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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/isaiah-frazier/the-greatest-invitation/
Now, we're very glad that you're here with us, especially if you're not saved because God is still saving souls, even today. We're thankful that there is a message to proclaim. The Word of God says, Behold, now is the accepted time.
Today is a day of salvation. Whether you understand that or not, you could be saved this very evening. Let's read in Matthew chapter 22, please. Matthew chapter 22. It's something that I've been impressed with lately and I've been thinking about and trying to convey to those who are still in their sins, the greatness of God's salvation.
Matthew chapter 22, verse 1. We'll begin reading. Matthew 22, verse 1. And 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 way, 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 murders and burned up their city.
Then said 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 them to the marriage, the marriage feast.
So those servants went out onto the highways and gathered in and gathered together 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 said unto him, friend, how camest thou hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. And the king then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away.
Cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called, but few are chosen or few have responded. So I'd like to speak to you about this evening, this parable that the Lord Jesus speaks about a certain king who made this marriage feast in honor of his son.
And an invitation was given to the many to come and to enjoy what was being prepared. And sadly, what we read in verse three is this and they would not come. And I'd like just to consider this and a little bit of the context of Matthew and the nation of Israel and then God's invitation to the world.
But when we speak of the gospel, when we speak of being saved, there are many people that have different concepts of what it means to be saved. I don't know what you think in this meeting. What would it be like to be saved?
Some people think, well, what about all my friends and what about all the things that I like to do, the things that please me, that make me happy? What about all of those things? Friend, I'd like to appeal to you this evening.
Salvation is not only an escape from hell and the lake of fire. Salvation is something that God offers a sinner that they might enjoy, that they might have and rejoice in. The Lord Jesus, when he speaks to these people here, he speaks of a man who makes a marriage feast in honor of his son.
And the whole purpose of inviting others to come is that they might enjoy. The Lord Jesus says, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it in abundance. So if your concept of Christianity is as a life of rules and regulations of dues and do nots and of misery, you have absolutely no understanding what it means to be saved by God's grace.
You have not yet begun to live. You have not come into the greatest relationship that a person could ever have a relationship with the God of heaven. You see, that was the purpose of this feast. Just as we have feasts today, we invite people to come that we might sit down with them, they with us, that we might enjoy each other's presence.
Friend, can I tell you what God offers you is good not only for time, it is good for eternity. It is something that is enjoyed now and will be enjoyed eternally. The sad realities of vast multitudes of this world have little time to consider what God is offering in all of his graciousness, in all of his goodness.
You see, this message just isn't just a message of drear, of doom and gloom. This is a greatest message that has ever been heard, the greatest invitation that has ever been given to poor sinners. God wants to have a relationship with men and women and boys and girls.
And yet the sad reality is this men and women do not want to have a relationship with God. What about you here this evening? Have you heard the gospel before? Have you heard the gospel many times? Are you still in your sins?
Are you rejecting God's offer, God's invitation to you? This is a wedding feast. It's not just a wedding ceremony, but all the ritual that goes along with it, likely for many days. To partake with the king and with his son in the honor of the son and to receive and enjoy what the king had provided in the Lord Jesus is speaking of God's offer, God's invitation to have a relationship with him.
We spoke this morning of God's purpose in making Adam to have a relationship with Adam. But it wasn't very long and Adam disobeys God to go his own way. You read of the nation of Israel when the nation is born as they are redeemed out of the land of Egypt.
What does God tell the people in Exodus? He says, you have seen what I've done to the Egyptians. You have seen how I bore you, as it were, on eagles wings and brought you to myself. What was God's purpose in redeeming those people out of Egypt that he might be their God and he has people?
If you will continue in all my commandments, he says you will be my special treasure above all the nations of the earth. That it might be said, what people has a God so nigh unto them? God wanted to be their God.
He wanted to be very near to them and they very near to him. But the sad reality is they turn their back against God and God sends his servants, the messengers. That is who it speaks of. He sent forth his servants to call them that were bid into the wedding and they would not come.
And Jeremiah tells us two evils have my people committed. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. And they have dug out cisterns for themselves that have no water. You see, the people did not want to have that relationship with God.
