By Li Min
It is recorded in Revelation 19:9, “And he said to me, Write, Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God.”
As Christians, we all know that when the Lord Jesus returns in the last days, all who are able to receive the Lord and dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb are wise virgins; the blessed; those with hope of being brought up into the kingdom of heaven. The foolish virgins, because they fail to dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb, become those who are rejected by the Lord, and eventually and inevitably fall into disaster. We all hope, when the Lord Jesus returns, to be one of the wise virgins, to greet the bridegroom, and to be invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. These are the last days, wars are constantly erupting, disasters such as famines, plagues, earthquakes, and tsunamis are becoming ever more serious, and celestial signs such as the Blood Moon Tetrad and the Super Blood Wolf Moon are also frequently appearing. Many of the prophecies of the Lord’s return in the Bible have essentially been fulfilled. At this critical moment of receiving the Lord’s return, how can we attend the marriage supper of the Lamb? Today, let’s discuss the three principles we should master concerning the marriage supper of the Lamb.
- Contents
- 1. Be Someone Who Humbly Seeks and Hungers for the Truth
- 2. Listen for God’s Voice
- 3. Focus on Discerning Evil Sayings and Fallacies, and Be on Guard Against Satan’s Tricks
1. Be Someone Who Humbly Seeks and Hungers for the Truth
The Lord Jesus taught us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). The Lord Jesus asks us to be people who humbly seek and hunger for the truth. No matter whether God’s words and works accord with our ideas, we should humbly seek, accept, and obey, so that we can be accepted by God and enter His kingdom. Similarly, faced with the very important matter of the Lord Jesus’ return, when we hear someone preach news of His return, we should seek and investigate with humility, let go of our own notions and imaginings, proactively listen to the gospel of the returned Lord, and see for ourselves if it contains expressions of the truth and has the work of the Holy Spirit, so that we can receive the Lord and dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb. If we cling to our own notions, if we are arrogant, self-important, arbitrarily make assertions, and hold to literal interpretations of the Bible, declaring that “any Lord Jesus who does not descend upon white clouds is not the Lord Jesus” or “whoever is not a spiritual body is not the Lord Jesus,” and therefore blindly reject God’s work, we run the risk of turning the Lord Jesus away when He returns in the last days and missing our chance to dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb. It says in Romans 11:33–34, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counselor?” God’s wisdom is wonderful and unpredictable. It is impossible for people to know how God will work in the last days. We are incapable of imagining it. The only thing we can do is let go of our own notions and proactively seek and investigate when we hear news of the Lord Jesus’ return. This is the only way to receive the Lord’s return.
Recall that when the Lord Jesus appeared and worked in Judea, the Pharisees stubbornly held the literal meaning of the Old Testament prophecies, insistent that God had to be called the Messiah. As a result, when God came and was called Jesus, they refused to accept Him. The Old Testament prophesied that a king of the Jews would be born and take power, and the Pharisees imagined this to mean that the king would definitely be born in the palace and liberate them from Roman rule. When the Lord Jesus came, He was born in a manger in Bethlehem, and instead of leading a Jewish overthrow of the Roman government, He preached the idea that “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), and taught people how to confess their sins, be tolerant, and bear crosses. When faced with the fact that the Lord’s appearance and work didn’t accord with human notions, the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees became arrogant and self-important because of their own understanding of the Scriptures and their familiarity with the law. They did not humbly seek, but instead became the chief culprits in framing, resisting, and condemning the Lord Jesus, incited believers to reject the Lord Jesus, and finally had the Lord Jesus crucified. All they said and did offended God’s disposition, and they were cursed by the Lord, causing Israel to die for 2,000 years. Meanwhile, those who humbly sought and hungered the truth like Peter and John, never used their own notions and imaginings on the work of the Lord Jesus. When they heard what He preached, they hungered to hear His sermons, followed Him, and finally, through the Lord Jesus’ words and works, recognized that He was the prophesied Messiah, and received the Lord’s salvation.
Through the fellowship above, we can understand that we mustn’t evaluate or delimit God’s appearance and work based on our own notions and imaginings. Instead, we should be reasonable, as well as humbly seek and investigate, because only in this way will we have the chance to see God’s appearance and receive God’s guidance.
2. Listen for God’s Voice
There are many prophecies in Revelation 2–3 similar to “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In Revelation 3:20, we read, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” The Lord Jesus also clearly told us, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). From these prophecies, we see that the Lord Jesus will return and speak to us in the last days. He will tell us all the truths we previously did not understand in our belief in the Lord, so that we may receive all truth from God. So, we need to focus on listening for God’s voice, and receive the returned Lord and dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb by listening for God’s voice or words.
