Let us turn again to the Word
of God, and the words to which I would direct your attention
this morning are found in the Gospel according to Matthew chapter
22, verse 14. The last verse in our reading,
Matthew chapter 22 and verse 14. For many are called, but
few are chosen. Matthew 22, verse 14, for many
are called, but few are chosen. And this parable that the Lord
Jesus finishes with these words is really one that goes to the
heart of why we are doing what we are doing here this morning.
It goes to the heart of the reason for which we have this building
and for which we have this pulpit in a prominent place at the front
and centre of it. It's a parable that speaks about
the work of the preacher and about the message of the Gospel. And how is that message summarised?
Well, it's summarised in the words of verse 9. Go ye therefore
into the highways, says this king in the parable to his servants,
and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. Really this
parable is the last part of Jesus' answer to the Pharisees. We saw
in the previous chapter how the Pharisees came to him with that
question. They said, by what authority
doest thou these things? And no doubt they are thinking
of the many things that we saw Jesus doing earlier in that chapter.
We saw him coming into the city, riding upon the back of the ass
with the multitudes crying, Hosanna to the Son of David. We saw him
going into the temple and casting out the buyers and sellers and
overthrowing the tables of the money changers. And we saw the
blind and the lame coming to him and he healed them, it says.
And as a consequence of those things, the Pharisees and the
chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as
he was teaching and said, by what authority doest thou these
things? And who gave thee this authority? The chief priests and the elders,
they thought they were the authority, didn't they? And they were offended
at this man, Jesus, who seems to come uninvited into their
temple and teach, although he was not officially given that
responsibility. Well, they said, what are you
doing here? We haven't said you can do these things. And Jesus
won't tell them, will he? He doesn't tell them by what
authority he does these things. He rejects their assertion that
they have any authority over him. He says, I'm not accountable
to you. Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
And then as an answer to their question and as an answer to
their attitude, he gives them these three parables that we
read together. First of all, we have the parable of the man
with his two sons. They're in verse 28 of chapter
21. A certain man had two sons and
so on. And Jesus, in effect, is saying
to these chief priests and to these elders of the people, you're
like the second son. The Pharisees and the scribes,
they thought that they were the chosen people of God and they
trusted in their pedigree, they trusted in the fact that they
were the literal sons of Abraham. And they thought, well, God blessed
Abraham, we're the sons of Abraham, won't he be certain to bless
us? They trusted in the fact that they were Jews. They thought, well, God blessed
the Jews in the Old Testament, and we are the Jews now, so won't
he be sure to bless us? And they trusted also in the
opinions of others. And they thought, well, as long
as everybody else thinks that we're going in the right way,
then certainly we must be. But Jesus comes and he gives
them a very different message, doesn't he? You are like the
second son in that parable, he says to them. All their religion
was all on the surface, just like the obedience of that second
son. But when the father comes to the first son and says, go
work today in my vineyard, the first son says, I will not. But
then afterwards he goes. Whereas the second son, although
he seems more promising and more obedient on the surface, he says,
I go, sir. But he went not. And Jesus explains
the parable to them. He says the publicans and the
harlots are like the first son, on the surface not so promising,
but afterward he repented and went. And we see frequently in
the Gospels how the publicans and the harlots come to Jesus
and they sit around him and they hear his teaching. But he says,
you Pharisees, you are more like the second son. You seem very
obedient on the surface, but your heart is not in it. You
sound like you are going in the right direction when you speak,
but your actions are very different to your words. I go, sir, says
the second son, but he went not. Then Jesus comes with another
parable, the parable of the vineyard. And you're all familiar with
it, I expect. Here is the vineyard. Here are the husbandmen that
are given a responsibility to care for the vineyard and to
tend the vineyard and to give the fruits to the householder. But they are greedy and they
are selfish. They want the fruits for themselves. And when the
husbandmen see the servants of the householder coming, they
kill them, they stone them, they throw them out. They even murder
the son of the householder. He sends last of all his son
and he says, they will reverence my son. But when they see the
son coming, they determine to kill him also and cast him out. And again, Jesus says to the
Pharisees, this is you. You are these wicked husbandmen.
