I'm reminded tonight of something I said to
you the first night I spoke to you.
Something to this effect, once there were five
and now there's only one.
If you sit up here with four other
brethren and you feel you can kind of
hide behind them a little bit, then they
suddenly walk off on you and leave you
by yourself.
As I said to you the other night,
it's rather a lonely place to be.
I want to add my note of appreciation
to you all for your support, for your
attendance during this past week.
It's been my pleasure to be here for
the very first time.
I know many of you have come frequently.
For the ladies who didn't go on their
shopping trips to be here in the morning,
I'm grateful as well as those of you
who were here each night.
And I also want to add my appreciation
of getting to know our brother Roy and
his wife.
I had never met them before.
His talent and his singing won't receive anything
from my compliments.
Nevertheless, I certainly feel indebted to have been
here and listened to him sing.
I certainly appreciate his enunciation.
Can you hear every last consonant and all
the words he sings, which is something that
thrills me.
I've been sitting at the back several times
in these mini-concerts at night, and it's
not often you can catch every, not only
every word, but every syllable that a singer
sings, and particularly the closing syllable of words
in the last consonant.
He does it very remarkably well.
But I also was very much encouraged tonight
to know that he is a mortal like
myself.
When he got John mixed up with Peter,
I said, well, there you go.
Sometimes I get Daniel in the furnace in
Nebuchadnezzar in the lion's den, and I get
things mixed up like that too.
So I'm quite encouraged to find a man
of his ability doing as I have done
so frequently.
Tonight I want to leave with you a
few closing remarks regarding the revelation of Jesus
Christ from the last book of the Bible.
We have been considering some of the details,
some of the trilogies, and the couplets of
trilogies of Chapter 1.
Now, I said last night I was going
to give you a surprise tonight.
I'm going to finish the book this evening.
Yes, yes, I can hear the chuckles.
You said, well, we've heard that before, but
it's never happened, and it's not likely to
happen to you tonight, Dave.
Well, we shall see.
What I want to do this evening is
to pick out one facet, one aspect, one
detail, one title of the Lord Jesus in
this unveiling, this apocalypse, this revelation, and trace
it with you briefly, it will have to
be brief, through the remaining chapters of the
book.
So I'm going to ask you again to
do some leafing with me, and to look
at various passages as we go.
Now, this is always a wise thing to
do.
I know it's not.
But, however, I can hardly go home and
leave you with Revelation Chapter 1 and the
other 21 chapters untouched.
At least, I don't think I can.
Maybe I should.
The content of the book is so vast,
it's so multiple, it's so great, one doesn't
know hardly what to do with it in
a limited time such as we have here.
And for that reason, we have to be
very selective, and I'm going to be that
way again tonight.
And I'm not going to show you anything
out of the ordinary at all, but just
pick out certain sections.
I'm reminded of some of you, perhaps, and
especially my folks, my friends from England, will
remember the Goodman brothers years ago.
They were contemporaries of my father, George and
Montague Goodman.
And they have written books, and some of
you, I'm sure, will have some of their
books in your libraries.
George Goodman was a village worker along with
my father, out of London in those days,
and Montague, rather, was the polished, elite preacher.
And George Goodman used to travel with my
father in bicycles, preaching from village to village.
But Montague Goodman was an expert at sermonizing.
He had, it seems, an unlimited store of
material and outlines of sermons.
And for that reason, he was very widely
in demand in his preaching exercises.
But as time passed on, his wife got
to be a very acceptable speaker, too.
And she was much in demand for ladies'
conferences, and used to speak frequently.
But a husband doesn't like to give way
to his wife in his field, so it
was a little difficult situation for Montague to
handle.
However, he always maintained the upper hand in
things, and, of course, as I say, his
repertoire was unlimited.
So one evening, he's sitting in his study,
and his wife had been away preaching to
a ladies' group.
And as she came back, he's sitting in
his study, and she stopped at the door
of the study she was going by.
And he said to her, Well, my dear,
how did you get along tonight?
And she said, Very well, thank you.
And he said, Now, my dear, which of
my messages did you preach?
And she looked at him, and as only
a wife could do, she said, Neither of
them.
So, I have a tremendous amount of material
here tonight.
And I'm just going to go skipping with
you.
And I want to begin at chapter five.
We're going to pass over the messages to
the churches, the seven churches of Asia.
