Good morning. Turn in your Bibles, please, to Matthew 22, and we're gonna look at the first 14 verses this morning. Matthew 22, one through 14, and once you're there, I'd ask if you would please stand for the reading of God's Word. 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 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. And God bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. And of course my tablet froze up. I might have to do this from memory. We are looking this morning at a parable of a wedding feast and I will admit as I prepared it on Thursday and slowly watched the life go to my Mother-in-law, towards the end of this week, the wedding language struck me in a different way. Because what did sin ultimately introduce into this world other than divorce? And what is death other than a divorce? And to see someone laying there who you love and you see this slow process of body and soul unnaturally Coming apart is a terrible thing. It's all we know in nature and yet it is absolutely unnatural God did not create death death is a corruption death is a parasite on creation and God's answer to that is a wedding and So this wedding feast language strikes me with new Significance this morning and my tablet is still frozen. So I'm gonna ask Emma to get my phone out of my bag, please. I and I'm going to do it with fine print. So we've been in Holy Week for a number of chapters now, and we see how the narrative in this gospel has slowed down. I think I drew attention to that a week or two ago. What we've seen so far is that the first two chapters in the gospel of Matthew cover 30 years of time. And then we have 18 chapters, which cover three years of Jesus' public ministry. And now lastly, we have eight chapters dedicated to one week. So Matthew is obviously, he sees the importance for his readers to understand the significance of what's happening in this last week of Jesus' life, and he slows it way, way, way down. And for us, that should help us to prioritize our own emphases in the significant portions of Jesus' life and in his ministry. And it should also help us from seeing, I think it may be easy for us to read these gospel accounts as though this is just kind of even tempo all the way through, and it is not. Matthew is slowing it down to grab our attention and to give us a glimpse into what is happening in this last week of Jesus' life. And the way that Matthew frames it by recording these parables shows us that there is something cosmic happening here. These parables all happen, remember, we're still on Tuesday. This is all happening in a very condensed period of time. The last four Sundays have all been happening in one conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees, one final showdown. And Jesus is using graphic pictures, he's using parables to show us something significant that is about to happen. And of course, on this side of the cross, we know that that is the birth of the new covenant and the falling away of the trappings of the old covenant. I think as evangelicals we have correctly and importantly emphasized the importance of personal conversion, and that is an absolute non-negotiable, is personal conversion. But I do wonder if sometimes that happens at the expense of understanding the cosmic. the universal significance of what happened at Christ's death and resurrection and the things that he foretells in this final week. Yes, Jesus died for my sins and he died for your sins, but he also died to change the governance of the cosmos. Jesus died to change the trajectory of the world. He died and he rose again and he was ascended to move forward the history of redemption. in a very cosmic sense. This is a change in cosmic governance. The old covenant has given birth to the new covenant. And we see that language as transitions of worlds that happens many times in scripture. In 2 Peter 3, verse 6, we read about Noah entering the ark into one world and he gets out into a different world. And I would suggest that the exact same thing happens when Jesus dies and is resurrected. Jesus dies in one world and he is resurrected in a different world. Yes, it's the same planet, but everything has changed. And this is what I mean when I said a few weeks ago that we live in a different world than John the Baptist. Yes, it's the same ball, yes, it's the same planet, but it is absolutely a different world. You cannot have God the Son come to Earth as a man, be crucified and resurrected and ascended, and that not change the cosmic governance of things. This has cosmic proportions as well as personal significance. And so when Jesus is using parable after parable here in this final showdown with the Pharisees, he's using different forms of imagery, different word pictures to explain this transition as he moves redemptive history from one world into the next world. He has condemned the temple a second time at the end of his ministry to show that the temple was a condemned house that must be torn down brick by brick, just like the Levites showed. He condemned the fig tree and he spoke of the mountain of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, being swallowed up by the sea of God's wrath. as a sign of the close of