Matthew chapter 22 opens with
this parable. And Jesus answered and spake
unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is
like unto a certain king. which made a marriage for his
son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden
to the wedding, and they would not come. And he sent forth other
servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, behold, I have prepared
my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are
ready. Come unto the marriage. but they made light of it and
went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And
the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully
and slew them. But when the king heard thereof,
he was wrath, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those
murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants,
The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways,
and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those
servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as
many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was
furnished with guests. And when the king came in to
see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding
garment. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. For many are called, but few
are chosen. Many are called, but few are
chosen. This is a solemn passage regarding
the kingdom of heaven, the preaching of the gospel, and those who
hear and are gathered in to the kingdom, are gathered in to the
wedding feast, clothed in a garment, and those who don't hear, and
those who won't hear, and those who not only make light of the
message and make light of the invite and make light of this
wedding feast and this kingdom, but they also despise the servant
sent forth with the message. They despise the preachers of
the gospel. They despised the kingdom of
God and in despising them they despised he who has sent them. In the parable they despised
the king's servants and in so doing they despised the king. And they entreated the servants
spitefully and slew them. They put them to death. Such
was their hatred for the king and his son and the wedding to
which they were invited. And the king was wrath and the
king destroyed them. And he sent forth his invite
into the highways. And the servants went into the
highways and gathered together as many as they found, both bad
and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. But there
was one who was not clothed with a wedding garment. And when the
king came in to see the guests and saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment, and he saith unto him, Friend, how
camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? He was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth for many are called but few are chosen. There's a tremendous picture
of the kingdom of God and of the preaching of the gospel.
of how great a thing it is to be chosen and called into the
kingdom of God and to the wedding feast that this king has prepared
for his son. How great a thing it is to be
invited and to be gathered in to this place. And how terrible
a thing it is to make light of it. to shut our ears to it, to
despise those who come and speak of it, and to find ourselves
under the wrath of the king whose invite we despise and whose servants
we spitefully entreat. There is no message that you
will hear today, tomorrow, throughout your entire lifetime, more important
than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no invite you will receive
more important than that which bids you to come to the wedding
feast of the Son of God. There is no message more vital
to you to hear and to receive and to believe than the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And yet many, as we see in this
passage, shut their ears, they make light of it, they go their
own ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, and the rest
take the servants of God, the preachers of the gospel, ridicule
them, reject their message, mock their message, despitefully use
them, and in some cases, slay them. how many accounts there
are throughout this world, even in this day and age, even at
this hour, of preachers of the gospel in various countries,
in various places, being killed by those who hate the gospel
of Christ. or being beaten up or being persecuted. And what happens today in various
places physically happens throughout the world by word and by deed. Even in our country. Many ridicule
and mock and despise the gospel. And if they could slay the preachers
of the gospel in order to silence the gospel, without fear of the
law, they'd do that too. It's only the rule of law and
civilization in countries like ours that prevents such an outpouring
of anger being unleashed. It's only the grace of God and
the protection of His people that prevents the worst coming
upon them. But the heart of man is the same
throughout. It's the same today throughout
the world. It's been the same since the
beginning. Mankind despises the gospel because
it despises the king from whence the gospel comes. Man's heart
hates God. Your natural heart hates God. You will not bow down before
him and worship. We were created by Him, we are
sustained by Him, we are created for His service and for His glory,
and we all, to a man, go our own way, to our own farms and
our own merchandise. We go our own way, seeking our
own things, and we will not serve or worship the one true and living
God. We will not hear His Gospel,
we will not receive it, we will not believe it. And we cannot. Such is the state of our hearts,
such is the state of the fall of man into sin and corruption,
that we cannot help ourselves. With our own reasoning, with
our own wisdom, we reason away the Gospel, we reason away the
truth. We find every reason and every
excuse for not believing. And if we continue in such a
state, if we are left in such a state, then there is one end,
one terrible end, of which this passage speaks. Firstly, regarding
those who murdered the servants, we read that the king sent forth
his armies and destroyed them. And secondly, regarding he who
came to the wedding without a wedding garment, without being clothed
in righteousness, without being washed in the blood of Jesus
Christ, he who would come unto God in his own strength, in his
own wisdom, hoping to be received of God because of some good in
himself, but not having washed in the blood of Jesus Christ,
knowing that he is corrupt from head to toe by nature. He who
comes to God in his own strength, for his own glory, finds himself
speechless when God says unto him, why hast thou come here
without a wedding garment? Why aren't you clothed? Why aren't
you clothed in righteousness? Why do you think you can enter
the Kingdom of God covered in your own sin and your own pride
and your own arrogance? And the servants took him, bound
him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. There shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The great solemn message of this
chapter that Christ speaks and declares unto the people hearing
him on this day and throughout time and eternity to you and
I today. The message of Christ from on
high today is if you do not believe The gospel. If you are not clothed
in the blood of Jesus Christ, if you're not righteous before
a holy God, then you will be bound hand and foot and cast
into outer darkness. That message is unequivocal,
undiscriminated. It is the same message unto us
all. Except we are righteous, except
we are washed of our sins, except we believe on Jesus Christ and
receive the Gospel, then our end in eternity will be to be
cast into outer darkness. then how careful we should be
to hear the Gospel and to value the Gospel when it comes unto
us. To be attentive to the Gospel
when God declares it unto us. To hear what God would have us
hear. Many were bidden to come to the
wedding but they would not. They were consumed with their
own things, consumed with their own desires, consumed with their
own lusts. They would not. They made light
of it. And even of those who were bid
to the wedding, there were those who knew nothing of the gospel
inwardly. They may have heard the call.
