Sermon by Bob Bradley

COPYRIGHT © 2016 CAMPBELL CHAPEL FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH 1709 Campbell Drive * Ironton, OH 45638

Accepting the Invitation Sunday, November 13, 2016 Bob Bradley

Matthew 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, Matthew 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, Matthew 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Matthew 22:4 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. Matthew 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: Matthew 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. Matthew 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Matthew 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Matthew 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. Matthew 22:10 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. Matthew 22:11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: Matthew 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Matthew 22:13 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 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Jesus spoke many times unto His disciples and the crowds by parables. He would use earthly things. He would use things that were very common. He talked about seed. He talked about birds. He talked about. He talked about lilies. He talked about a lot of different things in His parables but He did that so He could teach some people about some spiritual truths, or about some heavenly truths. Here is another one of the stories where Jesus is telling another parable, He is going to use. He is talking here about a king, the Bible says that is going to make a wedding for his son. The Bible says here… Matthew 22:1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, Matthew 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

Keep this in mind. This is important about this whole lesson. Jesus is speaking these words in the last week of His life. When you read the story, when you read the Bible, when you read what is happening; when you read it in the events and time frame of Jesus’ life; these things are being spoken and this parable is being given in the last week of Jesus’ life. I have said this many times over the years. It is all important. Everything Jesus spoke is important. However, I don’t think we can overemphasize the importance here of what Jesus is trying to teach here. He knew His time was short. He knew very soon, He was going to leave here. He was going to go to the cross; suffer, bleed and die. He knew He did not have very much time with His disciples so He wanted to teach them everything He could, everything He could in the time He had; so that when He was gone they would know how to live. They could do a lot of different things that He wanted them to do. Matthew 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, Matthew 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

There was no doubt that Jesus here is talking about the nation of Israel. We know that from the time of Abraham, from the time that God made the nation, from the time that God has done all He done with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the great things that God did—all that God ever wanted people to do was just simply obey Him. That is all that God ever asked out of anybody when He gave Moses the Law back there on Sinai. All he wanted people to do was just simply obey the voice of Almighty God. That has not changed any. God still yet wants people today to obey Him, to listen to His voice and do those things He asks us to do. Listen. God is speaking today. God is calling today. He is asking people today simply to believe Him. Matthew 22:3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

We know that Jesus is talking about the Jewish people. We know that He is talking about the nation of Israel. We know that God sent prophet after prophet…and they just would not come. They just would not believe him. Matthew 22:4 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.

“Again.” Even though He sent forth prophets, even though He sent forth His servants to bid people unto the wedding; they would not come. Matthew 22:4 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.

Do you know what? God is a gracious God. Do you know that? God is a very merciful God. When we look down through the Old Testament time, all that God did with this nation; we know that He made them a nation in one day. We know that He laid His arm bare and brought them out of the land of Egypt. The Bible says He brought them out with a mighty hand. Not only that but also, when they got to the land; everything they needed was there. Everything they needed to be able to survive, and everything they needed to worship Him was all there. All they had to simply do was just simply obey Him. Do you know what God did? God was very gracious. Do you know what they did? Instead of believing God, they go over here and started worshiping all kinds of images and idols. They were worshiping the gods of the other nations that were around them. They committed immoralities and fornications. They did all kinds of horrible things. However, do you know what God did? God continued to love them. God continued to call them. God continued to send prophet after prophet to show them that He loved them. Do you know what God is doing today? God is extending His mercy today. God is calling people. How many times in your life, before you got saved did God call you? Most of us did not get saved the first time that God spoke unto us. Do you know what God continued to do? God continued to speak and showed mercy, even though we did not love Him, even though we did not care anything about Him. God continued to call. I say, praise His name. If God would quit calling after one time, this old boy would have been doomed and you would have been too. The nation, He continues to call. Jesus comes along, He is born as the song they sung earlier. He was born in Bethlehem. He was born there. We know the story. It was a great story. He lived 33 years here upon the earth. Do you know what Jesus was doing? He was continually calling them to the wedding. He was calling them unto the wedding. We studied in our lesson this morning about the new city of Jerusalem. How it was compared unto a bride. Listen. There is going to be a day that we are going to get there. While Jesus was here—do you know what He was doing? He was trying to get people to simply come unto the wedding that His Father was preparing.

