Luke 5:33-39 Jesus: Joy or Mourning (Part 2)

Well, it is certainly good and right to give the Lord praise and worship.

You know, the word worship comes from something that has worth. And of course, our triune God is worthy.

I remember Phil Howard said, Have you ever met an over -encouraged Christian? In other words,

Christians need encouragement. And in the same vein, have you ever met a Christian who couldn't use a little more joy?

A Christian that's too joyous. And of course, we could all use more joy. And so today, we continue in our series in Luke chapter 5 about joy and Jesus.

I did what every self -respecting pastor would do when it was coming to the topic of joy. I went on the search engine

DuckDuckGo to see how to have joy. And the number two thing that popped up was from Oprah Winfrey's site.

And I thought I would look at theologian Oprah Winfrey. Everybody's a theologian.

It might be good or might be bad, but everyone's a theologian. And how do you have joy? She said, make a joy list.

And the joy list contained things like this. If you'd like to have more joy, give a little bit.

Be charitable. Be even kinder, assuming that you already are.

Add some color to your home. With bright colors in your house, people just tend to be more joyful, and confetti, and rainbows, and other things.

Take time for exercise, even if it's just 10 minutes. How to have joy?

Get houseplants. The Journal of Physiological Anthropology said, touching and smelling indoor plants can reduce psychological stress.

Or better yet, the article says, go outside. Spending time outside reduces stress.

And then lastly, if you'd like to have joy, the website said, skip negative news first thing in the morning.

I guess that just means skip all news all day, not just the morning.

Some of that's not bad advice, but how does the Christian have joy? In spite of trials, and circumstances, and difficulties that are real, how does a

Christian have joy? So if you haven't turned your Bible to Luke 5 yet, we're in Luke 5, hoping to end today.

I thought it was going to end the chapter last week, but talking about Jesus and joy. Of course, as we understand corporate worship and understand preaching, the office of the herald or the pastor is to tell you about the risen

Savior. Herald means you're sent by someone to tell other people about that king or that herald.

It's almost like the pastor, in his study, goes and gets the message from the king in the word, and then gladly delivers it to the king's subjects.

And that's what preaching is. It's not my words, it's not my opinion, it's not what I think. It's what does the

Bible say, because I've been a man given a duty, a responsibility, and a stewardship.

John Calvin said, The end of the whole gospel ministry is that God, who is the fountain of all blessedness, communicate

Christ to us who are disunited by sin, that we may from Him enjoy eternal life.

That's what gospel ministry is, to remind you of the gospel, Jesus Christ, the risen

Savior. And I don't know if you know this or not, but just to remind you, as you sit underneath Christ -centered preaching, and the

Spirit of God, by the way, attends to Christ -centered preaching, He, the Spirit, begins to work on you.

And He gives you a distaste for sin. He gives you a cleansing from sin. He gives you a conformity to the

Lord Jesus. Paul said it in 2 Corinthians 3, But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

Lord. When you're looking at the Lord Jesus, you are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the

Lord, the Spirit. And while you can't see yourself growing, the Bible teaches if you're a

Christian, you are growing through the proclamation of Christ Jesus, corporate worship on Sunday morning.

Now, we come to the gospel of Jesus according to Luke. There's all kinds of things I could say about Luke, but here's a quick reminder.

What we're looking at with the gospel of Luke is not simply theology, although that's true. Of course, we have the theology of sin and the

Savior and rescue. Jesus in Luke 19, I've come to seek and to save the lost. He's on a mission sent by the

Father. The loving Father sends the loving and obedient Son, and the loving Spirit applies the work of Christ to us.

Yes, that's all true. Theology is important. But in addition to theology,

Luke is helping us with history. If you're a good theologian, you're a historian. Remember, you have maps in the back of your

Bible. Jesus really was in Galilee. He really walked on the water.

He really did heal people. He really did cast out demons. Jesus was on earth, truly man.

Yes, more than man, truly God, truly man. But the true man is on earth, and you're getting to know

Jesus historically. If Jesus was a myth, we're all doomed. This isn't

Narnia. This isn't Middle Earth. This is Israel. This is real.

And so when you come to Luke, one of my favorite things is, this is a real person, the real God -man, saving real sinners, just like you and just like me.

Now, the passage we're at this morning is Luke 5, verse 33, through the end of the chapter, verse 39.

And it's our custom here to just preach the Bible verse by verse, one section to the next to the next.

And that guarantees that my hobby horses don't come out. Every pastor has a hobby horse.

You have hobby horses. And so we want to make sure we just systematically work through the text. And we look at it like someone digging for gold.

You know, the California 49ers. Is that what they were called, the 49ers?

I think so. I just started thinking about the San Francisco 49ers and got them confused. You're digging for gold, and you find that vein of gold, and you think, that's right, and that's good.

