A Marriage made in Heaven

Turn with me in your Bible to Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Oh, I'm so excited these next four to five, six weeks as we finish the book of Revelation are going to be exciting.

We've gotten through and done the gory stuff.

Praise God.

Can I get an amen on that?

Now let's go to the glory stuff.

And that is so true.

In chapter 19, we have, I call it, a marriage made in heaven.

Now, most people, young ladies, y'all, y'all get a little more excited about this than the males do.

I mean, even in our culture, you know, the bride in a wedding here in the Western states in America.

By the way, if you do not have a worship guide, raise your hand, please.

I want to make sure everyone's got one as you fill in your outline.

And you that are watching online, you know you've got the outlines online for you.

So we don't want anyone to miss any truth that's taught in the Word of God.

Now, you know, every wedding, in fact, Kristen's here, and I asked her where her husband was, and she said he's working.

I said, Boy, you've trained him right.

Amen.

But uh a few weeks ago we had the honor and privilege of participating in uh Kristen's wedding, and man, we were all sitting there in the chapel waiting for the marriage march to start playing to what's the bride come down.

I mean, in our in our culture, the wedding is all about the bride.

But there's coming a day that the wedding is not gonna be about the bride, it's gonna be about the groom.

Because the groom is coming.

And when I get through today, you're gonna be so excited.

Even a lost person will get saved when you see what we're gonna see today in these first ten verses, and a marriage made in heaven.

And every young maiden wants a marriage made in heaven, and that's great, and you should.

I tell young couples all the time that I've had the privilege of counseling with, and I will not marry a couple unless I counsel with them.

I tell them all the time there is a storybook ending if it's done the storybook way, and the storybook way is the B-I-B-L-E.

That's the book for me.

All the time.

And I've had the privilege of being married 36 wonderful years.

Now, Susan will say maybe 34 wonderful years.

Was that close?

But but you all think about this marriage in heaven.

You want a marriage in heaven.

And by the way, even though a marriage is made in heaven, when you are two saved people together, let me remind you, it still has to be lived out on earth.

And that's why it's so important that you stay involved in a dynamic church and couples class.

And I'm so excited about our new educational wing that we got our classes going, and we'll be doing more on uh Wednesday night.

And soon we'll go back like we did that four weeks of marriage uh how to keep the spark in your marriage by Andy Stanley.

And we're gonna be doing stuff like that every quarter for young couples.

Now that we got the room, do it on uh Wednesday nights.

More educational classes on Wednesday night.

It's gonna be great because we we meet two times Sunday morning, Wednesday night.

That's what we do.

So, with that said, we have arrived now at an exciting point of the Bible.

Like I said, the dark and dreary passages are gone, and we're going now to talk about a wedding today.

Not just any wedding, but the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And what a wedding.

It's unbelievable.

You see, for the church, let me kind of give us a good introduction here.

The church, right here we see, for the church, the end times kind of shapes up like this.

The rapture.

Before the tribulation starts, we are pre-tribulationalists here.

We believe the church will be raptured out before the tribulation starts.

And I proved that in chapter 4.

The church is never mentioned again at the end of chapter 4.

Until the bride, us, the church, comes back with God, I meant with Jesus for the second coming, which I will show you, I believe to be after the marriage, after we are married, we come back with him, and we have that unbelievable marriage, hey, supper of the Lamb for a thousand years.

You talking about a party, folks.

You haven't seen anything yet.

But kind of to put it in perspective, in the rapture, the church is caught up.

And then I really believe after the rapture, we face the judgment seat of Christ.

And we're going to be talking a little bit more about that.

But we talked about that in detail in the earlier beginnings of Revelation in those first three chapters.

We stand at the, in fact, it's called the Bima, even though it's not in the Bible.

It's a Latin word for the judgment, and it means the Bima judge because it talks about the Olympic Games and a raised platform, the Bima platform.

The Bima judgment seat of Christ, which means then we're cleansed up.

We're cleaned up.

We're caught up, then we're cleaned up.

Amen.

We'll talk a little bit about that today.

