would you take your Bibles and
turn to the book of Matthew chapter 22. Matthew 22. I spoke out of this passage of
scripture about six weeks ago and there was a verse of scripture
that was brought back to my mind out of this passage. I want to
read Matthew 22 verses 1 to 14 and then I want to look for a
few minutes at verse 10. That's the verse I'm going to
look at this morning. But I want to read Matthew 22
verses 1 to 14. And Jesus answered and spake
unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is
like, and before I go any farther, I was going over my notes this
morning and I thought about that, the kingdom of heaven. You know,
we don't know, we don't know a whole lot about heaven. We
know just what the Lord has been pleased to reveal and I mean
streets of gold, mansions, Are the mansions prepared for you? That's what the Lord has said.
But there's a lot of things we don't know. But when the Lord
said, the Kingdom of Heaven is like. I want to hear. I want to hear what He's saying
right here. The Kingdom of Heaven. The Church
of God. the church of God. When he says
the kingdom of heaven, he's talking about the bride of Christ here.
If you want to know what that bride, the relationship between
the bride and the Lord Jesus, the Father, if you want to know
what God has to say, listen to what God says. 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 listen to this,
they would not come. A king, a king made a marriage
for his son and bid some to the wedding and they wouldn't come.
Again he sent forth other servants saying, tell them which are bid
and behold I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my vatlings
are killed and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. Here's what else I know. He's
not asking them to bring anything. You don't have to prepare a meal.
You don't have to prepare a dish. You don't have to bring a present. All things are prepared. All
things already come to the marriage. Listen to verse 5. They made
light of it. They mocked it. They scorned
it. And went their ways, one to his
farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants
and entreated them spitefully. They were spiteful to the servants
and slew them. And when the king heard thereof,
he was wroth. And he sent forth his armies,
and this is what happened to those that made light of the
marriage, that treated his servants with disrespect, mocked them, talked about them,
spiteful to him, found fault with him. The king heard it,
he was angered, he was wroth. He sent forth his armies and
destroyed those murderers and burned up their city. And saith
he to his servants, the wedding is ready, but they which were
bidden were not worthy. Go you therefore into the highways
and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. And this
is where I'm going to be in just a few minutes, Lord willing.
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." These servants went as the king,
their master, had told them, you go out and bid the people
come to the wedding. They're not interested. I'm just
not interested. You go out and bid them and tell
them it's ready. Treat them with disrespect. mocked
them, slew them. The king was angry. He said they were not worthy.
You go, you go to the highways and you bid as many as you find
come to the wedding. Come to the wedding. And the
scripture says in verse 10, as many as they found. They gathered
together all as many as they found, both bad and good, and
the wedding was furnished with guests. I looked up to find out what
was being said right there. As many as they found, the bad
and the good, the evil and the virtuous, they bid them all. Bad and good, evil, virtuous. One writer says the known and
the unknown. Those known of God and those
unknown of God, they were all bidden. Come to the wedding. Come to the wedding. Now I know
that that truth is borne out because in verses 11 to 14, the
king came in And when he came in, he saw a
man that didn't have on a wedding garment. And he asked him, he said, friend, how'd you get here? Why did you
come here? How camest thou in hither? How is it, that's what he asked
him, how is it that you came here today to this wedding and
you don't have on a wedding garment? A lot of folks may say, I'll
tell you, when I stand before God, this is what I'm going to
say. This man was speechless. He was
speechless. These servants that had been
directed by the king, they did exactly what they were told to
do. Verse 9, Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many
as you shall find bid to the marriage. So they went out, and as many
as they found, both bad and good, evil and virtuous, known and
unknown, Here's the first thing I know. They did not know the
king's relationship to those that were bitten. They were just
obedient. We invite men to come. I'll tell anybody, I've had people
say, well you know again I've said this before, you men that
preach God's sovereign grace, you don't believe in whosoever
will. Oh yes we do. Oh yes we do. How can we not
believe that when the scripture declares it to be so? I just
know this, man by nature won't. I know that. But I'm telling
you, it does not change the fact. I want people to come and hear.
I want them to hear. Because I know this. God's got
a people. And I know this. He's commanded
me to preach the gospel to them. You go into all the world and
preach the gospel. Remember what I told you about
Mr. Spurgeon. Somebody said, well if you just
believe the elects going to be saved, which they are. Because
that's what the scripture declares. He said, why don't you just preach
to them? Mrs. Spurgeon wisely said, put an
E on their forehead and I'll just preach to them. We don't
know who they are, Pat. How do I know who God's people
are? Almighty God has told us, you preach the gospel to all
men. They went out there and they
bid the bad and the good. They didn't know who they were.