You who have been given a responsibility to lead the people of God and
to be over the people of God. You have gone wrong, you have
corrupted it. And he quotes to them that scripture
from the Psalms, the stone which the builders rejected. The stone
which the builders rejected, he's talking about himself. He
is the stone that was rejected by the builders. The same has
become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing and
it is marvellous in our eyes. Therefore, say I unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, the wicked husband
there. and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof.
And then he gives this third parable here at the beginning
of chapter 22, this parable of the wedding feast. And the Pharisees,
they realized that these parables were aimed at them, didn't they?
They heard his parables and they perceived that he spake of them
and they were angry. Well, they said, how dare he
speak about us like this? but they realise that they can't
lay their hands on him because the multitude took him to be
a prophet. And it's because they're angry
and they reject his teaching that they come with the questions
that we see later on in this 22nd chapter. If we'd read on
in the chapter we would have seen them coming to him to entangle
him in his talk and asking the questions that they thought he
wouldn't be able to answer. Well, what is the meaning of
this parable here then at the beginning of this 22nd chapter?
The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto. That's often the way that
the Lord Jesus begins his parables, especially here in Matthew's
Gospel. The Kingdom of Heaven. You'll find that expression about
30 times as you read through Matthew's Gospel. It doesn't
appear in any of the others. But Matthew uses this expression
frequently. Something that he remembered
the Lord Jesus saying. and marked. The kingdom of heaven
is like. What is the kingdom of heaven?
Well, if we trace through the parable, we clearly see that
the kingdom of heaven is Christ's kingdom. It's the kingdom over
which he reigns and over which he rules. Well, of course, Christ,
in a sense, is king over all and king over all things. But
here we have a reference to the church especially, the visible
church upon the earth. That is Christ's kingdom. It
is the kingdom of heaven. He is the head of it. He rules
over it. The authority sits in heaven. It's the kingdom of heaven. It's not so much the glorified
church that the Lord Jesus is speaking about here. Because
we see later on in the parable how there is that guest there
who didn't have the wedding garment on. He comes into the wedding
feast, but he doesn't have the wedding garment. And he's bound
and taken away and cast into outer darkness. Well, it's not
so much then about heaven itself, because there'll be no one in
heaven without the wedding garment on, nor that defileth can enter
into heaven itself. But when we look at the church
here upon earth, we see that it's a church that is mixed.
The visible church is made up, as we see later on in the parable
of those who are both bad and good. The wheat and the tares,
the sheep and the goats. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto a certain king. Well, a certain king surely is
God himself, God the Father, who made a marriage for his son.
A feast, a marriage feast. and he sends forth his servants
to call them that were bidden to the wedding and they would
not come. That surely is a reference to the Pharisees and the majority
of the Jews. They were called to the wedding.
They were bidden to the wedding, but they would not come. How
were the Jews bidden to the wedding? Well, they were bidden by the
Old Testament, by the Old Testament prophecies, by the Old Testament
way of worship, by all those sacrifices. that we read about
in the early chapters of the Old Testament. And there would have been a constant
stream of animals brought up to the temple, to the tabernacle,
and then to the temple. A constant stream of offerings
made. And the Jews and the Pharisees would have been very familiar
with these things. What were these things meant to do? Well,
they were to point them forwards to this kingdom of heaven that's
spoken of here. Those things were meant to represent
something else. Those sacrifices, they were meant
to represent the sacrifice of Christ. They were bidden to the wedding.
