King's Wedding Feast

Matthew 22:1-14

Luke 14:15-24

Matthew 22:1-14, And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4 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.” ’ 5 But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7 But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10 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.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.” This parable is one of the most dramatic and powerful of all our Lord’s parables. A parable about a royal feast. A royal wedding feast.

Background

This is Monday of the last week of our Lord’s life and ministry. Wednesday, He will be crucified. Sunday, He will rise from the dead. For three years He has been preaching and teaching the Gospel of the kingdom. He has been proclaiming Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

Jesus has been offering Himself and His kingdom to the people of Israel, His own people. Now the three years have ended.

The people have rejected Him. The leaders have rejected Him and are extremely hostile to Him, and they will turn Him over to the Romans for execution. Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem. He had arrived for the festivities of Passover. He stayed in Bethany, in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

On Sunday, He cleansed the temple. He threw out all the moneychangers and all the sellers of merchandise that had turned it from the house of prayer God intended it to be into a den of robbers. He cleansed it. This is Monday, and He is back in the temple.

After the temple is cleansed, He has come to teach and preach the Gospel of the kingdom. A huge crowd gathers around to listen to Him. Jesus is the center of attention. The religious leaders are threatened by this because He speaks of an internal righteousness. He speaks of a true salvation that they know nothing about in their external, self-righteous religion.

Jesus is a threat to their system. Jesus is confronted by these religious leaders. V 23, they stop Him and ask Him by what authority You do these things.

Show us Your rabbinic ordination papers. Show us the approval that You must go about saying and doing what You do. They are angry, bitter, hostile, and planning His death. Jesus answers them with 3 parables.

Matthew 21:28-32,"The Parable of Two Sons"

Matthew 21:22-46, "The Wicked Vinedressers"

Matthew 22:1-14, "The Wedding Feast" Each of the parables is alike in that their message of judgment. Simple message we can get out of this parable is that,

• You have rejected Me.
• All the Old Testament prophets spoke of Me.
• All the miracles that I have done validate My claim to be the Son of God, the Saviour, the Messiah.
• All the words that I have said affirm that.
• But you have consistently and for three years repeatedly rejected Me, and now God rejects you.

The table has turned, and they are parables of judgment. They climax in this third parable.

1. Invite to the Royal Banquet. V 1, And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables

and said

Jesus responded to them. He gave them the message that they needed to hear. He gave it to them in parables. Parables are simply figures, stories, analogies used to convey spiritual truth. Any good teacher knows that you must teach in analogies if you are to convey an abstract thought or concept, the best way to do it is to start with something they are very familiar with.

You go from the known to the unknown. Jesus was the master of analogies, figures of speech, language, and articulating truth. He knew what they knew because He had grown up in their culture. So, He started with things they could understand and move to things they couldn’t understand.

Jesus used all the things of common life, culture, daily routine, and turned them into spiritual messengers which conveyed profound spiritual truth.

Jesus draws for them a story which all of them would not only understand, but which would set them up for the great spiritual truth it conveyed. V 2, “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, Jesus always talked about the kingdom of heaven.

He never really got trapped in talking about anything else. They wanted Him to get involved in a lot of other things, but He never said anything except things about the kingdom of heaven.

What is the kingdom of heaven? The sphere of God’s rule. It is the dominion where God rules, where God is sovereign, and God is king. Kingdom is the dominion of redemption. It is the sphere of God’s gracious salvation. The kingdom is that place where God rules, where God’s subjects live. It is a spiritual kingdom.

Kingdom is a community of people who are redeemed, and who are under the rule and the guiding and the leading of God.

• There is a present aspect to the kingdom.

• There is a future millennial kingdom when Christ reigns on the earth.
• There is an eternal element to the kingdom.
• There is even a past element, where God ruled in the Old Testament through His patriarchs, kings, judges, priests, and prophets.

It has different facets, but it is still the kingdom, the sphere of God’s rule by grace and salvation. This is about God’s world and dominion. A wedding feast. The wedding was inseparable from the feast. A wedding, in those days, was a big and long feast.

Normal was seven days. They had the people come to their house for the wedding feast, fed them, and cared for them for seven days. If you were a king, it could go on way beyond that. It wasn’t until the very end of the time that you put the hand of the bride in the hand of the groom, and they went off to consummate the marriage. It was one great, grand, glorious celebration.

It was the highlight of life, as any wedding is today the highlight of family life. A wedding made by a king for his son would be the wedding of all weddings. We can understand the Royal wedding since we all live in London.

