Rev 19:1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God:

This is how we will feel when we stand before the throne of God realizing that we would not be there if not for the mercy and grace of God. The people in Heaven have seen the vengeance taken upon the earth by God and have reason to rejoice that God is a just God and He did not forget the misery and torment they suffered by the hands of those that dwelt upon the earth. They rejoice to see both the false religious system and the evil rulers of the world judged fairly for their works. At any time any one of them could have repented and reversed their ways but they did not.

I have read of Adolph Hitler and did not see one time when he ever showed remorse or sorrow for what he had done. He committed suicide because he was almost caught not for any remorse.

I read of Adolph Eichmann's capture and trial in which he never once repented of his deeds but tried to make it seem as if he was only following orders.

Yet there are others who when faced with eminent death will repent for their things they did. God gave everyone space to repent. Apostate churches are also given space to repent. God is a just God. God would rather save than to destroy but eventually God has to bring judgment or evil will continue for eternity.  It must come to an end and it will come to an end. It is up to us as individuals and as nations to make that decision now whether we are going to accept God or go the way of all flesh and be lost.   Since mankind cannot possibly change or do good by their own will power, God gives us some help.  He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ to redeem us to God and give us His spirit so that we can live a changed life.  When His blood covers our sin, we are made righteous in the sight of God and are reconciled to Him becoming worthy of eternal life. 

Rev 19:2 For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

It would seem from verse 2 that chapters 17 and 18 might be the same, and Babylon was one, not two. Yet we recall how the beast and the kings destroyed the mystery Babylon but merchants and kings of the earth lamented over the destruction of the second Babylon. To get to the point of the message of these passages though one does not have to be dogmatic over whether there are one to two places referred to as Babylon.  The message is the same whether it be one or two.  God punishes evil and brings vengeance upon all who kill and persecute His people that He sends forth to bring to them the message of the gospel. 

Rev 19:3 And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up forever and ever.

So severe was her judgment that the smoke of its burning is like an eternal fire that seems going. Perhaps that is a memorial to all who see, of the results of evil in the long run. For a while it seems as if there is nothing to stop it but in the end we see that holiness and righteousness prevails.

Rev 19:4 And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia.
Rev 19:5 And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.
Rev 19:6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

This will be the most awesome time in the past, present and future of all mankind. All people that love God and have been faithful to Him will rejoice and praise Him and the Lamb (Jesus) (Yeshua) for ever and ever. We will not be able to stop, our joy will be so great.

If we are offended at the shouts and praises of people worshipping now, how will we be able to stand to see this? I am not offended when I hear shouting and praising God in a worship service. Sometimes my mind will go back to cottage prayer meetings my Dad used to take me to and I can hear the shouts and praises in my memory. As a little 3 year old child, it must have been loud to me but I do not remember being frightened, it brings me comfort to remember those times. It hurts me to hear the old timers made fun of by those who do not understand loud worship and praise. Sometimes I can actually feel like if we don't shout, praise the Lord, the rocks would literally do it for us. I realize we never should make the mistake of judging one's spiritual walk by how loud he shouts or by his outward worship that we can see. We never should assume he is more spiritual than the quiet worshipper. That is a mistake I see people make all the time and it is a bad one. Yet I know that it is never wrong to express praise out loud for He is truly worthy of more praise than we can ever express.

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

First of all the bride of Christ is not the Gentile church as we know it. We see this wife is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. We know that when we repent and believe wholly in Jesus Christ for remission of sins, we are covered with His righteousness. His blood cleanses us from all sin and makes us part of this bride. The bride is not limited to the church but comprises all Old Testament saints, Gentile believers, Messianic Jewish believers and all who have believed God both past and present. All saved people, both Jews and Gentiles are part of this. It is not any apostate church that does not recognize the shed blood of Jesus as the only way to be cleansed from sin. Any religion that does not believe this is not included here. Old Testament saints are included because they observed sacrifices and ordinances that pointed to and symbolized the perfect sacrifice that was to come. The ones that were obedient to God and awaited the coming of their Messiah are part of this bride. To say the church is the bride of Christ makes is seem as if it is exclusive to all others who have believed. Israel has always been referred to in feminine pronouns. Those that came through this great tribulation and recognized their Messiah as Lord will be included here. This is a great marriage for both Jews and Gentiles will be part of this marriage supper rejoicing and praising God. The original fold with Christ as the shepherd were Jews. The Gentiles then came into the fold the moment they believed the gospel. Now at last there is one fold and one shepherd, Jesus Christ. Praise His name forever. This is why one Christian church must be careful never to make the mistake in thinking they are the only ones God accepts. It is not through any manmade organization but through the shed blood of Jesus that we enter the body of Christ and then can come to this marriage supper of the lamb. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no man (woman) comes to the Father but by Him.

