The Lamb’s Wife Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 And I also want to tell you that that pre-tribulation trap rapture theory that’s on radio and TV is not the most widely believed doctrine of the second coming. It’s just their own radio and TV. Are you hearing me? Most of the church world does not embrace that doctrine. Did you know that? Hallelujah, that’s true. That’s why we need to read and study like the Bereans. They studied the Scriptures to see if things were true, and we need to do that, amen. So this morning I want to give you another encouraging message out of Revelation. We’re going to be talking about this morning the Lamb’s Wife, which we’re going to find is the New Jerusalem and is the church. They’re all synonymous terms. Obviously the end of the world didn’t come yesterday. He has predicted it before, many people have predicted it, and this is the problem in the church world on the second coming.

▶ 1:35 We either have people predicting it, when the Bible plainly says nobody knows, isn’t that right, and then we have teaser predictions. We got these [unclear] people, “Well, there’s wars and, you know, Jerusalem is surrounded by armies, so boy, it’s anytime.” It’s called teaser predictions. They won’t lock themselves into a day, but it’s like he can come right now, am I right? Both are very destructive. Hallelujah. How many you know Jesus came in the fullness of time the first time? That’s what the Bible says. He didn’t come at just any time, he came at the right time, he came at the time God had appointed for it to happen, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen at the end time. Now, this guy, by the way, I read, I looked up on him, he’s worth $78 million from followers who are given to donating to this nonsense, and he’s predicted wrong before.

▶ 2:49 This is not his first wrong prediction. And a lot of these ministers are living in mansions and driving Rolls-Royces from God’s people so ignorant, so unknowledgeable to things, that they give money to this hyped-up doctrine that fails and it’s always failed. Jesus Christ has been predicted to come at least twenty to thirty times since I was a kid, and been hearing all this preaching, and every one of them’s missed. Nobody knows. Folks, how many believe the Bible and say yes, nobody knows? Hallelujah. And the reason he didn’t come at 10:00 is because something has to happen for him to come when he does come. Hallelujah.

▶ 3:48 Now let’s go to Revelation 19:4-5. “The twenty-four elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God, saying, Hallelujah! Amen!” “A voice out of the throne said, Praise our God, for all his servants.” How many of us see praise is going on in Revelation all the time? It’s going on in heaven, so you might as well start now. I’m serious. You need to start worshiping and praising him now, because it’s ordained that we praise and worship him now, and when we go to heaven it is going to continue. Amen. So get out of your [unclear], get out of your excuses, and do what the elders and the four and twenty beasts are doing up in heaven: worship and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “and all you that fear him, both small and great.”

▶ 4:47 For the [unclear] has been judged. Here they’re praising him because the beast, the false prophet and Satan, and the [unclear] has been judged and defeated by the church and judged by Jesus Christ. And it’s like the guy that was healed at the gate, you know, he went walking and leaping and praising God because of what God has done. And if nothing else, the Bible says praise him and thank him because your name’s written in the Book of Life. If you’ve got nothing else, maybe you’re divorced, maybe your kids hate you and they’re off doing their own thing or whatever, listen, if your name’s written in the Book of Life and you’re going to heaven, that’s something to be excited and thankful about. Amen. And it’s going on in heaven, and that’s a great message of Revelation, is praise and worship.

▶ 5:43 This is a Chinese church praising and worshiping God. They have to do it secretly. But praise and worship is going on in the earth.

▶ 5:56 Revelation 19:6: “I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, as the voice of a mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent” (all powerful) “reigns. Let us be rejoice and give honor to him.” First of all, we find that there are many. When I was a young minister, people were preaching that, you know, “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few there be that find it.” But when I got over to Revelation, I found out there was a multitude that could not be numbered. I find here that there’s a multitude, many voices. What God’s sacrifice on the cross is so powerful, heaven has multitudes of people in it, not a few. Amen. Here they are giving honor to him “for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and the wife has made herself ready.”

▶ 7:03 Not just Satan is defeated, not just the beast is defeated, not just the [unclear] is defeated, not that the church comes out of great tribulations with white [unclear], but here he says we are to praise him because not only does the time of judgment come and the time of defeat, but the time of the marriage of the Lamb. And his wife has what? Made herself ready. How many of you made yourself ready to come to church this morning? What about the rest of you? Did your husband do it, or your wife, or somebody else do it? Now, how many prepared yourself to come to church this morning? Yeah. Christians have to do something. You can’t just be sitting back, “Well, God, my phone number, you know where I live. If he wants me, if he wants to do something, just let him come.”

▶ 7:52 Now, you’ve got to do something. You got to make yourself ready. You got to respond to God, you got to respond to the word, you got to seek God, you got to seek the word. Could I hear an amen on that? And it says here the wife has what? Made herself ready. Jesus isn’t coming back for a dumb church, he isn’t coming back for an immature church. He’s coming back for a church, through the power of the word and the power of the Spirit, has made themselves ready for that time at the end of the world. Hallelujah.

