Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of loving Jesus through faithfulness in ministry, urging ministers to remain true to the gospel message despite societal pressures to compromise. He highlights that the fear of man often leads to diluting the truth, which ultimately harms both the messenger and the audience. Bickle asserts that true love for Jesus compels us to uphold the integrity of the message, calling for a return to the core of evangelism that focuses on a deep, personal relationship with Christ. He warns against the dangers of presenting a diluted gospel that prioritizes approval over truth, reminding us that our loyalty to Jesus must be rooted in love.

Thank you in the name of Jesus and we ask you for the spirit of grace and the spirit of power to come and touch our heart. Lord, I ask you even now for impartation in Jesus' name, amen. In the eighth session of this course on the first commandment, we're going to be looking at loving Jesus through faithfulness in ministry. And what I'm talking about is the first commandment, expressing it in our lives as ministers of the gospel, whether your audience is one or ten or a thousand, we're all ministers of the gospel. So my focus tonight is expressing wholehearted love to Him in the faithfulness to the true message. One of the descriptions of the overcomers of the book of Revelation, they are faithful witnesses. And the issue of compromising the message is a very prevalent issue today in the body of Christ. The compromising of the message because of the fear of man and because of the fear of the loss of advantage and opportunity. And the fear is real. We really will lose opportunity if we're faithful to the message. It's not hypothetical, it's real. And so in this session, I want to talk about loving God with all of our heart as messengers. Again, whether our audience is one, whether it's on an email, whether it's to the little, you know, the little boy in the neighborhood that you're witnessing to, it doesn't matter what the audience is. What I'm talking about is a intentional expression of love to Jesus because, I mean, by being faithful to the message, the truth of the message. And secondly, which is not my primary message in this course, showing love to people by being faithful to the message. Because when we change the nature of the message, when we lower the standards of truth, though the people may be pleased in the short run, their spirit and their spiritual life is injured when the truth is not spoken to them. There's a prevailing, I mean, it's a tide of wickedness that's emerging in the church today of compromise of the true message. And the motivation, I am confident, or certainly part of the motivation, is the fear of man and the desire, which is the same thing, to gain an advantage from people's approval. But beloved, let me tell you, when we do that, we are making a statement about the quality of our love to Jesus. And we are injuring the people that we're lying to. And I believe that the compromise of the truthful message, and there's many different expressions of it, is really an issue of failure in love to Jesus. I don't believe it's mostly, at the leadership level at least, I don't think it's mostly failure of clarity, lack of clarity. I believe it's failure in love. I believe the clarity is there, but the cost is too high. So we draw back, we lower the standards, we blur the lines, and we gain the applause of people. But the, the grief of Jesus' heart. Again, the issue in the book of Revelation, in the generation the Lord returns, is the issue of faithful witnesses. Now Jesus calls Himself a faithful witness several times in the book of Revelation. He's referred to that, He personally says it, and it's, He's referred to that by others. What Jesus is saying when He calls Himself a faithful witness, I know the price you pay for love by being truthful. I know what it means to hold the line when the anger rises and the rejection sets in. And so when Jesus calls Himself a faithful witness, He's not just saying, He's not just making a statement that what He says is true. He's certainly, that statement's made. He's saying, I understand what it costs you to be a faithful witness. I am, I was one on the earth, in the flesh, in my humanity, and it costs me, and I know the pain of it, and I know what you're going through, and I take it personally. I take it personal when you're a faithful witness. Now I, I find that the closer that my ministry paradigm or perspective, paradigm just a fancy word for perspective, if our ministry perspective, if we see the big picture, that Jesus is a bridegroom, and that's what this parable is about, and the people are His bride forever, and it's a relationship of the most tender and deep love. This is the message that we're focused on, and this is what we're contending for, and this is what we're standing for, and it's worth paying the price of rejection. And the rejection is not hypothetical. The rejection is real. It's a problem with some people in, in leadership. They think it's, that the cost is hypothetical. No. Everybody who stands for the truth will be rejected by believers and unbelievers alike. They will be, they will receive scorn and ridicule. I want to stand before the Lord and say, I loved you with all my strength, all my heart. That's what this course is about. And I did it, not just in my personal life, but I did it in my public life, my public witness. And I, I'm not saying this is some bravado thing, but I'm saying it for those that I'm associated with long term. I expect a, a onslaught of criticism, even within those who name the name of Christ, with all kinds of negative statements in our future, because we want to, by the grace of God, love Jesus by being faithful to truth. This is not a small thing. Our loyalty to truth is rooted in our intentional love for Jesus. And it's again, it's love for people. But I'm focusing on the love for Jesus part, but the love for people part is a very worthy one. We injure them spiritually when we lie to them. We have the evangelist summit this weekend. I, one of the biggest areas of which there's lies is in the subject of evangelism. It's one of the biggest areas of lies. And then the second, the two biggest ones that I can