The sermon titled 'The Great Invitation' explores the parable from Matthew 22:1-14, where Jesus uses the imagery of a wedding feast arranged by a king for his son to convey lessons about the kingdom of heaven. The initial invited guests, symbolizing the religious leaders and Israel, refuse to attend, showing indifference or hostility. The king represents God, and the servants represent prophets and apostles who extend the invitation to all, including outcasts, reflecting God's inclusive call to salvation. The parable underscores themes of repentance, the consequences of rejecting God's invitation, and the necessity of being spiritually prepared, symbolized by wearing appropriate garments. These garments represent the righteousness required to enter the kingdom, which is given through faith in Christ. The sermon emphasizes the responsibility of believers to invite others to the kingdom and warns of the spiritual consequences of ignoring God's call.

Let's prepare our hearts to receive the Word of God Father in heaven we thank you so much for your word and asks now that you penetrate our hearts with it That our lives would be truly changed forever For the sake of Christ. Amen Matthew 22 verses 1 through 14 reads, And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding. And they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding." But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.

And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroying those murderers and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.

So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both good and bad. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Then the king said to his servants, bind him hand and foot, Take Him away and cast Him into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. Good morning. On behalf of Sovereign Redeemer, I'd like to welcome the visitors that I see here. Well before we get into our text here in Matthew 22, I just want to spend a few moments catching it, putting everything in context, getting us up to speed.

We go back to Matthew chapter 21, what's going on? We're in the final week of Jesus Christ before his death. He is coming to Jerusalem, lowly on a cult, which kind of pictures the kind of kingdom he's going to bring onto the earth. And he's doing many things. He's going into the temple.

He's cleansing the temple. He's healing in the temple. He's teaching in the temple, right? He's there according to Luke in his gospel. He's preaching the gospel in the temple.

And you would think these Pharisees, the religious leaders, would be excited about what's going on around them, but they're not. So they begin to challenge Jesus, and they begin to ask him questions. And in Mark 14.1, we get a little bit more in depth look at what's behind their motives. It says, after two days it was the Paso and the feast of the unleavened bread. And the chief priests and the scribes saw how they might take him by trickery and put him to death.

This is their motives behind their questions. They're trying to trap him. They're trying to trip him up. So they ask him a question, by what authority are you doing these things? What things?

Well, cleansing the temple, healing, teaching the gospel there in the temple. Who are you to do this? And so Jesus, He doesn't answer their question directly, but He asked them a question. The baptism of John, where was it from? Was it from heaven or from men?

And remember they reasoned together, the religious leaders, and they came up with a politically correct answer, which is, we don't know. Right? And so Jesus, He doesn't let them off the hook, so He tells them two parables. He tells them about the parable of the two the two sons then he tells them the parable about the the vineyard and The parable of the two sons he begins to reveal to him that tax collectors and harlots. They're coming into the kingdom before you And I think we understand what kind of shock that would have been to these arrogant men.

Number two, in the parable of the vineyard, what does he teach them? He says, because you beat the servants, because you killed the son, God's going to take the kingdom away from you and give it to another nation. And as we saw in Micah 4, The prophecy there in Micah was that this nation was going to be a strong nation that God was going to create out of the lame and the outcast. So it says in verse 45 and 46 of chapter 21, Now when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard these parables, they perceived, correctly, that he was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him they feared the multitudes because they took him for a prophet if they did not fear Man, they would have put him up their hands on Christ at that moment and taking him out So we understand something of what these parables are doing and you would say in your mind at this point Jesus don't tell a third parable Well, he does He's gonna give us a third parable and you say well if you're gonna teach a third parable Jesus You better tone it down and make it a touchy-feely one He doesn't do that why Look at verse 15 in chapter 22.

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle him in his talk. So the third parable is not going to give you a better response than the first two. And you say, well, why don't the disciples do something with this man? Why don't they do something with their master? Don't they know what's going on here?

They're trying to kill him. But go back to Matthew 15. They tried this once with him. In Matthew 15 verse 11 it says, Not what goes into the mouth defiles the man, but what comes out of the mouth this defiles the man. And then the disciples came and said to him, talking to Jesus, Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?

But Jesus answered and said to them, Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Leave them alone. They are the blind leaders of the blind, and if The blind leads the blind, both will fall into the ditch. And so the disciples did try to tone Jesus down at one time. But Jesus understands clearly what He's doing here.

He's purposefully challenging the religious establishment. He is confronting them with the truth of the gospel. He's confronting them with the truth of the gospel. He's confronting them with the truth of the kingdom. And he's not embarrassed of the message that he's been sent to give.

And we can learn a lot from him. We need to challenge the religious establishment that binds the souls of men and ultimately leads them into hell. Well, Jesus is going to teach a third parable here in chapter 22. And so with that as an introduction, I want to go to verse 1. Look at what he says.

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said. So we see this little conjunction and. This little conjunction and here is in the Greek this word ka and so it's connecting what has been happening in chapter 21 off the way to chapter 22. So this is not some new flow of thought going on here this is not a new discussion and we says and Jesus answered them and spoke to them who is the them? It's the Pharisees now there may have been disciples around There may have been other people around there, but his message is to the Pharisees.

He's talking to them. That's his audience. And he wants them to understand that unless they become as the harlots and the tax collectors and repent, they're not going to be welcome into the kingdom. They must respond to the invitation just as when John in Luke chapter 3 was there baptizing and the Gentile soldiers came to him and the tax collectors came to him. These are the ones, they have to repent just like these men.

They have to humble themselves. So Matthew says, and Jesus answered. And you say, well, that word answered. What does it mean? Is he answering a question?

Well, that's not the right translation of the Greek. Apokrythes, you would look at this word and you might think he's answering a question, but really the Greek word there means he began to speak is a better translation a better rendering So he's not answering any questions what he's rather doing is he's responding to what's going on in verse 45 and 46 of chapter 21 They're plotting to kill them Are applying to kill him and so what's gonna happen here is he began to answer or began to speak and he spoke to them by parables. Now it's interesting, Jesus is speaking to them in parables and this Greek word here for parable signifies something that means to compare together. It denotes a similitude between natural objects and spiritual principles or moral concepts. I don't know if you've ever really thought about it, but what is the purpose of teaching in parables?

I don't know if you've ever thought much about this. Why does Jesus do this? Let me just give you some things to ponder and think about this morning. Number one, Jesus teaches in parables, number one, to clarify abstract concepts. In other words, parables use everyday language or everyday situations to drive home some spiritual or abstract truth.

And I want you to think about it for just a second because I don't think we really appreciate what Christ is doing when he speaks to us in parables. Think of the condescension that's going on there as Jesus talks to us in parables. Let me give you an example. Think of some philosopher who stands there and he talks these high philosophical abstract concepts all day long with his students and with his peers. But then imagine that same man that comes home and sits his young child in his lap and then begins to explain those same concepts in a way that that child can understand.

Think of the love that Father has for that child that he would condescend to speak down to his level. Well, this is exactly what Christ does. Think of the love of Christ he has for us as he speaks about complex concepts, but he puts it in language that we can all understand. So, number one, he wants to clarify abstract concepts, but I want you to think about the condescension of Christ, that he would care so much for us, that it would help us understand these spiritual truths. Number two, sometimes parables are given to speak an offensive truth.