These things pointed them to the wedding, pointed them to
the coming of the gospel, to the one that was to come. But
it says they would not come. They would not come. He sent
forth his servants. Who are the servants? Well, the
servants surely are the prophets of the Old Testament, and the
apostles, and the disciples of the New Testament. They would
not come. And because they won't come, and because they make light of
this call that the Old Testament comes to them with, and this
call that Jesus Christ comes to them with in the Kingdom of
Heaven, They made light of it, it says, and they took his servants
and entreated them spitefully and slew them. And as a result
of that, the king sends forth his armies and these murderers
are destroyed and their city is burned up. And then the king says 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. The gospel now is not to be preached
to the Jews only. But the disciples were instructed
to go out into all the world and to preach the Gospel to every
nation. And we see them doing that as
we come to the early chapters of the Book of Acts and trace
through the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. We need
to remember when we come to these parables that a parable really
is meant to put before us very often one great truth. That's why there are many parables.
The Lord Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like unto this,
and it's like unto this, and it's like unto this. It's not
that the parables are meant to put before us truth in all its
fullness and in all its points. If we forget that, we are very
likely to get into difficulty. You take this parable here, We
might read this parable and we might think, well, it doesn't
say anything about the atonement. It doesn't say anything about
substitution. It doesn't say anything about there needing
to be an intermediary between these people who come to the
wedding and the king. And so there are those who look
at some of these parables and they say, well, perhaps the atonement
is not important. Well, it doesn't say anything
specifically about the atonement, but it's a very foolish thing
to base your theology on what the Bible doesn't say. Very often
these parables are meant to put before us one great truth. Well, what about these Pharisees who are represented
by those at the beginning of the parable? What can we learn
about them? Why do we need to learn anything
about them? Well, we need to learn about them because the
spirit of the Pharisee didn't die out with the Pharisees, did
it? And we are not so very different
to the Pharisees by nature. We are born in the same way.
We come very often with the same attitude. We can make the same
mistakes and fall into the same faults. So as we read about these
Pharisees, we need to examine ourselves and consider whether
it's us, whether we are making the same mistakes that these
Pharisees made. What can we learn about these
Pharisees? Well, firstly, They were bidden. He sent forth his
servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding. And I said a moment ago how they
were bidden throughout the Old Testament. The Gospel is there
in the Old Testament as well as in the New. From the very
beginning of Genesis right to the end of that closing chapter
of the Old Testament. Really the message of the Old
Testament is not different to the message of the New. it pointed the Jews forward.
It said there is one coming who will be the atonement, who will
be the fulfilment of all these sacrifices, and who will do in
reality what these sacrifices represent. He sent forth his servants to
call them that were bidden to the wedding, as if they come and they say,
well, those things that were now, those things that were represented
in the Old Testament, they are now reality. Those shadows that
were there in the Old Testament, now the reality has come. This
is the true thing, this is the real thing. This is the wedding
itself. And we see John the Baptist doing
that, doesn't he? How he comes to point the Jews
to Christ. He sent forth his servants to
call them that were bidden to the wedding. They were bidden,
they were called. But it says they would not come.
They would not come. It reminds us, doesn't it, of
the words of Christ when he comes to the Jews there in John's Gospel. And he speaks of himself as the
Son of God and the Jews seek to kill him for it. And then he says to the Jews,
search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me. And he says, ye
will not come to me, ye will not come to me. They had no will
to come to him. To put it very simply, they didn't
want to come to him. They were more interested in
the shadows and forms of the Old Testament. they would rather
depend upon those Old Testament shadows and signs. And when the
reality comes, they said, well, we're not interested in that.
We don't want that. We're comfortable here in our
Jewish religion. We know what we're doing. We
know where we are. And this new message, as they
saw it, we're not interested in it. We don't want it. They
would not come. They had no will to come. Something
is wrong with the will of man. It was something wrong with the
will of the Pharisees. There's something wrong with
the will of all of us as we're born into the world. That's why
when we hear of the Gospel, we're not interested in it, naturally
speaking. Something is wrong with the will.