think of is first in the area of evangelism. And second, the second biggest group of liars in the church are the prophets. I, I mean this. If I had to pick it, I would say first it's the people who tell the message of salvation. And second, it's the people who tell the message of the future, of what's coming. And the people who lie about salvation, they tell people several different lies. And I don't mean the evangelist. Everybody tells people about salvation. We're all supposed to. Number one is by telling the lie that all religions end up, people get, they all get saved at the end or nearly they all do. That's an absolute lie. There's only one way of salvation and it's through Jesus. So that's lie number one that we all get there sooner or later. And those lies are being told by evangelists on television more and more and on the airwaves. And it's like it's a grievous lie. Lie number two, which is more prevalent today, but this first lie is increasing, is the lie that you can be saved without repenting. The idea that if you repeat a prayer, Jesus is committed to say yes. Beloved, many people pray and ask Jesus into their heart and He says no. He does. He goes no. You must come to me on my terms. I am not coming to you on your terms or the terms of the evangelist or the church leader, whatever. But because of love, we're going to tell people a message of salvation that is anchored in allegiance to Jesus in truth. We're going to tell there is no other way because there isn't. There's only one man who was perfect. Then he took the penalty of the guilty. The innocent one became guilty so that the guilty ones, us, could become innocent as a free gift. It's not a matter of religious elitism. Our religion is better than yours. It's an issue of justice. If any other religion can produce a perfect man that is willing to take the wrath of God for the others, then we have something to talk about. It's an issue of justice, not religious elitism. When I talk to leaders or people in other religions, they go, you think your, your religion is better than, than ours. You're intolerant and you have a spirit of superiority and pride. I go, no, it's an issue of justice. In the court of God, is there anyone that will answer for your guilt? There's only one that can answer and it's, it's just an issue of justice. He paid the penalty. We get the free gift of salvation. If he didn't, our religion wouldn't work. It's about justice. But then again, the next problem, and it's about allegiance to Jesus. It really is. Because the fear of man that motivates God's servants to dumb the message down and dilute it and reduce it, really it is the desire, often, not always, sometimes it's just legitimate confusion or deception. Sometimes the messengers really just are confused or they just are deceived. But I believe mostly it's an issue of not, of wanting the approval of man and wanting to get a response that they can boast in. And the Lord says, I love you, but I take this personal when you do this. It's personal. There is no such thing as salvation without faith and repentance. You don't come and repeat a prayer and then you're guaranteed you're saved. Now I've seen people repeat a prayer and just by the grace of God they really got saved. But I have no right to tell them that. I have no knowledge of that. I don't know what's going on in their heart. We must tell them they come with a full yes in their heart. Now an unbelieve, a new believer's yes is real small. But it's their all. It's as big as they have. They don't even know the issues, Harley, but the yes is big to them. Even though in, when they look back it was just a little, just a little bit of insight. But it was all the insight they had and that is wholeheartedness. We must call people not to perfection. They're going to fail many times but to a cry in their spirit to give themselves to the Lord. That is the message that we must hold the line on. God is so good and powerful. I've seen people, they didn't even pray the prayer and they got saved. They heard the message and just somewhere in the movements of their heart they, oh God, and they start crying and there they are. Well hey, wait a second. You didn't give us a chance to lead you through a prayer. My point is as ministers of the Gospel, whether one-on-one or one-on-ten or one-on-a-thousand, we must be loyal to Jesus in love by being faithful witnesses. Well the biggest area of liars in the body of Christ I believe is in the area of evangelism. I really do. Not evangelist but the area of speaking the message of salvation. And the second one is the area, it's the prophets, not necessarily prophets per se, talking about the future that mostly good is coming and only good. Now here's the good news. Great good is coming but it's coming in context to great trouble. It's not either or. It's both and. They're happening simultaneous together. The definition of a false prophet is someone who says peace, peace when on the Lord's agenda it isn't peace. Now peace as a principle in the Bible is, is a high value in the Bible. I mean Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He's the one that makes a way of peace. His whole kingdom is about peace. But a true message applied in a wrong timing, in a wrong context is a false prophet. In the Old Testament the false prophets were defined several times and that's the most, that's one. I can think of another one. Just a prophesying about the idols and stuff but that is one of the prominent definitions of a false prophet. They're promising peace in a wrong application, in a wrong timing, a wrong setting and they're lying about the Lord's agenda. Now it's, now if you go the other direction you tell the truth about salvation and the truth about trouble that's coming you will lose so many friends on earth but you will have lots of friends in heaven. I'm, that's cute but I'm not trying to be cute. You will lose many friends on earth if you tell the truth about the nature of salvation and you tell the truth about the trouble in the future you will lose many friends. But you do it not in a kind of a heroic bravado spirit. You do it out of love. There's a man that loves you and you love him and he's at the right hand of the Father. He's fully God. He's fully man. Now this parable