The Marriage Supper

Well, good afternoon, everyone. It's good to be with you back in Portsmouth once again. A few months ago, we were here for an ABC sampler. Am I supposed to turn these in? You know? All right. Okay, now that's better. Good afternoon. It's good to be with you all here in Portsmouth. It's been a few months. We were here for an ABC sampler in July. It was much hotter at that time, although we really haven't gotten into the fall yet, and cooler weather yet. And waiting for that. Actually, I had a tree cut down next to me. The other day, I got a friend to help me cut it up, and we'll get it chopped up over the next couple of weeks, but we're going to have to get some colder weather before I can start really getting used to burning the wood. Mr. Carl was my new best friend, introducing me as a young man. I like that guy. You can keep him as a pastor here. That'll be just fine. I'll come over more often to get an introduction like that. For those of you down in Pressonsburg, I'll say hello to you. If Raleigh Collins is there, I'll give you a shout out.

Orville and Kitty Bumgarner, and if Patsy Butcher is there. Names from the years when Debbie and I used to live down there. So I hope you all are doing well, and all the rest of you down there as well. It's good to see so many of the young adults here for this weekend. I didn't realize just how big an event the Portsmouth Dance is. And so it's good to see several of you that haven't seen for a number of years, and going back either to ABC, or to even my years ago, and as a camp director at Camp Heritage, to see some even from that period of time. So I hope that everyone has an enjoyable evening and dance here tonight.

Imagine for a moment that you are invited to a sumptuous evening of dinner. Now we're going to have an evening dinner tonight, and then a dance. But this type of dinner I'm talking about is... Let's kick it up a few notches. All right? This is going to be held by special invitation given to you from someone that you hold in high regard. A great personage, very wealthy individual, who has invited you to come to his home for dinner. He lives in a fabulous mansion. And in that mansion, he is surrounded with the best of design, the best of architecture, and all the comforts that one could imagine in a house. The house, the kind of home that he lives in, is the type of home that you would see modeled in magazines like Architectural Digest, or others of that nature that are some of the finest, appointed, built, positioned, scenic homes that the world has to offer. And every time I see pictures of homes like that, all I can do is drool and imagine. They are very nice. But this is the type of home that you are invited to for dinner. When you arrive, you can expect to dine on the best food that could be sourced. If it's locally sourced, which is a big trend in dining today, then it's going to be the finest that the region of that home can provide. But you are going to eat the finest food that would be available. It is going to be expertly prepared by a chef who is not just a normal short-order chef working at frishes, big boys, or McDonald's, or even Longhorn Steakhouse.

This chef is a Michelin three-star chef.

Any of you here ever eaten in a Michelin three-star restaurant? No. Nobody. I have not. A Michelin three-star restaurant is the top awarded stars by the Michelin Guide to restaurants that display the best in terms of service, food preparation, quality of food, and presentation. You usually start off by getting one star. If you are really good, and if you are even better over a period of time, they will award you a second star. They are all highly coveted for any restaurant to get these designations.

The highest a restaurant can achieve is what is called a three-star Michelin designation.

If you look it up, what they say in terms of just a one-line approach to what you can expect or what this type of restaurant is, it says this of a three-star rating. Three stars, exceptional cuisine, worthy of a special journey. Worthy of a special journey.

Now, I've never eaten in a three-star restaurant. Probably these are the types of restaurants you would eat at with your festival tithe. And probably a three-star Michelin restaurant would take about half of my festival tithe annually to get in and out. This year we were up in Canmore, Alberta, up in Canada for the feast, and we did go to a nice restaurant in Banff. And walking into the restaurant, I saw it, they had a sign on the window there that was quoting a restaurant reviewer from the Ottawa, Ontario newspaper about this particular restaurant. And it said, one of the world's 10 best restaurants worthy of a journey. Worthy of going out of your way. I took a picture of it, I just remembered it and still have it on my phone if anybody wants to see it. But it's far from, it was a good restaurant, very nice meal, but far from anything that Michelin would look at. But they kind of borrowed that phrasing, that it's a restaurant that is worthy of a journey. In other words, to go out of your way to make special preparations to go and eat in this type of restaurant. And this is that time. Now, again, let's go back to the invitation. Were you to receive such an invitation, you would be thrilled, you would be excited, you would be nervous, you would anticipate this. Hopefully, we would all understand the value, the value of the invitation.

You would take it seriously. You would be willing to prepare for the evening. You would go in appropriate clothing.

