Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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 God’s holy people.)
Revelation 19:6-8
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The elimination of the evil Mother of Prostitutes through God’s initiated judgment (Revelation 17:16-17) led to great celebration in the heavens. We see this for fact in the opening verses of Revelation, chapter 19 through a series of three proclaimed “Hallelujahs”, three hallelujahs that form the backbone for this short three part series.
In today’s final installment, we find “a great multitude” pronouncing words that highlight the sovereignty and greatness of God as well as excitement over a coming wedding with eternal implications for the bride of the bridegroom. Look again at those words here:
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 God’s holy people.) Vv.6-8
You’ll recall from the earlier messages in this series that the word “hallelujah” means “praise the Lord”. So with that, we find the “great multitude” in Heaven sounding off in a way that John states was “like the roar of rushing waters” and “loud peals of thunder” as they praise the Lord for His majesty and Kingship over all creation, a truth that lead them to deliver this exhortation:
Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!
Indeed, placing our undivided attention and affection on the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Master of all things, should be a top priority for all Christian believers for such honor given to the One most worthy of it, leads to great rejoicing and gladness as we give our God all the glory.
Now, this would have been enough if the passage had stopped at this point but there was one more important point of celebration in order. For the time was fast approaching when Jesus would come again to the earth, this time to dole out His Father’s judgment.
On that day, all who chose not to believe in the Savior of the world will be condemned into the everlasting darkness, suffering in torment and torture forever. Satan, the one they allowed to lead them astray, will be their perpetual Hell mate.
Conversely, the scene will look much different for all Christians, those who placed their belief and trust in Jesus and as a result had their names written in His Lamb’s Book of Life. All these disciples, also known as the church, are the “bride” that we read about in this passage and elsewhere in the scriptures, a bride that “has made herself ready”. Dressed in “fine linen, bright and clean”, which we read represents “the righteous acts of God’s holy people”, they will be married to Jesus forever at His return and ushered away to the new Jerusalem which will be found on the new earth under the new Heaven because what was, the old Heaven and earth, will be no more.
Friends, what a wonderful and blessed assurance we have been given by God through Jesus, His Son. For no matter what life might bring on us in the here and now, nothing can remove the certain victory we have over death and grave through Jesus, our Savior. It was a coming glory that the Apostle Paul summed up in the last verses of Romans, chapter 8:
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Vv. 31-35, 37-39
Friends, the Lord God Almighty loved us so much that He was willing to give up His one and only Son so that whoever would believe in Him wouldn’t perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Let’s join our voices with the great multitude in Heaven to proclaim one word loudly:
“Hallelujah!”
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment