Now, if you will, take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Matthew 22. I titled the message this morning,
Many Called, Few Chosen. There's a difference between
calling and being chosen. There's a difference. And the
Lord willing, I hope to bring you a message on these first
14 verses of this chapter on that subject. Now, if you'll
just kind of put your finger there and just let me talk to
you for a few minutes about what I read to you earlier in the
reading. This is growing toward the end
of the Lord's ministry. And each step He takes, each
word He speaks, Every action he does is fulfilling Scripture. He must go here that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. This he did that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled. You just keep reading that time
and time and time again. And here the Lord has come into
Jerusalem over here in chapter 21. I'm backing up now a little
past what I read for you earlier. But he's riding upon a wild ass's
coat. Exactly as Zachariah prophesied
back in the book of Zachariah, chapter 9, verse 9. Exactly. Exactly as Zachariah prophesied. The people believing him to be
a prophet of God, and more especially that prophet like David, that
God had sent to establish His kingdom and restore His people
to their former days of glory. They thought that was Him. He
was going to come into Jerusalem. He was going to rally the people.
The people behind Him were going to conquer these ones who had
taken them into captivity, and the whole Jewish nation is going
to be raised back to the former days of glory. And so they begin
to cast down palm branches before Him and taking the clothes off
their back and throwing them down before the wild ashes cold
as they rode into town and crying, Hosanna to the King! Hosanna
to the King! And then the Lord goes into the
temple. And this is to be considered
a miracle, by the way. I don't know if you've ever read
it that way, but next time you read it, Read it close. You'll
see it as a miracle. He walks into this temple and
the temple is totally polluted. It's filled with merchants and
it's filled with these sacrifices of the lame and unwanted sacrifices
and the money changers. This whole thing has been turned
into a den of thieves. The house of prayer has been
turned into a den of thieves. And the Lord quietly goes over
and sits down and takes up some leather and plaids a whip. And takes that whip in His hand
and He flogs out of that synagogue a multitude, not a few, but a
multitude of money changers and merchants and all these men that
had made this just an absolute disgrace out of the worship of
God. And then He begins to teach.
having driven them out. Well, you'd think that in itself
should have caused a riot. But it didn't. It didn't. And
having chased them out of the temple, he now begins to teach
and to preach. And the people begin to bring
to him the lame and the blind and the haught. And he begins
to heal and preach and teach them about the kingdom of God.
And then over here in Matthew 21, 15, it says, when the chief
priests, those who had charge of the temple, those he shamed
by the plaiting of the whip and driving them out and the comments
that he'd made about it, when the chief priests and the scribes
saw, now watch this, the wonderful things that he did. And that's
what he did, wonderful. He didn't do anything that should
have upset anybody. He took what was meant to be
the house of prayer and restored it as it ought to be. And there in that temple, he
wasn't teaching anything that should have upset men. He was
teaching them the Word of God, teaching them things that they
could not dispute. Never a man spake like this man.
They couldn't come at him. People come at me all the time.
Well, what about this? They didn't have no whatabouts
when he taught. They answered him not aware.
He boxed them up into a corner where they couldn't get out. When they saw these wonderful
things that he did, and they listened to the children of Israel
sitting inside that temple and crying, Hosanna to the Son of
David. This is the Messiah. This is
the Christ. Those chief priests and scribes,
when they heard that, it said they were disgusted. They were disgusted. Look at
these people. These people follow anything. They'll listen to anybody. And what he was doing was contrary
to their teaching. What he did, he did without their
sanction and approval. What he did left them in a bad
light, to say the least. And in Matthew 21, 23, when he was coming to the temple,
the chief priest and the elders of the people came unto him as
he was teaching and interrupted him. Now, you think about this. Here's the sovereign, eternal
word, the gospel. of which our gospel is just a
testimony. The eternal word of God, Him
in whom God had bested all things, was teaching. And here comes
these religious men and they say, hold it. Hold it. We got
something we need to ask you. And they said to him, by what
authority doest thou these things? Who appointed you a preacher
and a teacher? By whose authority do you come
into this temple and act like it's yours? Come in here and
act like you've got authority to condemn and authority to set
light in darkness and make a difference. Who gave you this authority?
