Matthew chapter 22. I'm going to read from verse 1 down to the end of verse 14, a parable of Jesus. I'm going to concentrate on some things suggested in verse 4. Let's hear God's Word. 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, destroyed 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 bad and good, 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 the servants, Find 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. And may God add His blessing to His Word tonight. This parable is one, of course, that Jesus used to tell someone against the Jews. They were the ones who had been invited to the wedding feast of His Son. They had been invited for a long time. In fact, they were called the people of the King, the people of God. He had called them and called them and called them to come. But they would not. They rejected and rejected and rejected Him. They claimed to be God's people. They claimed to be in allegiance to the king. But when push came to shove, they didn't want anything to do with Him. So, just as Jesus told about in this parable, the king sent armies to destroy them and their city. And that is exactly what happened a generation after Jesus ascended into heaven. It was a generation later, in A.D. 70, that armies were sent by God, armies of the Romans. They came and destroyed this people. They came and destroyed their city. He destroyed their temple and everything in it. But there were others whom He sent, His servants, to go invite as well. And they were from all over the place. They were outwardly good, such people as one would think might be interested in the king. But there were also those outwardly bad, but they were called anyway. And they, instead of the original people of the king, they were the ones who got to sit down at the marriage feast of the Lamb. And of course, there, Jesus is talking about those who are not part of the professing people of God. He's talking about those who are out in the world. The pagan Greeks, the pagan Romans, the pagan, well, everything. Including, well, let's see, what do we have here? People of Scots-Irish descent. and French and Japanese and Italian and German. Yeah, we've got all kinds of things here. So, in any case, we have them brought in from the highways and the hedges, and they're the ones who sit at the wedding feast of the Son. Now, what's this got to do with anything? Well, as I said, those who profess to be the people of God and who had the sign and seal of the covenant in their own bodies were those who had been invited. God had sent out His servants to tell them in the first place that they were invited, giving them advanced warning. You know, when you get invited to a wedding, you don't get notice of it that very day. Someone doesn't come knock on your door some Saturday morning at 10 in the morning and say, hey, there's a wedding going on in Cleveland at 3 this afternoon. Can you come? It just doesn't work that way. Now, if you've got a wedding in the Cleveland area to attend to, the bride's parents or the bride herself, If she's on top of things properly, she is sending out those invitations good and early so people get it onto their calendar. And then, of course, there is the time when the wedding is there, and then the people are supposed to be showing up, especially if they've indicated they will be there. It's considered very bad form, it's very impolite to say, you're going to be there, then you don't show up. Or say you're not going to be there, and you do show up. You're supposed to let people know. In any case, these who claim to be the people of God, These who claim to be the people of the king, those who claim that they were God's people, they're the ones who would not come. Bad things happened. Thankfully, not all of those refused to come. After all, were there not eleven apostles or eleven disciples? And was not a crowd of thousands coming to Jesus on the day of Pentecost? Were there not thousands more after God used Peter and John to raise the crippled man from off his feet? Were there not many more, even among the Pharisees, even among the priests who came to saving knowledge in Jesus Christ? Yes. Yes, there were. There were a good number. And even now, Jews continue to come to Jesus, though it's a trickle. Though it be a trickle, it really is He coming. There are some who come, but the overwhelming number of those who profess to be the people of God did not come. There is a warning here. For just as it was then, even now there are those who profess to be the people of God. But though they claim so outwardly, they are not really inwardly. And it is to them, I hope not to you, but I suppose it is possible to. As we've had this off and on series about coming, coming to Jesus, this one is specially for those who believe that they are Christians, but don't really have a saving relationship to Jesus Christ. Even today, no longer through directly living prophets and apostles, but now through their writing, God sends invitations. Now, He does so by means of people usually, though not prophets and apostles anymore. Their day has gone. They have finished their work, they've completed the Scripture, they have gone on to heaven, but the Scripture remains. And it is given out