And then the marriage supper of the Lamb.

We are cheered up.

Caught up, cleaned up, cheered up.

Sounds pretty good to me, doesn't you?

And that's it.

That's it.

So with that said, let's look at a marriage made in heaven.

If you are saved, I want you to know there's some blessed days ahead for all of us.

I'm telling you, that's why when I saw the funeral of Billy Graham, and I even think about David last year, and many of you and some of the lost ones, and Granny, and everybody we lost, I can't get sad when I see this.

I can't get sad.

I've got to get glad.

Because of what awaits us.

He is coming, and he's coming for his people, and the rest will be left behind to endure the tribulation and face the fires of hell.

Listen, Jesus is coming.

And if you're not saved, you'll be left behind.

I was studying early this morning, some scriptures are brought to my heart.

Matthew 24, verses 40 through 42 says, And there will be two men in a field.

Matthew 24:40–42

One will be taken, the other will be left.

Two women will be grinding grain.

One will be taken, the other will be left.

And then I love this.

He says, Therefore, be on the alert, for you know not what the day will be.

Be ready.

That's what alert means.

Be ready.

Be ready for the rapture of the church.

So let's take a journey to glory today and look into our future.

You want to go to glory today?

Say amen.

Ha ha.

I want to point out the blessings contained in this passage.

Number one, in your outline.

Let's look at verses one through six.

It deals with the exaltation of the Savior.

We'll look at three things here.

The exaltation of the Savior.

Like I said, typically.

A wedding is followed by a celebration.

The time before a wedding is usually, and I already know this.

Excuse me.

Good, isn't he?

But usually in a wedding, it's a glorious time after the wedding.

But for most of you that's been involved in weddings, I've married uh two girls, and it's a little more dramatic with girls than with males.

I've done them both.

But with girls, it can be very dru dramatizing.

Everybody, uh they get emotionally involved, and they want it perfect.

And I learned after my first wedding, I'm saying, Susan, it's yours.

All I'm gonna do is do the ceremony, and whatever they tell me, if they want me to do it on my head, I'll try.

I don't I don't say anything to get those emotionals stirred up.

They're already stirred up, and if you say anything, it's all it's it's it's like a hangar nade.

Blows up.

So I've learned that.

But there's so much pressure and tension before the wedding, and then afterwards, oh, guess what?

There's best part's the hey, the eating.

Oh, Kristen had the best eating I've ever seen.

All these men barbecued all 24 hours, and Susan made cakes, and oh, and I couldn't eat any of it because I had my physical.

Coming up.

That's as good.

I know it's good.

I watched y'all.

I watched Darren three or four times.

Darren was feeling sorry for me, so he ate mine.

Thank you, Darren.

Thank you for standing in for the brother.

Amen.

But but but then of celebration, there was dancing.

If you'd have seen Susan's Sunday school class out there dancing, oh my goodness.

Gigi, I won't say anything else.

Yeah, and the pastor was dancing to my girl with his wife.

Yeah, I did that too.

But there's celebration.

Well, here's the exciting.

When this marriage takes place, there will not be any stress before or after.

It'll all be glorious.

Can I get an amen?

All glorious.

All glorious.

In fact, look at verse 1, and it says, After these things, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, There we go, hallelujah.

Say it with me.

Hallelujah.

Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.

Now look at verse 7.

We'll drop down because there's something here you got to understand why they're saying this, hallelujah.

And uh you'll see in a minute, amen.

Let us be glad and rejoice and give him who the groom glory for the marriage of the lamb, the marriage ceremony has come.

That's a tremendous statement.

Has come, is come, and his wife has made herself ready.

So as we go back to verse 1, we see the hallelujah.

Under there, the hallelujahs of God's salvation.

Heaven is praising the Lord for all he has done for them.

The cross, Easter's coming up, the cross, the empty tomb, the blood shed on the cross, the price that was paid for your righteousness and non-righteousness.

I'm talking about, folks, that's enough to praise God about.

Can I get an amen?

We can say, Amen, hallelujah for our salvation.

How many of you remember when you got saved?