Another way is a way to rebuke somebody. Do you remember when Nathan approached David, and he wisely approached David with the parable of when he committed adultery and he had Bathsheba's husband killed? So sometimes these parables are given to convey an offensive truth. Third, parables are given at times to conceal truths. You remember back in Matthew 13, these parables were there given to conceal these truths from the Pharisees.

But he says in Matthew 13, this is why I speak to them in parables, though see and they do not see, though hearing they do not hear or understand." And then later on he says, but blessed are your eyes talking to the disciples because they do see and you have ears because they do hear. So Jesus is teaching these parables to these Pharisees to drive home a truth they didn't want to hear. He's not concealing anything here because they do perceive what's going on. They do understand what he's talking about. It's very transparent what's going on in the nature of these parables.

And basically what he's saying is that due to your rebellion, you're not going to partake in the wedding feast. You're not going to get to enjoy the kingdom. And they all understand exactly what he's talking about. So we go on to verse 2 where Christ says, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son. And so Jesus begins to teach these Pharisees something about the kingdom of heaven.

And he says the kingdom of heaven is like. And notice he doesn't say the kingdom of heaven is. It's like this. It's like a king. In other words, Jesus continues to teach us another facet of the kingdom and so far in our study of Matthew We learned that the kingdom is like a field.

It's like a mustard seed. It's like leaven. It's like a dragnet it's like a hidden treasure and Here he says it's like a king who arranged a wedding feast for his son. You know, the fact that throughout the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus teaches us many things about the kingdom in parabolic form tells me that the kingdom of heaven is not something my natural mind can understand or explain from experience, natural experience. Also it tells me that my tendency is to distort the nature of the kingdom of heaven with my natural mind.

So therefore, Christ teaches us these principles in parabolic form. You know, I want to distort it because I want to make this kingdom a natural kingdom just like the first century Jews were trying to do but let me encourage you this morning don't go where your natural mom wants to go concerning the nature of this kingdom you must go where the Lord takes you And always remember these things are spiritually discerned. They must be revealed through God's Word. Don't try to figure this out by looking to the natural kingdoms of this world because you're going to get it wrong just like the first century Jews did. So let me ask you this this morning.

When I say the phrase kingdom of heaven, what do you even think about? What naturally comes to your mind? What's the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, many times people think of land, territory, a kingdom in that sense. But that's not the primary meaning of the Greek word basileia that's translated kingdom.

The primary meaning of this word is power, rule, reign, dominion. That's the primary use of this word. And so when we think of the kingdom of God, I want you to think of the rule, the reign, the power, the dominion of Christ. And more specifically, it's the power, rule, and reign of Christ in the hearts of his people This is a spiritual kingdom, and I want you go to Luke go to Luke 17 because Christ tells us a little bit more about this kingdom Luke 17 look at verse 20 It says now when he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you." You see that? You know, notice in verse 20 that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, is a matter of importance to the Pharisees.

They are asking these questions. You see, the Jews believed that the Messianic reign would come with much pomp and parade and ceremony as it would be ushered in in other words They were expecting an earthly physical kingdom that would be ushered in and Notice how Jesus responds to him here in Luke. He doesn't take issue with them that the kingdom would come That's not the problem Rather he takes issue with their understanding of how the kingdom would be ushered in because Jesus says it's not going to come in with Observation you can't see it This means you want to see a physical kingdom with a physical king sitting on a physical throne But That's not how it's going to be ushered in. Christ does affirm here that it will come, but not in a way you might think. Jesus said the kingdom is not something that's without, but rather it's something that's within.

This kingdom is the rule, it's the dominion, it's something that takes place within an individual. The kingdom is not like our physical kings on this earth who can control the external behaviors of man, but rather this is a kingdom of rule and reign in the hearts of men where he takes dominion over your heart. He takes dominion over your thoughts. Have you experienced this dominion yet? You know Paul talks about this in Romans 6, does he not?

You were once slaves of sin. But now you are slaves of righteousness. One way or the other, you're a slave. That's an offensive word these days, isn't it? But the Bible uses this word over and over again, and you are under the dominion of someone at this moment.

Who? And I want you to think about God taking dominion over your passions, your lusts, your thoughts. And I want you to understand that this kingdom does not expand like the worldly kingdoms of this world. The kingdom does not expand with swords and might. This kingdom expands through the proclamation of the gospel that has the power of God for salvation, as Paul would say.

And the banner of Christ goes wherever he subdues the souls of his people. And when we think of this spiritual kingdom, I want you to think of all the things that go on in light of the fact that we are in the kingdom this means that there's a warfare There is an enemy out there who is waging war against you I? Don't know how you think about coming to church and one of the roles of coming to church is for you to be equipped But equipped to what end Equipped for what? Part of this is to be equipped so that you may go fight the fight that's going around you. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, there is a warfare going on there.

And you are here to be equipped to learn how to use the weapons that God gives us. Do You remember what 2 Corinthians 10 says, for the weapons of our warfare, they're not carnal. They're not. But they are mighty. They are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, cashing down every argument, every high theme that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ we have some mighty weapons a weapon that can bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ would be a mighty weapon my concern is that as we as the church we don't even understand We have these weapons and then the worst thing is we certainly don't use them We go to the world to see if we can just manipulate the external actions of somebody all we've accomplished something no you haven't You need to learn how to handle this weapon right here you need to learn how to handle this sword so that you can minister to the souls your own soul that you may minister to the souls of those who are around you to your children to your unbelieving family members to those that are in the world Because our weapons in the carnal flesh are weak they're impotent, but there's all the power of God standing behind these weapons that we have because they are mighty Well Because the nature of this kingdom because the spiritual nature of this kingdom it can never be destroyed You know to encourage you today that the kingdom that you're in can never be destroyed.

It's a spiritual kingdom that cannot be overthrown by men. Men cannot overthrow a spiritual kingdom. I mean, you think about it. They tried, did they not? They tried to Take our king and kill him, but what did our king do?

He overcame death, he conquered death. If you cannot kill the king, you can't kill the kingdom. Think about the Jews and the Roman Empire in the first century. They tried to destroy Christ's church by persecuting her. They tried to stomp out Christ's kingdom by persecuting his bride but they could not and this is why the gates of hell can never prevail.

Do you have that kind of confidence? Not arrogance but confidence and boldness that you serve a king who can never be killed So therefore you are victorious. You know it's time we act like it. It's time we start behaving as though we are victorious. It's time we go back and gain some ground back, right?

Well let me continue verse 2. The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son. Notice the kingdom is like this king. Let's get the player straight. Who is the king?

You can answer. It's God, right? The king is God. Who is the son? It's Jesus, right?

So we've got the player straight. And the text says that God is preparing his son a Wedding feast or a wedding and this is where it gets a little interesting if you've got the authorized version or the new King James version You're gonna notice that those texts say that He prepared a wedding for his son if you have one of the more modern translation They seem to emphasize the idea of a wedding feast or wedding celebration the new American Standard says wedding feast the ASV says the marriage feast The RSV says the marriage feast Jim your favorite translation the Living Bible It says this for instance. He said it can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding dinner for his son. So these more modern translations are emphasizing the idea of a wedding feast. And it comes from this Greek word, gammas.