They did not want to enjoy that relationship with the God of heaven. And they go after dead idols that cannot help them, that cannot speak to them, that cannot hear them. In all the time there is a living God who is crying to his people.
But they love their sin. And they wanted to carry on the things that God would not allow, that were not pleasing to God. So the Old Testament time and time again, God sends his servants, his prophets to speak to the people.
And time again and time again. The answer is we will not hear. We will not come. Verse three. Tell them that are bidden. And they would not come. Verse four. And again, he sends forth other servants, say, tell them which are bidden.
And behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed. All things are ready. Come on to the marriage. I take that in the context of this is speaking of the days after the death of the Lord Jesus.
The one who was slain on Calvary's cross is a basis of our fellowship with God. The reason that we can come into a relationship with God and enjoy God's presence. Is because of the one who suffered for the sins, our sins on the cross at Calvary.
And he has died and the means are prepared. The way is open for men and women to come and enjoy. And even though God did great things in the day of Pentecost and the book of Acts. You see, those who were saved were really the minority, weren't they?
There might have been eight or 10 ,000 souls saved, but there were tens of thousands of people that rejected the message of Christ. As one who was crucified and raised from the dead in offering the forgiveness of sins.
And you remember, Stephen is the very first one that dies for proclaiming the truth of Christ to the nation of Israel. Just as it says here, not only did they make light of it and went their ways. The Bible says the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and slew them.
And one by one, the apostles lose their life because they preach Christ to a people that will not hear. How sad it is, the nation of Israel, despite all of God's blessings and God's entreaty. God appealing to them to come into that relationship with him.
And they would say, we will not. And God speaks again and you come over to chapter 23. The Lord Jesus refers to this. Basically, what he says is this. You are the ones that or that paint and fix up the supplicants of the prophets whom your fathers killed.
You act so pious as a people that are so near to God. And the fact of the matter is you have rejected the voice of God just as your fathers, as he sent his son. A people who would not hear. So. Verse seven, when the king heard thereof, he was angry and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murders and he burned up their city.
And in 30 or 40 years after the Lord Jesus speaks, these words, the city of Jerusalem is completely destroyed. Why? Because we will not. We will not come. You remember, as Paul preaches to the Jews, he says, because you will not hear.
I'm going to go to the Gentiles and that is the rest of our story. Here it says in verse eight, and he said 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 you shall find, bid them to the marriage.
So the servants, they go out the highways and gather in as many as they found both good and bad. The grace of God is extending an offer of grace to all mankind. The forgiveness of sins in a relationship with God, it's not for a chosen few.
It's not for an exclusive group of people today. The message of the gospel is for whosoever to all mankind that God is calling out of all the nations of people to himself. Friend, can I tell you, God's invitation is for you this evening, that you might come into that relationship with God, that you might know him as your father, that you might be his son, his daughter.
The nation of Israel rejected him. John chapter one tells us the Lord Jesus came unto his own and his own received him not. But the next verse says, but to as many as receive him, to those who believe on his name, to them he gave the authority to become the children of God.
I thank God for that, that there is a message for anyone and everyone for you this evening. There is a God in heaven who is desiring your salvation, that you might come into a relationship with him instead of being far away from him in your sin.
Destitute of the glory of God. With no purpose in your life. You see, that is this world. They're searching for something they cannot find. There is no meaning. There's no joy. There's no satisfaction.
And there's no peace because they do not know God. But God is giving an offer. An invitation. To poor sinners. That his house might be filled. And I rejoice in this fact that God's desire is that heaven might be filled.
A friend, the question is this. Are you going to be there? Because really what we find is this. There were those who had been invited and yet they were not willing. The Bible says simply and they will not come.
They would not come. And afterwards, as they're invited again, it says they made light of it and they went their way. They simply did not care. Can you imagine? A feast. We're not speaking about the crumbs that this world offers.
Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. That is what the Lord Jesus tells a woman who is searching for something she cannot find in this world. No matter how many relationships she has. It's not until she comes into a relationship with him.
The one who is not only a Jew, not only a prophet. The man who told me all things, but the Christ. And she could hear those words. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.
That is God's offers to sinners today. Complete and full satisfaction. Here is a feast that is garnished. All things are ready to be enjoyed. And yet as any invitation is an invitation that can still be rejected even today.
