Why did you Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I've entitled the message for
this morning, What is the Wedding Garment? I'm going to begin reading
from Matthew chapter 22, verse 11. 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. He couldn't come up with a reason
as to why he didn't have a wedding garment. 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." Now, what
was the one thing that this man who was cast out needed that
he didn't have? It was the wedding garment. Everybody at the marriage feast
had on a wedding garment. They all had on the same thing,
but this man did not have a wedding garment. And the king called
upon him to be bound and cast into outer darkness because he
didn't have this wedding garment. When he asked him, why did you
come in here without one? He was speechless. There was
one given at the door and he didn't feel any need for it.
He came in and he was speechless and at this time he saw the enormity
of his guilt and he could not vindicate himself. Now what I
want to know is what is this wedding garment? It's the one
thing that was necessary and it's the one thing that's necessary
for me or you to be in this royal wedding feast in heaven. is the
wedding garment? Now let's begin reading in verse
1 of Matthew 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. Now any time the Lord says the
Kingdom of Heaven is like so and so, we ought to listen very
carefully to what he's saying. And he tells us that the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for
his son. Most people misread this. They
think the Kingdom of Heaven is like a great king that made a
marriage feast for his creatures, for their happiness, and for
their well-being. Surely that's why God made us
and He wants us to be happy. But that's not what this passage
of Scripture says. This is not about me. This is
not about you when we're talking about the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king that made a marriage
for his son. God does what He does for His
Son, for the glory of His Son. God made this world for His Son,
for His glory. Are you on board? What do you
think of the glory of Christ? Do you know what God thinks of
you is seen by what you think Son. Now let me repeat that,
what God thinks of you is seen by what you think of His Son. The Kingdom of Heaven is like
a certain King which made a marriage for His Son. Now let's go on reading verse
3, and He sent forth His servants to call them that were bidden
to the wedding. Now the word bidden is called. It was not so much an invitation
as a summons. Come to the wedding. And what
an honor it is to be called to this wedding. This is the wedding
of God's Son. And you can be sure this wedding
is like no other wedding. And what an honor to be called
to the marriage feast of His Son. To not come would demonstrate
disdain and contempt for the king and his son. Now we read
at the end of verse 3, and he sent forth his servants to call
them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. They didn't have any interest.
They did not want to be there. They had no interest in the king.
They had no interest in his son. They simply would not. They didn't want to be there. Their wills were chained to an
evil nature that made them have no desire to be around the king
or to be around his son. They treat this summons with
contempt and disdain and they would not come. And that's the
way men respond to the gospel. They hear and they've got other
things to do. They would not come. Now, in
the next verse, the king shows his amazing patience and graciousness. Now, if I called you to my home
and said, I want you to come to a party at my house or a feast
at my house, and you didn't want to come, I'd say, well, stay
away then. but not this king. He shows his amazing graciousness
and patience and long-suffering by calling them again, and this
time making it seem even more attractive. We read in verse
4, again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them what
you're bidding. Behold, I have prepared my dinner,
my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are now ready.
come ye unto the marriage." He's still calling upon them after
this first rejection to come to the marriage. Now in this
verse of Scripture we have the elements of true Gospel preaching. Now there are two things I see
in this second summons that gives us the elements of true gospel
preaching. And if these elements are not
there, it is not true gospel preaching. And look what the
king says. He says, Behold, I have prepared my oxen, my fatlings
are killed, and all things are ready. It's a declaration. The gospel is a declaration.
It's an announcement of something that's already been done. There's nothing you need to bring.
There's nothing you need to do to make yourself fit. all things
are ready. Now the gospel is an announcement
of something that has already been done. When the Lord said
it is finished, That meant something was completed, already done. He said in John chapter 17 verse
4, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. I've glorified
thee on the earth. I've finished the work that thou
gavest me to do. God sent His Son into the world. When Christ came into this world,
the eternal Son of God taking on humanity being made flesh,
not sinful flesh like you and I are, but flesh nonetheless.
God was manifest in the flesh and He came for a specific purpose. He came to save His people from
their sins. Matthew 1.21 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He had a definite mission when
He came. Now when He came, He kept the
law for those people perfectly. He did what He did as a representative
man. He said to John the Baptist,
thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. What he did,
he did as an us. When Jesus Christ fulfilled all
righteousness, everybody he represented fulfilled all righteousness.
