Part 1.―Invited.
“And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”―Matthew 22:1-131And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. 5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. 11And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22:1‑13).
THERE are two very different ways in which God has approached man since the Fall. The first of these ways is given to us in the parable which the Lord spoke to His hearers in Matthew 21, where you have the parable of the householder, the vineyard, and the husbandmen. In chapters 22, which I am touching particularly, you have a great contrast in the ways of God.
In the parable of the vineyard, out of which God looked to find fruit from the husbandmen who had it in hand, there is no doubt that we have the illustration of the way in which God had dealt with man under law and responsibility, up till the time of the coming of Jesus―until the moment of the incarnation of God’s blessed Son in this scene. In plain language, chapters 21 is law, and chapters 22 is grace. In chapters 21 God is seeking something; in chapters 22. God is coming near and furnishing something. In chapters 21. God is saying, “Have you got anything for Me?” In chapters 22. He is saying, “I have a great deal for you.” That is the difference. Law is what people like. Law makes demands upon man; therefore we read that at a certain time the owner sent his servants to get the fruit of the vineyard, but there was no fruit; on the contrary there was opposition and hatred.
Man is not different today; there is not a bit of change. Do you suppose that the incarnation of Christ has changed man? In no wise. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and whether it was man before the coming of Christ, or man since, it is man, the child of Adam. When God came claiming from man, what did He get? Nothing. And then the Lord shows what the end would be by-and-by―there must be judgment.
Now it is a day of grace, not a day of law; and God is approaching man on the ground of redemption, on the ground of that which His own blessed Son has effected for His glory and for your good and mine. God has come out now in the revelation of His heart, and grace is reigning through righteousness, on the ground of that which Christ is and what Christ has accomplished. Grace is the unmerited goodness of God. Righteousness, which is what the law demanded, is what you and I ought to have yielded to God, but we have not. Men like the law, because it makes something of them. You would rather listen to the law than to the gospel, because it addresses you, it recognizes you, it appeals to you. The law says, “I expect something from you.” That is why people like law. There is nothing people hate like being “cut” or being ignored. Do you understand?
The law said, “Thou shalt love the Lord, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal.” Thus by it I am regarded as somebody, I am addressed, I am recognized; but the point of the gospel is this-it ignores me altogether. People have to learn that, and it is a bitter lesson, which none of us learn in a day. We think we must do something, and then, when we find we have not done it, we get distressed, but the last thing you will do is to fling up your arms and say, “I cannot do anything fit for God.” Do you know how I know that? I know my own heart; and yours and mine are just alike, because Scripture says, “As face answers to face in the water, so doth the heart of man to man.”
Further, it is no good to mix law and gospel. Law is the demand that God in righteousness makes upon me, but then I have not answered to the demand. What comes next? The condemnation that must of necessity fall upon me because I have not answered to law. What an immense comfort to know that God is not now coming near to us commanding us to bring anything, to do anything, or to feel anything. He is coming near and presenting something to us that is the outcome of His own heart, and is wrapped up in the person of His own blessed Son, and that is pressed upon us for our acceptance.
Well, you say, people will receive Christ surely. Stop, have you received Him? Are you saved? Are your sins forgiven, ate you perfectly certain? “Well,” you say, “I am a professing Christian.” We shall have a look at you presently. Profession won’t do. I don’t ask, “What do you profess?” but “What do you possess?” We get in the end of this story the folly of the man making a profession without reality, the man who went in without a wedding garment. He had not learned his own state—what was wrong with his own clothes—and in he went, only to be turned out.
There are many people—usually Church members—dreaming they will go to heaven, who have never been converted, never got on the wedding garment, never knew they were lost, and, of course, never went to Christ to be saved. They are decent, respectable, religious—not what they ought to be, of course, for nobody would take that ground—but what they had failed in, Christ would, make up. That is exactly what Christ will not do; He is not an up-maker. That is not His way at all. He is the blessed, living Saviour of the lost.
The day of the law has gone by. “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Have you been struggling and striving to present to God that which would give you a title to the wedding feast? That will not do.
Let us ponder this parable carefully. “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.” The king says, “I am going to have my son honored. Who is prepared to go with me in honoring my son?” That is very simple. It is really making much of Christ. That is the point. God will have a marriage feast for His Son (the beloved Son was to be the object of every eye), and the Father’s thought was, “Let Me get a company that will share His happiness, and that will enjoy that which will be a great joy to His heart. Let Me get people that will share My feelings and His feelings.” It is a wonderful thing that God should want to bring you and me into communion with Himself in His own thoughts about His blessed Son.
You say, “I thought the gospel would save me from going to hell”? So it does, but that is the negative side of the gospel. I do not make light of that, and I want you to understand that, if you are not a participator in the joy of Jesus in heaven on the ground of redemption, you must spend eternity with Judas in hell. Friend, make no mistake, you are under notice to quit; you are not going to be always on earth; you are going off very shortly. What does God want? He wants your company. The gospel saves a man from eternal judgment, but that is not God’s great thought. God says, “I should like that man’s company in eternity with My blessed Son, and not only do I want his company, but I will send him an invitation.”
