All right, Matthew chapter 22.
As you know, this is the parable of the king who made a marriage
for his son. And we've seen in the first eight
verses of this passage where the king represents God the father,
and the son represents Christ, the son of God. He's the bridegroom,
and God's chosen people, the elect, they're his bride. And
so the king's giving a marriage supper for his son. And he sent
his servants out, which represents the church, the witness of the
gospel, gospel preachers. Every time we witness the gospel,
we're serving the king in honor of the son. That's what we do.
It's what the gospel is. We're not here to honor ourselves.
We're not here to boast in ourselves. We're here to talk about Christ.
He is the bridegroom. And I may mention last week that
the bride that, and this is not really stated in the parable
except in a little bit in verse 10, and we'll see that in just
a moment. The bride that the father chose for his son is a
sinful, unworthy bride. We have a beautiful picture of
that in the book of Hosea with Hosea the prophet. God told him
to find a wife of Hortums is what he said. And she was named
Gomer. And Hosea loved her unconditionally,
bought her off the slave block, brought her into his home. And
that's what Christ did for us, his bride. He paid our dowry. He shed his blood as the complete
payment for all our sins. and provided us freely with all
the riches, the treasure of His grace and His goodness, and then
brought us unto Himself. And so in this marriage supper,
we've seen in these last set of parables that Christ has been
preaching as He'd gone into Jerusalem there, that the way of salvation
is fully prepared. That's what we preach in the
gospel. We preach a finished work, not a work that you need
to do or add to. And that's another problem with
false religion in the name of Christ. It preaches that Christ
did his part, now you've got to do yours. But the parable
here says otherwise, and of course the whole Bible says otherwise.
preach salvation already finished. It is finished. Every requirement,
every condition, every stipulation that God requires of us which
we cannot provide is found for us in Christ and that's a beautiful
thing. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. That's everything. That's our justification. That's
our sanctification. Sanctification is not our grant. They've got this new set of movies,
I guess, coming out called The Saints. And I got to thinking
about that because They were talking about how good it is
because it shows you people who had eventually, by their testimony
and by their suffering and by their works, they became saints. And that's not how saints are
made. I've got an article in the bulletin about it. I had
to write something about that. Every true believer is a saint. That's how we begin the race
of grace. were sanctified, set apart by
God. And the thief on the cross was
just as much a saint as Paul the apostle. And so understand
that, that's sanctified by grace. Yeah, we're preserved by grace
and we'll enter glory by grace and it's all based upon the one
righteousness that Christ fully and freely and powerfully finished
in his obedience unto death on the cross. And so that's the
point of the parable here that the marriage of the bridegroom
and the bride is a matter of grace. So I put these three things
here in the first part. Look at verse nine. He said,
go ye therefore into the highways and as many as you shall find.
bid them to the marriage. Now, you remember what happened.
He sent his servants out to preach the gospel to anybody who would
listen, but we know that if left to ourselves, none of us would
receive or believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what
happened. The finished salvation is rejected. Man doesn't want,
man by nature, in unregenerate, doesn't want a fully finished
salvation. He wants to add something of
his own. And that's the problem. because
the work that God does cannot be added to or taken away from.
God's gonna get all the glory here, and he's not gonna share
it with me or you or anybody. And that's why I quote, probably
one of the passages that I quote most on our television program,
other than Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of your sins, is 1 Corinthians 2, 14. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
And you've got to understand who the natural man is. That's
all of us as we're naturally born, fallen in Adam, spiritually
dead and depraved. And if you don't believe that,
you don't believe the Bible. And if you don't believe that,
you don't really see your need of the gospel. Now I'm gonna
talk a lot about that in the 11 o'clock message from Isaiah
6. Romans 3, 10 through 12 speaks
of none righteous, none good, none that seeketh after God.
That's talking about me and you by nature. Ephesians 2, what
is it, verses one through three. By nature, the children of wrath,
in other words, Now, I don't believe God's elect have ever
been children of wrath because God chose us before the foundation
of the world in Christ. We're vessels of mercy. But as
to our state in this world, we're born fallen sinners, enemies
of God, until we're called to the marriage supper by the preaching
of the gospel. Now the first eight verses of
this passage spoke of the gospel going out and being rejected.
