The scripture for our sermon
today is Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14. 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. Again 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 to 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 wroth, 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 unto the highways, and as many as you shall find
bid to the marriage. So the 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 to him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then said the king to his 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 i've entitled this message
come to the feast in this parable jesus describes the kingdom of
heaven he compares the kingdom of heaven to a king who made
a marriage for his son the king sent his servants to call those
who had already been called at least once But the men the king's
servants called would not come. So the king sent his servants
again to those who would not come. He gave his servants a
message for them. He said, Tell them, Behold, I
have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed. All things are ready. Come to
the marriage. The king's message was, look,
I have prepared my dinner. All things are ready. Come to
the marriage. It is clear from the tone of
the king's message that the king did not merely extend an offer
or an invitation. He told them in no uncertain
terms, come. It was a command. He was the
king. His only son was to be married.
Nothing more delighted the king than his son. His son's marriage
was the greatest cause for joy and celebration and demanded
the worship of the king from all of his servants. There was
no higher authority than the king's authority. There was no
greater privilege than to be called to the marriage of the
king's son. And besides all this, the king
had prepared a great feast. Nothing was lacking. The king
had prepared all. Those who were called were to
bring nothing. All things were now ready. And
the king therefore commanded them by his servants, But surprisingly,
those men whom the king's servants called made light of the entire
matter. They would not consider that
it was the king who called them. They would not consider that
they were called to the marriage of the king's own son. They did
not respect the king or his son, or the bride the king had chosen
for his son, that bride whom the son himself loved and gave
himself for. They made light of the king's
preparations. They did not care that the king
had prepared a great feast of his own will and at his own expense. They did not care that all things
were now ready. They showed a complete lack of
respect for the king, for his son, for the son's bride, and
for their marriage, and for the feast the king had made. Different
men showed disrespect in different ways. Jesus said one man simply
went to his farm. He was more interested in his
own work and the fruit of it than he was for the king and
his son and the king's chosen bride, their marriage and the
feast that was prepared for the guests. Jesus said another man
showed his disregard for the king by going to his merchandise. He placed a higher value on getting
wealth for himself than for the king and what was of greatest
importance to the king and his son. These two types of men showed
great contempt for the king by ignoring his call. But there
were worse than these. Jesus said that the rest were
enraged. They mistreated the king's servants
with violence and killed them. Thus, in describing the kingdom
of heaven, Jesus showed that those first called proved themselves
to be unworthy of the king's blessings. They made themselves
worthy of his wrath. Not once or twice, but at least
three times, the king sent his servants to them. Each time they
refused his call and finally killed his servants. The king
showed much patience, but finally he sent his armies to destroy
those murderers and burn up their city. The king was not only long-suffering,
but very gracious. He would not be frustrated in
his purpose. Those first called proved themselves
unworthy, so the king told his servants to go into the highways
in places far off outside the city. He told them to gather
in all they found from far away places, both bad and good, that
his wedding would be filled with guests. See in this the grace
of the king. He prepared all, and all was
now ready. He sent his servants to gather
in both bad and good to the feast he made for his son's wedding.
The servants did as their master commanded them, and the wedding
was filled with guests. When the guests were gathered,
the king came to see them. The king himself came to see
those gathered to his son's wedding. But when the king came in, he
found a man who did not have on a wedding garment. Now the
king had required every guest to wear a wedding garment. The
guests were not to come dressed in their own clothes. They had
come from the highways. There was nowhere to get a suitable
garment for the wedding. The king himself provided wedding
garments for his guests, but this man wore his own clothes.
He refused the king's garment. He thought that his own clothes
were good enough for the king's wedding. They were not. The king
required all to wear the garment that he provided, but this man
refused and wore his own clothes. Jesus said that the king asked
this man, Friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding
garment? The man was speechless. His own
conscience accused him before the king and before the guests.