the Old Covenant age. And then when his authority was questioned by those who have no legitimate authority, he started to answer them in parable form. And we've seen the parable of the two sons. We've seen the parable of the wicked tenants who were going to be put to a miserable death so that the vineyard could be taken from them and given to rightful heirs who appreciated what they were inheriting. Jesus talks about a cornerstone that was rejected by early builders and so later builders could come and build on this cornerstone that had been missed for so many years. And Jesus summarizes all these parables in chapter 21 verse 43 when he tells the priests that the kingdom is about to be taken away from them and given to a people bearing its fruit. And in today's text, Jesus is going to tell yet another story to illustrate this exact same truth. And this is why I am happy for just verse-by-verse, sequential, expository preaching, because if it wasn't for that, you might think I've picked a hobby horse here, right? Preachers that have their three topics that they wanna talk about. Jesus obviously sees this as important, because he slowed the tempo way down, and he's telling this story in many different forms, so we cannot miss it. And so we must pick up the same program that Jesus himself has. We read in verses one through four that 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. And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again, he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. And so here's a king who is dedicated to honoring his son, to preparing a celebration for his son. And these guests have already been invited earlier, and this was a common custom in that time where you invited the guests once ahead of time, and then once things were ready, once the preparations were made, they received another invitation that it was now time to come. So these guests have already received an earlier invitation. They were not coming, and so the king sends out servants to remind them that it's now time to come. It's time to celebrate. it's time for this wedding to happen. And so this is setting up a lot like the parable of the tenants in the vineyard. However, That parable had to do with the stewardship that the tenants were given, and this one has to do directly with celebrating and giving glory when a father wants to honor his son. And so in one way, it's very much the same, and you can see the parallels. In another sense, this parable is showing us a different aspect of what is happening in the final week of Christ's life. So these guests have been initially invited, and now they're being reminded that they're not coming, and it is time to come. And notice again that the servants, when they come inviting, they're not initially uttering threats. They're inviting. This is a good faith offer. This is a warm invitation. Come. They're not coming with threats. They're not coming with warnings even. They're coming with a reminder of an invitation. This is a good faith offer. Come. It's time. There's wine and there's meat and there's a celebration and the band is warming up. Come. Come. The king has slaughtered his fat calves, everything is ready. And so again, these are warm and inviting terms. These servants do not come threatening, they come inviting, offering. And so it's not hard, once again, to see who the characters are in this story. The king is clearly the father. who wants to bestow a royal honor on his son, which is Jesus Christ. The guests, of course, are the Israelites, and they have already been invited generations ago through God's covenant that he made with Abram and Moses. So these people have been invited. They've known this day was on the calendar for centuries. They have received their invitation, and they have been sent many reminders. But because the people are slow to come, God sends these prophets with terms of peace, just like we saw in last week's parable. This is a good faith invitation to the feast. And, of course, we should note that it is in their own interest to come. Maybe that's missed. They benefit if they come. They get something if they come. They get a meal, they get fellowship, they get a celebration. It's in their own interest to come. But they will not. God has prepared everything for a benefit, but they will not come and celebrate the wedding of Jesus Christ. And here again, we see that the Israelites are actually invited twice. And I think this applies not just to Israelites, but to all of us. Generally, God's claim on us is double. God's claim on us is that he created us, and by virtue of that, he has absolute authority in our lives, because we are his creation, out of the dust. If God makes something out of the dust, he has authority over it, and so that alone establishes God's authority over us. But then he sent his son to die for us, and so he has also redeemed us. So God's claim over us as brothers and sisters is double. And here too, the claim on these Israelites is double. God has created them out of the dust. God owns them. They are his by creation. And he is also their Lord by covenant. His claim is double. And still, these people do not come. Verses five and six, it says, they paid no