That's taken out of Isaiah 53. That's where that song was taken
from. If you would, go back now to
Matthew 22. Matthew chapter 22. Let's ask God's blessings again. Lord, we bow before you as a
very needy people. We have our spiritual needs by
nature. We're a bunch of sinful folk. We ask for Your grace. We ask
for Your mercy. And as the Lord Jesus passed
among the sick folk that day as we read in John 5, we ask
that He would likewise pass our way And by the Spirit and through
the Gospel of Grace, we ask that the Great Physician would minister
to needy souls. Lord, we need life and we can't
produce it. We need righteousness. Ours is
as filthy rags. We need salvation. but due to
our sinfulness, we're justly condemned. Lord, we need the
Savior. And I ask that You would make
each of us very much aware of our awful dilemma of being sinful. And we ask that You'd reveal
the sweetness of Your Gospel to us, revealed to us the Lord Jesus
Christ. We ask for those who know not
the Savior, especially, Lord, we ask that
You would look upon them in pity, like You did us, that You would do so in sovereign
grace, granting unto them repentance toward God, faith in the Lord
Jesus. We bow at your feet, O God. We know that if we are to be
helped, if we are to be delivered, Indeed, if we're to be saved,
that salvation that really saves is of God, and of God only. Bless these who sit before me,
those who are watching by way of the internet. Lord, we pray
that the Spirit of God would be to us the Spirit of grace.
a spirit of revelation, a spirit of spiritual healing. Go with us through these moments
that we spend together. These things we ask for the glory
of Your Son, our Savior, and for His sake. Amen. Our Lord Jesus had a special fondness, I guess
is the right word to say, and ministering to sinful folks,
and they were so delighted that he did. Scripture says that Christ is
the friend of sinners. But there was another group of
people, a religious group of people who saw no need of the
Savior like the publicans and sinners did. And those were the
Pharisees and the chief priests, the scribes, those who were wrapped
up in Jewish religion. They didn't need Jesus Christ,
the Savior. Oh, they wanted Him as some sort
of a deliverer from the bondage of Rome. And that was the kind
of Messiah that they looked for. In fact, most of the people of
Israel looked for and they asked for, they hoped that He was that
kind of Messiah that would relieve them of the burden of the Gentiles. And as our Lord proceeded through
His public ministry, He lived in relative obscurity for 30
years or so, and then He had His public ministry of about
three years. As He went about His public ministry,
at the very beginning, He had huge multitudes. And they pretty
much followed Him almost to the end. They were anxious to see
more miracles. And they had in their minds that
this was the one who would redeem them from their earthly bondage. They didn't see their spiritual
bondage. They didn't see their spiritual
neediness. What they wanted was a deliverer
from Roman oppression. And then Isaiah began to learn
that he wasn't that kind of deliverer because even as our Lord stood
before Pontius Pilate, he said, my kingdom's not of this world.
And that's what they wanted. They wanted a kingdom that was
of this world. There are people today who say,
you know, our Lord Jesus, He's coming back and He'll set up
His kingdom in this world. His kingdom, our Lord said, is
not of this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
a kingdom of grace. It's a kingdom of the salvation
of the sinful. And this was the kind of kingdom
He came to establish. He is the King. He's the king
who has the authority of God to deal with all of the enemies
of his people and then go to the cross of Calvary. And by
the merits of his own self, he died thus satisfying justice
and putting away all the sins of all of his people. And these
self-righteous folks, while the sinners needed Him, the self-righteous
folks, they hated Him. And our Lord has just given them
a couple of parables, and I'll actually go back to the passage
tonight and give you more detail. But in the 21st chapter, He's
made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This is the last few
days of His public ministry, the last few days of His life.
In fact, as we arrive in Matthew chapter 22, it's just 48 more
hours and he'll lay down his life and die. And of course,
this is the purpose for which he came into the world. He came
to save sinners. He said to the folks there in
Luke chapter 19, when he revealed himself to Zacchaeus, he said,
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save. Them which
are lost. That's why He came. His name
is Jesus. He's the Savior. And He saves
the sinners. He didn't come to deliver from
Roman oppression. He came to deliver from satanic
oppression. He didn't come to deliver from
the burdens of the Gentiles. He came to deliver from the burden
of sin. He didn't come to release them
from all obligation to Rome. He came to release them, to release
sinners from all obligation to the justice of God. That's the
reason He came. He came to lay down His life,
a ransom. And they didn't want to hear
that. And even the multitudes, now they're rumbling too. They're
upset because the kingdom they anticipated was a kingdom of
this world. A kingdom in which He would reign
and lead an army in an uprising and in rebellion against Rome.
