,, "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."”
Revelation 19: 7
“Let us rejoice and be glad, and give glory to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife is ready: now we have come to the part which describes the marriage of the Lamb, and of this the Lord Jesus spoke:
,, 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. "Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 'Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.'"So those servants went out into 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. "Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"For many are called, but few are chosen."
Matthew 22: 1-14
In this story the father sends servants to call the guests but some did not want to come, some did not come because of the work they had while others killed the servants, then later we see that the guests were there but there was one among them who did not have wedding attire .We still see what happened to him.
iWe can say that this is a picture of what is happening on earth but also at the wedding, through the centuries many have been invited but have found an excuse not to come to the wedding as the story goes, many servants of God who invited to the wedding lost their lives on earth because they were persecuted and killed as in the story and at the wedding no one who is not born again and dressed in "Christ's robes of justice" will be able to attend the wedding and all who do not have these robes will end up in the darkness of hell because they did not want to accept the invitation .And there are many of them because it says, "Because many are called, but few are chosen."
Then there is the story of ten girls
,, "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. "Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. "Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, "but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. "But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. "And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'"Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. "And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'"But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. "Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!'"But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'”
Matthew 25: 1-12
The content of this story is very clear and we see that some girls were not ready and there is an emphasis on the unwillingness of people to come to the wedding while the emphasis in the first story was on disinterest in attending the wedding, however both ways lead people to ruin because they refuse God's call.
And all those who are ready and interested in the wedding, that is, in the Lord Jesus whom they trust while on earth will be at the wedding, At the wedding of the Lamb the bridegroom is the Lord Jesus Christ John the Baptist is a friend and we see it from the words of John the Baptist who said on this topic:
,, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.”
John 3:29
"For the marriage of the Lamb is coming" the Lord Jesus is the Lamb because salvation is by grace through His blood but also the bridegroom and every bridegroom has a bride and here is what the Apostle Paul writes:
,, For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
2 Cor.11: 2
And in the Epistle to the Ephesians it is written very similarly but an illustration is used which is familiar to us and which we can understand:
,, For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Eph.5: 23-32
Let us now see who belongs to the Church of Christ.
Old Testament believers do not belong to the Church and the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel Hosea describes Israel as the wife of Yahweh but Israel I now as a divorced woman for her idolatry and when she returns to God cannot be a bride. 2,3: 1-5). The Old Testament woman was only from Israel and the New Testament church, the girl, is the bride of all nations and she is the body of Christ.
,, For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Eph.5: 30-32
But before the wedding, Christ should come for his Church, and we studied that in the fourth chapter, and after taking the Church on earth, there will be Israel and other nations that will go through the great troubles we have studied.
After taking the Church, Christ's judgment in heaven will follow, in which only the faithful newborns will be, and the Apostle Paul writes about it:
,, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
2 Cor.5: 10
,, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
1 Cor.3: 11-15
Here the Apostle Paul writes to the faithful and only they can build on the foundation of which Christ is, and all that we built if it was good we will receive rewards in Christ's court and if we built "wood, hay or straw" it will all burn and we will to enter the kingdom "as through fire" In this court, no one will be doomed to ruin, but if there will be unconfessed sins or we have not always lived to the glory of God, "it will go to the detriment" of what exactly that means. whoever is in heaven and has appeared in this court cannot be cast into hell.
And now the lesson for all who are still on earth is to live according to the will of God and every sin should be confessed which was committed consciously or unconsciously so that we would not be "disgraced" in court and that is what everyone can do, for that is we just need to be interested and ready, unlike those "guests and girls" who did not accept the invitation. Let's be wise and accept the invitation.
And when all this is over, the wedding begins and then the Church will be "ready" and the Apostle Paul writes about it:
,, He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Eph.5: 27
So we have seen that when Jesus comes to the clouds for the Church, the Church will not yet be ready to reign, because only at the end of the great tribulations, at the end of Christ's judgment for the Church, does it say: "His wife also has prepared herself."
,, He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Eph.5: 27
Now the Church is first mentioned as a woman.