Now, after having lived this perfect life as a representative
and perfectly keeping God's law, that law that I could never keep,
he died. He was nailed to a cross. Why? Because He came to save His people
from their sins, and their sins became His sins. They were imputed
to Him. They became His. He became guilty
of them, and that's why He died. He died as a sin-bearing substitute. Now once in the end of the world
hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And my dear friends, that's exactly
what He did. He put away sin. The reason He was raised from
the dead is because God was completely satisfied with what He did and
He's completely satisfied with everybody He did it for. Now
we're declaring a finished salvation. I'm not telling you to do anything
or to bring anything or to make yourself fit. Behold a finished,
completed salvation. There's nothing you need to bring. Why, even the wedding garment
is provided for you. There's nothing you need to do
to make yourself fit. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream, the only fitness he requires. to have a need of Him. Oh, I have that need. Now when we preach the Gospel
it is a message of something that is done. Nothing for you
to do, it is done. It is described as a rest. That is how faith is described
as a rest. Now let me tell you how done this is. Let me tell
you how completed this is. In Romans 8, verses 29 and 30
we read, whom He did foreknow." You see,
He knew some people. He loved some people beforehand. God's foreknowledge is not His
knowledge of events before they take place. It's His knowledge
of people. For whom He did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. and whom he called, then he also
justified. And whom he justified, then he
also glorified." Past tense. If Christ died for me, I'm already
glorified. You may say, well, you don't
look glorified. I know I don't, but I am because I'm in the Lord
Jesus Christ and my salvation is completed. It's a declaration
of a work that's already been done. Thank God for that. And
here's the second element of true Gospel preaching. First,
it's a declaration of something already done. Come, all things
are ready. The oxen, the fatlings are killed.
Come to the marriage feast. Here's the second element of
true Gospel preaching. Come. Come. Don't wait. Don't linger. Don't wait until
you become better. Don't wait for some kind of experience.
Don't wait till you know more. Come right now to the wedding
feast. Come right now to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in
heart. and you'll find rest for your
souls. Christ calls upon you to come. Now this thing of faith
is always in the present. The two biggest false refuges
there are are the past and the future. Men looking to something
that happened in the past, the way they felt in the past, what
they did in the past. If I'm looking to the past, that
means I'm looking to something I did, something I experienced,
something I felt, and that's a false refuge. Men look to the
future. In the future, I will believe.
In the future, I will repent. Now, when I look to something
I'm going to do in the future, I'm looking at something I'm
going to do once again, some work I'm going to perform. Understand,
faith is right now. When am I called to come to Christ?
Right now. Don't wait to get better. Don't
wait till you get your life straightened out. Don't wait until you quit
committing some certain sin. Lord Jesus Christ right now,
just as I am without one plea. But that Thy blood was shed for
me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come."
You're called upon, you're commanded to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Somebody says, well does that mean me? Well, God commands all
men everywhere to repent. Are you one of those people?
Yes. then you are commanded to come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. May God enable you to do so. But look at the response, verse
5, after they heard this glorious message and after they were summoned
to this glorious wedding feast, verse 5 says, but they made light
of it. and went their ways, one to his
farm and another to his merchandise. After hearing this glorious message,
they neglected it. They were apathetic toward it.
And they went their ways to their various pursuits. They had bigger
fishes to fry, things that were more important to them than coming
to the king. Verse 6, and the remnant took
his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them. How evil. The men who bring this
message, they put them to death. Now we have two responses, apathy,
indifference, and rage. It's hard to tell which response
is worse. But we know what the king did,
verse 7, "'But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth,
he was angry. And he sent forth his armies
and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city,' which
is exactly what should have happened to them. verse 8, "'Then saith
he to his servants, the wedding is ready.'" You see he's going
to have a wedding for his son even though those people who
rejected him will not be there. He's going to have his wedding
for his son. The wedding is ready and they
which were bidden were not worthy. They were not worthy. Now, if
I want to forgive you for something you've done, and I come to you
and I say, I forgive you. If you say, I don't care whether
you do or not. I'm not interested in your forgiveness.
I don't need your forgiveness. Do you know if you had that response,
you would not be worthy of forgiveness, would you? Now, these people
who heard the gospel, they heard all things are now ready come
and they made light of it and others slew those who brought
this message. They were not worthy. But the king is going to have
a wedding. So he says in verse nine to his
servants, go ye therefore into the highways and as many as you
shall find bid command, summon to the marriage. Everybody you
find, everybody you see, tell them come to the marriage of
the king for his son. So those servants, verse 10,
went out into the highways and gathered together as many as
they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished
with guests. Now the son's going to be honored
and the king is going to make sure there's a wedding for his
son. Now this motley crew, good and
bad, rich, poor, black, white, educated, uneducated, religious,
irreligious, moral, immoral. It was a motley crew. And I'm
talking about humanly speaking. I know that by nature all are
bad, but it was just a big conglomerate group of people, good and bad.