And now they're finding out that that wasn't the reason He came
into this world. Even His disciples got caught
up in this. And He had to correct their thinking. Our Lord came to save. He came
to deliver. He didn't come to put men in
some sort of savable state. Our Lord Jesus, by His substitutionary
death, He actually redeemed His people. He saved His people from
their sins. He satisfied every single demand
of divine justice. You understand that, don't you?
But these people, these people to whom our Lord is speaking
in Matthew chapter 22, they don't comprehend that. They don't even
consider themselves to be sinful people. While they would say,
we have a righteousness, thank you very much. And they'd just
tug on their self-righteous rags a little tighter. While we're
fine, we're fine. We're upstanding people. We don't
need you. Well, what are you gonna do with
Jesus on Nazareth? We're gonna kill him. That's
what we're gonna do. And so he presents this parable. to folks who had heard the gospel,
had observed His miracles, they listened to His teaching, and
they had come to this conclusion. He does all that He does by the
power of Beelzebub. We have no use for Him. We will
not honor Him. We will not worship Him. We will
not hear him, and our desire is to kill him. And of course, they were successful
in turning him over to the authorities of Rome, and that's exactly what
happened. But he begins to speak to them
again. Look here in chapter 22, and
I'm just gonna give you, cover two verses this morning. Just deal with this, and then
this evening, I'll kind of deal with the whole thing. But notice
chapter 22, verse one, and Jesus answered. Well, who is he answering? Go back to the previous two verses
out of chapter 21, verse 45, 21-45, and when the chief priests
and Pharisees, they had heard his parables, they perceived
that he spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands
on him, they wanted to arrest him. This wasn't the first time. There have been many other times
they wanted to lay hands on him and stone him or put him to death. When they sought to lay hands
on him, they feared the multitude because the multitude took him
for a prophet. So now we go into chapter 22
verse one, and Jesus answered. Whenever you see the word and,
you need to see what the connection is to the previous chapter. And
Jesus answered and he spake unto them. You see that? To them. That is to the chief
priests and the Pharisees. He spake unto them again by parables. Look at verse 2, the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the gospel, the
kingdom of grace, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain
king. And this king made a marriage
for his son. Now I want you to get this, if
you understand what's in the second verse, it'll open up the
whole parable to you. In fact, it'll open up all of
the New Testament to you. Further than that, it'll open
up all of the Word of God to you. It'll open up all that God
is doing and all that God has been doing. If you can get what
the gist of the parable is, right out of the second verse. Here's
a king whose purpose was to honor his son. That's the title of
the message, honoring the king's son. Our Lord was a master storyteller. And he tells him about a certain
king who wanted to honor his son. and he's going to have a
feast for him. We'll note later it's a wedding
feast. I'll deal with that this evening.
If you can't come back this evening, I will let you in on this. This
wedding feast, the wedding feast pertains to two things. First
of all, the wedding or the marriage of his deity to his humanity. And these people were not interested
in, and Ron read to us, people would not come and honor the
king's son who was going to join him. God, God, man, God joined
to flesh. The marriage, the union of the
deity and humanity. And secondly, there's the marriage
of our Lord Jesus who is the bridegroom and His bride. Those that God gave Him before
the foundation of the world. But here's a certain king, he
said, I'm going to honor my son. I'm going to honor my son. And
so as Ron read to us, he sends out servants, and the message
is, listen, the king's going to honor his son. Come to the
banquet feast. And they wouldn't come. Here's
a king in the story. Here's a king who loved his son.
His whole heart is wrapped up in his son. His Son is the apple
of His eye. His Son means everything to Him. Everything the King does throughout
His vast kingdom, He always does with an eye toward His Son. But
the people of the people in roundabout areas, they weren't interested
in honoring the King's Son. And therefore, they got the King's
wrath. Now you can see this is what
the parable is all about. Our God is honoring His Son. This is what God has set out
to do from old eternity. Now if you can understand this,
if you can grasp this, you'll understand all of the Word of
God, at least you'll have a good summary of it. God from before
the world's foundation. He has purpose to honor His Son. Now that's what everything is
about. He honors His Son in creation. He honors His Son in divine providence. He honors His Son in salvation. God is honoring His Son. Now
if you have any idea that you want to get in on the kingdom
of heaven, If you have any desire to be involved in the kingdom
of grace, the kingdom of the gospel, then you've got to be
on board with God's purpose for all things, which is to honor
His Son. Most folks don't have any time
to honor Him. They don't even bother to come
worship Him even an hour a week. I thought about people riding
up and down this road, riding up and down 13th Street. And
they have no idea, if they read the sign, they can see the scripture
we put up there, but they have no idea that there is a group
of people that meets weekly. Two times on the Lord's Day,
one time in the middle of the week. We meet three times a week
and we meet for this purpose to join in with God the Father
in honoring His Son. That's what we're all about.