And I want to pick out one title,
one office, one facet, one detail concerning the
revelation of Jesus Christ, which I do hope
will be to you, as it has been
to me on previous occasions, a tremendous surprise.
Because it is a surprise to find our
Lord in this character, repeatedly, through the remaining
chapters of the book of the Revelation, from
chapter five on through to chapter twenty-two,
inclusive.
Now, when we come to chapter five, we
start off by reading, I saw in the
right hand of him that sat on the
throne a book or a scroll written within,
on the backside sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with
a loud voice, Who is worthy to open
the book, to loose the seals thereof?
A challenge goes out to the universe, to
the heavens, to all on earth, and to
those under the earth.
Kings and potentates, mortals and those who are
spirit beings.
Who is worthy, said the strong angel, to
open the book and to loose the seals
thereof?
And no one in heaven, nor on earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open
the book.
So, you see, he is encompassing the whole
of the universe of God.
Men, angels, spirits, demons, whoever.
He was not able to open the book,
neither to look thereof.
I wept much, because no man was found
worthy to open and to read the book,
neither to look thereof.
And one of the elders said unto me,
Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah,
the root of David, has prevailed, or overcome.
Now, that's the word the Lord has used
seven times in the many previous messages to
the churches.
That's the word he used to his apostles
before he left them.
Be of good cheer, I have overcome, or
prevailed.
He has prevailed to open the book, the
scroll, or the roll, and to loose the
seven seals thereof.
Now, immediately when you read a title like
that, you say to yourself, it concerns Israel.
He's the lion of the tribe of Judah,
he's the root of David.
So, the content of the book and the
seals pertain principally, evidently, to Israel and Israel's
destiny.
And he gives him his royal titles, his
victorious titles.
I beheld, and lo, in the midst of
the throne, and of the four living ones,
and in the midst of the elders, stood
a lamb, a young lamb, a lamb having
just been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,
sent forth into all the earth.
And he came, took the book out of
the right hand of him that sat upon
the throne.
Do you notice, do you sense the dignity,
the solemnity of the hour?
It's a very momentous moment in the history
of the universe.
John is weeping copiously because there's no one
as able, as competent, as worthy in himself,
either because of who he is, or of
what he has done, to break the seals
of the book.
And evidently, John has some perception, at any
rate, as to the contents of the book,
of the scroll.
And there's no one worthy until he looks
in response to the words of the elders.
He looks and he sees a young lamb.
What a surprise, a young lamb.
And this surprise carries right on through the
book for twenty-five times hereafter.
We're going to read this title, The Lamb.
And each time it is the young lamb.
It is the sacrificial lamb, for it is
a lamb as though he had just been
newly slain.
Full, eternal, invisible, and universal power is his.
Seven horns.
All intelligence, all understanding, all wisdom is his.
For he has seven eyes.
And he moves in the dignity of the
consciousness of his own personal worth.
He steps to the throne and he says
nothing.
He does not kneel.
There's no scepter extended to him.
He just moves in this movement of dignity
to the one that's sitting up on the
throne, and he takes the scroll roll out
of his hands.
And when you take in the book, the
four living ones and the four and twenty
elders fell down before the lamb, having every
one of them hearts and golden vials full
of odors which are the prayers of the
saints, and they sang a new song.
That is, the four living ones fall down.
And I understand that the participant here, having
every one of them, pertains only to the
four and twenty elders, not to the four
living ones, and they had these harps and
the golden vials or bowls full of odors,
which are the prayers of the saints.
They sang a new song saying, Thou art
worthy.
Thou art worthy to take the book and
to open the seals thereof, for thou wast
slain and hast redeemed us to God by
thy blood.
Out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation, and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests, we shall reign on
the earth.
When the lamb takes the scroll out of
the hand of the one who sits upon
the throne, the ultimate, absolute, only governor of
the universe, he takes it, and when he
does so, he hasn't touched it yet except
to take it.
He has done nothing with it, but the
very fact in the consciousness that he is
worthy to do this, there is immediately a
spontaneous reaction on the part of these four
living ones that surround the throne, restlessly serving
the throne-sitter, and the four and twenty
elders who also are sitting on thrones, and
they sing this marvelous new song, and they
speak of his worthiness, the worthiness of the
lamb.
