Revelation 19:6-10 The Final Wedding

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation. Let's listen in.

Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here and just wanna welcome you and ask for your forgiveness up front that we're having some technical difficulties. So the screens aren't working. We're trying to get an overhead projector up here and running for the song so that Dave is not just giving us his debut solo concert.

And so that way we can sing along. But today's a great day to gather together with God's people and to praise him together, even in the midst of kind of some of the difficulties that we have in a facility that's not our own and things like that.

But I'm really glad for you. I counted a blessing to be part of a church. Fundamentally, what it means to be a church is relationships, encouragement, accountability, and a place to invest in others. And I think of that and I value that and I delight in that and I'm grateful for that opportunity each week.

And all of those aspects of it are important, that we need relationships. We need more than just to come in and take in a slick service each week, right? We need more than just teaching from God's word each week, but we need, and God has designed us relationally to need each other and to need accountability.

I don't know about you, but I think without the church, I would stray. I would find myself wandering off. And maybe some of you have spent a season away from church and you can vouch for that. You can say, yeah, in seasons of my life where I've been away from church, I found myself kind of straying and wandering and kind of feeling disconnected.

And then also you recognize that you've got something to offer here. You have gifts, abilities, talents that God has given you in order to invest in the body and so we need all of that. And our core values at Recast are simply an acronym for our name.

Some of you are aware of this, some of you aren't. But the R and the E in Recast stand for replicating, the C is for community, the A is for authenticity, the S is for simplicity, and the T is for truth.

And certainly last, but the thing that ties it all together in the end is truth. And again, that's an acronym. That's where our name comes from. It's kind of a double meaning to our name, Recast as an acronym for our core values, but also it comes out of Luke chapter five where the disciples have been fishing all night.

They were the professional fishermen. They hadn't caught anything all night. And so they were up taking in their nets for the morning and Jesus says, hey, push out a little bit into deeper water and recast your nets to the other side.

Well, they could have just easily laughed at him, but instead they obeyed him and did what he commanded and they found themselves bringing in a haul of fish. And so that's the nature of the name Recast.

That's where we're coming from. And the first core value is replicating. And it's a core value that comes straight from scriptures. So many times the Bible indicates for us that the main function of the people of God and therefore the main purposes for us as individual followers of Jesus is to replicate our passion and love for Jesus by making disciples.

How many of you are familiar with that phrase, making disciples? You've heard that phrase before. And I think a lot of times when we hear the word making disciples, we think something about a church program or some kind of discipleship program.

We sometimes use it as a verb, right? Have you ever heard the word disciple used as a verb? We disciple someone. Have you ever heard that? Raise your hand if you've heard it used as a verb. But the interesting thing is making disciples is something different than what we think of as the church programs.

Making disciples is evangelism. Making disciples is connecting another person who was formerly disconnected. They didn't have someone they were following and now they are following Jesus. That's what it means to make disciples.

And our text this morning is gonna show us an amazing analogy of an eternal celebration of God's people. And we're gonna think about that in terms of evangelism here throughout the morning. A day is coming that is likened to a wedding for Jesus.

It's an analogy of a wedding. And he will finally be pledged to his people and his people will be pledged to him for eternity. And we will feast and celebrate and worship him forever and ever and ever.

And in the midst of this text is a beautiful and sure statement. The text goes over the top to make sure that you and I recognize that this is God's very word and it says this, that they are happy who are invited and called to this festival, this wedding, this celebration.

And I would suggest to you that seeking to replicate our faith could simply be framed in the terms used in this text. Evangelism is simply inviting others to the feast. Simply inviting others to the celebration.

And who doesn't love a wedding reception, right? Is that a fun style? Do you guys, raise your hand if you really like, I love going to wedding receptions. It's a lot of fun. Some of you are like, whatever, not so much.

Well, maybe that's not your gig, but I love it. And we have the privilege of inviting our friends and our family and our neighbors to that kind of a celebration, that kind of a joyous occasion, but it will go on forever and ever.

And we have a chance to invite friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, those around us. I mean, you could think of somebody in your life right now that you should be inviting to this celebration. And many have looked at evangelism as this scary academic thing, as if I have to have a PhD in order to share my faith, but evangelism is more like an invitation to a party.