We're here to honor His Son. Now if you have any idea that
you want to go to glory, you want to spend eternity with the
Lord Jesus, it's got to be impressed upon your heart by the Spirit
of God that you must honor that One whom God has honored. It's
what it's all about. God's eternal purpose of grace,
His purpose of redemption, has always been to honor His darling
Son. And therefore, everything that
a local assembly like 13th Street Baptist Church should do, everything
that we should do and we want to do, ought to be in alignment
with this. If you want to go to glory, you've
got to have this same idea as God the Father. Honor His Son. I don't know how to put it any
clearer than that. That'll open up the whole parable
to you if you honor His Son. And this is what we endeavor
to do. Every man who speaks from the
pulpit, I appreciate these men who spoke for me in my absence,
and every one of them, all four of those men, endeavor to honor
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're here for. And
I do want you to be blessed, and I want you to be benefited
from being here. Well, certainly I do. I want
God the Spirit to speak to you. I want Him to minister to you. I want you to know something
of His love of God. I hope His prayer is shared abroad
in your heart. I hope and pray that you know
something about the grace of God. That you know something
about the forgiveness of all your sins through the bloody
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. And it's wonderful, it is wonderful
to know those things, to be involved in those things, to think about
those things. Let me tell you what most people's
idea of salvation is this. This is what they think God's
doing. Well, here's what God's all about. Keeping us out of
hell and taking us to heaven. No, that's actually the result
of our Lord's purpose. That's just the result. You see,
first of all, it isn't about us anyway. It's about honoring
the Lord Jesus. It's honoring the King's Son. And those who don't get on board,
Well, they needn't expect that going. People think, well, I'll
get a mansion in heaven someday. You can just forget about going
to heaven because heaven is filled with people and angelic hosts
whose sole purpose is to honor the king's son. That's what everybody
in heaven's doing. They're honoring the King's Son.
And if you don't honor Him down here, if your desire isn't to
exalt Him down here, if your desire isn't that He would have
the preeminence down here, you need not think that you're going
to go to heaven. You won't. Because everybody in heaven honors
Christ up there even as they endeavor to honor Him on this
earth. They honor Him in His person.
He's the God-man. They honor Him in His work. They
speak very highly of His bloody death and His garments of righteousness. They speak of His redemption,
of His forgiveness of sins, of all that He did. All of the saints
of God in heaven, they're boasting in the Lord Jesus. And they have
no boast in themselves. They know, all who are in heaven
know, they're only there by the grace of God given to them before
the world began and given to them in Christ Jesus. That's
the only reason anybody's there. And this is our desire is to
present this gospel as clearly as we can. As simply as we can. We have children here this morning,
and I'm always encouraged to see the young folks. But you
can certainly grasp, at least mentally, what I'm saying. We've read the story of a king
who's going to honor his son. And I've told you that this is
all about God who is the King of the universe. He has set out
to honor His Son. Now all of you can understand
that from the youngest children to the oldest adults in this
congregation. God is all about honoring His
Son. It's not about honoring you.