By whose authority do you do these things? Now let me tell
you something. It's something that every child
of God has to learn. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
of the Lord. It's His work. It's an eternal
work as old as God. And it was purposed and made
provision before there was ever a people to save. There was a
covenant reached before there was any man that the covenant
could be confirmed to. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. This thing is of God. It's not
of man. It's of God. He's the head of
the body of the church who is the beginning, he said. The beginning. He says, God the Father chose
a people in Christ and blessed them with all spiritual blessing
before the foundation of the world. And three times, three
times in the Scriptures, we're told that God has predestinated
a people unto the adoption of sons. Predestinated them. Here's going to be their end.
Though if Sam's no maybes, no whatabouts. Three times. He predestinated a people to
the adoption of sons and ordered everything that was necessary
to that predestination to accomplish its end. Preachers don't see
how in the world you come to conclusions like that. It's easy.
I read the Bible. Read the Bible. Ephesians chapter
1. Listen to this. Verse 11. In
Christ we've obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. salvations of the Lord, especially
in the means to accomplish it, which is what predestination
is all about. And therefore, it must be by
God's authority that any man stand before other men and speak
on his behalf. You cannot manufacture preachers
and seminaries. I know that's what they do today.
I know in these preacher factories, they turn them out and they come
in and they vote them in and they call them in and all those
different things. But preachers are separated of
God. Every time you read about one
in the Scriptures, he was separated. Paul said, I separated. God who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him to the heath.
Separated, he said in Romans 1, unto the Gospel of Christ. Separated. And these men, They're
separated of God. They're gifted to speak. They're
subject to be taught. God's providence is ordered to
put them where they go. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And they learn what they learn
sitting in a local church under a faithful pastor and by the
revelation of God in their heart. And these Jews had heard the
greatest preacher ever to speak to men. Never a man spake like
this man. This was the Lord of Glory. He
can take anything in creation. I'm so limited with what I can
call. I was talking to my wife about
it yesterday. I have to just almost write out my message like
a book because I get up here and my mind's not of that caliber
that I can just reach in here like a toolbox and start pulling
out words. They don't come to me that way.
And it's difficult for me to stand up here and try to communicate
these divine truths. Henry Mahan likened it unto somebody
giving him a pair of tennis shoes and pointing them up at Mount
Everest and saying, climb that. Or standing by the ocean with
a canoe, cross that. Same thing. Same thing. These men learned what they learned
sitting in local churches by that revelation of God in their
heart. And these Jews had the greatest preacher ever to speak
to men, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they heard the greatest preacher
ever to be connected out of Adam's sons and called from Adam's sons,
John the Baptist. These are the two greatest prophets
ever to walk on God's earth. And both of them preached to
these same people, both of them. They first hand witnessed his
benevolence, his zeal, his wisdom. They saw the confirmation of
his offices by the miraculous works. He said, if you don't
believe me, if you can't look at me and look at what I'm saying
and hear what I'm saying, you better believe me for the works
that God's doing through me. Wake up. I'm calling dead men
out of the town. I'm cleansing lepers with the
word. By the commandment of God through me, I tell those paralyzed
men to stand up and take up their bed and walk. He said, you better
believe me for the work's sake. God confirmed who he was in our
midst. Yet they questioned everything
he did because he did not graduate from their school. He was ordained. He was not ordained
by their council. The Sanhedrin didn't ordain him.
He didn't have a diploma. He didn't come out there and
say, I got this. I sit under Gamaliel and I got
this certificate here. So I'm, okay, well, we'll hear
you then. He didn't have that. And for
that reason, despite what God had done, they didn't want anything
to do with him. I go places and I talk to people, well, have
you been to school? No, and I don't want to. I don't
want to. They questioned everything he
did because he didn't graduate from the school. He wasn't ordained
by their council and he was not anointed with their oil. They
had him a little bottle of oil. They'd dump it out, lay their
hands on him and say some words. And the Lord turns this question
that they asked him about by what authority he did these things.
He turns this question back against him. And he says, by what authority
did John baptize? Was his baptism of heaven or
of men? Nobody baptized before John.