He is worthy to take it and to
open the seals, because he was slain, and
because he has redeemed, they say, to God,
out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation, and redeemed us, and made us
unto our God kings and priests, and we
shall reign on the earth.
On the basis of his redemptive work, as
well as upon the basis of his own
personal competency and worth, they lift this song.
These are the first ones to lift the
song of praise, the four living ones, and
then the four and twenty elders.
And immediately that they do so, the lesser
singers fall in.
Verse 11 tells us, I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne, and
the living ones and the elders, and the
number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand, and thousands of thousands, myriads of millions
of them.
What a mighty host it is.
And it starts in the inner circle, and
it's moving out, and as the circles increase,
and as the song reverberates out, the whole
host of the myriads of angels in the
heavens come into this marvelous work and word
of acclamation.
And they say with a loud voice, worthy
is the lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches, wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing.
But this is not the end.
This cannot be the end.
This must be absolute.
So it's moving out, and the circle widens
and widens and widens, until we come to
verse 13.
Every creature which is in the heavens, singular,
and on the earth, and underneath the earth,
such as are on the sea, and all
that are in them heard I saying, blessing
and honor and glory and power be unto
him that sits upon the throne, and unto
the lamb forever and forever.
Now, in unison, in complete unison, with one
voice and one theme and one burst of
adoration, there's not anyone left anywhere that isn't
paying tribute to the Redeemer, to the young
lamb, the one that has been freshly slain.
And all glory and all honor and all
worth and all praise and all power and
might and dominion, from every heart, from every
mouth, from every spirit, there is no one
anywhere in the universe that possibly can fail
to add his contribution to this mighty outpouring
of adoration, the accolade of the universe to
the great Redeemer.
The lamb is the one that is the
center of the praise.
When we move into chapter six, he begins
to open the seals.
And those of you who are acquainted with
this book, the chapters of this book, you
know that the opening of the seals introduces
the great tumult, the great convulsions, the great
judgments, the movements, in geological, astronomical movements, the
political movements, the movements of man.
And the world goes into convulsions, the world
goes into turmoil.
The nations are angry and rise up against
him.
And as he breaks the seals one by
one, it is he, and he only, who
introduces the apocalyptic judgments.
It's the hand that was nailed to the
cross that breaks the seals.
It is the hand that was held out
in blessing, in tenderness, compassion, and grace, in
healing, in love and mercy and kindness when
one was here.
The defense, out of his munificence abundantly, the
needs of the poor and destitute.
That's the hand that begins to break the
seals one by one by one, and unfold
what is required in order that the world
be brought into a condition whereby justice and
law and order and righteousness may be established
on the earth, so that he must reign
and deliver to the ends of the earth.
But before he does so, he must break
the seals.
Now I know there are differences of opinion.
I'm not here to give you a prophetic
outline of the book of Revelation tonight.
That's not my object.
I want to leave with you just a
few thoughts about the Lamb, and all the
associations that the book of Revelation gives to
us about and of the Lamb.
The scroll is his.
The first picture is the Lamb and the
scroll.
Now, let's look on to chapter 7.
After this, I beheld verse 9.
Lo, a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people,
and tongues, stood before the throne, and before
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, adequately, vinely,
and fully prepared to stand in the presence
of this majestic, awe-inspiring person, the Lamb.
They have palms in their hands.
They are able to worship.
They cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb.
And all the angels stood round about the
throne, and about the elders, and the four
living ones, and they fell before the throne
on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen.
Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and
honour, and power, and might be unto our
God for the ages of the ages.
Amen.
One of the elders answered, saying unto me,
What are these which are arrayed in white
robes?
Whence came they?
And I said, Unto him, sir, thou knowest.
And he said to me, These are they
which came out of the great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb.
These are they which came out of the
great tribulation.
Good is a tribulation period, as we know.
But there is a specific time period which
is called the Great Tribulation.
Our Lord referred to that in that famous
last discourse on the Mount of Olives.
And so these are they who are from
every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
They have come out of the great tribulation.
And having come out of the great tribulation,
they have been made fit to worship in
his presence.
They have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his
temple.
And he that sitteth on the throne shall
tabernacle over them.
It's a lovely version I say about this.
Tabernacle over them.
He will shadow them.
Look what it says.
They shall hunger no more, for they have
hunger.
They will thirst no more, for they have
thirsted.
Neither shall the sun light on them nor
any heat.