It's about honoring His Son so that one day when the Son of
God presents all of the elect, the redeemed ones, without spot
and without blemish to the Father, He will then say, Father, behold,
I am the children that Thou hast given Me. Here they are. beautifully adorned
in my righteousness, honoring Christ Jesus. And we want to
do that as simply as we can. We're not here to impress anybody. I'm not an orator. I'm just a simple preacher. These men who spoke for me, They're
not professional speakers. They're just trying to get up
here and do what I try to do. Honor the King's Son. And whenever
you enter in these doors, you should enter these doors very
conscious of that which is very, very important. Let's come in
here and honor His Son. When you go back out those doors,
go out those doors intending by the grace of God to honor
His Son. Honor Him in your conversation. Honor Him in your life. Honor Him in your exchanges with
your neighbors and so forth. In every facet of your life,
your goal is to always honor Christ Jesus. He deserves it. Now, I'm gonna
give you four references. And the first one is, I want
you to go right back to John chapter five. To back up what
I've said thus far, I want you to go back to John chapter five,
which is the passage that we began with. And I'll give you
four brief points. First one is to honor the Son. John chapter 5. Now you know
the story, and of course you've known it before, that a man who
had been lame for 38 years lay at the gate of Bethesda. Our Lord healed him. Take up
your bed and walk. The Jewish religious leaders
then saw him carrying his mat. carrying his bed all rolled up
and said, how dare you carry that on the Sabbath day? Who
healed you? And he said, I don't even know
who he is, but he's the one who told me, take up your bed and
walk. And then the scripture says Jesus
found him in the temple. He found him by his grace. He
found him by his sovereign mercy, revealed himself to him. And
the man went out and the people said, who have you been talking
to? I've been talking to the one who healed me. His name is
Jesus. That's who he is. And then they
went on the attack against the Lord Jesus. Verse 16. John 5.16, Therefore did the
Jews persecute Jesus, and they sought to slay Him, because He
had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered
them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews,
they sought the mork to kill him, because he not only had
broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father,
making himself equal with God. So now they're upset with him,
they're angry with him for two reasons. He did these things
on the Sabbath day, and then he said God was his Father, thereby
saying that he was himself the Son of God. But you read down
Look at verse 19. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing
of Himself, but what He said the Father do. That is, He doesn't
do anything independent of the Father. Remember, He is Jehovah's
faithful servant. He's equal with God in every
way, but He took upon Himself the form of a servant. to do for God what we could not
do for God. To serve Him perfectly and then
to lay down His life as full payment for all of our transgressions
against God. He doesn't do anything independent
of the Father. Verse 20, For the Father loveth
the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And
he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them,
even so the Son quickneth whom He will. For the Father judges
no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. Now look
at verse 23. That all men should honor the
Son. even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which
hath sent him." And the word honor here means value. He who doesn't value the Son. You see back over there in Matthew
chapter 22, all those people who when the king sent out the
call to come and honor his son, and they rejected the call, they
had no interest in the call, They despised the call. They
did not want to honor the Son. And in not honoring the Son of
God, they weren't honoring the Father. Would you, in your heart
of hearts, let's really think now. Would you this morning desire
to honor God? God the Creator. God the Maker. God the Preserver. God the Sovereign. God the Holy One. Would you honor
God? Do you want to honor God? Well,
I'll tell you what I do. I want to honor God. Here's how
you honor God. Honor His Son. You got that,
don't you? And the word honor means value.
Place a high value upon Him. In fact, that word value, the
root meaning of value and of honor is the word precious. And in 1 Peter 2, He's precious
to the Father and to those who believe He's precious. We value
Him above all, don't we? We value Him as the Messiah. We value Him as God. We value
Him as man. We value Him as the only Savior. We value Him as the surety. We value Him as the sacrifice. We value Him as the sin offering. We value Him as being the only
one who is worthy to rule the world by His own sovereign authority. We value Him. And see, the issue
in Matthew 22 was all of those people who would not honor the
king's son, they saw no value in the king's son. Let me give you another reference.
Go to the book of Colossians chapter 1. Here's the second
reference I want you to turn to. Look at chapter 1 of Colossians
1. Look at verse 12, it's where
we'll begin. Giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. who have delivered or rescued
us from the authority, the strength, the power of darkness, and have
translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, into whom we
have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature,
For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by him
and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things
consist. And he is the head of the body
of the church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. He has all honor
and He has all preeminence. The word preeminence means He's
first. He's always first. In fact, He's not only the first,
He's the last. He's the beginning and He's the
end. He is the preeminent one. He
is preeminent, as this passage brings out, in creation. All
things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that
was made. He's preeminent in providence. By Him all things consist. All things are held together.
All things are fashioned and fulfilled the Father's will of
purpose. He's first. He's first in election. God first chose Him and then
chose a people in Christ. He's first in the covenant of
grace. He's the surety of the covenant. He's the mediator of
the covenant. His blood is the blood of the
covenant. He's first in redemption. He
wrought redemption. He bought His people with His
own blood. He's first in life. He's the
one who gives life. The Son quickeneth whom He will. He's first in resurrection. He
rose from the dead in a body that would never die again. In
a body that would never see corruption. He's first in the victory. He's
victorious over the sins of His people. He's victorious over
Satan. He's victorious over all of our
sins. He's victorious over death and
the grave. He ought to have the preeminence.
