The Lamb's Wife Arrayed
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 11/14/2010 AM |
Text: | Revelation 19:8 |
Psalters: | 242, 112, 94, 125 |
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper |
- The setting.
- Chapters 17 & 18 describe the final and complete destruction of Antichrist.
- This is the cause for great joy in heaven (19:1) as they celebrate God’s victory over the spiritual harlot.
- God’s judgment of the great whore implies:
- The entire church (the 24 elders) and creation (4 beasts) also sin.
- Altogether they sing, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.
- The marriage of the Lamb.
- The actual marriage is the culmination of a long engagement.
- The New Dispensation is the interval when the Lamb/Groom makes everything ready.
- Then He comes in procession for His bride, accompanied by angels.
- Note that the Bridegroom is called “the Lamb.”
- This is Jesus in His work of atonement, paying for the sins of His people.
- The bride is the entire church, each and every elect all together.
- The marriage of the Lamb occasions the marriage supper.
- In Scripture a meal together is a picture of good fellowship.
- As life was communicated to Adam via the Tree of Life, so life and blessing will as a wedding supper.
- For the marriage and supper the bride dresses herself “in fine linen, ... the righteousness of the saints.”
- That she makes herself ready is not her earning the right to the supper and the marriage.
- She arrays herself in fin linen, glistening and pure, i.e., the righteousness of the saints.
- This is the way we must come to the Lord’s Table, which prepares us for our marriage to the Lamb.