And if you look and study out this word gamas it can mean either one and so you have to have a context to drive home What is the right meaning so for example you remember hebrews 13 for where it says marriage is honorable among all and the bed Undefiled you remember that verse well in that Context is not talking about wedding feast right in that context. It's talking about the marriage itself, okay? But here it's talking about in our text in the Greek this word marriage feast is plural in the Greek And so it's not Talking about a king prepared his son marriages or weddings So the plural in the Greek is emphasizing this whole idea of a wedding feast so I don't normally argue argue with authorized furs But at this point I think the more modern ones have gotten it right, But at the end of the day I don't think you should make too much of a big deal about it because You can't have the wedding feast without the wedding and in those days you can't those weddings always were followed with a wedding feast so I'll let you hang on that one, but I'm gonna emphasize the idea of wedding feast in our talk, okay?

So when we come to verse 2, we see that Jesus is trying to get us to understand something of this important event. So it says the king, referring to God, arranged a marriage for His Son, referring to Jesus. And this word arrange comes from the Greek word poeo. It means to make, it means to arrange, it means to prepare. This is active in the Greek.

This means the subject is doing the active. It's indicative in the mood. This means it's a statement of fact. In other words, this refers to the sovereignty of God in the fact that this kingdom, that all these preparations in the past, this king has arranged past tense, everything's ready. It's been done by the king.

And so what Jesus is saying to these Pharisees is that the kingdom is like this king who prepared in the past. Everything's ready now. So understand what's going on here. Understand what he's trying to teach. And what's important about this, this points out the great object of God the Father in this parable is to honor and glorify His Son.

Do you remember what John, in the Gospel of John, where it says in John 5 22, for the Father judges no one but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. And so the great cause of God the Father is to honor the Son and see that all men honor Him. And what I want to know this morning is this your cause. Do You desire to see all men honor the Son.

We're going to talk more about this when we start looking at the nature of these servants. Let's get to the chase here. Where am I going with the applications? We could sit here all morning and talk about the nature of how Christ is going to come in 870 AD and white these Jews out for their rebellion But the end of the day the take-home for us is I want you to look at the servants I want you to pay attention to these servants here of this king and what is their response to their king? I mean, this is what we're going to take away from this And it may make some of you uncomfortable, but get ready because it's coming, right?

Do you now understand why there's such a need for this great event? It's all about the Son. All the preparations have been about the Son. God wants to see Him honored. And do you see why the king is going to be upset when those who refuse to come in especially This elite first group that he had already invited Let me ask you this is the put question for us to ponder When did he start the marriage arrangement?

Some would say in eternity past, and I would argue that as well. And this is where the Godhead made an eternal covenant to save a people. God the Father chose the people to give to the Son, and this is what the Bible pictures as a bride God the son purposed or determined to lay down his life to purchase the bride with his own blood and God the Holy Spirit determined to apply this by regenerating this bride and Sanctifying her by making her and making her fit to live a life for eternity in the presence of the groom. So this marriage arrangement, one could say, began in eternity past. Go over to Ephesians 1, because I want to emphasize a little preposition here.

And This preposition is going to help us understand something about the garments that are going to be talked about later on. In Ephesians 1 we see in verse 3, bless me the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Notice in, I want you to emphasize the in, Christ. Just as He chose us in Him, who does the Him modify? It modifies Christ.

Just as He chose us in Him. Who does the hymn modify? It modifies Christ. Just as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. And so Our election in Christ was not even contemplated separate from our union with Christ And I want you to hold that in your mind for a second because this is going to be very important when we try to figure Out when the king walks in and he sees somebody without the right garments.

This is going to help us understand what are the garments referring to. But this has been in preparation from all eternity. This preparation of this kingdom for His Son. So the King has been arranging this marriage for a long time. And the one who is making the arrangements will ensure that this marriage and subsequent feast will come to pass.

And so I want you to think about all these preparations that have gone into this in this wedding because if you don't, you're not going to appreciate the king's response when those who refuse to come in. You're not going to appreciate why he treats them the way he does But can you see why the king is excited? I want you to get the flavor of this parable Well, let's go to it Look at verse 3 for those of you who have the outline This is is the point where we're dealing with the invitation to the wedding and I want you to think about this first invitation is going to an exclusive or what I would refer to as a prestigious group and so in verse 3 we read this and sent out talking about the king the king sent out his service to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come. And so we see that this king has sent his servant out to call this exclusive list of people, but they would not come. Now who are these servants and who is this first group of people being invited?

I think what's going on here is that this is referring to John and his disciples and this exclusive list here is referring to the nation of Israel. The servants represent the messengers that God sent to invite the Jews into his kingdom. And the word servant here is this idea of doulos in the Greek. These are people who have a master. These are people that desire to serve their master's will.

And so if you want to be great in the kingdom of God, you must learn to obey Him even to the detriment of your own life. I mean, do you understand why Jesus said John was great in the kingdom? He says in Luke 7, for I say to you, among those born of women, there is not one greater, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Well, what made him great? Well, one of the things that made him great is that he did not love his life, but was willing to forsake it for the pleasure of the king.

And let me ask you this morning, how much do you love your king? How much do you love your master? Do you love him unto death? You know, one of the greatest cancers that is plaguing the church these days is this idea that I can just believe I'm saved and I can live any kind of way I want to. I don't know if you guys, I mean there's a lot of biographies or people men of great faith that I could point to but Let me let me think have you ever read much about Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book the cost of discipleship In his book he talks about this idea of cheap grace, and I think the modern church is cheap and grace But he says this you never cheapen grace Grace is never something that is cheap.

Grace is something that's costly. And so he argues in his book this idea of costly grace. And when you read about his life, you sense something of that costly grace, because It was a kind of costly grace that caused him to leave America and go to Germany and struggle with his fellow brothers. I mean, he was preaching, he was teaching the gospel, even though the Nazis were trying to stop him. It was a costly grace that led this man to stand almost on his own against a turncoat church that was trying to mix Nazi doctrine with Christian truths.

It was a kind of a costly grace that led this man to attempt to smuggle Jews out of Germany even though it led to his arrest. It was a costly grace that led this man from pacifism that is so rampant in the church, when the church recognizes all these wicked things going on around us this day, and they refuse to get in and engage in the fight. But on the morning of April 9th, 1945, this is less than a month before Hitler was defeated. He knelt and prayed. He followed his captors to the gallows and he was hung as a traitor.

This is a costly kind of grace. Do you Love your Lord and Master to the point of death. You see, it demands everything from us. But in return, it gives you everything. It transcends even the most oppressive political situations that go on around us.

But when you read about this man's life, and you read through his letter, there's always an emphasis on grace, but it's not something that's cheap. Grace is costly. So we see in verse 3, and he sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding and they were not willing to come. So these servants were sent by the king. And once again, notice that it's the king who is doing the sending.

And we as servants don't get to choose and determine how we go and when we go. We have a king that determines this. And it says these servants call, kaleo, those who were originally invited. I don't know how your translation takes this but it's a it's an interesting play on words in the Greek when it says he sent Out his service to call the call ones literally is what it is So when were these people in the past invited? I mean this kind of goes along with the parable in the parable the invitation went out And if you think about in those days what was going on the preparations it was hard to drive in the exact date when?