Sandals not permitted.

Appropriate clothing would be expected in this type of restaurant. You would certainly get your directions to know where it is. And you would also, as part of your preparation, want to know how to conduct yourself in this home and at this table. Because it's going to be laid out in a certain way. Forks and knives, more than you probably own in your own kitchen, would be right at your setting. And each for a special purpose. And you'd need to know which knife, fork, spoon to use for whatever is in front of you in terms of the food. So there's an education to this. There's a preparation that so you would know how to conduct yourself in the presence of such an individual. Because, let's face it, we're all pretty casual in America today in terms of our approach to things like this and for most of us. And we haven't lived in those types of circles. We see it from a distance, perhaps speak with it about it with a bit of disdain. But to even experience something near that in your life, it is an experience that does change you. Probably the closest I ever had was being a senior at Ambassador College. And in those years, Herbert Armstrong would always invite every member of the senior class to his home for a very, very fine dinner. And I doubt that I've had any better dinner anywhere in my years since then. But he wanted, and you were in the presence of someone you respected, you were at a very nice setting, and it was a very nice meal. And it lifts your game, as we say. It causes all of us to step up a bit to our expectation, conduct, and an experience of life. Well, hopefully some of us might receive such an invitation at some point or come close to it in some way, either at the Feast of Tabernacles, maybe connected with our job, or in some other part of life. But it's an example that I kind of sketched for us here this afternoon, because when we look at our calling, every one of us have been invited to such an event. We have been invited to a supper, to a dinner, to an event far greater than any human, wealthy person could ever design and put together. We have been called to something far greater than that. And when we look at what the Bible tells us about this event, called the marriage supper, there are some very important lessons for us to learn in our lives that parallel the matters that you and I might step through in preparation for a very fine evening or meal in someone's home at the earthly level today. Let's turn back to Revelation, chapter 19, and let's look at where this event is referenced.

Revelation chapter 19. This is in the flow of the story of Revelation. We are in the chapter that begins to bring out the return of Jesus Christ. After all of the events of the various seals and trumpets and trumpet plagues and the events of the first 18 chapters, God begins to wind it up as He gave this revelation to John. And beginning in verse 9, it says this, After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven say, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God. For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication. And He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. Reference to the false religion system that comes to its apex in the system called Babylon the Great in chapters 17 and 18. Again they said, Alleluia, and her smoke rises up forever and ever, the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne saying, Amen, Alleluia.

Then a voice came from the throne saying, Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings saying, Alleluia. For the Lord God omnipotent reigns, let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. A well-known verse, a milestone event. The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. The lady sung about this in the special music today, A Church Ready for You, Come, Lord Jesus. A church that is prepared. Those words are very, very nice and very well put by the performers here this afternoon, and thought coming completely out of this passage here. Now, in verse 8, it continues on.

The wife is the church. I think we all understand the symbolism here.

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Again, the clothing, biblical terminology, very straightforward explanation here, righteousness, humility, obedience, overcoming all the positive fruits of the Holy of God's Spirit are indicated here by righteous acts of the individual members, the saints. Then He said to me in verse 9, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said to me, these are the true sayings of God. It is a blessing to be called to this supper, far greater than any marriage or any supper dinner banquet that we might be invited to on this level of life, as good as that could be. We'll have a good time tonight. We'll enjoy that. And yet nothing on our level can compare to the calling, to what is described here as the marriage supper of the Lamb and called here to be the true sayings of God. Now, this is essentially a straightforward description of something called the marriage supper of the Lamb, a calling to it.

We don't have an awful lot of information in the Bible about what or even when this event occurs. But what we do know about it from the Scriptures is very instructive.

I think we are all aware that when it comes to marriage, we understand that that marriage is a type of the spiritual relationship that we have individually with God and Jesus Christ, and that the church is that bride, as this verse describes. And there is a type between the church and the woman and Christ as the head of the church. And all of that, which Ephesians 5 tells us about, which is very important to help us to understand what marriage is and why marriage is so important on the human level.

A marriage between a man and a woman. And we all understand that marriage has taken some big hits in recent months and recent years in our Western culture. And on every level, through excessive divorce, through cohabitation without marriage and commitment, to same-sex marriage. Sometimes we get all upset, as we rightly should, about same-sex marriage. But we forget about the other matters of immoral conduct, fornication, adultery, divorce, and all that have for longer than same-sex marriage being in the headlines has served to tear down the marriage institution in America and other places and erode its value to our culture.