How much do you need to know to invite somebody to a party? Well, you need to know who's throwing it and where it's gonna be held, and that's about it, right? That's less like an academic pursuit and more like an invitation to come along.

We're on our way to an eternal celebration, to eternal joy. Do you wanna bring others? You wanna just look at others and say, come along with me, because this is gonna be awesome. And we're gonna see that throughout the remainder of the book of Revelation, is a spelling out and a bringing forward of that which is glorious in our eternal destination.

So let's look in and read. We're gonna be in Revelation chapter 19, verses six through 10. So if you have a Bible or a device that you can navigate to a Bible and follow along, we're gonna be again, Revelation chapter 19, verses six through 10.

If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand and we can get one of those to you. We'd love everybody to have a copy of God's word. And so follow along. This is God's very word to us, Recast Church.

Then I heard, remember this is John the Apostle speaking, he's receiving these visions. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet and worshiped him, but he said to me, you must not do that.

I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Let's pray as Dave comes to lead us in worship this morning.

Father, I wanna thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to gather together on this holiday weekend and praise you, to lift you up, to exalt in who you are. Father, it's a glorious thing that we get a chance to gather together as your people each week, that we get an opportunity to sing praises before your throne.

And I thank you that there is a day coming when we will be made right, we will be made pure, we will stand before you clothed in the righteousness of your son. And we look forward to that celebration that will never end.

And Father, I ask that you would be moving in our hearts, even this morning, to lead us to those who need to hear from you, to lead us to those who need that relationship with you and are hungry for it.

Father, we look forward to that day where we will praise you and exalt in you, in your presence. But for today, I pray that this worship would be sufficient for boosting us, encouraging us, and ultimately, that you would receive it as praise.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks a lot today for leading us in worship and a special thanks to Eric for getting stuff set up so that we could actually sing along. So I'm grateful for Eric down front here who did all that.

I encourage you to get comfortable during the message. If at any time you need to get up and stretch out, I recognize that those chairs are not the most comfortable in the world. And so really, you're not gonna distract me at all if you need to get back up there and stretch your back out, whatever it takes to kind of keep your focus on God's word rather than the discomfort of the chair.

And then there's more coffee, juice, and donuts while supplies last. Again, take advantage of those as well. Last week, oh, and also keep your Bibles open to Revelation 19, verses six through 10. That's gonna be kind of the outline.

We're gonna keep referencing that and looking into that. We didn't just read that just kind of for fun at the beginning, but that's the text that we're gonna be kind of just taking apart chunk by chunk and thinking through.

The Multitude Praises the Reigning Almighty

Last week, we saw a song of praise and celebration to God for salvation, for his power, a song of thanks for his glory, his truth, and his righteousness. But now our text this morning, John has granted another scene of praise, and it's a little bit distinct from the one before.

The same multitude in our text is the same multitude that sang last week to us all of those hallelujahs. But this time, they're not praising him for the past and what he's done, but they're now praising him for what he is going to do from our vantage point in the future.

And John hears a lot of loud sounds throughout his visions in heaven. I don't know if you've noticed that, but as we've gone through the book of Revelation, we're all the way up till really close to wrapping up this book, and there's been a lot of loud sounds.

Have you noticed that, that the worship of heaven is kind of rowdy and raucous, and there's a lot going on? This is a loud shouting like a huge waterfall. How many of you have been to Niagara Falls before?

Is it pretty loud? You can hear it, and especially as you get closer, it's just thundering. And then equally, another illustration of the sound that he hears from these voices in heaven are like mighty peals of thunder.

You ever been woke up in the middle of a thunderstorm and it's like, and it just kind of shakes the house? I mean, like that one must have been close. But that's what these voices sound like to John's ears as he's having this vision.

The praise of God, I want to point out, in heaven is not a tame and civil experience. Now, I would suggest to you that we've subdued it in our Western culture through hymns and melody and demure and meditative approaches, but this shouting of a multitude might sound more like a football stadium on any college campus during a home field touchdown.

That's the imagery. I mean, have any of you ever been close to, in a football game, like in one of the college towns, and you're like outside of the stadium when a touchdown is scored, and you can hear that?