in Matthew chapter 22 is the parable. It's a well-known one. That the kingdom of God is likened to a king, which is the Father, arranging a marriage for his son. And so Jesus, here he is in the final message before, his final public message. Matthew 21 and 22. Here he is. It's his last time before the nation of Israel and he declares to them this parable. Now this parable, we're going to read it just real brief and then I'll break it down, has an application. It has two main applications. This parable is a message to the messengers. It's a, we learn, we apply it as messengers of the Word of God. We get insight into the nature of the message we're proclaiming. And then secondly, it's applied to the recipients of the message, that they should not compromise when they hear the message, but the messengers are to be focused on the message that's on the Lord's heart. And Jesus is going to lay it out here as the ultimate faithful witness. Now we want to be, one more word on faithful witness. We want to be a faithful witness to Jesus, not a faithful witness to a secular culture. The culture which is permeating the church, the church in America is so permeated with a secular compromising culture, there's very little difference in most gatherings of believers between the culture outside the walls and the culture in the wall. It's permeated with darkness and compromise. And what I hear constantly from the pulpits is a witness, a faithful witness to affirm the culture. It's a man-pleasing testimony to get an applause from the culture. So you got to decide, are you going to be a faithful witness to the values of a fallen culture, that you will echo them, repeat them, affirm them, or will you be a faithful witness rooted in love to the King of Kings? You cannot do both. And again the book of Revelation repeats, I mean often emphasizes that the overcomers, they will be so truthful to the testimony that God gives them, that they will not love their life even when it causes their death. Revelation 12 verse 11. They will give the word of their testimony, they will give a true witness to what God has put in their heart, based on the Word of God. And it says they won't love their lives even to a degree that costs them a death at the hands of their persecutors. Well let's look at just a little bit of the parable here. Matthew chapter 22 verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king, that's the father. He arranged a marriage for his son. Now the father from eternity past, from the past ages past, has been planning a wedding. Now this is going to give a different angle, a different lens, a different paradigm. That's what a paradigm is, a perspective, a point of view, a different view into the nature of the kingdom. Jesus said let me tell you, my father has been planning a wedding from eternity past. This whole thing is about a wedding. Verse 3. Now the first point of focus is the messengers, the servants. He sent out messengers. And the message, the nature of the message was to call the people to a wedding. Now I don't believe in calling the people to a wedding you need to say the word wedding. I don't believe that's the point. The message of the wedding means that Jesus has opened his heart to a deep relationship. He wants a deep and profound heart-to-heart relationship in love. That's the message. You don't always have the opportunity and a short witness to explain the dynamics of the wedding but you can tell the truth of the wedding which is the open-hearted giving ourselves to Him because He gave Himself to us at the heart level in love. So that's the message. Women are the sons of God and men are the bride of Christ. And what that means as sons of God, God has made available His power, His throne. He's opened up the power of His throne so therefore men and women we are sons of God. That means we have access to His throne, His power. As the bride of Christ He's opened up His heart. We have access to His heart, His emotions as the bride of Christ. It's not about being male or female, neither one of them. It's about having access to the throne. You move in power, sons of God. Or you have access to His heart. You touch His emotions, bride of Christ. And that's the message we're calling them to. We're not giving them a kind of a quick fire insurance clause, though it is biblical to warn them to flee the wrath of hell. It really is biblical. Someone's, you know, some guys kind of in the vein I'm in, they get, they kind of get carried away. They say, we're not just interested in escaping hell, beloved. We are very interested in escaping hell. We really are. I don't want to, I don't want to in any way minimize that reality. We do want to escape hell. But the message is not first about escaping hell. It's first about encountering the heart of God in a bridal relationship forever. And again you don't need to say wedding and bridal to make the point. That is our first thought. Not necessarily the first thing you're going to say, but that's what's in your heart when you're looking at the Holy Spirit. Show me a way to tell them not only what they will be saved from hell, we want to make that clear, but what they're saved to, encountering the heart of God forever in a marriage relationship. Our message involves that which we're saved from and that which we're saved to. In Luke chapter 3 verse 7, John the Baptist asked the Pharisees, he goes, who warned you to flee the wrath to come? He says, you're coming here like you're repenting. He goes, I got a feeling you're not. That's the kind of the indication you get in Luke 3. But John was, he hit the point, he goes, who told you that you needed to flee the wrath? So we need the wrath of God in the message. There is something we're escaping. It's true, it's real and it's a powerful part of the message that's nearly extinct in the church today. I guarantee you, those of you that are in this summit and Hal Lenhart's teaching, I promise you you're hearing the whole message. Because today mostly evangelism is about feeling better about your circumstances. Your life's a mess. If you accept Jesus, you won't be depressed and the money thing will sort out later and you'll get some friends. You might be undepressed soon. The money thing may sort out and you may get a few