They may have heard the message outwardly. They may have recognised
their need to be saved. But they didn't know Christ.
They didn't know His blood. They didn't know the application
of His blood. They were there in the meetings.
They were there hearing the Word. They were there with their Bibles.
They were there at the wedding. But they had no garment. You
can be there in the meetings. You can be very religious. You
can outwardly look like to everybody else, like you're one of those
who will be saved. Like you're a Christian. Like
you're a follower of Christ. You go every Sunday. You read
your Bible. But you don't know Christ. The Spirit of God has never opened
your heart. You've never heard inwardly.
You've heard the Gospel outwardly, but never in the heart. There's
no application of the blood. There's no wedding garment. And if there isn't, and if that's
how you remain, then one day the king will come unto you and
stand before you and say, why have you come in here not having
a wedding garment? And he will command his servants
who will take you and bind you hand and foot and take you away
and cast you into outer darkness. Don't make light of it. Don't
shut your ears to it. Don't think it can wait till
another day. Outer darkness. A darkness from which we will
never escape. A place in which the presence
of God is not there in terms of the light of the Gospel. In
this world, God preaches His Gospel. Whilst this world remains,
whilst time remains, before the end of the world and the consummation
of all things, God continues to preach his gospel and shine
the light of the gospel into the darkness of this world. But
there's coming a day when this world will be no more, and when
the preaching of the gospel will have run its course. and when
there will be a separation of those who are gathered into the
wedding, gathered into the light, gathered into the presence of
God from those who will remain in darkness. The darkness will
be separated from the light and the light from the darkness and
if you're in the darkness you'll find it's an outer darkness with
no light whatsoever. And if you find yourself there,
it will be too late. Too late to return. Too late
for a second chance. Too late to say, let me hear
that message again. I was too young when I first
heard. I was too distracted. I had too
many things I wanted to do with my life. It will be too late. It's outer darkness. There is
darkness in this world all around us. The darkness of sin. The darkness of the evil that
we see all around us. The darkness of unbelief. The darkness of the wisdom of
man. And yet it's a world in which
God has shone the light of the Gospel. But the darkness of everlasting
judgement. has no light. It's an everlasting
judgment, an everlasting darkness in which no light of the gospel
will ever approach. The only sense of the presence
of God in that darkness is to feel His wrath and to feel the
fires of judgment upon you. But there's no light. And if
we're found there, it's too late. Yes, there is an outer darkness.
