SPEAKER_02: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bible with me to the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: If you are our guest this morning, we want to welcome you.
SPEAKER_01: We are working our way through Matthew's Gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we begin in Matthew 22.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew chapter 22.
SPEAKER_01: I am not going to be able to answer all of your questions about this text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I'm going to generate more questions than you already have.
SPEAKER_01: This is a passage of Scripture that could probably suffice for about four or five different sermons without repeating any content.
SPEAKER_01: So there are questions about the end times that we can't answer this morning that will be driven from this passage.
SPEAKER_01: There are questions about the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of the church.
SPEAKER_01: All kinds of issues and questions that we might like to have answered that frankly we don't have time to answer this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So I would ask that you take note of those questions.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe write them down for personal study.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can ask about them at another time.
SPEAKER_01: And ask that you sort of take note of them and then set them aside.
SPEAKER_01: And by the Spirit's help, to focus in on what Jesus want us to hear from the story he tells?
SPEAKER_01: What does Matthew intend to communicate to the church, to the churches to which he's writing from this passage?
SPEAKER_01: Now that I have your attention, I'm going to go to something that may not even seem to make sense.
SPEAKER_01: You're all familiar with the All-State Insurance Company, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have your insurance?
SPEAKER_01: The All-State Insurance Company has promoted itself for several years with the slogan: protect yourself from mayhem.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you watch TV, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe not so good.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: Protect yourself from mayhem.
SPEAKER_01: The advertisements rely on the human tendency to protect ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And they mimic typical disasters that occur throughout life in order to drive us to the place of uncertainty, maybe even to fear, so that we reach out to Allstate to get ourselves insured.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to avoid the mayhem that comes from the unforeseen fiascos of life, then Allstate is there to help you.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot vouch for that.
SPEAKER_01: I've never worked with Allstate.
SPEAKER_01: One particular Allstate commercial portrays a wedding guest paying more attention at the wedding to a football game on his phone than he gives to the wedding proceedings.
SPEAKER_01: That leads to disaster at the wedding.
SPEAKER_01: Our text in Matthew's gospel is a parable by Jesus that also portrays a wedding fiasco.
SPEAKER_01: But it pictures much, much more than Mahem.
SPEAKER_01: It reflects self-absorbed decisions that lead to being barred from eternal joy.
SPEAKER_01: And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.
SPEAKER_01: And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
SPEAKER_01: Again he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who were invited, See, I have prepared my dinner.
SPEAKER_01: My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.
SPEAKER_01: Come to the wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: But they paid no attention, and they went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
SPEAKER_01: Yang King was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.
SPEAKER_01: And the servants went out into the roads, and they gathered all whom they found, both good and bad.
SPEAKER_01: So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
SPEAKER_01: But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?
SPEAKER_01: And he was speechless.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king said to the attendants, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness.
SPEAKER_01: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: First we must understand that this parable is the third story that reflects the negative response to God the Father sending his Son to His people.
SPEAKER_01: You can back up and you can read those consecutive stories.
SPEAKER_01: So in that sense, nothing is different.
SPEAKER_01: This parable, though, takes what we've already covered in Matthew 21 and intensifies several elements that take responding to Jesus to another level that is completely different.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see here in the next few moments God's rich eternal plan.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see the unexpected rejection of that plan.
SPEAKER_01: And then the plan fulfilled in rejoicing and rejection.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we consider these story stages, remember that it presents the divine viewpoint.
SPEAKER_01: We glimpse how people respond to God, not from our perspective, but from heaven's perspective, from the throne room of God.
SPEAKER_01: The sun, the sun inside the story never speaks.
SPEAKER_01: The groom in the story never speaks.
SPEAKER_01: The king is in the point position.
SPEAKER_01: He organizes the banquet, he directs the preparations, the invitations, the servants, the retribution for spurning his invitation, and even throwing someone out of the party.
SPEAKER_01: So as Jesus tells this story, he expresses the point of view of God the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Let's consider then first how the story lays out God's rich eternal plan.
SPEAKER_01: God's rich eternal plan is pictured as a wedding story.
SPEAKER_01: So the parable uses an everyday image to illustrate an uncommon situation.
SPEAKER_01: When we understand that this is God's perspective, we can see that the wedding illustration is the divine plan from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_01: Now the end of the plan is the clearest.
SPEAKER_01: The wedding feast is the conclusion of the plan, right?
SPEAKER_01: When you plan a wedding, you get to the end.