I can't, I remember it as if it happened yesterday.

And I can say, Amen, hallelujah to my salvation.

And that's what we see here.

Years ago in Wales, there lived a man by the name of Billy Bray.

He was an old-time shouter.

My papa, now, let me tell you why I am the way I am sometimes.

Why I have a spell every once in a while.

I was raised with my grandmother and my grandfather.

I called him papa, and called my grandmother, grandmother.

But, but uh, well, I actually called her mama a lot.

But mama and papa.

I was raised with them.

And mama went to the first Baptist church and we sat on the front row of the first Baptist Church.

Now remember what I tell you about Southern Baptists just a few weeks ago?

There's only two types of Southern Baptist Church, the chosen frozen and the happy clappy?

Well, this was a chosen frozen.

You couldn't say anything if you did, you'd get pinched right there.

Got scars to prove it.

Amen.

But on and but mama and papa believe that a family that prays together and worships together stays together.

I still believe that.

So on Sunday morning we went to the Chosen Frozen, and Papa, he couldn't say anything because he had done that before, and they told him to be quiet.

Because he's a shouter, he's an amener, he's a hallelujah.

So when they would say something about the blood, Papa would sit there and go, hmm.

Hmm.

But then on Sunday night we went to the Assembly of God around the corner.

And we sat on the front row.

And boy, Papa, they'd get to preaching, they'd get to singing, Papa would get up and he'd start dancing and amen, hallelujah.

And I'd say, Papa, wait, I want to go dance with you.

But I could see the excitement and the joy.

And I kept, every once in a while I'd ask, ask Mama, I'd say, why don't we act like that in that in First Baptist Church?

She said, Well, I really don't know.

I said, I almost said, why do we still go?

But I didn't.

I was nice, even if I'd.

But but but what I'm saying is, folks, right here, we when you have the hallelujah of God's salvation, it's kind of like Billy Bray.

They would they came up to Billy Bray and they told Billy, you gotta calm it down.

And you know what Billy Bray said?

He said, I I can't help it.

Acts 4.20, I got the can't help it.

I can't help but speak and say the things that I've seen.

And you know what Billy Bray said though?

He said, you know, folks, I know I'm in, I I disturb you and I'm I'm I'm so sorry.

He says, but when I start thinking about the cross, when I start thinking about the blood that was shed for me, when I start thinking about God loved me so much that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

He says, My right foot says, Amen, my left foot says hallelujah.

I can't help it.

And folks, if you've really been transformed, you may not be an extrovert like me, you may be an introvert like my wife who cries all the time.

And I used to tell the preachers, boys, if you can't make her cry with your preaching, you're not called.

Amen.

That was my theme, thermometer.

But here we see the joy, the hallelujah of God's salvation.

Look at verse 2 and 3.

We see the hallelujah of God's sentence.

For true and righteous are its judgments, because he has judged the great harlot who computed, excuse me, who corrupted the earth with her fornication.

And he has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her.

Oh my goodness, in verse 3.

And again they said, here we go, hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.

Oh my goodness.

Here we see the residents of heaven, all of us, the saved of the Old Testament, the saved in the New Testament, and the saved, even in the tribulation, look what's happening.

They know that his judgments are fair, they are right, and they are perfect.

Therefore, they praise his name.

Ladies and gentlemen, there will be no doubt on the judgment seat day of all the believers at the beam of judgment seat that his judgment and his ways and his directions and his fairness is fair.

It'll all be revealed.

And same as we will look in a few weeks at the great white throne judgment for those that are lost, that his judgment was fair.

And how many times in these last few weeks we've seen the mercy of God and the grace of God over and over again, still giving those that rejected him and hated him and killing the Christians, he still gave them grace and a chance to be saved.

Just like he did the two thieves on the cross.

That day, one received, one rejected, but he still gave them that opportunity.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

The Bible tells us in Psalms 19, 9, and we see that over and over in Revelation 17 and 18.

Lest we forget we are serving a God who has already won the battle.

Can I get an amen?

Ladies and gentlemen, hey, I've read the last chapter.

What?

