Verse 1 begins, And Jesus answered
and spake unto them again by parables. He answered. It says
that several times back in chapter 21. Verse 21, Jesus answered
and said unto them. Verse 24, And Jesus answered. Sometimes that is written even
though there wasn't a question that was asked before he answered. Christ is the Word made flesh,
which Scripture says in Hebrews 4. The Word is quick, powerful,
sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit, Joints and Marrow is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there anything or
any creature, person, not manifest in his sight. That's us right
now. Not manifest in his sight. All
things are naked. All thoughts, intents, purposes,
motives naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom We
have to do to deal with it. And Jesus answered and said,
He is wisdom, wiser and greater than Solomon. You remember it
says that Solomon told Sheba all her questions, not answers,
questions. He told her, you need to be asking
me this. As he's going to say in this
same chapter, they began to ask him many questions. And he told
them what they needed to be asking. What think ye of Christ? So this
is he who answers. Who answers all things. God has
spoken. It says He spoke again. See that? Verse 1. He spoke. Again, what
a blessing, what mercy that the Lord would keep answering, keep
speaking. God has spoken once, yea, twice,
but men perceiveth it not. How blessed we are if we have
ears that hear. Most people have ears and they
don't hear. They don't hear. There are few
in here today. Most people have turned away
their ears from the truth. Many under fables. Many are going
to hear lies. But here we sit to hear what
the Lord Jesus Christ said. How blessed we are. Blessed are
they that read. Blessed are they that hear, He
said. But more than all, blessed are they that keep, that lay
hold of His Word. And He spoke unto them in parables,
verse 1. Again, in parables, heavenly
truth illustrated by earthly stories. Simple illustrations. What a blessing that the Lord
spoke so simply that even a child could understand. What a blessing.
He could have spoken in such a way that no one would understand
Him. But He spoke simply that the common people could hear
Him and hear Him gladly. And yet, they were so simple.
that the child could understand, but the Pharisees, the doctors
and the lawyers didn't understand. Because they're hidden, must
be revealed. Natural man receiveth not the
things of God. They were offended. The disciples
came to him one time and said, Lord, the Pharisees were offended
by you speaking in these simple childlike parables. And he smiled. And he rejoiced. And that's when
he lifted up his voice and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth. You've hid these things. The
reason they're offended is they can't understand them. And they know they're directed
at them. And they refuse to believe it. God's people. Oh my, how blessed we are. And
he said this. Here's the parable. The parable
of the king's son's marriage, verses 2 through 4. 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, My fatlings are killed. In other
words, it's all prepared. It's all free. Just come. All things are ready, just come
unto the marriage of my son. The king, a certain king made
this marriage. He determined to have a marriage
in honor of his son. The king had one son. whom he
loved greatly, and he purposed to honor his son, and he made
this marriage. He betrothed the bride to his
son for the honor of his son. The kingdom of God, the kingdom
of heaven is concerning God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
only begotten, well-beloved Son of the Most High God. All things
were created by Him and all things were created for Him. God said, let everything that
hath breath honor My Son. Let the angels bow down. Let
men and women honor My Son. It's their reasonable duty because
all power is given unto Him in heaven and earth. He's like Joseph
of old. Everything is in His hands. And
everything you receive is from the hands of the King's Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He clothes you. He feeds you. He protects you. He leads you. He guides you. He keeps your
enemies from you. He gives you everything you have.
Everything you are and have is by His grace. He doles out everything. Now come. Come. and honor my Son. That's reasonable
isn't it? Shouldn't all flesh do that?
Come. Worship the Son. Honor the Son as you honor the
Father. Come. Let everyone come. Don't need to bring anything.
Nothing's required of you. Not asking you to do anything
for Him. Not provide anything. Just come. All things are ready. And just
bow down. Just come and sit at His feet,
and hear His voice, and hear all the promises, and hear all
the blessings, and hear all that He's done for you. Just come,
and He'll freely give you everything. Just ask, just seek, just knock,
and He'll pour out the windows of heaven to you. Just come and
honor the Son. That's it. You don't have to
climb a mountain. You don't have to give everything
you've got. Just come. Just give a little bit and thank.