friends or none of those may happen in the immediate. Salvation is not mostly about making things easier. Now although I have witnessed things getting easier for people many times, while they get harder in other ways because of their faithful witness to the Lord. It's the both and. But our message is a, is a witness of that which they're fleeing, rooted in eternity and that which they're gaining that's rooted in eternity. And of course they both have temporal applications now, but they're both rooted in the realm of eternity and as a faithful witness we want to declare these. So verse three, the father sent out servants and he, the nature of the message is unmistakable. They are to call the people to a wedding. Not just to observe it, but to be a part of it in an intimate way as the bride. Verse five, the people made light of it and we'll look at all the verses later on in the notes. I'm just giving you an abbreviated kind of overview of the, of the parable so you get the feeling of it. Verse five, the people made light of it and they went their own ways. Verse eight, he sent out his servants again. And what's he said about the same message? The wedding is ready. It's not just the message, you will get more money, you will have more friends, you will feel happier soon if you pray this prayer. No, that wasn't the message, though I love it when that happens. I love it when people get happier soon, I mean that's cool. But that isn't the core point of what I'm offering them. I'm telling them there is a wedding, there is a God who is so good, whose heart is so wide open and he's lovesick over you and he wants you but only on his terms. You know why he demands his terms? For many reasons. But one reason is his terms are the only terms that cause love to grow. He is love. His terms, there is no other terms, there are no other terms in which love would grow. There are no other terms. It's not like he's the boss. So it's my way or the highway. It is true, it is his way or the highway. It is true. But it's not about flexing his muscles, it's about him insisting on love. He says it is my way, but I know something you don't know. The other way won't end up in love long term. It just won't. I promise you I know the, the end from the beginning. But notice in verse 8, the call the second time is to a wedding. Verse 9. He says again, go to the highways, go to the byways, as many as you find, invite them to the wedding. Not just to get more money, to get happier and to get more friends. Tell them there is an eternal wedding. And again you don't have to use the term wedding. That, I don't think that's the point. But the reality is what we're aiming at. The nature of the message is that the wedding they would not just be saved from something temporal, a hard life. They would be saved to something that is encounter with God that begins in this age and matures throughout eternity, that is pleasurable beyond description. Then at the end of the parable, in the same context, it's a little, it's later on, Jesus gives the great commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all your soul, all your mind. The point I want to make, Jesus gives the Shema Yisrael, the great commandment. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart. He gives it in the setting. It's some hours later. He has some dialogue. They send some guys to test him. But it's in the context of the message of the kingdom being like a marriage relationship. He calls them to wholehearted love. The two are connected. Now again we're not just calling the people to love God. That, that's the, that's the point of this whole course. But tonight we're being more specific. I'm calling the messengers to be truthful to the nature of the message. The message is about a wedding. And Jesus tells him in verse 37, it's about loving me with all of your heart and strength. Why? Because I love you with all of my heart and all of my strength. It's about being equally yoked in love forever. Can you imagine the indescribable reality of the Genesis 1 God? The God who did, who created a Genesis 1. He loves me and you. With all of his might he loves you. With all of his mind he loves you. The Genesis 1 God. Beloved, this is indescribable good news. This beats things getting easier in the next few years in our circumstances. It's way bigger than that. But I love it when things get easier in my circumstances. I like that part. But that's not the core. That's not the entry into the kingdom. And though the Holy Spirit may lead you in an occasion to be the opening door conversation, those issues, Holy Spirit's very creative. We're not going to narrowly put him in a box. But the whole time, even if that's the open door, we know where we're going to take them conceptually. To love God with all their heart, because he loves them with all of his heart. To love him with all their mind, because that's how he loves us. And it's a crime of ingratitude for us to be before our Creator and to shun him. And the glory of who he is and all that he's given us, it's a crime of, of incalculable measure. That one so beautiful, so good, so perfect would take such interest in me and I would have no interest in returning it. That is an unthinkable concept in terms of the reality from the heavenly court's point of view. Paragraph A. And saying this to our visitors, we never get through the notes. So you don't look at them and go, oh my goodness, we're just on the first paragraph. No. I leave the notes for you to run with on your own. Revelation 19, verse 7 to 9. Jesus, here he is, he's on his last public message. He's standing before Israel. He knows this is it. Now Matthew chapter 24 and 25, he's going to talk about the end times, but he does it to the disciples in private. This is his final message. He surely saved the best wine for last. His final message was to give a perspective or a paradigm, same idea, a paradigm of the kingdom from a bridal lens. He's talked about the kingdom as a merchant who was investing his money, as a farmer who worked in the field, as a soldier at war. There's many paradigms of the kingdom, but he saves the best one for last. He goes, now let me tell you the grand picture. It is like a wedding. It is a wedding. It's not just a picture, it is