And so that's how we come approaching Scripture. Lord, what would you have for me today in this passage? What could

I learn about you? What could I be reminded about you? And would you change me more into the Lord's image as I look at him?

You become like that which you worship. You become like whom you worship, like who you worship.

If you worship money, you become miserly and greedy. And if you worship other things, you become like them.

But we worship the Lord Jesus, and we're changed. And remember in the earlier section, Luke 5, verses 27 through 31, there was this really bad person named

Levi, and Jesus saved him by sovereign grace. And the response to salvation is gratitude and thanksgiving.

And remember, he throws a huge party and invites all his friends, sinners and tax collectors, publicans and lowlifes.

The Pharisees show up, remember, and they didn't like it that Jesus is eating with sinners. He didn't like it because they're fasting, the

Pharisees are. Jesus is feasting. And Jesus said, of course, I'm a physician, I have to be around sick people.

So we move now to the section that we were starting last week, and we'll end with this week, chapter 5, verses 33 and following.

And instead of eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors, they don't even like it that Jesus is eating and drinking at all.

You should be fasting, you should not be feasting. And so we come to this section today, and we started off the outline last week and only got one particular point, but we'll get both in today.

If you would like to have joy, you need to see Jesus as bridegroom and as the fulfillment of the

Old Testament. Jesus as bridegroom or groom, and Jesus as the fulfillment of the

Old Testament. Kind of focal points that we'll look at so that you can have joy when you see by faith

Jesus as bridegroom and Jesus as fulfillment. Just as some review, let's look at the bridegroom portion in Luke 5, 33 through 35.

And they said to him, the Pharisees, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the

Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. There's a clash here between old and new.

There's a class between the Pharisees and their torqued view of Judaism. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with the

Old Testament, but the way they're looking at the Old Testament and making it all about law and make it all about extra rules, they're torquing it, and we've got a clash.

Old Pharisaical legalism are new when Jesus arrives.

These poor fellows, I don't think they're really so poor. They're dastardly, as it were, the

Pharisees. And remember, they paint their face white. Look at how gloomy I am, look at how I fast, look at how

I mourn. And here you're eating and you're drinking, you're rejoicing, you're having food. What's going on?

We are the key holders to the kingdom, and you're not doing the right thing. You also,

Jesus, should be fasting. Matter of fact, John the Baptist, his disciples fast. What's going on?

Why aren't you mourning? Did you know there's only one command in the Old Testament to fast?

One command. Now, there's descriptions of fasting when there's sorrow or calamity, but only one time does it say

Jews in the Old Testament should fast, and it's Leviticus 16 with the Day of Atonement. And so, when it's the

Day of Atonement, you should mourn or afflict yourself or fast. But other times, you're not required to fast.

But the Pharisees are telling Jesus, you need to fast, your people need to fast.

And it's typical with legalists. It's not just the Bible, but it's the Bible plus. It's the Bible plus. All the traditions, all the man -made rules.

And Jesus asked the question. You do not want to be on the receiving end of Jesus' questions. Can you make the attendance of the groom?

I know your text says wedding guests, but it's really attendance of the groom. Can you make them fast while the bridegroom is with them?

Not just is Jesus a good physician. He's a groom. And I've been around plenty of weddings with this job that I have, with this privilege that I have of being a pastor.

And one of the things I like to watch is I like to watch the groom with the groomsmen. And they're happy and they're excited.

I mean, those groomsmen are so happy. This guy finally got a job. I mean, not a job, sorry. Okay, there's some truth to that.

He finally found a wife. He who finds a wife finds a good thing. We thought this guy was going to die without a wife.

He finally gets a wife. We, as the groomsmen, are so happy for that man. And that happiness spills out in joy and feasting and celebration and parties and dancing.

The wedding reception for us, one day. For them, seven days. They were kings and queens for a week.

No religious duties required when you got married. You got a time off. You didn't have to do a bunch of stuff because it was the goodness of God in that difficult culture when you had to go find water every day and food and work.

We get a week off. And the Pharisees didn't like it.

They want Jesus to mourn. When you think about weddings, you should think about joy.

That's what Jesus was after. Jesus is also after, when you think of grooms and bridegrooms, you should be thinking about God because Hosea says,

God himself is just like that. And so we talked last week, did we not? I hope you got both convicted and encouraged that we should be people of joy.

We have Jesus, the resurrected Savior. He's our Savior. He's redeemed us. And not only that,

He's given us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy. And we can have joy even though circumstances are difficult.

Even Jesus' words, John 15, These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.

Christian, you should be comforted and encouraged and have joy in your heart thinking, Jesus is my groom.

We're the bride of Christ and we have a great protector and Savior and comforter, the

Lord Jesus. Verse 35, The days will come, Jesus said. Remember, we're at the time now before the death of Christ, before His suffering, before He's seized, spit upon, punched, mocked.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away. He's talking about Himself. Taken away, snatched by violence.

