Friend, Where is Your Wedding Garment?
The reason Jesus’ friend was speechless!
And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.
Again, he sent out other servants, saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.
But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.
And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city [this actually happened in 70 AD]. Then he said to his servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
Therefore, go onto the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out onto the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So, he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless (Matthew 22:1-12).
The Jews were invited to the wedding (salvation), but when they rejected Jesus Christ the Messiah and they had Him crucified. The Jewish leaders insisted, we have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God (John 19:7).
So the Gentiles were invited, and the wedding hall was full of people. However, one man at the wedding was not properly dressed. When the man was asked the question how did he get in there without being properly dressed, he was speechless.
Here’s the catch! If the man got in, this means he was saved. The question meant why you didn’t prepare yourself by wearing the proper attire which is fitting for a wedding.
Why was the man speechless? He did not have an excuse for getting prepared for the wedding banquet.
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. 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 (Revelation 19:7-8).
Although the man was under dressed, he made it to heaven. But when he stood before Christ and saw the glory he could have had, that caused him to have great anguish (weeping and gnashing of teeth). What a somber ceremony. Do you think they will go eternity in that state of being? Of course not! And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:4).
Imagine the richest man in the world losing everything in one day, which has to be the most horrible time of his life. When the stock market crashed in 1929, some people took their own lives.
How are you acting? This means we are to practice living righteously. God placed us into positional righteousness/holiness when we were born again. However, we are required to practice living a righteous/holy life.
Are you prepared to meet Jesus, or will you be speechless? Be ready when Jesus comes!
Betty A. Burnett ~ burnettministries.org
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