He had nothing to say in his own defense. So the king commanded
his servants to bind that man hand and foot and cast him into
outer darkness where there was only weeping and gnashing of
teeth in anguish and in pain. Now, what are the lessons that
the Lord Jesus Christ taught in this parable? First, nothing
in heaven and earth is more important to God, to Christ and to His
people than the eternal union of God's elect to Christ for
the glory of God in their salvation and their eternal glory with
Christ. God is the King who loves and
has chosen and blessed his people, the bride, in Christ his Son
from eternity. He adopted them to Himself as
His sons in Jesus Christ. He joined His people to Christ
in election and by His Spirit in regeneration. This union is
eternal. It is in Christ and it is most
intimate. All of God's promises and blessings
towards His people are in Christ. In Christ, God views His people
and loves His people with eternal satisfaction and delight. Zephaniah
3, 17. The second lesson is that the
gospel of Jesus Christ is the feast to which all men are called
to believe in Christ. In the parable, all are commanded
by the king to come to the feast he had prepared for the marriage
of his son. This feast is the gospel. It
is the good news, the glad tidings of Christ's saving accomplishments
to save his people, his bride, to save them by his work of redemption
without any contribution on their part. The Gospel is a feast because
in it the riches of God's love and wisdom and grace and salvation
and every provision and blessing are made the possession of sinners
in the Lord Jesus Christ by His finished work of redemption.
The gospel is the glad news about what Christ has done all by himself. It is a message of an accomplished
work. Jesus' last words from the cross
were, it is finished, John 19.30. All that God gave him to do was
then and there completed. It was then that He, our Lord
Jesus Christ, by Himself purged all of the sins of all of His
people, making them clean before the Lord. Leviticus 16.30 and
Hebrews 1.3 It was then that he reconciled
his people to God, Romans 5.10. It was then at the cross that
he obtained their eternal redemption, Hebrews 9.12. So that they are
forever free from the guilt and the condemnation of sin, from
the bondage to sin and Satan, and from death. It was in his
death and burial and resurrection that the Lord Jesus Christ justified
his people by his blood, Romans 5.9, Romans 4.25, and Romans
8.34. When the Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself in sacrifice to God under the load of his people's sins
And under the judgment of God's holy law, our Lord Jesus forever
sanctified and perfected His people. He made them holy before
God, Hebrews 10.10. He perfected them forever, Hebrews
10.14 and Ephesians 5.25-27. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is
a feast because all that God requires has been accomplished
by Christ for His people. It is done. It was done outside
of our own personal experience. It was done in history. The salvation
of God's people was accomplished in Christ's history, not our
own history. No experience on our part, not
even our new birth or our faith, contribute one thing to our salvation. All has been done by Christ on
the cross. The new birth and our faith are
the effects of all that Christ did, and they in no way are the
cause of our salvation. They are not conditions we must
meet or contributions we must make. Christ has done all, therefore
all things are now ready. Those called to this feast are
to come. They are to eat and drink, for
all is provided by the King, who is God our Father. eating
and drinking and coming all speak to faith in Christ. God the Father
has made full provision in Christ for his people. This is represented
in the parable as the king telling his servants to tell those who
were called that his oxen and his fatlings were now killed
and all things were now ready. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices
pointed to the one sacrifice that God made of His Son. When
Christ came, all of those sacrifices were fulfilled. Therefore, in
the parable, the king tells his servants, tell them who are called,
all things are now ready. The sacrifice of Christ pleased
God. Ephesians 5.2 and Romans 4.25. Isaiah 53.10 says, It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. This verse speaks of God the
Father looking upon the sufferings of His Son and finding satisfaction
in Him. The gospel is the glad news about
what Christ did by himself, and that when he completed this work
he rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and sat down on the
throne of God, ruling all things in heaven and earth, to bring
about the blessings his accomplishments earned for his people. As Hebrews
9 puts it, as the testator of God's everlasting will, Christ
died to put that will into force and then he rose again to give
all the blessings he promised in that will to his people. The
third lesson we learn in this parable is that the call of the
king by his servants is the preaching of the gospel. The gospel was
first preached to the Jews. But by their unbelief, by their
rejecting Christ, they proved themselves unworthy of that gospel. This was not a surprise to God.
It was part of His eternal will. Isaiah 6 verses 9 through 11
and Acts 2.23 prove this. When the Jews rejected and crucified
Christ, the gospel was sent into all the world. As a nation, the
Jews fell in unbelief. But by God's predetermined will,
their fall was the reconciling of God's people throughout all
the world. When the Jews rejected Christ
and his gospel, God sent his servants by the apostles to the
Gentiles. In Acts 13 verse 46 we read that
Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that
the word of God should first have been spoken to you, Jews,
but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy
of everlasting life, Lo, we turn to the Gentiles, for so hath
the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light
of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends
of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Acts 13, 48. The highways in the parable represent
the Gentile nations. As the Gentiles were far off
from the promises of God by nature, Ephesians 2.13, therefore the
servants were sent outside the city, the city of Jerusalem,
the capital of Israel, which represented the entire nation
of the Jews. They were sent into the highways.