That's what the word is. Taken away by force, brutally. Gang violence kind of words.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away by violence from them. And they, my disciples, they'll fast in those days.

They don't need to be under a law to fast in those days. They won't want to eat because their thinking will be elsewhere.

Jesus has been seized. He's suffering. He's going to be crucified. They'll fast then.

They'll fast when I'm beaten and mocked, spit upon. In those days, they'll fast.

But of course, later in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, A little while, and you will no longer behold

Me. And again, A little while, and you will see Me. Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice.

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into, at the resurrection, what?

Joy. That's exactly right. Say it like you mean it, Bill. Joy.

There you go. So, of course, you think big picture. You think, yeah, for them, they're going to be sad, and they'll fast.

But Jesus has died, and we have Him. He's the risen Savior. I used to go to Lutheran Church growing up in Nebraska.

And on Good Friday, a big cross up on the platform, and on Good Friday, they put black, like a blanket over it, a sheet.

And the sermon was preached. Jesus died on the cross. Good Friday, and everyone had to walk out and just be quiet.

Jesus is dead. What in the world is going on? I know

He was dead, but now He's alive. And then on Easter morning, of course, the pastor would, it was like 10 -pound test line, fishing line, that had all this hooked up, and he would just cut that thing, and it would come down.

Jesus is risen. He's risen indeed. It's true, but He's risen now.

And so, for Christians, we can, in fact, have joy. Jesus has been raised from the dead. What's the first imperative in James?

Count it all what? Joy, because why? The event of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus has been born.

He lived. He died. He was raised, so you can count it all joy. And all we have to do is begin to think,

He loved me in eternity past. The Son died for me at Calvary. He knew every one of my sins as an unbeliever, yet He still loved me.

He knows all my sins as a believer, and He still loves me. I don't have to pay for one of my sins.

As we heard in the baptismal testimonies, I have a new heart of flesh. And the list could go on and on and on, and so we as Christians should have joy.

Matter of fact, I'll go so far as this. If you don't have joy, if I don't have joy, you ought to repent.

How can you say that? Isn't joy an emotion? No. I can say it because the Bible teaches,

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, as a good suggestion, not trying to force it on you, Rejoice.

It's a command. Because it's a command from a loving Father who has given you

His best, the Lord Jesus. He gave His best.

I remember R .C. Sproul, he had a couple of dogs, I think German Shepherds, and one was named Hosanna, and the other one was named,

I don't know, Hallelujah or something. But one was named Hosanna, and a poisonous snake bit its face.

And there was all kinds of dead tissue, necrosis was happening, and he had to rub the balm, this ointment on the dog's face every day as the just flesh was hanging there.

And the dog was seemingly getting better, but it had some kind of weird venom in its system, and it started having these epileptic seizures and everything, and it was going to have to be put to sleep.

And R .C. said, day after day I'd rub that balm on that dog's face, and I think I've got to put that dog down.

I can't do it. I can't do it. He said to his wife Vesta, I cannot put that dog down. I have to have one of my interns take that dog in.

And you know how R .C. talks, and it's so emotional, and he's telling you the story. And then he said, I could not put down a dog to death.

And here the Heavenly Father sends the Son, His best, and not a dog.

And He has to have His Son killed for sinners sins. What kind of love does it take to send a

Son for that? And if in fact you're a Christian, He has sent that Son for you, and you are redeemed, and you ought to have joy.

It's not a feeling. It's not about circumstances. It's about joy. Because the object of our joy is the

Lord Jesus. And I think probably as Christian witness, it would probably be good for us to be joyful people.

Martin Lloyd -Jones said, If ever the world needed the witness and testimony of Christian people, it is at the present time.

The world is unhappy, distracted, and frightened, and having no joy. Rejoicing is appropriate for all

Christians, and at all times. Westminster Shorter Catechism, The chief end of life is to glorify

God, and to enjoy Him forever, to have joy. John Calvin, The Holy Spirit has exhorted the faithful to continue clapping their hands for joy until the

Lord's return. Now as I get older,

I can't really run. Ever seen an old man run? Looks funny. But even more so, have you ever seen an old man skip?

Like you're just so happy, you're just skipping. I mean, I never see that. And the only visible external description that I could have for the joy we have in our heart, knowing that we have a risen

Savior, is like we could be skipping. You're just skipping, oblivious to everything that's going on in the world, like a little kid skipping for joy.

I read some definitions of joy. The writers say things like this,

Joy is contentment and satisfaction with God and His dealings. Has God dealt well with you?

Here's another one, The exaltation that arises from a sense of God's mercy communicated to the soul in the pardon of its iniquities.

And the prospect of that eternal glory of which it has the foretaste in the pardon of sin.

If you felt so good because you're forgiven, that's a foretaste of what heaven's going to be like.