I mean, it sounds like thunder. It sounds like a waterfall. It sounds like this rushing of voices is the imagery that we have here of the praise that is going on in heaven. And I would suggest to you that many of us in this room have responded with that type of volume at a football, a baseball, some kind of a sporting event, or something to that effect.

Many of us have responded that way. And it's because that overflow of delight and joy is a natural human response when something that we like happens, happens, right? When something like that occurs, we often are moved to some kind of an outburst.

So my curiosity, and again, I recognize that there's different personalities in the room, and some of you have probably not shouted anything, right? And then others of you are shouting all the time, and it's like your natural, it's like use your indoor voice, right?

People will tell you that from time to time. Or I've got feelings too. Stop yelling at me, and you're like explaining what you had for breakfast. I don't know. But why do we quench that passion and fire when it comes to the worship of God?

Ask yourself that. And maybe you're not. Maybe you're like, I'm just, I am myself, and I am worshiping the way that God has intended me to, and I'm still a little bit more meditative, and I'm a little bit more quiet.

But ask yourself this. Is there any reservation in you when it comes to worshiping God with your whole self, with the way that he's made you? And I would suggest to you that a major part of all of that is wrapped up in cultural expectations.

And some of us have the cultural expectations that God doesn't want us to get too excited. Like we've kind of missed the part of Revelation here where everybody's excited, and everybody's rejoicing, and everybody's shouting his praises, and they're excited, and they're enthusiastic about who God is, and sometimes we can miss that.

We tend to think maybe in our Western culture he wants us to be measured and thoughtful and quiet and kind and respectful. King David didn't get that memo in the Old Testament. I don't know if you noticed that.

He didn't get the memo that you have to be quiet and subdued and calm in worship. I'm not saying that there's never a time for quiet reflection or respectful meditation, but I am suggesting that many people will need to enroll in Heavenly Worship 101 when they get there so that they can take part in what's going on because it's gonna be foreign to some of us.

The kinds of stuff that are going on in heaven are foreign to some of us. We've seen a lot of images of the worship going on in heaven so far in the book of Revelation, and quiet and subdued does not match any of them so far.

And once again, the multitude is shouting, and what they're shouting is this word that we talked about extensively last week, and if you weren't here, you can get on the website and look or you can podcast that, but on our website there's a teaching tab.

You can get there and you can see last week's message, but I talked extensively about the word hallelujah, a two-part word, hallelu, meaning to a command to praise, and yah, the J-A-H being a shortened form of the name of God himself, Yahweh.

And so to praise God is the initial, again, shout that we see, and one thing I didn't mention in last week's sermon that I think is beneficial for us to think of in terms of what's going on in heaven, and it's the simple fact that in the midst of the gathering of God's people, we are shouting a command to each other.

Did you get that last week? We are commanding something of each other. We are shouting to everybody, hallelujah! Everybody, praise God. That's what we're saying. We tell each other in no uncertain terms and command one another to praise Yahweh.

Why would we shout this to each other in heaven? Why are these voices in the midst of, or surrounding the throne of God in the midst of heaven, why are they telling one another to praise God? I believe there are two main things driving this command that we shout to one another.

Number one is that once we encounter God, we want everyone to worship him. We're in awe of him, and we just want everybody to see him as he is. Once we see his salvation, once we see his glory, his power, his justice, his truth, in all of his judgments, we want everyone to see him as we have seen him.

I believe this is an overflow, like an automatic response of a human in love with God who's been redeemed by him in his presence. I think it's a pretty automatic response to say, just everybody praise him.

Everybody always praise him. But the second, I believe that we need to remind each other to praise him. Now I think some of this is straight up for our benefit. Not necessarily in heaven do they need this reminder, but certainly here on earth, we need the gathering of God's people.

We need other voices reminding us what our existence and what our life is all about. And when we come together in gatherings like this and we sing in our services, we're not just filling time or just meeting some cultural expectation.

Well, you go to church, you're supposed to sing some songs, so we decided to put some of those in here. You know, that's one of the benefits that I have as a church planter, is we started this thing from the beginning, and I mean, why do we do the things that we do?

Why am I up here opening the word and preaching? And we had a thoughtful process about everything that we do because we started from scratch. We didn't have anything. It was a group of just a handful of couples that started Recast in a basement seven years ago, and we didn't have to do anything.