You will stand before the Lord by-and-by, but unsaved reader, you will never say you were not invited. Memory will tell you you were invited over and over again, and it will tell you that you “made light” of the call of grace over and over again, and then you will be speech-less.
Christian, what will you be then? Be speechless? Not you. If you do not find your tongue here on earth, you will then, to join that holy, happy song that ascribes glory to the Lamb.
God made a feast, “and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding” (vs. 3). The idea is His own. This gospel―the glad tidings of God―is that you should be the companion of His Son in everlasting glory; it was His own thought. “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor?” Who has said, “Lord, wouldn’t it be nice if You were to invite sinners, and save them and bring them to glory instead of their going on in their sins and being damned”? Nobody ever said that. Paul might well say, “Who has been his counselor?” God is God, and He has taken His own way. He has ordained this wedding feast for His Son, and He is going to have guests there, and, blessed be His name, He sent me an invitation.
You inquire, “What did you do?” I took it; I accepted it. What will you say? “I never knew I was invited?” Then, know it henceforth. You say, “I never was invited before.” I guess you were, but your heart was engaged with things down here, hence the Lord says, “He sent forth his servants to call them.” It is a knock at your door. What does it mean? God calls you; God invites you. What to? The company of His blessed Son for eternity. “He sent forth his servants to call them.” A preliminary invitation had gone out, but see how God pursues men.
God did not leave me alone when I did not reply. He sent another messenger after me. God has saved me, and He wants to save you. Are you going to let Him? “He sent his servants to call them.” You know you have been a very civil person, but do you know that you have not been civil to God? You know you have not been, but there is something underneath deeper than civility. Do you know what that is? I will read it, “They would not come.” Why have you not been converted hitherto? It was not, “They could not come,” but, “They would not come.” That is will. Oh, that wicked, awful will that is in man’s heart. What way has your will taken you? What way did my will take me? I read, “He (Pilate) delivered Jesus to their will,” and what did they do? Put Him on the cross. When your will works, how does it work? Against God? Yes.
“Well,” you say, “one would think, to hear you speak, that I was an awful sinner.” So you are. You ask, “Worse than you?” Not so bad, but cast in the same mold. You have a will, and you have used it against God. “They would not come.” You say, “They must have been terrible people!” They got an awful doom. Beware. The lessons of these parables are Christ’s beacons to immortal souls like you and me.
The invitation goes out, but there is no attention. The servant went and knocked, and said, “Supper time has come, are you coming?” Are you coming to Jesus now? Not just yet? “Well,” you say, “I should take good care never to send another invitation to people who treated me like that!” I believe you are right, but, thank God, He is not like you and me. What do I read? “Again he sent other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come ye to the marriage.” What grace is in the heart of God What guilt is in the sinner’s heart that needs to have this message pressed on him again and again!
But I hear you say, “Who is that sinner?” Don’t you know him? Will you tell me you have received the invitation? If you have not received it yet, I am very glad to have the chance of telling you this precious news. God says, “I have prepared my dinner; all things are ready; come to the marriage.” You say, “Of course they came”? Listen, and see a page of your own heartless life, because you know you have heard this again and again. “But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise.” I should like to ask you, When do you expect to taste grace? Do you think you can play fast and loose with God forever? Do you think you can trifle with mercy right into eternity? Stop! Beware! Do you know whose words these are? They are the words of the incarnate Son of God. They are the words of the One who, on the cross, agonized in blood and sorrow and shame till death closed His eyes, that you and I might be saved and redeemed and brought to God.
Then we have recorded the most dreadful thing possible, “They made light of it.” You hope to be saved some day, I have no doubt, but in the meantime what are you doing? Jesus says, “They made light of it.” But you say, “I am not frivolous.” Have you accepted the invitation? Have you tasted the grace of God? Are you justified by faith in Jesus? Has the Holy Ghost led you to say, “Abba, Father”? These are parts of the feast.
Alas! “They made light of it.” I think there is not a more awful word in all the Scriptures. What was the reason? They were pre-occupied; governed by sin; held in the chains of lust most likely― “divers lusts and pleasures,” as Scripture says. You say, “What is the harm?” What of? A thing that hinders you from receiving Christ? It ruins you for eternity. “They made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise.” All these things were very good in themselves.
The business man says, “I have my business to attend to.” You want to make money, and you will do it, and―and pass into a lost eternity, and if from your wretched God-forsaken soul a bitter cry should come, “O God, why am I forsaken?” an echo will come back from the caverns of hell, “Lord, he heard the gospel and ‘made light of it;’ he got the invitation over and over again, but he ‘made light of it.’” The merchandise was too much; the money was too much; the drink was too much; the cards were too many; the yellow-backed novel had the day; the pleasures of sin have sunk you into the pains of everlasting perdition, and you will recollect this-you made light of it. Made light of what? Grace, mercy, God’s salvation, God’s Son, God’s Spirit, God’s company, pardon, peace, life, forgiveness. Those were all flung aside.
Alas! “they made light of it.” Don’t imitate this action; it is an awful record.
W. P. T. W.