

We can enjoy philosophically natural law, conversations about one God, believe in one God. Friends, we're not talking about the same God because He's revealed Himself most clearly in Jesus of Nazareth. And when they reject that one as God, we are not talking about the same God. Jesus is the fullest, most complete revelation of God. When you think about it, friends, Brothers and sisters in Christ, isn't that completely clear?

Where else have we seen God's love and His mercy represented more clearly? Where else have we seen the most striking things about the character of God than in the person of Jesus Christ? Do you talk to your friends about Christ? Or do you talk about church or religion or vaguely God?

Let me encourage you, my Christian brothers and sisters, to talk to your friends about Jesus. Why do you think there are Christians gathered in India and South Korea and Brazil and Nigeria praying for Washington, D.C. to be evangelized today? Because they want to see Christians here. What if we could put Christians who actually knew the language here and could find homes and jobs here and could do what we do when we go to other places in the world? What if we could put lots of Christians like that here in Washington?

Oh, wait, here we are.

So we are the indigenized mission force of the church in Nigeria and the church in Brazil and the church in South Korea and the church in India. We are that mission force. We are the ones who are to be speaking to our friends about not just vaguely God, Church, faith, but about Jesus. Teaching them about Jesus. Bearing witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why would we send people around the world for what we will not even do faithfully here in our own home? What we're doing here as a church is to be acting like Jesus. We mean to be a display to this neighborhood, to this city, to our unbelieving friends and family of the character of God. We are what what God is like. And so we are filled with God's own Spirit to that end.

We are directed by God's Word to that end. And so we give ourselves in praise and worship of God who is revealed supremely in Jesus Christ.

That's point one. Point two, if this is who we should praise, God, and specifically God as we see Him revealed in His Word and supremely in Jesus Christ, Then the question comes to us how should we praise this God? And we see an example of praising here in this passage. We see we should praise him with our words. These shouts in our passage here come in obedience to the command for praise that's issued in verse 5 from the throne.

Then a voice came from the throne saying, praise our God all you his servants, you who fear him both small and great. And then I heard what sounded like a great multitude. Like the roar of rushing water and like loud peals of thunder shouting, Hallelujah, for our Lord God Almighty reigns. Friends, there's so much in this passage to reflect on. One thing I think of is many people today think of praise or worship as essentially some elusive response of the emotions to God.

And therefore they must wonder, How can you command praise and worship?

It's like commanding me to like peas. You know, I either do or I don't. It's something that's a part of a person. How can you command praise? Well, here he does.

And they obey. They even obey loudly, you'll notice. You notice that how John stresses the loudness of the sounds here? How many of you have ever been at the Niagara Falls? How many of you have ever been through a hurricane or a violent thunderstorm?

You see, in John's world there was no thing around that had a volume control. All of the sounds he could imagine would be natural sounds. And so he picks the loudest, most deafening sounds he can imagine to describe what this will be. But these are not loud and deafening sounds of destruction. These are loud and deafening sounds of joy.

Such as we can scarcely even imagine in this world.

Friend, have you ever had a time when you could barely contain your joy in God? Where words seemed to fail you? Well, here there are these shouts of acclamation and praise. The hallelujahs just keep coming. You see there in chapter 19, in verse 1 and 3 and 4 and now again in verse 6.

And friends, it makes sense that as we come to understand this God more and more, we will be He will be more amazed, and He will be more adored. That's why we give you big, fat, heavy sermons at this church, because we want you to have a lot of grounds on which to praise God. There is much room for worship of God, of the true and the living God. And so we see this worship here, and really throughout this book. It's like the scene that's described in Hebrews 12, But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, you've come to thousands Angels in joyful assembly to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven.

You've come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. So how do we praise God? Well friends, we do so intelligently. We do so that is with our words. Praise does not mean emotion.

Now don't misunderstand me. Emotions are part of the image of God. Emotions are desirable. To not engage emotionally with God is to miss something. But in this fallen world, our emotions are part of what has fallen.