attention, they went off. One to his farm, another to his business, while the rest of the servants, seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. And so again, we see that these people in this kingdom have no interest. They're indifferent about this whole thing. One is perhaps too interested in this new herd of cows that he bought, and he's got to get his barn ready, and he's got important things happening at home. Another one has an important business meeting, and so he doesn't have time. He's got more important matters. And in our own time, we might add that this is really no different, is it? Every Saturday night, we know Sunday morning is coming. And I've said before that the decision to be in church every week is a once in a lifetime decision. You make that decision once in your life, and then you execute it Sunday after Sunday. This is not a week by week decision where we're on the fence. And we too frequently let things come in. Is church just something we do? When God calls us to his banquet, which is what this is, this is a feast, this is a celebration, this is God calling his people in worship of him. And do we only come when there's nothing important happening? As long as there's not a hockey game, well then I've got time for church. As long as nothing important is happening, I've got time to worship the living God. That is so upside down. That is the error that these people are making. They see incorrectly that their day-to-day affairs are more important than celebrating the sun. And God will not have any of that, and he sends them reminder after reminder. This is a priority. Put it on your calendar. You knew this was happening. You knew the Messiah was coming. Now come and celebrate. And today, again, there are many things which keep us from worshiping the Son as we ought, and part of our duty as Christians is to get rid of those distractions, to prioritize our lives and our affections so that we see what is truly important. But now we notice a sharp difference in the way the parable of the tenants went and the way this one goes. The parable of the tenants is actually a very believable story. Because I think all of us can sympathize with getting this beautiful farm that you get to sit. You're killing people who are inviting you to a feast. That's unbelievable. That makes no sense. Okay, what's going on here? I can see, you know, you're busy with your own affairs, you just ignore them. You push them out, you drown it out, you don't pay attention, whatever. But why kill them? This parable seems to take a really absurd turn here. So why did this escalate into killing these people? All they're doing is reminding you that you're invited to a party. Why would you kill them? And I think the short answer to that is the nature of this wedding. This is a political wedding. This is a kingdom wedding. This is a wedding that matters not just for one family. This is a wedding that matters for everybody. Because a wedding of the king's son is a reminder that there is a crowned prince who is advancing to maturity and preparing to take his father's kingdom. This claim is total. This is a totalizing claim on everything. That's why you get angry. That's why you get defensive, because now this isn't just somebody else's business. This wedding is your business. And frankly, if you do not want to submit to the Son, you will be angry. It's not enough to just reject an invitation. You must return with anger and violence, because somebody is reminding you that you are not your own. Somebody is reminding you that you must bend the knee to King Jesus, and if you don't want to, you will be angry, and you will kill them, as in fact happened with God's prophets through history. And so here, the prince's wedding is a reminder that things are moving, things are advancing, the father's plan is unfolding, and it's time to bend the knee. It's time to celebrate this new era. And these cosmic claims of authority, I think, are one of the areas of sharpest contrast between the Christianity of today and historic Christianity. We discussed it a little bit this morning in Sunday school. Modern evangelicalism has become very pietistic, very personal. It's just about me and Jesus, right? Just about my soul salvation, getting out of here. And historically, Christianity has not been so narrow in its focus. It has wanted to see the glory of Jesus Christ in everything. A political wedding, a cosmic wedding makes a difference because Jesus' authority is everywhere, not just of your heart, but over everything. And that is what got early Christians killed. What got first century Christians killed was not saying, I have Jesus to forgive my sins. You know what got them killed? Is saying, Jesu ho kurios, Jesus is Lord. Because guess what that means? Caesar is not. It was a political challenge to say Jesus is Lord. It wasn't just saying Jesus is the Son of God. It's not just saying Jesus died for my sins, it's saying Jesus is Lord. Now we're into politics. Now people get angry. Now there's claims out in the open, in the public sphere. And there is no sharper point of contrast between the pop Christianity of today and the kind of Christianity that produced martyrs. One of my favorite