Listen. You and I are part of the bride of Christ. If we are saved tonight, then we are part of the church of the living God and that makes us the lamb’s wife. Do you know what He is doing today? He is calling men and women to come and to be a part of the great family of God. I don’t know why people don’t want to come. The Bible says here that I read to you. He says, “Tell them…” Matthew 22:4 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.

“I have killed my oxen and my fatlings. Everything is ready. Come unto the marriage.” Do you know what God is doing today? He is not holding anything back. God is calling. God is speaking. God is pleading, “Please come to the wedding.” He is doing that. Everything is done. There is nothing else that is going to be done. If you are waiting upon something else to be done before you come then you are not going to come because everything has been prepared. Jesus Christ has come. The oxen and the fatlings have been killed. Do you know what the Bible goes on and says here? Matthew 22:4 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. Matthew 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

When they got the second invitation, do you know what the Bible says they did? They simply made light of it. They just turned it off. They did not pay any attention whatsoever unto the message of Jesus Christ. We know that were some who followed Him. We know that were some that got saved. We know that some got prepared to come to the wedding. However, the vast majority just simply made light of the call of Almighty God. I’ve got news for you tonight and I’ve got news for this generation today. Christian people are not crazy people. If we have really been born again then our hearts are right with Almighty God and we are not crazy people. Listen. They might want to classify us as being fanatics. They might want to classify us as being crazy. However, there is going to come a day that I am going to fly out of this world. You can call us whatever you want to call us but—listen—I’m glad tonight that God is going to call us one day and we are going to leave here. It does not matter what channel you watch on TV. The discussion will get somewhere along the line, down the road; maybe today, tomorrow, next week or next month about those crazy people. Those people that believe that Jesus Christ is coming back to planet earth. Those

warped people. What has happened to them? They could absolutely think that Jesus Christ, the God of heaven is going to come back to planet earth to get them. They think we are crazy. If you read some reports by some people that we have seen, and I don’t know how much of it all is true; however, we are on the terrorists list. Christian people are actually on their terrorists list. Isn’t that stupid? We have people carrying machine guns in the trunk of their cars while we are out trying to feed people and get people saved and get ready to go to heaven. We are trying to get people to come God who can straighten up their lives and clean them up and make them model citizens. Do you know what they want to do? They want to make us fanatics. That is okay. Listen. The great thing is that God is still yet calling today. Call us whatever you want to call us. Do you know what I want you to do? I want you to come and go with us. As we are going towards heaven, as we are marching towards that place, as we are going towards the great supper of the God of heaven. Do you know what I want you to do? I want you to be there with us. I want to sit right down beside of you when we sit down and we are able to sit down and we are able to talk to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When we can get Noah’s son and say, “Hey, Noah, how did you feel when God spoke unto you and said He was going to send the flood? He told you to build a boat 450 feet long. How did you feel? How did it feel, Peter, to be able to walk on the water as you did? How did it feel, Isaiah, when you were in the temple and the glory of God came down and filled the building and the whole place shook. How did you feel, Isaiah? Do you know what I want? I want you to be sitting right there when we can have conversations like that in the city of Almighty God. We are going to be able to do that. That is pretty good thinking. Matthew 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

They made fun of it. It absolutely did not mean anything to them whatsoever. They felt it was unimportant. Coming to church, today, to a lot of people, is unimportant. Making things right with Jesus Christ, repenting of their sins, living a consecrated and dedicated life to a lot of people is unimportant. They don’t think it is necessary. They don’t think it is needful. There is no benefit to it, to a lot of people. However, there is a lot of people missing the boat too. Matthew 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

What the guy had that was so important on his farm, I don’t have any idea. So important that he would reject the invitation of a king to come to the marriage of His