Just come and worship the Son. And they said, we will not. He will not. Do you think for a moment that
God really loves everybody? He said after this was over,
the king was wroth. And he said, I'm going to destroy
them all. Why? Why not? Verse 3, he sent forth his servants
to call them that were bidden to the wedding. Not invite, mind
you. Kings don't make invitations. Sovereign kings have never, and
there's only one kind of king, sovereign. Sovereigns don't make
invitations. Sovereigns don't say, we sure
would like to have your presence. That's what we do, don't we?
We invite people. That's all we can do. We ask
people. We beg people, so to speak. Not God. God had commanded all
men everywhere to repent. The Word of God is not, won't
you please come and worship? Won't you please come and thank
my Son for all His mercy? The Word of God is, Hear ye,
hear ye. Thus saith the Lord, This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Bow down to Him. Kiss the Son,
lest He be angry, and you perish from the way when His wrath is
kindled. Just a little. Hear ye. This
is my beloved Son. Come. Sit at His feet. Come.
Worship the Son. Come. Just thank the Son. Come
and honor my son." And they would not come to honor the king's
son. And you know, the Lord has set
aside one day in the week. This is of the Lord. This is
the Lord's day. This is scripture. This is what
the Lord has said for all men and women to do, and young people.
This is the Lord's day. The first day of the week is
the Lord's day. He has set aside one day out
of the week. One hour. There are 168 hours. in a week, and he says, come
for one hour. Come watch for one hour. Come
worship. Come give thanks. Come sing. Just come for one hour. And the other 160 said, to do
whatever you need to do. And they would not come. Can you imagine that? The Lord looked down from heaven,
Scripture says, to see if there were any. Now, this is all of
us, and we're going to see why you and I come. We're going to
see why we're sitting here this morning. Because you were made
willing in the day of His power. The Lord looked down from heaven
on the sons of men, that's me, that's you, to see if there were
any that did understand. Understand what? That in His
hand, of Him, we receive everything. Our breath, our food, our clothing. By the grace of God, we are who
we are. Everything we know, everything we can do, our houses, our homes,
our lands, our children, our grandchildren, our health, our
jobs, every cent, everything is freely given us from above. To see if there were any that
did understand. Any that did seek God or come
and seek His faith, seek mercy and seek grace and thank Him
from the bottom of their heart. If there were any, he said, there's
none. There's none. There's none. And yet, you're
here. Why are you here? There was a
time when I could care less if the Son of God had lived or died. That's a fact. And I was out
in the highways and the hedges. He said, verse 4, I have prepared
my dinner. Mercy. What grace. The gospel
is the gospel of free grace. The gospel is the good news of
how everything is freely given to us. Everything is prepared
for us. The salvations of the Lord. The
Lord doesn't give us anything difficult to do. The Lord doesn't
give us any work to do. The Lord says, you just come
and I'll give you my kingdom. I'll give you grace. I'll give
you mercy. I'm the God of all grace. I'll
give it all. And this marriage supper of the
Lamb is a feast. It's a dinner that is prepared
by God, the gospel of God's glory, and it's feasting on fat things
and wine on the leaves, well refined. It's feasting on the
body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who God sent for
these unworthy, unthankful, undeserving, hell-deserving rebels against
God whom God sent to make Him sin for them, for these death
row criminals, these rebels against God, these enemies of God, sending
His Son to pour out His wrath. Get a hold of this now. To pour
out His wrath. on His Son for them. Not the
good, not the righteous, but the ungodly. Those that didn't