In this fallen world, they are as reliable as the winds. Do you want to go get on an airplane and have the pilot just follow along wherever the winds are? Friends, our emotions are every bit as shifting in their direction. Now we want them to go in the right direction to bring us to praise God and in heaven ultimately they will they will be part of the culmination of our worship We will be all emotionally engaged whether or not we come from a background that's Pentecostal or Episcopalian or Baptist We will be emotionally engaged In this world in this life our emotions are more variously engaged But we can still choose to worship God. We can obey a command to worship God because worship is not essentially something of my emotions.

Here they are commanded to praise and they praise. Friends, you could be standing there in the pews and the chairs after the service as we conclude in just a little while and singing how sweet and awful is the place. What a wonderful hymn. You can be moved emotionally and have tears coming down your cheeks, but I tell you, if you are living in rebellion against God, I don't care how emotionally moved you are, you are not worshiping God. Friends, worshiping God engages our whole beings, and it includes our words, things we can choose to speak as we choose to speak the truth about God, our appreciation and approval and admiration and enjoyment and esteem and love of Him.

And that's to praise Him. That's what's being done in this passage.

That we see here. So brothers and sisters, let me just ask you, do you seize opportunities to speak well of God? When you have people at work who are observing things that you take to be signs of God's evident goodness, do you say that? Do you speak of Him? How could you better use your words to praise God in your home?

Parents, have you taught your children the gospel? Have you taught them the most important things about God? Those things that call forth the most praise? Friends, what do your words reveal about your heart?

Our words can be used to praise God. That's why we have not only times of silence here in our gathering, But we have hymns, and we have prayers, and we have conversations full of wholesome, encouraging, beneficial, true words about God. So praise God with your words.

But also, we see in our verses that we're to praise God with our works. Did you notice that in verse 8? You may have noticed in verse 7 where it mentions the bride, the church, the bride had made herself ready. The bride had made herself ready. Now that may seem strange to those who are used to hearing only about God's grace, but it is clear in verse 8 that God intends to be praised not only by our lips, but by our lives as well.

Look at verse 8. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.

Friends, I did extra work on this to make sure. I drilled down deep into the word that's translated righteous acts there. I think the NIV is right. It's righteous acts. That is what in fact God the Holy Spirit has inspired here.

What we're seeing is that the church is beautified by her righteous acts. I mean, just consider how the church looks different than the harlot that we saw back in chapter 17, verse 4. Who was, we read, dressed in purple and scarlet and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. The simple white of the bride doesn't look very glorious compared to this harlot. But then this world was never the time for the glory of the saints. That's in the world to come.

This time, this world is the place for the glory of more passing celebrity.

But there is another to come. Jesus taught that the lives of His saints and the world would be different. Friend, if you're not a Christian, one of the things that we Christians mean to do is live in such a way that will cause you to doubt your unbelief. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying in praise of God to live in such a way that will cause you to doubt your unbelief in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus told his disciples, you, are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. And then later in his ministry he told about the sheep and the goats. He said, When he comes again in judgment, there will be some on one side whose lives have been marked by service of others and some on another whose lives have been marked by a self concern.

And no real service to others. He wasn't teaching through that that we save ourselves by serving others, but He was teaching us by that that if we are saved, we will give our lives in serving others. Clothing representing righteousness is an ancient theme in the Bible, reaching back to the very first couple you may remember. Remember when they first sinned, Adam and Eve were aware of their nakedness. They sewed together fig leaves, and then when they confessed their sin to God, God made animal skin clothing for them.

To cover them. Of course, in the time of Moses, priests were to be specially clothed. White linen then symbolized purity. The psalmist talks about being clothed in salvation. And here in Revelation we found repeated references to the saints being in white robes in chapters 3 and 6 and 7.

Friends, we are to be clothed in Jesus Christ. We read in Romans 13, We are to be clothed according to Colossians 3:12 with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Purity and simplicity are to mark our lives. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Working well in our jobs.

