I please God to bless his word
as we met together this morning and let's turn to the Gospel
of Matthew chapter 22 and we'll read verses 11 to 14. The Gospel
of Matthew chapter 22 and verses 11 to 14. 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 words in this chapter direct
us very clearly to the solemn situation of not being amongst
those who are true believers. Indeed, this 14th verse tells
us many are called but few are chosen. Many here are the call
of the gospel but continue in their own sinful way. Many there are today which pretends
to be believers but in actual fact are just hypocrites. They do not possess the life
of God in the soul. The great difference is those
who personally know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour
and those who do not. You may say, well that's a very
obvious statement. Well, so it is. But it's also
a very important statement and a very deep statement and our
eternal condition depends on which side of the line we stand. Now, clearly the Lord spoke this
parable with the clear intention to move people to consider where
they stand in relation to their eternal state. There would be
no purpose otherwise, and so Although spoken so many years
ago, they are so true today, and indeed so relevant today. And the Lord starts with giving
this illustration. He tells us the Kingdom of Heaven
is like, it's like a certain king which made a marriage for
his son. Well, the king, of course, is
Almighty God, God the Father, who is illustrated here, and
the Son is no less than the precious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he sent forth his servants,
those who are commanded to preach the Gospel, to call them that
were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Well, how many there are today?
who will not come, come to hear the gospel preached. Now I believe
this illustration speaks to us of the gospel day, because we
are told that this is a feast, but it is a dinner, and it's
not a supper. Eternity will be when the Church
of God sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb. But whereas
we today are wonderfully blessed with being able to partake of
that spiritual food, and to realise that God does provide a spiritual
feast for his people, I suppose today we may think, well, you
know, what is the feast and what does it really mean? Well, the
word of God gives us an outline and he tells us, again, he sent
forth other servants saying, I tell them which I bid and behold,
I prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed and
all things are ready come unto the marriage. Well, this wasn't
a feast of just trivial things. We're told here this was a feast
of oxen and my fattens are killed and all things are ready come
unto the marriage. And the Church of God is wonderfully
invited to come and partake of this dinner that they may feast
and they may be strengthened and encouraged in the things
of God. Well, again the law tells us,
but they made light of it. They didn't think it was of any
real consequence. They made light of it. And therefore,
what did they do? It tells us, one went and went
their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. A
general description here then of those who perhaps we might
think in the country go into their farm and those in the town
go into their merchandise. But the reality is that there
was more concern about natural things than there were about
spiritual things. There was the wonderful provision
of spiritual things, but they were more concerned about natural
things. And of course the provision of
spiritual things is really centred upon our times when we gather
together for worship. There is a wonderful provision
that God has made and it is through the foolishness of preaching
that the blessing of the Lord will be made known. And that
blessing will be to come and to partake of these great blessings
And the great blessings are relative to the fullness which is to be
realised and known in the merits of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is a fullness that resides
in Jesus, our Head, which ever abides to answer our need. What a feast there is! But sadly,
in the day and age in which we live, There seems to be a little
partaking of this true spiritual food, described here in these
statements as oxen and fatlings. Those wonderful blessings, not
just trivial things, but real blessings. The Church of God
today, to a large extent, do not seem to be so concerned about
partakers of this true feast which God has provided. And therefore there are those
then who turn away, who are not interested, and there are those
who make light of it and carry on with their worldly things. We may think, well, of course
we've gathered together for worship this morning and it's a good
thing and it's a blessed favour, but the truth is I wonder how
many of us this morning already, as we sat here in chapel, have
been going, as it were, to our farm, or seeking our merchandise,
looking after the things of this world, concerned about them,
rather than the things of God. And the clear inference is, that
if such is the case, then are we not making light? of the provision
that God has so graciously provided for us. It's a wonderful favour
that we have to be able to read the Word of God and to have the
Gospel preached unto us. And what a blessing it is when
we're on the stretch after these things, and they really mean
something to us. I read this morning, before I
came out, the little account that Mr Ransfoss has put in the
Gospel Standard about the life of J.C. Philpott. Some of it,
of course, is fairly familiar, but other parts are of interest. And one of the great statements
that he's made in that little account is this. When J.C. Philpott left the Church of England,
one of the places that he preached at very often was a little place
in a little village called Addington. In those days people flocked
to hear the word preached. It's not a very big chapel, I
expect some of you may have seen it. It's quite a small chapel,
I have preached there. But he tells us that in those days there
could be up to 45 horses which needed to be tethered and taken
from their carts or perhaps ridden on horseback. apart from the
very many people that trudged many miles to come and hear the
preaching of the Gospel. And the place was full to overflowing,
both in the body of the chapel and in the gallery, and people
were outside. But the reason I'm saying this
is for this reason. The people were there, hungry
for the Word of God, and there was an interval of service, they
had a morning and afternoon service, There was an interval of service
and they ate their lunch together and the conversation was on the
preaching of the gospel, on the things that God had spoken to
them through the preaching that morning, or possibly the things
that they'd been encouraged in in the week past. But those are
the things which were on the lips of the people. Now, they didn't make light of
those things they'd heard. Indeed, the things that they
heard were food to their souls, and they really rejoiced in those
things which they'd heard, and they discussed them together.