ask for Him. Those that didn't want Him when
He came. Those that saw no beauty in Him. Yet, but God sent His
Son to be the propitiation for their sins. And now He says,
wrath is appeased. God's not angry. You didn't do
anything. He did it all. Now, just come
and thank Him. And they would not come. They would not come. That's what
men and women do when they reject the gospel of God's free grace,
even though they have gone to church somewhere They're going
somewhere where men can stand up and brag on them for what
all they've done for God. And they've sewed themselves
a fig leaf wedding garment, their own righteousness. And buddy,
God calls them workers of iniquity, stealing His Son's glory. They
made light of it, verse 5. They made light of it. That's
foolishness. That's foolishness. To the Greek,
it's foolishness. To the Jew, it's stumbling block. I mean, nothing we do matters. It's not good enough. We don't like that. Free grace. We don't like that talk of free
grace. We don't like that talk of righteousness imputed. John
Wesley called it imputed nonsense. John Wesley called it imputed
Nonsense, isn't it? That's what he called it. George
Whitfield called his hand imputed nonsense. It's the wedding garment. They made light of it. And they
said, we've got better things to do. Oh, do you? What have you got to do other
than honor the king's son? We've got to farm. That's why the Lord said the
plowing of the wicked. is evil in his sight. Good, honest
work needs to be done. Cut your hay and plow your garden. But if you're doing it on the
Lord's Day when you ought to be worshiping God and thanking
Him who's made your hay grow, it's wicked. He said it's wicked. Here's what one man said, I'm
going to tear down my barn and build it bigger. I've got so
much hay, I don't have enough barns to put it in. and don't
have time to thank God for one veil. Hmm. Is it any wonder the Lord's angry?
They made excuses. I've got a farm. I'm married. My wife doesn't like it down
there. She doesn't like this message of free grace, and so
I'm going to go with her down here. Hmm. I can't come worship God. I can't
take one hour out of my week. I've got other things to do.
Verse 6 says, The remnant took his servants and entreated them
spitefully and slew them. Prophets, apostles. Which of
them, Stephen said, which of the prophets have not your fathers
killed? It's still happening today. You know, God is still God kept sending his prophets
to the Jews, and they killed them all. And he kept sending them. And
Jeremiah wrote that many times, rising early, rising early. The men would get up early and
go out and tell everybody, worship the Lord. Come worship the Lord.
They scoffed at him. We've got too much stuff. We
don't have time. Get out of here. We're tired
of you. Shut this man up. Put him in prison. God kept sinning. Can you imagine? How long would
you keep warning people? How long would you keep sending
your servant if they mistreated them? How long would you? God
to this day keeps sending his servants, even today. And Scripture,
our Lord said, you brag on the dead and kill the living. God
still has not left himself without a witness. And every generation
is still sending men who say the same thing. Come, worship
the Son. That's how you know them, that
they're a son of God. It says they slew his servants,
spitefully treated them, entreated them spitefully, despised them,
rejected them, and slew them. And it may come to that, actually,
in this day. If it were lawful, they would.
My, my. And verse 7 says, the king heard
thereof and he was wroth. Angry. God is angry with the
wicked every day. Who are the wicked? Those that
don't thank God. Not just the harlots and the
rapists and the murderers. No, it's those that don't thank
God. It's those that steal God's glory. Those that walk in pride. Those who are not thankful to
God. Those who are taking credit for something that God has given
them. Those that don't thank His Son.
Those that don't seek His face. Those that don't honor His Son,
but honor themselves. Come in their own name. Wicked.