Specifically, this parable is aimed at the unbelieving Jews
to whom Christ came. You know, John 111, he came unto
his own and his own received him not. But now that can talk
about us too. He came unto his own sheep and
we received him not until God brings us in conversion to receive
him. So understand that. So if left
to ourselves, we won't receive him. Secondly, this was always
God's predestinated plan from the beginning to save his chosen
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. It was always
God's prepared plan for ordained to take the gospel away from
the unbelieving Jews and send it out to the Gentiles. And there
would be unbelievers among the Gentiles too, but God has some
chosen people there. But he also has some chosen people
among the Jews, that's number three. God still has a people
whom he plans to save, both Jew and Gentile, by bringing them
to hear and believe the gospel of his free and sovereign grace
in Christ. And I've got Romans 11, just
read the whole chapter because that's what it's talking about.
It tells Gentile believers not to be puffed up and proud and
to think that, well, he's a Jew, so he's going to hell or something
like that. No, no, God has a people there. He has a remnant, but remember
how he identifies the remnant? A remnant according to the election
of grace. And how does grace reign? Through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So
then he says, go therefore into the highways and as many as you
shall find bid to the marriage. Understand, and this is what
people don't understand, this is not God's plan B. God didn't
come down here in the person of Christ and preach the gospel
to the Jews who rejected it and then God said, well that didn't
work, let's try something else. No, this was God's plan from
the beginning. And he told Abraham, you remember
he told Abraham in Genesis 12 and other passages, he said,
through you shall all nations be blessed. Well, how's that
going to happen? That means number one, Christ
came through the seed of Abraham and he's the savior of all who
are saved. And he has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue and nation that he's going to call into
the fold. So with that in mind, look at
verse 10. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered
together all as many as they found, both bad and good, and
the wedding was furnished with guests. Now the key there is
furnished with guests. God has always been calling his
sheep into the fold by the Spirit of God through the gospel. And he brings them, he gives
them life. You know what the new birth is,
it's regeneration. That means quickening. Gives
them life to a dead, spiritually dead sinner. And gives them life,
a new heart, a new knowledge, a new mind, a new understanding,
eyes to see, ears to hear, all of that. Gives them faith, the
gift of faith. Oh, the gift of faith, think
about it. to believe in Christ and rest
in Him, to look unto Him as the author and the finisher of our
faith. That we have nothing to recommend us unto God. We have
nothing to bring to God except we're just sinners who need salvation. God have mercy on me, the sinner. That's it. And God has always
been throughout the ages from the fall of man on, sending out his message, communicating
it by the power of the Spirit to call his people, and that's
literally what this is about, calling them to the marriage
supper of the bride, of the bridegroom, marriage supper of the Lamb.
And there's different phases of that. We're called to that
marriage supper when we believe the gospel, and in the end, when
we go to be with Christ, there's gonna be the great feast, The
wedding, you know, and revelation, all the talks. But here's the
point. True believers are married to
Christ. And you remember in that famous
passage in Ephesians chapter five, when he talks about the
marriage of a man and a woman, and he's using that to show as
a picture Christ and his church. And how Christ gave himself for
the church. Who are the church? That means
called out ones. just like here. So, you might
say the first part of this parable represents the general call of
the gospel that goes out, going into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature, to everybody who'll listen, but
it has no effect, okay, and they walk away from it, they reject
it. Well, the rest of this parable
represents, to some degree now, and I wanna make this clear,
the effectual, powerful, invincible calling of the Spirit to bring
people into the visible church here on earth and bring them
to believe the gospel. And that's how the marriage of
the Son is furnished with guests. And notice the parable doesn't
talk about the free will of man or, oh, those were better than
the ones that rejected, they chose to, no, it was furnished.
Now, who furnished it? God did. God furnished it with
guests. However, as we go, this particular
parable, speaking of the gospel being taken away from the Jews
and brought out to the Gentiles, the guests, which are God's elect,
include both believing Jews and Gentiles. We know that all over
all. So again, this describes that
powerful, invincible call that cannot be rejected. And aren't
you glad? that God brought that call to
you, the calling, those who are called. Well, when you preach
the gospel, if we had a crowd of 100,000 here today, which
we don't, if we had a crowd of 100,000 and I'm preaching the
gospel, those people are being called, but they'll reject it.
except as God sends the Spirit to make that gospel the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And it's found
in every nation. And what does he do? I love that
passage in John 16 where Christ talks about how he will convince
the world of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go unto the Father, and of judgment because the prince
of this world is cast down. Who is the world there? It's
not the whole world without exception, not every individual in the world,
but it's God's sheep, Christ's sheep, God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And he gives them spiritual life,
he gives them faith, he gives them repentance, he gives them
a determination to persevere in the faith, looking unto Jesus.
And they're made willing by God to be saved. Now, but notice
here in verse 10, it says both good and bad. Now, you know,
a lot of people get tripped up there and every passage in the
Bible has to be interpreted in light of the whole of scripture.