The day would be for the feast But when the feast and all the preparations were made a second bidding would say to all those who are already invited come everything's ready and This this would have been they would have known what was going on And so what's happening here is that these service are going out and telling those who had already been invited in advance, now is the time. In other words, the prophets of old had already told them about this. I believe this first group of servants is John the Baptist. Think about the context of Matthew. John is the forerunner of Jesus Christ, went out and said, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It's ready. Everything is ready. Come. He's invited them in, but they would not come. Now I want you to look at verse 3 because it says, and He sent out His servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come.

I want you to pay attention to what the verse says versus what it does not say. It does not say they could not come, they were prevented from coming. The text says they were not willing to come. And in the Greek this word means to resolve, to determine or to purpose. There's a fixed determination of the will not to come and be saved.

And this is a reference to the stubborn refusal of the Jews, and the Jewish leaders in particular, to accept Jesus as God's Messiah, as His Son. You remember what John said in John 1.11? He came to his own, but his own did not receive him. And in John 5.40, John tells us this about Christ. He says, this is what Christ is speaking to the Pharisees.

You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are which testify of me, But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." I mean what a sad state. Due to their pride, due to their arrogance, they would rather perish than join the feast. They refuse to come to the king on his terms. They only want to approach the king on their terms. That's their problem.

I mean isn't this the problem of Cain and keep in mind. We're not talking about atheist here Cain was no atheist the problem with Cain is that Cain approached God he was worshipping God, but he came to God on his own terms He brought the Romans kind of sacrifice guys I don't want this and he got angry in his heart. He ultimately killed his brother But this is the problem with the religious elite and let me just ask you this how are you approaching God? Are you approaching God on your terms? Are you familiar enough with the Scriptures, with the Word of God, to know how your King wants to be approached, and you're approaching Him on His terms.

You know, if you're ignorant of God's Word, then you're living life on intuition. You're not living life by faith. And so therefore you're probably living a life that's really not pleasing to God at all. So it seems to me there has to be a sense of urgency to get into His word and understand what His word is saying so that we might live a life that's pleasing to our King. Remember the Pharisees had plenty of opportunities to respond to John and his disciples You remember there in Matthew 3 we read about him He told the Pharisees to repent show fruits of repentance, but they would not come go to Luke 7 I want you to see something here Luke 7 Go to verse 28 for I say to you among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

And notice what's going on here. And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, notice having been baptized with the baptism of John. If you go back and read Luke 3, you're going to see the tax collectors did come out and get baptized. Notice verse 30, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by Him. They would not come into the kingdom.

They would not repent. So this is what Christ is talking about over here in Matthew 22. When we talk about these first servants, going to these elite or this prestigious first group, they were not willing to come. Now let's go to the second invitation in verse 4. Because we see here in verse 4, this little word again.

Verse 4 starts off with this little adverb again. This pictures the longsuffering, the forbearance, the graciousness, the patience of this king as he repeats the call I mean you think about it You go through all these preparations just to invite somebody over for dinner, right and they refuse to come most of us within our flesh would just be put out with this and say I ain't doing that again but not this King not this King he is long-suffering he's merciful and when you think about this this is the normative attributes for God in other words the normative attributes of God being displayed out on mankind is His forbearance, His long-suffering, His mercy, His grace. If His normative attributes would be to pour out His wrath every day, the race of Adam would never stand. And I know sometimes, I know I do this, I just think, why can't he just bring fire out of heaven to just take care Of all this wickedness right and that's how we think But do you remember what Paul says in Romans 2 4 do not despise the riches of his goodness his forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance.

So Paul talks about God's forbearance. What does that mean? Well, this refers to God restraining His indignation. But one day He will pour out His wrath. He will pour out His wrath on the wickedness of men, but until that day His goodness is there, it's designed to lead us to repentance, and until He pours out His wrath, until the wedding hall is filled, then our job, our duty before our kings is to go and invite people to come into the kingdom.

Don't despise the long suffering of God because it's designed with a purpose in mind and that purpose is to lead people to repentance. So in Matthew 2 we see this again the king sent out other servants and I want to emphasize this little word other for a second. Who are these other servants? What is that referring to? Didn't say he sent out the same servants again.

He said he sends out other servants. Well I believe these other servants are those apostles. Those servants of Jesus. I don't know if you remember this. Go back to Matthew 10.

I don't know how y'all handle Matthew 10. But that little word other in Greek is a Greek word that refers to a difference of the same kind. There's two different words in the Greek for other. One is a difference of the same kind and a difference of another kind. But this one is referring to a difference of the same kind.

So these are different individuals, but they have the same master. They have the same message. In other words, come to the wedding feast, come to the kingdom. They have the same zeal for their master's wedding hall. But the question here is, well, who are they?

Well, I think this refers back to Matthew 10, if you just play it out in a historical setting. But do you remember Matthew 10? He sends the 12 out. And in verse 5, these 12 Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter the city of Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now I know how y'all handled this back in Matthew 10, but did you notice there's a sense of urgency, don't bother with the Gentiles yet.

Go to the house of Israel. Go to the lost sheep. Why? Because of what's about to happen. In chapter 24, we're really going to see what's going to happen to the house of Israel.

Think about the parables. In the vineyard, what did he say? I'm going to take the kingdom from you and give it to another nation. It's going to be a catastrophic event that's going to happen to Israel at this moment. Matthew 24 will tell us that.

But notice what he says down in this verse 16 because there's a little transition a little switch behold I send you out of sheep in the midst of the wolves therefore be wise as serpents and harmless and stuff But beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils and scourge you in their synagogue You will be brought before the governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about what you will say or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak. Now, I don't know how you handle this, but in the immediate context in Matthew 10, 5, this was something immediate. Go, go teach. When you get to verse 16, He's pointing to something that's going to happen after his ascension You don't read about these apostles being Handed over to Gentiles or any of that stuff as long as Jesus is on earth But when you get to the book of Acts, after the ascension, they are.

And so this second group refers to what the Jews are going to do to this second group. This second group of servants that goes back with another invitation. They rejected John, but God didn't give up on them immediately. God sends out this new group of servants, these apostles, and they go out, continue to invite the Jews to come into the kingdom. So I want us to go back.

I want us to go back and I want you to notice the response. Go back to Matthew 22. In verse 5 and 6, we see the same kind of response. They reject the invitation, but they're more crass. They're more brutal in their response, in their rejection.

So let's look at this first class found in verse 5. But they made light of it and they went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And this is an incredible response to me when I sit here and look at what's going on here. You have an invitation from the king to come to the king's son's wedding feast, and you make light of it. The Greek word in there, made light of, refers to this idea to be unconcerned about, care nothing for something or someone.

In our case, there is this idea in the Greek where it indicates a definitiveness of their decision. And this neglect refers to their disrespect for their king. And so the text says they go their own way. They go their own way, do their own thing. And this refers to the fact they did it of their own volition This is a willful disregard to the king as they make light of what's going on there, and I just once again I find it amazing Assume You get an invitation from the king of England to come to his wedding, and then you say, I think I need to go plow my farm.

I mean that's an incredible response when you think about the honor that's been bestowed upon these people and then their response of it. One says he goes to his farm, another says he goes to his own business. Each one found more satisfaction in doing their own endeavors than to please their king by showing up. In other words, they had only allegiance to themselves. These are the ones who would prefer the earthly to the heavenly.