You can't find baptism in the Old Testament. You go back there,
you can't find it anywhere. Here, along comes John after
400 silent years of nothing, and John comes up and starts
preaching baptism. And they're like, what? And here's all these people submitting
to baptism. Where'd that come from? Where'd
he get the authority to do that? That's what Christ asked them.
Where'd he get that authority? And they said, we're going to
get in trouble here. No matter what we say, we're going to come
up losers. So let's just dummy up. So that's
what they did. We can't tell. We can't tell.
Now let me tell you something, God's messengers are content
to cry in the wilderness. But these manufactured preachers
like these men who stood before Christ, they have to have the
consent of the people. They have to have it. And that's
why these men wouldn't answer him, because they feared the
people. And beginning with this question, the Lord speaks several
parables against these men who pretended to be the servants
of God. He said, you recall what I read to you a little bit ago?
There was a man who had two sons. And the first one, he said, son,
wake up. He said, go out there and work in my vineyard. And
he said, I ain't going. I'm tired. I was up late last
night. I ain't going. But he laid there a little bit.
He thought about it. He thought about how much he
loved him. And he said, I'm going. And he got up and went. He told
the second son, he said, son, get up and go out there and work.
He said, OK, Dad, I'm on my way. And he rode back over and went
to sleep. He had no intention of going. No intention of going. Well, which one did the will
of the Father? They said the first. He said, Verily I say
unto you that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of
God before you do. That's how he applied that parable
to them. And then he gave them the second parable. He said a
certain householder planted a vineyard. And he hedged it about. He built
him a little fence out around it. Put his name out there on
the gate. Dug him a wine press and built
a tower. Got him some farmers to come
in there and they agreed that they'd do this thing for a certain
amount. He said, okay, when the time comes and the harvest is
here, he said, I'm going to send some servants. Get what I got
coming to me. Okay, no problem. Shook hands
and he left. Went to another country. Time
comes and he sends his servants down there and says, time to
get the harvest. And they said, we ain't giving it to you. We
decided to keep it. We did all the work, so we're
going to keep the prophet. And finally, he sent his son
down. And they said, let's just kill the son, and we'll have
the whole outfit. We'll have it all. He said, what's
the Lord going to? Oh, they were like David when
the prophet told him about that. That certain man there that stole
that lamb, he's like, boy, they were furious. Oh, they'll miserably
kill him. And Jesus said unto them, verse
42, did you never read in the Scriptures about that stone?
You never read back there what the prophet said about that stone?
That was rejected? That God made head of the corner?
This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Therefore,
say unto you, the kingdom of God is going to be taken from
you, just like that vineyard was taken from them, and they
were killed. He said, that's what's getting ready to happen
here. That's what's going on. That's what you're rejecting.
That's what you're turning your back on. That's what you're spitting
on. And he said, for that reason,
he said, the kingdom of God should be taken from you, and giving
to a nation, bringing forth the fruits, willingly bringing forth
that praise and thanksgiving that was due. Bringing forth that reward. And He said, whosoever shall
fall on this stone will be broken, but on whomsoever this stone
shall fall, it will be ground to powder. And when they heard
that, they was upset. They said, He's talking about
us. He's talking about us. And then He begins here in our
text. And he begins to tell them about this wedding. I've already read through these
things, and there's no sense in me going through them again.
But let me just give you four things this morning from this
text and try to draw a line and connect it with our day. Now, here's the first thing about
this parable. It's the first thing he sets
before. It implies in what he says to
them that salvation is of the purpose
of the father from the very beginning. Here's his intent. Here's his
purpose. Here's everything that's going
on. It's like a certain king who made a marriage for his son. What he says here, he implies
it's purposed of the father to be dispensed through a holy union
between his son and a bride chosen by the loving Sovereign. That's
how he set this thing forth to them. Upon the giving of Eve
to Adam to be his loving wife and helpmate, God said this concerning
them. He said, therefore shall a man
leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and
they shall be one flesh. Physically, spiritually, affectionately,
One flesh. One. This union purposed of God
in Christ manifested when He came into this world and joined
Himself. He manifested it when He joined
Himself with our flesh. He become one with His people. He took upon Him flesh and blood. Become one with Him. Physically,
permanently become one with Him. Listen to these Scriptures. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with
Christ. Quickened us. Made us one in
Him. By grace, are you saying. And
He raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ. Ephesians 2.14, For he is our
peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh
in this union between God and men, in this one body, in this
one body, he hath abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby. And then the second way of this
union is manifest through faith, which sees this spiritual union
and rejoices in it and submits themselves to it. That's my hope.