reality. Beloved, when I meet an unbeliever and I look at them in the eyes and I think indescribable glory is waiting you. It's not just you need to get your life a little happier. I'm thinking, do you have any comprehension who you are? I don't say all that to them and throw them off a little bit, but I'm looking at them and I can just feel the Lord's joy and I'm going, do you have whispering in my heart? Now it's not going to do this every time this way, but I, or I'm on an airplane and I'm just looking at the people around, indescribable value. They can't begin to comprehend the story that will unfold in their life if they connect with truth. Yes, they will be escape, wrath, but they will enter into a realm, a tidal wave of love that is, will consume them. It will just overwhelm them forever. And it's not just love, like everything goes good, love. Things really go good, especially the age to come, really good, but it's more than that. It's an interaction with a man and an interaction with his father forever by the Holy Spirit, forever, forever. We are going to be unspeakably happy forever because of the man that we, that loves us and we love him. Because of the interaction, I mean, we're gonna have some really cool houses and the streets are nice and the parks are awesome, lots of cool things, but beloved, we will have an unspeakable glory, the measure of it. This is what salvation is about. We don't have any reason to lie to people, to dumb the thing down to where it's all about them getting more money and more friends right now. And to dumb it down by telling them if they pray a prayer, it's done, it's settled. Then eight months later, they give up and they go, I tried Christianity. No, you didn't. You've never tried Christianity. Yes, I did. That one church told me I did and it didn't work. You never tried it. They lied to you. Did they tell you to give your whole heart? No. They said, if I prayed the prayer, they lied to you. I don't know they meant to, probably under the pressure of the moment. They wanted to get hands raised and so, hey, let's go for it. I don't know why they lied to you, but they did. You give him all of your heart. I promise you it will work. Promise you it will work because he's given all of his heart to you. Revelation chapter 19. John sees now what Jesus was talking about in that parable. John sees by an open vision for the marriage of the Lamb, the marriage of Jesus has come. Now when Jesus is giving this parable, he knows he has a marriage that's coming. It's not hypothetical. It's not parabolical. I mean, in the sense it's, I mean, it's a parable, but this is not just kind of a, an ethereal idea. Jesus is crying out. There he is with the joy set before him. The people that are responding. He endures the cross. He sees the joy of a responsive people. Not a very large number, but he sees the, a beginning of them. So, there's a marriage of the Lamb. It's coming. Verse 8. No, verse 7. And the wife is going to make herself ready. And the way she makes herself ready is by her, her wholehearted obedience, the desire for it. I'm not even talking about the attaining of it. I'm talking about the reaching for wholeheartedness. I have not attained to all that I'm reaching for, but if the reach in our spirit is consistent, not perfect, but if the reach in our spirit is consistent, there's a reach for wholeheartedness. There is a sincerity that's according to the truth. The Lord doesn't measure me by how much I've attained in every area. He measures my love by the reach to obey him. The reach. And when I fail, I don't cover it up and look for a Bible verse that makes it look okay. We call it sin and we renew our war against it. And the Lord takes that personally and it moves his heart. So, I'm not talking about a standard of maturity that nobody's going to walk in, you know, get, if you've attained to this kind of maturity, then you're a real deal. No, I tell the, the new believer. No, you reach with all of your heart. And again, it's, it's a small awe, but it's the whole awe they have. And the Lord's moved. The Lord's delighted. The Holy Spirit's presence is on them. It says in verse 8 that on the last day we're going to wear garments that reflect the quality of our desire to obey him when we're on the earth. You and I will have garments in the age to come. They will all be different. Nobody's garments will be the same. And our garments will openly proclaim the tenacity in our spirit to obey him through the years. I don't know how the Lord figures it all out, but he's really smart. He's 100% accurate. I'm sure it's going to be fair. It's going to be right. But I, here's the point I want you to know. Your garments will not be like the person that's next to you. They will all be unique. It will be more than everybody has a white robe. It's like we have this glorious city and all the details. And some people imagine everybody for billions of years, they all wear the same white t-shirt. God forgot the clothing thing. He had the streets of gold, the mansions, the food, the music, the angels. Oh, I forgot the clothing thing. Everybody for billions of years wears the same white t-shirt. I wish I would have had my mind around that at the beginning. He didn't forget the clothing thing. Every one of us will have garments that reflect our love. And it's not for the purpose of boasting before others, but it's a declaration of how dear he is to you. You will wear it openly forever. Beloved, it's worth it. It's worth going all the way. It's worth paying the price in the fleshly sense to press in and to break through. Paragraph B. God's purpose for creation is to provide a family for Himself. The Father wants a family. But not only that, it's the same sphere of reality. He wants an equally yoked bride for His Son. He wants an eternal companion for His Son that would reign with Him forever. They would be equally yoked in love. Can you imagine? Your destiny is to love Him in the same intensity that He loves you. And the equally yoked doesn't mean the same measure, but it means the same intensity with the capacity that you have. We will love Him like He loves us. His all is bigger than our all because He's uncreated and eternal as God, though He is a man. The mystery of the incarnation. So being