The servants were to gather in all, both bad and good. The gospel
is sent to every man under heaven with the command to every man
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. See Mark 16 verse 15
and John 3 verse 14 and 15. To come to the feast in the parable
corresponds to believing the gospel, believing Christ as he
is set forth in the gospel. But as the Jews rejected the
king's call, and as the one man came into the wedding feast without
a wedding garment, even so all men by nature refuse the call
of God in the gospel. Therefore, an important lesson
in this parable is that more is needed to save a man than
merely the external call of the gospel. You and I are dependent
on the call of God in our souls to see and understand and embrace
Christ as all of our salvation. This persuasion is the work of
God the Spirit. The fourth lesson we learn in
this parable is that when the king's feast was furnished with
guests, it corresponds to the results of the outward call in
preaching the gospel of Christ. When men hear the gospel, those
ordained by God to eternal life believe the gospel. But no man
by nature will believe." Romans 11, 32. Therefore, only those
God has chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world will
be saved. Their names were written in the
Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. That
book is God's eternal election in Christ. all of them will be
drawn by God the Father through the Spirit of God. In John 6,
44, Jesus said, No man can come to me except the Father, which
hath sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets, They shall all be taught of God.
Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father cometh to me. And Jesus also said in John 6,
37, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Therefore Jesus
concluded this parable by saying, Many are called, but few are
chosen. Matthew 22, verse 14. We see
by these things that unless God chose to save some out of all
humanity, all of humanity would have perished under God's wrath
in their own unbelief. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 9 says,
except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant. We should have been as Sodom
and we should have been made like Gomorrah. The fifth thing
we want to consider from this parable is how does the Spirit
of God call men to life and faith in Christ. We learn from John
16 verses 8 through 11 that the first thing is He convinces men
of sin. No man will believe Christ until
the Spirit of God gives that man life and faith in Christ. But this operation of God's Spirit
begins with the conviction of sin in man's conscience. In the
book of Romans, before the Apostle Paul clearly sets forth the gospel,
he first shows that God's wrath is revealed against men because
of their ungodliness and unrighteousness, Romans 118. He then proves the
willful idolatry, immorality, and just condemnation of all
men. Romans 1 verse 18 through 32. He then shows that man's sin
is not unique to the Gentiles, but the Jews and Gentiles are
all alike sinners before God. Romans 3 23. He concludes by
stating, We know that what thing soever the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore,
this is the first work of the Spirit of God to convince us
that we are sinners. He must convince us not only
that we have committed sins, but He must convince us that
in our very nature, in our heart, we are the enemies of God. Romans 8.7 says it this way,
the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. We are sinners by practice,
and worse, we are sinners at heart. The first work of God's
Spirit in His inward call to us to hear and believe the gospel
is to first convince us that we do not believe God's testimony
which He has given of Himself, we do not believe God's testimony
that He has given of ourselves, and we do not believe God's testimony
that He has given of Christ. Unbelief is the root of all sin
because it is a failure to believe God's testimony of Himself, of
myself, and of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Unbelief leads
me to think of God as an idol that will accept me for what
I am or what I do, like the man in the parable who did not have
on a wedding garment He thought he could have the blessings of
the gospel dressed in his own clothes and his own works. This
is what all men believe by nature. God must convince us that in
ourselves we are nothing but sin. Before God we are naked,
miserable, blind and hateful in his sight. By nature we are
the children of wrath. Ephesians 2.3 The second thing
which the Spirit of God convinces men of when He calls them by
His internal call is righteousness. By nature, we imagine we have
righteousness, that we can do what God requires of us. But
when we are convinced as sinners, when we understand that we can
do nothing but sin, that we cannot do righteousness and that God
is holy and cannot receive us by what we do or what we are
in ourselves, it is then that we see we are helpless before
God in the prison of our own sin and unbelief, a prison of
our own making. Galatians 3 verse 22 and 23 and
Romans 11, 32. We cannot fulfill God's law for
righteousness. We cannot pay for one's sin. We cannot believe the truth.