Just as the nation of Israel rejected the invitation of God. Sinners today can reject God's offer. Boys and girls that grow up in Christian homes can turn their back against God and go their own way. People who have a Bible in their hands can close it and put it on the shelf.
They can turn their back on the greatest blessing that a person could ever have in time or eternity. And they can say we will not. Can I tell you, God is not going to force you into heaven. God is not going to force you into a relationship with himself.
You said you need to turn from your sin. That was the message of the Old Testament, the message of the New Testament. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord.
And he will have mercy on him to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. But are you going to say I will not? Doesn't appeal to me. Friend, this is the greatest thing a person could ever have to know him.
And who knowing his life eternal. Not just to be one of the vast multitudes of nameless people on Earth, but to be a child of God. Safe and secure by his hand. And not only to rejoice in that nearness, that intimacy for life, but for all eternity.
He will dwell among them. He will be their God. Well, that isn't the end of the story, because maybe there are people here today. And they would say, yes, I would like to be in heaven when life is over.
But they're not willing to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. Because we read of a man here who obviously he listened to the invitation and was willing to come. But he was not willing to put on the wedding garment.
This, of course, would have been something that the very same king would have provided if he was providing the feast and the food. And offering an invitation to come, he would have provided these robes to put over the street clothes.
So that they could come and participate in this feast. And he has confronted friend, how came a southerner, verse 12, not having on a wedding garment? And the Bible says this, and he was speechless. He had nothing to say for the simple fact that it had been offered and refused.
Now, you might say, yes, I want to be in heaven when life is over. But let me tell you, it is only through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that you will ever be there. He is the only one that can make you fit.
He is the only one that can make you acceptable in God's sight. A robe to cover up the street clothes and all the dirt. So that the focus might be on the sun, and yet he would not put it on. Again, from the book of Isaiah, it says, 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 robes of righteousness. Heaven is not going to be obtained by our working or doing any merit of ours.
But God is the one who provides it all. God is the one who makes us fit. He cleanses of our sin. He is the one that justifies us in his sight. He is the one that makes us ready. And he is offering freely to all.
Whosoever will may come. It's a meditation to you. No matter who you are, where you're from, what you have done. God desires that his house might be filled. But here is a man that refuses. And friend, it might be a blessing to know that Christ died for sinners and Christ died for the world.
But unless you accept him as your own savior, recognize him as your personal savior, it does you no good. This man had to put on the wedding garment. He had to take it for himself. But we read he refused.
It was being freely offered. Nothing to pay, nothing to do. Just receive what is being offered. Put it on and be fit to be in the presence of the king. God is offering forgiveness. He is offering the cleansing of all sin.
And yet sinners today reject the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. And what is the end of this man? Bind him hand and foot. Take him away. The very same one that had offered an invitation of calm is the one that says, take him away.
He is not willing to receive what has been provided. He is not willing to put on the robe. Take him away. Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. And there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
How can it be? When there could have been abundance of rejoicing and feasting. And instead he is taken away to a place of darkness and suffering. And I tell you, every person that goes down to hell. They pass by an open door.
As the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the door by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. And the door is wide open. The invitation has come and enjoy what they made light of it. They would not come.
They would not trust him as their own. In every person that stands before that great white throne. To be judged according to their works. Their mouths are going to be stopped. There are not going to be any excuses.
And there's not going to be any blaming God. God is the one that will say you would not. I sent my son to suffer the awful agony of the cross, to bear sin, to bear shame. To die for poor, helpless sinners, to give them what they need and to bring them back to me.
You would not. And people who could have rejoiced in the presence of the king and his son. They're going to weep. And they're going to wail. They're going to gnash their teeth. What a contrast. The house of feasting and the place of suffering.
Thank God you can be saved because the invitation tonight is calm. The door is still open. The invitation is offered. Friend, you could be saved this very evening as the gospel is preached. All things are ready.
Come. God has done all that is necessary. That you might rejoice in a relationship with him. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered on the cross of Calvary. And the Bible tells us and you who are once so far off.
Are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For time and for eternity. This is God's offer to be your God. And that you might rejoice in his presence eternally.