Do you recognize that? Well, so why do we sing? Why do we do these kinds of things? And we believe that we need to remind each other each week to praise and worship God. We are intentionally reminding ourselves when we sing at church that we need to praise the Almighty.

And I think you recognize that throughout the week, that can take a back burner to the other busy things that crowd out your life. Would you agree with me on that? Now, those busy things, by the way, I've said this multiple times, those busy things can become worship if you're mindful of God, but I don't know if you're like me, but forgetfulness, I would suggest to you, is my greatest enemy in my walk with God.

It's forgetfulness. It's forgetting that God is there with me on Monday morning, that he's there with me when traffic is jammed and there's construction on 994, and I gotta get somewhere in a hurry. You know what I'm saying?

And that's what I'm talking about, is that you can turn those thoughts to God as long as you're mindful of him, as long as you're thinking about him, as long as you're turning your attention to him. And I mentioned just even, there've been a couple of times this week that have really been great and beneficial for me.

There's been at least two or three times where my wife has said to me, hallelujah, right? It's been a good reminder to me to kind of go, I was getting a little bit bent out of shape or frustrated about something or kind of just going blah, you know, sometimes I can't believe this, are you serious?

And she's like, and who are we praising again today? And it's, I mean, how many of you need someone like that in your life? Now, I didn't necessarily, how many of you know I wasn't probably like super giddy, like right at the point of contact there, but there was a good reminder.

And we need that, right? That's what we're gathered together to do this morning is to remind ourselves, who is it that we're praising again? Who is it that we're living for today? Who is it that we're gonna live for throughout this week?

Who is it that we are praising? I need this. I don't know, if for nothing more than for me, I'm glad you're here, because I get something by this reminder each and every week that we need to praise the Almighty.

And those in heaven in verse six call out to everyone to praise Yahweh because the Lord, that is the King, our God, the Almighty, the one who possesses all power. Why are they praising him? Because he reigns.

He rules over all. And a day is coming when he will not just be in control of all things, but he will be recognized as in control of all things. I would suggest to you that God is in control of all things now.

But there's a day coming where he will be recognized by all for that. It's a glorious day when finally everyone goes, oh yeah, we see it now. Now we've got it. Now we behold you with our eyes where we've beheld you by faith and trust in your word and the things you've revealed and tracing the hand of God in our past, but now to see with our eyes.

How many of you look forward to that day, that glorious day, when you will see with your eyes what you have trusted by faith now? And I believe you'll be changed in his presence without sin. Man, that's a beautiful thought.

The Bride of Christ, Covenant, and Good Works

The praise goes on in verse seven with further commands from the multitude to themselves. The multitude, the gathering of God's people, commanding themselves to do something. They say, let us rejoice.

Let us exalt and let us give him glory. They're talking to themselves, but they're talking to themselves and reminding themselves what to do. I need to do this throughout the week. Don, rejoice. Don, exalt.

Don, give him the glory. And you fill in your own names there or your family there or your business there or whatever you have that you have some semblance of influence in and say, let us praise God. Let us rejoice.

Let us exalt in him. Let us give him the glory, right? We need that conversation with ourselves. In heaven, there's this ongoing conversation among the saints, this constantly saying, let's do this. Let's do this.

Let's glorify him above all else. Once again, it's interesting that they're shouting to themselves as a reminder to rejoice. I don't believe that there's any fear that someone in the crowd is gonna stop praising God so they have to keep talking kind of like a rah-rah, you know, kind of get everybody worked up into a frenzy because, man, we're afraid somebody might stop rejoicing.

I think we are in heaven shouting these things kind of out of a stunned awe and wonder in the presence of the Almighty. I think many of these things that are being shouted here in the presence of God in heaven are shouted for our benefit here in Matawan, Michigan this morning, that we would read these things, that we would take them on, that we would recognize the worship that we're going to so that we would practice now, so that we would begin praising him where we live today.

We need this reminder to rejoice, to exalt, and to give him the glory. And the way that those words of praise work together, rejoice, exalt, and give him glory, the way those three work together is powerful.