But that's not the subject we're talking specifically about here today, except, as this tells us, some things that are very important in regard to our spiritual relationship with God and what we have been called to and what we can look forward to. When we understand this, we understand as we are looking at these particular verses that we are looking at the timing of the appearance of Jesus Christ, His coming, and the glory and power of the universe, unlike His first coming, when He came in the human form, this coming, commonly called the second coming, is likened in this particular case to a festive wedding supper.

Now, to perhaps begin to understand what this is and elements about it before we draw other conclusions, it might be good for us to understand a little bit about the setting of marriage in the ancient period, this period of the first century, when Jesus came and conducted His ministry, started the church, marriage in the family, particularly within the Jewish context of the first century. Christ was a Jew born into that time, that nation.

And the Bible does give us certain indications, and from other historical sources, we can understand that marriage as it was conducted then, specifically among the Jews, was quite different than marriage that we are familiar with today in America, in the Western world. It is a completely different approach. It was a commitment, and it was something that was to be for life. But in the ancient world, the parents were far more involved in the marriage than they are today, far more involved than most young people would want them to be today.

I mean, just face it, the wife or the husband was chosen, is what it boils down to. How many of you young adults here today would want your parents to choose your mate for you? Don't see too many hands going up. Just to illustrate how different we are today, but that's the way it was done. And on top of that, the marriage occasion was something that actually truly bound together families, because it was a union of families. And it is today, more so than people realize. You know, one of the causes of problems within a marriage are because the families don't blend.

They just don't blend, which is an argument for parents being more involved. But again, that's falling on deaf ears. I understand that. But nevertheless, it still happens. We had, you know, I know that from personal experience. Not that I've, my wife and I, we got it, you know, well, our families actually didn't blend together. We overcame that. We had two different, and you know, we've experienced that otherwise, too.

It works much far better when even, you know, all the families come together. And that's exactly what it was like in the villages of the Judea in the time of Jesus Christ. Turn back to John 2. I want to get off my own personal example. Get back in the Bible here. Note to speakers, when you get off into your own personal, sometimes you're in quicksand.

John 2 is the well-known story of the marriage in the village of Cana at the beginning of Christ's ministry. It says, beginning in verse 1, On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Now, both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

All right. Now, again, just a little note of background. A wedding in a small village in Galilee at this setting at this time was a whole community event, and it was anticipated months in advance. When you read the story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus, and you find that Mary was betrothed to Joseph, they were in that period prior to the actual ceremony that would lead to the consummation of the marriage, which is why when she became pregnant it was such a concern, as the scriptures indicate. There was a long betrothal period, or engagement period, and part of that was to allow for everyone to get adjusted and get ready.

The preparations would include even a room or an addition onto the house of the groom to bring his wife to. That had to be done. All right. And it also allowed everyone to get used to the idea, not just within the family, but within the whole village or the whole community. And then when the wedding actually came, it was a village-wide event, and it went on for days, multiple days, more than just a few hours on a June afternoon, in a nice banquet catering facility, as many of our weddings might be held today. It went on for several days, which is why, as you see this, it stretches on. They were invited to the wedding. Verse 3 tells us then that they ran out of wine. Now, there was a lot of wine flowing, hundreds of gallons of wine, likely for a wedding of this size. The way they would use and serve wine in those days was not the way we would normally do it. If we open a bottle of wine, pour a glass of wine, we drank that. The wine then, as it would have been poured, would have been mixed with water and diluted down. It was just the custom. They'd been prepared. For a wedding like this, there would have been the equivalent of a catering staff available to make sure that there was plenty of wine, plenty of food for all the guests for all of the days. But for whatever reason, they ran out of wine. The mother of Jesus said they have no wine. He said, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour is not yet come.

So, his mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it. Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons of peace. Jesus said to them, fill the waterpots with water. They filled them to the brim. He said, now draw it out and take it to the master of the feast, the chief steward. This would have been the one responsible for all the preparations and the food service director. They took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water, that it was made of wine, it did not know where it came from. But the servants who had drawn the water knew. He said, the master called the bridegroom, and he said, every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests are well drunk, then the inferior. After they've, they can't taste it quite as well, they would bring the inferior. You've kept the good wine until now. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him. And after this, He went to Capernaum and His mother, His brothers, and His disciples, and they did not stay there many days. So here's the beginning of His ministry.