For they have borne the bitterness of the
opposition and the heat of enmity.
For the Lamb which is in the midst
of the throne shall feed them.
Not a shepherd do you see.
The Lamb is going to feed them.
And the Lamb shall lead them unto living
fountains of waters.
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes.
The Lamb.
Isn't it a surprise?
Isn't it a surprise to see this one
who is considered to be sacrificial, who is
considered to be innocent, who is considered to
be inoffensive, this one who in the tenderness
of his youth was cut down.
This is the one now who is the
center, the focal point, the object of the
admiration of these tattered folks who have come
out of the Great Tribulation.
And he is going to feed them, and
he is going to lead them, and he
is going to shelter them.
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes.
To this specific company.
Let's turn over to chapter 12.
Chapter 12.
We don't have time really to go into
the opening paragraph, the first six verses of
chapter 12, of the great wonder in heaven
and the great red dragon, and the woman
who brings forth a man-child and flees
into the wilderness, because the dragon is ready
to devour her man-child, but he's parted
away to heaven.
She flees into the wilderness where she has
a place prepared of God, that's verse 6,
that they should feed her there a thousand
two hundred and three score days.
And there was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought.
Have you tried to visualize this scene, war
in heaven?
Listen to the contending armies.
Michael and his angels.
Michael, your prince, said Gabriel to Daniel.
Michael, who stands for the nation of Israel.
And the book of Daniel seems to indicate
to us that there are heavenly princes that
are set over nations, in charge of nations,
that the affairs of man on earth are
the direct result of the activity of spirits
in the heavens, and that the politicians and
the military strategists, etc., etc., are really producing
or fulfilling the plans and the outlines of
that which has been decreed in the heavens.
And so you have these great princes set
over the various nations of the world and
responsible for them.
And Michael is the one who has been
charged with the responsibility of the nation of
Israel.
And there are others, as you know, who
are called in the book of Daniel the
king of Persia and the prince of Persia,
rather than the king of Greece, and how
they fought with Gabriel and held him up
those many days when he was coming with
a message regarding the end of the nation
of Israel.
Now, there's war in heaven here.
And I have wondered, with what arms will
they fight, do you suppose?
I hope you get a front seat on
this one.
Michael and his angel, and the dragon and
his angel, they're fighting.
There's a combat.
There's a clash of arms in the heavens.
And what happens?
The dragon is cast down to the earth.
As we read in verse 7, he prevails
not in verse 8, and so he was
cast out in verse 9.
And then I heard a loud voice in
verse 10 saying, Now has come salvation and
strength in the kingdom of our God, and
the power of his Christ for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused
him before our God day and night, and
they overcame him by the blood of the
young lamb.
I want you to notice three things.
Here is Israel under the persecution of the
last days, that great tribulation period.
The dragon has come down.
He's going to make war with the woman.
The woman flees.
So he turns to make war with the
remnant of her seed.
This great struggle is going on.
And these are they who come under that
intense demonic hatred of this implacable and unfettered
enemy of God and man, the great dragon.
But they overcame him, it says.
And how did they do that?
By three things.
First of all, the blood of the lamb.
That gave them a clear judicial standing before
God in order to fate this dragon.
How can you and I contend with the
wicked one?
How can we stand against his attack?
How can we overcome his temptation?
We have a judicial standing with God that
gives us the position to refute and to
refuse to obey all the snares and wiles
of the wicked one, having done all to
stand.
Then it goes on to say this.
They overcame him by the blood of the
lamb and by the words of their testimony.
So it was not only a judicial standing
before God that gave them the authority to
refute and to confront the great dragon and
his attacks.
And we will see, if we got into
chapter 13, how he's going to do that
through the two wild beasts that are going
to come.
But also, they have a word of testimony.
And their word of testimony was not silent.
It was vibrant, it was vital, it was
clear, it was true.
And this is one of the arms whereby
they overcame the dragon.
The blood of the lamb gives them that
judicial authority to confront him, to attack him.
But the word of their testimony is that
which they use in this great battle of
the last days.
And these are Israelite brethren.
And then it goes on to say this.
And they loved not their lives unto death.
Three things.
The blood of the lamb, the word of
their testimony, and their sacrificial spirit.
They loved not their lives unto death.
How easy it is for us to concenter
everything around ourselves, and to love ourselves, and
to save our life as the Lord said
so many times.