SPEAKER_01: That's the whole goal.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the goal is to get to this wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: But there are other aspects of the wedding plan couched and woven in the parable itself.
SPEAKER_01: For example, it's already been arranged in the past.
SPEAKER_01: For the invitations have already gone out to the guests.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 says, they've already been invited.
SPEAKER_01: So by this point, the wedding has been arranged.
SPEAKER_01: That is, a bride has been chosen for the groom, and that what that those two have been arranged to be married.
SPEAKER_01: Details for the wedding and the celebration have already been planned.
SPEAKER_01: The end is determined, and the event is all set in motion.
SPEAKER_01: And the conclusion would be a joyful and lavish wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: And that's all very normal for a first century Jewish wedding.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus uses this picture to illustrate something more than a human wedding.
SPEAKER_01: For the great king.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father is preparing a wedding feast for his son.
SPEAKER_01: Eternity past, the Godhead determined that there would be a wedding for God the Son.
SPEAKER_01: And the Father invited guests to the celebration at the end of time.
SPEAKER_01: And that pictures then eternity, where it's begun in eternity past, and it's concluded sometime in the future.
SPEAKER_01: This pictures the will of God and how it is brought to fruition by joining in the will of God with his creation.
SPEAKER_01: And when the time came for the guests to go to the feast, they said, Yeah, no thanks.
SPEAKER_01: I have something better to do.
SPEAKER_01: God, the king, and the story responds with judgment.
SPEAKER_01: You can see several parallels then with the parable of the vineyard owner just before this.
SPEAKER_01: You remember how the owner sent servants to the vineyard owners to say, Hey, I, you're tenant farmers, I need my portion of the profits from this harvest.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Yeah, no, we're not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so they beat some of the servants.
SPEAKER_01: Then he sends more, and they beat them, and he sends more, and they kill them, and finally he sends the sun and they say, Let's take the sun and kill him.
SPEAKER_01: So we can observe then the plan for the wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: It has been determined, it has been planned, it's been set in motion, and it must go on.
SPEAKER_01: This wedding feast will not be canceled.
SPEAKER_01: So new guests are compelled to come in, and they celebrate with the king and his son.
SPEAKER_01: So as we consider this story, we must remember that this parable uses a typical human set of circumstances to mirror a divine reality that encompasses eternity.
SPEAKER_01: When you read this, think of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're reading God's perspective.
SPEAKER_01: But not only do we see this as an illustration of divine wedding planning from beginning to end, we see it mirroring the actual wedding process.
SPEAKER_01: So if we read carefully, we find that two invitations are sent to the guest list.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 refers to those who were invited.
SPEAKER_01: They've already been extended an invitation to come.
SPEAKER_01: You see, in those times, an invitation went out to guests when the wedding celebration was announced.
SPEAKER_01: In our time period, we might consider it like an engagement announcement.
SPEAKER_01: Except it was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: The wedding was arranged, the marriage was arranged, and they said, There's going to be a wedding, and you are invited.
SPEAKER_01: Be ready.
SPEAKER_01: But that initial invitation didn't establish a specific date.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, it was received with honor and the expectation that you would be ready to drop everything and go to the wedding and party for two weeks with all of the guests.
SPEAKER_01: Then, when the time for the celebration arrived, another, a second invitation, would go out saying, the wedding's ready.
SPEAKER_01: We're ready.
SPEAKER_01: The feast is all prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Now's the time to come.
SPEAKER_01: Come, celebrate together with us.
SPEAKER_01: The invitation in this story is an incredible honor.
SPEAKER_01: Because it comes from the king.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is the invitation an honor, but you had a chance to dine on the king's food.
SPEAKER_01: The feast would be sumptuous.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, turning down this invitation was disrespectful.
SPEAKER_01: For there was no significant reason to dismiss the king's invitation.
SPEAKER_01: That meant that if you received the initial invitation, you would work to be ready whenever the final announcement arrived.
SPEAKER_01: You would work to be ready to drop everything, change your clothes, or wash your clothes, and celebrate with the father, the son, and the new bride.
SPEAKER_01: So the parable then mirrors a typical Middle Eastern wedding of the first century to illustrate something that is going on in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That God is planning from eternity past that is going to be fulfilled at some point in the future.
SPEAKER_01: God's rich, eternal plan is to celebrate the union of his son, the Lamb of God, through an elegant and sumptuous feast.
SPEAKER_01: So everyone hearing this story from the lips of Jesus, the Son, could track each step of the wedding plan.
SPEAKER_01: Only this wedding story isn't typical.