Up until now though it can be said the the church was the body of Christ. At the time of the marriage supper of the lamb all saints join together and become one to be part of this grand event.  The church as we know it is not exclusively the bride of Christ but we are the body of Christ. Jewish believers that have returned to the fold they were separated from so long are part of this and when all are joined together in the same fold we become part of this New Jerusalem which is referred to as the bride, the lamb's wife. Since the lamb was slain and His blood is what causes all to be cleansed from sin and made worthy of eternal life, that is the requirement to be part of this marriage supper.  This will include all believers, not just those we think of as the church.   

Rev 19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

How can we be called to this great supper? By partaking of the righteousness of Christ. We renounce sin and turn to Him completely trusting Him to cleanse us from all sin. We stay in this and do not go back into the filth we were saved from always remembering His death, burial and resurrection that was done so that we might be saved and have eternal life. We love Him, we love His coming and we are willing to be obedient to His word the moment we learn what His word is.

Here is an easier way to sum it all up. Jesus told us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. We can include, with all our strength. Then He says to love our neighbor as ourselves. Do you realize that if we can keep just those two commandments, we will automatically keep every law in the bible.

We don't even have to know much theology. I'm not saying we should not study the bible for we must do that to avoid being deceived by false teachers.
Yet, if we constantly seek God to be filled with His spirit and allow that same spirit to shed the love of God in our hearts, we can start down this path of perfect love.
Perfect love casts out all fear. Love endures, bears and believes. If we love our neighbor, we would not hesitate to make sure he or she will be standing along side us when we stand before God. Love would make sure we never did anything to them to be a stumbling block to their finding God for themselves. If we loved them we would never steal from them, lust after their wives (husbands) etc. If we loved God, idolatry would not enter our minds. We would not lust after material wealth and prosperity but our minds would be on seeking God's will. Yes, we will become irritated at people and our faith in God will be tried for the enemy of our souls does not want us to enter into being perfect in love. We have to fight for this type of love and continually be on our guard to maintain it.

The love flows through us by the Holy Spirit cannot be compared to any thing we call love in our old nature's mindset or our old thinking. We fall in love and love our family, friends and relatives but that type of love can change if circumstances change. For instance many feel they love someone enough to marry them but find out later that they can't get along so they end up hating each other. What they had was not even close to love. It was merely emotional infatuation or a love that depended upon someone loving us back. The love I'm talking of was the kind of love that made Jesus stay upon the cross until His sacrificial work was finished. He could have called the angels to come and set Him free at any moment.

I can just imagine that for a minute. I can see God's faithful angels watching this whole scene at the crucifixion and looking for just one sign from the Son of God that would have made them come and rescue Him. Just one word from Him would have stopped that perfect sacrifice and shut out all mankind from heaven and eternal life. That is perfect love in the truest sense of the word. Some of the angels may have glanced at the Father to see if He would change His mind and allow them to set Jesus free. Praise the Lord forever for loving us that much that we are made worthy to partake in this great marriage supper of the lamb. Not because of what we have done but because of what He has done. That was perfect love. 

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Here is the true fruit of the spirit. A true servant of God will never accept the worship of any person. He will instead direct our worship toward God.

Rev 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, 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.

Some think that this is the same while horse and rider seen in chapter 4 but I believe this is different and the other rider was an imitation of the true white horse rider. The rider here is Jesus Christ. His judgments are true and righteous. He is just and nothing unfair will be done. He has done everything He could do to save mankind, now judgment comes.