So whatever this parable is saying about these people, it says,
as many as they found both good and bad, or bad and good. I know,
because I know this word, and I know it's God's word, I know
there's no contradictions, and I know that it's not going to
deny other passages of scripture. Now think about it this way.
He says he called as many as they found both bad and good.
Now think about who he's talking to here. He's talking to his
disciples, but there are others, Jews here, Pharisees, there are
all kinds of different people there. And what are their thoughts? Well, just like our thoughts
naturally, there are bad people in the world and there are good
people in the world. And we think about, well, God smiles on the
good ones and he frowns on the bad ones, that kind of thing.
But what does the Bible teach about all people by nature. Now, what does he say in Romans
3, verse 12, I think it is? There's none good, no not one. Remember what Christ told the
rich young man when he called him good master, not thinking
that Christ is God manifested in the flesh? He said, why you
call me good? There's none good but God. And I'm gonna bring
this out in the next message too, but I'll just go ahead and
give you a brief I heard a preacher say this one. I don't know if
he knew what he was talking about, but I know what he was talking
about. I know what, if I say it, what I'm talking about. You
know one of the most frightening, frightening truths of the Bible
is? God is good. God is good. You say, well, preacher,
how can that be frightening? Well, we're not. And God, in order to save us,
he has to stay good. Understand it? Now the problem
there that people have is when you say God is good, they automatically
think, well, if God's good, then he certainly wouldn't send me
to hell. He'd certainly shine on me. I may not be as good as
God, but I'm good enough. God is good. God is holy. Yes, he saves sinners, but not
at the expense of his goodness and holiness. How can that be?
And most people, now you have to admit this, most people today
who call themselves Christian have never even considered this
issue, let alone answer it. And of course, we know the answer's
in the gospel. God doesn't save anybody based upon their goodness.
So when he talks about bad and good here, he's talking about
bad and good in the eyes of men. I've got here in your lesson,
the Lord is not talking about those who are good and bad in
the eyes of God, because if he's talking about that, he'd say
there's none good, no, not one. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God, the scripture says. And here's the thing about
it. If there were any who were good
in the eyes of God, there's one thing I can tell you about them.
They don't need salvation. They don't need this gospel.
They don't need this marriage feast. They don't need Christ
and his righteousness. Isn't that right? If they're
good in God's eyes, you see, that's not who I'm preaching.
If you think you're good in God's eyes, I'm not preaching to you.
This is a hospital for sinners. Christ said, I didn't come to
call the righteous, the good, but sinners to repentance. So
he's talking to people who are judged to be good and bad in
the eyes of man, and who are good and bad in their own eyes. The good here are those who are
good in their own eyes, self-righteous, and you know that's how the Pharisees
thought, see? And then they appeared outwardly
righteous and good unto men. And who did they look down on?
The publicans and the harlots. Remember Christ said, the publicans
and harlots will enter the kingdom before you? That's the bad, you
know, in man's eyes. So what's the issue here, the
good and bad? He's simply saying that every
person on this earth, if they're going to be saved, It's not because
they're goodness or they're bad, it's because of the righteousness
of God, the grace of God. We all need a righteousness we
cannot produce, even the so-called good ones. In fact, there are many passages
of scripture that sort of indicate that those who are good in their
own eyes are ensconced even more in a false profession of religion
than those who are bad in the eyes of men. Now we all have
the same problem. We all think we can be saved
by something we do, that's naturally, until God calls us to the marriage
feast through the preaching of the gospel. And then we find
out what I'm gonna preach in the 11th hour about Isaiah. Oh, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm
cut off. I'm a sinner who deserves nothing
but death, damnation, and hell. And how awful it was that I thought
that salvation was conditioned on something I could do or decide
or anything like that. What does the Bible teach? Well,
let's read verses 11 through 13. It says, when the king came
in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on
a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
the man was speechless. You know, that's what the law
does, it shuts our mouth. He says in verse 13, then the
king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away,
and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now what's the problem? Well,
understand, he comes to the marriage feast, and he finds a man there
that doesn't have the proper wedding garment on. This man
illustrates the fact that while on earth, now, I want you to
see this, while on earth, the visible church, the gathering
like we have now, and when I say the visible church, I'm not talking
about places where the gospel's not preached, because they're
not even called to the wedding feast, they're called to some
other kind of party. The wedding feast here represents
the preaching of the true gospel, calling and furnishing with guests. But the visible church here will
still consist of both believers and false professors. Now we
know that. My old pastor used to say, never
assume that everybody in your audience is a believer. Preach
to them like they, I don't mean preach to them like they're not
a believer but preach to them as if we all need salvation by
grace and we do. Even you believers, you need
to be kept by grace. But there will always be false
professors and you know Christ spoke of that in Matthew 13 in
the parable of the seeds and the sower. You had the wayside
hearer, the stony ground hearer, and the thorny ground hearer,
and then there's the good ground hearer. That's the true believer.
