A Marriage For the Son

Q: What does the Bible say about God's sovereign love and mercy?

The Bible reveals God's sovereign love and mercy through the sending of His Son to redeem His people and provide them righteousness. Scripture communicates that God’s sovereign love and mercy are fundamentally demonstrated in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 22, the king's invitation to the wedding feast signifies God's gracious call to sinners. Those invited initially demonstrate their unworthiness by rejecting the invitation, reflecting humanity's rebellion against God. However, God's love compels Him to extend the invitation to all, both the bad and the good, illustrating His mercy and grace. Romans 5:8 notes, 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' Thus, God's love is both sovereign and merciful, as He actively seeks to redeem and restore those unworthy by nature.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of irresistible grace is true?

Irresistible grace is evidenced by God compelling sinners to come to Him, overcoming their natural unwillingness. Irresistible grace, a key tenet of sovereign grace theology, emphasizes that those whom God has chosen will inevitably come to Christ. This doctrine stems from passages such as John 6:44, where Jesus states, 'No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' The compelling nature of God’s grace transforms the heart of the sinner from unwillingness to a desire for Christ. Psalm 110:3 asserts, 'Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,' confirming that the effectiveness of divine grace is rooted in God's sovereign will. When God calls, He enables the called to respond, thereby ensuring that His chosen will arrive at the feast prepared for them.

Q: Why is the wedding garment important for Christians?

The wedding garment symbolizes Christ's righteousness, which is essential for believers to stand before God. In the parable from Matthew 22, the wedding garment represents the righteousness of Christ that believers must wear to be accepted into the heavenly feast. This garment signifies the transformation that occurs when a believer is clothed in the righteousness of Christ. As illustrated in Revelation 7:14, those who are 'arrayed in white' have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, emphasizing that acceptance into God’s kingdom is not based on personal merit but on the righteousness of Jesus alone. Without the proper attire, symbolizing faith and submission to God's provisions, one cannot enter the celebration of salvation, showcasing God’s insistence on His Son’s honor as the focal point of redemption.

Q: What does it mean that many are called, but few are chosen?

This means that while God's gospel invitation is extended to many, only those elected by Him will respond effectively to receive salvation. The phrase 'many are called, but few are chosen' encapsulates the essence of God's sovereign choice in the redemptive process. In the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22, many are invited, symbolizing God's universal call to all humanity. However, the rejection of the invitation by those initially bidden demonstrates humanity’s natural unwillingness to come to Christ. The ones chosen are those whom God elected before the foundation of the world, as indicated in Ephesians 1:4, where Paul tells the church that God chose them 'in him before the foundation of the world.' This doctrine underlines that salvation is an act of God’s grace based not on human merit but solely on His sovereign will.