▶ 8:28 All right, look, some of you looking at me like, “I don’t know what I’m talking about.” The parable of the field: it was sown with wheat, right, and then some secret enemies came in and sowed tares among the wheat, and they went to the master, the Lord of the field, the Lord of the harvest. They said, “What are we going to do?” He said, “Let both grow together till the end of the age, the harvest.” See, wickedness is going to come to its full maturity, but righteousness is going to come to its full maturity. Are you there? And you know good and well the church isn’t that mature right now. So it’s obviously we’re not living right now and can expect him. There is some powerful things got to take place. Ah, hallelujah. At least think on it, give it some thought.

▶ 9:36 “The marriage of the Lamb has come, his wife has made herself ready.” So the mystery of the church is made very clear here. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He come to build a church. He died for the church as well as for the sins of the world. Don’t ever forget that. And of his death for the sins of the world brought many into eternal life, so much more will his death bring many of those that came into eternal life into his church, his wife, a mature people, church. If the blood was powerful enough to save the worst sinner, Paul, then that same blood, the Bible says he gave himself for his church, that same blood is powerful enough for his people to grow up and be the mature bride that Christ said they would be. Now, that was a good statement. That’s good Scripture. Hallelujah.

▶ 10:40 Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.” He likens the church into the marriage, a husband and wife relationship, “to sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word.” His word is going to do a work in the church, church, in these last days that’s going to be a sign and a beacon to the nations of the earth, “that he might present to himself a glorious, honorable church,” an honorable church, “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” And then he says, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” So what’s the mystery? That the church is the bride, the wife of Christ. Hallelujah. 2 Corinthians 11:2: “I’ve espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a” what?

▶ 11:44 “Chaste virgin to Christ.” There again, the church is likened as the bride. A bride prepares herself for that day of marriage. Romans 7:4: “You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another,” who’s the other? “To him who was raised from the dead,” that’s Jesus Christ, “that we should bear fruit to God.” You see, it’s that intimate relationship now that causes us to bear fruit. Hallelujah. See, the marriage of the Lamb is coming, and the wife has made herself ready. Ephesians 3:9, look how powerful this is: “To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.” See, this thing has been secret until Christ came, “to the intent that now the many manifold different wisdoms of God might be made known by the, who, by the church, to who?

▶ 13:03 To principalities and powers in heavenly places.” You see, Satan and his demons and his kingdom of darkness get their knowledge when God gives it through the church. They learn things as God keeps moving and dealing with his church. So we are a valuable source on earth, not only to the people that don’t know God, but we living for God are coming against the principalities and powers of darkness. They learn from us. Hallelujah.

▶ 13:46 See, the church is something more than a building and people in it, and this was the secret that was kept from the beginning of time. And John, in his book of Revelation, is explaining in detail these things. Revelation 19:8, going back to Revelation, talking about the marriage, the wife has made herself ready: “To her was granted that she would be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.” You see the thing this bride did is she put on righteousness. Now, there’s two types of righteousness. One, we are righteous through the blood of Christ. See, that’s our position. The second one, in John it says, “They that do righteous are righteous.” And so the bride, the mature ones in the church, are they that have grown to the place where they do right.

▶ 15:02 And at the end of the age the church is going to be a manifested group through all the earth, as a people that do right. Hallelujah. You know, we have been so distracted with the beast and the antichrist and the false prophet and all that, we don’t see the power of the church that Jesus died for and is raising up in the earth. Verse 9: “Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Called, summoned, invited. And so didn’t Jesus invite all to come to him? So the invitation went out to how many? The whole world. Jesus said, “Come unto me.” The invitation went out to the whole world. “I want to marry you, I want to know you, I want to have an intimate relationship, I want to change your life.”

▶ 16:09 And “blessed are they which are called.” So all of us are what? Blessed who heard the call and responded and accepted Christ. Amen. How many of you accepted Christ? Yeah. See, you responded to the invitation. Now he wants to make you his bride, a mature Christian, a mature woman in God. Hallelujah, and you’ve got to prepare yourself by responding.

▶ 16:45 Revelation 21:2: “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Okay, I got a picture up there showing all the nations making up the bride. I love that picture, isn’t that a beautiful picture? At the top one, all these people, they just are flowing in. That’s the wide skirt down there, and then just getting right into where, you know, where the bride of Christ, all of us, are the bride of Christ. Well done, every who did this did a good job. Okay, but also this bride is likened unto this new city, Jerusalem. It’s a four-square building. It has nothing to do with a marriage dress and a wreath or whatever there and all that. We’re supposed to be a four-square city with three gates on each side and pillars that we’re supported on, and inside the city are things that are going on.