We are ignorant. Our best is only bad in God's
sight. Therefore, we must be convinced
there is only One who is righteous and that there is only One who
has fulfilled all that God requires of His people. We must be convinced
that Christ's obedience unto death is the only righteousness
God accepts. The Spirit of God must convince
us that because Christ rose from the dead, the will of God is
finished in our salvation, that righteousness has been fulfilled
in our Savior. He fulfilled it in our human
nature. The Spirit of God must convince
us that Christ's fulfillment of the precept and the penalty
of God's law in our nature is what God gave Him to do, in the
place and for the salvation of His people. Christ rose from
the dead because God justified Him and all of His people with
Him. Romans 4.25 says, He was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. In other words, God laid the
sins of His people on Christ. He bore those sins before God. He answered for them. He obeyed
God in taking those sins and bearing them as His own before
God's own justice and answering God's justice to full satisfaction. When God received full payment
in satisfaction for the sins of His people by Christ's obedience
and death, God raised Him from the dead. His resurrection, therefore,
proves that righteousness has been established in His death. We must be convinced that Christ
is all of our righteousness before God. This is the second work
of the Spirit of God when He calls a man to life and faith
in Christ by an internal call. And the third thing we must be
convinced of by the Spirit of God is that when Christ died,
when He was buried, when He rose again, God judged His and our
enemies by Him. Sin was put to death in the death
of Christ, Romans 6.11. The law was magnified. God's justice was answered. Isaiah 42, 21 says, the Lord
is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. And in Galatians 3.13 it says,
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a
curse for us. That was Christ's answer of himself
to God's justice for the sins of his people. He bore their
curse. Not only was sin put to death,
not only was the law magnified and justice answered, but Satan
was defeated at the cross. When Christ died on the cross,
when he was buried, when he rose from the dead, Satan was cast
out of heaven. Luke 10 verse 18 and Revelation
12 verse 9 through 10. When Christ died on the cross,
all of God's people were set free from the bondage of Satan,
so that when the gospel comes to them, they are translated
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. Colossians 1.13. Christ nailed
every requirement and every accusation of God's own law to His cross,
thereby taking those accusations and those requirements out of
the way. Colossians 2 verse 14 and 15. Because God's law was answered,
because by His death Christ answered for His people in the court of
heaven, God, the judge of all, judge Satan. Isaiah 54, 17 says
it this way, No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper,
and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Romans
8 verse 33 and 34 says it this way, Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Now, the sixth thing in this
parable we want to see is that when the king came into the feast
to see the guests, he saw there a man not having on a wedding
garment. This man corresponds to all who
trust their own righteousness before God on judgment day. God requires all who come to
Him to look only to Christ. We don't dress ourselves in the
righteousness of Christ. But faith is God's gift that
enables us to see that Christ is our only righteousness and
our perfect righteousness before God. Faith enables us to see
that He is all of our salvation and we only worship God in Him. He has perfected forever all
for whom he died. Hebrews 10, verse 14. God's righteousness
is a gift. Romans 5, 17. It is not earned. It is given. In Revelation 19,
8, it says of the bride of Christ, which is every believer, to her
it was given. It was granted. that she should
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen
is the righteousness of the saints. What the King required, He alone
provides. We must never think that anything
we are in ourselves or anything we do in ourselves is acceptable
to God apart from Christ. Our only righteousness is what
Christ did. when he gave himself as an offering
and a sacrifice to God and God received it from him for his
people as a sweet smelling savor. All that we do is only pleasing
to God because he receives us in Christ and for Christ's sake. To attempt to enter heaven or
worship God or receive blessing from God in any other way is
to be naked, without the covering God Himself requires and has
provided in His Son. Salvation is therefore all of
God's providing, all of Christ's doing, and it is made known to
us only by the inward call of the Spirit of God through the
preaching of the Gospel of Christ, by His gift of life, and by His
gift of faith in Christ. Is Christ all of your salvation? Is He all of your confidence
before God? Or do you answer God in your
conscience with something other than what Jesus Christ completed
in perfection when He died on the cross? If you do, if you
have an answer that is something other or in addition to what
Jesus did on the cross, you have not yet believed the gospel.
Therefore, by the authority of Scripture, by God's own decree,
I exhort you to look to Christ only. believe the gospel. In believing, come to the feast
of Christ crucified, risen and reigning. He is all God has provided. He has accomplished all. He now
tells you and me in his word, come. Matthew 11, 28 and John
6, 37. It is glad news indeed to sinners
to hear that Christ has done all for sinners that God requires
of them. It is glad news indeed to hear
from God's own Word that Christ Jesus is the great Savior of
great sinners. 1 Timothy 1.15 says, This is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. May God be pleased to give you
and me this precious faith to see and to find Christ to be
precious above all things, precious to God and precious to our own
souls. 1 Peter 2 verse 4 through 7.