These would rather store up treasures for the here and now, or the moth and rust destroyed, rather than store up treasures in heaven. These are the ones who treat the divine call with indifference. These are secular minded folks who only have an interest in the here and now. Go to Luke 14. I mean, Luke 14 has a similar type story here.

It's not the exact same, but it's close enough that I think it applies to this group. In Luke 14, look at verse 16. Then he said to him, a certain man gave a great supper and invited many and sent his servant at supper, supper time to say to those who were invited come for all things are now ready. Both they all with one accord began to make excuses in other words they're making light of the invitation. The first said to him I have bought a piece of land, and I must go and see it.

I ask you to have me excused. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm going to test them. I ask that you have me excused. Still another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and reported these things to his master.

Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and the maim and the lame and the blind. And the servant said, master, it is done as you commanded, and there's still room. Then the master said to the servant go out to the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that my house May be full for I say to you that none of those who were invited shall taste my supper This indifferent attitude causes people to make excuses They always have excuses for why they can't enjoy the goodness of the Master, the goodness of God's Kingdom, and fellowship with Him. And let me just say this, you may be guilty here this morning sitting here playing games and making excuses, but let me be very clear, don't rationalize your responses. I'm going to encourage you to just stop.

Because this text says you anger the master when you make excuses You provoke the anger of the master your excuses sicken him That's what the text is saying So let's get serious when we come to Matthew 22, 5. Do you make light of the things of God? Amen. Those of you heads of households here this morning, if I were to poll your wives, If I were to poll your children or your extended family or poll your co-workers that you do business with, would they say you make light of the things of God? Let me just say this, do not let your business endeavors, do not let the profit of your worldly affairs or heaven forbid your entertainment hinder you from enjoying the blessings of God's kingdom.

One of the things that this parable is teaching me as I was going through this is that there are lawful things that can do damage to my soul. They can distract. My work is a lawful thing, but it can distract me from the goodness of God and then the things that he wants me to do for his kingdom. We need to be careful in this area. We need to make sure we don't love our work more than we love the things of God.

That's when you've carried it too far to the neglect of your families, to the neglect of those lost and dying around us that they don't even know anything about the kingdom. They don't even know that the kingdom of God is here because you had never told them. You don't even know your neighbors. You don't know those who are around you. Your extended family members would know nothing about Jesus Christ other than that He's a man that came, He was a Jewish man that came at some point in history, but they don't understand what He did that He ushered in a kingdom.

Don't let this area describe you. Let me just say this, We need to pray for one another in this area because it's a real pole. I do not diminish the temptation that's there. I struggle with it myself. But this is a real class of individuals that really reject coming into the kingdom.

Let's move to the next class. Look at verse 6. The next class is even worse. There are a more vicious group of people in their response. It says, And the rest seized his servants and treated them spitefully and killed them.

And so this class, they're offended at the persistence of the king. How dare he invite me? Again, I told him once, I'm not coming. Notice the arrogance of this group as they seize the king's slaves, treated them spitefully and killed them. And we need to make sure that we all understand that that contempt for his servants is contempt for the king Notice how the servants of the king are treated Number one there sees this word Crateo means to seize to grasp to bond to take control of in other words They're no longer under the control of the king at this moment.

These guys are so arrogant that they're taking control of these men. And this is the privileged group. This is the privileged group that had received the first invitation. This was a group of privileged people. But this privileged group of people had the audacity to not only lay hands on the servants of the king, but to seize them.

Next they treated them spitefully. This word, hibridzo, it means to invade the sphere of another to his hurt. And it can be manifested through spiteful words, mocking, insults, But a lot of times it's more than that. In Acts 14, 1 through 6, it says this. Now, it happened in Iconium that they went together in the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude, both Jews and Greeks, believed.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren therefore they stayed there a long time speaking boldly in The Lord who was bearing witness to the word of his grace granting signs Wonders to be done by their hands But the multitude of the city was decided was divided part sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. And then here it is. And when a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to abuse, that's our word, to abuse and stone them. So when we talk about being treated spitefully, it's more than just insulting words. They're going far beyond that.

They're abusing them. And that's the way I would take the word. And then finally, they kill them. So these invited guests, this privileged guest, had such disdain for their king that they would kill the servants of the king. And this all refers to how God's prophets, God's servants, His apostles, all these men were treated in the past.

You just read through the Old Testament, you see how the prophets of old were treated. You think of Jeremiah who was struck. You think of Micaiah who ate the bread of affliction. You think of Ahab and Jezebel in the days of Elijah who killed and massacred the prophets of the Lord. You think of Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24.

Israel doesn't have a good track record with God's servants, with God's prophets. Do you remember the cloud of witnesses? Do you remember Hebrews 11, this great faith hall of fame? Do you remember what it says in verse 36? Still others had a trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn into, were tempted, were slain with a sword. They wondered about as sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth. And you read through the book of Acts, and you see the different ways that the Jews persecuted the church either directly or indirectly, indirectly as they tried to provoke the Gentiles to persecute the servants of God. I mean, think about what the prerequisites are to be a servant of God.

One of the prerequisites is to be willing to be persecuted. This is incredible when you think about it. Oh God, would He grant us this attitude That we would be okay with persecutions because we would know it is ultimately to His glory and that we do have a God that would recompense that type of activity. But the text says in verse 6 that they killed the servants. Why?

What horrible thing did they do that would constitute such a reaction. The king simply invited them to come to a wedding. And this is the tragedy of the story. This privileged group, this privileged invited group of guests, would rather provoke the wrath of the king than simply submit and come to the wedding. And this is the heart and the wickedness of man.

Think about it when you go down there, say like to the abortion clinic. What's so wicked about the message you're bringing? What are you actually saying when you walk down there? Please, mother, Don't kill your baby. And it provokes one of the most vile responses in the souls of these people when we see...

The message is not that offensive, right? You're just simply saying, don't do it. Don't kill this baby. There are options. And then you get all kinds of language, all kinds of gestures thrown at you.

But this is the heart of wicked man until God comes in and seduces the soul and takes him over. Let's look at the next verse. I better keep moving. Look at verse 7. So what's the reaction of the king when he hears about all this?

But when the king heard about it, he was furious and he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. So the text says that He was furious, he was enraged, furious, angered. You know the king's grace and patience, they do have their limits. And so the text says that he sends his armies to destroy those murderers and burn their cities. And as we know, I believe this refers to what happened in 80s and 70s when God sent the Romans to destroy Jerusalem.

And once again we need to remember because sometimes we forget our history and we think well how horrible of a God that would go through there and destroy His people like that. Well let's keep in mind the Jews did everything they could to destroy the bride of Christ. Paul by his own words and acts said he tried to destroy it. He said he put men, women, and children in prison. He calls them the blaspheme.

He consented to the death of Stephen. So Make no mistake, the actions of the Pharisees and what they were trying to do, they intended to destroy Christ's bride. And Paul learned a very valuable lesson on the road to Damascus, did he not? To wage war on the bride of Christ is to wage war on Christ himself. He said, Paul, why are you persecuting me?