In Matthew 22, you think about
all of the different ways and beautiful ways in which the Lord
has set forth the Gospel in the Beatitudes, His teachings, and
the miracles that He performed and those that He healed, and
revealing our need for Him, our utter helplessness in our sinful
condition before God, our incurable disease of sin and his great
power to heal, showing that truly the Son of
Man has power on earth to forgive sins. And here this morning we
have a beautiful parable. told for the same reason to show
the truth of God's sovereign love and mercy toward sinners
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in sending His Son into this
world to redeem His people from their sins and to live holy and
righteous before God in their stead as their representative
and provide them this garment that we'll read
of. Let's read verses 1 through 14
together, chapter 22. 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 unto 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. And then saith he to his
servants, the wedding is ready. But they which were bidden were
not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways
and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage. 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. 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 unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then said the king to the 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. He spoke to them in parables,
stories that compare earthly things with spiritual. The word
means, the word parable means to lay one thing down beside
another. Isn't that interesting? That's
clear what it means, why it's called a parable, isn't it? To
compare one thing with another, lay it down. The story has people
in it, characters, things that we understand, relationships
that we understand, a father and his son, a marriage. But
it's teaching spiritual truth. And if we didn't understand something
of the spiritual nature of this story, it'd be a very unusual
story. The man sent people out to invite guests to his son's
marriage and they killed those servants. That's outrageous. Who would do that? Well, God
sent his son into this wicked world. And he did nothing, he
went about everywhere doing nothing but good. And having mercy on sinners,
free grace and mercy. And we murdered him. That's outrageous. Who would do that? He sent preachers preaching free
grace. Free grace. Have you ever thought
about that? Why people hate so much the grace
of God that's unconditional. It requires nothing from the
sinner. Free grace. Accomplished redemption. Unconditional
mercy and pardon. There's nothing for you to do.
And this world killed them. That's insane. Yes, it is. It is insane. That's you. That's
me. By nature, we hate God. That's what this is teaching.
He's setting them down, these wicked men who were bidden and
killed the servants of the king who bid them to the marriage.
He's laying them down and you down right beside them. And me. Do you see? So that we can see what wicked
murderers we are. That's what he called them in
the text, murderers. And he said they're unworthy.
They're unworthy. That's us by nature. God sends His message of joy
and glory for His Son. The honoring of His Son, the
celebration. for his son, and we have no interest
by nature. No interest. The angels, the
perfect creatures that God created, celebrated his coming for his
bride. He came into this world to receive
his bride unto himself, and they said, glory to God in the highest. But not us. We, like Herod, sought
to kill him because because of our own interests, because of
our own glory, because of our own imagined authority. And did
you see what they did in verse 5? They made light of it. The
king said, I'm going to honor my son. And they made light of it. I'm
making a marriage feast for my son. Everything's ready. We're
gonna honor my son. We're gonna give glory unto my
son. And I'm gonna invite you to be
part of it. And they made light of it. It
didn't mean anything to them. And they went their ways. You see how clear this is? This
is the teaching of all scripture. They went their ways. They had
things to do that were going to benefit them. One to his farm. He was like the rich man who
said, look it, I'm going to have to tear these barns down and
build bigger ones. Look out. I've just got so much
stuff, you know. I better go see to that. I can't
come to the wedding. And another to his merchandise.
His merchandise. You see the clear picture here.
We got better things to do. God's made a marriage for his
son, but we have our own personal interests to take care of. That's
every sinner by nature. You see yourself compared, laid
down beside these murderers? If not, then we've missed the
parable. Our condemnation is that Christ came into the world
and we loved ourselves so much. that we had no interest in his
glory or his grace. It was gracious of the king to
call it, to bid us to be part of it, to be part of the celebration,
to be partakers in his son's glory and goodness. But we despised
his grace and had no interest in honoring him. You know what
that is? You know what that makes us?
Murderers. We've murdered God in our hearts.
That's what Adam did in the garden. He murdered God in his heart. And we all are God murderers
in our hearts. You say, well, I've never killed
anybody, much less God. This is about your heart. This
is about your condition before God spiritually. We hate God
and are determined to ourselves be God. And that's what verse
five reveals. This ain't about your son. This
is about me this day. God's in the business of honoring
his son. What business are you in? What
business am I in? That's the question now. Well,
I know what business we're in by nature. We're in the me business.
My farm, my merchandise. That's what sin is. Did you know
that? It's choosing yourself over God. That's exactly what
Adam did. I know what God said, but I want
it. And we will never choose any
other way unless and until we are compelled. Compelled. And we'll see that word in a
minute, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. First of all, we
see our sinfulness. It is rebellion against God. This is direct rebellion against
the king who is determined to honor his son. We want no part
of it. We rebel against him, against