Rev 19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

He sees all things with eyes that penetrate deep into our very souls.  His head had many crowns indicating that He was king over all kings that have ever reigned upon the earth.  Those that thought they were so mighty that nothing could defeat them didn't realize the power of the mighty God they often opposed.

Rev 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Jesus is the Word of God. We must never take the word of God lightly. We have it in written form and it is His Holy word.

Here is another description by John

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Rev 19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Folks we have to be clean to be part of God's kingdom.  We are made clean by the blood of this lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

The world will be judged by the word of God. If they have ignored and made light of the word, the judgment will be severe. If Jesus Christ is going to judge the world by every word that proceeds forth from His mouth, how much greater should we esteem this holy word that we hold in our hands all in one volume.  IT was given to us so that we would be able to escape the judgment that the world that neglects this word is going to be judged.  IT is given to us by the blood and sacrifice of many who were killed so that we could have it in our own language to understand. 

When I see so many churches neglect the sound teaching of scripture and substitute the watered down words of man, I cringe and think, what are they doing?  When I see people get excited because some great orator or speaker can holler and dance across the stage fired up with many loud words but the words contain nothing from the word of God but only stories and jokes about the experiences of men, I cringe and think, what is he doing?  I'm all for fiery preachers, I love them, but I like for them to be fired up with the word of God and not a bunch of nonsense.  All that fervor and excitement gets our attention and that is great because it is hard to hold on to people's attention but lets make sure we are speaking the word of God when we get their attention and our stories are telling of experiences that can be backed up with the sound doctrine of the word.  The word we hold in our hand is that important. 

Many churches have had to drop Sunday School because of the lack of teachers and that is sad because that is where we get the indebt teaching of the word.  If we've had to drop Sunday School, we need to make sure we are being taught in the main church services or else people are not going to be prepared for what may lie ahead when the deceivers come out in droves.  In fact they are already out there.  If we are going to be judged by the word, we better make sure we do all we can to get people to hear the word and not a bunch of stories and experiences.  Testimonies may be good once in a while but we can't base our doctrine and theology on people's experiences.  Nothing can take the place of the sound teaching of the word.  We can't count on people to read their bibles at home.  I wish they would but we can't take a chance that they are doing that.

In saying that, lets not over correct and neglect congregational worship.  I love to hear everybody sing, everybody pray and shout praises to God.  We don't want the clergy to do all the worship for us. In these scenes in heaven we see all people worshipping together, not just one or two special singers.  Worship is for the whole congregation.  When we have all special singing or even a choir that does all the singing and have no congregational singing or worship, it sort of leaves them out of things.

Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
Rev 19:18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

Since the gospel is freely given to all, young and old, bond and free, we see that all those that ignored His free gift are affected by this judgment. The fowls of the air will eat the flesh of these that come against the Lamb of God and the host of armies He brings with Him.

We see that all saints will come back to earth after the marriage supper of the lamb to rule and reign with Him. There has to be a natural people that escape all these things to rule over. It would seem that the armies of the anti-christ are the ones killed here and those that took the mark of the beast. There will be natural people in other parts of the world that do not get killed or there would be no one for Christ and His saints to rule over.

Rev 19:19 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.
Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Rev 19:21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

It is only those that come against the Lord that is killed. The beast which I believe is the same as the anti-christ and the false prophet is cast alive into the lake of fire. The rest of the army is to be slain by Jesus Christ. The fowls devour their flesh. The other people of the earth will be given a chance to see what kind of life is on the earth when Jesus Christ rules. Satan is to be bound for 1000 years. After that he is loosed for a season to see if there are any rebellious persons left that would war against God. The ones that were saved and are now ruling with Christ are forever sealed and safe. They will not be tempted again. The last test is for natural men or women that are alive when that takes place.

This is part of the bible that is very controversial and for that reason many avoid it. We should not be afraid of discussing differences of opinion but should discuss it freely without fear. It should be done in the spirit of meekness and love respecting all who have a different opinion. Opposing opinions should never be ridiculed neither should we make them feel silly or worthless. Yet we must read and study this part of the bible for a special blessing awaits those that keep the words within its pages.
 

Revelation 20