Even in our culture, we understand the grandeur, the majesty, the wonder, and the spectacle of that. This is not just a wedding feast, but a wedding feast thrown by the king. Our Lord is identifying here is the greatest celebration those people could imagine in their culture. It isn’t important that it was a marriage, because nothing is said about a bride, and nothing is said about the actual marriage itself or the wedding.

What is important is the Lord wants to identify the greatest celebration that those people could ever understand in their culture. Jesus is saying the kingdom of heaven is like the greatest celebration imaginable, thrown by the wealthiest person for the most honoured person.

He wants to capture all the best that life could ever imagine giving. The word “wedding feast” appears here many times. It could be wedding feast, marriage feast. It’s translated marriage very often or wedding. But sometimes it’s singular, and others it is plural.

It starts out plural, goes singular, goes back to plural. It alternates through the singular and plural. The reason is because you could look at it as one feast, or you could look at it as a whole sequence. It was one great feast in which there were many feasts. You were banqueting for days.

We get a little insight into the culture just by the way the Greek language uses the singular and the plural. It was the event of all events. V 3, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come.

Let us look at the Middle Eastern custom. In those days, people didn’t have watches, and they weren’t as rigidly tied to time schedules as we are today. They didn’t have the ease that we have in procuring food and all that goes into a long festival for multitudes of people.

Banquet preparation was very difficult. Time was a little bit slow. There was a preliminary invitation. Certain people had been given invitations to come to the king’s wedding feast. They had accepted those invitations. Probably paraded around saying that they have been invited to the wedding feast for the son of the king.

They would have said to others that they were the honoured guests. So, they are the already invited ones. Now, when the moment is ready to begin, the servants are sent out to these people to say that it is now that we begin.

The servants go out to collect the already invited ones. V 3, they were not willing to come. Unbelievable! We could imagine, when the Lord’s saying this, that there are certain gasps in the crowd. It is unthinkable. If you had been given an invitation to a week or two-week festival connected with the royal wedding, you would surely go.

If you were invited by the monarchy surely you would go. Here they wouldn’t come, and it is inconceivable. We are beginning to see the parable have an impact, because the people, including the religious leaders, are going to have to be saying that this is ridiculous. Nobody in their right mind would do that.

You would reject the honor the king was giving you. Free royal food isn’t a bad deal. The kind of food the king serves is pretty good stuff compared to the commoners. You don’t mess with Middle Eastern monarchs. If you mess with the king, then you may lose your head.

What was the king’s response? A nice king. V 4, 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.” ’

The word used for the term dinner is Ariston. There were two meals in the Jewish culture. The Greek words are Ariston and Deipnon. Deipnon was the evening meal which was after sunset.

Ariston was the morning meal that was between dawn and noon. The Jews only ate two meals a day. They got up in the sun and they worked. About 9:00, they stopped for their Ariston. John chapter 21, where we have the disciples fishing all night, they caught nothing. Jesus shows up in the morning, says try the right side of the boat. They put their nets, and they get lot of fish.

By the time they get to the shore, it is time for that morning meal, and it says the Lord said to them, “Come and have ariston.” Breakfast, their midmorning breakfast. The wedding festival began with a morning brunch and then they would have a post sunset evening meal. That is the only two meals they had.

So, it’s kind of like the old English wedding breakfast that he invites them to. All ready. You must come. Everything is prepared. V 5, But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business.

They treated it with indifference. The Greek word means to be unconcerned. They were utterly indifferent to that.

How could you be indifferent to this? They were indifferent. They just walked away from it. These people are out of their mind.

Why would they ever do such a thing? This story is impossible to believe. No one would ever do this. This is a very farfetched story, and the Lord is just setting them up. one to his own farm, another to his business. We are not coming to the great, grand, glorious, royal wedding feast.

We are going to go to the farm and over to the store. It doesn’t make sense. Such indifference. Such selfish preoccupation with our own enterprises. Such a forfeiture of joy. Such a forfeiture of grandeur, glory, beauty, and celebration.

Such an insult to the king. Such an affront to his graciousness, for such an invitation was the highest honour in the country.

V 6, And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. This is really getting foolish now. The parable is ridiculous. They killed the guys who came to call them to the feast? Outright hostility is added to indifference, and both reflect a certain rebellion against the king.

What does this mean? The story is clear. The kingdom of heaven is the sphere of the God’s rule by salvation. It is the community of the redeemed. It is the place of divine blessing, salvation by grace.