Should be done as praise to God, for the sake of God to bring Him honor and glory. Being a good husband or a good wife is part of how many of us are called to bring praise to God. But note here in verse 9 that these righteous acts, this fine linen, is said to be given to the bride to wear. How can that be? Because, friends, we read in Philippians that Christians are created by God to do good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do.

Paul talks about laboring with all of God's energy which works so mightily within him. Our works in no way save us. Rather, they evidence that we are in fact saved. That's what James 2 is all about. Outward evidence of inward grace.

Our right standing with God through the work of Christ brings God's Spirit to us who then works in us these good works. So our good works, even our good works are gifts of God to have the purpose of redounding to His glory and ornamenting His gospel. Our most fundamental righteousness is the righteousness of Christ accounted to us. But this justifying righteousness that makes us right with God that's imputed to us then brings by God's Spirit also, along with it, a sanctifying righteousness, also the gift of God. And with this gift of righteous acts, we praise God and we bring praise to Him.

So we are called to praise only God and we are called to praise Him with both our words and our works.

A third point.

We've seen something of who and something of how we should praise. Now, why should we praise God? Why should we praise God? And I want us to notice three grounds for our praise of God that John shows us here. And first is God's rule, God's sovereignty, God's reigning.

Look again at verse 6.

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and like loud peals of thunder, shouting, Hallelujah! For the Lord God Almighty reigns. God's rule, His reign, is His sovereignty. We considered a few moments ago the tremendous volume of this praise, how deafeningly loud it was. And what was this loud praise for?

But for God in His sovereignty. God is called Almighty again and again and again in this book of Revelation. This book presents a God of limitless power and that God isn't the Roman Empire who had exiled John. No, this God is the God who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the one and only true God.

Parents, In your home you realize you are exemplifying authority for your children.

Children, you realize that as you respond to your parents, you are picturing how you respond to God.

Authority is something that God has given us as a gift.

It is good. Yes, authority can be terribly abused. It can be abused by not using it when we should, and it can be abused by using it wrongly for our own selfish ends. And certainly those are two of the sharpest points of the fall and how we're affected in this sinful world. But authority itself is a good thing.

And when God exercises His authority fully, we will praise Him for it. Forever. Now, friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, do you see why it's appropriate that God rules like this? He made us. We are his.

We are, as the psalmist puts it, with a wonderful image, the sheep of his pasture. He tends us and cares for us. Every day the sun has risen has been a gift God has given to you. Every day you've gotten out of bed and put your feet on the floor has been a gift of life the Lord has given to you. You could not create or command any of those gifts.

That is God's kindness to you. And it is this God who calls us now, all of us, to worship Him. But we, all of us, you non-Christians and you Christians, all of us have rebelled against God. We have not worshiped Him as He should be worshiped. And so we are all standing rightfully before Him condemned.

And our only hope is for God to make a way for us.

God's reign here we see includes the defeat of sin and Satan. It's just been declared in chapter 17 and 18, chapter 18, verse 20, we see that God's judgment is a ground for our praise. We will praise God. We will recognize His goodness and worthiness Because He has said what is bad really is bad and really is to be condemned. So my friends, what have you thought about the sovereignty of God?

Has it simply been a ground of confusion and debate of argument or speculation? Notice here in the Bible it is far more than any of those things. It is the ground of our praise. God's sovereignty is no debated thesis. It is the rock-hard foundation, the unshakable basis of our praise and worship.

Brothers and sisters, there is no one else like this God. This is the only God there is, and He is our God. He has made us to be His people. No government threatens His rule. No death will end His reign.

He is the sovereign God. We see hints of this even in the earthly ministry of Jesus. You notice even in the early chapters of the Gospel, He teaches the truth with an uncanny authority, people say. He has command over demons. He raises sick people to health and dead people to life.

He ultimately shows His sovereignty even over our sins by dying on the cross for us.