SPEAKER_01: By human standards, it's a fiasco.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fiasco because of sinful human beings, disrespectful and dark nature.
SPEAKER_01: We see this first in the unexpected reaction to God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: First, they they disrespectfully turn down the invitation.
SPEAKER_01: Second, they they choose to let the dark nature of sin rule in them by sinfully elevating what we might consider typically righteous activities to more significance, to greater significance than the wedding.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, this is no ordinary wedding invite.
SPEAKER_01: This is not your, this is not your, let's see, what can we imagine here?
SPEAKER_01: This is not your friend's cousin twice removed that you met that one time at a party ten years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's okay to turn down the invitation.
SPEAKER_01: No, this this is this is the great king.
SPEAKER_01: It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's invitation being given.
SPEAKER_01: To turn down the celebration of God's Son publicly declares that God doesn't deserve your presence at his table.
SPEAKER_01: His food is not worthy of your consumption.
SPEAKER_01: You have better things to do than to give your time to God's celebration.
SPEAKER_01: And that is a disrespectful reaction to the king's grace of giving you an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: What does it say?
SPEAKER_01: The king sent his servants, verse 3, to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.
SPEAKER_01: This is not an invitation to a funeral.
SPEAKER_01: It's an invitation to a party.
SPEAKER_01: It's a call to celebrate with joy for an extended period of time.
SPEAKER_01: And the image that we are given is of people that the king wants to have at his party.
SPEAKER_01: The image that we're given is that this is an invitation given to people who love their king and would be honored to be invited.
SPEAKER_01: In our world, they may have may have even taken a snapshot of their invitation and posted it on social media to show the world that they were invited to the king's party.
SPEAKER_01: So the king sent preparatory invitations to his chosen guest list.
SPEAKER_01: It was an invitation to be ready at the final call to the feast, but when the last call came, they would not come.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't happen with the king.
SPEAKER_01: So there must be some problem.
SPEAKER_01: There must be some misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_01: Accepting an invitation earlier, but deciding now that you don't want to go is the utmost disrespect to the king.
SPEAKER_01: But the king's grace is greater than his people's disrespect.
SPEAKER_01: So he sends more servants.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He sends more servants with even more details about the feast.
SPEAKER_01: The meat has been smoking and it's redder and it's tender and it's juicy.
SPEAKER_01: That's the men's conference for you men.
SPEAKER_01: Come immediately and celebrate.
SPEAKER_01: Most Middle Eastern families didn't often eat meat.
SPEAKER_01: If they did, it would be a lamb or goat.
SPEAKER_01: Oxen were for farming.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't eat your oxen.
SPEAKER_01: Fatted calves were rare and expensive, but this is all on the on the king's dime.
SPEAKER_01: No expenses have been spared, and it's ready.
SPEAKER_01: Come now.
SPEAKER_01: But this gracious second call results in a display of the dark nature of sin ruling over humanity.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what it says.
SPEAKER_01: They paid no attention and they went off, one to his farm and another to his business.
SPEAKER_01: And as if that's not bad enough, the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we we tend we tend to categorize sins.
SPEAKER_01: Some sins are worse than others, we like to tell ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: So for instance, taking taking a life is is a greater sin than telling a little white lie.
SPEAKER_01: So we tend to view those who went to work on the farm or to work on a business proposal as less offensive to the king than those who murdered his servants.
SPEAKER_01: And in some sense, we might say that is true.
SPEAKER_01: But in reality, these are all vivid illustrations of the same sin.
SPEAKER_01: Idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: They picture refusing to worship the Lord God alone, and instead of choosing to elevate something else above him.
SPEAKER_01: I really like how Frederick Bruner writes of these kinds of situations where we give more attention to our farms, to our businesses, to our retirement, to our friends or family, to our cars or homes.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and I quote, legitimate occupations become sinister when they are pre-occupations.
SPEAKER_01: The irony of this depiction is that rejection is not made in the pursuit of something evil, but in the pursuit of something good.
SPEAKER_01: And it becomes transformed into a preoccupation that takes precedence over God's call.
SPEAKER_01: It's easy, friends, for good and righteous pursuits to become idols.
SPEAKER_01: This is because we set ourselves above the king when he calls.
SPEAKER_01: And we choose something else, even if it's usually good and righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And that's often what we convince ourselves of.
SPEAKER_01: This is something good, this is something positive.
SPEAKER_01: And that is no different than murder.
SPEAKER_01: For murder is idolatry by setting oneself above God.
SPEAKER_01: It says that my desires, my needs, and my intentions are more significant than the king's command.
