You would please open your Bibles to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22. In the previous chapter, Jesus had spoken in several different ways, including parables, about the fact that he knew that he was going to be rejected, and he knew that he was going to be killed, and he knew that The very people that he was with were going to be, many of them crying for his crucifixion, the religious leaders of the day. Matthew 22, verses 1 through 14, this is God's Word. Jesus spoke to them again in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered. and everything is ready, come to the wedding banquet. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding banquet is ready. But those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. Friend, he asked, how did you get in here without wedding clothes? The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, tie him hand and foot and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are invited, but few are chosen. God add his blessing to this reading from his holy and inspired word. So what was going on? Well, Jesus knew that at the end of all things, there's going to be a wonderful wedding banquet. It's going to be a marvelous celebration. We're not going to a funeral. We're going to a party. It's going to be great. It is the wedding celebration of the bride of Christ and God the Son. And this is glorious. And those who are in Christ look forward to this. It's gonna be grand. It's gonna be wonderful. But Jesus knew that the first group to get the invitation was the Jewish people. Jesus not only knew the Scriptures, but He is the Word through whom all things were created. And so Jesus wasn't kind of trying to puzzle through this and figure out what's going to happen. Jesus knew the final outcome. And He knew the short-term suffering. He knew that He was going to be rejected. He knew that he was going to be killed. So Jesus tells this story, the story of the kingdom of heaven. He had been preaching since he started his public ministry. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. In order to enter the kingdom of heaven, which is something the Jews had talked about and looked forward to for generations, In order to enter the kingdom of heaven, what does it take? Well, John's gospel tells us the story of Nicodemus being told by Jesus, you must be born again. You must be born of the Spirit. You can't just earn this. It is beyond your capacity. God has to give you new birth, spiritual birth. So the kingdom of heaven Jesus speaks of is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who'd been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. They refused to come. It wasn't they didn't get the memo. It wasn't that they didn't understand. They had been invited and now when they're summoned, they say, no, not coming. Can you imagine if you had prepared a big deal and you invited a bunch of people and they just blew it off? So he sent more servants. urging them to come and they ignored those servants and some of the people who were invited beat the servants who came to get them to come and even killed some of the messengers. What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about the history of the Jewish people. He's talking about the fact that from generation after generation, those who proclaimed the Word of God were not treated as heroes. They were treated over and over as villains. They suffered because the people didn't want to hear the Word of God. John the Baptist comes as the final Old Testament prophet. And he ends up getting his head chopped off after being imprisoned for telling the truth, for saying what God says about sexual immorality. Because John the Baptist said what God says about sexual immorality, he became an enemy of the state. The government said, you can't talk that way. We're not going to allow it. You and I can't imagine. living in a society where the government treats God's word as hate speech, can we? Folks, it is already happening. It's already happening in Scandinavia, in the United Kingdom, in Canada, and in certain communities here in the United States. The government has decided that they're going to join in the promotion of sexual immorality. And anybody who calls it sexual immorality is a hater. I'm just telling you, the suffering for righteousness sake that we experience in this country is tiny. compared to what most of our brothers and sisters around the world today and throughout history have experienced. But we better recognize that the truth has always been unpopular with mankind. The masses are not seeking truth. Jesus said, the light has come into the darkness and men preferred the darkness because their deeds are evil. The response to the light is this. The response to God's word is this. People don't want it. It wasn't just a problem the Jews had. It's a problem humans have, humans like us. And so the messengers were mistreated and killed. Verse seven, the king was enraged. Does God get enraged? You better believe it, read the book. I don't like to think of God like that. Well, you're an idolater, repent. The king was enraged, he sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Jesus had already told his disciples when they were in Jerusalem and his disciples were saying, look, do you see these huge stones? Isn't this marvelous? They were there