Christ used the occasion of a marriage and a wedding feast and festivities to introduce Himself and His miraculous ministry. It was His first public miracle. It was a very interesting occasion for a coming out event, if you will, for Christ as the Messiah. Water, wine, and a miracle. There are a lot of symbolism there. But as I said, this was an event anticipated for many days, would last for many days, because it impacted the whole life of the village. And of course, the nature of the miracle is very plain. He converted water to wine.

And that's what Christ's ministry was all about. Conversion, change.

Here He took water, turned it into wine. Christ was about the business of turning sinners into saints. That was what it was all about. He wanted people to repent and to change and to believe the gospel. And it was a supernatural event. And it served His purpose because, as we are told here at the end of verse 11, His disciples believed in Him. They now knew that they were following someone of exceptional ability, even miraculous ability. And so, to look at this, to understand this, they understood then that Jesus was the Messiah.

To understand the context of this, not only the wedding of the first century, the Jewish village, but even the deeds that Jesus did here, is to help us to understand that our attendance at the marriage of the Lamb that Revelation 19 describes should require great attention and great care for us. God expects no less from you and I than the conversion of our heart and of our mind and of our entire being to His family and to the laws and ways of the Kingdom of God. Because that calling is to blend together people into the family of God, to bring together a group, a spiritual body of people who are called and converted.

The marriage to the Lamb that Revelation describes is a marriage to God. We will join the family of God for all eternity. God doesn't take that invitation lightly, and neither should we. Throughout His ministry, Jesus referred to the idea of a wedding supper in several parables. Each one of them adds another dimension of understanding for us as we study along in this subject. Let's look at those. Turn over to Luke 14.

What we just read there in John 2, it was a Jewish wedding. Again, it's well documented from history as to all the cultural ramifications of a marriage to the Jews at that time. Even in the context of the Roman world, what is not always understood is that among the Romans, what we would call the pagan Romans, the Gospel said in the Roman world, but the Roman world, they had an approach toward marriage that actually, in its ideal, was very strong, at least in the early years of the Roman Republic. By the time of Christ, the first century with the Roman Empire, marriage had been watered down, just as it was among the Jews at various times as well. But what's not always understood is that in the early years of the Roman Republic, marriage and family was held to a high ideal. Fidelity and faithfulness and children and all were very, very important. In fact, when you look and try to understand in 1 Corinthians 7, some of the statements that the Apostle Paul is making to a gentile church in Corinth about marriage, you have to understand the setting of the world at that time in the Roman context, the Roman world, to appreciate what Paul is trying to unravel in the tangled relationships of a believer to an unbeliever and divorce as it was at that time.

Within the Roman world, the father would give his daughter to a husband, but if that husband had not prepared adequately for taking on a family obligation, the father could withhold certain authority over his daughter, even as she is married to and goes to live with a son.

There were terms for that, and you have to understand that to appreciate what Paul is trying to unravel. A lot of that got thrown out the window as the corruption of the times of the Roman Empire and the world at that time changed as well. But I just mentioned that to help us to understand that even today, marriage is under attack, but even in the midst of that today, there are still many. In the Church, we have a high regard for marriage and family.

All of us should strive to have perhaps even a higher regard for all the qualities of marriage and family relations that the Bible teaches us so that our marriage experiences what God intends that they should do, even as the world around us slides further and further away in some parts of it from these ideals. I know not everyone out there in the world, as we might say it, getting into a little bit of an in-speak here, but has cast off all restraint when it comes to marriage and morality. There are many other people who hold very high to it. But we should, certainly within the Church of God, we should as well. Because the spiritual meaning of marriage and family, as these scriptures will bring out, really speak to the most important invitation that we could ever have, and that is the invitation to an eternal relationship with God and with Jesus Christ, His Son. All right, let's go back here now to Luke chapter 14. And let's look at verse 15, and that's a parable of the Great Supper. All right, now again, Christ spoke in parables for various reasons to explain deep truths about the Kingdom of God, at times even to hide or to keep from the masses certain levels of understanding about various things that He was talking about. This is a parable, and it is a parable of, called the Great Supper. Let's look at it beginning in verse 15.

So the context of this teaching is that of the time and the future of the Kingdom of God that is to come. Christ said to him, A certain man gave a great Supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, Come, for all things are now ready. All things can be the food, the setting, the people who are extending the invitation and even those who are receiving the invitation. All things are now ready. But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first set to Him, I bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.