God took my place. He become a man, a representative
man, quicken himself with his people. and stood before God,
before that holy law in perfect obedience, satisfied divine justice,
and then by the judgment of God, he was raised from the dead and
seated at his right hand. That's all my hope right there. It's in this union, in this union. You see, a man and a woman are
first married legally. They stand up there at that altar
and they repeat words and I ask them questions. They say, okay,
we're going to do that. Most of them not going to do
it, but they say they will anyway. And they're legally married.
By law, they're married. And then to consummate that union,
there's a giving of each other, a giving of one to the other,
and a joining together of both him and her. Husbands, he said,
love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself away. There's a joining together, a
consummation. That's what faith is. Exactly
what faith is. And then secondly, here's the second thing. He tells
these people, he said, some who were bidden, they were bidden
to come to this wedding. They were bidden to see this
union. They were bidden to see what
God had done in Christ. They were bidden to come and
see this joining together. That's what this preaching of
the kingdom, that's what John the Baptist was here to declare,
that's what Christ declared when he came, that's what every preacher
who's ever lived declares, this joining together. This representative,
they preached Christ. And some who were bidden to see
this grand joining of the sovereign refused to come. They'd been
notified. They received a royal invitation
that says that they went to call them that were bidden. They were
bidden to come. They'd been informed as to the
bride and the groom and who they were and all about them. The
time of the great marriage was at hand. The Prince of Glory
was about to fulfill his pledge. But the guests weren't interested.
They weren't interested. And the text is very clear here.
It does not say they could not come, but it says they would
not come. They would not. Everything required
was provided. They were to provide nothing.
Everything was provided. A servant was sent to call them,
a carriage to transport them. They had a written invitation
in their hand, sealed with the king's seal. They had the king's
own words rolled up, holding them in their hand, scribes and
pharisees. All they had to do was come.
But it says in Matthew 22, 3, He sent forth His servants to
call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not
come. But the Sovereign, now He's representing
what's truly taking place here. The Sovereign of the Kingdom
is a kind, long-suffering, patient Sovereign. Thank God He is. Verse 4, and again, You see that? I'm telling you this, there are
not many monarchs who ever lived in this world. If they sent such
an invitation out, the prince was going to be married. Here's
the king, the young king, the prince, and his bride going to
get married. And you received a royal invitation,
and you said, I ain't going. Shame on you. Shame on you. You'd be a dead man. You'd be
a dead man. But the sovereign, gracious God is patient, long-suffering,
and kind. And again, it says, He sent forth
other servants, more than the first, saying, Tell them which
were bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner.
My oxen and fatlings are killed and all things are ready. Come
to the marriage. Now, just picture for a minute
this great court of the sovereign. His dinner is prepared. His oxen
and his fatlings are killed. All things are ready. Picture
that great court. All filled. You see this big
royal court and it's full of tables. Each one covered with
the finest linen in the land. Each one etched with a royal
seal at the corner. Velvet-covered chairs with all
the invited guest names on the chairs. The settings all in pure
gold on the table. The candles, all the services,
the spoons, the knives, the forks, everything set out here. Decorated
with the king's colors. All of these things. The oxen
and the fatlings are roasting over the coals. The servants
over there like this. And he's grinding these things.
And this thing getting a glaze on it, John, is just about done.
Are you getting hungry? And he's turning this thing.
He's turning it. And the air is filled with the
aroma of this oxen and fatlings and this dinner that's prepared. Roasting over the... all the
finest wines in the land have been gathered up and set over
here ready to be served. Serving standing by. But there ain't any guests. And the king says, go tell them.
They don't have to bring nothing. They don't have to bring a dessert.
They don't have to bring anything. everything provided and tell
them my dinner is about to be served. My fattening ain't pinned
up somewhere. We're not waiting for a convenient
time. They've already been slain. Can you not smell the aroma in
the air? You see what he's telling them?