his word, against his son, against his servants. And it's a question
of glory. God is going to glorify his son
with me or without me. And by nature, I say count me
out. Do you know why people hate the
gospel? What we call the doctrines of grace? It's because there's
no glory in it for them. Paul said, where is boasting
then? It is excluded. Well, then exclude
me too. Nobody would come right out and
say that, but that's what we're saying when we despise the truth
of God. There's no glory in it for me,
well forget it then. God's truth honors his son. It's about a marriage made for
his son and that's a light thing to most people. That's a light
thing to everybody who's never seen the son. Now let's see something
else in this parable. There's so much in this parable
to see. Let's look more at something
I just said. God is in the business of honoring
his son. And he's God. Now you think about
that. People talking about doing the
will of God. We just want to be in the will of God. Do you
have any idea what God's doing? God is in the business of honoring
the one that you say down here did his best to save his people
but couldn't get it done so now it's up to them. God's in the
business of honoring him. What business are they in? What
business are we in? He's God now. Do you think your
rebellion or mine is going to keep him from honoring his son?
You reckon he can get it done? If he's about honoring his son,
you reckon he can do that? Did you notice in the story that
he's the king? A certain king made a marriage
for his son. The king desires to honor his
son. He's not in the business of honoring
me and you. If you go to most so-called churches,
you'll be honored by the so-called preacher there. That's not what
God's Word's about. It's not about honoring you or
me, no matter who we are or what we've done or why we did it.
It's not about us at all. Do we understand that? That God's
purpose, God's purpose in this whole universe is to honor his
son. Those who are compelled to come
in are going to be glad they were. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that he compelled me
to come in. He found me in the highways and
hedges. and compelled me to come in.
And I'm glad he did. But you know why he did that?
He did it to honor his son. Not so I'd have a mansion in
heaven. He did it to honor his son. And
if you find yourself at the marriage supper of the Lamb, you'll praise
him. You'll praise God the Father
for his irresistible grace. And I will too. We'll praise
him together there if we're there together. Because he brought
us there with loving kindness. He drew us to himself. as His
holy bride. And we'll glorify the Son. We
will glorify and honor His Son. The marriage is for His Son. And we'll glorify Him for that wedding
garment that He provided. for that righteousness in which
we stand there in that white robe before God as my representative
and my redeemer. We'll glorify him for that precious
blood that he shed. But this whole thing has one
design and purpose above all others. And that is simply this. The king is going to honor his
son. Are we in on that? John chapter
five. 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 quickeneth them,
even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. He gives life to whom
He will. He has power on earth to forgive
your sins, if He will. Why? For the Father judgeth no
man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. The Son is going
to decide who has life and who doesn't. Is that all right with
you? 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. Colossians chapter
1 verse 12 Colossians 1 12 giving thanks unto the Father which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. He went out and got us, made
us meet to be partakers, to be in on the glory of his son, who
have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. In 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. We have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Do you have the wedding
garment on? Do you know what color the wedding
garment is? It's white. Who are these who are arrayed
in white? The angel asked John in the book
of Revelation. And John said, Thou knowest.
And the angel said, These are they which have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, in 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. For Him. Why is
there a world? It's for Him. Why is there a
me? For Him. And He is before all
things. And by Him all things consist.
And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. And all of this is that, so that
in all things, he might have the preeminence. God's going
to glorify his son. He's going to honor his son. And he's either going to save
you, having purposed from before the foundation of the world to
do so, and draw you to his son. No man can come unless he draws
him. But He'll draw you to His Son. And Christ said, if He does,
I'll raise Him up again at the last day. And He'll take you
home to be with Him forever, to praise the glory of His grace
forever in order to honor His Son. Or He'll put you in hell
in order to honor His Son. He'll cast you like this one
into outer darkness. But He's going to honor His Son.
That also honored His Son. Did you know that? Because the
wedding garment You know why that was important? Because it's
about honoring the Son. And if you don't have it on,
what's got to happen to you is you got to be cast away. And
me too. Now, the love of God is in Christ. Acceptance with God is in Christ
alone. And if you are determined to
dishonor the Son, The way God's gonna honor him is by putting
you in hell, and me with you. But his son will be honored.
He hath given him a name that's above every name. And this second
truth here sheds light on the first. If everything God does,
he does in order to glorify his son, where does that leave you
and I, who by nature are in the business of glorifying ourselves
and dishonoring the son? He's teaching here in this parable,
and in the one which closed out chapter 21, if you remember,
that to not honor the son is tantamount to murdering him. He said, I will send my son.
They'll reverence my son. And what'd we do? We killed him
and nailed him on the cross and spit on him while he hung there.
Paul said, if any man love not the son, Let him go to hell. And the Son himself said, if