preachers has said that the problem with preachers today is that nobody wants to kill them anymore. Well, why not? Because we don't talk that way. We privatize the Christian faith, and therefore no preacher is worth killing. They're not strategic assets. It's just this pietistic, personalized stuff. But proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ over everything, So that no man is autonomous, no man is independent. That is a different message of the lordship of Jesus Christ. Of what it means when the king's son is advancing to manhood, to maturity, and preparing to take his throne. If Jesus Christ is Lord of all, that must mean that he is Lord of all. If all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Son, that means the Son has all authority in heaven and on earth. And how many times do we quote Isaiah at Christmastime, and I wonder if we quote this so often that we forget it, that the government shall be on his shoulders? and of the increase of his government there shall be no end? That's a cosmic claim. Something cosmic, something universal is happening at this wedding feast. That's why people are angry. It's not enough to just be indifferent, they're angry because now this is a claim of lordship over somebody's life. And the king's son is not to be rejected. And the king knows that. And that's what motivates him to action. You do not reject my son without severe consequence. And so the invited guests are already busy living for themselves. They're doing their own thing. They're living autonomous lives. They've made their own priorities. They think, you know, it's me. It's my body. It's my choice. I can come to the wedding or I can reject it. Doesn't matter, right? Who's to say? It's just a personal decision. But even though this feast is really beneficial for all, it is still a reminder of the supremacy of the Son, that they have to honor the Son. And that's why they're not interested. They're comfortable with their lives going the way their lives are currently going. They're not interested in participating in giving glory to one who is greater than they are. Maybe you've heard the expression, about the absurdity of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Have you ever heard that expression? You cut off your nose to spite your face. Well, what does that mean? That means that you so hate somebody that you are willing to harm yourself as long as in the process it somehow harms them. It's absurd. It makes no sense. Why would I harm myself just to keep somebody else from getting honor? And yet we frequently do that. That is the spirit of vandalism. I can't have something, so I'll just destroy it for everybody else. It's a destructive spirit. And these people would benefit by coming to the sun. There's free meat, after all. This is a party that the king is throwing in your honor. Everybody who comes benefits. It's absurd to reject this. This is in your own self-interest to come. The cost is, you're acknowledging that someone is greater than you, and that is too much to bear, even if there is a feast and your own benefit involved. These people are cutting off their nose to spite their face. They are filled with the spirit of covetousness, of indifference and autonomy, that they are willing to perform self-harm on themselves as long as the king's son remains dishonored. They do not want to say, Jesus is Lord. So at bottom, what is motivating these people is a sense of comfort, of self-love, indifference, a desire to not give honor to another, and which gets them so worked up that they are willing to kill the king's messengers. It goes on in verse seven through 10. It says, and the king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, and those invited are not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad, so the wedding hall was filled with guests. So just like in the parable of the tenants, eventually the king has enough. Eventually, the measure of his wrath is completely filled. And so Christ, once again, mixes in an element of prophecy. In the last one, he predicted his death. There was a prophetic utterance of his upcoming death. And here again, he veils a prophecy in this parable when he speaks of the king sending his troops and burning the city to the ground. It's a short one generation time span before God sends the Romans to make utter waste of Jerusalem. They do burn the city right down to the ground. And Jesus ties the reason for that to the fact that these people are murderers. Matthew Henry in his commentary noted that it's not just that these people rejected the gospel and therefore He destroyed their city. Many cities have rejected the gospel and did not get destroyed by God the way Jerusalem did. These people took the additional step of murdering God's messengers, and that is why God is so angry that he sends their enemies to destroy them. They've killed the prophets, and they are preparing to kill Christ. God is angry at Jerusalem, and he is about to give full vent to his wrath to this evil city. Some in church history have made much of Martin Luther's comments about the Jews. And Luther has been accused of anti-Semitism. And as we noted in Sunday School this morning, Martin Luther never says