It's ready. It's ready. You don't have to do anything.
You don't have to say anything. You don't have to bring anything.
All you have to do is show up. Come on. Come on. No guess. No guess. And this time, it wasn't a simple
refusal, but they made light at it. They laughed at it. They
laughed at his kindness. They laughed at his long suffering. They laughed at the repetition
of his invitation. They laughed at it. foolishness. They dismissed the servants without
any respect for the sovereign who sent them. Totally disrespected
them. Now, I want you to listen to
what this says. This is in James. It's represented every time he
says it. But in James, he says it most clearly. He said, of
his own will begat he us. Wherefore, by the word of truth,
that we might be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, Let every man be swift to hear. Swift to
hear. Why? Because these are the servants
of the king. They're the servants of the king.
And be slow to speak. Be slow to wrath. But they treated
the king's benevolent repetition of request as though he were
no king at all. Think about it. No king at all. And they went their ways. And
one went to his farm and another to his merchandise. They all
went their ways. Natural man, undisturbed of God,
always goes his way. Always. He'll disavow, but I'll
hear you again at a more convenient time. I'm busy right now. And
he goes his way. Goes his way. And his way is
always the way that concerns life in this world. Verse 6,
And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully,
and slew them. Slew the king's servants? Took them out and killed them
and throwed them in a ditch. Now here's the third thing I
want you to see here. I want you to sit and think about
this, the contemplation of the king. the king when he heard." You see, when we're talking about
God, these are spiritual things. This is just a natural, this
is a parable, this is an earthly story to teach you divine and
spiritual things. And he's telling you in this
story that God hears and God sees. And His servants come,
and He sends servants because I'm telling you right now, you
don't want to hear directly from God. He settled down on that
mountain and just thundered before the people of Israel, and they
said, we don't want to talk to Him. Moses, you go up and talk
to Him. We don't want to talk to Him. We'll hear what you've got to
say. It's a lot kinder coming from me than if it comes straight
from God. And so He takes men of equal
weakness with you and He breaks these things down in a language
that you can understand and perceive. But He hears and He sees. And God sees not just what I
see. And God hears not what I hear. But God interprets and hears
the thoughts and intents of your heart. And He hears them every
time His messengers speak. He sees the reaction of your
heart and he reads the words of your mind without you speaking
them. He heard. When the king heard what the
servants said and what the servants did, his countenance began to
change. And I can't call it to mind right
now, but I remember Brother Mahan preaching on it years ago. There's
an Old Testament scripture that talks about the countenance of
the king changing. And his nostrils began to flare
like that of a stallion in battle. He began to snort and his nostrils
swelled. And the king was wroth. And the
king didn't send any more servants. This time he sent his army. And
he said, you destroy every one of them. You destroy every one
of them and you burn down their city. Burn it to the ground. Burn it to the ground. Here was
a people totally ignorant of their Sovereign. They saw Him
having no power over them unless they gave it to Him. Is that
not exactly what men think today about God? He has no power over
me unless I give it to Him. You think I'm telling you stories.
You think I'm drawing lines sideways and trying to bias this thing
my way or over on some useless point. I've heard men stand in
the pulpit and say, God has no hands but your hands, no feet
but your feet. He's powerless to do anything
unless I let him, isn't he? Yeah, your God is, but not this
God. Not this God. They saw him having
no power over them unless they gave it to him. They saw him
in a bind. He needed their assistance. His
dinner was prepared. He had seats out here. This thing
was all accomplished and he didn't have no guest. Now if you want
me, you're going to have to come down here yourself and talk to
me. Huh? You getting the picture? They
saw him in a bind. He needed their assistance. He
needed their OK. He needed their willingness.
He needed their presence. He needed their contribution.
And here's what was going on. They mistook his long suffering
and kindness for weakness and inability. They knew him
only as a figurehead, not a potentate. After all, they determined the
laws, didn't they? Their counsel that determined
the laws, legislated morality. He's just king for show. But when the king heard their...
Can you hear what this text is saying? These insolent, self-righteous
rebels, The king heard what they said.
He saw how they acted. He knew what they did. And his
countenance changed. And he called on his armies.