equally yoked in love doesn't mean our capacity is ever the same, but the intensity within our capacity will be the same. Can you imagine living this way forever together? I mean, you're happy in love. I'm happy in love. We all have our own story with Him and we're sharing with each other. It's going to be phenomenal. But it starts now, not just then. Our testimony is already being established now. Paragraph C. Jesus referred to Himself as a bridegroom. His apostles were called friends of the bridegroom. The ministries, the first apostles, He goes, you don't understand this yet, but your message at the end of the day is to be a best man in the wedding. Your message, your role is to get people to see who I am as a bridegroom and then to teach them how to receive my love and return it back and then to get out of the way. That's what a friend of the bridegroom is. All of us as ministries, we're friends of the bridegroom. That's the ideal. We introduce the fiery love of the bridegroom king. We help them understand it, teach them practical ways to respond. Then when their heart opens, we get out of the way so there's nothing between the embrace of Jesus and His individual believer. It's not about getting them dependent on us. A friend of the bridegroom or a best man, they want to get out of the way and help the connection take place in the marriage ceremony. That's what we are as ministries. We're faithful witnesses to the bridegroom God. We're faithful to bring forth people in love. We're not going to convince them from the Bible that compromise is normal and good. We're going to tell them that compromise causes them to lose part of their inheritance and he loses some of his inheritance of them and it never works. We're faithful witnesses to the bridegroom God. Now we're faithful witnesses to the bride. We don't lie so that they applaud us. We tell the truth to the best we know by the grace of God. That's what a friend of the bridegroom does. They're committed to not lying when they lose an advantage for telling the truth and I assure you, you will lose advantage in this age by telling this truth. It's really cool here. Everybody here agrees. It's not so cool out there. Now I want to point out paragraph D. This is important. Just as you read this more, you know, the most of these notes that we won't really get to. That Matthew 21 to 25. Jesus comes into Jerusalem in Matthew 21. Here we are in Matthew 22. It's the same message actually. It's the same day. Matthew 21 to 22. He's talking openly in Jerusalem. And then Matthew 24 to 25. He's still in Jerusalem at the Mount of Olives. But it's now, it's a personal talk. But it's one continuum. It's one reality. But, and then he goes to the cross in Matthew 26. But here's the point I want to make. When Jesus comes in Jerusalem on that donkey. Now what a famous messianic prophecy, which means a prophecy about the Messiah, was Zechariah 9.9. In Zechariah 9.9 it says the Messiah, in essence, will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. So Jesus, you know, for his teen years, whatever, I don't know exactly how this works, but he's been thinking about the day he would ride into Jerusalem on that donkey. He knows he's the Messiah. And he knows Zechariah 9.9 is about him. He is the Word of God. He was there when Zechariah first received the prophecy. So here he is on that day. He's going, oh Father, here it is. Wow, I'm on the donkey going into Jerusalem. This is huge. And the people are crying, Hosanna, Hosanna. He knows they're going to betray him and they're going to turn and he's going to die. He's positive of this. But he knows it's a foretaste of when he comes on the white horse next. His next time into Jerusalem is on a white horse as a conquering king. But he knows in Zechariah 9.9 what's happening. My point is this. These four chapters, Matthew 21, 22, 23, 24, like I said, these five chapters, they have an eschatological tone to them. They have an eschatological, an end time. He has, most of his teaching has an end time application to it. He is on the donkey. He is captured with the significance of what's about to happen in his death and its meaning for world history. And when you read Matthew chapter 22, this parable, don't just look at sterile principles. And you know, some people break the parable down in just a purely academic way. Catch the emotion of what Jesus had. He's in Jerusalem at his last time on the donkey. He knows his next time is the horse. He's going to the cross. He's going to have a bride. It's about a wedding. It's forever. And he's doing it as a man in the flesh, in real human body, in real natural time and space and history. He's on the earth doing it. He's not just in heaven in the ages past looking forward to it. It's happening. And the drama is very intense. And that's the setting where he calls them to love them with all of his heart because he's in the flow of the wedding proclamation. It's about love. So I want you to read these chapters with an end time or an eschatological tone to them because you'll miss a lot if you don't read it through that lens. Romans number two. You look at the passage again. Verse three, he sent out his servants to invite them to a wedding. They were not willing. Verse four, again he sent servants. And the servants said, here's what the father said, tell them, see I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, the fat and cattle are killed. Come to the wedding. We are supposed to tell the unbelievers and the believers. I am telling you tonight, see? That's what the father said. Say, see? Draw their attention. There's a dinner. It's called the married supper of the Lamb. There's a dinner and it's ready. See? Do you see there's a dinner that's ready? You're invited to it. And in the language of the, that culture, he said, my oxen and fatted cattle are killed. This is a abundance. There's an abundance. This is a dinner that's lavish, that's extravagant. The fatted cattle and the oxen, this is the most expensive meal that a, a normal family in Israel would ever, they may never ever be able to host a dinner of this level. But they're reading it. Extravagance, extravagance, extravagance. The father is saying, tell them I am extravagant in detail. There will be an abundance. The