He had a crop of corn to put in, soybeans, maybe tobacco.

He had to work that ground. There were things to do. You have to do that when it's time, time is right. He said, I can't do it. Another set, I have bought five yolk of oxen, and I'm going to test them. I ask you to have me excused. I've got a whole shed full of John Deer tractors out here. I've got to get them ready. They've got to be ready to plow, to till, and to harvest. Still another set, verse 20, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. That's the most interesting one.

Wives need attention. Families need attention. I can't come. In the Old Testament, the man was exempt from service for a year to enjoy his wife and to bond together in the relationship. We don't do that today. We've got to go back to work after a honeymoon of a few days or a week or two, but there was a certain exemption there. In this case, the idea was I can't come.

So the servant came and reported these things to his master. The master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. The servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. And so the invitation, and as this is telling us something about God inviting people to the kingdom, to a great supper, to a great event, to a bringing together of people from all different walks of life in the kingdom, in a spiritual relationship forever. He's teaching some deep matters here. And he says, if they can't come, then let's go out and let's find others. Well, they come, and there's still room. And he said to the servant, verse 23, Go out into the highways and the hedges, go to the malls, get on the internet, distribute the invitations, get it out there, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. It is God's desire to fill every seat, to bring everyone who will accept that invitation to the table. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. And so here in talking about a supper, a great supper, that is set within the context of the kingdom of God and the future, and even in the context of chapter 14, we learn that it is to tell us many different things. There are excuses for some. Work, relationships, the cares of this world, as the parable of the sower and the seed will tell us. We'll snatch away whatever seeds of the gospel are there.

And he says, Go in and bring the poor, the maim, the lame, and the blind, the physically poor, the people who would not normally be invited to the home featured in architectural digest. You know, it's an amazing thing to stop and look at the ones who have responded through our years in the church as we look at ourselves and our people and, you know, the decades of experience and people we have known and seen in the church.

The rich don't necessarily respond to the gospel.

They already have their kingdom. A new man once back in Indiana, he was a member of the church and he had done quite well for himself. And he got into a business venture with his son-in-law and the son-in-law had an entrepreneurial spirit and abilities and they, the son-in-law built this very, very large multi-million dollar business. It was a Fortune 500 business. The church member who was his father-in-law was actually on the original board. And the father-in-law, being a good church member, was trying to coach his son-in-law to do it all by certain biblical principles. And even as he expanded into Europe, the church member father-in-law told me, he said, I cautioned him, I cautioned him, he says, we don't want to get involved with the beast's power over there too deeply. Well, the son-in-law actually came to church a few times. Of the then church of God. This goes back several decades.

But it didn't stick. He set out just like others here. And whatever was said, it just didn't stick. He, you know, whatever seed was being sown didn't stick on him. He wasn't good ground or he had the, he had the cares of building a business. And he went on and his life went on and, and he became a multi-millionaire. He built a large, very large business. And as the member had told me the story about his family, son-in-law, and you know, it just, I came to realize what is so true in so many other areas. Actually, this person, he built his own kingdom of business. That eventually crumbled to dust all the major gaudy aspects of it. But he didn't, he didn't need the gospel of the kingdom of God. He wasn't poor and lame and main. God, you know, the gospel of salvation that we have responded to, responds more frankly to people who are poor, the poor of the world. Those who wouldn't necessarily eat at the Michelin three-star restaurant, but would be eating at the Waffle House, if I can use that term. And I like Waffle House. Nothing against Waffle House. Once a year, I go to Waffle House, usually on December 25th, when everything else is closed.

You want to find me on the winter week, family weekend, up in Fields-Ertle Road. You can find me one day, probably, at Waffle House up there on Fields-Ertle Road in the north side of Cincinnati. My son and I usually go there and tank up on carbohydrates.

But I've over the years tried to model what is our audience as we spread the seeds of the gospel. And one time I did tell the staff at the office as we were talking about our programming, and who are we really talking to? And we have to understand, I said, we're talking to that person who gets off the middle of the night from Waffle House and goes home to a trailer, and they got a stack of bills that high and not enough income over here to pay for those bills. And life has kind of dealt them a little bit of a bad hand.