He's worthy to have the preeminence. And He must have the preeminence. And He will have the honor and
the preeminence from you, or God's going to send you to hell. That's how serious this is. You're
going to honor Him? You're going to bow before Him
in your heart. This is the only Savior. His
sacrifice is the only price of redemption. His grace is the
only grace it can save. You'll bow before Him who is
the King. You'll submit to Him. You'll
say, He must have the preeminence! He must have the honor! Or else. Or else. God will put you away
and you'll never be heard from ever again. You say, Jim, can a sinner like me really honor
the Lord Jesus Christ? Only by the grace of God. He gives faith. God gives faith. God gives life. God gives all
things necessary to honor the Son. To value Him. To value Him. That's the reason the Lord said,
if any man comes after Me, let him hate father, mother, brother,
sister, all those things. What is He talking about? You've
got to value Me above all. Above all. And we bow and give Him pre-emptness. And then look at, here's the
third reference, Philippians chapter 2. The book of Philippians,
go to chapter 2. First word is honor, second word
preeminence, now here's the third word I want to give you, exaltation. Philippians chapter 2. Verse
five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Here's the obedience of the Savior.
perfect obedience in life, then obedient to that great work that
God gave him in the covenant of grace, the work of redemption,
which he finished. Now verse 9, wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him. Oh, He's real high. How high is He? Higher than the
highest star. Higher than the highest angels.
He's at the right hand of the Father on high. wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father." His exaltation. This One who
is the King's Son. He's to be honored, He's to be
valued. Above all, He must have the preeminence. He's first. He's everything. In the alphabet of God, He's
Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end
and everything in between. He's all. And He's been exalted
on the basis of finishing the work of redemption and reconciliation
that God gave Him to do. God has exalted Him. He's given
Him a name, a name which is above every name. Now, will you bow?
Will you confess He's the Lord to the glory of God the Father?
You will either bow and confess now or bow and confess at the
judgment, and if that's when it is, when you're forced to
bow and confess, He'll send you to hell. I heard a preacher the other
day say, you know, the gospel isn't rocket science. No, it
isn't. But you can study books and learn
about rocket science. But this has to be revealed to
you. And it's got to be revealed to
you that that which God has set out to do is honor His Son. The King is honoring His Son. Will you honor Him? He's been exalted. And one more
reference. Revelation. Chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. Here we
find the saints of God honoring the Lord Jesus, worshiping Him. And then the angels of God join
in the worship. In fact, let's read a few verses.
Revelation chapter 5. Look at verse 9. They sung a new song saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, the book of God's eternal purpose.
to open the seals thereof for thou hast sacrificed earth, thou
hast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."
There's the saints. They're talking about the blood.
Hey, we love to sing about the blood on earth. We love to talk
about the blood on earth. That's what we're going to do
in heaven. Same thing. Well then, there's another group
that joins in with the redeemed ones. Verse 11, And I beheld,
and I heard the voice of many angels. All the angels are joining
us now. and the beasts and the elders.
The number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of
thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing. And then verse 13, every creature. This is a whole shooting match
now. This is every creature who's ever lived. Since God made the
first creature in the beginning in Genesis chapter 1, to the
very last creature, to the very last person who is born into
this world before our Lord Jesus Christ comes, every creature,
no exception. Every creature. How do you know
it's no exception? Because it says, which is in
heaven, which is on the earth, which is under the earth, Who's
under the earth? Those in hell. And such as are
in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." And the four
beasts said, Amen. Four and twenty elders fell down
and worshipped Him that liveth forever and ever. Worship. Everybody's
going to bow before Him. I'm telling you, that's what
the Bible's all about. That's what this parable's all
about, honoring the King and Son. God give us grace as a congregation to honor Him. And may God give you grace to honor Him in your heart. to
believe the record that God has given of His Son. And may God
continue to give me grace to believe Him as well. This evening
I'll really go through with an exposition of this parable, try
to tie things together, chapter 21 and 22, at least that parable
in Matthew 22. Our Father, overcome, Lord, the infirmities
of the poor preacher. Because even though I'm weak,
the Word of God is strong. The Gospel of your grace is always
effectual. Scripture says you're pleased
to put this treasure in earthen vessels, that the power may be
of God and not of us. Lord, do your mighty work in
me, in all of these here, in those who are watching. Lord,
fill our hearts to overflowing with a desire to honor the King's
Son. Lord, we know now. If we didn't
know before, we know now. This is what your purpose is
all about. It's what the Bible is all about.
It's what the Gospel is all about. And that's what we need to be
all about. Honoring King Jesus. You'll have to do the work within
us. We ask you to do it for Jesus' sake. Amen.