So you're always gonna have that, and we talk about Satan sowing
his tares in the church. But in the end, we know that
Christ is gonna separate the wheat from the tares, the sheep
from the goats, but listen. Sometimes these false professors
of the true gospel are revealed right on earth, early on. That's
Matthew 13. You remember the wayside here,
he left. Of course, he didn't even give
mental agreement to it, I don't think. But the stony ground here,
he accepted it quickly, but then he left it when persecution come.
And then the thorny ground here, he accepted it, and then he left
it over the love of this world and riches. So they were revealed
right here. But some of them might persevere
in their false profession unto the judgment. Matthew 7, 21,
22, and 23. Lord, Lord, haven't we, haven't
we, haven't we? So we know that, all right? But here's the point. A false
professor, even of the truth, does not have the proper wedding
garment for this feast. And so the key to understanding
this parable is finding out two things, what this wedding garment
is not and what it is. And if you go to the context
of scripture, we find that this wedding garment, it's not the
works of a believer. I heard a preacher say that on
TV one time because a woman asked him, he said, what is that wedding
garment? He said, that's the righteous acts of the saints.
No, it's not. How is a garment, you know, well,
to make a long story short, this wedding garment is the righteousness
of Christ imputed to us. This is the garment that the
saints wash in the blood of Christ, that's a metaphor. And when it
calls it a garment, you know, the imputed righteousness of
Christ is represented as a cloak, a coat, a garment, all the way
through the scripture. In fact, the first illustration
of it is found in Genesis 3.21, When God, when he took the fig
leaf aprons off of Adam and Eve, and he slew an animal and made
them coats of skin, that was a picture, an illustration. And
then I've got a list of scriptures here that you can look up. Isaiah
61 10 talks about the garment of righteousness and the garments
of salvation. Zechariah 3, remember Joshua the high priest had a
change of raiment. All right, Revelation 7, Revelation
19, the garment. Now, here in the past 20 years
or so, there've been some men in what is known as the Sovereign
Grace Movement, which they don't preach sovereign grace, but they
say they do, because they preach election and predestination.
But they have cast shame and denied the imputed righteousness
of Christ. and they'll bring accusations
against it, as if when we talk about the garment of salvation,
the garment of righteousness, that we're talking about something
that is just totally external, and they've even called it a
pastanon righteousness, a post-it note righteousness, that it has
no internal quality or power at all. Well, let me put it to
you this way. It is totally external as to
the making of it. We had absolutely no part, absolutely
no part in making this garment. It has no contribution from us. It is totally the merit of Christ's
obedience unto death. Our sins being imputed to him,
which he had no part in making and was never contaminated with,
he was made sin, he was the sin offering, the sin bearer, sins
imputed to him, and he made that garment of righteousness which
is imputed, accounted, charged to his people. And we had no
part in it. But now, when we talk about salvation,
somebody said, well, it's gotta be more than imputed, right?
Well, salvation is, because not only do we have Christ's righteousness
imputed as the ground of our salvation and our justification,
the garment of righteousness, which is a metaphor, We also
have the work of the spirit within that comes from that righteousness
imputed. The body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is life because of righteousness. So Christ's righteousness
imputed is the ground of salvation and the work of the spirit is
the fruit of salvation. So it's not, this is a metaphor,
the garment. And this fellow was missing it.
He didn't have it on. And what was the result? Bind him hand and foot, cast
him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. My friend, if we stand before God without being washed
in his blood and clothed in his righteousness, that means having
his righteousness charged to our account, that'll be what
we'll hear from the God of glory. Bind him hand and foot, cast
him out. That's sad, isn't it? This is the very central point
of salvation. This is the hope that we have. And so he ends it up with verse
14, many are called, but few are chosen. Well, what are the
many are called? That's the general call of the
gospel to all who hear it. But few are chosen, that's the
irresistible call to God's elect, the chosen of God. and people
which cannot and will not resist it. It's the power of God and
the salvation. Their election is known by their
coming to believing the gospel and repenting of dead works.
Only elect will receive and believe the gospel wherein Christ is
revealed in the glory of his person and the power of his finished
work. And they are invited to the wedding
feast and they'll all have the exact same garment on They'll
all stand before God in the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and
from which by the power of God they have received it by faith
as they hear the gospel and submit to him as the Lord their righteousness.
Okay.