I've known them for years. I've seen people who, certainly, as many of you, you know how to manage your life, and that's not necessarily the point. But we all know what the gospel say about the rich man and the poor in terms of responding to the gospel. This parable is telling us that that it usually, those who are able to see the value of the truth, calling, the invitation, are those who are as far away from it physically as you can almost be. And they don't let excuses of work, relationships, or whatever it might be, get in the way of accepting that invitation. So the first point to realize, brethren, accept the invitation. Accept the invitation that comes to us, and recognize the value of it and that we need it in our life, and that it is the most important invitation that we could ever have, regardless of the families we come from, the amount of money in our checking account, the value of our estate. Don't let that get changed. Now let's turn over to Matthew 22. Another parable, beginning in verse 1.

This is a parable of the wedding feast, as the chapter heading has, chapter 22, verse 1. Jesus again spoke to them by parables, and he said, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.

He sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding. So here's a wedding given by the king, speaking of God, and the son of Jesus.

And they were not willing to come. And again he sent out other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready, come to the wedding. But they made light of it. They went their ways, one to his own house, another to his business.

So again, they were distracted by the cares of life. But the rest, in verse 6, seized the servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them.

An obvious reference to persecution of the saints, the prophets, down through history.

But when the king heard about it, he was furious, and he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. And he said to his servants, The wedding is ready. The wedding will always be.

Nothing is going to prevent the wedding. But those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So these servants went out to the highways, gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. Success. No empty chairs. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And the friend was speechless. Had nothing to say.

He didn't have the proper garment, to be honest. You know, I said, if you go to a three-star Michelin restaurant, you're going to wear the... we're going to dress up a little more than we might normally do for some of our other restaurants that we would eat out in. Or they will turn you away. There are certain codes and certain restaurants today that are enforced. Verse 13, the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. They'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Many are called, but few are chosen. Now here is much that we learned from the other parable in Luke 14, but another dimension here is that if you're going to be at the wedding supper, you've got to have on the right garment.

Or you can be escorted out. You won't be let in. What's the garment? Well, we just read about it earlier in Revelation 19 and verse 8. Those that are in that marriage supper are wearing fine linen, and the fine linen, it says, is the righteousness of the saints. The proper clothing is righteous conduct. In Revelation chapter 3 and verse 18, what is it that Christ counsels the church at Laodicea to buy? It is white garments to be clothed in white garments.

They don't have. And if that church description has something to say to us in this age of the church, let it speak to each of us that we should make sure we have on the right garments, garments of righteousness, and that we're putting on humility. We're putting on righteous conduct in all parts of our life. The priests of the Old Testament had to put on holy garments to officiate and to come before God. We are a kingdom of priests.

We're not putting on garments to offer an animal sacrifice, but we should be putting on garments of righteousness and humility and to be known for those in all parts of our life so that we can come and stand before God as a priest would with the right holy vestments on.

Certainly, when it comes to the time of the event that is being described here in this parable and in this matter here.

And so, we see something that is extremely valuable and extremely important to us. The price of admission to the banquet is righteous character, and it's the kind that's built over a lifetime of choices and experience. That's the key. Those who are not escorted out of this wedding supper have put on the proper garments over a lifetime. It hasn't caught them unawares.

They got the invitation, and they began to prepare for it. They learned where the silverware went.

They learned to appreciate the invitation, and they put the date on the calendar.

In our case, it may not be a literal date where we know when it's going to happen, but it is an event that we are moving toward the appearance of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And we've got it circled, at least, on our heart and minds. That's our goal. That is where we are going. Invitation in hand, and all along the way, we're making the proper preparations for it over a lifetime. On Luke 22, we see another reference. Luke 22. In verse 15, this is where Jesus institutes the New Testament Passover symbols. He had sat down with His twelve apostles with Him in verse 14, and He said to them, With fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Whatever that may mean for that time. I will no longer eat of it the same way that particular Passover included the bread and the meat of what we would call the Old Testament Passover. He changed the symbols that night, as we well know. But He said, There's going to be a future time when it is fulfilled in the kingdom that we will meet and we will do this again.

Down in verse 24, in the discussion that is very well known here about the discussion of who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and the discussion among the disciples here, the instruction Jesus gives is in the context of a table of food. Verse 27, Who is greater? He who sets a table or he who serves? Is it not he who sets at the table? Yet I am among you as one who serves. And verse 29, I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my father bestowed one upon me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and set on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And so the discussion here on service, humility, what can be called servant leadership in some cases, is done in the context of the Passover meal and setting at Christ's table in the kingdom, and eating and drinking. So you see another reference to a scene such as this. This is some direct teaching, not in the context of a parable, but given by Christ on the night before he suffered and he died. In chapter 25 of Matthew is the well-known parable of the virgins, ten virgins. Just quickly going through a quick overview of these.