SPEAKER_01: The simplest, most basic human characteristics can silently become idols that draw our hearts away from the great king.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that what Stephen recounted to the people of Israel?
SPEAKER_01: He says, You started to worship idols.
SPEAKER_01: You elevated your own desires above the great king.
SPEAKER_01: Now, at this point, we are still considering those initially invited to the feast.
SPEAKER_01: So it makes the most sense to hear this as Israel's response to God's call.
SPEAKER_01: As with the previous story's vineyard tenants, Israel is the invited guest.
SPEAKER_01: They rejoiced at their invitation.
SPEAKER_01: They were glad and they anticipated that day, but when the final call came, they refused.
SPEAKER_01: When John the Baptist and Jesus said, the kingdom is at hand, repent, they would not hear.
SPEAKER_01: God's call was not that significant to them.
SPEAKER_01: Now no one likes to hear about consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Especially when we face the results of enjoyable choices that benefit us personally.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, really, what's wrong with working on the farm instead of attending the king's feast?
SPEAKER_01: God made man to work.
SPEAKER_01: Really, the more business that I do, the more I can give to the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_01: You know your budget needs it.
SPEAKER_01: Why would there be dire circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: Why would there be consequences that are harsh?
SPEAKER_01: And so we might, in our thinking, be shocked to hear verse 7, where it says, the king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
SPEAKER_01: Now this is this is irony at its greatest.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you go back to the previous parable, the story of the vineyard tenants, Jesus asked the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the chief priests a very serious question.
SPEAKER_01: He said, When those tenants refuse to give the prophets and they kill the servants and they finally kill the son, what ought the vineyard owner to do?
SPEAKER_01: And they said, they ought to destroy them.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus now comes back around and he says, they're going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: Notice a couple of details.
SPEAKER_01: First, the city represents all those invited.
SPEAKER_01: So it is the city of the one who went to the farm, it's the city of the businessmen, it's the city of the murderers.
SPEAKER_01: It sort of encompasses all who were invited.
SPEAKER_01: Only the murderers are said to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: But all of them face the consequences of their choice to refuse the king's call.
SPEAKER_01: It's that God is the one doing work of destruction.
SPEAKER_01: King represents God.
SPEAKER_01: Destruction is the consequence of refusing the king's call to feast at the wedding of his son.
SPEAKER_01: That seems drastic.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody declines your wedding invitation and you destroy them?
SPEAKER_01: That's why where we started is so important, friends.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a normal wedding.
SPEAKER_01: This is a divine reality that speaks of how you are going to respond to God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: These parables are stories.
SPEAKER_01: They mirror some reality.
SPEAKER_01: But they aren't meant to be exactly detailed prophecies.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this anticipates the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
SPEAKER_01: That's entirely possible.
SPEAKER_01: But we must not become distracted by a potential detail and miss the intended point.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew intends this to be a warning.
SPEAKER_01: There are consequences to knowing the will of God, to knowing God's word, to hearing God's call and refusing it.
SPEAKER_01: First and foremost, this is a call to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: This is a call to trust in the great King who sends his Son for you.
SPEAKER_01: But Scripture reveals that there are consequences to refusing to hear and appropriately respond to all that God says, and that result may be shockingly disastrous.
SPEAKER_01: God's rich, eternal plan to celebrate his son is pictured by using a wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: God invited his uniquely chosen people, but when the time came to respond to the call to come, the kingdom is here because the king is present.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Yeah, no thanks.
SPEAKER_01: We've got better things to do.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, we would not expect God's people to react in an idolatrous way.
SPEAKER_01: We would not expect church people to say, yeah, no, thanks to God, but that is the dark, sinful nature of humanity, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: That's all of us.
SPEAKER_01: There is no one who does what is good.
SPEAKER_00: No, not one.
SPEAKER_01: And we are all without excuse when we refuse God.
SPEAKER_01: Now we might anticipate a postponement in a typical wedding like this.
SPEAKER_01: But this is God's eternal plan to display the riches of his grace in his son.
SPEAKER_01: So the wedding will go on.
SPEAKER_01: In the remainder of the parable, then we observe the plan of God fulfilled in rejoicing and rejection.
SPEAKER_01: Sin and rebellion will not deter God's purpose.
SPEAKER_01: So far, this wedding has been a fiasco with Mahem.
SPEAKER_01: Not even all state could remedy this situation.
SPEAKER_01: But the main character in this story is not an insurance company.