dinner is beyond anything they can grasp in the full grandeur of it. Everything's ready. And when Jesus is saying everything's ready, what he's saying is, I'm about to pay the price. They don't know what he means when he says everything's ready. But what he means is, I'm about to pay the price in a few days to where nothing can stop the wedding from occurring. His face was set like Flint to go to Jerusalem. He was resolved. He says, it's as good as done. There's nothing that can turn me back. The wedding is ready and it's lavish. It's extravagant. And that's what you're invited to, that this is the content that the messengers are to be focused on. My question is this, as evangelists, as prophetic people, as pastors, as apostolic people, as teachers, is this your message? Because the father said it three times. Tell them each time, come to a wedding. Don't just get an easier life now and not even just escape hell then. That's huge. We got to keep that clearly in the message. Again, I can't stress that enough because in our culture that is really taboo. But we're calling them to the grandeur, the big picture. Not just from something now, but to something that begins now and it unfolds in eternity. And that is connectedness with God's heart at the deepest level imaginable. Paragraph A. The father sent messengers. This parable is revealing Jesus' core desire for us in salvation. This message is revealing the core truth of what salvation is all about. This message, this parable is giving us the highest focus of ministry. There's no ministry focus higher than this one. This is the one that leads us to the great commandment and this is the message that Jesus wants us to be faithful witnesses of. Again, you don't have to say wedding and you don't have to say marriage. You don't have to say bride. But you're calling them to the reality. And it's not like every sermon you give, every witness you give to a person who's coming to the Lord, you don't have to get the whole message in every time. Like, oh no, I'm an unfaithful witness. Wait, wait, wait a second. There's a wedding. He goes, what? Oh, I got it in. Okay, you got it. So I'm not talking about just kind of a frenzy panic to make sure you get the sentence in. I'm talking about it's a core reality that you're, when you're ministering, that's the core reality of what you're looking for opportunity to speak into. And many times you don't get to address that. But that's, that's the, the core. That's the epicenter of the truth that's germinating in your spirit, so to speak. I mean, that's where the, the storm, the glory of God is stirring. Like a storm inside. You're wanting to explode and tell them about this. Paragraph B, the bridal perspective changes the way evangelists preach salvation, which everybody needs to do. The way that pastors counsel, which everybody needs to counsel some. The way that teachers teach. We all teach a little bit, even if it's one-on-one or one, you know, to the three-year-old that's in your home. That's a teaching ministry. Don't think you need a microphone to have a teaching ministry. Or how the forerunners prophesy or how the apostles plant churches. We do it through this lens. Why do we want to build a big ministry? The answer is that it brings to Jesus the reward of his sufferings. We want a ministry with impact because Jesus has an inheritance in them. They have an inheritance in him. It's not about how many people you can get in a building to prove your value to other ministers. Jesus is saying, don't tell them, join our church so finally at the minister meeting, I can feel powerful. No, the message is about a wedding. We have to stay focused on the message. We cannot leave the message. Again, you don't have to use the language, but that's the core reality we're speaking out of. This truth affects how we view people. We don't view people as a statistic that we put up, you know, on the church planning chart or the salvation chart, though I think numbers are important. But the real people that Jesus has an inheritance in, they have an inheritance in him. And you get to be a witness to it. And if you're a witness to it, you and even you with that person forever, you will talk and rejoice in that witness. You know, the people that led you to the Lord, you'll know them for billions of years. It's not like you get in eternity with a resurrected body and they walk by and go like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, all right. Where, where was that at? No, no, we have resurrected our minds under the anointing of the Spirit, perfect bodies. We will, the testimony you give, whether you're the one that led them to the Lord or not, all of that will be remembered forever in the fellowship of the saints. It's a beautiful thing. You don't want to lie to people, though. I do not want to lie to people about Jesus. I've had people ask me real uncomfortable questions. Does that mean I have to quit this? I go, absolutely. You absolutely. Well, I don't think I want to. And I said, well, it won't work for you now then. It's like, you know, I'm thinking, they're going, well, I don't want, I anyway. You cannot lie to them under pressure. Now I go, no, you have to give that up because it's holding you in bondage to darkness. And the one that wants you knows love. He's committed to love and he, you will receive love more and give love more if you do it on his terms. No, I don't want, I don't want to do that. I'll do everything but that. I said, you know what? You can't come into the kingdom. Well, I'll get another religion. Well, the religion will be broke. It's dead. It's how do you know this is the truth? I mean, you get people pretty stirred up if you hold the line. It's kind of easier to pat him on the back and tell him everything's perfect. Everything's right. But beloved, again, for love's sake, we hold the line. For love's sake. Because we love him. It's the way we preach on salvation. It's the way we preach on holiness. We don't preach on holiness. It's not angry holiness. You know, kind of shake them over hell on a rotten stick, kind of hoping the stick breaks. I mean, some holiness preachers are just kind of mean. You know, the more stirred up and the more kind of frothy they get, the more annoyed they think it is, I