The wedding was furnished with guests. Verse 11, and when the
king came in to see the guests, Now if you were going to have
a feast for the honor of your son and the place was filled
up, you'd come in and look to see who was there, wouldn't you?
You would want to see who was there to honor your son. Remember, what God thinks of
you is seen in what you think of Christ, his son. Now, he comes
there to see the guests who were gathered there to honor his son. And let's go on reading, verse
11. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there
a man which had not on a wedding garment. He had not on a wedding
garment. Now, these people were all given
a beautiful wedding garment at the door. They didn't have time
to go home and change and get ready. The king's servants had
gone out to the highways to bring them in. And they were brought
in and they weren't ready or fit for that wedding feast. They
didn't have the proper clothing on, but the king provided a beautiful
wedding garment for each person there. Everybody would be wearing
the same thing, that beautiful royal wedding garment. And when
the king looked over his guests, His eye spotted a man that had
not on a wedding garment. Now, the protocol, the one protocol
of the king was the wedding garment he provided. That's the one thing
you had to have to get into this royal feast. You had to have
on the wedding garment. Now, what is this wedding garment? Without any question, it represents
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Isaiah
chapter 61 verse 10 of the robe of righteousness that every believer
is wrapped in. We read in Revelation chapter
19 about the great marriage supper, and listen to this. Beginning
in verse 7, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him
for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife hath made
herself ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed
in fine linen, clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness
of saints. Now, this fine linen is not the
righteous acts of saints. It's not the good deeds of saints.
I know people have said that, but I think that's ridiculous.
What deed have you ever performed that's fine linen, clean and
white, without any sin in it? Why, you don't have anything
like that. This is talking about the perfect righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness of the saints. His personal righteousness is
my personal righteousness before God. It's the only wedding garment
that makes one acceptable to come in to the great feast. It's His righteousness imputed.
Turn with me to, well, if you've got a Bible, you can turn to
Romans chapter 4, and beginning in verse 3, we read, is the reward, not reckoned of
grace, but of dead. If salvation is by works, that
means if you're saved, God's giving you what he owes you.
He's paying you what he owes you. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. saying, Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now this wedding
garment is nothing less than the very righteousness of Christ
being imputed to me so that it becomes mine. This is not only
the righteousness of Christ imputed, It's also the righteousness of
Christ imparted. In the new birth, every believer
is given a righteous nature. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Now, I know anything I do is
His righteousness. If I'm accepted, it's His righteousness. If I believe, it's because of
that righteous nature. He gave me the gift of His grace.
He did it. It's His work, Christ in me. If I love, it's His work in me. It's His righteousness in me.
If I repent, it's His work in me. It's that new nature. Now,
what is needed? His righteousness. Whether you're
talking about imputed or imparted, it's still His and His only,
the creature. The man who has it can't take
any credit for it at all whatsoever. It is his righteousness. And
the king says to this man, friend, how camest thou in hither not
having a garment? And scripture says he was speechless. Oh, I know throughout his life
he boasted in his works and his free will and the things he intended
on doing and all of his many wonderful works. But now, as
he stands before the king in his spotless holiness, He is
speechless. He can't vindicate himself. He can't justify himself. He
is speechless. And hear what the king says regarding
this man who was brazen enough to come in without a wedding
garment, who didn't see a need for the righteousness of Christ,
but thought his own righteousness was good enough. hear what the
king says to him in verse 13, then said the king to his servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, such regret, such remorse, knowing he just didn't want that
wedding garment and that was the one thing he and he rejected
it and he's cast into hell because he did not have this wedding
garment. And look at the way the Lord
closes this parable. Four, many are called but few
are chosen. Many were called to this great
marriage feast and many rejected it. Actually, all men are called
to come to Christ. Creation is a call to come to
God. Creation renders all men without
excuse. The call goes to many, but the
only people who respond are the chosen, those chosen by God in
eternal election. And the Lord points this out.
Many are called, but few are chosen. Now, if you're saved,
let me tell you why. It's because God chose you before
the foundation of the world to be saved. Second Thessalonians
2.13 says, we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereof he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're saved, if you have
on this beautiful wedding garment, the righteousness of Christ,
It's because you were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. How we love divine election. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Knopper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known again. That's our
prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com
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