This is a hard word for Christians. In Revelation 19:7 the judgment seat of Christ has happened and then the marriage dinner of the Lamb. Are you prepared to sit at this table? If you’re a Christian you have the robe of Jesus Christ righteousness. This is the objective truth that his righteousness covers all your sins and you can stand before Him. This was given to you the moment of your salvation and cannot be taken away. Amen. Now, there is a second robe. IT IS NOT YOUR ROBE OF SALVATION! This is the wedding garment and the bride SHOULD (19:8) make herself ready by preparing her wedding garment while she is on earth. This garment is the righteousness’s of the Saints. Righteousness is plural because it indicates opportunity after opportunity after opportunity that we have to weave the righteousness of Jesus Christ subjectively into our daily living! There are helpful parables of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 22, the wedding garment, and in Matthew 25 the Ten virgins. Believers have a hard time applying them to themselves because of the results of not having a wedding garment and of not having reserve oil for your lamps. Saints, you cannot live this life for yourself, fail to lovingly prepare your wedding garments and foolishly neglect to buy oil and expect post rapture enjoyment in these things. Initially we will experience regret and disappointment. Yet we still have 1000 years of time, think about that , for the Lord to operate His love into us and for us to dry our tears, and lovingly serve him on that millennial throne, until we all ultimately come down out of heaven in Revelation 21 as the Lambs wife. Oh saints you might not like this understanding. We fantastically and improperly think everything is going to be as we imagined heaven would be right after the rapture. No, You are cheating yourselves and need to adhere to the holy scripture and realize Christ wants something, He wants a loving wife, He’s going to get it, and He’s going to get it His way. You won’t have to look very far into your day, but right now start looking for sellers of oil. They are everywhere. Look at every opportunity as one in which you can subjectively embroider the life of Jesus into your living. They are wherever your flesh, your self tries to live. Be a ready bride. Many are called to this wedding feast but few are chosen to enjoy it. Other reading Matthew 22:11-14, 25:1-13

The criteria for believers at the judgment seal of Christ is simply: What have you done with Jesus? He is the judge. He is the measurement. He is the only foundation on which we are to build upon and He is the material we lay upon that foundation. His treasured life dwells in you. What have you done with Him? What are you doing with Him? This judgment occurs between Revelation 19:6 and 7 and must happen after the rapture and before the marriage supper of the Lamb, before the Armageddon battle, and before the Millennial reign. The best reference to it in Revelation is found in Revelation 11:18, And the nations became angry, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to give the reward to Your slaves the prophets and to the saints and to those who fear Your name, to the small and to the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth." It is also implied in the rewards promised for overcoming saints in the churches of Revelation 2 & 3. Paul speaks clearly of this judgment in Corinthians: “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done through the body…” (2 Corinthians 5:10) and “If anyone’s work which he has built upon the foundation remains, he will receive a reward; If anyone’s work is consumed, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire “(1 Corinthians 3:11-15). This is a matter of reward, not salvation. Lack of reward according to His judgment is to suffer loss. We will all face the Lord and He will fairly judge our heart, motives, and living. The “suffering loss” aspect is often ignored or it is a hard realization for many believers. We cannot cavalierly live as though we will be satisfied that we have obtained a heavenly situation, that we are saved as by fire and will just suffer loss. “Therefore girding up the loins of your mind and being sober, set your hope perfectly on the grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:13

The word “hallelujah” has 2 parts:“Hallelu” is a exhortation for us to offer praise. “Jah” is God. Hallelujah is a response to what we see. We see what God is doing and we respond, Praise the Lord! The 4 New Testament uses are all right here in chapter 19. And what are they regarding? Our heavenly situation? No. They are in response to the final destruction of the Babylonian system. No more will man live by Satan‘s system on the earth. No more dependence on earths economy. Satans tool of deception, the love of mammon, is destroyed. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! This is the Revelation given to John to give to us in chapter 17, 18, and 19. So we need to see Babylon, apply Babylon to our living today and open our mouth and say “Hallelujah!”How many of us have found ourselves tied up with the affairs of this life? This is Babylon . We also need to come out of her, especially her monetary allurement. Our spiritual eyes need to see this and our literal lips need to affirm this revelation with “Hallelujah!” Listen, and may the Lord deal with us regarding this matter in these last days.

A tale of 2 cities. We need to be for one of them. You cannot be for both. Babylon or Jerusalem. Also included is how we handle “signs of the times” as learned by a tale of “88 reasons why the Lord did not come back in 1988.” And finally The new Jerusalem is typically thought of as a place that we are headed towards. It is more of a description of who we are becoming. We will see this as we get into the final three chapters of revelation.