anything about anything gently, ever. He's always got the volume turned to 11. That's the way he is. Love him or don't love him. He's very direct and he's very colorful on any topic in which he speaks. And yet I do not believe it was ethnic or racial anger that got Luther so worked up about the Jewish people. He looked at parables like this and said, how do they still not get it? Jewish people are still at the wailing wall. which is a retaining wall that was outside the temple. There is nothing left of this temple. And they're still there, blind as can be, putting their prayers in this wailing wall, wanting their temple back. They're still waiting for Messiah. And what is the wailing wall in the absence of the temple a reminder of? Messiah came. You missed it. You're not getting your temple back. You're not waiting for Messiah. He came. The fact that all that's left is a partial wall is God's signature. Messiah came. And you would not have him. And this is the result. A burned out city that the Romans destroyed. And guys, 2,000 years later, they still don't get it. They remain blind, as Paul says. They remained blind. That's why Luther was so angry. 1500 years later, nothing had changed. In fact, Judaism had become worse. And it keeps getting worse, it is blind, it's no longer rooted in the Pentateuch, in the Torah, it's Talmudic, it's very evidently Antichrist. These people remain in their blindness and we pray for the day that God will open their eyes. As it says in Romans, but at this point they are utterly blind to the wedding feast that they completely missed. And the king did send in the armies. The king did burn their city to the ground. The king did take their house apart. Verse 7 through 10 shows the transition from one age to the next, from one world to the next. Verse 7 says that the reason for being burned is because of the murder. It's not just simple rejection. It's not just simple indifference. It's an actual murder of God's servants. Instead of giving honor, they turn in on themselves and they kill anyone who reminds them that they are not Lord of their own life. And so once the city is gone, once the temple is gone, so is the old system. They can't offer their sacrifices anymore. There's no priests anymore. The genealogies of the tribes are gone. God has done something catastrophic. He has moved us from one world into the next, from one covenant into the new, and it's now up and running in Jesus Christ. And so now the invitation goes out promiscuously. It's not just for this city. Go out to the highways and byways. Tell this to everyone. This is the birth of world missions. Go out and tell everybody. Everybody needs to hear that the son is getting married, and everybody must come in and celebrate. You must. You must. You must. It's not just for those who were formerly invited, but now latecomers can come in. Messengers can invite anyone that they find. Pull them in. Tell them about it. Bring them in. The problem with the first group was not that they could not come, but that they wouldn't. They didn't want to, they had no interest. And the second group comes willingly, and they stream in abundantly, and they fill the wedding hall up. And verse 10 does show us that this is a mixed group of people, some good and some bad, and so no doubt some of these were decent people who could see that the king's son was, in fact, worthy of honor, and they came on their insight into that fact. Others, perhaps, were less savory characters. Perhaps even some tax collectors and prostitutes and Gentiles came to see the goodness of this wedding feast and they came. People who were so worn down by their old life of sin that they're more than happy to take up this offer that they do not take for granted as the early guests were. And now that the invitation is open to all, some of the guests who came may very well have been among those who were first invited. And we know that. Many Jewish Christians were converted in the first century. So it's not that Jewish people cannot be saved. This is clearly not about race. It's that if Jewish people will be saved, they must come into the new covenant. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. Everyone who comes must come through Jesus Christ. He is the narrow gate. He is the only way in. There is one path in. There's not multiple paths to salvation. You must come through faith in Jesus Christ, whether you're an early guest or a late one. And here, when I think of these early guests having a change of heart and coming in, I'm reminded of the prophet Hosea, who marries his wife, and then when she commits adultery, and she ends up in a whore auction, he goes to the whore auction to buy his wife back. Is that a double claim, like God's claim of redemption? That is a double claim. Hosea can indeed bring back Gomer, but it's under renewed terms. Now it's clear, this isn't a marriage of equals. This is clearly gracious terms. Yes, you can come back, Gomer, but the terms, you need to see the terms are entirely gracious now. You don't deserve to come home, but the invitation is there. I bought you, you may. So in this new covenant era on this side of the cross, the era of world missions and evangelism, and