Matthew 25. Verse 1 says, The kingdom of heaven will be likened to ten virgins who took their lambs and went out to meet the bridegroom. This could be a whole sermon in itself, getting back into the elements of the marriage and the Jewish marriage in the first century. But I don't have time to go through all of that. But there were five foolish, five wise, five did not have oil, five did. Those that didn't wanted to buy from those that did, and they wouldn't sell their oil, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And while the five foolish went to buy, verse 10, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. And afterward the other virgins came, saying, Lord, open please to us. And he answered and said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

And so again, a well-known parable, but it told in the context of the bridegroom coming and there being a wedding supper. When you take all of these that we have looked at, all these parables and this instruction, there is a clear dividing line between those who are ready and have prepared for the event and those who are not. Those who accept the invitation and those who do not accept the invitation. Those who have the proper garments and those who don't have the proper garments. Those who are prepared by having an ample supply of God's Spirit and those who have not kept up on their spiritual condition, which is the teaching there. I think we all know that throughout the Scriptures there is the idea of God coveniting with His people in a marriage relationship. It's what the entire Old Testament is about. God performed or actually entered into a marriage relationship with Israel. In the book of Exodus at Mount Sinai, He said, I will be your God, I will bless you if you enter into a relationship of obedience. And they said, all that you have said, we will do. And that agreement was made. It's called a covenant, no covenant, but it was a marriage relationship. Israel did not remain faithful to it. Very soon they went off into what the Bible talks about is harlotry and adultery. And it led to the dissolution of the entire state of Israel and Judah, all those peoples, and the scattering of both of them and the ending of that relationship. That covenant after several hundred years and several efforts on the part of God to woo them back. It's told in Ezekiel 16 and throughout prophets such as Hosea in terms of what that was all about. It's very deep, not complicated, but it is a very profoundly deep subject that sometimes I think we haven't emphasized as much as we used to in the church in terms of what that meant then and what it means now. But for this purpose today, what it means is that God expects fidelity, loyalty, honesty, faithfulness in His relationship with His people, whether it's the Old Testament church called Israel or you and I today in a relationship that is based on better promises and a spiritual relationship that is by these scriptures we've seen pointing us toward the kingdom of God. And this event that the scriptures point us to that talk in many different ways to a wedding supper and a marriage to Christ because the church has made herself ready.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul put it this way, and I'll just turn to this one here, 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. And verse 2.

When Paul describes his approach to his church as a minister, he said, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, speaking here to the church of Corinth. You have been joined in a consummated, dedicated, consecrated marriage ceremony to God, to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. He sums it up very, very well right there. At our resurrection, at the second coming, Christ intends to consummate this engagement by not only offering us his hand, but granting us entrance into his kingdom, which will be an incredible time of joy and celebration beyond what we can imagine. When in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye, the Lord will descend with the voice of an archangel, and all the language that Paul summons at 1 Corinthians 15 of that event, that is when that will take place, as Revelation 19 talks about.

And we will be married to Christ in what is described there as the great marriage supper that we read back in Revelation 19. Now, that is the event we look forward to.

Questions can arise and have. When will this marriage supper take place? Other questions arise. What exactly are these scriptures telling us about the marriage supper? Is it a literal banquet set down, prime rib, horseradish sauce, twice baked potatoes, cherries jubilee? Is that what we are being told? Is it an event that we would, as we understand it, on our physical level in our relationship? And when? Is it after the resurrection? Is it before Christ touches down on earth on the Mount of Olives? As Zechariah 14 shows. Once changed, do we experience the supper in a new dimension? Whatever that supper might be, spiritual dimension? Do we experience it as spirit beings?

When you go back to Revelation 19 and you look at the flow of the Bible here, let's just quickly do that. Revelation 19. We read through verse 9, but it goes on because what happens next is the return of Christ in verse 11. Heaven opens. There's the appearance of a white horse, and he who sets on is called faithful and true. In righteousness he judges and makes war, and his flames are like a flame of fire, and his head on his head were many crowns, and his name is written there that no one knew except himself. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, and with it he should strike the nations. And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And Christ returns. He descends, he appears, and whatever that will be, for this glorious event, there will be an angel standing in the sun, calling all the birds of heaven to come and feast on those that are the kings and the captains of the world, and the beasts and the kings of the earth that have been gathered together will make war against Christ, and they will be killed. And there will be a great final battle that will take place. This is what these remaining verses point to. And then it opens up in chapter 20 with the binding of Satan, that dragon, that serpent of old, in chapter 20 in verse 2. And when you come down to verse 4, John sees thrones, and those that sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw all the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

That's the flow. You come to a time when John sees saints setting on thrones for a thousand years.