He didn't say why are you persecuting my bride. He said, why are you... He takes it as a direct assault on himself. I don't know if you've ever studied out the events of 70 AD, but it's a very disturbing picture of what happens when God decides to pour out His wrath and punish the nation. The best information we have is from Josephus.

He was an ex-combatant for the Jews. He was an eyewitness. And after the war, he wrote the history of the Jewish war. He's got seven books. But in books four through six, you get a vivid picture of what's going on there.

Jerusalem was taken by Titus. The temple was destroyed during this war. But over one million Jews perished in this siege. And over 90, 000 were taken into captivity. And as a nation, they ceased to exist.

Listen to his words. And truly the very view itself was a melancholy thing. For those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens were now become desolate country in every way. And its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea, the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert.

But lament and mourn sadly at so great a change, for the war had laid all signs of beauty quite to waste." I mean, what he's basically saying there is that if you saw Jerusalem before and after, it looked like a completely different place. Millman in his history of the Jews, he writes this, the slaughter within the city. So I just gave you kind of an excerpt from Josephus about what's going on outside the city. But inside the city, he said, the slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from without Men and women old and young insurgents and priests those who fought and those who entreated mercy were hewn down in indiscriminate carnage the number of the slain exceeded that of the Slayers and the Roman soldiers had to climb over the heaps of the dead to carry on their work of extermination. I mean a horrible sight what's going on.

Listen to this one. During the long siege a terrible famine waged within the city and the bodies of the inhabitants were literally stacked like cordwood in the streets. Mothers ate their children to preserve their own strength. The toll of the Jewish suffering was horrible, but they would not surrender the city again and again. They attempted to trick the Romans through Gaul.

When at last the walls were breached, Titus tried to preserve the temple by giving orders to his soldiers not to destroy or burn it. But the anger of the soldiers against the Jews was so intense that maddened by the resistance they encountered, they disobeyed the order of their general, they set fire to the temple. And this is what he says here, there were great quantities of gold and silver there which had been placed in the temple for safekeeping. This melted, ran down between the cracks of the rocks and the stones, and when the soldiers captured the temple area, in their greed to obtain this gold and silver, they took lone bars and pried apart the massive stones. Thus, quite literally, not one stone was left standing upon another.

The temple itself was totally destroyed, though the wall supporting the area upon the temple was built upon was left partially intact, and we see it to this day. Do you see how this is a fulfillment of exactly what Christ said in Matthew 24? Do you not see all these things talking about the temple? Or surely I say to you, not one stone should be left here upon another. That should not be thrown down.

The words of Christ were fulfilled just like He said it would. Why? Why all this destruction? Because of the way the king's servants have been treated. And in the last parable we saw that they went so far as to try to lay hands on the king's son himself and try to kill him.

Now this is a horrible scene and I want us to be aware of what happens when God turns His faith away from a nation and decides to judge it. That may disturb some of you here this morning, but I also want to give you words of confidence. If we experience persecution, if we experience mockings as the servants of the King, We should be comforted by this knowledge that this will not be left undone. It will be judged. It will be punished.

If we are the Bride of Christ and we receive this type of treatment, understand that God will deal with it ultimately. But until that day, we invite Him to come. So the words of Christ were fulfilled just as He said. Now go to verse 8, because I want to deal with the expanded list. There's a new list of people that God wants to invite.

Then He said to His servants, the wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore, go into the highways and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests." And so the king says they're not worthy in verse 8. This group, this elite group, this prestigious group. Let me get you to understand one thing too about this prestigious group.

Because I think I'm looking at a prestigious group here today. Never make a mistake that all the blessings that you have will not immune you from the judgments of God if you turn your face from Him. You think about the Jews and all the privileges that they had. They received the law. God said that they were His special people, right?

But when they rebelled in unbelief, every time they rebelled in unbelief, He poured out His wrath upon them. And we need to recognize that here today as the church. Because I think I'm looking at a privileged people that gets to sit under the word being faithfully preached to you week in and week out. You have an elder who is concerned for your souls. He's concerned for the souls of the children that are in your family.

So I consider you a highly privileged group. But if you respond in unbelief, you shouldn't expect any different treatment than these Jews receive. Your relationship to your father's and mother's children is no sure guarantee that you can't be treated this way either. So what do you do? You repent, you believe, you come into the kingdom, you receive the invitation to come to the wedding feast.

But in verse 8, the king says these were not worthy. Well, what is he talking about? Well, it means they were not worthy of the honor that was bestowed upon them. If the king of England takes time to send me an invitation and I reject it because I want to go plow my field, I'm not worthy of the honor that has been bestowed upon me. This word, worthy, is not dealing with some kind of meritorious kind of rights that you have to come there.

The worthiness is dependent upon how you respond to the honor that's been bestowed upon you. I'm trying to be sensitive to the time, and moving to verse 9. Therefore, he says, go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. You see, the king wants his wedding hall filled, the banquet hall to be filled. And his plans are not going to be spoiled by these who refuse to come in, these undeserving wretches who refuse to come.

So he commands go. This word go in the Greek is an imperative, it's a command. He commands the servants to go into the highways and invite as many as you find. That word translated go is in the durative kind of present tense. In other words, you go until the wedding hall is filled and you don't stop going.

So that's the idea. And so these faithful servants do as they are instructed. They immediately go, and I want you to pay attention to these servants. They go without any hesitancy whatsoever even though the ones that went before them were killed. Why?

Because they're seeking to please their king and there's a sense of urgency. Why is there a sense of urgency? Because the feast is ready. The kingdom is ready. Come into the kingdom.

That's the invitation. And So he says, go into the highways and the byways. Go everywhere as you're going. Go and invite those. And look at verse 10.

He says, so the servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. The wedding hall was filled with guests what a glorious sight it must be when the servants of God obeyed Their king and go out into the highways and gather all they find let me ask you this if you're a thought about maybe why you don't Bring anyone to the feast Could it be that you're not going? It may be that simple. You know, you're going to, in Matthew 28, you're going to get the similar command in the Great Commission. You might as well get ready for it.

It's coming. The Great Commission is coming. You know, you're being commanded to go out and make disciples, bring people into the kingdom. And as I think through this, as I think about these servants who have witnessed what happened to the servants before them, they go anyway because they love their king. They want to do what he commands and when you think about a parable like this It might be easy for us to say boy those Jews really did deserve what they got But when you come to verse 10, it's kind of convicting isn't it?

Do you go do you desire to see the wedding hall the banquet hall to be filled Because if you did desire this I know when you desire food I guarantee you get up and go eat Do you desire to see the banquet hall feel because if you don't desire it that may explain why you ain't bringing anybody But this is a beautiful thought to see the wedding hall fill with the good and the bad What did you talk about when he talks about good and bad? I think he's talking about those who are morally correct think about maybe Nicodemus, right? You think somebody kind of good think of the bad who would be the bad maybe the the harlots and the tax collectors? But do you know what they all have in common? They need to come to the kingdom.

They need to respond to the invitation. They need to be cleaned up. They all need it. So this tells me that we're not to discriminate about who we give the gospel call to, the invitation to. It's not your job to distinguish who gets the invitation.

That's not your job. Your job is to go and invite all that you see, both good and bad, no matter what happens, and you let God deal with the rest. But the point here is that no class of man is going to be left out with the invitation. So in verse 10, And the wedding hall was filled with guests. That's got to be one of the most beautiful statements in the Scriptures.