at the temple. Jesus said, do you see these huge stones? This is all gonna be torn down. This is gonna be destroyed. What was he talking about? He was talking about the fact that the city of Jerusalem, including the temple, would be destroyed within that generation. How did he know that? Okay, let's go back. I want to remind you, he is God incarnate. And as God, he knew everything. As man, he knew everything the Father told him. He listened to the Father. and he believed the Father, and he obeyed the Father, and he spoke the words that the Father gave him. So, Jesus knew what was coming. Jesus knew that his rejection by the Jewish people would not be the end of the story. Jesus knew that his execution by the Roman authorities would not be the end of the story. there would be destruction for that city. So what did the king do? He said to his servants, the wedding banquet is ready, but I guess we're not going to have a party. No, that's not what he said. He said, those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find. So the servants went out into the streets, gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. In Luke's telling of this story, because Jesus told the story more than once apparently, that account says he told his servants, go and compel them to come in, okay? Not just invite them, bring them. And so the servants did as they were told by the king. They brought people who you and I would probably not want at our party. A lot like what happened. Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians, God deliberately chose the nobodies in order to shame those who think they're somebody. The banquet hall was filled with guests. Now it's all good, right? Well, there's another point here. When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man who was not wearing wedding clothes. Now, why would that be a problem? If you've just been brought in off the street, we can hardly expect that you'd be dressed for a banquet. I mean, you didn't even plan on going to a party when you got up this morning. Have you ever had a morning when you got up, and you dressed one way, and then you found out something else was coming up later that day, and you needed to change? Anybody ever been there? OK. I mean, anybody else? The rest of you are asleep. But why would the king be upset with a guy for not wearing wedding clothes? He knows that they were just brought in off the street. Answer, the king provides wedding clothes. He provides whatever you need. You go to a restaurant, a nice restaurant today that requires a jacket and tie for men. If you show up without a tie, they'll give you one. OK? No, I wouldn't want to go to a restaurant that required a tie. Well, I wouldn't either. But I know this. I've been in some of those restaurants. And they do hand out ties. They even sometimes will give you a sport coat to wear. It looks just like your Uncle Charlie's. But anyway. They provide. Well, let me tell you, the king didn't just provide some old thing from a closet in the back. He provided wedding garments. He provided celebratory wardrobe. Imagine a wedding in our day where the bridesmaids aren't sent to the bridal shop to buy their dresses. The bridesmaids are given dresses. Would that be nice? Some of you would vote for that. You've been in a bunch of weddings. The groomsmen, instead of being told, we need this many of you to go and rent your outfits here because then the groom gets his for free. Instead, you're given, you're given outfits to wear. Well, who could afford to do that? Oh, how about a king? This is a king who's giving out wedding garments, and some jerk who's brought to a feast decided, no, I'll just stick with what I got on. Thanks. I don't like that. I don't like your choice. That's not my color. I'm more comfortable in this outfit. I'm not going to put that on. I think I'd look silly in that. I've never worn anything like that in my life. I'm not going to do that. I think I look good. I didn't ask to come here. They brought me. And I'm just going to be me. I'm just going to do me. You heard that expression? He said through clenched teeth. There are a whole lot of folks today who think they're just fine. I don't need to change. I am beautiful just the way I am. Guess what? Our righteousness is as filthy rags in God's sight. Our best stuff falls way short. And so if we think we're going to come into God's presence, into the kingdom of heaven, If we think we're gonna come to the celebration without anything getting changed, you know, I'm sorry, I just don't wanna, I'm comfortable with who I am and the way I live, and I think everybody oughta just get on board with that. This is the way God made me. I'm just gonna stick with what feels right to me. You're going to hell. Jesus said that the king replied bind him and cast him into outer darkness where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. That's one of the phrases Jesus used to describe hell. If you think you don't need the righteousness of Christ, it doesn't make you comfortable. You're more comfortable in your own righteousness. then you're not going to be at the party. You're going to miss the feast. You will be cast into outer darkness. Jesus promised. Pastor, I see that as in the text, but I just frankly find it hard to worship a God who would send anyone to hell. Well, you're still going