Well, surely that indicates to us a healthy state, a lively
state, not something which was just of little value. And no
doubt they'd travelled a long way, some of them, to come and
hear the Gospel preached. Well, let us not be amongst those
then, who by our attitude, by our words, make light of the
things that God has provided. It's a wonderful blessing to
have a spiritual provision. It's a very sad thing to make
light of it and to consider it even as of no value, so that
we don't even come to hear the gospel preached. Well, we're
told then, and the remnant took his servants and he treated them
spitefully and slew them. Well, how sad that is, you see,
when people speak against the things of God. But when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth, and 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. And of course, in this day, he
was speaking principally then of the Jews, who had resisted
the truth of God. But there are many, as we might
think today, natural Jews, and by that I say this, those who
have been brought up in religious scenes, who followed in an outward
form, just like the Jews did, a ceremony, a ceremony. The Jews followed the ceremonies.
We might think today, you know, the preaching of the gospel,
the times of service. Well, we might be considered just as ceremonies.
He would have come to fulfil an obligation with no true desire
to hear for their souls eternal good. Well, this statement is
true, the wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not
worthy. Well my friends, let us not be
found amongst those today who are not worthy. And so the Lord
says, go you therefore into the highways, and as many as you
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. Well, you see, the Lord's work
will be performed. There will be those who will
be gathered in to hear the great truth of the gospel. And when
the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which
had not on a wedding garment. Well, there was a gathering of
the people. They had come together for this feast. And there was
one person in the midst who didn't have on a wedding garment. In days past, when weddings were
ordained, there was that wedding garment which was given to the
guests. Now the great blessing for us
is God gives to all his people a wedding garment. And I expect you can guess what
that wedding garment is. I wonder if you young people
can think of what a wedding garment is and what it was and what it
is today. If I was to ask you, what is
the wedding garment? What would you say? Well, the wedding garment is
very simply, it's a robe and it's white. And it's spotless
and it is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what all his people
wear. Every single living child of
God wears that heavenly garment, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's that which separates
God's people from those who are the ungodly. It's only God's
people that wear that robe of his righteousness. It's that
which he gives to them. And what does it do? It covers
their nakedness. Because, you see, we have nothing
in ourselves of any real value. It's only that which God gives
us. and that which God covers us with. And so the Lord came
and he saw there was a man which didn't have on a wedding garment. Well, we're all here this morning,
aren't we? And if God was to stand in our midst this morning,
would he point out anyone who hadn't got on a wedding garment? he point his finger at you or
finger at me and ask us this great question? He says, friend,
how camest thou hither not having a wedding garment? You see, this
particular person was clearly somebody who had pretended to
possess the life of God in their soul. one who had pretended to
be a true Christian, one who pretended to have on the wedding
garment. And it would seem that the person
had satisfactorily deceived the other guests. They weren't pointing
the finger and saying, well, you shouldn't be here. It was only when the Lord came who
sees into our hearts, that the revelation was made clear. And that's the great truth. God
looks into our hearts as to whether we are a possessor of the true
life of God in our soul, and whether we are truly hungry for
the things of God, and whether we are really Enjoying and desiring
to feast upon the great truths of the gospel Well this King came And my friends
God looks into your heart and my heart today No one else sees
what's in your heart Your heart is hidden but my friends God
knows what is in our heart and He knows it very clearly. You
and I cannot hide from God. We cannot hide and pretend we
possess that, that we do not. And it would be a great blessing
therefore today if the Spirit of God, as it were, finds us
out. And when we see God looking at
us and pointing at us, and saying, friend, how come
is thou and hither not having a wedding garment? To find that we are that person. Now, what was the result? How was the person going to respond? Was the person going to justify
themselves and say, well, of course I'm a believer. When people
may address us in that way, we may pretend to be like that.