And being raised in victory over death, He delivers us from sin and from death. The clearest picture we have today in the world of God's rule is the church. This is where God's rule is beginning to break in even more visibly. But the day is coming when that rule will be completely exercised far beyond the limited extent we see today when evil will finally be judged and destroyed, and good will be triumphant. And God's victory then is the great cause of our satisfaction and will be cause for great rejoicing among the saints.

And so we are to praise God for his great promises. Our worship anticipates Christ's return, the celebration of the fulfillment of God's promises. In judgment on His enemies and in sovereign power for His own. So it's no surprise that God's praise here begins with praising Him for His sovereign rule.

So what about you, my friend? Have you grown in trusting God over this last year?

Have you come to see more how he has been sovereignly at work for your good.

Oh friend, give him praise and thanks if that's the case. We mean to gather here on Sunday mornings to encourage each other in our prayers and conversations, in our hymns and sermons as we meditate on and give thanks to God for his sovereignty. Hallelujah. For because the Lord God Almighty reigns.

But there's more. There's another ground for the praise of God that we see here, and it's basically the gospel. The culmination of the gospel is right there in verse 7. I don't know if you noticed it as such, but that's what the marriage of the Lamb is. Look at verse 7.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory.

For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Two images there are here that we need to consider: the Lamb and the wedding. Of course, in this case, the wedding requires the Lamb.

That is, the uniting requires the incarnation of the Son of God. And so He took upon Him our flesh. Became one flesh with us. But more than that, it required the humiliation of the Son of God fully, His substitution for us in bearing our sins. That's why He's called the Lamb of God, the Sacrifice, because the punishment that is due to us because God is good, He took upon Himself.

For every one of us, without fail, who will turn from our sins and trust in Him. He became our substitute and calls us to repent of our sins and to trust in Him for our right standing with God, for our salvation. Spurgeon said, I never feel so close to my Lord as when I survey His wondrous cross. And see Him pouring out His blood for me. The very use of the word lamb here by John reminds us of the lamb that we read of earlier from John 1:29, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The lamb that John has written of earlier in Revelation chapter 5, where he wrote, Then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne. Friends, we could never require such love from Christ. But this is how He has loved us. We are converted to love Christ not because we know that we admire His life, but because we come to understand that we require His death and that He died willingly. In our place for our salvation.

Guilty, vile and helpless we, spotless Lamb of God was He. We may admire a teacher or a prophet, but we love a Savior.

We read in Revelation 13:8 that He was slain from the creation of the world. This was always God's plan. Philippians 2, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. 1 John 4, this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Ephesians 5, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

And then Paul writes so personally in Galatians 2, he loved me and gave himself for me.

How much do we owe this one who by his suffering and death put away our sins, not in part, but the whole.

So the wedding of the Lamb is the celebration of the culmination of what God has been doing in Christ. And so heaven rejoices at the marriage of the Lamb. Many of us in the last few weeks have had the privilege and honor, the joy of going to weddings. Two different members of this church, three different members were wed yesterday. There have been some almost every weekend.

Weddings have to be some of the most joyful times in life when we celebrate love and togetherness and we're excited about thoughts of what may come and new identities are created. What a great image for God to use of us being reunited to Him through Christ. So this is the time when the church begins to dwell with the Lamb. That's what the joyful supper of marriage is.

God made us way back in Genesis chapter 1 to prepare us to understand something of the reality of our fellowship with Him.

Marriage is put in creation by God as a sign and symbol of the gospel. And the image of God's relationship to His people being married to them is found throughout the Old Testament. It's used in the New Testament as well. Jesus told His disciples that He wanted to have fellowship with them, that He wanted to be with them. Jesus even talked about wedding feasts.

Paul talked about the church of being betrothed to Christ and of course in Ephesians 5 about Christ and the church being imaged in marriage. That's why idolatry and apostasy are so often represented as a kind of adultery. Well now here at the end of the book of Revelation, at the end of the Bible is the culmination of these images of God and His people that have been implanted in creation and building throughout the Old and the New Testaments finally culminating in this. In the marriage supper of the Lamb. Friends, this is the glory of God's love for us.

