They Have no Wedding Garment

Since the fall of Adam, there have been innumerable attempts to establish religions that omit the true God, creator of heaven and earth. It isn’t that people were unaware of God, or that they had no opportunity to believe in or ability to obey God. Rather, it is because God and His ways go against the nature of the flesh and the way of the world system. Cain set out to establish his own religion. God sent His law by Moses, but His chosen people discovered that their flesh did not want to obey it. They repeatedly rejected God and immersed themselves the religions of the nations about them. Their apostasy brought the judgment of God upon their nation. Another generation would repent and rise up against the apostasy. Sadly, it seems that the apostasy would repeat with every third generation.

It stands to reason that eventually there would arrive a final apostasy that will usher in the Antichrist and the false prophet. Christ taught about that apostasy and the deception that would cause it in Matthew 24. Additionally, the Apostle Paul wrote in detail about the nature of the final deception and apostasy (2 Tim. 3 and elsewhere). A sad fact is that in spite of all the warnings, anointed teaching and preaching, plus the availability of God’s word, many professing Christians have succumbed to that very deception and apostasy. This is not the time to have an Ostrich Complex. The blunt reality is that the day has finally arrived.

There are two sections of scriptures that provide a view of what type of individuals perpetrate and succumb to deception in the final days. First, in Matthew 25:1-5, there are two types of professing Christians indicated; five wise and five foolish. How do I know they are professing Christians? The answer is because it is obvious that they are all waiting for Christ. Christians are the ones that Christ is coming back for. Consider that all ten are exactly alike in every detail except one, and that is that half of them failed to bring a reserve of oil.

In the second section of scriptures, Matt. 22:10-14 a man managed to enter the wedding hall without a wedding garment. He was summarily cast into outer darkness. This man is different than the five foolish ones. In my opinion, he represents the type of individual that has never accepted the lordship of Christ, but is able to deceive people into believing that he or she is a Christian. Understanding this truth is essential to understanding the strength of last day’s deception.
Let’s first look at individual represented by the five unwise virgins. The five unwise virgins represent the deceived professing Christian. I do not believe the elect can be deceived because they are sensitive to the Holy Spirit who will warn them about deception and lead them into all truth. However, the problem with a great number of professing Christians is that they do not know the Scriptures and they seldom pray. Another crucial factor is that they have no personal relationship with God and no sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. They are filled with everything but what God offers them and thus have no defense against very clever and satanically empowered deception. I know a number of professing Christians that never take their Bibles to church meetings. Most of them cannot find their way to a particular book in the Bible and cannot quote a verse other than John 3:16. Some of them use translations and paraphrased “bibles” that are antithetical to the true word of God. These professing Christians will know less and less of the truth because the hirelings whose ministry they imbibe seldom present truth in their sermons. They have no spiritual thirst or hunger for righteousness. It is a fact that we will be filled with whatever we are thrilled by. Likewise, these individuals are filled with whatever titillates their emotional systems. It will be easy for them to fall for a deception that is so clever that the elect can barely escape from it.

Next, let’s consider the individual represented by the man with no wedding garment. If five of the virgins could not get in with wedding garments, then how did someone get in without a wedding garment? Who was this individual? First, I must point out is that the man without a wedding garment was not qualified for acceptance into the Bride of Christ. If so, then he would have been included in the group of virgins. Thus, although he may have been involved with Christianity in some way, he was not a Christian. He had attempted to get in by another way rather than through Christ who is the only Way, Truth, and Life. He may have been a clever individual, but it would have taken more than human cleverness to deceive the angels that gather the masses (Matt. 24:31). The man must have been satanically enabled to have escaped detection. This fact defines who he is. The man represents the false Christian, a deceiver, someone under full submission to the prince of darkness. He was possessed with diabolical power of deception.

If he is able to deceive even the angels who are gathering the Bride of Christ, what prevents him from deceiving the unprepared, the spiritually weak, and the ones weighed down by substance flowing from the world system? Consider that Satan was able to deceive a third of the angels in his rebellion against God. Christ said that there would be people coming with such powerful deception that if it were possible the very elect would be deceived. That type of deception flows directly from a diabolical supernatural source. In fact, the Apostle Paul describes the source as Satan and declares that he will throw everything in his bag of dark tricks at humanity (2 Thess. 2:9-10). The deceiver will have the full power of Satan with lying sings and wonders, and different gospel with a different Jesus. It will be that full-scale assault of deception that will deceive the entire world according to Luke 12:35 and Rev. 17:8. The ones who are unprepared for it are represented by the five virgins that had no extra oil. The ones who perpetrate it are represented by the man who had no wedding garment.
Millions of professing Christians today have been lulled into a state of complacency with apathy. They attend church meetings, but they have no clue if they are hearing the truth or a clever deception. The saddest part is that they do not seem to care. They are more concerned with getting to the restaurant on Sunday morning, and finishing their lunch in time to watch whatever television event they are obsessed with. Although they readily profess that they are Christians, possess some moral qualities, and even express indignation against certain evil activities, they have no abundance of power. These are the ones that Paul prophesied about who have a form of godliness without power (2 Tim. 3:5). Slipping further and further each day into doldrums, they are prime targets for the satanic deceiver and the ultimate deception.

Now we know why it is important to know about the pressing wickedness that has infiltrated the church with heresies and occult practices today. This deception threatens to lead millions of professing Christians into the final apostasy. The deception is being facilitated in great part in the form of the Emergent Church and the New Age Movement. They have wormed their way into leadership and corrupted entire denominations. If one is not a devout follower of Christ Jesus, is not equipped with God’s Word, is without knowledge, is not sensitive and responsive to the Holy Spirit, then he or she may not recognize these deceivers. Looking only at the outward appearance, they will succumb to smooth words, fables, and follow the pied pipers of deception and apostasy. They will not recognize the deceivers who lead them into destruction because they ignored truth to the extent they lost their love for it. The deceivers will be unrecognizable as such by everyone except the ones who are prepared to endure this dark period. The only way they will be recognizable in eternity is the fact that they will not have wedding garments.