Now, it's interesting, when you look up rejoice, you get exalt as a synonym. When you look up exalt, you get rejoicing as a synonym. So they're very common in similar words. They are so closely related that they're nearly repetitive and in their repetition are trying to drive home a point.

And they intentionally highlight the peace, joy, and elation, exuberance that is truly heartfelt by those who are in his eternal presence. To rejoice or to exalt simply means to show or to feel elation.

And the final command is to give him the glory. And when taken together, these shouts from heaven to rejoice, exalt, and give him glory, they highlight what I perceive to be a paradox of life for every single one of us.

I believe every single human currently experiences this paradox between rejoicing, exalting, and giving him glory. So I would suggest to you, we're all seeking joy. We're all seeking peace. We're all seeking something truly of worth.

And the world tells us where to find it. The world tells us that we will find exaltation and rejoicing in pleasing who? In glorifying who? Ourselves. Man, is that the message of this world around us today.

It's a consistent message by the world system. How are you gonna get happy? How are you gonna get true joy? And look out for number one, take care of yourself first. I mean, nobody's gonna take care of you quite like you can take care of yourself.

So man, it's all on your shoulders to make yourself happy and to get it all for you. If you just do more for yourself, just work harder at finding your own peace, work harder at finding your own joy, then things would go great and then you will have true joy and happiness.

The world will tell you the greatest love of all is learning to love yourself. Or was that Whitney Houston? I don't know, who was it that taught us that? Too soon? I don't know, sorry guys. Some of you are singing it now.

You're gonna have it stuck in your head and the only way to get it out, you know what they say, the only way to get a song that's stuck in your head out? Listen to the whole thing. That's what they say, I don't know.

But rejoicing, exalting, and giving the glory to God go hand in hand, right? The world will tell you that taking the glory for yourself will give you joy, but that is false. Giving glory to God is what leads to your greatest rejoicing, your greatest elation, your greatest happiness is bound up in your worship of God.

That's where you actually arrive and achieve what you were created to be. What is your wheelhouse, what is your sweet spot? Your sweet spot is when you are delighting in God. How do I know that? Because you're created in his image.

You were created, you're a broken mirror that when you are reflecting correctly, the pieces are being put back together in your life by Christ, and as the pieces are being put back together, you're reflecting him more and more, better and better each day.

And the more that you're offering him worship, the more you're reflecting back his image, not your own. Your greatest joy is gonna be found when in the day, in those moments where when my wife is saying, hallelujah, when I'm getting ready to get bent out of shape and I'm getting ready to go off on my own because what, something's infringed on my sovereignty, my will, my desire, and instead it's like, no, no, no, no, wait a minute.

You're operating like a broken mirror shattered on the floor, and what it means to take those moments each day is to put another piece back in the mirror and turn it to God and say, we're gonna rejoice in you and thank you for this moment to worship you.

And that's where joy and elation comes. And the reason that those in heaven are so full of joy is that a celebration is beginning in their midst. We see that in the text. It's the beginning of a celebration that's never going to end, and they've all been invited to a wedding.

Now we all need some help with this illustration because we've probably either forgotten to see it as an illustration. So we talk about being the bride of Christ and we don't recognize that, well, we're not exactly a bride here, bros, but what is going on here in the text is a metaphor, it's an image, and maybe we've lost that because we've heard it so much that it's kind of like dead in the back of our minds or we've just flat out misunderstood it to begin with.

I don't know about the other guys in this room, but I'm not getting married to any dude even if it's Jesus, okay? Anybody with me on that? Anybody that that illustration has ever just kind of not settled well with you?

Like, for real, I'm being serious. I mean, it really has been like a wrestling match for me. Kind of go, yeah, I'm the bride of Christ, I mean, what do I have to wear? You know, it's like, I mean, this is not cool.

And so I would suggest to you, and I'm being serious here, I would suggest to you many guys have easily and quickly skipped over this passage about being the bride of Christ and have lost the illustration for the power that is found in it because we haven't asked the question, married like what?

Like what aspects of marriage are a component? What is God driving for when he uses Christ as a husband and the church as the bride? What are the aspects of wedding, what are the aspects of marriage that he is trying to tie into or even has created to illustrate that?

And if we don't get those aspects right, then we're gonna be off and just kind of misunderstanding the whole thing. The fact of the matter is, Jesus in our text is not having a wedding. It's a metaphor, folks.