But now watch this. He goes down and he destroys
these men. They are gone. And that is what
our Lord is telling these Pharisees, these scribes, these chief priests
who come out and just interrupt the Word of God. Just butt into
these things and sent him over in an evil light. This is the
king's son. This is not just a servant. This
is the servant. This is the son. And they're
just, get out of the way. Get out of the way. And he's saying, it's over for
you. That's what he's telling them. It's over for you. But,
and here's the last thing, the king by sovereign decree He sends
out his servants into the highways to bid every common man in the
land, bad or good, no distinction. Think about it. No distinction.
Your past wasn't even considered, John. What you did yesterday
wasn't even considered. You sitting there filthy, sitting
there unwashed, sitting there blind, sitting there covered
with leprosy, wasn't even considered. What you said and what you did
and all this wasn't even considered bad or good. Bad or good. That pretty much covers everybody,
don't it? Everybody you run into, whether they're bad or good,
as many as you can find, to them, the same gracious invitation
was given to come to the marriage. Older, young, healthier, sick,
cleaner, dirty, religious or heathen. Male or female, come
at the king's command. Come on. Let me tell you something you
may not know. The request of a sovereign may read like an
invitation, but it has behind it the power of a potentate. I won't argue. If you won't call
it an invitation, that's all right with me. I tell you, when
you get an invitation from a potentate, it's more of a command than it
is an invitation. And he doesn't say when he sends
it out, come if you want to. He says, come. He says, come. What a crowd gathered on that
day. Willing, loving, honoring crowd. filled with gratitude, filled
with rejoicing. And when they got there on those
velvet seats, can you picture the old leper coming up and looking
at that big old velvet seat, sitting there and looks up there
and there's his name. The names of those rebels was
never on those chairs. It was the name of harlots and
the name of thieves and robbers, publicans and sinners. Everyone's
name on the chair. Paul preached to the Jews, and
they cast his preaching back into his face. And he said, since
you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, he said,
behold, I turn to the Gentiles. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. And they glorified the Lord.
And as many was ordained to eternal life, And I think I can say without
any harm to the parable whatsoever that it was the purpose of the
great king all along to expose these evil rebel men and call
sinners to the wedding. That was his purpose all along.
But I say this to you, be careful how you hear and respond to God's
gospel. Our God is a merciful God. He's
long-suffering and kind. He shows mercy to thousands and
He forgives transgression and sin, but He will by no means
clear the guilty. And I refuse to draw a line and
say, God will go this far and He won't go any further. I'm
not going to do that. But I'm going to tell you this,
this parable declares that. I can't put my finger on it,
but He has a place. There is a line and He teaches
that in this parable. Such a line does exist. His patience
was exhausted with the multitude in the wilderness. He said, these
10 times, 10 times I have graciously dealt with you. And they are
not going to be a number 11. He said in Numbers chapter 14,
I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which
murmur against me. Now Moses, you go tell them this.
Truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in my ears,
that's exactly what you're going to get. You wanted to go back
to Egypt, you wanted to get away from me, you want to be separated
from me, you're going to get it. That's exactly what you're
going to get. And everybody from the age of
20 years old and older, not one of you will enter into this land
except Joshua and Caleb. Two million people, none of them
went in, Joshua and Caleb. If you don't get anything else
out of this message this morning, you remember this, every time
this gospel is preached, God's eyes and ears are open and He
reads the heart. He reads the heart. The king's
servants are an easy mark. He sends them one at a time.
One at a time. It's easy for a multitude to
look at a man and laugh at him. They laughed at him. Well, man,
you're in our city. Where do you think you're at?
You're in our city, and they laughed, and they mocked, and
they made fun of them until God sent an army. His armies come
all at once, and they run upon you, and they fall heavy upon
you, and you're destroyed. There's no resisting Him. And
unto those who mocked and made light of His preaching, He made
this declaration. He summed up all of these parables
that I read to you earlier. against these men. They knew
exactly what he was saying. They perceived that he spoke
these things concerning them. And here's what he tells them.
He said, there was a lot of folks called to this wedding, but only
a few chosen. Only a few chosen. Boy, I tell
you, we need to keep that in mind. Many are called. Many. Many. A few, not just a
little bit, are choked.