An outer darkness into which this sinner was cast. But why
wasn't he clothed in a garment? And why wouldn't those others
come when they were invited? Why did they make light of the
Gospel? Why were they consumed with their
earthly desires? Why did they want to go another
way and not come this way? Why do you reject the Gospel? Why don't you hear the Gospel? What is it that stops us? It's the inner darkness within. There is an outer darkness all
around us. and an outer darkness where there
is no light into which we may one day be cast. But it's because
of the inner darkness within us. If we find ourselves in that
state, if we hear those terrible words from the king, cast him
away. cast him into a place of outer
darkness bind him hand and foot if that's what's pronounced against
us it's because of the inner darkness within our soul sin
has such a grip upon us such an overwhelming covering of us
that it has occupied us inside and out There's such blindness
within our souls, such blindness within our hearts, that we can't
see anything aright. When the gospel comes, when somebody
preaches it to us, when we hear it, when we read it in the scriptures,
we can't comprehend it. It's foolishness to us. The preaching
of the cross is foolishness to us. We can't believe it if we wanted
to believe it. Because such is the depravity
of our heart. Such is the darkness of sin within
and the blindness within that we cannot see and we do not hear. A preacher can stand up for hours
and preach of Christ and nothing makes sense. We don't hear and
we won't hear in a darkness. It covers us. It covers us inside
and out. There's no light. There's no
understanding. There's no comprehension. We're
totally ignorant of God and His truth. We can hear it outwardly,
we can hear the facts and we reject, we make light of it,
we mock it even though it's the truth, even though this God who
speaks the Gospel unto us is the very God who sustains us. We sit here with our hearts beating,
breathing in the air around us, a hair's breadth from death. God only has to say the word
and our hearts will stop beating. He's only got to blink and the
air will cease to breathe into our lungs. In a moment we can
drop down dead and we act and live like we're self-sufficient,
like we are in charge, like we're sovereign and he isn't. Darkness. Inner darkness. Blindness and
foolishness of man. By wisdom man knew not God. Because man's wisdom says another
thing. And to man the truth of God and
the preaching of the cross is foolishness. When in reality
that which we despise as foolishness is the truth and the wisdom of
God. And that which brings power and
life and light into the soul. but we cannot see that light,
we cannot receive that light, we make light of it, we despise
it, we reject it because of the inner darkness in our hearts. Why do you sit and listen and
your mind wanders and you watch the clock and wish to go off
and do this and that because of the darkness? and the antidote to the darkness. The antidote to the darkness
outside of us and the darkness inside of us is the truth, the
light of God, which must shine in our souls. Jesus answered and spake unto
them again by parables and said the kingdom of heaven is like
unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent
forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding
and they would not come. He sent forth his servants to
call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not
come. He sent forth his Gospel. He sent forth the light of the
truth of the Gospel and he sends it forth today. He sends forth
preachers with the Gospel to call sinners to the wedding,
to call sinners unto Christ, to call sinners to the Kingdom
of God. And He sends forth that light
and it comes unto us as an outward light. It comes as light shining
on the outside of us. It shines in the outward darkness
in which we dwell. It comes as a light, as a torch,
as it were, that shines around in the darkness. But does it
shine into our souls? He sent forth his servants to
call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would not
come. Oh what a message this was to
the Jews at that time. Hence we read on in the chapter
how the Pharisees sought to tangle Christ in his talk. Because if they knew what he
was referring to, his message was cutting them
to the heart. He had sent His servants, the
Prophets, generation after generation to the Jews, to Israel, to these
Pharisees, and they rejected them. They put the Prophets to
death. And here was Christ, the Son
of God. The King sent forth His Son and
they take the Son and they would slay Him too. So God sent forth
His Gospel. unto the Gentiles, to gather
in sinners from the Gentiles into his kingdom. He sent forth
his servants, as it were, into the highways and gathered together
them, because those who were called, those who were bidden
to the wedding, those who should have come, the Jews, those who
should have known, those who'd heard the truth for many, many
years, would not come. When the light of God, the Word
of God, Christ, came unto the Jews in the darkness of this
world, they rejected Him, as John 1 tells us. They would not
come. And yet they'd had the truth
for generations. Moses had given them the law. He'd written of the creation
of the world. He'd written of the patriarchs.