And I often hear lamented to me in
these last days as I move around amongst
the families of the Lord's people, there doesn't
seem to be any more, any sacrificial spirit.
And I've been in several centers recently and
the lament is this.
The elders are not willing to be shepherds
because a shepherd is a sacrificial life.
You pay a price for it.
You must pay a price for it.
And here it says, remember our Lord said,
he that loves his life shall lose it.
And he that loses his life for my
sake, the same shall find it.
They loved not their lives unto death.
Their service, and their faithfulness, and their testimony
before God the blood of the lamb secures
their destiny.
But the word of their testimony and their
sacrificial spirit is that which overcomes the dragon.
So it costs them their life.
It costs them their life at will.
But notice what it said.
It was by the blood of the lamb.
Now, let's move to chapter 13.
The two beasts, as I've suggested to you,
rise up in chapter 13.
The Antichrist and the False Prophet.
Wild beasts, they're called repeatedly.
And it says here in verse 7 of
chapter 13, it was given unto him to
make war with the saints.
That's the first beast, the man with the
mouth speaking great blasphemous things who can go
on for three and a half years.
And power was given unto him over all
kindreds, and tongues, and nations, and all that
dwell upon the earth.
Let me draw your attention to this expression.
It's a very interesting one.
It comes ten times in the book of
the Revelation.
All that dwell on the earth.
And I never noticed for some considerable time
just exactly what was involved.
I thought it meant every inhabitant of the
world.
Well, let me suggest to you that there's
something more in it than that.
All that dwell on the earth, and if
you look at the context when it is
said, would teach us more than geographical location.
It's not just because these people are on
the earth.
It's a moral condition.
They are earth dwellers morally.
Their interests are all directed to that which
is of the earth.
Their ambitions, their aspirations, their activities are all
earth directed.
They are earth dwellers morally.
So it does not mean, I suggest to
you, when it says, all that dwell on
the earth, it does not mean that every
living individual at that time, because it says
here, all that dwell on the earth, whose
names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, they will worship the beast.
That's verse 8.
Now, we know very well that all earth
dwellers will not worship the beast.
That is, all the inhabitants of the world.
For, as we have just commented now in
the previous chapter, and in chapter 7, many
are going to be slaughtered, many will be
beheaded as we come to chapter 20, for
their testimony.
So these who dwell on the earth are
all whose interest is earth.
Everything on earth interests them.
They are morally earth dwellers, and they do
not seek anything beyond the earth.
They have no interest in that which is
above the earth.
They have no pride and no treasure in
the heavens.
They're earth dwellers morally, and they're going to
worship the beast, as we have it here.
It says, their names are not written in
the book of life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world.
Marvelous expression, that, isn't it?
Now he will turn it around, and I'll
leave it the way it is.
Because I believe it concurs, it agrees with
Peter's word.
You know that you're not redeemed with profitable
things such as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a Lamb foreordained from before the foundation
of the world, but manifest in these last
times for us, who by him do believe
in God that raised him from the dead
and gave him glory, that your faith and
hope might be in God.
Your faith might be in God, because the
Lamb was foreordained from before the foundation of
the world.
That your hope might be in God, because
he who came with this great work of
redemption will come again.
And then look what it said.
Did you notice what Peter said?
You're not redeemed with profitable things such as
silver and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the
precious blood of Christ.
Let me ask you a simple question.
How many times in the Bible is the
blood of Christ called precious?
Push the button on your online Bible computer
program, and bring it up quick.
How many times is the blood of Christ
called precious in the Bible?
Once.
Only once.
And what is it in relation to?
You were not redeemed from your vain conversation.
What's that?
Received by tradition from your fathers.
What's that?
To paraphrase it and put it into common
everyday language, it just means a fruitless lifestyle.
Your empty lifestyle, behavior, conversation, manner of living.
Now, when I first noticed that, I got
rocked.
I really did.
I said, I've heard this, and I've sung
it so many times, about precious, precious blood
of Jesus shed on Calvary, shed for rebels,
shed for sinners, shed for me.
When I see the blood I will pass
over you.
And we sing a lot, and we preach
a lot, and we speak a lot about
the precious blood of Christ.
It washed our sins away.
The only time it's called precious in relation
to the way you live.
Now, if that didn't surprise you, it surprised
me.
I said, I can't believe this.
