ET.001.03
Luke 14:16-24
¹⁶He said to him, “A man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; ¹⁷and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
¹⁸But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
¹⁹Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’
²⁰Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’
²¹And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’
²²And the slave said, ‘Master, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’
²³And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
²⁴For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.
I would like to point out that this meal will be held on the evening of the time, and that a meal, in a spiritual sense, always points to communion with God.
Revelation 19:9
… Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
It is a spiritual feast of very high quality, yes of the highest class!
It is a spiritual experience of fellowship with the heavenly Bridegroom Himself!
The Lamb of God wants to be a Meal to us; He wants to live in the deepest communion with us!
“He invited many” (Luke 14:16).
You and I, we are all invited to participate in this Divine feast of the last days.
Luke 14:17
At the dinner hour he sent his slave (servant; type of the Holy Ghost) to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’
Since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit He has been active to invite people to this great meal (among others through the mouth of many preachers).
You are also invited! How did you respond to His invitation?
Luke 14:18
But they all alike began to make excuses.
The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’
When everything is ready at the end of time to hold the feast of the Marriage of the Lamb, the Spirit of God is sent with this special Message from heaven. But just at that time the Christians, through the evil effects of satan and the world, are going to “apologize with one accord”!
Their hearts have then been taken captive by the cunning deceptions and temptations of Satan and the world, and by other things that fascinate them more than the spiritual things of God.
The first group of Christians excused themselves.
They have bought a field and want to see their property in order to enjoy it in the midst of it, in order to be able to say there with a contented heart and think, “I am rich and I have enriched myself, I have need of nothing! This all belongs to me!”
The hunger for personal property, for money and wealth is being stirred up to idolatrous heights by the devil in the last days!
Many Christians have since long exchanged their joy in the Spirit of Christ, for earthly riches, and feel very happy in the so-called “prosperity-gospel churches.”
And Satan, God’s adversary, laughs as he throws the euros, dollars, and coveted possessions into your lap.
▪︎ He urges you to work overtime;
▪︎ Husband and wife go to work;
▪︎ Every effort is made to gather more and more possessions.
And all this …
▪︎ to satisfy the great material hunger of the heart
▪︎ to be able to buy the coveted factored items from the attractive shop windows.
Even workers of Christ allow themselves to be suffocated by Satan, by eagerly opening up to earthly blessings.
The greedy spirit feasts in them, and while they delight in a life of riches and opulence, they do not realize that these “blessings” do not come from God, but from Satan, for the sole purpose of them gaining riches, and keeping them away from God.
Christian, don’t you realize that all this tinsel of the world is thrown into your bosom by the adversary to blind your eyes for the coming great feast of the Marriage of the Lamb, to which the Holy Spirit is still calling you today ?
You delight
▪︎ in the possession of your luxury car,
▪︎ in the possession of your house, which is decorated, as was it like a dream,
▪︎ in the possession of your well-filled bank account,
and you continue to delight in it all the time.
You can dream of it, and talk all day long about the great comforts of your newly acquired car, about the luxury in your home, about your material wealth, but …
▪︎ you have no more time for Jesus,
▪︎ you no longer have time for the inner room, where you previously raised your hands in prayer
▪︎ you no longer have time for fellowship with Him,
▪︎ You no longer have time for eager and grateful Word studies!
Slowly, but surely, you also miss the prayer meetings, the Bible studies; yes, even the public meetings!
You say “Holy Ghost, keep me excused” now!
▪︎ The hunt for more and more possessions,
▪︎ The hunt for the top positions,
▪︎ and the delight in these things has become so much more important to you than the feast of the Marriage of the Lamb …!
Luke 14:19
Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’
Here is the second spell that Satan is now putting in the heart of the Christian.
The purchase of five yoke of oxen; the admission that the five senses draw us like as many yoke oxen into a world where the sensual life is experienced in an idolatrous sense!
They attract us to the lusts of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling.
▪︎ Eyes become TV-bound, watching programs and films that one should actually not watch, or secretly enjoying dirty magazines …
And the devil laughs … The adversary will gladly encourage you to keep looking like that, and thereby lose the vision of the big meal, and completely forget about the invitation
▪︎ The ears delight in beat music and drive the soul rhythm-crazy.
Satan laughs … Because it makes you to forget all about Jesus, and it makes you an easy prey to him.
▪︎ People go to distant beaches to feel the sun.
They enjoy the “golden sun”. Isn’t it wonderful to feel the sun burning on your skin?
One can sunbathe for hours and hours, but … one has no more time for Jesus!
Satan laughs … The adversary will gladly encourage you to stay that way, then you will forget Jesus and the inner room …!
Thus one is deceived by “Satan’s five yoke of oxen”.
And you say to the Holy Ghost, “Consider me excused, I want to inspect those five yoke of oxen.
They have now become more important to you, than God’s invitation to come to the dinner of the Wedding of the Lamb …
Luke 14:20
Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’
In these few words the Lord mentions the whole idolatrous, and lawless sex experience of the last days.
The devil has gone to great lengths to focus on human passions and sexual urges
▪︎ by making it public and talking about it as something as normal as the weather,
▪︎ by legalizing pornography,
▪︎ by removing the female shame and modesty … and he did so successfully.
The sexual urges of the last days are going to break all records:
▪︎ normal sex,
▪︎ but also homosexual sex,
▪︎ lesbian sex,
▪︎ experienced sex in free love
▪︎ and free sex in a community context,
▪︎ yes even “shown sex” in all shapes and forms.
And the Christian?
He or she too, if he or she does not turn away from all this, and arm himself in Christ with the armor of God, will be dragged along by this sex tidal wave.
People look at it and are amazed at all that sex brutality and are subsequently unconsciously influenced by it.
Then this also becomes important to him or her, more important than the meal of the Wedding of the Lamb! “Consider me excused, I married a woman ..!
You see, friends, this threefold spell the devil puts into the heart of the Latter-day Christian, and it has been mentioned by the Christ, as one of the signs in connection with His second coming (Luke 17:20-37).
As a result, many Christians are chilled in their love towards God, their first love, by this multiplying iniquity. And they miss the boat in regard to the meal of the Wedding of the Lamb, for Jesus emphatically states:
Luke 14:24
None of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.
None of us who persist in this deviated, unrepentant way of life will be partakers of the rich blessing of the Marriage of the Lamb unless…
▪︎ we are turning away from satan’s temptations
▪︎ and we consciously prepare,
so we may experience the grace to enter the wedding hall of God’s Lamb.
Matthew 25:10-13
¹⁰ … Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.
¹¹Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’
¹²But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’
¹³Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
If one does not change the attitude of life, one will soon see others entering that Wedding Hall and being put on with tremendous powers of the Holy Spirit and a blazing pure love of God.
They will be seen going out like this and partaking of the final revival that will stir the whole world! While they themselves will be left cold and dry and lukewarm with a fierce spiritual jealousy in the heart … (Compare Luke 14:21-23; Matthew 25:11-12).
Friends, we live in a dangerous time of the deceiving, seducing powers from the evil one, who has already bound many Christians, made them lose their “first love” and made them lukewarm.
It is a time typified by Jesus Himself with the church condition of Laodicea, where one knows a prevailing lukewarmness through a strongly materialistic attitude to life.
To be continued
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