you believe not that I am, you'll die in your sins. To not love and trust and believe
in and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is high treason against
heaven. And the Father will honor the
Son by damning you. He said in Luke 14, 33, whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can't be
my disciple. You see how that's about honoring
the Son? And how if your farm or your merchandise is more important
to you than the Son, then the only way to honor the Son is
to put you in hell? Do you see that? Do I see that? Those who know the son are going
to honor the son. If it costs them their farm and
all their merchandise, they're going to honor the son. Now thirdly,
we see in the text how it is that God has been pleased to
honor his son. What's the father? What's the
king going to do to honor his son? He's going to make a marriage
for him. There's going to be a marriage.
There's going to be a bride. There's going to be a union.
And that's how the son's going to be honored. Do you remember
the first marriage? Do you remember the reason why
God gave? That He united Adam and Eve in
marriage before Him? Do you remember the reason He
gave? God said, it is not good for
the man to be alone. Do you think about that with
regard to the Lord Jesus Christ? The man. That's prophetic language
right there. That's concerning the son. That's
a picture of our union with Christ. It's not good for the man to
be alone. Oh, thank God that he's going
to make a marriage for his son. How is the son going to be glorified? Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. What is the glory of God? What
is the glory? What is that which declares the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Exodus 34 5 it says, the Lord
descended in the cloud and stood with him there with Moses and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands. forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin. He's going to forgive sinners
of their sins. He's going to do that by coming
down here and redeeming them and making them beautiful and
spotless in his eyes. And he's going to unite himself
unto them in marriage, union, oneness, that they may be one
Father, even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they
may be one. And he said also this, and that
will by no means clear the guilty. That's part of his glory too. Anyone without a wedding garment
on will be cast out. And he's glorified in that too.
Ah, but mercy, keeping mercy for thousands. That's his bride. The king has prepared a feast
and he's provided everything necessary. Don't bring anything
with you. All things are made ready. Come
without money and without price and eat and drink. Have some
wine. Celebrate. Christ called sinners unto himself
and he didn't say come and serve. He didn't say come and work.
He said come and rest. Everything's done. There's no
excuse for not coming. Do we understand that? There's
no excuse for not coming. Well, I don't have anything to
wear. He's going to give you a wedding garment. I can't, I
don't have anything to bring. Everything's made ready. You're
without excuse. And I am too. And did you notice
at the end of verse three, that it does not say that they could
not come. It doesn't say they couldn't come because they had
to go to their farm. Or they couldn't come because they had
to go take care of them. It says they would not come. Is that what he said to the Pharisees?
You search the scriptures for in them you think you have life,
but they are they which testify of me and you will not come to
me that you might have life. That's the condemnation. What's
the solution to man's unwillingness? We're all unwilling to come by
nature, aren't we? How does God compel sinners to
come? You wanna know the simple answer
to that question? Why did you come? Did you come to Christ?
Do you believe on him? Why, how? He made you willing. It's that simple. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Psalm 1103, he made
you willing. By faith, Moses chose the reproach
of Christ. He esteemed the reproach of Christ,
greater riches than the treasures of this world. And you will too
when he compels you. Christ said in John 6, 44, no
man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw
him. How does the father draw? It's
all through the word of God. He gives you eyes to see. He
gives you ears to hear. And when you have eyes to see
and ears to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to fall
in love with him. You're going to have to have him. When you
find the pearl of great price and you see him for who he is,
you're going to go sell everything you have. You're going to forsake
everybody and everything else, and you're going to lay hold
of him. And I will too. He makes us willing. He opens
our eyes. To know him truly is to love
him. And if you do, you must have
him. Think about this. This is the
change. We go from what Christ said to
those spirits, you will not come to me that you might have. We go from that to what? We will
not go away. We will not. Will you also go
away? No. Where would we go? To whom would we go? You have
the words of eternal life. How'd you know that? God gave
me ears to hear. We go from we will not come to
we will not go. That's grace. That's the power
that David was talking about when he said that people shall
be willing in the day of your power. So the father honors the
son by making a marriage for him, by uniting him and his bride,
the church. If we had time, I would give
you his description of that bride. We're made beautiful through
his comeliness, precious and beautiful unto him. Who are the
bride of Christ? Who are those that he fetches,
the poor and the maimed, and the halt and the blind by nature,
the misfits, the off scouring of the earth, the weak and the
base, Paul said, the foolish to bring to naught, to make foolish
the wisdom of this world. Do you know that the Lord said
to the Pharisees, if you were blind, you would have no sin?
Do you understand what he meant by that? When the king came in
to see the guests, He saw that there was one there without a
wedding garment on. Turn to Luke 14. I was not going
to read this for time's sake, but I think I can still be brief
and let's look at this. I keep referring to parts of