The whole man is fallen. Again it says, he sent forth
other servants, saying, tell them which I'll bid, and behold,
I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed
and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. They
are called again. You see the patience, the long-suffering
of God. Come unto the marriage. But they
made light of it, it says. They made light of it. They paid
no attention to it. They were not interested in it. What kept them away from the
marriage? Why was it that they were not interested? What was
it that was keeping them away? Well, it's a very solemn thing,
isn't it, when you think about it? Look at the things that they
would rather do. One went to his farm, one to
his merchandise. It was the things that God had
given them that kept them away. The things that God had given
them that kept them away. Don't you see the same truth
when you read that parable of the prodigal son? One of the
most well-known parables. We have it told to us in Luke's
Gospel, chapter 15. And you read about it. And you
think about the son. Why was it that he went away
from his father? What was it that enabled him
to stay away from his father? It was the things that his father
had given him. All that time that he was away
there in that far country, what was he living on? He was living
on the very things that his father had given him. That portion of goods that his
father had given to him. Now he takes it and he turns
his back on his father and he uses that living, those goods,
that portion that he had been given, to stay away. He spends it all. Well again, isn't it a picture
of how we are, all the blessings that we have,
where do they come from, all the things that we receive day
by day in our lives. We don't get them ourselves,
do we? They're given to us. Every good gift and every perfect
gift cometh from above. The food that we eat, the money
that we have, our strength, our energy, our senses, eyes, ears,
all those things that we use every day. They're all given
to us. What is the sad thing? What is the solemn thing? Well,
the tragedy is that these things, unless God does something to
us, they keep us away from him. When you read people writing
about the gospel, they say things like this, don't they? They say,
well, of course, in the olden days, it's understandable why
people would pray when people lived very much hand to mouth.
And they didn't know where their next meal was coming from. Well,
it's not surprising they would say that that kind of person
becomes religious. But they say, well, I have a
bank account full of money and a cupboard full of food. I have
a good job, a good home. I'm happy with my life. Why would
I need to become religious? Why would I need to have anything
to do with God? Again, just like these at the
beginning of this parable. They make light of it. those
very things that God has given them in his mercy. They are the things that keep
them away from him. They take the blessings and they ignore
the giver of the blessings. 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. and their city is destroyed.
Surely it's a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. That
was what literally happened to many of these Jews. Seventy years
after Christ was born, the Roman army comes and the city is surrounded
and eventually it's thrown to the ground and burnt down. The wedding is ready, says the
king to his servants, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
They were not worthy. They were not interested. They had no will to come. It's
very interesting how Paul uses the exact same expression when
he speaks to the Jews later on, in Acts chapter 13, when Paul is preaching to the
Jews there in Antioch, in Pisidia. And we have a long account of
his address to them. But what's the conclusion there
in verse 46? The Jews, they see the whole
city coming together to hear the word of God and they're filled
with envy and they speak against those things that were spoken
by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. And then it says Paul and Barnabas
waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. It was necessary, just like the
parable says. It was necessary that the word
of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing ye
put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. They judged themselves unworthy.