Son—I don’t know what would have been so important at home that he would not put that aside and come. Today, in our world today, we see so many folks make the same kind of excuse as to why they don’t come to Jesus Christ, why they don’t come and follow Him, why they don’t come and get ready and be prepared for the great supper that is ahead for the people of God. Matthew 22:5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: Matthew 22:6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Get this. “And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.” When you look at the Old Testament, when you read time after time that God sent prophets, God sent people, God sent messengers to warn people to get prepared to come to the wedding. Come to this great time. Simply come and follow the God of heaven. As we read the scriptures, many of them were killed. We know that they killed Jesus. We know they killed John the Baptist. We know that. Matthew 22:7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

In other words, he was upset. The Bible says here that he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Do you think God really did that? do you really think that God when He saw what these fellows did and how they entreated and slew his own prophets, his own people—do you think God really did what he said here? All you have to do is look at history. In 70 AD, some 30 some years after Jesus died, 30 some years after He spoke these words; Titus the roman came. He came to Jerusalem with a fury. He came with his armies and he slaughtered, and he murdered—thousands and thousands of people died. The city of Jerusalem was torn down, one stone at a time. Do you know why? It was because these people would not come to the wedding. The Jewish people would not come when God spoke to them about coming. They killed the prophets. They stoned them. They killed Jesus. They killed John the Baptist. They killed Stephen and others. They killed James. They slaughtered people. Yet, Jesus says here that He was going to come. He was going to slay them. The people that had killed and murdered His people… Matthew 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

“They which were bidden were not worthy.” Do you know why they were not worthy? When you look at the word worthy, do you know what made them unworthy to come to the wedding? It was their disbelief. They would not believe Him. They would not believe the message. They would not receive the invitation and come as He simply wanted them to come. Listen. I hope and pray that as God speaks to people, as God calls people today; He is doing that. He is sending the invitation to your family and to my family. He is sending invitations out everywhere to get people to come. I hope you will come. Look what He does here. Those that were not worthy—the Jewish people—would not come. They would not come. They made light of it. They would not come. Matthew 22:8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Matthew 22:9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

The Jewish people were not worthy. What made them unworthy is that they won’t believe me. He says, “Go to the highways.” Do you know what that means? Go to the whole world. Go to the Jews, the Gentiles, the Greeks, the Romans and go to everywhere you can go, anywhere you can go. Go to the highways. Bid everybody that you come in contact with come to the marriage. Aren’t you glad God has done that? Aren’t you glad that God is doing that today? Do you know what God is not doing? God is not excluding anybody. God is calling men today from every walk of life, every nationality. It doesn’t matter what color you are. It doesn’t matter who you are. God is calling today. The invitation is going out. The servants are going out. The message is being preached. The message is come to the wedding. Come to the marriage. Come. Listen. That is what I want you to do. The Bible goes on and says… Matthew 22:10 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.

They go out. They invite everybody they see. If you and I would do that today—I don’t know why it is so easy for us to invite a Christian to church and we make it hard inviting the unsaved to church. I don’t know why we think that is so hard. However, if we would go out and invite everybody like the call was here; “Servants, go out and invite everyone you see. It doesn’t matter who they are. It doesn’t matter what side of the tracks they are on. It doesn’t matter about their financial situation. It doesn’t matter where they live at. Just invite everybody to come to the marriage. Do you know what the Holy Spirit is doing today? He is calling

people from every nationality. Every nation, every city, every country across this world today; the gospel is being preached. The Holy Spirit is bidding people, “Come to the marriage.” Amen! Look what happens here. The Bible says in verse 11… Matthew 22:11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