He'd written of God's dealings with his people through generation
and generation. He'd written of the promises. God had sent forth prophets to
declare unto these Jews of the coming of Christ and of what
Christ would do and the death of Christ. He'd written of the
sacrifice, and the blood, and redemption through the blood,
redemption through sacrifice. He preached the gospel unto them. And they did not believe. They
would not come. Because that truth, that light,
had come unto them as an outward light. It was all around them. It was in their country, in their
upbringing, in their people's practice. It was there in the
temple, it was there in the priesthood, it was there in the law, it was
there in the scriptures. It was there in all that they
did, in their calendar, in their rituals, in their events. Every
day the Jews had the light outwardly presented unto them. And they
rejected He who is the light, Christ, when He stood before
them. All that that outward light pointed
to in Jesus Christ, they rejected. They had the light outwardly,
but it never shone into their hearts inwardly. They had the
truth in word only. Many heard, many were bidden
to come to this wedding. But they would not. They had
outward light presented to them. But such was the inner darkness
of their hearts that they refused to listen. They couldn't come. Indeed such was their opposition
that they slew the servants who bid them. They slew the prophets
and in the end they slew Christ. And what they did physically
in that generation, we do today. We have the light presented to
us. We have the scriptures. We have
the Bible. We have those who preach the
gospel. We have the light as it is presented
unto us in creation all around us. We have the daily reminder
by God. The sun rises in the morning,
it sets in the evening. He sets the glory of the sun,
the light in the creation and says this is a picture of the
light of God which goes down at night and then the darkness
returns. Every day he's preaching the
gospel to us. But that light in the Gospel
that comes unto us is outward and unless it shines into our
heart and dispels the inner darkness we will not come. They were bidden
to the wedding and they would not come. So he continues to preach, he
sent forth other servants saying, tell them which are bidden, behold
I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed
and all things are ready, come unto the marriage. There are
those who have the truth presented to a certain degree, they have
it in their own conscience, they have it in creation, and they
will not come. There are those who have it presented
to them in the Scriptures, they're brought up to read it, and they
will not come. There are those who are brought
to hear the Gospel preached by faithful preachers of the Gospel,
and they will not come. They make light of it. Do you
make light of it? Do you go your own way to your
farm, to your merchandise? Do you take the servants of God
and entreat them spitefully and slay them? Maybe not physically,
but in your hearts, in your minds. When your mind wanders, when
you wish yourself to be somewhere else, when you wish they would
be silent. When you don't want to hear the
truth, you don't want to hear of Christ, you don't want to
hear of his death, you don't want to hear of his blood, you
don't want to hear of his resurrection, you don't want to hear of his
ascension, you don't want to hear of his sovereignty, you
don't want to hear of his sovereign rule over all things. When that's your heart's response,
you are taken his servants. in treating them spitefully and
slaying them. When you seek to silence this
message, you are seeking to silence the preacher and you are seeking
to silence Christ who preaches the gospel from on high. Your hatred is of Christ. Your hatred is of the Father,
the King. You will not hear. You will not hear because for
all the outward light which is presented unto you, for all the
truth which you have received, for all the gospel which you
have heard, none of it penetrates the inner darkness of your heart. Because until this outward light
becomes inward light, inner light, light that shines within and
exposes what you are before a holy God and brings you to your knees
before a holy God, to plea for mercy, to pray for mercy, to
pray to be cleansed inside and out, until you're brought there,
It's just light that shines around you. It's like water that runs
off your back. Nothing goes in. Nothing goes in. The servants
can even come unto you in the highway. wherever you may be
found, or you never go to church, you never sit under the gospel,
you've never read a Bible, so the servants go out into the
highways, and they find both the bad and the good, and they
bid them in to the wedding, they bid them come, and some come,
some are curious, some come along to the meeting, some begin to
listen, some think there's something in this, but they never hear inwardly.
It's all outward light. It's all words. And all their
profession of faith, all their claim to follow Jesus Christ
is all outwards. It's all just a vain show. Before
others they've made a profession. Yes, I believe. Yes, I've accepted
Jesus. Yes, I believe this and I believe
that, but there's no reality to it. So they have no wedding
garment. Ultimately they are ignorant
of the blood of Jesus Christ. They can speak of it. They can
read of the facts in the Bible. You may be like this, you may
be able to say, well I know that Christ died. I know he died for
sinners. I know he shed his blood for
sinners. I know his blood washes sinners clean. And you may know
that to believe on Christ is to be washed in that blood but
you can't say that he's ever washed you in it. It's all your
claim. It's all about what you have
done. You've accepted Jesus, you've
prayed a prayer, you've invited him into your heart, you've aligned
yourself with the people of God, you've made a profession, and
God should bless you because of it. It's all about you. So
there are those like you on the last day who come before God,
as Christ has said, and said, Lord, Lord, I. Lord, Lord, I
have done this and I have done that. I came to the meetings. I was involved in the church. I did this and I did that. I spake often of Jesus Christ. I witnessed to my friends. I
tried to further the kingdom of God. It's all you. And he
says, depart from me, ye worker of iniquity. I never knew you. I never came unto you. I never
shone the light of the gospel in your heart. I never revealed
myself unto you inwardly. I never took my blood and sprinkled
it upon your heart and conscience. I never spake unto you. All your
religion is your doing. How many there are like this
who've got the outward light, but they come and they stand
before God without a wedding garment? And you know who you
are. If you're listening to this,
you can say whether God has had any real dealing with you. You
know if you're cold and lifeless within. You know if you never
know what it is to commune with Him. You know if you've never
really had your prayers answered. You know if everything's outward.