to those in the world, and it is given within to those who profess to be believers, but perhaps are not. He does this by the special servants that he has given to the church. First of all, the teaching elders, his ministers, who are specially called to do this work, who are specially gifted and then further trained so that they can share the news of the gospel, so they can present the good news that Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. It is done through other church officers as well, for there is nothing preventing and much commending ruling elders and deacons telling others of Jesus. For after all, were there not elders, say, in the church at Antioch who did just this? Were there not deacons such as Stephen and Philip in the book of Acts who did just this? But that is not all. All of his people, those who are truly his in Jesus Christ, are his servants, and they are called upon to tell others to come to Jesus Christ. in, if we look forward, to Acts chapter 8. You can look there with me, the first few verses of that chapter, and you will see there is something interesting. At the time when Stephen was killed, we read that Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church was at Jerusalem, and they, that is the people of God, truly the people of God, were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere, preaching the Word. Now, the apostles, the leaders of the church, they stayed in Jerusalem. But those who were believers went all over the place preaching the Word. Thanks be to God for this. This is part of our job, friends, to be doing so. Or else, if we claim to be Christ but are not really His, to be heeding that. After all, Anyone, anyone who is a believer can learn and tell a simple yet true and effective gospel presentation. And all of Christ's people can give testimony of God and Christ working in them personally. You know what happened to you if you really are a believer. You know what God has done in your life. And there are many things that you can pinpoint. Maybe not the exact time at which you converted, but you still can tell what you once were without Jesus Christ and what you are now. And that is by the grace of God. That is by His working within you. And that is because Jesus lived for you, died for you, and is resurrected for you. And He, you know this, saved you all by Himself. There is nothing you did. No, when left to yourself, you tried to run away. But He got you. And He saved you. And He's kept you. Because He loves you. These are the kinds of things that you can tell to all sorts of people. Now, God also sends invitations to sinners by written means. His Word. You know, we usually have a Gideon speaker here in the fall. And the Gideons are an organization sends out Scriptures to all sorts of places. Anytime you go to a motel, you can look in a drawer in the dresser under the telephone right there by the phone book, and there is a Bible. You can go to any hospital room, look in the drawer by the little stand by your bed, or by your friend or your loved one who is there in the hospital, and there is a Bible. And there are many, many other places where there are Bibles. And we have listened to these men who have come to us and told us incidents that they know of, or have heard of, or have actually seen themselves. Where God has used one of these Bibles placed there in the lives of people who are desperate and hurting. And God has brought them to new life. These who, in several instances we've all heard, were about to kill themselves. They were at the very edge of death and God gave them everlasting life. By this means, people are given the invitation. As they're given a Bible or given a New Testament, therein they read of a Savior. One who rescues the perishing. One who delivers the sinner from his sin and delivers him unto life. All this, of course, is used by the Holy Spirit. It is ultimately not the minister, not the elder, not the deacon, not the Christian, not the Bible that converts people. It is the Spirit of God. He uses people as they preach and as they speak of the good news. He uses the written Word. After all, he is the author of the written Word. But ultimately, it is not the persuasion of the preacher. It is not the rhetoric of the ruling elder. It's not the determination of the deacon. It is not the memorized message of the member. It is none of these. It is the Spirit of God working effectively in all those who are chosen from before time. It is that which brings about, or maybe I should say more accurately, it is He that brings about conversion of sinners as He uses His Word, whether written or preached. Now, as God sends out the invitations, To whom do they go? Well, in this parable particularly, they are for those who claim to be God's people. In those days, who were God's people? Why, they were the Jews. They were those who were circumcised in body and who were in a covenant, or by this, they were in a covenant relationship, at least outwardly, with God. Now, we read about some of the privileges they had. Let's see if I can remember the Scripture passage that tells of this. Well, I'm not remembering it just as I should have written it down. But in any case, there are many privileges that those