What's happened in the meantime? From what we read earlier in chapter 19, what has happened? We'll go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Here's what's happened.

Verse 16, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

Paul describes this same event, the return of Christ. Verse 16 of 1 Thessalonians 4, The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words. We've just read in Revelation 19 that Christ will return, and as we meet him, we are going to return with him to the earth. A contextual, scriptural, doctrinal understanding of these two verses in 1 Thessalonians 4 leaves no other understanding other than that we will rise and then return with him in that event. Just as a king had the experience, an entourage from the city officials whenever a king, a Roman Caesar, entered into a city of that day, the mayor and the city council went out to meet him and escorted him in. We are going to rise and meet Christ in the air and escort him back, as Revelation 19 shows, and be with him forever, as the Scripture says, on the Mount of Olives, and it flows from there. This is what Scripture tells us.

And we pray that all of us will be there with him.

When will the wedding supper take place? What is the wedding supper? I've just read to you basically all the Scriptures that talk about that event, that we can glean from Scripture.

And they don't tell us when, and they don't tell us what, in the detail that sometimes we would like to have. In recent years, I've heard additional explanations that people have had. I've had people come to me and send papers and that perhaps there is some other preparation that will be allowed for during that particular time, when the wedding supper will take place. And I've read and talked and discussed, and then I read the Scriptures, and I see what the Scriptures tell us and what they don't tell us. As I like to tell students when I'm teaching at Ambassador Bible College, especially when it comes to the knowledge about God, we just went through that doctrine extensively. The Bible tells us that there are some secret things God keeps to Himself. And I've come to conclude, go through the years of looking at this particular subject, that God doesn't tell us everything. And in our zeal to grow in grace and knowledge, or to grow in understanding of the Scriptures, or to learn new truth, sometimes we can go a little bit beyond what the Scriptures tell us. Sometimes we go a lot beyond. And I think that this particular event is one that we have to leave and recognize that it will be one of those so much like the other trumpet plagues of Revelation that we didn't even get to, that when they finally happen, we'll look back and we'll know, oh yeah, that's what He meant. And I think on this particular subject, whatever it is, whenever it is, we'll look back and we'll say, that was a good meal. I think we'll look back and we'll say, I'm sure glad I accepted the invitation. I'm sure glad I prepared myself and I went into that supper with the right garments on. That all that I learned through all the experiences of my life, all the trials, the ups and downs, I didn't turn my back on that invitation.

I endured to the end. I overcame my sins. I trusted in God. I let Christ do His work in me.

And we'll look back and we'll say, I'm sure glad I was there. One thing I have learned in looking at the Bible and even trying to understand what this whole world is all about and how it's all structured, once we, that moment when the trumpet sounds, and in a moment in a twinkling of an eye, we are changed. And this mortal puts on immortality. Brethren, you and I will cross the threshold into eternity. And it's all different. There's no time. There is no space.

Throw away your watches. You will be a spirit being. And as 1 John 3 says, we will see Him as He is because we will be like Him. And we will be living in eternity. I don't know what that's like, but I tell you this, I sure want to be there.

I want to be there and experience what it's like.

And I want to be at that supper, whatever it is, and whenever it is.

And so I tell you that to magnify the glory of God and the promise and the hope that He holds out to us of a time when we will have been made ready and we will have prepared ourselves for that supper. So that we understand the value of our invitation, we stay faithful to it, we don't let anything distract us. Not a John Deere tractor, not a yoke of oxen, not a husband, not even a wife. Christ had some specific things to say about that, didn't He? Nothing will distract us from that goal that we look for, the Kingdom of God, and what God holds for us in eternity.

Keep that in your mind, and whatever it is, it'll be well worth it.

Remember what I said about the three-star Michelin restaurant? A restaurant gets three stars when it has exceptional cuisine worthy of a special journey.

Whatever and whenever the marriage supper will be, whatever God is telling us, brethren, it will be worth the journey. It will be worth the journey.