So I checked it, rechecked it, checked it
again.
Sure enough, you were not redeemed from what?
From your vain, empty, fruitless lifestyle.
The silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ.
And I said to myself, does it mean
that in order for me to live not
the way I was, a different lifestyle, a
fruitful lifestyle, it costs him precious blood?
And that put a whole new picture, as
far as I was concerned, on my lifestyle,
on the way I lived.
My interests, my activities, my objects, and so
forth.
My lifestyle costs precious blood.
It doesn't even say the redemption of my
soul costs precious blood.
It's redeeming me from living a fruitless life.
So, what we have here is the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.
Just turn the page, please.
Chapter 14.
I looked, and the Lamb stood on Mount
Zion, with Him 144,000, having His Father's
name written in their foreheads.
I loved it.
144,000, as you know, are redeemed of
the tribes of Israel in the coming days.
And here is the Lamb, and He's standing
on Mount Zion.
Here He is in a kingly place, in
a monarchical position.
He's on Mount Zion, down to, yet have
I set my King upon my holy hill
of Zion.
And here He is, with His consul, His
companions, this 144,000, and He is the
Lamb standing on Mount Zion.
And I heard a voice from heaven, as
the voice of many waters, as the voice
of a great thunder.
I heard the voice of harpers harping with
their harps, and they sang, as it were,
a new song before the throne and before
the four living ones and the elders.
The elders are not singing, the living ones
are not singing.
It's the 144,000 that are singing.
No man could learn that song, but the
144,000 which were redeemed from the earth.
And what is it going to do?
It says, these are they which were not
defiled with women for they are virgins.
These are they which follow the Lamb with
us wherever He goes.
His consorts, His companions in His kingdom, and
the kingdom proceeds from Mount Zion.
There's the Lamb in His kingly capacity.
Turn the leaf, please, to chapter 17.
I just want to leave these seven points
with you as I close our studies now.
Chapter 17.
We're reading about the last confederacy of these
ten kings.
And in the first chapter we have Babylon
the Mystery, Babylon the Great, and so on.
And verse 12 says, And the ten horns
which thou sawest are ten kings, which have
received no kingdom as yet, but received power
as kings one hour with this wild beast.
These have one mind, one purpose, and they
shall give their power and strength unto the
beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb.
Photographic picture.
This is a wild beast, ten kings.
The mighty armies of the world are gathered
together.
And what are they going to do?
They're going to make war with the Lamb.
Sounds like a very unbalanced conflict, doesn't it?
The protagonists are so different.
One is a wild beast, and following him
and his retinue are these ten kings and
the armies of the earth.
And on the other side, whose leader of
the other army is a lamb, a young
lamb.
What a surprise!
He says they're going to make war with
the Lamb.
Oh, but the Lamb shall overcome them.
He is Lord of lords and King of
kings, and they that are with him are
called and chosen and faithful.
Look at chapter 19.
Chapter 19.
We'll see this Lamb.
Verse 11.
I saw heaven open and behold a white
horse, and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he
doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire.
Chapter 1.
On his head were many diadems, many crowns.
He had a name written that no man
knew, but he himself heart.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood.
His name is called the Word of God.
The armies which were in the heaven followed
him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean.
Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword.
With it he shall smite the nations.
He shall rule them with a rod of
iron.
Psalm 2.
He credits the winepress of the fierceness and
wrath of Almighty God.
And he hath on his vesture, on his
thigh, a name written, King of Kings, Lord
of Lords.
Verse 19.
And I saw the beast, and the kings
of the earth, and their armies gathered together
to make war against him that sat on
the horse, and against his army.
And you know the outcome of that battle.
The Lamb is coming in power and great
glory.
He's coming leading the armies of heaven.
But what intrigues me is that the Spirit
of God retains constantly, in all these various
positions and operations, the title of the Lamb.
We are never to forget, in peace and
in war, in heaven and on earth, in
the great tribulation period to come, in the
opening of the seal, and now it's going
to move into the closing chapters in that
glorious millennial period.
And for the ages unborn and unknown, it's
always and ever going to be the Lamb.
The Lamb.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ.
But now, if you will, chapter 19, where
we are again, just turn the page back.
We have the four hallelujahs.
And we come back to verse 6.
The culmination of his heart's desire, his wife
has made herself ready.
She is prepared, as verse 7 indicates.