They which were bidden were not worthy. They did not receive
these things, they were not interested in them. They had no will to
receive these things. And what does Paul go on to say,
seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life? Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
We turn to the Gentiles again, just like in the parable. The
wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
Go ye therefore into the highways and gather together as many as
ye shall find, and bid them to the marriage." Now again, remember
that this is a parable. We're not to imagine that God
was surprised by the Jews' rejection of the Gospel. It was all in
fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies, the stone which the
builders rejected and so on. The parable is not meant to give
us the impression that God is surprised by the way in which
the Jews rejected Christ and then has to come up with an alternative
solution. This was all part of the will
of God. He knew. He even knew that his son would
be rejected. It happened in the providence
of God. He was delivered, says Peter,
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, but they
were still wicked hands that crucified him. They were still
wicked hands. Well, what's the king's reaction
then? Go ye therefore, he says. Go ye therefore. When do we see the fulfilment
of this? Well, we see it at the end of the Gospel, don't we? When the eleven disciples go
into Galilee, into that mountain where Jesus had appointed that
he would meet with them. And they saw him, and they worshipped
him, and some doubted. And what does Jesus say unto
them? All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go
ye therefore. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. Go ye therefore into the highways. And as many as
ye shall find, bid to the marriage. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the
Son. and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all the
way, even unto the end of the world. Go ye therefore into the
highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage." Bid
to the marriage. You see how it is the same call
that the servants are now commanded to go into the highways with. It's the same call that the people at the beginning of
the parable knew. It's the same message. He sent forth his servants
to call them that were bidden, the Jews and the Pharisees and
those who knew all that history of the Old Testament. And now that same message is
to be preached throughout all nations. The same call. As many
as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. Yes, the means are
different. The message looks different.
It's perhaps given in different language, as it were. It's not
now through sacrifices and offering and all those things that were
appointed under the Old Testament in the temple and in the tabernacle.
We don't have those things anymore. But the message, the core message,
the fundamental message is the same. It still points to Christ
and it still points to him as the only way of salvation, as
the saviour of sinners, as the one who came into the world to
save sinners. It's perhaps less veiled now
than it was under the Old Testament. Perhaps the veil that was over
Christ, it was a thicker veil. And now the veil is, to some
extent, taken away. And we have these things set
before us clearly in the Gospels that the Jews only had prefigured
in prophecy and in type and in shadow. But it's the same essential
truth. And Christ says, through the
parable, that the Gospel is now to be preached to as many as
are found. As many as ye shall find, he says, bid to the marriage. The Gospel is to be preached
throughout all nations. It's the same Gospel, the same
message, and it's to be preached to all who are found. Now, when
you turn to the epistles of Paul, you see that he did that, he
did just that. He preached the same Gospel wherever
he went. And whoever he found, whoever was in front of him,
he preached essentially the same gospel. You read the first epistle to
the Corinthians, and you read about his preaching in Corinth.
And what does he say? The preaching of the cross, he
says, is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved is the power of God. He preaches the same message
to them which perish, and to those which are saved. It's the
same message. It's not that he comes to a place
and he says, well, first I need to figure out who the elect are,
and then I need to gather all the elect together and I need
to preach a certain message to them, and those who are not elect,
they won't hear it. That would be foolishness, wouldn't
it, to try and do that? He had no way, except preaching
the gospel, to discover who the elect were. And so, when he comes
to Corin, he preaches this message to all of them, both to them
that perish and to those which are saved. Again, in the same chapter, he
goes on to speak of the preaching of Christ. The Jews require a
sign, he says, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But we still preach it to the
Jews and we still preach it to the Greeks. but unto them which
are called, both Jews and Greeks. Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God, he preaches Christ crucified to everybody
without exception. Go ye therefore into the highways
and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage, point them
to the marriage, point them to Christ. Go ye therefore into the highways,
and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage." And that
message that Paul preached, though it was a message that was founded
in history, it was not just history. He preached Christ crucified.
He preached something that had actually happened. No doubt he
preached about his incarnation, about his life, about his sufferings,
about his death and resurrection and ascension. But the thing about his message
was that it was more than just history. Many are called, it
says. Many are called. In the message
there is something like a call. It is a message that is intended
to have an effect. What is the message that we hear
in the Gospel? It's a message that comes and tells us that
we are sinners, and it tells us that Christ is the Saviour
of sinners. Well, there is an implicit call in there, isn't
there? Now, perhaps you're thinking,
well, this sounds a bit like the free offer of the gospel.
Is that what you're saying? You will know, many of you, that
there are those who use that language. They talk about the
free offer of the gospel. And they say the gospel is to
be offered to all, without exception. Well, we have to acknowledge
and we have to accept that good men have used that terminology.