Now, weddings in biblical times were actually similar to those now in that there was an engagement or betrothal sometime before and then the actual wedding. The main difference is that in that culture, the main difference from our practice is that engagement would be a legal binding thing. Where in ours it's not. But nevertheless, the consummation of the marriage and with the wedding supper and cohabitation was left until sometime after the betrothal. And what's being announced here in this little vision that the angel is showing John is that the betrothal period we are in, in which each of us entered when we personally believed in Christ, that period of waiting now will end.

And John is being shown here the joy that there will be when the marriage actually begins. On that day when all of Christ's promises to the church are fully fulfilled, as the church is perfected and completed and purified from all hypocrites and false teachers and from all struggles with sin and fear and doubt, as she exchanges the crown of thorns that she wears in suffering in this world for the crown of glory in the next, and as she He begins to be filled with a happiness and joy that will never end. No more conflicts, no more threats of judgments, dangers, toils and snares. Now instead there is only joy forevermore. That's the picture of the wedding supper.

It's an image. It's not like we're going to be eating with God from 6 to 9 and then it's going to be over. No friends, it's a picture. It's a presentation to us of the fellowship, the joyful fellowship that we are to have with God. Thus the meal, the feast, He stands for our dwelling with Him.

So praise God for the culmination of His reign and the judgment of sin and sinners as the time for full fellowship with God comes. As the sin of man's fall is finally dealt with. And so too its curse, excluding us from God's presence, is finally revoked for those who are part of the bride, the church.

And so we see that living with God forever is the ground for great rejoicing and glorifying of God. This is why there should be a heavenly, eternal note to our praise of God. This is why so much Christian worship in our land these days is impoverished because people fear to speak of death, because their hopes aren't really in God at all. They're in Christianity as a tool to lower their blood pressure.

But friends, the real thing, Christianity according to the Bible tells us that any good thing in this world is simply a premonition of an infinitely better that is to come when our full fellowship with God has been restored. And so, when we gather again next Lord's Day, Lord willing, if He tarries and gives us life, to celebrate the Lord's Supper together, you see what we're doing. We're in a dress rehearsal, preparing for that day when we will one day be seated in the heavenlies with Christ. And with all the redeemed, and join in this multitude praising God for his gospel of love which forgives us of all our sins and cleanses us from them and unites us to Christ our substitute forever. Friends, there is yet one more ground for our praising God we see in this passage, and I cannot neglect it.

And that is his election of us. His election of us.

The way that He has personally included us. Friends, there are some pulpits today that are reluctant to speak of this doctrine, but I can't open God's Word and see it here and not join you in rejoicing for it. Look here in verse 9 at the beginning of it. This invitation to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Make sure you understand it.

We see in verse 9, Then the angel said to me, Write, Blessed is the fourth beatitude we've had in the book of Revelation. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. Now think for a moment about what that means.

Some people have wondered, who are these guests at the wedding supper? I thought, Aren't they the saved? Well, I thought the saved constituted the bride.

Then some have suggested, well, the bride must be those who are saved since Pentecost, and the guests at the wedding are those who were saved before Pentecost. And that could be. I have no verse here against it. I would just say that we've seen in this book of Revelation multiple images for the same reality are common. So, for example, if you look over in chapter 21 in verse 9, We're told that the angel promised to show John a vision of the bride.

What ravishing sight will he now behold? And he looks in verse 10 and sees a city.

Friend, we've seen shifting images variously but clearly used throughout this book. So here I think that we the saved are both the bride and we are the guests at the wedding. Each image is making a different point.

It's not like there's one overall allegory to the book of Revelation and you look up a character glossary in the back to see what each one stands for. So I don't think we're to understand the sufferings merely as a distinct event that ends. Rather, it is, as I was saying, our eternal joy with God consummated by being forever in immediate joyful fellowship with Him. Now, to understand this beatitude then, we really need to understand this word invited. It's also translated called.