And then there's a concession made to her
in verse 8.
The concession is that it was granted that
she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white.
The fine linen is the righteousness of the
saints.
And here we have a little indication of
how we are going to attend the Lord
in this glorious moment of the Mary's Supper
of the Lamb.
This bride has made herself ready.
You remember who the bride is, don't you?
You remember that when he's speaking to the
churches, the seven churches, he speaks about this
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of
heaven.
And he speaks here about the Mary's Supper
of the Lamb.
Now, let me just ask you to turn
over now to chapter 21.
There came unto me one of the seven
angels, which had the seven bowls full of
the seven last legs, and talked to me,
and he cometh hither, I will show thee
the bride, the Lamb's wife.
And he carried me away in the spirit
to a great and high mountain, and he
showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God, having the
glory of God.
She has clothed herself with the righteousnesses, the
righteous acts of the saints.
She is going to be presented to her
husband, arrayed in that which she herself has
woven into her bridal gown.
I had some very experiences with brides in
bridal gowns.
Not long before I left Cuba, I had
a wedding in our assembly building over there
in Pina de Rio.
We had rather a wide building, almost the
width of this chapel here tonight.
And we had an aisle about the width
of that center aisle.
And the night of the ensayo, the rehearsal,
I went there to have this rehearsal with
them.
And I noticed the benches were all pushed
to the wall, and the aisle in the
middle of the thing was twice as wide
as it was.
Twice as wide as what we have here
tonight.
And I looked at that and I said,
why did you do this?
And they said, well, this was to give
the bride lots of room to come up
for the wedding tomorrow.
But I said, this bride doesn't weigh 90
pounds.
And she didn't.
She was a very flip of a thing,
as we used to say.
And I said, she's going to be lost
in this aisle tomorrow.
They said, you just wait and see.
Okay.
I waited and I saw.
And the next day when she came up
the aisle, believe me, she just about filled
that thing.
She had made her own wedding gown.
You know what happened.
She went back to the hoop skirts and
things they had going on.
It was all the way out like this.
It was encompassing about half an acre of
air, I think.
Because there she was in the center of
it.
And, of course, I dare not criticize because,
you see, she made it herself.
Oh, I see.
And I thought of this passage.
This bride, this wife, has made herself ready.
Because the fine linen that she's wearing is
composed of the righteousnesses of the saints.
The acts of the saints, their service.
And he or it has been granted to
her to robe herself with the weaving of
her own hands and her own heart.
How big an aisle are you going to
need for the married supper?
Then, when he showed them the great city,
the bride, then we move over to the
last chapter.
And we read about all the characteristics of
that.
Well, chapters 21 and 22, we read about
all the characteristics of that bridal city.
And we read in verse 3 of chapter
22, there should be no markers.
But the throne of God and of the
Lamb shall be in it.
Isn't that marvelous?
The government of the city is of the
Lamb.
The throne, God and the Lamb, shall be
in the city.
As we have known Him, so we shall
forever know Him.
And then, a final word.
Look at this in verse 23 of chapter
21.
Verse 22.
I saw no temple therein, for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple
on it.
You know what that means, of course.
And in the city had no need of
the sun, neither the moon to shine in
it.
For the glory of God did lighten it,
and the Lamb is the lamp of the
city.
Bathed in the light, the benign light, the
soft light of this new Jerusalem.
We'd make a weak study, wouldn't it, the
new Jerusalem?
See what it was.
The new Jerusalem.
The lamp.
What's the light of it?
They don't need a sun.
They don't need the moon.
They don't need incandescent, and they don't need
halogen, and they don't need any other kind
of human manufactured light.
The Lamb.
The Lamb is the lamp of the city.
Shall we pray?
Our Father, we commend this to Thee tonight.
What a marvelous person Thou hast introduced to
us.
In the closing book, in the closing pages,
in the closing words of the Holy Scriptures.
Our hearts bow in admiration.
Our spirits bow in adoration.
Before this one, whom we have seen so
briefly tonight, so inadequately, and all the characteristics
that he shall assume and that he shall
show in the days which are yet to
come.
Lord, we thank Thee that he has redeemed
us.
In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace.
Help us, gracious God, to walk no longer
in that fruitless lifestyle that caused him to
redeem us from it.
Precious blood.
May Thy blessing abide with Thy people as
we commend this to Thee.