SPEAKER_01: The main character in this story is the God of creation with an eternal plan that will be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: God turns this disaster into an even greater, more grand display of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how Matthew presents it.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to his servants, The wedding feast is ready.
SPEAKER_01: But those that we invited were not worthy, so go into the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.
SPEAKER_01: Which tells you that the bad and the good somehow become worthy because those who were initially thought worthy are no longer worthy.
SPEAKER_01: And the result is the wedding hall is filled with guests.
SPEAKER_01: So the initial guests who ought to have been worthy were found to not be worthy.
SPEAKER_01: So often those who believe they are worthy of God's kindness and grace are the least deserving.
SPEAKER_01: They are now set aside, facing the consequences of their choice, and the king's servants are now ordered to go out of the city, away from the city with the rejected guests, and call anyone else they find wandering on the roads to the feast.
SPEAKER_01: Even the bad.
SPEAKER_01: We have surviving documents from Qumran.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know about Qumran, that's where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.
SPEAKER_01: We have surviving documents from the religious community at Qumran that reveal to us that the blind and the deaf and the disabled or the paralyzed were not allowed into the gatherings of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: They were excluded.
SPEAKER_01: And that may be significant here because Matthew uses the word synagogue here, which is translated in the English Standard Version as gathered.
SPEAKER_01: Those servants went out and they gathered all the good, that's normal, right?
SPEAKER_01: And the bad.
SPEAKER_01: And they synagogued them together.
SPEAKER_01: That's not supposed to happen.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the way it works.
SPEAKER_01: Except for in the king's grace.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Those on the outside and not commonly accepted now receive a specific call to join the feast because of the rejection of those first invited.
SPEAKER_01: This extended call reminds us of the consequences first of rejecting the call.
SPEAKER_01: If you reject the call, the king says, Yeah, sorry, I'm going.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to bring in those less worthy than you in your own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: But it also reminds us then of the mercy of this call.
SPEAKER_01: Suggests that many responded properly to the king's expanded call to come and feast.
SPEAKER_01: It indicates to us that status, worldly cultural status, that a perspective of holiness, of righteousness, and even of propriety, are not a part of this call.
SPEAKER_01: The call goes out because the wedding feast is ready.
SPEAKER_01: Meat is coming off the grill.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to come now.
SPEAKER_01: Don't delay.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, the feast was ready before the destruction of the city.
SPEAKER_01: This is some amazing meat.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's still ready now.
SPEAKER_01: Food is hot.
SPEAKER_01: Even today, the feast is ready.
SPEAKER_01: Will you come?
SPEAKER_01: This is the message we proclaim.
SPEAKER_01: God calls you to believe in his Son, Jesus the Messiah, and to come to Him now.
SPEAKER_01: Don't delay.
SPEAKER_01: Today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It matters not who you are, it matters not what you have been.
SPEAKER_01: It matters not what you are doing now.
SPEAKER_01: The king's call to you is the most important call you will ever receive.
SPEAKER_01: Will you come now?
SPEAKER_01: The feast is ready.
SPEAKER_01: What grace that God would fulfill his plan with the blind and the lame and the beggars and the infirm and the insignificant.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
SPEAKER_01: The king's feast is a place of lavish celebration and rejoicing at the wedding of his son.
SPEAKER_01: So it's so significant that God gave us a description of it, a firsthand image.
SPEAKER_01: He gave the Apostle John a vision of it.
SPEAKER_01: And to him it sounded like the roar of water and thunder, and it said, crying out, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
SPEAKER_01: Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
SPEAKER_01: It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound like wedding clothes?
SPEAKER_01: For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel said to me, Write this blessed, satisfied, content, happy, joyful, rejoicing are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: The grace of the King leads to rejoicing for all who accept his invitation.
SPEAKER_01: But there's an aspect here that we often find in the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew likes to include things that make us uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the best word to describe them is warnings.
SPEAKER_01: And the warning here is a warning about the potential for self-deception.
SPEAKER_01: Notice in verse 11, when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, friend?
SPEAKER_01: How'd you get in?
SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: You would think there would be a response to the king.
SPEAKER_01: But he was speechless.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.
SPEAKER_01: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: This individual seems to be, seems to not be one of the initially invited guests, for they're destroyed and their city's burning.
SPEAKER_01: Seems to be someone who was who was found along the roads and the byways, one of the one of the bad or good folks who heard the king's call.
SPEAKER_01: And this illustration declares that some will say, Lord, Lord, let's look what I did in your name, and look at them and say, get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: I never knew you.
SPEAKER_01: The image is clean clothes.