The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Only God can express the truth, point out the way for us, and give us life. We can determine whether or not what we hear are the words of the returned Lord based on the words spoken, whether they contain the truth and give us a supply of life, whether they contain God’s authority and power, and so on. Just as when the Lord Jesus came to work, He taught people to pray, how to be tolerant and generous, to love and pray for our enemies, and so on based on our actual troubles and difficulties. These words are truths, and they point out specific paths for practice, thereby giving us a supply of life and clear principles by which to act when things happen to us. The disciples and followers of the Lord also recognized from His expressed truth that He is the prophesied Messiah because they perceived power and authority in His sermons. The Samaritan woman understood from the Lord Jesus’ words that outward rituals are not the concern with prayer, but rather that people worship God in spirit and truth, and understood that God is the only source of the water of life. Through speaking with the Lord, she also discovered that the Lord Jesus observes people’s hearts and souls, and that He can reveal all we do in secret, and she thus recognized that the Lord Jesus is the prophesied Messiah. Nathanael also recognized from the Lord Jesus’ words that He observes all things and knows people well. Only God could have such authority, so he recognized that the Lord Jesus is God and followed Him.
So, if we wish to receive the returned Lord Jesus in the last days, we must listen for God’s voice because only in this way will we have the chance to dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb and enter God’s kingdom.
3. Focus on Discerning Evil Sayings and Fallacies, and Be on Guard Against Satan’s Tricks
When the Lord Jesus worked, He once said to His disciples, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” (Mark 8:15). God observed people’s hearts and souls, He knew that the Pharisees often used the method of interpreting the Scripture for the Jewish believers to twist its meaning, misguide, and mislead people. Outwardly they were humble and patient, but they hated the truth, hated God, and wildly resisted God, which is why He warned His disciples to be on guard against the words of the Pharisees, lest they be deceived and lose the Lord’s salvation. The Pharisees said to believers at the time to stop them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?” (John 7:47–48). In saying this, they meant: the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were Jewish leaders who were familiar with the Scriptures, who labored and worked, and since they did not accept the Lord Jesus, it proved that the Lord Jesus was not the Messiah. The Pharisees also condemned and blasphemed the Lord Jesus by saying, “This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Matthew 12:24). They claimed that the Lord Jesus cast out devils through the prince of devils, because they feared the Jewish believers would follow the Lord, and that in turn no one would support or provide for them, nor could they retain their status and positions; so they wildly spread rumors, slandered, and blasphemed the Lord Jesus to make believers deny that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah and reject the Lord’s salvation. The Jewish people were deceived by the outward piety of the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees. The Jewish people regarded them as leaders in their faith in God, blindly obeyed the evil ideas and fallacies spread by the Jewish leaders, refused to investigate the work of the Lord Jesus, and eventually followed the leaders of Judaism in resisting and condemning the Lord and nailing the Lord Jesus to the cross, and were cursed and punished by God. This entirely fulfills God’s prophecy, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).
We can see that in the matter of investigating the true way, if we lack discernment of evil sayings and fallacies, we will easily fall for Satan’s tricks, or even follow Satan in doing evil and resisting God, and thereby lose God’s salvation. Similarly, in the critical matter of receiving the returned Lord Jesus in the last days, to stop us from accepting God’s work in the last days and disrupt God’s management, Satan uses all variety of people, matters, and things to spread evil sayings and fallacies to deceive and disturb us. The truth is the only way to see through the tricks of Satan, and as long as we can discern and evaluate things according to the Lord Jesus’ words, we can guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, receive the returned Lord Jesus, and dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb. For example, the Lord Jesus promised us, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). He also told us, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). In Revelation, God also reminds us many times that “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). God’s words are very clear in stating that in the matter of receiving the Lord’s return, only by always praying to the Lord, hearing what the voice of the Holy Spirit says to the churches, and recognizing the voice of God can we receive the returned Lord Jesus. When we go to church meetings, we often hear things like, “Brothers and sisters, your stature is small and you lack discernment. If someone preaches that the Lord has returned, you shouldn’t listen, read, or investigate. That’s the way to protect yourself from being confused.” “Any preaching that says the Lord has returned is false, and we shouldn’t investigate such things to avoid being deceived.” These words sound as if they are spoken for our benefit, but if we compare them carefully with the Lord Jesus’ words, they are completely contrary to the Lord’s will and requirements. They are also a great hindrance to us in receiving the Lord. If we lack discernment toward these words and blindly obey, won’t we refuse the Lord at our doors? How could we receive the Lord’s appearance that way? By doing that, don’t we lose all hope of reuniting with the Lord and dining at the marriage supper of the Lamb?
So, we should learn from the lesson of the Jewish believers, and have our own opinions and ideas about receiving the Lord. We should pray to God, seek and obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and not blindly listen to any person’s words, because only in this way can we avoid being deceived by Satan’s evil sayings and fallacies, and only in this way can we receive the returned Lord and dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The three principles above are crucial for us to receive the returned Lord Jesus and dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb. If we focus more on contemplation, seeking, and entry, we will fulfill our desire to be reunited with the Lord.
May God be with us all, and may He continue to enlighten and guide us. Amen!