this, so I need to, we need to read it. Luke 14, 16. Then said
he unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many
and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden,
come for all things are now ready. And they all, with one consent,
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I
pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee have
me excused. And another said, I have married
a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and
showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house,
being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed
and the halt and the blind. Wow. Well, that's going to be
a strange supper, isn't it? A bunch of misfits like that
sitting around his table. No, not once you have his garment
on. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou has commanded. And yet there's room. And the
Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges
and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. His house is going to be filled.
For I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden
shall taste of my supper. So the Lord in the day of his
power, comes and compels us and we willingly, we go and sell
everything that we have. He don't take it from us, we
go sell it. We go get rid of it and buy that pearl and buy
that field with the treasure hidden in it. So he honors his
son with uniting him to his bride. And then he came in, in verse
11, the king to see the guests, and he saw there a man which
had not on a wedding garment. Now this is vital gospel truth. He made this marriage and the
feast to honor his son, and everybody who participates in the feast
will honor his son. And there's only one way we can
honor the son. We're not fit as we are to honor
the son. We can't come by nature. Flesh
and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God. We know that, don't we?
So how are we going to be included? How can He include us? How are
we going to honor the Son? You've got to put the wedding
garment on. That's the difference between honoring the Son and
being cast out now. It's how you look to the King. What you're wearing. We're not
fit to come in as we are. We come as we are. We don't put
on a new suit that we bought down at JCPenney and come. We
come as we are, but we're not fit as we are. We got to put
the wedding garment on. We don't go down and get new
clothes and come. We come just like we are, but
then we take off what we are wearing and put his garment on. That's honoring the son. To come
in your filthy rags and say, did you notice who he called?
He called the poor. What are they gonna be wearing?
Nothing you can wear to a feast for the king's son, I'll tell
you that. You can't come in your filthy robe. You know what you're
saying if you do that? I don't need the wedding garment. What
I'm wearing is just fine. That's dishonoring the son, and
you got to go, because this thing's about honoring the son. If you're
gonna dishonor the son, you're gonna have to do that somewhere
else, because God's kingdom is all about honoring the son. He
was speechless when he asked about it. He didn't have any
excuse and he was rebellious about it. You know what the thing
to say would be when the king says, what are you doing in here
without a wedding garment on? I would think the thing to say would
be, give me one and I'll put it on. I should have put it on
already. I don't have any excuse. I'll put it on now. No, he just
sat there. What I have on is just fine.
No, it's not fine. It's not fine. You come down
to the front and make a decision and think you're on your way
to heaven. It's not fine. It's not about what you do. It's
about what he provides. It's about what he did. If you
come unfit and unpresentable before God, he'll clothe you. But if you come and refuse the
garment provided, saying, I've got perfectly good clothes of
my own, you've got to go. Putting on his righteousness
is a submission. Do you remember what Paul said
in Romans 10.3? The problem with his countrymen,
the Jews, is going about to establish their own righteousness, coming
before God in the clothes that they've been able to afford and
provide for themselves. It's what they're doing. And
you know what that is? It's to not submit to His righteousness. It's to not take off your filthy
rag and put his garment on. The righteousness of God. They're
going about to establish their own righteousness, he said, and
have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
What's the righteousness of God? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. For many are called,
he said, but few are chosen." That's the summary of that whole
parable. Many are called. He bid many to come, but they
would not. Those who are called, just called,
have no excuse for not coming, but they will not come. But those
who are chosen are brought in, brought to the place where everything
has been made ready, and provided with clothing the righteousness
of the King's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Many are called, but
few. Few there be that find it. He's
been teaching this same thing from Matthew 1.1 to right here
and all in his word teaching the same thing. Many are called,
but few are chosen. Do you have on the wedding garment?
this morning. Praise his name for his free
sovereign grace that chose you and compelled you to come in
and provided you with everything that you need and privileged
you to honor his son. May He give us grace to praise
Him as He's worthy to be praised. Let's pray together.

A Marriage For the Son

What does the Bible say about God's sovereign love and mercy?

How do we know the doctrine of irresistible grace is true?

Why is the wedding garment important for Christians?

What does it mean that many are called, but few are chosen?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

A Marriage For the Son

What does the Bible say about God's sovereign love and mercy?

How do we know the doctrine of irresistible grace is true?

Why is the wedding garment important for Christians?

What does it mean that many are called, but few are chosen?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

More from Chris Cunningham

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Chris Cunningham

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book