SPEAKER_01: It's proper attire for a wedding.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you may have heard the heard this explained as a garment being given to a wedding guest by the king, that that's what typically happened.
SPEAKER_01: We really don't have evidence for that.
SPEAKER_01: That was an interpretation that was first heard by the church in the 1800s.
SPEAKER_01: It was never never found prior to that point.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a very recent kind of idea.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have much to support that idea.
SPEAKER_01: But when we put this with John's vision of the actual event in Revelation 19, we see that the fine linen at the wedding, the wedding garments are described as the righteous deeds of the saints.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see then that righteous living, growing in holiness, being like the king, is an outward expression of those who have faith in the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: Clean clothes, wedding clothes are evidence that one has rightly responded to the king's summons.
SPEAKER_01: There may be some, there may be some who are booted out, so to speak, who are religious folks, who've heard the king's invitation.
SPEAKER_01: They've been walking on the roads and they've heard the servants say, hey, the king's calling you.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, come on.
SPEAKER_01: And they've spent their lives expecting to be at the feast, to be welcomed at the feast.
SPEAKER_01: There may be those who raised their hands, who prayed a prayer, who were even baptized, thinking that's their ticket to the banquet.
SPEAKER_01: And the reality may hit them square in the face when the heavenly bouncers kick them out.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, the tragedy of the wedding crasher is Matthew's way of loving us.
SPEAKER_01: He loves us enough to warn us to be genuine disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Not fake followers.
SPEAKER_01: A correct response to the king's invitation moves the respondent, the believer, to want to be clean before him and to live righteously because of the king's gracious invitation to the sumptuous feast.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know, at least if you've been part of our fellowship, we know that this is not human effort.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous deeds of the saints are not something that a believer does in his own power.
SPEAKER_01: It's the work of the Holy Spirit motivating and driving and empowering and changing us into the image of the king himself.
SPEAKER_01: But that can be faked for a while.
SPEAKER_01: And even worse, some might think that no one will notice their lack of clean clothes.
SPEAKER_01: They may have convinced themselves, deceived themselves, that it doesn't matter that I don't have on the right clothes, but be assured that the king will spot you if you are a fake.
SPEAKER_01: For many are called, but few are chosen.
SPEAKER_01: Here is human responsibility to respond to the call and divine sovereignty held hand in hand in tension.
SPEAKER_01: The invitation is in all places, on all the roads, all the byways, to all kinds of people.
SPEAKER_01: But those chosen to enter the feast only include some of those who hear the invitation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has already said the gate is narrow and the road is narrow, which leads to life.
SPEAKER_01: Many will put on the airs of being religious and of believing and having faith and following the king and having the invitation in hand, but will inevitably choose their farms and their businesses or even react in hatred and murder to the call to come.
SPEAKER_01: Some will think they still deserve to be included even when they murdered the servants.
SPEAKER_01: But only those who believe in the Son will display the righteousness of Christ and receive the grace of the King.
SPEAKER_01: So perhaps we should ask ourselves routinely, as Matthew Henry suggested that we do.
SPEAKER_01: How did I get in here?
SPEAKER_01: How did Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Newton the slave ship captain get into heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Amazing Chris.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we should follow that up, as Matthew Henry also said.
SPEAKER_01: Am I wearing the right clothes for the wedding?
SPEAKER_01: This is nothing new to us, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Scriptures are full of this kind of thinking.
SPEAKER_01: So if you think you are standing, take heed lest you fall.
SPEAKER_01: See, those who are called from the various roads of life ought to be the most humble, ought to be the most ready to say, How did I get in here?
SPEAKER_01: They ought to be the most appreciative and the most willing to say that it was all of grace.
SPEAKER_01: And how can I not but live like my King?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, for the grace to love him more.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me, Lord Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Forgive us of our sins, cleanse us, and wash us free.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us may need to cry out, Lord, help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: We may need your strengthening power to go out into a world that hates us as your messengers.
SPEAKER_01: And we need the strength of your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Some may be here and hearing this message this morning and may need the power of your spirit to grant them faith to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Grant that to them.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us may need the power of your spirit to kill sin in us.
SPEAKER_01: So that that sin may not be what blinds us to our fakeness.
SPEAKER_01: Most of all, Lord, we want to be at your feast.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever is necessary in each of us to draw us to faith in the Son of God who died for us.
SPEAKER_01: So that we might live like Him by the power of your Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And join those at the marriage supper of the Lamb who proclaim, praise Yahweh for his grace to me.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_02: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.