Who is the king? God.

Who is His son? Jesus Christ. A great banquet is a Jewish idea.

Talmud says that when the Messiah comes, God will put on a banquet to end all banquets, and we will feast with the Messiah. So, Jesus even picks up a very messianic concept out of the Jewish thinking. God is calling people to His Son. He is calling people to come to His kingdom and honour His Son.

Who are the invited guests? They are the already having been invited ones. God is calling a people who have already been called.

Who are the already called people of God? The Jews. Israel. We can start in Genesis chapter 12, where God called out of the loins of Abraham the people of Israel. God said, “I Am going to make out of your loins a great nation, a nation through whom the earth will be blessed. Anyone who blesses them will be blessed, and anyone who curses them will be cursed. They shall be as the sand of the sea, and the stars of the heaven.”

God was going to multiply them. God called out that special nation. They were the called.

Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

They were in Egyptian bondage. God called Israel to be His people. God called them and carried them for 40 years through the wilderness and carried them into the Promised Land. God gave them a land that flowed with milk and honey.

God had a special design for that already called people.

Amos 3:2, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” Ezekiel chapter 16. A dramatic picture. A picture of a baby torn from a womb and thrown bloody on the ground and left there, destitute. God comes by and sees this infant, still bathed in its blood, and washes it, and makes it His own. Beautiful picture of the calling out of Israel to God’s own heart.

They are the already having been called. They were the unique people of God. They were God’s channel to reach the world, God’s point of contact for the doctrine of salvation and the truth of righteousness. It was the already having been called ones that were called.

Who are the servants that go out to call the already having been called ones? Preachers like John the Baptist. Like Jesus Himself. Like the apostles. 70, sent out two by two to preach to the kingdom. Here were the already having been called ones, the nation Israel. The kingdom is offered to them.

The King says to them that here is My Son. My kingdom, come and honour My Son. God sends out His preachers.

What did they do? Some of the people treated them with indifference. Some of the people murdered them. They killed John the Baptist, cut his head off. They killed Jesus Christ. James was the first of the apostles to beheaded.

All the rest of the apostles died as martyrs. They killed the preachers. The indifferent people in the parable are the people who were preoccupied with the farm and the merchandise.

Most people who are indifferent to the Gospel are secular people. Their preoccupation is with stuff. They are more into the physical than they are the spiritual. They are more into earthly possessions than heavenly realities.

They hang around the passing stuff that you can’t pack in a casket and haul out with you. The indifferent people interested in earthly matters. They had no time for heavenly issues. So swept up in material things, they had no thought for spiritual things.

So busy with business, they couldn’t understand salvation was offered to them. So trapped by the farm and the shop that they couldn’t go to the celebration. Finding their satisfaction in the pursuit of gain. Finding their satisfaction in wealth.

False religion is hostile. Secularism is usually indifferent. Look at the history of persecution around the world, and the persecutors of the truth are the purveyors of error inevitably. Revelation 17, when you see the final world system of religion that comes together in the end times is drunk with the blood

of the martyrs because it is false religion that stamps out the truth in hostility. Secularism is indifferent and it is not interested. When Jesus came, and God called His people Israel, the already having been called people to a glorious celebration, there were the secularists. They were indifferent.

There were the religionists, and they were hostile. Still so. When you talk to those who are firm religionists, and you mention the name of Jesus Christ, they become very angry. That has always been because error seeks to stamp out the truth. So, the parable is simply understood.

The invitation was rejected. 2. Punishment for the rejectors. V 7, But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. He had been gracious. The point of sending out group one and group two was only to show not some kind of distinctiveness in the two groups.

This is to show the generosity, kindness, forgiveness, grace, and mercy of the king.

This demonstrate how gracious this king is, and how willing he is to call repeatedly as Jesus, John and the apostles did. Throughout their lifetime they have been repeating their call. Even for the duration of time until the great devastation and destruction came in the land of Israel.

The first group and the second group we don’t need to pin down to some specific group. All of them must be New Testament preachers because they are pointing to Son and calling to the kingdom of the Son. New Testament preachers.

The reason there are two groups is to demonstrate to us the grace, the kindness, the mercy, the patience of the King. But His patience has a limit. His patience has an end. When they have killed, He responds in anger. It is justified, for unrighteousness has slain righteousness. Any man who understands good and what is right would react as He reacted.

V 7, And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Even in our society today, we understand that murderers pay with their life. For the most part we understand it, even though we struggle with that capital punishment issue. At least it’s enough of an issue to indicate that many people feel it’s right.