I don’t know how long the wedding had been going on. I don’t know how long the festivities had been happening. I don’t know how long all the things had been going on. However, there came a time when the king came in to greet the guests. Do you know what he sees? I think it was very visible to the king. It wasn’t so visible to the other guests that were there. Maybe they did not pay any attention to it at all. However, the king, when he comes in he quickly sees a guy there that does not have on the proper attire. When you look at this from a spiritual sense; do you know what the king was able to see? He was able to see a person here at this particular feast that was not clothed with the righteousness of his son. Listen. You will never get to participate in the great supper, the wedding supper, the marriage supper; you will never get to participate there if you don’t have on this white robe of righteousness. It is very visible to the king. He came in as soon as he saw the guests; he saw it quickly. I thought today, as I was thinking about this. The other disciples didn’t really see who Judas was. They did not really see who Judas really was. They did not know he was a thief. They did not know he was a crook. They did not know that. They did not see that. Many times we sit with people in church—I have said this many times—when we get to heaven, if we get to heaven, if you are saved, you are going to go to heaven. However, when we get to heaven, those who get to heaven are going to be surprised about some people who are there and I also think we are going to be surprised of some people who are not there. Amen! Not everybody that says “Lord, Lord is going to go to heaven.” Not everybody that holds a Bible, not everybody that has preaching credentials is going to go to heaven. Only those that have on the right attire. Only those who have been washed in the blood and made white by His blood, those that have the righteousness of Jesus Christ on; those are the only ones that are going to be able to go. That is the lesson here that Jesus wants to teach these guys. Let’s invite people to come, whoever they are, whatever they have done in life. Let’s do something. Let’s let the Lord do the separating. What do you say? Let’s invite people to come. Let’s invite people to get right with God. Let’s invite people to come to God’s house and get right with God. Let’s let God do the separating. Do you know what He

will do? He knows what He is doing. Do you know what we don’t know, most generally is what we are doing. Amen! We don’t see things right. Matthew 22:12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

How did you get in here? How did you make it in here? Who let you in when you did not have on the right garment, the right clothing, the right attire? How did you get in here? Do you know what happens? Do you know what this guy says? He says absolutely nothing. The Bible says he was speechless. When you stand before Almighty God in judgment, if you are unsaved you are going to be standing at the white throne judgement. Your name is going to be called. Your record is right there. The books are going to be right there. You are going to be judged out of those things that are written in this book according to your works. Do you know what? You are not going to have any excuses. There is not going to be anything that you are going to be able to say that is going to change your destiny. Matthew 22:13 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.

In the religious world today, do you know what people say about that? That is wrong. We would never do that. That is completely wrong. There is no tolerance there. Listen. With God it is either black or white. There is no middle ground with God. You are either saved, or lost. You have either been washed in the blood or you have not been washed in the blood. You either have on the garment or you don’t have on the garment. There is no middle ground. It doesn’t’ matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what you have done in life. If you have never been saved then you are not going to be able to go to heaven. Matthew 22:13 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.

It is going to be a sad sad time, folks, for a lot of people who have sat in Baptist churches, or maybe sitting in the seats here at Campbell Chapel; one day when life comes to an end they will go out of this world unprepared to meet God. It is going to be a sad day for a lot of people. They may have good intentions. I don’t think anybody ever plans on going to hell. I don’t think anybody ever plans on going to the lake of fire and spending eternity there. If they really understand what hell really is and what the lake of fire really is then I don’t think they ever want to plan to go there. It is going to be so sad for people who have had opportunities, that God has spoken to, that God has sent the invitations to time and time again. God has knocked time and time again. God

has extended His mercy time and time again. Yet, people have rejected God and continue to reject God. Listen. I want you to understand that is not going to go on forever. That is not going to go on forever because there is coming a day when He will knock for the last time. There will be a day that you will get your last invitation. There will be a day that He will speak to your heart for the last time. I don’t know when that is. If I did I would do my best to warn you, but I don’t know. I do know this. Tonight might be the last time. I have been sitting in churches, I have been preaching in churches just like this one. People sitting in the pews but before Wednesday night came they were already slipped out of this world unprepared to meet God. Many, many times that has happened in life. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t hear those awful words, “Depart from me, ye that work iniquity; I never knew you.” Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Jesus says here, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Do you know what that means? The invitation is universal. It goes to everybody, but there are very few that are accepting and receiving the invitation to come to the wedding. Please be one of them that will accept the invitation and come. Please be one of them that will come and put everything else aside and come to the great supper of Almighty God. You know where you are at tonight. You know where you are standing tonight. We will not try to over persuade you. We will not do that. I’m not going to do that at all. However, God calls and God speaks. Listen. If He is calling tonight, and speaking tonight and knocking tonight; don’t turn him away. Let this be the night that you turn your life around. Let this be the night that you come. Surrender your life to Jesus Christ and live the rest of your days following Him. Why don’t you come? Come and pray—