God is angry with the wicked every day. He's wrath. Think
again if you think God loves everyone. He's wrath. The wrath
of God abides upon the ungodly. John 3.36. God loves those who love His
Son. God loves those who honor His
Son. That's what Christ said. The
Father loves you, He said to His disciples, because you love
Him. And the only reason we love Him is because He first loved
us. And it says in verse 7, the king
heard and he was wroth and he sent forth his armies to destroy
those murderers and burn up their city. The Jews rejected all the
prophets and God sent army after army after army. Men are the
sword of God. Men have always been the sword
of God. He sent the Syrians. He sent
the Persians. He sent the Romans. At this very
time, the Jews were under Roman rule, under the bondage to the
Romans. And they rejected John. They rejected Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel. They rejected them all. And when
Christ came, the heir, the Son of God came. Behold My servant,
He said, shall suddenly come to His temple. And they rejected
Him. And they treated Him spitefully. And they slew the Son of God. And that was Peter's message
at Pentecost, wasn't it? In which God, in mercy, called
and gave repentance. And the goodness of God gave
repentance to some of those Christ-haters. But not all of them. And the
Romans, 70 years later, our Lord said, you weep and howl for the
misery that's going to come upon you. And 70 years A.D., Forty
years after our Lord left, they destroyed Jerusalem. Why? They rejected God's Son. They didn't honor the Son. They
didn't honor the Son. What about this nation? Alright now, God has sent servant
after servant after servant, beginning with David Brainerd,
the Indian, George Whitefield. Just keep naming them, servant
after servant. Then up into this modern time,
Barnard and Mahan and Richardson and Montgomery. Just keep naming
them, naming them. God is still sending His servants
to this country. And He's making up His marriage. for the honor of His Son, for
the glory of His Son. Our Lord talked about the fullness
of the Gentiles, and that being that all of His Gentile elect
are saved, but there's still a remnant. It's still a remnant. They're not mass amounts of people
in relation to population. It's a remnant. There always
has been a remnant. Just a few. Many are called. Some of this
story, many are called, but few are chosen. But the majority
of people in this nation, in the western world, have rejected
the gospel. Look at England. I asked Bill
Clark one time years ago, is there another church in all of
England preaching the gospel? England. That's where Newton
was. Bunyan. Spurgeon. Gil! Name him! Flavel! He said, not that I know of.
Nowhere. One voice. The fullness of the
Gentiles filling up a cup of wrath is what they're doing. What army is going to destroy
this nation? God's always done it. They reject
his son. Verse 8, he said to his servants,
the wedding is ready, and they which were bidden were not worthy. None of them are worthy. Remember,
Paul said to the Jews, the Lord sent me to you, but seeing as
you deem yourself unworthy, that you receive the gospel. And neither
are we worthy to hear it. And if we do not continue to
hear it, He'll remove it from us, like
He did all the churches in the Revelation. He'll remove our
candlestick. Not worthy. Not worthy, He said. So, therefore,
He said, go into the highways, and in the other account, another
Gospel, it says, and the hedges, and as many as you shall Go out and call everybody. Go
out in the mounts. Many are called. Tell them all.
Have they not all heard? Yes, God reigns. The Son of God reigns. Come one,
come all, and honor the Son of God. Come and thank God from
whom all blessings flow. Every good and perfect gift cometh
down from our God. Just come. and worship him. Our reason would be to come and
worship him. They would not come. So the king, in mercy and in
grace to fulfill his purpose, he said, I'm going to have a
marriage. I'm going to have a bride. I
have determined, I have purposed to have a people to honor my
son. Someone's going to honor my son. Now go. There's none of them
worthy. None of them will come when called,
but go and find them. Where are you going to go? Go
into the highways and the hedges. Go into the gutter. Go into the
bars. Go into the lowest places on
earth and find the least worth it, less than the least. Go and
find the harlots and the publicans and the sinners and tell them,
you're not going to believe this. Though one told you, you're not
going to believe it, but the king has sent us to bring you
to the son's wedding. You're going to be in the kingdom.
Old Harlots, Woman at the Well, Publicans, Achaeus, the king
has sent, you're coming to the feast. You're going to be in
the kingdom. Mary Magdalene, O thief on the
cross, today thou shalt be with me in the kingdom." Me? You know who this is for? Mary Magdalene thought, me? The
king would have me? Yes. He doesn't invite. He has to
make women. He fetches, like Mephibosheth.