We win.

Amen.

That's enough to say hallelujah, amen, amen, hallelujah.

We win.

We win.

Thank God.

As people come out on top of this thing.

That's enough to shout about.

But look at the third hallelujah.

It's the hallelujah of God's sovereignty.

In verse 4 and 5, if you take the time to look at the book of Revelation, verse 4 says, And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who sat on the throne saying, Amen, hallelujah.

Let me hear that.

Amen, hallelujah.

I like it.

Then a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God.

All you, his servants, and those who fear him, both small and great.

Oh, amen.

Hallelujah.

Now, if you take the time to look and we have it in the book of Revelation, these 24 elders who are mentioned show up about six times.

Revelations 4, twice in Revelation 5, once in Revelation 7, once in 11, and right here.

Revelations 19, 4.

Six times.

And every time they do, they are doing the same thing.

They are falling on their faces praising God.

Now I don't know about you, but every time we see them in the book of Revelation, they're falling on their faces saying, Amen, hallelujah, hallelujah, amen.

Now I don't know about you, but that means something.

Yeah, they're just fanatics.

Well, can I help you a little bit?

I know, and I'm not saying you've got to have an extroverted personality like mine.

Or, but, because by the way, there's not any better example of opposites than me and my wife.

I am totally.

When we took that test, the guy looked up and he said, Oh my goodness.

He said, Are you this?

Yeah, are you yeah?

Oh, how do y'all make it?

Am I right?

Isn't that what he said?

He said, We were the worst possible combination.

The worst.

Not the best, the worst.

But 36 years later, I'm saying, woo, amen.

Woo! Hallelujah! For the grace of God.

That she hadn't killed me and I hadn't killed her.

The common denominator.

But what makes the two worst combinations in Up being the best combination for the glory of God.

One word.

J-E-S-U-S Jesus.

One word.

Only way to make it.

The hallelujah of his sovereignty.

Now, the 24 elders represent the redeemed of God.

So if you and I are saved, and we are the ones that are saved, this pictures us.

They are finally free in the.

You know what?

You won't have to worry about what Sister Fluffyhead's thinking about how you act in heaven.

By the way, I don't care what she thinks while I'm here on earth.

I am not inhibited because I am inhabited.

Amen.

Hey, listen.

I'm used to, I was too young to know better.

Now I'm too old to change.

Amen.

The hallelujah of God's sovereignty.

Now look at the next thing.

Look at verse 6.

The hallelujah of God's supremacy.

Woo! This is good.

Look at what he says.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude.

Woo! Everybody.

It won't be, hey, you won't have the praise the Lord group over here and the non-praise the Lord group over here.

The whole multitude will be praising the Lord.

And by the way, I'm not saying that we all will be praising the Lord like I praise the Lord.

I think you'll praise the Lord in who you are.

Whether you're crying, shouting, running, sitting, but it'll be really who you are, and you don't care what anybody thinks.

Amen.

See, over the years they thought if you shouted, you were uneducated, and if you didn't shout, you were educated.

Well, that's why I went to one of the hardest seminaries in the world so I could get my doctorate so I could shout and they couldn't say anything.

Hello.

You went to where?

And you act like that?

Yep.

I played that dumb card a long time, folks.

Amen.

Doesn't work anymore, though.

But anyway, look at here.

The hallelujah, the hallelujah of God's supremacy.

Now here we go.

Look at what I want to call your attention in verse 4.

There are two heavily words mentioned.

We've already talked about it, so let's look at it.

The word amen.

Now, the Greek word there means, it's really pronounced the Greek word, it's very similar.

Not amen, but a mean.

A mean is the Greek word.

Amen.

We say it amen.

Or amen.

Amen.

Amen.

And then we see right here, here's what it look listen to what it means.

It's a word signifying agreement with, it's a word signifying agreement with and the approval of the word of God.

Does that make sense?

It means that I agree and I approve of what has just been said because it's the word of God.

Not what Danny said.

Not what Pastor Danny said, but what God's Word said.

Can I get a amen?

So be it.

That's very important you understand that.