Look at Matthew 13. 47 to 50, here our Lord is preaching
again. Matthew 13, 47 to 50, again the
kingdom of heaven is likened to a net that was cast into the
sea and gathered of every kind, which when it was full, they
drew to shore and set down and gathered the good into vessels
and cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of
the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from
among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire,
and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." What are
we commanded to do? Preach the gospel to all men.
I want you to come. I want you to invite somebody. Invite somebody. I'm trying to
listen to myself. Invite somebody to come. Tell
the neighbor, tell somebody you work with, tell them to come.
Who knows? That very person may be one of
God's elect. And I'm telling you, the Lord
is going to get them under the gospel. You can bet that. It's
not left up to you. But we are commanded to be obedient.
We go into all the world and preach the gospel. If somebody
has a question for you, what do you people believe? Let me
give you the best word of advice I can. I've got two messages
this morning, preaching the second one right now, that I've prepared
and I have a captive audience. If you want somebody, if they
have a question for you, tell them, say, listen, why don't
you come listen? Come listen. Bring your Bible and open your
Bible. And I'll tell you, our pastor
is going to try to preach the gospel and going to try to back
up everything he says. I'm going to try to do that.
I don't want to tell you anything that I can't back up. Come listen! Come hear! This king came in, verse 11,
when he came in, the scripture says, he saw there a man which
had not on a wedding garment. Obviously, this person, this
man came in here and he was there with the rest of the guests and
he was enjoying all of the, you know, the frivolity and the,
you know, the food and whatever they were doing. He was there.
Do you know that Scripture does not say that anyone saw that
he didn't have on a wedding garment except the king? And when the
king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment. I know this. The scripture declares
that the wedding garment is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as I just mentioned a moment
ago, that righteousness is the righteousness that the Lord Jesus
Christ earned by His faith. We believe God, but I'm telling
you, our faith is not perfect faith in this life. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. The disciples
said, Lord, increase our faith. Our faith is weak faith, not
His. Not His. I'm telling you, look
at Galatians 2.16. Let me tell you what robes the
believer. I'm telling you, the imputed
righteousness of Christ is His obedience. that he earned by
his faith before God as the God-man, as the man Christ Jesus. Galatians
2.16, listen to these words. Knowing that a man is not justified,
he is not found to be blameless before the law. When God Almighty
looks and sees a man as justified in Christ, that means no charge,
no charge. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Let me tell you something. The
wedding garment is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that
He earned by His faith. by the faith of, that's what
robes us. That is our righteousness before
God. That is the wedding garment.
His righteousness. Isaiah 61.10, I'll read this,
or if you want to turn this, Isaiah 61.10 says this, I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." The wedding
garment is the robe of Christ's obedience by His faith. That white garment, the robe
of the righteous, robed in their white garments is His righteousness
imputed to us that hides the nakedness of a sinner before
God. Only the righteousness of Christ
is accepted by God. His perfect obedience. You try to present your best
efforts to God Almighty. You try to present your work.
You try to present, you know, your so-called work of righteousness
that you think has earned you a standing before God. Listen
to this, Isaiah 30 verse 1. Woe to the rebellious children,
saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me, that cover with
a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
The king back in Matthew 22 came in and he saw a man there that
did not have on a wedding garment. And this is the kingdom of heaven. This is what's going to happen
in the last day. This is going to happen in the day of judgment.
In this parable, it's telling what's going to happen in the
judgment. Verse 13-14, Then said the king to the servants, Bind
him hand and foot. take him away, cast him into
outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen." Many are
called. Many are called with a general
call. Now, let me just say this. I'm not talking about false free
will, man-centered, man-honoring, false religion. That's not the
general call. That's Galatians 1.18 says that
if we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel beside
that which we've preached unto you, let it be a curse. That's
an accursed message. It's an accursed message. I'm
not talking about a lie that's being told. I'm talking about
when the gospel is preached. I'm talking about the gospel
of God's grace. When I preach, now every one
of you is hearing me. You hear what I'm saying. You
understand exactly what I'm saying. I'm taking these scriptures and
I'm making some statements and I'm going to these scriptures
and I'll go to this scripture and I'll back it up and iron
will sharpen iron. I prove this scripture by this
scripture. And you're hearing it. But I'm telling you that
unless the Spirit of God gives a man or woman a new heart, it's
just a general call. You hear it. Those of you that
grew up here, how long did you hear? How long did you hear before
you heard? How long did Brother Scott preach
before the Lord calls you out of darkness? Before you heard
what he said and you understood it. You understood what was being
said. But as my daughter Becca, I told
you, she said, Dad, I knew what you were saying and I agreed
with you. I just didn't love it. I had
no heart for Christ. It was just a general call. The call to many. And the call is the preaching
of the gospel. It's the gospel message. Here's that general call. I told you again, whosoever will,
let him come. If any man thirsts, if any man
thirsts, Here was the message. These servants went out and they
were doing exactly what the king had told them to do. I prepared
my dinner. Come to the marriage. My oxen,
my fatlings are killed. Here's what's being said. And
we preach this every service. The sacrifice has been offered. All things are ready. Here's
what the Lord said concerning that. It's finished. It's finished. Come. But many of them made light of
it. But not all will. Many are called and few are chosen. Men that preach the gospel, I
told you a couple of weeks ago, somebody told Brother Henry one
time, they said, well, you know what you're preaching, the way
you're saying it, the way you're preaching it, there's just going
to be a handful saved. He said, yeah, but it all depends
on whose hand you're talking about. In the hand of the Lord,
the scripture says, these are a number that no man knows, but
God does. I know this. God Almighty has
a people. He has an elect. And we preach
the gospel to all men because, number one, the Lord's commanded
us to do that. Who am I? Who am I? Come here. Come and listen. Come to Christ. We preach to all men because
the Lord commanded us to. We preach to men because I know
this, that God Almighty has chosen to save some by the foolishness
of preaching. What the world calls foolishness.