Mephibosheth? David's calling here. He can't
come, can he, Stan? But he sends two strong men to
pick him up and carry him all the way to the court and sit
him at the king's table while all these servants come and just
pile on the food for this once enemy of the King David. Oh,
my! What a glorious God we are. What a glorious gospel. How could
we ever hear it without a heart full of thanksgiving? How could
we sit and listen to this without our hearts so full of gratitude,
feeling so unworthy that we would hear it again? And I'm talking to myself. I've
preached too many times from my head and not my heart. Imagine that. Go out and find
the worst that you can find and bring them to my wedding. And
they're going to be so happy to be there. And all they're going to do is
praise my Son from then on. They know they don't have any
room for both of them. They don't have anything. But the only reason
they're there is because the king found them, and called them,
and brought them, and fetched them, and because the son died
for them. And they're going to just be
eternally grateful. Yeah. But now look. Verse 11, both bad and good.
He calls Pharisee. Boy, if there's anybody unworthy,
it's a Pharisee. Like Saul of Tarsus. No, go find
some of them too. Mary Magdalene and Saul standing
beside each other. Good and bad. The wedding was
furnished. When the king came, verse 11,
to see the guests, there was a man had not on a wedding garment.
Now, every wedding requires a certain dress. It's protocol. If you
have any honor for the one who's being married, if you have any
respect at all, you'll dress fecally. Right? You don't go
dressed in rags. Oh, no. Do you? Nor do you do
that when you worship the Son every time. But there's a wedding
garment. And if it's a bridesmaid, if
it's a groomsman, the garment is provided in it. You ladies
that had bridesmaids, did you tell them they'll sew your own
dress or buy your own dress, bring your own? No, no, no, no.
It was provided for them. It was all just a lie. They're
all dressed a lie. It's a wedding garment. You can't
come in without it. All right? Christ, the wedding
garment, the dress for heaven, everyone must have on. It's provided
for them. It's the righteousness of the
saints. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's that seamless robe that
He wrought with His own hand. The King's daughter is all glorious
in her apparel. The apparel made by the King's
Son. And it's provided for them. And you just ask. Like the food,
it's all prepared for you. And He's told us that throughout
the Scripture. And every guest that comes, He
tells them, now, you must have this wedding garment on. Just
ask and it will be provided for you at the door. And so they
all did. Oh, this is wonderful. Beautiful,
beautiful. Look at that table. Where's the
sign? And one man went in there. What's
he there for? Why is he there? He's there to get a meal. He's
there to get his belly filled. Maybe he's looking for a wife.
He's single and he wants to be married. Isn't that a lot of people in
religion today? He's not there for the son. He
doesn't even know him. that care. He's there for the
party. And they came to him and they
found him and he said, friend, like our Lord said to Judas,
call him friend and to mock him. Are you a friend of the bridegroom?
Friend, how came a stallion hither not having a wedding garment?
And he was speechless. Oh, people have so much to say
about themselves, don't we so justify themselves? So many things
to defend themselves, but when men and women stand before the
King of Glory, before God who searches the heart, they're not
going to have anything to say. Speechless. And you know, by
His grace, that's what He does to us when He first comes to
us. And He was speechless. And the
King said to His servants, bind him hand and foot and take him
away and cast him away into outer darkness. There'll be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. Many are called. A few are chosen. And if we're
here by his grace from the heart, oh my, we ought to be so thankful. We're here to honor the Son.
That's why we should be here. I remember one time going to
a wedding years ago, and after the wedding at the reception,
two men got drunk. It was all provided to them.
And they got in a fight. Otherwise, there was strife.
And there was division. There was an argument. At a time
when there was supposed to be joy and rejoicing and honor of
the bridegroom. And the father of the bride got
so angry at those two. Why you have spoiled the wedding? And He threw them out. He could
have killed them. This is supposed to be a time
of joy and joy. And you come in here with bitterness
and anger and resentment. The time was supposed to be honoring
the Son. Who's guilty of that? The Lord
is so merciful, isn't He? So merciful. It's time to honor
the Son. Lord, deliver us Anything that would hinder us,
give me a heart to worship the Son. Give me a heart that's thankful.
Give me a heart to appreciate service. Give me a heart to appreciate
this thing that I don't deserve. Let me become unworthy. Let me
become hungry and thirsty. Let me come to worship the Son. Please. Okay. Q. Yes, sir.