to have to bow down, You're still gonna have to confess Jesus as Lord, but it's gonna be too late. And you will spend forever in the lake of fire. Pastor, I don't think you ought to talk like that. I mean, that's very off-putting. Really? What you're saying is that when the word of God is declared, a lot of people are gonna go, that's what this story's about. That's precisely what this story is about. People's response to the truth of God's Word is not as a group to say, wow, that's great. Here am I, Lord. Have your way. That's not the natural response of man. The natural response of man is to say no. Are you kidding? Turn my life over to someone else? Stop trying to do what I want and start focusing on what God wants? I'm sorry, maybe someday, but right now I've got a lot of living to do. You don't have a lot of living to do, you got a lot of dying to do. If you think that if we just learn how to share the good news appropriately, it'll be irresistible. Okay? Everybody's gonna wanna get saved. No, they're not. Somebody should have explained that to Jesus, shouldn't they? Maybe he wouldn't have ended up on the cross and then we could all go to hell. The only way we could be saved was for Jesus to take the punishment we deserve. But if you reject His invitation, and you insist on staying just as you are, you are not going to experience the beauty of God's abundant provision. I love this description of the party. My oxen and fattened cattle, plural, have been butchered, and everything is ready. Apparently, the king serves meat. Ah-ha! Hallelujah! So, pastor, prior to the flood, a man was only supposed to eat plants. Yeah, that was prior to the flood. Okay, since that time, meat is available. And when God set the menu for Elijah, Elijah was living in the ravine, Cherithbrook. When God set the menu for Elijah, he had meat and bread flown in daily. I just love this, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Meat and bread sounds like Old Testament hamburgers. Doesn't it? Well, I like to imagine it that way. I love the fact that there's this huge celebration. He didn't say, I've killed the fattened calf. He said, I've killed the fattened cattle. I killed oxen. We're gonna have so much meat, you won't be able to hold it all. Thank you, Lord. Well, it's going to be a celebration. It's going to be a great time. But if your response to the invitation is to say no, then you won't be there. You won't be there. All of you are receiving an invitation. All of you, it's not some are invited. For many are invited. but few are chosen. Oh, that makes the difference. You can tell who's chosen by those who, instead of doing what they were doing before, which was saying, no, no, no, no, no, are changed by grace. And they say, oh, yes. Oh, yes, that's what I need. My sister-in-law who had mocked my wife because of my wife's faith in Jesus. My sister-in-law who absolutely refused to listen to the gospel. My sister-in-law who went her own way and did her own thing and was a wild child. My sister-in-law who was so rude about the faith that the Lord finally told us, stop trying to talk to her. And so we just prayed for her. We didn't talk to her anymore. We just talked about her to our heavenly father and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. And we were visiting down there long time ago. And she said, Jim, can I talk with you after we get back to the house? We'd gone downtown to meet some folks and have a meal. She said, can I talk to you when we get back to the house? I said, sure. We got back there. We went in the living room, sat down. And she said, I don't understand what's happening to me. She said, I didn't want to have anything to do with God or Christianity. I wasn't interested. I made fun of you all. And she said, but the last two weeks, all I can think about all the time is that if Jesus is real, I need to know him. What's happening? And I said, I'll tell you what's happening. God is drawing you to himself. He's taken the blinders off your eyes and he's given you a desire to hear. You want to know the truth now because he's changing you. And I shared the gospel with her very simply and she prayed a very heartfelt prayer asking God to save her. And he did. He does. If you want to yield your life to Jesus, he's not gonna say, no, no, no, you're not one of the chosen. I'm sorry, but you know, nope, not on the list. If you want to know Jesus, that's because God has done a work in you, and he's drawing you to him. Don't resist. And don't insist that, well, I'll come, but only if I can keep this outfit. The king is offering you wedding garments. Be sure. to change. By his grace, you lay down all the old and you receive the new. It is his grace, it is his power, it is his work, and he is inviting you to join the feast. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for loving us when we didn't love you. We thank you for sending Jesus to save when we could not save ourselves. We thank you for sending Jesus to people who weren't even interested, and we thank you for making it abundantly clear in your word that it is all of grace. Help us, Lord, to cast aside our old garments of death and to receive your cleansing. and be robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And we will give you all the praise. For we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.