Babylon in revelations 17 and 18 represents the system of the world that Satan will use through the antichrist to draw mankind away from the Lord. He has always used this system. It’s called Babel or Babylon because God will confuse it. He will frustrate it! He has done this throughout the ages. He allows Satan to operate, we know this. He allows war, economic failure and famine, he even allows death. We saw this in the first four seals and we see it today, But he put a parameter over it all. Especially since the release of the gospel he gave authority that not more than a quarter of the earths population could be destroyed by these negative things. Satan means them all for evil but God means them sovereignly for good and they will drive men to the gospel throughout the ages. Satan has always sought to get into mankind, he lures them with the riches of Babylon, and seeks to set up his kingdom against God through this. He’s tried this so many times through all the empires, and He references the Roman empire to John here in chapter 17. All these Cesars were gods upon the earth. But God thwarted all of it. He will frustrate the antichrist in every age. The message here is to say no to Babylon. Babylon speaks to all of us to set up a worldly system and bring glory unto ourselves. Pull away from it. It is impossible for us alone to say no to the system but listen and find out how we have a big NO within us so that we can we can overcome satans temptation.

The term Babylon is not a name identified by Satan or the antichrist, it is a name indicated by the Lord. He marks this system of Satan’s kingdom as of Babel. It means confusion. It started at the tower of Babel when after the flood mankind tried to build something in opposition to God and make a name for themselves. God disrupted this tower and caused confusion thus the name Babel forever marks Satans efforts against God. In chapter 17 and 18 we see the ultimate glory of Satan‘s confusion. Satan is the author of confusion. We see the religious aspect of this in the first seven verses of chapter 17. The religions of the earth will join together with the antichrist and sell their soul like a harlot. The antichrist will use this religious system to coerce the nations of the earth to rise up against God. Their message will be “Look, God is not a God of love but of wrath. Believe in the antichrist, take the mark!” And this religious system will demand the nations fornicate with her and drink the sacrament which is her cup filled with the blood of the Saints. These nations will then root out those who follow Christ and turn them over to the antichrist. What an awful, abominable religion. Religions on the earth today are being groomed to deny Christ alone as our hope, accept all religions as one, join up with world leaders for the good of the planet, and a message to join them and stand against those who think otherwise. This is religious fornication. The church is just Christ. If you are in some thing that is other than Christ come out of it, and receive the inward Christ. "Therefore its name was called Babel, because there Jehovah confounded the language of all the earth, and from there Jehovah scattered them over the surface of all the earth." (Genesis 11:9)

"And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And I marveled with great marvel when I saw her." (Revelation 17:6) We realize that since creation Satan has attempted to establish himself Over God. His desire is to thwart the eternal purpose of God. Throughout the ages he has been unrelenting in his efforts. In Revelation 17 and 18 we see the emergence of Satan’s empire. This is Satan‘s zenith and this is the best that Satan is going to do after all of his attempts throughout the ages. It is called Babylon. This name represents Satan‘s effort to get into man and cause them to build their towers and make a name for themselves in opposition to God. Satan achieves limited glory, even John is awestruck at this system. But the same angel will take John in chapter 21 and show him the reality of the new Jerusalem. Babylon is fleeting, a fraud, a façade, and just like the Tower of Babel. it implodes upon its self and God utterly destroys it from the face of the earth. The best that Satan can do is in these two chapters and it is exposed For what it is, a dwelling place of demons. "And He cried with a strong voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a hold of every unclean spirit and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird;" (Revelation 18:2)

"(Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments that he may not walk naked and they see his shame.)" (Revelation 16:15) When we say or hear the phrase “I come as a thief, you do not know the hour” we typically apply that to watching and being ready today. This verse is found in Between the sixth and the seventh bowl of his wrath. This is right before the battle of Armageddon. Tribulation saints, you would think, by this point know every nuance of the prophetic calendar. They see things happening all around them in such horrific fashion that like us they are tempted to focus on events and not on the Lord himself. Even though they may sense his coming is near, kind of like you, he tells them keep their eyes on Him. Behold me, Yes I’m coming but you do not know the hour. I am coming like a thief. I will steal you away from the enemy. Focus on me! If that is the encouragement for the Saints during that time frame, how much more should we overcome in this age by watching and being ready because we don’t know the year, the month, the day, or the hour. Let us behold Him today. "Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and keep it and repent. If therefore you will not watch, I will come as a thief, and you shall by no means know at what hour I will come upon you." (Revelation 3:3)

"Seek Jehovah while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near." (Isaiah 55:6) God has given mankind the capacity to receive him and to know him. Most people walking around on the earth do not Realize that they have a human spirit placed in every human being as a reservoir for the spirit of God. these versus reveal the absolute defiance of mankind and resistance in using their mouth to call on the name of the Lord and receive him and glorify him. "The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus declares Jehovah, who stretches forth the heavens and lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him," (Zechariah 12:1). "And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

Whether it is the negative things we see in revelation or the positive things, we need to say “Lord you are doing what you are going to do according to your purpose.” Yes Lord! We may not like what we see, Yes Lord! We may not agree with even the positive things, the things regarding the rapture, the things regarding the tribulation, the details of how the Lord handles Israel or the church. Yes Lord! Should be our response. And today as we watch what is happening on the earth that negatively affects us we should say, Yes Lord! Even to what you are facing in your personal life and struggle we should sing this song: “I’ll Say, “Yes, Lord, Yes”

To Your Will And To Your Way

I’ll Say, “Yes, Lord, Yes”

I Will Trust You And Obey

When Your Spirit Speaks To Me

With My Whole Heart I’ll Agree

And My Answer Will Be, “Yes, Lord, Yes”