So, when the word amen appears, and you will see it some in the scriptures at the very beginning of a verse or statement, it means truly.

The word was used by Jesus on many occasions.

When it is spoken by Jesus, you but here's the reaction.

When you see Jesus say in red, truly, you better perk up because he's about to tell you something he does not want you to miss.

This is very, all of it's important, but hey, my granddaddy, you said the whole Bible's important, but when it's in red, you better listen.

Verily.

Hey, truly, very, and then sometimes he'll say, truly, or very, very means you better listen.

This is one of the most important statements you can listen to.

Now, so notice the next word is hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Or the Greek word is hallelujah.

And it literally means to praise the Lord.

It is used in the New Testament, and that was to give honor and glory to the Lamb.

Here's what I put down.

It is heaven's praise word.

It is heaven's praiseword.

That if you and I intend to be in tune with heaven, if you and I plan to be in tune with heaven while here on this earth, we better understand Amen and hallelujah.

Can I get an Amen?

It doesn't bother me.

People say, well, people, doesn't that distract you?

Not at all.

I'm in a zone, folks.

In fact, I let me ask something.

When you're at a ball game, we do we have any ball people here, football fans, basketball fans?

My hand's up.

Pam, can I get a War Eagle?

They just won the SEC in basketball.

Hey, yeah.

All right.

And I can't believe Alabama even made it to the tournament, but I guess they felt sorry for him and invited me.

I can't believe it.

But anyway, I mean, we get excited.

Hey, when you're in a ball game and people are, go, go, yeah! Oh, you're bad refads.

And you're just going on.

Does that affect your attention in that ball game?

Not at all.

I've been with you.

You're focused.

Oh, so-and-so.

Do you see what so-and-so?

Y'all called the number, call them by name, what they did.

Oh, man, he didn't block so-and-so.

He didn't, he ought to call that ball.

That's a bad call.

That was pushing.

I mean, I sit there and listen.

You're focused.

You're in tune.

Well, I got news for you.

When you walk in this building, you walk in that Sunday school room.

And if you're focused, and you've been all morning like I do two hours, two and a half hours before I get here, I'm in the words.

I'm memorizing scripture.

And I get in my car, the men out there laugh at me.

I turn it on my Christian station, and and that song that that that uh Benji just sang, I was hearing it coming to church that day, and I I raised my hands, that's when I almost ran into that.

I sing because.

So when I pull in here, I'm ready.

My heart's full.

I'm focused.

That's why I can't help but say, Amen, hallelujah.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

The second thing, verses seven and eight.

We see the exaltation of the Savior now.

We see the excitement of the supper.

This marriage made in heaven will be the consummation of some very important, powerful events.

Let's look at them.

First of all, the excitement of a completed plan.

Verse seven.

And boy, is this not good.

Look at what it says.

Let us be glad.

Rejoice and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has prepared herself.

Wow.

Notice the word is come.

These words imply a sense of relief because of a long anticipated event has now come and is completed.

What we have preached about all these years, what we have looked forward to all these years, one day is going to be completed.

It's coming.

And now we see here it is completed.

It's done.

God's plan for the ages is finally completed.

And it started ever since Eve and Adam sinned in the garden.

He's been working to redeem man, hey, to himself again.

All through from Genesis to Revelation.

This plan has been being executed, and now it is completed.

Guys, does that not get you excited?

It's real.

It's not some fictitious story.

It's real.

And it's completed.

Right here.

This is the moment when Jesus gets to receive his bride unto himself.

Can you imagine?

Let me tell you who else is going to be excited.

Jesus is going to be excited.

If you've been waiting that long, hey, for your bride, guys, wouldn't you be excited?

Now, one thing I do know, the hey, the guy sitting there watching that beautiful bride as Kristen's husband did coming down that aisle.

Oh, he's thinking I'm excited.

And you know, he hadn't even paid attention to all that other preparation that you got so upset about.

He's just waiting on his bride.

Get me my bride and let me get out of here.

That's all he's thinking.

The excitement of a completed plan, but also the excitement of a sec B, a completed presentation.