But when God speaks, when God points his finger, you won't
be able to make any excuses. You won't be able to say anything. You'll be just like this person.
What was the result? The person was speechless. What had happened? They'd been
found out. They'd been found out. They didn't
possess any real religion. They'd been counted. We might
say, as a Christian, they'd been encouraged to come in, perhaps,
and they gathered with the people of God, but in actual fact, they
didn't possess the wedding garment. They didn't possess the righteousness
of Christ. discerning statement, isn't it?
And it's a very important statement, because what a blessing if we
are, as it were, gathered with the people of God, but are not
a true child of God, just pretending to be what we're not. And perhaps we, as it were, we
haven't come through the door We've climbed up some other way.
We've climbed over the wall. We've got that parable, haven't
we? The Lord speaks. Those who haven't
come through the door, the door is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
They've climbed up some other way. They've mistaken the way.
What a favour for you and me today. If the Spirit of God comes
and speaks to our hearts and proves to us whether we are those
who are false believers. A true believer is one who believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ as their all-sufficient Saviour. It's
not somebody who looks to their own abilities, who counts the
things that they've done as merit for glory. It's one who is totally dependent
upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that finished
work is, of course, a glorious work. And it's that work which
atones for the sins of all his church. It's that work which
washes away all our sins. Those who possess The righteousnesses
of Christ are those who are blessed with this great and wonderful
favour, who have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. They are not depending on their
works. They are depending upon the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, it's a good question, isn't
it, today, to see whether you and I are depending upon what
we've done. It's not what people think of
us, is it? Don't let that worry you. Worry
what God thinks of you. Worry as to whether you possess
the true gift of eternal life and whether you have a true living
hunger for spiritual things. And that hunger must be centred
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can naturally
have a wonderful knowledge of the Word of God. There are people
today who have a wonderful knowledge of the Word of God, but have
no life in their souls. They remain spiritually dead.
They do not hunger after Christ. They hunger after natural knowledge
so they may be thought well of by men. The great thing is to
be thought well of by Almighty God. Man fades away. Man perishes. Man disappears. But the things of God are eternal. The things of God will not perish. And my friends, if your hope
and my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' shed blood and
his righteousness, we have a good foundation. And in which case then, it will
be well with our souls. Now, if we are amongst those
who do not possess that robe of Christ's righteousness, but
we possess a garment of our own providing, then these words will
be solemnly true, that the Lord speaks. Then said the king to
his servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast
him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. We have our little view of what
hell will be like to all those who are not true believers. All
those who do not possess the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see how important the truths
of God are. They're not to be belittled.
They're not to be cast aside. They're not to be thought as
of no real value. They are so important, they are
so vital, because they concern our eternal life. Our eternal
life. You just think of being cast
into outer darkness, where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. a little description of what
hell is like in some of its elements. Outer darkness, no light there. No light there. Outer darkness
and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Gnashing of teeth because there
is that solemn realisation they are outside of the day of grace. They are outside of the time
of mercy. It's past. It's gone. My friends, all of us here today
are still on this earth. We're still in a day of grace.
We're still in a time of mercy. May we all be found seeking then
that we may know that mercy and be blessed with that grace of
God. that grace of God which shows
to us our true state before a holy God, our true state as an unworthy,
hell-deserving sinner, and that true grace which then directs
us to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of sinners,
that you and I may then be found in Him, not having on our own
righteousness which is of the flesh. The devil will try and calm our
minds and settle us down into a false condition. The devil
doesn't want you and me to be stirred up in our hearts to consider
whether we are amongst those who are truly a believer. The devil wants us to be calm
and comfortable in a hypocritical religion. One is satisfied with
a pure outward performance of religious things and lacking
the reality of that great and glorious inward work of the Spirit
of God. And there is an eternal difference
between those two situations. And it comes down really to this
statement in this 14th verse, for many are called, but few
are chosen. And the Lord Jesus tells us with
regard to those chosen, he tells us this, ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and ordained you. that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." That's a wonderful
statement by the Saviour himself as he addresses you and me today. If we are amongst those who are
chosen of God, it's because he has chosen us. It's not that
we love God, but that he loved us. That's the moving force. That's the moving influence.