And you look through the history of the church, you read through
the Puritans, they talk about the free offer of the gospel. But very often what you find
is that they don't mean what people use those words to mean
today. Really the word offer, it means set before. To offer
something is to set things before someone. And when the words are used in
that sense, we might not object to the phrase
the free offer of the gospel because the gospel is to be set
before all men many are called it's the outward call that the
Lord Jesus is talking about here the outward call of the gospel
and it's to be set before all men without exception whosoever
as many as ye shall find it says bid to the marriage but the problem is The phrase
free offer is that people use it to almost preach a kind of
take it or leave it message. As if Christ is set before people
and they say, well, God has now done his part and now you must
do yours. As if they would say salvation
is in your power now. It's something that you can decide
to take or leave. Oh, they would say, Christ loves
everybody. This is what people understand by the free offer
of the Gospel now. It's very different to what the
Puritans understood by it. They would say, well, God loves
everybody, and he's done what's necessary to save everybody,
but now they must do their part. Well, there's only one way to
describe that message. It's wrong. We can't go to everybody and
say, God loves you and Jesus died for you. We don't know who
God loves. We don't know who Jesus died
for. These are the hidden things that belong unto God. We can't
climb up into heaven and open the book of life and trace down
the names and say, well, so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so,
they're all on the book of life, so I must go and preach the gospel
to that person. We don't have that knowledge.
They're the secret things that belong unto God. But the things
which are revealed belong unto us. And what is the thing that is
revealed? Well, it's this gospel. It's this gospel that is to be
preached to all, without exception. We object to the term free offer,
not because it's got the word free in it. This is what people
sometimes misunderstand. I remember seeing a book a few
years ago, and the author was writing against, probably against,
the gospel stand position, really. And he said, this was the title
of his book, The Gospel Offer is Free. as if the word that's
objected to is free. Well, there's no objection to
the word free. The gospel is to be preached freely. The gospel
is a message of freedom. It speaks of a salvation which
is free. It speaks of a substitution which is free. It speaks of one who says, come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. It speaks of one who said, if any man thirsts, let
him come unto me and drink. You remember the closing words,
almost, of scripture. What John saw in the book of
Revelation. And he speaks of the water of
life. Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
The Gospel is to be preached freely. It's a free message.
It's a message of freedom. It's the word offer that is problematic
now. Because now it means much more
than it did in the Puritans' days. It means much more than
to set before. It's a free message, it's a free
call, a free outward call, if you like. Go ye therefore into
the highways and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage. There is a call. There is an
outward call. Many are called. And where there is a call, it
implies duty, doesn't it? It implies duty. When God calls,
does it not speak of duty? You look through the gospel standard
articles that we would maintain, the church here would maintain,
and it speaks about duty-faith and duty-repentance, and it says
these things are not true. There's no such thing as duty-faith
and duty-repentance. What are they talking about?
Well, there are those who almost give the impression that man
has a duty to be converted, that man has a duty to be saved, that
man has a duty to go to heaven. Well, that again is a twisting
of the truth. That's what the people who wrote
those articles meant when they denied duty-faith and duty-repentance.