who were the Jews then had. They had the patriarchs, They had the covenants. They had the scriptures. They had the prophets. They had the priests speaking of Jesus Christ by their actions. They had the sacrifices in the temple. All these things they had. No other nation, no other people had this. But sadly, as we've seen all through the history that we've gone through in the Old Testament, they kept going aside. In fact, we just sang about this during the psalm sing earlier this evening when we had that selection from Psalm 105. Nonetheless, God kept calling to these people for a long time. He still does this today. Believe me, friends, all that profess to be Christians are not. There are many friends, there are many who are in cults. They claim to be Christians, but they are not, we know. They want to be thought of as Christians. They will tell you, perhaps, that they are Latter-day Saints. They will tell you that they are Jehovah's Christian witnesses. But they are not. They may be, and every one of any of these cults, well, of those two particular cults anyway that I've ever met are nice people. They are nice people. Particularly, I think I've mentioned this before, I have friends who are members of the Mormon church through scouting. Nice guys. But sadly, as far as I know, and certainly if they're consistent with what their church teaches, they cannot truly be Christians. And I grieve over that. There are those who are members of organizations that once were Christian churches, once part of the one holy Catholic and apostolic church. In fact, they may claim the name Orthodox. They may claim the name Catholic. But they have rejected the true Gospel. They have rejected the way and plan of salvation that is presented in the Scripture. They once were Orthodox, and both of them on the doctrine of the Trinity, for example. And the doctrines teaching the nature of Jesus Christ are orthodox, and they are Catholic. But when it comes to actually saying how a man is to be saved, they outright rejected the testimony of the Scripture. They once were Christian churches. Sadly, they are not now. Is this to say that there are no believers within them? No, occasionally one finds a person that is a member there and does not really believe the teachings of their own church, they believe what the scriptures say. They should not be where they are, but they may not even realize the differences they have with their home church. In any case, the organizations themselves are not truly Christian anymore. They once were, but no longer. And most all the people within them will claim that they are Christians. They will profess that they are Christians. They will haul around big crosses and they will do all sorts of things. But sadly, they've gone off to other things. And then there are other organizations which may claim the term Protestant. And they at one time were mighty forces for the Gospel. But in the main, people in there are not believers. The organizations themselves, if they have not gone totally off into apostasy, they've gone a long way. Sadly, in the pews of many so-called Protestant churches, you find an awful lot of unbelievers. An awful lot of people who have perhaps been baptized, who have made church membership vows, but they have no idea of a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. I know, I've been in that position for a period of three years. From the age that I was 12 when I became a Communicant member in my home congregation to the time I was 15 and was really and truly converted at that time. But there are even in so-called fundamental, so-called evangelical churches, Those who are unbelievers. The churches as a whole may be sound. And there may be good teaching, there probably is good teaching to some degree, maybe to a great degree going on within the walls and in their studies and so on and so forth. But individuals, though most of the people would be believers, are individuals who are not. They may look the same, they may talk the same, they have well learned how to camouflage themselves. In fact, they have acted so much like other believers that they may think themselves believers. But deep down they have no notion of what the gospel is about. Could that be you? I hope not. I will be surprised, but God speaks to such as these. And perhaps those hearing me over the internet need to hear this. For after all, this invitation to come to God in Jesus Christ is addressed to just such people as these, who claim to be the people of God, who nowadays we would say have been baptized, have gone through all kinds of classes, who attend church, they do all sorts of good things, to them an invitation is, come to Jesus. For God gladly invites all who are formally and visibly His. After all, they are marked with the sign and seal of the covenant which is today baptism. They are part of the visible church, but they are nonetheless, just as Jews and other people today must not depend on those things or upon morality, but they must have faith in and union with Jesus Christ that brings real and true repentance. So many people, friends, even in Gospel-believing churches, have not come to understand that God does not accept them for their so-called goodness. They think