He's not having a wedding. We are not gonna all dress up in lacy white dresses and walk down the aisle and make googly eyes at Jesus while he stands there with a cheesy grin, sweaty palms, and goes, I don't really know what I'm getting into, okay?

Not like the regular wedding, okay? It's not quite like that. Is that what John's getting at in the text? I don't think so. Is that what Paul is talking about when he speaks of marriage as a symbol of Christ in the church?

No, not at all. But I would suggest to you, at least these three, and I might miss a couple here, and there might be some theologians out there who have come up with five or 10 or whatever, but these are three very significant parts of the tradition of God-given marriage, God-given wedding, all of this designed by God in order to illustrate the nature of our relationship with Jesus for eternity.

Three aspects of that. The first is very important, fundamental. It is the covenantal relationship that he wants to tie together in our understanding. Jesus enters into a till-death-do-us-part kind of relationship with his church, and you know what's beautiful that we're gonna see here in the text in just a moment?

There will be no more death. Think that through. He's gonna say to his church, till death do us part, and by the way, ain't nobody dying. Nobody's gonna die. It is an eternal kind of relationship, of connection, that will go on for eternity.

This marriage of Jesus and his people is just another way of highlighting the commitment that Jesus has to his people. Of course, in our modern era of divorce, we have trashed this illustration. We have made it cheap.

We've made it hard to grasp. The eternal nature of this covenant and this solid commitment that he's using in marriage has been broken in our culture. Would you agree with me on that? I praise God that Jesus keeps his promises.

Only in as much as we can trust him can we trust this promise, and I would suggest to you, you can go to the bank on that one. The first aspect is this covenant. He created marriage to illustrate his relationship with his church and his salvation.

The second thing, the groom provides for the bride. It's fundamental to the understanding in the Old Testament culture and the New Testament culture, something that's a little bit missed for us here in our modern times, but in many ancient cultures and even some modern cultures throughout the world, the groom begins to assume financial responsibility for the bride before the wedding even takes place, before the wedding even takes place.

In Jewish cultures, there was about a one-year period of betrothal in which the two were considered married. That was in Old Testament times, even carried forward into Jesus's times. The two were considered married.

Mary and Joseph, it was said that he was gonna divorce her quietly. They weren't even married yet, and he was gonna divorce her because the betrothal period was already set and they basically were committed to one another and he was already providing for her.

When the groom provided an established means to care for his betrothed, the wedding commenced by communication to the family for her to get prepared. Often, he would send a linen gown for her to dress in and he would announce that he was on his way.

A parade would ensue from his house to her house and then the party would begin and the party could last weeks. Some say a cheap wedding was a week and a good one was two or three weeks. So, party, okay?

I don't know what kind of work got done in a culture like that, but how many of you know that in a culture without TV, without internet, without any real significant forms of entertainment, I think entertainment might be like building a chair for fun on the side and maybe selling it or something to get some grain to feed your family.

I don't know, but what would you do for entertainment? How many of you think that a wedding would be a pretty big deal in a culture like that where all you knew was basically hard labor and trying to feed yourself?

And you get invited to a wedding and you're like, free food? Free food, what? Are you serious? Wine? We don't get wine that often. It's like, and good food. Like, this is a celebration. It's a glorious and beautiful thing.

And so, that's the way that a wedding would go. And often, he would be the one to provide her, I mentioned, with the fine clothes for the celebration, and that's a lot of history, but it makes sense of verse eight when you see it.

Look at verse eight with me. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is, again, an illustration of the righteous deeds of the saints. She has received her announcement here in our text that her groom is coming for her and she has clothed herself with the clothes he has provided for her.

In the illustration of the church and Christ, the fine clothes of bright and pure linen are symbolic of the righteous deeds of the saints. How have we clothed ourselves for the wedding? We have been given righteous deeds to put on.

Paul says it this way in more of a command form in two different passages, Philippians 2, 12 through 13. If you're taking notes, you can jot that down, read it later, I'm gonna just read it for you here.

Philippians 2, 12 through 13, don't need to turn there. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. You got some work to do. Who's doing the work? God's doing the work. Further, Paul says in Ephesians 2, 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.