proclaiming the gospel to all who will listen, Matthew Henry comments that ministers and casting the net of the gospel enclose both good fish and bad. And to this very day, the church ought to be comprised of people from all walks of life. Those who we expect to come in, and those that, frankly, we are surprised that they come in. And that is the wisdom of God. That is the mystery of Christ, to bring in all kinds. Verses 11 through 14 says, but when the king came to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. So at the close of this parable, the king comes to inspect. And after the messengers have gone to the highways and byways to bring everyone in, we might be reminded of the parable of the tares, where the tares and the wheat have grown together. And this is a concept that we all must reckon with. Sometimes we talk about this as the visible and the invisible church. The visible church is the church that gathers on Sunday morning. We can see everyone who's here, right? We can see it with our eyes. It's visible. But inside every church is an invisible church of the truly regenerate, the truly saved people. And we hope, of course, and we desire that that is the exact same group, but it needn't always be the case. Here the king finds a man who's visibly part of this celebration, who does not actually belong. And so the wedding garment here, I do believe, is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. And this is the way the Bible frequently talks about the righteous covering of Jesus. We read about it in Zechariah 3 and multiple times in Revelation where Christ's righteousness is referred to as a garment. It could also be a reference to the fruitful living that flows out of the covering that Christ gives us. Since Christ has been very concerned about visible fruit in these parables, leading up to this one, so it could be that this is also visible fruit as well. That is entirely possible. And ultimately, there should not be a contradiction there, because one naturally follows the other. Justification naturally should lead into sanctification. But in either case, the king here finds a man who is part of the crowd who does not belong. He's there, but he has not truly come to the Savior. He's part of the visible church, but not part of the invisible church. Maybe he just came for a free meal. Maybe he came for entertainment. Maybe he came because his friends were there. But it's clear that he does not possess the righteousness that he needs to stand before the King. And so as a result, he is bound up and cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And isn't that a contrast to a wedding? In a wedding where God is putting things together, what's outer darkness? Absolute silence. Distance. Darkness. And even if you can hear the shrieks of others, They're nowhere to be found. Outer darkness is horrific language. It is the most photo negative of a wedding that you can imagine. It is absolutely solitary. It's isolated, it's alone. There is no community in hell. There is no community, there is no friendship apart from Jesus Christ. And so the terms here are fitting for the kind of crime of independence. Chesterton commented that the only truly autonomous people live in the sane asylums. The kind of people who think they're Julius Caesar are fully autonomous. Reality has no bearing on them whatsoever. They are autonomous. Reality doesn't matter. And essentially, what hell is, is God saying, your will be done. You wanted to be autonomous. You can live in the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a fitting punishment. And this is the fate of those who will not receive the righteousness of Christ. And so with this, the story ends and Jesus looks at the crowd and summarizes. that many are called but few are chosen. And I do believe that this is a reference to God's sovereign election. Because you see two groups here. One is the called, and then inside of that there's a smaller subset group called the chosen. So inside the big group there's a small group of those who truly belong. I do believe this refers to election. One of the criticisms of the doctrine of election or Reformed theology generally is that people start to think about the frozen chosen, right? As though there's 38 people in all of church history who get saved, and wouldn't it be glorious to be one of those 38 people in heaven, right? Historically, that is an aberration. That is not historically what has been taught. But some people do give that impression, that there's a small handful, and based partially on texts like this. Yet the mainstream, whether it's early fathers like Augustine or Athanasius, or reformers like Kelvin, or the Puritans as a whole, or the later men in the last 200 years like Hodge or Warfield, still see advance of the gospel and they see the importance of world missions and they see a vastness to the kingdom of God based on Jesus' kingdom parables in Matthew 13 about growth and advance. So is there a contradiction here? And I would suggest there is not ultimately a contradiction. I think we need to remember who Jesus is confronting here. We've seen many clues that there's specific to these people, to this city, to this mountain, to this fig