What was done was just. The murderers were destroyed, and their city was burned up. The order was given for the burning of their city.

Why? V 8, Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. They weren’t worthy.

Why weren’t they worthy? Because they weren’t good enough, because they weren’t moral enough?

Because they weren’t ethical enough?

Because they didn’t do enough good deeds? No, they weren’t worthy because they wouldn’t accept the invitation. That is all he says.

Worthiness is not dependent on moral virtue. They would have been worthy if they had just accepted the invitation. A very important point. When he goes back to call another group, in verse 10, he calls those that are bad and good it says.

So, it isn’t that he was looking around to find the most noble, moral. Worthiness is tied to saying yes to the invitation. They weren’t worthy, because they wouldn’t come. Accepting God’s invitation makes a person worthy to enter the kingdom and commune with the Son and celebrate at the wedding feast. Is not some self-designed morality but saying yes to an invitation.

They weren’t worthy because they refused salvation in the Son, they couldn’t come. There is a limit to God’s patience and His endurance. They had reached the limit. V 43, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

Judgement and replacement which we saw last Sunday.

We have historically the casting off Israel as a nation in the unique place a God’s called people, which they had enjoyed.

Why? Because they rejected the Messiah. They rejected the Saviour, and they were set apart. burned up their city. This was prophetic. It had happened in 70 A.D. Titus Vespasian, the Roman general, came to Jerusalem, conquered the city, murdered 1.1Million Jews, threw their bodies over the wall. Slaughtered beyond that, multiplied thousands all around Palestine.

Josephus, Historian, who was an eyewitness to the whole thing, wrote in his history of Jewish war. The temple at Jerusalem God long ago had sentenced to the flames. But now in the revolution of the time periods, the fateful day had arrived. The tenth of the month of Lous, the very day on which previously it had been burned by the king of Babylon. One of the soldiers, neither awaiting orders nor filled with horror of so dread an undertaking, but moved by some supernatural impulse, snatched a brand from the blazing timber and, hoisted up by one of his fellow soldiers, flung the fiery missile through a golden window.

When the flame arose, a scream as moving as the tragedy went up from the Jews now that the object which before they had guarded so closely was going to ruin. While the sanctuary was burning, neither pity for age nor respect for rank was shown.

On the contrary, children and old people, laity and priests alike were massacred. The emperor had ordered the entire city and sanctuary to be razed to the ground, except only the highest towers and that part of the wall that enclosed the city on the west.

This why today remains the western wall. The rest of the things were burned. The king burned up their city. It hadn’t happened, but it would. It was prophetic in a parabolic form. Objectors to the Son, rejecters of the Son are judged in a fiery judgment. So accurate is our Lord’s statement here.

Because Israel has rejected the Messiah, God rejects them. Those who hostilely kill the Son will be severely judged by God, and their city will be burned. 3. New Invitees.

V 9, Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ Everything is ready, and there is nobody to come.

Who are these new people? Go everywhere and get everybody that will come.

Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, In the book of Romans Israel has been blinded and their hearts are hardened so that the Gentiles can come into the blessing. Yet God has something for Israel. They are going to come back into His favour. They are going to come back into His redemptive plan.

They are there as a small nation today in the midst of all the troubles. But in the meantime, He has stretched out His arms, and He has sent His message everywhere to everyone. V 9, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’

Isn’t that the heart of the Gospel message? Their fall became our rising. God will not be frustrated.

The festival is going to have some guests. The celebration’s going to go on. If it isn’t going to be one group, then another will be there. V 10, 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.

Both bad and good?

Can the bad people come? Oh Yes!

What kind of bad and good is this? This is bad and good in terms of human morality. In life there are certain people that are bad, and certain people that are good. There are criminals and non-criminals. We are not talking about religious things.

We are not talking about spiritual things. We are not talking about Christians and non-Christians. It’s just general in life that there are humanly good people and humanly bad people. But when it comes to calling people into the kingdom, there’s no discriminating.

God isn’t going around looking for the moral people. God is calling everybody, bad and good. What makes them worthy is not their inherent goodness or badness, but their willingness to accept the invitation. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revellers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Anyone can come if they are willing to come on God’s terms.

God calls the good and the bad, the moral and the immoral, the criminal and the non-criminal. God calls the worst of people and the best of people. Everybody everywhere who will come. 4. The gate crasher was banished.

V 11, “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. When you go to a wedding at the king’s place, you got to do what’s right. When you just go out on the highways and byways, and start sweeping in people off the street, you can’t expect a whole lot.