Through preaching. He pleased God through the preaching
of the gospel. That's why we preach to all men.
And thirdly, we preach to all men because we don't know who
God's elect are. I don't know who they are. There
may be some here that the Lord has not called out of darkness
yet, and are the Lord's. When is He going to call them?
When it pleases Him. But by the grace of God, I want
to preach to you again, and again, and again. I want to preach the
same truth. I want to preach that which honors
God Almighty. God has a people. Few are chosen,
but God has chosen some. They are the elect of God. Ephesians 1, 4, chosen in Him
before the foundation of the world. What were they chosen
to? That they should be holy and
without blame before Him in love. I was reading that again. Lord willing, I'm going to try
to write an article and it's going to be titled something
like, What do I need to get into heaven? That scripture right
there tells me what I need to get into heaven. I gotta be holy
and I have to have no sin. My sins gotta be paid for. I
gotta have no blame. That they should be holy and
without blame before Him in love. The Lord's gonna save His elect. And according to the scriptures,
if God Almighty is pleased to leave a man to himself, to do
what that man wants to do, God does not do any injustice to
that man. Romans 9.18 says, therefore,
hath he mercy on whom he'll have mercy, on whom he will, he hardeneth. He leaves them to himself. We
preach Christ today. declaring that there's life in
him alone. Man died in the fall. Spiritually died. And by the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, redemption has been wrought for
God's elect. Listen, listen. Come to the marriage. Come to the marriage. All you that labor, heavy laden,
burden of sin, come to Christ. If any man thirsts
after righteousness, if the Lord has given you a heart, come to
the wedding. If you thirst after righteousness,
I'm telling you, the Lord has already given you life. You're
alive. If you hunger and thirst after
His righteousness because the Lord's revealed to you that you
don't have any, God Almighty's already shown mercy to you. He's
given you life in His Son. You come to Him, and this is
what He said, He that cometh and cometh and cometh He that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I was thinking about
that he that cometh years ago. I remember I was in false religion
and I remember thinking, I mean somebody told me that you give
your heart to Jesus, once saved always saved, which there's an
element of truth in that. I know that if Almighty God ever
saves a man or a woman, they're secure in Christ, there's no
doubt about that. But I remembered thinking, if
I've come to Christ by walking down an aisle, this is what I
call coming to Christ. I walked down an aisle, gave
the preacher my hand and shook it, and I repeated a prayer,
then that was coming to Christ. And nobody ever told me any,
I never heard the gospel. I'd never heard the gospel till
I was 27. Never heard it. Never heard it. So I came the only way I knew
how. As a child, you know, I was nine
years old. And I walked down the aisle.
And I remember thinking, if you're saved and you're already saved
and you're not going to be lost because they... Well, why do
you... Why keep coming to church? I mean, that just seemed logical
to me. If you've already... If you've been saved, why go?
Why come? A believer, does not look back on an experience
that he had when he was nine years old. A believer cometh
today. I need the Lord to save me today. I need the Lord to save me today.
We've been saved, we're being saved, and we shall be saved. I need to come to Christ afresh. That's the heart of life. He that cometh to me. Like I said before, yesterday's
air is gone and so is yesterday's faith. Faith cometh. It's brand new every day. Salvation
is today. Today is the day of salvation. Don't look back. You look back,
I'm going to tell you something, you look back and try to find
salvation in something you did, I'm going to tell you what's
going to happen. You're going to doubt, you're going to fear, you're
going to question everything. Do you believe God today? Today. Lord have mercy on us for Christ's
sake.