Might help us to understand a little bit of now.

This is where it's going to get good.

This is going to make a Presbyterian shout.

We've got to understand the background for a wedding of this type.

It's an Oriental wedding, not a Western wedding.

There were typically three stages in an Oriental wedding.

One, the betrothed.

Thank you.

Betrothal.

Got it.

Stage.

The presentation stage and the celebration stage.

Now let me show you.

Oh, watch this picture.

Watch this picture.

This was something like what we know as the as the Western, the betrothal stage, is our engagement.

Okay?

When you put the engagement ring on a woman's finger, guys.

But now watch this.

This is good.

It means a lot more in the Oriental setting than it does in the Western setting.

You know what it literally meant?

It meant that you were legally really already married.

Even though the consummation physically had not taken place.

And sometimes this could last as long as a year.

And here's the only way it could be broken, the only way it could be broken was either by divorce or death.

That's the only way.

Even though the couple had not lived together.

And by the way, here's the other thing you're not going to like.

But statistically proven it's done quite well.

You girls, ladies, you guys, you didn't pick your mate.

Your parents did.

Hmm.

I don't like that.

Well, if you look statistically, those marriages that have been done like that over the years have been very, very high in their relationships.

But that's the way it happened back then.

Love was not usually, now what's this?

Now don't throw at me.

I'm just telling you the culture.

Love was not usually the basis for marriages.

You didn't marry for loved.

What's this?

You didn't marry for loved, you loved who you married.

Now I know that sounds a little whoa, but now think of that statement.

When I thought, I had to I had to go through this statement about 30 times.

Let me understand this.

You don't marry for love, but you love who you marry.

And I thought about that.

How many times that marriages in the Western culture have come together and they thought it was love, but it was more lust than love.

And they never learned how to love who they married, and so a divorce took place within two or three years, or even sometimes less than a year.

And I went back to that statement and I said, wow, that's powerful.

You do, whoever you marry, you learn to love who you married.

And hopefully you loved them before you married them, but if you really love them, you don't run out on them.

Somebody say, Amen.

I know that's not popular preaching, and I knew it wouldn't be, but I believe it.

Think on that.

Now I know I know somebody, I ain't already said, I don't think I agree with that.

And you have an opinion.

But I want you to take that home and think about it.

Amen?

Think about that.

You don't marry for love.

You do, but you love who you marry.

Can I tell you something?

When Susan and I got married, in my heart, I I I felt I I there's no doubt I loved my wife, love Susan.

But I I gotta admit, I was more, uh there was a lot of emotions there.

And can I say something?

Love's not an emotion.

Love is a fact, it's an action.

Amen.

Come on with me.

So we see this is unbelievable.

There's a lot of good truth here.

Now, watch this.

Are you ready?

We have been, hey, here it is.

The bride of Christ is in the midst of this betrothal.

Watch, period.

Right now.

Right now.

Now let me show you.

Here's where you're gonna get excited.

We're right here.

We've been picked by the Heavenly Father, and we are married to Jesus right now.

We're just waiting to go to him.

And then the second stage, the presentation stage, when the time of the wedding arrived, the father of the groom would send the bridegroom and his friends to go get the bride and bring them back to his home to consummate the marriage and have a celebration.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's where we are.

Very soon.

The God the Father is gonna turn to his son and say, son, go get your bride.

And bring him home.

Bring him home.

Which brings us to the celebration stage.

On the wedding, the couple, the friends, and the family, the celebration, oh, that's the cycle.

Okay.

Now this is probably the part that wake up in about another 10 minutes.

And we're gonna have a great lunch.

But you can't miss this.

This is probably the most practical part of the message for us now.

Before the marriage takes place.

This is awesome.

This is unbelievable.

Typically, Oriental brides, listen to this, and tell uh I had a good time doing this research.

Oriental brides prepared their own wedding garments.

How about that, Krista?

Krista, not me.

It could be as elaborate or as simple as they chose to make it.

Now watch this.

It usually consisted of two things.

One, an inner garment, which was called a tunic, and the second garment was called an outer garment, called a toga.