they're being good enough that God must accept them. Everything must be okay. Otherwise, they can say certain words, they can mouth certain things, think everything is okay, but it is not. They're going through the motions and they don't even realize it, but they don't really know Jesus Christ. Again, I can testify that I was such. Outwardly, anyway, I was a good kid. I didn't cause my parents a lot of trouble. I didn't act up in school. I did a few bad things, it's true, but there were a lot of good things I did. Mustn't God accept me? But God in His grace began working in and on me when I was about 14. I've told this to many of you how it was that my father would come into my room and have me say my prayers. That is, say the Lord's Prayer. He would then go on over to my sister's room or to the room where my two brothers were. And it was after my dad left that then I'd really start praying and understand there's a difference between saying your prayers and praying. And I would pray that God would forgive my sin because I had a growing conviction that I was a sinner. It was getting harder and harder for me to ignore the fact that I wasn't really a good kid. No, I was actually kind of a bad kid. As my sin would come in on me, I'd see what a liar I was. I'd see what a thief I was. I'd see what a cheat I was, and how good I was at disguising this from other people. I would see that I had only an outward goodness, but I didn't know anything really about God. This feeling kept growing on me. And I kept crying out. And I was getting kind of desperate for forgiveness of sin, but I never really felt forgiven. And I wasn't forgiven because God does not forgive without the Mediator, without the Lord Jesus Christ. And I didn't understand that. Why? Because my pastor was not faithful in preaching that? No. My minister, Mr. Gates, Bill Gates, did preach that. But I was still dead. God was bringing me up, so to speak, from the depths. But I was not there yet. I saw the Gospel in print in many places. And I was looking all over for some sort of spiritual connection to God. But I just couldn't find it. I read the Gospel. I heard the Gospel. I could tell you a few things, I suppose. But it wasn't until one night in an island out in the middle of a lake, way up in New York State. And some of you here, some of you on the Internet may have heard of Word of Life and Jack Wurtz It was on that night as he spoke of the gospel to us, who had just gone there, had just arrived there earlier in the day, that suddenly all I had been hearing from my pastor, and from books I'd read, and from Christian friends, all of a sudden made sense. Jack Worson told me nothing that I hadn't heard before. What was the difference? The Holy Spirit changed my heart. I'd been dead, and suddenly I was alive. And suddenly, then, I got it. And I saw it. It wasn't up to me. And there was nothing I could ever do to commend myself to God. Jesus lived in my place. Jesus died in my place. Jesus was raised to guarantee and bring to pass my salvation. That is the message I had. But I'll tell you, for three years I was in good standing in the church. It was as the Spirit called me through a man faithfully calling outwardly with the Word of God that I came to Jesus. Now, I would not agree with everything in Mr. Wurtzen's theology that night, but the core of it was real, and the core of it was true. We need not have some sort of response as of raising of hands with every eyes closed. In fact, there's no real scripture warrant for that. No scripture warrant for an altar call. No scripture warrant for coming down an aisle and shaking a hand or anything of the sort. Does that mean that there should be no response to the preaching of the gospel? Well, of course not. Your response is called for. Now, that very night in July of 1969, Jack Wurtzen called for a response. Now, not a Scripture one altogether, but inside it brought a response. He called for a response, come to Jesus. And I could not but come. For suddenly I saw that there was finally rescue from my sin. The inviters, like me, now say to you, come. The response is called for by God's Word that we've read right now, right here in verse 4. 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." Your response is called for by the Spirit who may be urging you, now come. And your response is called for despite the fact that you may well be a church member. Despite the fact that you are very moral and outwardly good If you've not come to Christ, if you're trying to depend on anyone or anything else, why, these things will only condemn you. The invitation, friends, has been issued. And you have it in hand. All you who are sitting here listening to me, All you who are sitting someplace or standing or driving in your car, listening to this perhaps directly over your computer or through an MP3 player or something of the sort, all of you now have this invitation in hand. This goes to sinners. Are you a sinner? Then the invitation is to you an invitation from the King, from God Himself. Come. Come. Rely no more upon yourself. Rely upon your supposed good works no longer. They will not support it. Come to the wedding feast of the Son of the King. Come and be saved in Jesus Christ. Amen.