A Bride Prepared

For those of you who are married, do you remember the eagerness in how you prepared your wedding? The many preparations which were made, from the choice in the wedding gown to the dresses for the bridesmaids, the location of the wedding had to be chosen, as well as what guests to invite. Everything from the floor arrangements to the food served had to be carefully and thoughtfully prepared in advance of the wedding ceremony. The proper music chosen and those to play it, the minister who would conduct the ceremony, and the rehearsal dinner preceding the ceremony.

All the planning and thinking and details that went into the preparation of your wedding ceremony. And then, of course, the nervous excitement of actually getting married. And then the joy experienced during the reception after the wedding, where friends and family can celebrate in the happy union.

Well, today, I'd like us to focus on a marriage yet to unfold, but one in which we need to prepare ourselves for, the marriage supper of the Lamb. Christ is the Lamb, and we are the church, and we are his bride. And one day future, we will wear white raiment as we are presented to our bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a day that will be! But what preparations we must make, friends, we must ready ourselves, for soon that time will be upon us. My message this morning is entitled, A Bride Prepared. And our text is found in the book of Revelation, chapter 19, and in verses 1 through 9. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

And as I read this vivid passage of Scripture, picture in your mind how we will stand there on that special day, arrayed in white raiment, and prepared for the lover of our souls. Here now is the word of God. 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.

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. And again they said, Alleluia, and her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen, Alleluia.

And then a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 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. 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.

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, Right, 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.

Now, regarding this passage from Revelation, I want to draw out practical applications for us today. Number one, there will be a marriage supper of the Lamb. Number two, there will be a bride presented.

And number three, there must be a bride prepared. Let's look at this further. One day future, a glorious day will appear where the bride of Christ will be presented to the Lord Jesus.

Those in Christ will be presented to Christ at the marriage of the Lamb, which represents God's union with the church. It will be a day of celebration. There will be a lot of amens and hallelujahs going on on that day.

Mr. Amen will be backing the church on that day. There will be much excitement in the heavens, for the bridegroom will receive his bride. And blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

But what I want us to focus on this morning is the third aspect of this great wedding. And that is point number three. There must be a bride prepared.

This is what we will be brought before us today. And there is much solemnity surrounding this future event in heaven, friends. I am convinced that the church in the West is fast asleep.

She is slumbering on pillows of contentment and entertainment. She is completely unaware of her condition spiritually and is also oblivious to the great crisis she is facing. I will compare it in this regard.

In 1740, when God moved through New England, it was called the Great Awakening. Revival has often been referred to as an awakening. At Gethsemane, Jesus faced the crisis point of his earthly ministry, and his disciples slept right through it.

Today, the church in the West is in a crisis point, and we are sleeping right through it. The church in the West and in America is in particularly fast asleep, and she sleeps the sleep of death. But what about this aspect of there must be a bride prepared? Let us take this further with our thoughts.

A bride must be spotless. Jesus spoke of the wise virgins and the foolish virgins. It was always assumed in Eastern culture that a bride would be a virgin.

It is difficult for us to grasp that in our morally loose culture today, where even so-called Christian couples have sex before they marry. Ideally, in a Christian marriage, the bride must be a virgin. She would have carefully preserved her virginity for her future husband and prepared herself as a pure bride for this Christian husband.

As the bride of Christ, we too must be pure and spotless before him on that day. Christ will return for his bride, but he will not come back for a dirty bride. She must be clean and dressed in white.

The purification of the church is the most necessary aspect of the church in America at this hour of crisis. We preachers have for so long quit preaching on the necessity of repentance that we have a church comprised of members who live in sin and are comfortable in sin. The great need of this present hour is that the church in America be awakened out of her slumber of comfort and brought to the place of repentance before a holy God, for God will and must punish sin.

Sin is a hindrance to the Almighty here in our prayers. In fact, God would not hear the prayers of the elders in Israel because of their secret sins, which so provoke God that he declares in Ezekiel 8.18. Therefore, will I also deal in fury? Mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity. And though they cry mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

Listen, friends, all you have to do is open up your Bibles to the Old Testament and study how God dealt with Israel when she turned her back on God through willful disobedience. The God of the Old Testament is still the God of today, and for the sake of his name, he will not tolerate willful rebellion and sin among his people. Somehow, here in America, we believe we can call ourselves Christians and sit on the throne of our lives and willfully sin all we want to, and God will not judge us or forsake us.

But when we examine the biblical record, we see that God sent great judgments into the land upon his rebellious people, but they refused to listen. They sinned all they wanted to and turned their backs on the God of the Bible. Has not America done the same? And we in the church in America feel we are a privileged people and God will not forsake us, so we can sin all we want to as well.

But why should God treat us any different from the rebellious Jews who forsook him? The church in America cannot see herself for what she is, a spiritually bankrupt and naked of power from on high. I know there is a weeping remnant in the land that prays for revival on a regular basis. I come in contact with them all the time, and this remnant is truly broken over the condition of the church in America today.

They fast and pray continually for her, but they are few in number. The vast majority of church members in this country feel that God is okay with their willful rebellion because they are once saved, always saved, and they can sin all they want to. But God will have a bride prepared for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

I believe that persecution has come into America for the benefit of the church in this regard. The church will be cleansed in a refiner's fire of persecution. This may be the only way to restore vital Christianity to the American church if our government starts locking up Christians for their faith and testimony in Christ Jesus.

I believe there is a time fast approaching in this land where true believers will be considered enemies of the state, arrested, beaten, and some even put to death for saying Jesus is Lord. God is a holy God, and in His mercy He will purify His church to prepare her as a bride for the Son of God. The only other possible hope I see for the church in America is revival, but revival will not come to our land if the church stays asleep on her comfortable pillows of self-indulgence and self-sufficiency.

I just don't see the leaders in the church crying out to God for revival in a serious way. Most pastors that I speak with are so beat up by their deacons and so worn out that they can barely hang on to their ministry, much less spend desperate nights of sacrificial prayer crying out to God in the sanctuary of their church for God to send revival in our day. They just don't have the energy most pastors I know are worn out like a dishrag.

But the mandate is clear as to the pathway of revival, but we still fail to adhere to God's ways concerning removing His remedial judgments from upon us and the land in which we live in. His word declares, If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Let me ask you, friends, does our land need healing? Is America on the verge of ruin? I've never seen the country in such shape that it's in just in the last 20 years.

It's just gone out of control. It's like an open sewer. Why won't we comply to what God says for us to do to receive His revival blessings? This is what the church needs more than anything else in our land today.

Not bigger ball fields, not larger sanctuaries, not prettier lakes and picnic tables, but for the people of God to gather in the sanctuary of God and fall on their faces in utter brokenness over their sins, and cry out to God for forgiveness and mercy, to beg Him for the grace of repentance, so we can turn from our wicked ways and be a bride dressed in white for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Will we do it, or will we keep on playing church and face utter destruction as to the way of life that we know it? Heaven help us.