The wedding hall was filled, but do you understand what it took to get the wedding hall filled? Do you understand the price that was paid so that they could come in and fill the wedding hall? You know, in 1 Peter chapter 2, did you notice there in the reading of it, it says Christ is precious. Is He precious to you? You know, the things we value, the things that we think are precious.

You moms are these new born children, you fathers are these new born children that think your child is precious. Sometimes we get a little nauseated with the way we talk about our children because they're precious to us. But the fact that we don't talk about Christ might indicate He's not precious to us at all. Listen, go out everywhere you can. Don't be ashamed.

It doesn't matter how they treat you, how they mock you, what they do to you, what they say to you. Invite them until the wedding hall is full or God calls you home, whichever comes first. That's our duty. That's our responsibility to our king. Let me move to the indignation of the wedding, verses 11 through 14.

But when the king came in to see the guest, he saw a man there who did not have on wedding garment. So he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servant, Bind him, hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, where There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, and few are chosen." You know, it's interesting, when you come to verse 10, if I was doing this parable, now this is just me, I'd have stopped there. It just seemed like a good place to end the parable, right?

Because it kind of speaks to the Jews, you know, it kind of keeps it there on the Jews, right? But he didn't do that. He says the king walks in, and now you've got somebody who's responded to the invitation, and something about his clothes catches his eye. Catches the king's eye. And this guest does not have on the right garments.

And so what's going on here? Well, in ancient times, it was not uncommon for the king or prince to invite you to his festivities and provide you garments that were fitting to sit in his presence. According to Albert Barnes, it says, the garments worn on festival occasions were chiefly long white robes, and it was the custom of the person who made the feast to prepare such robes worn by the guest. And so what I believe Christ is emphasizing here is a principle more than a person. In other words, there is a principle here that we do not enter the kingdom or the wedding feast on our own terms.

But we approach God on His. And so what are His terms you may ask? Well He says, Be holy for I am holy, right? He says in Matthew 520, for I say to you, unless your righteousness sees the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no mean enter the kingdom of heaven. So what is he saying?

You need to be perfect to be in my presence. You need to be perfect. Well go to Romans 1.16. You say, boy what a dilemma. What do we do?

Well, God, the neat thing about God is he solves these dilemmas for us. Go to Romans 1. Notice what he says there. A lot of us are familiar with Romans 1.16, but I don't know that we pay much attention to verse 17. But look at verse 16.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, in verse 17, when he says in it, what does it modify? It modifies the gospel. For in the gospel, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And so the righteousness of God, the righteousness that God requires for us to stand in His presence is found in the Gospel.

Now go over to chapter 3 because He nails this a little bit better over there because He says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God apart from something that's separate from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. So in the Gospel when those of us who have faith in Jesus Christ, Christ gives us the righteousness that He requires to stand in His presence. His righteousness or His works are given to us. It's imputed to our account. And you know, the righteousness of Christ is pictured in the scriptures as clothes and as far back as you can go all the way back to Genesis.

This whole idea of God clothing His people started back with Adam. Do you remember when in Genesis 2 when God created Adam and it was good, holy, upright? In Genesis, do you ever notice where it says they were naked and they were not ashamed? You ever notice that phrase? But then when they sinned against God, it says they recognized their nakedness and they were ashamed.

And so what did they do? They tried to cover their shame with their fig leaves. And what does God do in Genesis 321? He said this ain't good enough. And there's two things He does.

He slays this animal, which pictures that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. And then number two, He takes those skins of the animals and He clothes them. And so this is a picture of what God will do in Jesus Christ as He slays Him on the cross and then He takes the righteousness of Christ and He closes us because if God does not do this we will not stand in His presence. And you say, well this is a bit too much. You're making analogies that don't make any sense.

And I figured you'd say that, so go to the Zechariah 3. And you say, what are you talking about? Well, what are these garments? What is he talking about here? We've got to figure this out, because the immediate text does not really answer the question, right?

The immediate text doesn't really say what these garments are. So we have to go to Scripture. We have to let the Scriptures interpret Scriptures. And so if you study it, do a word study on garments and clothes, what you're going to see is that God is in the business of clothing His people with the garments that are fit to be in His presence. And I want you to see this in Zechariah 3.

Then He showed me Joshua the high priest. And so Joshua, that's not the Joshua of the book of Joshua. This is many, many years later. This is Joshua the high priest. Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.

And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand pluck from the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel and Then he answered and spoke to those stood before him saying take away the filthy guard the filthy garments from him and To him he said see I have removed your iniquity Do you See the relationship between garments and iniquity? His filthy garments are equated to his iniquity. He says, remove your iniquity from you and I will clothe you with rich robes.

And I said, let him put on a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and they put clothes on him and the angel of the Lord stood by. This is an incredible thought. The iniquities are pictured as filthy rags, and these rags need to be removed. But not only do they need to be removed, they have to be replaced.

They have to be replaced with clothes that are fit to be in the king's presence. And so what's going on is this man who crashed the wedding banquet here did not have on such clothes. He refused to be clothed by the king. You remember the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 61, 10. Write this one down and check me out later.

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. Do you understand that? What a beautiful picture that Isaiah pictures here. We have to be clothed with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." It kind of reminds me of Pilgrim Progress. You remember when Pilgrim Christian there, he loses his burden, and what's the first thing that happens? The angels bring him from the right clothes. It says this, now as he stood looking and weeping, this is after his burden has been removed. Behold, three shining ones came to him and saluted him with peace be to thee.

So the first said to him, Thy sins be forgiven thee. The second stripped him of his rags and clothed him with a change of raiment." This is exactly what God does to poor wretched sinners like us. He takes our raggedy rags, our filthy rags, our wretched rags. He replaces them with His righteousness, or His clothes, which picture the righteousness of Christ. But I don't think I would do this sermon any justice if I stopped there.

Because when we think about the imputed righteousness of Christ, is this all this dix is talking about? Does it stop with the imputed righteousness of Christ? And I think the answer is no. The imputed righteousness of Christ is the grounds for your justification. But you can't have justification without sanctification.

God not only imputes righteousness, but He imparts righteousness to those He saves. As new believers, we are new creations in Christ. We were saved and created unto good works. And we are commanded in Galatians 3.27 to put on Christ. And only those who are adorned with the proper Christian graces with the proper Christian clothes are those who live by faith.

Only those who are going to be acceptable in the wedding feast. Go to Revelation 19, because I want you to see this. So we have to harmonize these two concepts. In Revelation 19, in verse 7, it says, Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright.

For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." If you have the King James Version, it says the righteousness of the saints. But do you see that? You have to have both. You say, well hang on. Now bear with me, Don't throw me out as a heretic yet.

When we talk about the righteous acts of the saints, what are we talking about? Well, you can't divorce the two things. Go back to what I read to you in Ephesians. When we talk about being in union with Christ, what is that talking about? When it says to be in Christ, It's not as though a tool is in a toolbox.

That's not what that preposition is indicating there. It's like my arm is in my body. There is an organic and vital union between my arm and my body. And the day we cut my arm off, that union ceased to exist and this arm is dead. When the Holy Spirit saves you and baptizes you into the body of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ is imputed to your, is given to your account, is reckoned to your account.