tree and so forth. Who's he confronting? He's confronting the priests and the Pharisees. who so misunderstood things that their city gets destroyed. And so he's given multiple parables to kick the chair out from under them. They were called as Israelites, and yet very few came. Very few were chosen. The number of elect here is, in fact, very small. And Jesus has already alluded to that in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7, 13 and 14, that very few that we're there, we're going to find the gate. So I do not believe that there is ultimately a contradiction between this and Jesus' other kingdom parables. We need to remember who he is talking to. And in fact, the widespread rejection of the gospel at this time and in this city is the very reason why the gospel eventually goes out to the highways and byways. The transition happens inside the parable itself. Nobody, or next to nobody, is responding to the first invitation. And the result is that the program changes. And after the program changes, there's still a word of caution. So even for us in this side of the cross, in the church age, there's a warning here to not be presumptuous like these men were. Because even after the hall fills up, the king still finds a man who doesn't belong there. So it's not as though false profession is impossible in the church. It clearly is. There is an apostate in the crowd, okay? But there's still advance. Earlier, the entire crowd was apostate. Now we have a believing crowd, but there's still an apostate in there. So there's improvement, but this is still not perfection. So the fact of apostasy remains. Not everyone who is called is chosen. And so this warning remains clear. Not everyone who is part of the visible church is part of the invisible church. And what does that mean with this calling? can speak of calling in two different ways. If you've ever heard the gospel in your life, you've had the external call. You've heard it with your ears. You can respond. You know the content of the gospel and you can come. That's the external call. There's an internal call, however, when your heart is warmed, when your heart starts to beat and you hear it from the inside and you come because you want to. That is the internal call of the gospel. That is what happens at the moment of belief. And so if your heart is soft to the call, that is the work of the Spirit, regenerating you and calling you from the inside. And sometimes people despair and they say, well, how do I know if I'm chosen? How do I know if I'm one of the elect? And Spurgeon is very helpful here. This is Spurgeon commenting on this. If God would have painted a yellow stripe on the backs of the elect, I would go around London lifting shirts. But since he didn't, I must preach whosoever will. And when whosoever believes, I know that he is one of the elect. That's how you find your election. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. You can't see this until you do it, okay? You can't see ahead of time. Put your faith in Jesus and you know you are one of his. You know you belong at the banquet feast. You know you've got a wedding garment because you belong to Jesus through faith. Spurgeon further. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you Notice this, many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but that is not possible. You cannot know you are elect until you put your faith in Christ. And at that moment, you know you are one of God's children. How do you know? Do it! But it's impossible because, yes, do it. And you will know that the Spirit of God created faith in your heart and you are one of God's people. This should not send us down a trail of despair and trying to peel off onion layer after onion layer. Are you trusting in Jesus? Then you're in. If not, then don't harden your heart. Then come today. Come to now. If you hear his voice this morning, do not harden your heart. Come today. Come to the Lord Jesus. Turn to him in faith. Receive your wedding garment. And so even amidst the turn in the story and in world history where the offer of the gospel goes out to every tongue, tribe, and nation, the fact that the king finds this man Wanting, that he's found wanting a garment is a strong warning for us to not sin in the same way that the priests and the Pharisees did in Jerusalem. Presuming that the fact that we're in a church means we're saved. What makes us saved is that we're trusting in Jesus Christ, that we have faith in Jesus Christ, not that we show up somewhere on Sunday morning as important as that is. So do you have the wedding garment? Yes, you're in the feast hall. Are you wearing the wedding garment? Are you trusting in Jesus? Is he covering you with his righteousness? And that's where I want to leave it this morning, is to ask ourselves, are you wearing the wedding garment? Can you lay claim to the promises of Jesus through faith? Are you covered in the righteousness of Christ? And if you're not, then perhaps this is the morning. And if this is the morning, then I invite you, gladly, come talk to me or one of the elders or another mature Christian in here. And if you are in, then welcome to the wedding feast that the father has called for his son.