You know it. You hope for more, but you know
it's just you. It's just your profession. It's
just what you do. You go to church, you read the
Bible, you say your prayers, you align with the people of
God, but you know it's all outward. And you know that if God said
unto you, Friend, how camest thou in heaven not having a wedding
garment? You know you'd be speechless.
You can say you're Lord, Lord, I, all you like, but you know
that there's no reality. What you need, what I need, what
we need, is not simply to be called, but to be chosen. Not simply to hear the Gospel
outwardly, but inwardly. Not only to have outward light
in the darkness, but to have inward light that dispels the
inner darkness. Our problem is that which is
within. The light must come within. When Christ asked Peter, Who
am I? Whom do men say that I the Son
of Man am? And they said, some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, so
one of the prophets. He say unto them, but whom say
ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for
flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. Now if you know that Christ is
the Son of God, if you know Him, if you've heard Him in the Gospel,
if you've heard the truth of His Gospel and believe it with
all your heart, if you've come to see the difference between
the truth and errors, between the Gospel of God and the Gospel
of men. between the electing grace of
God and the free will of man if you've come to see the truth
and know that the blood has been sprinkled upon your heart then
it's because God has revealed the truth unto you and revealed
Christ unto you there's a world of difference between knowing
the light that shines in your heart and having light that shines
outside and therein lies salvation. Without this light, everything
is outward. Without this light, the outer
darkness around us and the inner darkness within us despite any
light that might come upon us outwardly, will lead us to an
outer darkness in eternity. But if God sent the Gospel into
your heart and shines the light inwardly, such that you not only
believe the words and receive the word and can make mental
assent to the word but such that your heart believes you know
its reality then you will know what it is to have the light
shining within To have God the Father reveal Christ unto you. To believe with the heart. As Paul says in Romans 10, The
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That
is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. It's one thing to confess
with the mouth. It's another thing to believe
in your heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Where's your wedding garment?
It's in the righteousness of God, in the blood of Jesus Christ. And you'll only be clothed in
it if your heart believes unto righteousness. Your great need
is righteousness. The wedding garment is righteousness. You need the righteousness of
God to stand before God. You need to be righteous as God
is righteous. You need all your sins to be
blotted out. All your sin to be cast away. You need to stand before God
perfect, righteous. And that righteousness is found
in the blood. and you'll only know what it
is to be clothed in it if your heart believes under righteousness. If the light of the Gospel has
shone within, if the truth has come into your soul and exposed
the darkness and caused you to fall down upon your face before
God, saying, I'm black, I'm filthy, I'm covered in sin from head
to toe. Have mercy upon me, a leper,
a sinner. Wash me, Lord, cleanse me, Lord. Wash me in the blood of Christ. and you'll come before God with
only one plea and one hope and that is the blood of Jesus Christ,
the righteousness of God, the wedding garment which will bring
you into a wedding feast from which you will never depart.
which will lead you into the Kingdom of God, and will cause
you to be bid by the Father unto the wedding of His Son, and welcomed,
and gathered in, and hear His love and commendation. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant! Only that blood, only that belief,
only that faith will save you. Your works will never save you. Your own righteousness will never
save you. Outward light won't save you. But if the light is revealed
in your heart by the Father, if He reveals His Son unto you
and says, behold my Son, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world. Behold my Son, hear ye Him, if
He reveals Him to you, and you hear His speech in the Gospel,
then you will see the blood, and you will feel it applied,
and you will know it's been daubed upon the doorposts and the lentils
of your heart. You'll know that the angel of
God that comes in the night the destroyer will pass you by because
there's blood applied because Christ has spoken to you and
Christ has taken his blood and applied it unto you and washed
you in it and you'll know you're God's and you'll know you're
saved and you'll know that you've not just been called but you
have been chosen Many are called, but few are chosen. Has God set His love upon you
in Christ? Has He come unto you in the darkness
of this world and brought the light of God to shine into the
darkness of your heart and pointed you unto Jesus Christ? For there
is salvation in none other but in Jesus Christ. Don't make light
of the Gospel. May God have mercy upon us. May
we not just be called, but chosen. May we know what it is to be
washed in the blood of the Lamb of God. Amen.