There was only one person who wasn’t properly garmented. We don’t know whether this had time to go home and get a garment, or whether the king provided garments. Everybody had access to the proper garments. Whether they went home and got it, or whether it was provided for them, or whatever, they had access to it.

One person comes in there and he was not properly attired. There was a proper way to be attired. He was easy to spot. The king saw him. He can’t hide. There are no gate crashers in the kingdom. No party crashers. V 12, So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless.

If he had an excuse, he would have given one. He was speechless.

Why? He had no excuse, which means that everybody could have had a garment, including him. He just didn’t do it. V 13, Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Why did they bind him? Because if they didn’t do that, he would come back again. So, they tie him up so he can’t come back in again. Put him in outer darkness. Apparently, the light had been turned on in the middle of the festival. It was evening by now.

He will have great regret missing the celebration. He will be so sad, weeping, gnashing his teeth. There are going to be people who try to crash the kingdom, and they come in, and they hang around, and they join the church, and they get involved, and they are a part.

The preachers have been out there on the highways, and they call them to come. They come in, and they don’t have the proper garment. But they want to stay. To keep them out, you have got to tie them up, put them out.

Who are these people?

Matthew 7:22-23, Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ I never knew you.

Who are you? These are kingdom crashers. These are tares among the wheat. They are not properly garmented.

What is the garment?

Matthew 5:20, For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

What is it that is necessary for entrance into the kingdom of heaven? What is it? Righteousness. A righteousness different than the Pharisees, which was a self- righteousness, God-given righteousness.

Hebrews 12:14, Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: You don’t go into God’s presence without manifest righteousness, without manifest holiness.

Job 29:14, I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban.

The Jews would who were listening to Jesus would understand this because they would remember one of the most beautiful texts of the entire Old Testament.

Isaiah 61:10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Righteousness was the robe.

The king looked at this man and saw no righteousness.

That is no right living, no right thinking, no right speaking. He saw no holiness and no godliness. You don’t belong here. You can’t crash the kingdom on your own terms. This truth is repeated in the Gospel of Matthew. A true believer is manifest righteousness, not that he hangs around other believers, not that he identifies externally with the ongoing activity of the kingdom.

It would be easy to read this text and apply to Israel. But in verses 11-14 is the Gentiles. Yes, Israel treated Jesus Christ with indifference and hostility. Yes, they, too, were set aside of the judgment. Yes, their city was destroyed and their nation.

They have never yet been able to rebuild their temple. Yes, they have lost for all the time since that their sacrificial system. Yes, they have been set apart. Yes, we have been brought in by the gracious preaching of the salvation message that extends to everyone everywhere.

But at the same time, if they have been guilty of indifference and hostility, then we have been guilty of gate crashing.

In Christianity, they have a lot of people who hang around, and who push their way in, and who want to belong, but they have no manifest holiness, which is the robe of salvation. For the only way that a person is ever marked out as a member of the kingdom is by manifestation of holy living.

If the Jew has been guilty of hostility and indifference, and so have many of us. For the world is filled today with people who in their secular pursuits are utterly indifferent to Christ. There are others in their religious persuasions who are utterly hostile to Christ. But there is a myriad of people who on the outside identify with but have no manifest holiness. They have tried to come on their own terms, on their own ground, on their own self-righteousness, and be okay.

It isn’t so.

Conclusion

How do you get that righteousness?

2 Corinthians 5:21, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

When we come to love Christ and receive Christ, we receive the righteousness of God. This is our robe! Good and bad people come, but once you come in, you have a robe. You could be a moral person without a robe and be thrown out. You could be a formerly immoral person, clothed in the holiness of Christ, welcome to stay.

Jesus is saying to these people, “God rejects you because you have rejected the celebration in honor of His Son.” Then He says to the rest of you in the world, come. But don’t think you can come on your own terms. You must be clothed with His righteousness by faith in His death and resurrection.

V 14, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The call goes out to so many, but only a few are chosen. Paul often talks about the call in Romans, and when he does so, it is an internal call. It is the true call to salvation.

The Gospel invitation is sent out to everywhere. Some are indifferent. Some are hostile.

Some try to crash the kingdom on their own terms. But few are chosen. The sovereignty of God. Yes, there is the will of man in receiving the invitation. Yes, there is the will of man in rejecting the invitation. But the perfect balance to that is that God is sovereign, and those who come choose to come, the Bible says, because they are chosen by Him.