They were essentially denying that man has a duty to be born
again. But we mustn't make the mistake
of thinking that man has no duty. Because there are duties. Man
has duties. there is even a kind of repentance
that we might speak of as the duty of all men. Repentance, sometimes, can be
used in the sense of a man stopping sinning. Well, clearly, it's
the duty of man to stop sinning. It would be quite wrong to stand
and to say, well, carry on sinning, God doesn't mind. No, no, the
duty of all men is not to sin, to do what God has said, and
not to do what He has told them not to do. There is a kind of
faith that is the duty of all men, a natural kind of faith. It's quite right to say that
it is the duty of all men to believe what God has told them,
to believe everything that God has declared in His Word, to
believe that we are sinners, and that Christ is the Saviour
of sinners, the only Saviour of sinners. We can speak of these things
as duty. Go ye therefore into the highways
and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. Again, what
is the issue with duty-faith? Well, when we talk about faith in the
saving sense, we're not talking about that natural kind of faith
by which a man just believes what the Bible says. That kind
of faith clearly is the duty of all, to believe what God has
said. But saving faith is much more than that. Saving faith
is infinitely more than that. It is that, but it's much more
than that. Saving faith is a man casting himself on Christ. It's
not just that he says Christ is the Saviour, and I believe
Him. But he speaks of Christ as his only hope. And he casts himself upon him
and he falls at his feet as it were. He relies upon him. He rejects
all other hopes. He rejects all hope of getting
to heaven by any other way. And he says, if ever my poor
soul be saved, his Christ must be the way. And he runs to the
strong tower. and he flees for refuge to lay
hold upon that hope that is set before him in the Gospel. That
is saving faith, that is supernatural faith, not to be spoken of in
terms of duty. No one ever came to Christ because
it was their duty, not in that saving way. They came to Christ
because they were compelled to by the things that God showed
them. He showed them their sin, as he showed them Christ as the
Saviour, and they flee towards him. They don't say, well I better
come because it's my duty. Just like the drowning man grasping
the rope. It's foolishness to talk about it in terms of duty.
Though he clings to it because it's his only hope. That's saving
faith, that's spiritual faith. What was the issue again with
these original people at the beginning of this parable. Why
would they not come? There was something wrong with
the will. There was something wrong with the whole man. What is required if we are to
come in that saving way? A new heart is required. A new
will is required. A new mind is required. If God doesn't give us these
things, we will never come in the way that he speaks of. There
will never be any salvation. There will never be any real
faith. But we are accountable. We are accountable. The Gospel
doesn't leave a man where it finds him. It never does. You
cannot hear the Gospel and be the same as you were before.
Again, remember how Paul spoke of it when he writes to the Corinthians. And he speaks of his own preaching.
We are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved
and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death. They hear the gospel and just like these Jews
here at the beginning of this parable, they will not come.
They will not come because they have no will to come. And we
cannot change our will. The will is not free. To the
one we are the saver of death unto death. and to the other,
the saver of life unto life. Who is sufficient for these things?
No wonder he felt like that when he saw the effect that his preaching
was having. Not just an effect on those who
believed it and received it and were saved, but there was an
effect for those who, by their own will, rejected it, by their
fallen will. Many are called, many are called
There's no excuse for fatalism in the Gospel. There's no excuse
for a man saying, well, if I'm one of the elect, then I'll be
saved, and if I'm not, I won't, and I won't concern myself with
it. And I won't pay any attention to the Gospel, and I won't pay
any attention to the Word of God. What's the point? God will
save me if his will is to save me, and if it's not, he won't. No, we are accountable for our
own hearts, we are accountable for our own wills, they are our
wills. And when the sinner stands before
God, and he's lived a life in which he has turned his back
to Him, he won't then be able to say, well, it's your fault,
you didn't give me a new heart. God has no obligation to give
men and women new hearts. He gives and he withholds according
to his own will. He is free to do that. But for those who come before
him and say, well, it's your fault, you never gave me a new
will, you never gave me a new heart, you never gave me a new
mind. Surely the Lord would be quite
justified to come back with this answer. You never ask for one.
You never ask for one. Those who God leaves, they go
on in the way of their own choosing. The way that seems right to a
man, but it ends in death. And as we were born into this
world, that was the pathway we were all in. Choosing the way
that seemed right to us. The way that leads to death. Many are called but few are chosen.
Well, many are called but few are chosen.
The Christian, the true Christian is not only called, he is called,
He hears the same message as everyone. Not only called, but also chosen.