Tunic, inner garment, out toga.

Now we need to understand right here.

It was the bride's responsibility to get herself ready for the wedding.

Now listen to me, church.

It is our responsibility to get us ready for the wedding.

Hello?

You're listening to me?

And we see this in three ways.

Verse eight.

Listen to what it says.

She was permitted to wear fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen represents the righteousness.

Look at what it says next.

Acts, deeds of the saints.

Wow.

Man, that's powerful.

Now, there's three kinds of righteousness here that you gotta understand.

I didn't write that.

You need to write this down somewhere.

First of all, there's the personal righteousness.

This is the righteousness you and I can produce on our own.

Personal righteousness.

In other words, Isaiah 64, 6 says, all our righteousness is this what?

Filthy rags.

So if we're doing it in our flesh and we're trying to be spiritual, we're trying to be right on our own, that is no, hey, count, that's no good.

It's filthy rags.

Can I get an amen?

Hey, hey, let's say this together.

All my righteousness is as filthy rags.

All my righteousness is as filthy rags.

That is personal righteousness.

Do you understand that?

Say amen.

Folks, this is powerful.

This is liberating.

This is illuminating.

Are you ready?

Notice the second one.

The second one is provided righteousness.

And this is the righteousness we are given when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ as our Savior.

Watch this.

Jason, these are two powerful verses.

2 Corinthians 5.21.

I think it's there.

It says, He has made, hey, he has made him, Jesus.

Hey, who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become, look at it, the righteousness of God in him.

And then go to Romans 3.21 and 22.

Powerful, Paul said.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference.

Woo! Hey, God died on the cross and gave us his righteousness because our righteousness was filthy rags.

Can I get an amen?

Is that not good?

Personal righteousness had to be replaced by provided righteousness through the Lord's and Savior Jesus Christ.

Which brings us to the third.

Practical righteousness.

This is the righteousness we live out each day we're in the world.

It refers to how we conduct ourselves.

How well we submit to authority.

How we use the opportunities, gifts, responsibilities, and privileges we're given as children of God.

This speaks of the outer garment, of the toga.

The other, the provided righteousness, speaks of the tunic.

And then it is pure speculation.

Now, this is pure speculation on my part.

But this is what I believe, and I'm going to show you.

How well we are dressed at the wedding depends on us.

Come on, help me here.

How How well we are dressed at the wedding depends on us.

It can be as elaborate or as it can be as simple or it can be nothing.

Now let me show you.

1 Corinthians 3 10, 15.

Here it is.

You say, I don't know about here it is.

Here's where this speculation for me came from.

Verse 9 says there's no other foundation that can be laid than the one that is Jesus Christ.

Verse 10, according to the grace of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder.

In other words, once we get saved, we'll become a builder.

But hey, now the master builder is Jesus.

I have laid the foundation and another builds on it.

That's us, we're building.

But let each one take heed how he builds on it, on Jesus, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now watch verse 12.

Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, that means you're just all out, taking that practical righteousness, living everything God's told you to do and to be.

Or wood, hay, straw.

Now watch what he says.

Each one's work will become clear for that day.

What day?

The judgment, the seed of Christ, will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each other's work and what sort it is.

Verse 14 if anyone's work which he has built on endures, he will receive a ward.

But if any man's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire.

There it is.

All that takes place right now.

Right now, church.

You're making your wedding garment.

You're making your wedding garment right now while you're living.

After you take that last breath, it's over.

You can't sow anymore.

It's over.

Amen.

Please hear that.

And then it takes me to the last thing, and I'm through.

The exaltation of Savior, of the Savior, the excitement of the supper, and the last thing, the expectation of the saints.

David used to say, I'm I've been thinking a lot about David today.

I I apologize.

He used to say, Pastor Danny spends all his time on one and two and then just runs through the last point.

He's heard me preach a lot.

But actually this point's kind of simple.

Look at the guests at the wedding.

Who are the guests?

Old Testament saints?

Hey.

New Testament saints?

Tribulational saints?