And as the Spirit of God moves in our heart, I believe there
will be that urgent cry, give me Christ or else I die. Show me that thou hast loved
me with everlasting love. Give me to know that my name
is written in the Lamb's book of life. The generalities of
religion will not be sufficient. They may have been, but when
God's finger points at you and me and asks us the question,
as it were, how do we possess the wedding garment? To then
seek earnestly that we may be a possessor of it and to have
that blessed assurance that the Lord has died for us. He has stood in our place. He
has borne the punishment instead. He has died that we might live,
that we might be a possessor of that great blessing of eternal
life. Few are chosen, chosen of God,
ere time began. I choose thee in return. If God has come then, and granted
us that quickening grace, that all-powerful enlightening, so
that we have seen that light in our hearts, that light which
will never go out. We won't be cast into darkness
if we possess that light, because that light is within us. It's
that which the Lord Jesus Christ gives. I am the light. I am the light of the world.
I am the truth, the way and the life. God gives us that great
and eternal blessing. So to think of these great words
that we may be not amongst those who are found with on a wedding
garment which is not that which God has given us. Do remember
this. It's God's gift. It's God's gift. And if you and I have received
it, we shall be aware that we have received it because there
will be a great difference in our life. We will be humbled
under the mighty hand of God. We will lay low, be cast down,
and our own estimation, and our own vileness, our own sinfulness,
and Christ will be raised up on high. He will be the one we
would desire to honor, and to praise, and to glorify, because
of his great work of salvation, because that wonderful gift he's
given to us of his righteousness, that wedding garment, and it'll
never be taken away. It'll never be removed. It's
that which he places on us and we shall forever wear throughout
eternity, once in him, in him forever. something that we shall
not have taken away, because he's chosen us, because he's
called us, because he's remembered us, because he's loved us, because
he's shown us his mercy. And as the Spirit of God directs
us to understand in our souls the great wonderful blessing
of that gift of eternal life, that wonderful blessing of salvation
which is applied to our souls, there will be that rejoicing,
there will be that thankfulness, there will be that praise. And
so perhaps we need to ask ourselves the question, have we that wonderful
evidence in our hearts of praising God for what he's done? for our unworthy soul. Here's to that thankfulness in
our heart. The Lord has remembered us, just
like the dying thief, when he cried out, remember me. Royal
religion is very personal. It comes just like that, remember
me. And when we have the evidence,
the Lord has remembered us. to know that true thankfulness
unto our God, to realise that His grace has come to us. And the evidence of that, I believe,
will be shown, as it was to John Newton. We'll come and say, amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Because grace has made me free. Freedom in Christ is a wonderful
blessing. If the Son, therefore, shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. And that's freedom in
Christ, my friends. And it brings us into blessed
freedom. I believe that freedom sets us
in that place where we desire to honour and glorify our great
and glorious Saviour, for all that He's done is mercy, is love. And we shall then have a little
view of the debt we owe, the cost of our salvation, the Saviour
suffering, all an incarnate God could bear, with strength enough
and none to spare, so that your soul and my soul might be clothed
with that great and glorious righteousness which he gives
to us. And remember there's a wonderful
exchange, a wonderful exchange. What is that exchange? The Lord
takes our sins and puts them upon himself and he takes his
righteousness and gives it to us. It's a beautiful word for
it, imputed. The Lord imputes, he gives to
us his righteousness and he imputes to us, to himself, our sin. Isn't that amazing? Why should
God do that? Because he's loved us with everlasting
love. That's the reason He graciously
and gloriously gives us this wonderful gift of righteousness,
this wonderful gift of this heavenly garment, this wonderful gift
of this wedding garment. So then there will be that day
when, by His grace, we shall then sit down at the marriage
supper of the Lamb. There'll be no intruders there.
There'll be no one there who comes in without a wedding garment.
There will be complete love and unity and praise. And the whole
living Church of God will then sit down to the marriage supper
of the Lamb, there to praise God forever and ever. Well, what
a situation that will be. I was going to say a time, but
it won't be a time because time will be no more. Time will have
ceased. We will then be in eternity. And so today, may we have the
evidence of this blessed work of God, this call of God, this
effectual call. It's not just a general call,
it's an effectual call. When God calls his people, it
has an effect. That's why it's called an effectual
call. It has an effect because it changes our darkness into
light. We're a new creature. Old things
have passed away. Behold, all things are become
new." Well, may all of us be blessed today with this great
and blessed favour and understand the solemnity of these words
we have before us. 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 hither? not having a wedding garment,
and he was speechless. 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. Amen.