▶ 17:56 Are you ready for this? Now, first you got to understand that this four-square city is the bride. It’s the wife. Is that through your cranial vacuum? You say, “I don’t understand how a bride can be a four-square city.” Because God said it was. All right. Now, we learn things from the marriage relationship, but we’re going to learn a lot more from the four-square city that the bride is. Are you ready? A bride prepared for her husband. Then in Revelation 21:9 he said again, “Come, and I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Okay, we saw it once, now we’re going to see it again. Are you ready? “He showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.”

▶ 19:05 Now, when I was a young minister, these prophets, you know, were predicting, because the astronomers saw a star coming out of the north, and it was shaped different than any other star, didn’t have the five points and all this, and they conjured up this thing that this is the four-square city coming down out of heaven. Church, it’s not a natural thing. The church is a spiritual building. Paul said, “You are built up a” what? “Spiritual house.” Ain’t no star coming out of them. But see, these prophets hang on to any ridiculous thing to try to prove the ridiculous predictions. Just letting it sink in. Now, this city is also the bride of Christ. You got it? Okay. “He showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.”

▶ 20:17 Revelation 21:22. Look at here, these people are wanting to build a temple over in Jerusalem. “I saw no temple in this city.” Are you there? Now, if there’s no temple in the city, what in the world we worried about a temple for? Okay, “for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its” what? Temple. Temple means an abiding place. See, so who’s abiding in this city? God himself. Amen. And Jesus Christ. Now, that’s us, church. Who abides in us when we come together? Who’s with us? Jesus and the Father himself. When we leave here as individuals, who is the temple of God? We are. Isn’t that what the Bible says? “You are the temple of the living God.” Spirit of God lives in you. Okay, got nothing to do with the future, it’s got to do with now.

▶ 21:28 Giving you understanding of who you are and what the church is. Are you with me? “The city had no need of the sun or the moon,” no natural light, “for the glory of God” what? Illuminates it. You see, the real light of the church is God’s presence and God’s word. Amen. The Lamb is its light. Didn’t Jesus say, “I’m the light of the world,” and then he said, “I’m going to be leaving, and you are the light of the world”? Why are we the light of the world? Because he lives in us and he projects through us. Now, now see, he’s describing the church. Now, hallelujah.

▶ 22:29 “Nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all. They shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.” Didn’t Jesus say out of every kind and tribe, tongue and nation I will bring out a people for myself? And where is he bringing them to? The church. And who does he use to reach the nations? The church. And what is the glory of a nation? The people. Hallelujah. See, this is supposed to be us. Now, “there will by no means enter in anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in” what? “The Lamb’s Book of Life.” Didn’t Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth and the life”?

▶ 23:28 Yes. See, the whole ticket to this church is coming in through Jesus, repenting of your sins. If you no repent, you know, become part of the bride, oh, your name can be on the church roll, you can have a baptism certificate, but if you haven’t repented, renounced your sins and work on changing them, you’re not in. Amen. Ain’t that right? And this is what’s duped a lot of people today. They become a member of a church, get a baptism certificate, they even become an elder, deacon in the church and all that, and they haven’t met the husband. They haven’t met Jesus, they haven’t been born again, they haven’t come through the right process. And he plainly says, “I don’t care.” You can’t get in if you’re going to live a sinful life, flagrant sinful life.

▶ 24:33 And so then we change the church to meet our condition instead of seeing what the church is and getting our condition up to what he says we positionally are. Could that be an amen? See, right now all the churches in America just accept anybody. There is no requirements. But in the real church, in the real kingdom, in the thing that God is building, there are requirements. And although a church might put you on their membership roll, that doesn’t mean you belong to his church. There’s only one church. There isn’t a Baptist church, Presbyterian church, a Catholic church and a Pentecostal church. There is one church, and these are its characteristics, and he’s given us the qualifications. Now, this has nothing to do with the [unclear] thing, except we are going to be a mature church.

▶ 25:30 We’re going to be this when he comes, so there’s a tremendous visitation of God coming.

▶ 25:37 Now look at this. In this city, in this church, in this bride, there “he showed me a pure river of water of life, [unclear] crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Church, that’s what the nations need. They don’t need psychology, they don’t need philosophy, they need to touch this river of life that flows directly from God. Can I hear an amen on that? And instead of seeking God and fasting and praying till God moves this way, we start a church like the, you know, they go to these seminaries: how to multiply a church, how to grow a church. And we replace human, we take human understanding and replace it with spiritual understanding, and people aren’t touching the river of life that’s supposed to be in the church. Boy, that was good.

▶ 26:38 I don’t know about you, but I touched that river of life. It changed my life back there. I didn’t know God was that real. I thought it was just something you thought about in your mind and just stubbornly did and mentally dead. But when I came to him, he came to me. I found that river of life. I drank from that river. I was a different person. I had different desires. Now, don’t get me wrong, my flesh still wanted to do things that were wrong, but my spirit wanted to please God now.