It will be the group made up of all Jews and Gentiles who were saved.

Here's what I put, this is good.

Who were saved before Pentecost and who were saved after the rapture.

They'll all be there.

They'll all be there.

And B, the glory of the wedding supper.

After an Oriental wedding, there was always a celebration, the length and the extravagance all depended on the wealth of the male uh of the uh groom.

In other words, you could have a one-day celebration if you didn't have any money, or if you're rich, you could have a seven-day celebration.

It all depended on the wealth of the groom.

Why do we have a groom that's wealthy?

I mean, not only, hey, you think you hadn't seen, remember Diana's wedding, oh, the most elaborate, most expensive to Charleston, and then we watched that wedding too fall apart.

But I got news for it, there's gonna be a wedding one day that's gonna be even greater than Diana Charles's wedding.

And it's the hey, it's Jesus Christ is coming for his bride and his brain's bride, and we're gonna marry, hey, Jesus, and we're gonna be brought in, and we're gonna have the greatest celebration that's ever been, the marriage supper of the Lamb, and it's gonna last for a thousand years.

Woo! What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, when he takes me by the hand and leads me to the promised land.

What a day! Glorious day that will be.

Wow! That's a royal wedding.

Now, are you ready for this?

Take me to Luke 12, 37 as I close.

Watch this.

In a typical Oriental wedding celebration, let me tell you what happened.

The groom would mingle with everybody at the wedding to make sure they were having a good time and their needs were met.

Had they been fed, had they, you know, had they had whatever, whatever they were, just making sure everybody.

It's kind of like I I love our our intimate fellowship.

I love that in a few moments we're gonna turn this whole place into a uh a place to eat.

You're gonna go put your Bibles up, come right back and get in line, and and we're gonna fellowship.

And you know what I love about it, I get to mingle with y'all.

I get to come by as your shepherd and just love on you.

If you got any concerns, can I pray with you?

What you know, you tell me what's going on and or or tell me the joys, tell me the sads.

That's what I do.

I'm mingling with you, make sure you're taken care of.

I got news for you, folks.

One day we're gonna be at the marriage supper of the well.

And Jesus himself is going to serve us.

Did you hear me?

Jesus himself.

Look at it.

Luke 12, 37.

Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when he comes, will find watching.

Surely I say to you, that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them.

Can you imagine?

Now you understand why that song I can only imagine can be so powerful.

If the guy that wrote that understood that, and I maybe he did, but now he wrote that.

How can you only imagine that Jesus is gonna serve us at that wedding himself?

Not his service.

Not the angel.

Here's the invitation this morning.

What kind of garment?

Are you preparing?

Are you being Are you being a servant?

Not that you're willing to wash other people's feet.

But that you are washing other people's feet.

What if?

What if?

Ladies and gentlemen, one day before.

And depending on what kind of garments we've prepared while we've lived here.

Where there's really what I believe where you'll be seated at the Mary's seat of Mary's uh feast of the land.

Now, if you're here and you're saying, Well, that doesn't really matter as long as you're saying that's the wrong attitude.

The right attitude is I wanna I wanna I want my garment to be as elaborate as it can be.

I wanna serve as much as I can serve.

Every time you pick up a chair, you place that chair I told you last week, or you put up a table, anything you do for your brother and sister, anything you do.

That's what we're talking about.

You're washing the feet.

Ladies and gentlemen, you gotta get involved.

Don't just come for the show.

Come to be used of God, amen.

I don't know about you.

I'm in my fourth quarter.

64 years.

Oh.

Dr.

Falwell divided life in four quarters.

First quarter, second quarter, halftime.

Bob Gifford wrote a book called Halftime.

I'm ready to change my life.

First and second quarter, you do a lot of things.

Whatever you like, everything you try.

About halftime, it's time you look back, you know what you're good at, you know what God gifted you at, what you enjoy doing.

By the way, God doesn't give you gifts to do something you hate.

Can I get an amen?

That's good preaching, preacher.

I'd preach.

Hey, I'd preach if you didn't pay me.

Don't get any ideas.

Amen.

Amen.