And you're familiar with the way in which Paul speaks of this
when he writes to the Ephesians. And how does he speak of them? Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has
chosen us. in him before the foundation
of the world, chosen before the world was, chosen before time
was. That's why they know the new
birth. That's why they're given that
new heart, that new will, that new understanding. Because they're
chosen. Now they believe. Now when they
hear of themselves as sinners, they know it's true, because
they experience it. Now when they see Christ as the
only Saviour, they don't just look at it in a detached kind
of way, but they're spurred on to flee to Him. Many are called,
but few are chosen. Not just the outward call, but
what is described as the inward call, the call that comes into
the heart of a man, not just into his ears, to be ignored
and rejected, but it comes into the heart by experience. And
you read through some of the hymns and look at how they come.
We sang about it, didn't we, in that 44th hymn just a moment
ago. And the hymn writer says, Now,
O Lord, my wants I see, lost and undone I come to Thee. There's so many hymns that speak
of this. You look at hymn 764, when Isaac
Watts speaks of the voice of sovereign grace that sounds from
the sacred word. And what is that voice? O ye
despairing sinners, come and trust upon the Lord. My soul
obeys this almighty call and runs to this relief. To the dear
fountain of thy blood incarnate God I fly. He's not motivated
by duty. He's motivated by necessity. They speak of flying to this
gospel, flying to this way of salvation. Well, you may say, well, I... Perhaps you're ready to say,
I hear this Gospel, and I see something of the beauty of this
way of salvation, but I don't know if I'm one of the elect.
Well, you read through those hymns again. The hymn writers
don't say... He doesn't say, elect and chosen,
I come to thee. He says, lost and undone, I come
to thee. The sinner doesn't come to Christ.
trusting in his election. He doesn't say, I come because
I'm elect. He says, I come because I'm lost. I come because I'm
undone. Or you may not be able to come
as an elect sinner. But can you come as a lost sinner?
Can you come as an undone sinner? Can you come as a sinner who
has no hope anywhere else? Who has tried all the other physicians
and found them to be of no value? Many are called, but few are
chosen. And how does the Lord Jesus put
God before us in that parable of the prodigal son? The son doesn't come back because he's sure his father
will receive him. He comes because he has nowhere else to go. And the father doesn't open the
door and say, well, I didn't expect to see you again, but
now that you're here, you might as well come in. He rejoices
to see him. Bring forth the best robe and
so on. This is how he receives sinners, says Christ. The Pharisees
and scribes were murmuring against him again in that chapter, weren't
they? This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Disgusting,
they would have said. But Jesus comes back with these
parables. Again, three parables there in Luke chapter 15. Read
through them in your own time. And what does he say to the Pharisees
in essence? He says, you don't go far enough.
I don't only receive sinners, I go and look for them. The parable
of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin. He says, I
don't just receive them, I go and look for them. And he puts
before us his father as one who delights to receive sinners,
who sees them coming afar off and has compassion upon them
and runs. And he fell on his neck, it says, and kissed him. This my son, he says. This my
son, not the one who used to be my son. But this my son, he
was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. What does the hymn writer say
in that hymn that we're just about to sing in a moment? What
does John Newton understand by the Gospel? How does he speak? He speaks of the blessings of
Christ. Christ has blessings to impart. Grace to save thee
from my fears. Oh, the love that fills his heart.
Sinner, wipe away thy tears. Why art thou afraid to come,
he says? Why afraid to tell thy case? He will not pronounce thy
doom. Smiles are seated on his face.
Why can John Newton speak in this way? Why can he make these
assertions about Christ? It's because he's relying upon
the promise of Christ himself. It's not John Newton saying it.
It's not John Newton just saying, well, I think it will be all
right. No, he's remembering what Christ himself said when he said,
come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest. When he says, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh I will in no wise cast
out. He will not pronounce thy doom.
Smiles are seated on his face. How does he close that hymn?
Yield not then to unbelief. Courage, soul, there yet is room. Though of sinners thou art chief,
come thou burdened sinner. Come. Many are called, but few
are chosen. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. May God bless to us his word.
Amen.