And it's the idea of an effectual call, an effective call. This fourth beatitude is not being pronounced simply upon everyone who hears the gospel, because in that sense everyone who hears the gospel is invited to respond. You are all invited to respond today. I am invited to respond as I read this. We are all invited to respond, but this blessing is not for us merely upon that kind of invitation.

Happiness will not be the lot. Blessedness will not be the lot of those who hear the gospel invitation but then turn a deaf ear to it. There is no beatitude for those kinds of invited people. No, for those who reject this invitation there will be only judgment. No, happiness Blessedness, makarios, will be for those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb and come, come into fellowship with Him.

And this is the doctrine of election, calling, that God effectually calls, and it's important because it's in the Bible. And it reminds us that God didn't choose us because He saw fundamentally we were better than other people. The doctrine of election fights against self-righteousness in the church.

The doctrine that, well, election is God looking at who will choose Him and then choosing them, fosters self-righteousness. It's not what the Bible teaches and it bears bitter spiritual pharisaical fruit. We are not a collection of the really best people in Washington. Or on Capitol Hill. We're a collection of sinners so bad we know that we need to be killed by God, and that there is a Savior who has been killed in our place.

That is who we are, and we are saved only because of God's gracious, merciful, loving choice of us, based upon nothing good in us. I love how Spurgeon talked about this doctrine. He said, I believe the doctrine of election because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him. And I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He would never have chosen me afterwards.

And He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that doctrine. What a blessing, friends, to have been called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. My friend, if you are here and you are not a Christian, please understand that this invitation is for all who will repent and believe. That means you if you will repent of your sins and believe in Christ.

Some people sit around thinking they're in neutral. I don't know. I'm not really against God. I'm not really for God. There's no such speed as neutral in the Bible, my friend.

You're either actively investigating, looking in, trying maybe even to follow, or you are frankly opposed to God in your complete and unchallenged service of yourself. There's not a neutral. Brothers and sisters, realize the wonderful security we have in this doctrine. No wonder we are declared blessed here. Our job can do what it will, our situation even with family and friends, with health and finances can tax and discourage us, but our situation with God in Christ is secure.

This is why we can say that our hope is not in ourselves but in Christ. He has invited us by His own blood. And so as a church we rejoice together in the privilege we've been given. We are a community of people made a community because we have a common confidence and a shared hope in Christ. The hope of being called to eternal fellowship with God is a matter for our most profound and lasting happiness.

Oh brothers and sisters, meditating on this has been marvelous. That He should choose to bear our sins. Completely, and that we should be included, praise God, for His sovereignty, for His gospel, for His election.

Friends, are you bored by this God?

I can only think you're bored by God because you don't yet know enough of who He is and of what He's like.

If you are one of those who in your own honest self-knowledge knows yourself to be bored with God, what will you say when you face Him?

John Wesley, whose birthday it is today, Thank God for His great grace through that brother.

Warned that the three greatest punishments which God can inflict on sinners in this world are: 1. To let loose their own desires upon them.

1. To let them succeed in all they wish for.

2. To suffer them to continue many years in the quiet enjoyment thereof.

These people who are excited by this world are bored with God.

Pray this not be your experience. Rather pray that your experience is like those early Methodists of whom Wesley once said simply, Our people die well.

Friends, until that day, life rushes on for a while.

Even in the last week, we've seen that life is taken tragically in a storm up in Chevy Chase, or by physical ailments long in coming like cancer. Or short and sudden, like a heart attack?

Or by a malfunctioning computer program controlling a train?

And should our lives, your life or mine, this week be taken, will our life have been a life of praise to God? With our words and our works? Or will we have spent all our years simply on our own pleasures?

Is this life the feast for you, the best it will ever be in comparison to what's coming?

Or have you heeded Christ's call to repent of your sins and trust in him, and so been prepared for the wedding feast of the Lamb, which is coming and which will never end.

Oh friend, why would you rather starve than come?

Fill us with youh Spirit. Convict and convert the lost, we pray. Build us up in our most holy faith. We ask for our good and youd glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.