That's the grounds of your justification. But because you're in Christ, you will produce fruits. You will produce works that are acceptable before God. Because it says here, these clothes were granted to the saints in verse 8. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen.

So it's not meritorious works. We're not working for our salvation. But if God the Holy Spirit is within you, there will be fruits. Some will have 30, some 60, some 90. But if you have no fruits whatsoever, that's an indication you're not in Christ.

You cannot be in Christ and not have fruits. You cannot be in Christ and not have the proper garments that go together. And this is what I think he's talking about here. And this is exactly what James, for example, says when he says, Faith without works is dead. I better hurry.

Go back over to Matthew 22. Let me finalize this up. So what happens? This man, when he was asked, friend, how did you get in here without the right garments? He was speechless.

Do you remember what Paul says in Romans 3.19? Now we know that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. If you think you're going to walk into the banquet and your own filthy rags or your ability to keep the law, your mouth will be shut and it says, he will have his servants take you, bind you up and throw you into outer darkness. This is going to be a sobering day for many, I fear, if we don't spend time understanding what it means to be in the Kingdom of God. What it means to be a servant of God.

And if you're here deceived with this false theology that's out there that you can just believe in Christ and go live however you want to, you've missed the teaching of this parable. You've missed the teaching of what Christ teaches concerning those that are in Him to pick up their cross daily, to follow Him, submit to Him. You missed the purpose of what's going on with these servants. Look how obedient these servants are. They're obedient to the point of death.

Let me give you one more quote out of Pilgrim's Progress. Do you remember at the very end, the very last paragraph, go and read it. Ignorance is there. Ignorance shows up at the doorsteps of the celestial city. He knocks on the door And they said we don't know you remember ignorance is the one that tried to jump over the wall and get in and do it His way right and bunion says something at the very end He says I realized there was a pathway to hell even at the door of the city.

And I fear, beloved, if you don't wake up, wake up from your slumber. If you're caught up in sin and you're playing in your sin, you're playing with fire. My fear is that you're going to wake up one day and you're going to be standing there and you think you're in and you're not. I want to challenge you today that if you're playing in your sin, go to the Lord today, confess it, turn from it, repent of it. The stakes are too high.

The realities are serious. Now once again, it's just going to be a sobering day when we sit there and he says, I never knew you, as we learned in Matthew 7. Well, he ends in verse 14, for many are called, but few are chosen. And so, in this parable, we've seen many different types of individuals, different groups that have been called. And we've seen in this study the indifference of the Jews, the religious militant Jew that has tried to kill.

We've seen the outcasts, the good, the bad, those that are on the highways and byways. We see that only a few have responded to the call, which is the manifestation of their election. And only those who respond and receive the garments provided by the king, those are the ones that are chosen. I mean, you think about this guy that showed up and crashed the wedding and stayed in his filthy garments. He responded to the invitation.

The church is full of people like this who respond. They come. Beloved, we need to make sure our calling and election is sure. How do we do this? We'll go read 1 John.

1 John will help you in this if you don't know. Do you love the brethren? Do you desire to keep the commands of God? Do you love the world? I mean, those are some things that John would say.

Go to Galatians and read about the fruits of the Spirit. Do you have any of these fruits? Love, compassion, those type things. If those are missing, there's a problem. At best it indicates you're sick, which needs to be dealt with, but at worst it indicates you're dead.

You know The invitation is going to go out until the banquet hall is full. But once it's full, the door will be shut. This is not a day to play games with God. Let me just conclude this in just a few takeaways. The invitation to come into the kingdom is now.

Do not read this parable as that this is some great future event. The invitation is now. The kingdom is now. The king is calling all to come. And the consequences for refusing to come are sobering.

And the question for us this morning is that Will you celebrate with the king and participate in the festivities? Or are you going to be like one of these groups, one of these categories, then different? Those who are hostile to the servants of God? Or are you going to be like this man who came into the banquet and approached the king on his terms and refused to put on his clothes? Come to the banquet while there's time.

Come to the king on his terms. Look, don't be foolish and turn your back on God because when you turn your back on God, you're waging war on the king who makes no apologies for destroying you. And his love's not going to be insulted forever. But you say what about the sun? The sun, he's the lamb.

Certainly the lamb, that's a gentle picture. Go to Romans 6. We got to make sure we understand our pictures. Because in Romans 6, we get a different picture of this lamb. In Romans 6, 12, it says this, I look when he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became his black sack cloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth and the fig tree drops its lake figs were shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it was rolled up, and every mountain and every island was moved out of its place. And notice this, and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every freemen hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said, the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Don't turn your back on this one. Do not wage war on him because this says you will not stand.

Go to Revelation 19. Notice what it says there about Christ. In verse 11 it says, Now I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God, and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on the white horses.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and that he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads on the winepress of the fiercest of his wrath of Almighty God, And he has on his robe and on his thigh name written king of kings and lord of lords You do not want to wage war with this one. You do not want to turn your back on this one If you turn your back from the Invitation to come into the kingdom and enjoy the banquet You'll be turning on the back of this one you will experience the wrath of the one that has the title king of kings and Lord of Lords For those of you are sitting here this morning though for those of you who have entered in Let me encourage you Let me encourage you Look to the servants in this parable. Look to the servants in this parable who do the will of the king even to the detriment of their own life. I mean think about the hymn we sang this morning, as saints of old still on the way, retelling triumphs of His grace.

Do you have any stories to tell your children? Do you have any stories to tell of the triumphs of God's grace as you have gone out in the highways and the byways and invited the good and bad to come in and watch what God has done as He breaks these wicked men, as He has broken you. Do not love your life to the point of paralysis where you do not do the bidding of your King, where you do not do the will of the King and go where He sends you. Let me end with this one. Let me end with the words of John out of Revelation 12.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation is strength in the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brother who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to death Therefore rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell in them, but it says they did not love their lives unto death Let me encourage you this morning, and I want you to encourage me in my walk. We are pilgrims here. This is not our home.

Do not try to make yourself comfortable here on this planet, because this is not where you're going to live for eternity. We're pilgrims here. And we're to journey with one another and encourage one another in our walk. And along the way, we need to be inviting everybody we see to come, come to the wedding feast, come into the kingdom while there's time. The banquet hall is obviously not full because he hadn't called us home yet.

So we should be out there being about the business of our King. Let's go to him in prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank you that you have created a kingdom for your Son. But not only have you created a kingdom for your Son, but you would take wretches like us and invite us to participate and to come into the kingdom and celebrate with Him. We thank you for the grand work of salvation that you have done in our own hearts and souls.

And we pray that we would be bold and courageous to go out into this lost and dying world, tell the good, the bad about the good news of Jesus Christ. May we too have stories to tell of the triumphs of your grace, Stories to tell our children that we may encourage them as we hand the baton to the next generation. So Lord, would you make work a mighty power in our nation through us. Start with us. Create revival in our own souls for the love of Christ.

And that we may desire to serve Him all the days of our life. And Father we pray, we pray that you would continue to protect us, watch over us, and I pray even this day those that are here that may not know you, may this be the day you have triumphed, You make a trophy of your grace to display for all eternity as you break the hard hearts, you set the captives free, and you bring them into your kingdom. We ask all this in Christ's name. Amen.