guess. But it's kind of just mean. Afterwards, they kind of high five the guy. Hey man, I gave it to him. Yeah, you did. Watch, I'll give it to him next time. No, it's, it's not that kind of stuff. We're talking out of a burning heart of God for them. But he requires a whole hearted response back and he's giving them a free entrance and he will give them free forgiveness every single day. The mercies are new, but they have to declare war on their failure. They have to agree with him. Beloved, you could be forgiven millions of times. I mean, well, whatever, many times. It's not about how much we succeed. It's about the cry in our spirit to be sincere and real. And we could receive mercy every single day new with confidence that we are received in love and our love towards him is genuine because our love for Jesus isn't just real when it's mature. Weak love is still real. He loves us in our weakness. That's part of the love message. Top of page two. In this, I'm just gonna tell you what I do here. I give the three, the passive and the hostile response. Because paragraph A, some people are passive in the rejection of Jesus and some people are hostile in their rejection of Jesus. And Jesus is saying, don't be tricked by either one of them. Because we're mostly aware of the hostile rejection, but the passive rejection often goes down. We'll pat it on the back and we'll tell them it's okay. They don't want to come to Jesus because of their farm and their business. Lots of people in the church, their farm and their business is ahead of Jesus. They not only came to Jesus on our watch, we made them elders in the church. Jesus said, tell them they've made light of my offer. It's a passive resistance. Now, I don't know who does and who doesn't. I know the inward workings of the heart, but lots of people with farms and businesses telling no with their actions. We're calling them something bigger than just having a bigger farm if you put Jesus on your resume. Paragraph C. God has a very aggressive response to the people who are killing His servants, His judgments. Paragraph D. The Lord's intensity of His judgment is a reflection of His intensity of love. His judgments are to remove everything that hinders love. Some people think that the message of love and the message of judgment are opposite. Beloved, the book of Revelation is the same message as the Song of Solomon. The message of the God who's red-hearted in love is the message of the God of judgment, because His judgments remove what hinders love. I teach Friday nights, tonight, on the first commandment. I teach tomorrow night on the book of Revelation. Some go, wow, it's kind of one to the other. And I go, not really. It's the same message. Different Bible verses. It really is the same message. So, I have a little bit on that. Go to the top of page three. Nope, top of page four. I mean, I like the verses. Top of page four. There's two responses of people who show up in the religious gatherings. There's a guy, and you'll read this on your own, with a wedding garment. I mean, he doesn't have a wedding garment. He wants to enter into the celebration, the wedding celebration, the celebration of salvation. But he's coming on his own terms. But he wants to be, quote, religious. He wants to be spiritual. He wants to go for this thing. He wants to go to the worship service. He wants to enter in. But he wants to do it on his own terms. And Jesus makes it clear. His final public message to the nation of Israel. He goes, you can't. You come, approach this grand truth. You must do it on my terms, not on yours. And there's two different ways people do this. It's what I call, uh, where's it at? Paragraph B, one. The garments of religion. It's the lie that says all the religions lead to the same God. Absolutely not true. Well, I'm devout in my religion. I'm sincere. That gets you nowhere if there's not somebody innocent who's shed blood so you could become innocent as a free gift. It's not about sincerity and religion. It's about a man giving you his own gift of innocence called the gift of righteousness to you. So one man is, is proud. He says, no, I'm religious and that's good enough. I don't need to do it exactly the Jesus way. And Jesus said, I'll assure them now they will be kicked out of the ceremony in due time. I don't mean excluded where they can't be invited to come in. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, tell them that that approach to me is unacceptable. It doesn't work. It's not real. They're still unbelievers. They're still outside the kingdom. And then there's the other one, which I call the garment of compromise. It's the guy, he wants to come to all the worship services, but he won't line up in truth, in a desire to obey Jesus. Again, we all fail many times. It's not about the measure of your failure. It's the measure of your sincerity. We fail, but we get, we call it sin. We get back in the war against it. We declare war about it and we have a confident place in the grace of God. Well, these are the two different ways people want to be in the celebration of this. I mean, there's nothing more wonderful than the celebration, the wedding reality. People want to be around it. And of course we weren't believers in meetings. I mean, unbelievers in meetings for sure. But Jesus says, don't lie to them about being saved and connected to me because I won't lie to them when I meet them face to face. Don't lie to them. They have to be wearing the garments that I described, not their own garments. And so I'll end with that. The point I want to make, the point I'm really stirred about, is that this is a first commandment course. I want to, I want to be a faithful witness. And if the church gets mad, different people in the church, and it happens, it will happen. And it happened to everybody. So it's not like, you know, make yourself out to be a martyr. It will happen everywhere. If you're faithful, you will have believers saying, bah humbug. And you will have unbelievers saying, bah humbug. Plus some. But it's not about how many people we can get to be happy. It's about being a faithful witness. It's about love. The whole issue is about loving Him. And we love Him with all of our heart, in ministry, by speaking the truth. Amen. Let's stand.