And another writer said, Joy is the triumphant overflow of Christian gladness. We can be joyful people.

Not only that, the second focal point, as we move to verses 36 and following, is

Jesus says the fulfillment of the Old Testament law. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with the Old Testament.

Obviously, the Holy Spirit wrote the Old Testament, but a suffocating, strangling view of the

Old Testament with man's laws and traditions on top is not good. And Jesus is going to come to say, I came to fulfill this,

I'm new. The Pharisees are ignoring that Jesus was the

Messiah, interpreting the Old Testament wrongly, and Jesus gives a parable. See that in verse 36?

He told them a parable. Now, sometimes parables are what we think of as parables, a earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

The sower and the seed and the prodigal sons. But parable just can mean a story, an illustration, an analogy, and that's more what it is here.

And He's going to give them a little illustration. And by the way, it's kind of related to weddings because weddings you wear new clothes, you wear your best clothes, and weddings in those days had wine.

So He's going to talk about these parables that continue this theme of new. You've got your old

Pharisaical ways, the Old Testament plus legalism, and I'm here to fulfill the new covenant.

I'm here for new. And when it comes to marriages and weddings, there's new excitement.

We're going to talk about clothes, and we're going to talk about wine. Jesus, sent by the

Father, is not going to force all His people now to go back underneath the laws of the legalist and not even the laws of the ceremonies in the

Old Testament. In other words, when Jesus comes, does not He fulfill the

Passover lamb? Is He not fulfilling the feast of the booths? Is He not the bronze serpent that's raised up in the wilderness?

Is He not the one who fulfills every ceremony so we don't have to go back and do things like Messianic Jews, for instance, and go back underneath Old Testament feasts and festivals?

No, we don't go back. Jesus fulfills those. The new has come. And you'll see that here in this first part of the parable in verse 36.

No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on the old garment. If he does, I mean, this is simple.

It's easy. It's just logical. He'll tear the new, right? Because you had to get the new piece pulled out of the new garment.

And the piece from the new will not match the old. Well, what's the point?

Incompatibility doesn't go together. Oil and water. Old system. Judaism torqued by the

Pharisees. And Jesus. They're not going to go together. It doesn't match.

It's kind of this mix and match. The only thing I could think of that this might ever work with this old garment and new garment is maybe runways in Paris where they wear these weirdo things that nobody wears.

Hey, the Pharisees, this is what it means to be holy. We fast. We do these ceremonies.

We say no to this. We fast twice a week. We have all these extra rules. And Jesus is saying, you know, when

I come along, the new, the fulfillment, we're not going to just kind of take this and patch it on to Judaism's traditional torquing by the

Pharisees. And you couldn't even do it the other way around. And we'll just kind of add Jesus on. And we'll keep the old things but just a good patch.

When I was a kid, you had school clothes and you had play clothes and you were never allowed to wear your play, your school clothes outside.

And if you did and you fell with your jeans, I think we were too poor for Levi's or Lee's. So I think we had

Wrangler's. And I remember falling on my knees with my school clothes and having a hole in my knee.

And my mom had to get one of those patches to patch because now we just, well, now you buy jeans that ripped extra $100 for that.

But that patch that we put on never really worked because the jeans were kind of old. The patch is new.

It's going to rip again. It was just a way to get by in Omaha, Nebraska in 1965. Oh, I know what we could do.

Let's fast and patch it with a feast. This is dumb.

Incongruous. Incompatible. That's exactly what Jesus is saying. I'm here now.

You're fasting because the Messiah has not come yet. That Rome has taken over Jerusalem and Israel.

And I'm telling you, I am the Messiah. I've demonstrated by power, by forgiving sins, by the paralytic, by the leper, by the sicknesses, by the demons, by my preaching.

I've done this all and you're wanting to patch on feasting to fasting? It'll never work.

So we call that a parable. The legalistic work system from the Pharisees has to go.

You're not made right with God. You're not counted right with God based on your externals even as Scott read today,

Isaiah 58. Fulfilled in Jesus. Well, he keeps going, verse 37.

And no one puts new wine, something that's just starting to ferment, in old wineskins.

You know what's going to happen. I mean, we don't have glass bottles very much in those days. We don't really have

PVC bottles. You put new wine that's starting to ferment into old wineskins that have already expanded because of the wine.

If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and they'll be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But the new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

You lose the wine, you lose the skins. Both go if you do that. And of course,

Jesus has been talking about he's a groom and so he's talking about wine. He's talking about clothes. And he's saying, they're trying to patch this.

They're trying to say, we've got the old wineskins and you know what, maybe we can just add

Jesus on. Maybe we can just put him there. It's not going to work. Jesus is a friend of sinners and there's feasting when he's around.

The gospel can't be put back in old wineskins, goatskins.

You're going to lose both. And then Jesus goes on, verse 39. This one's tricky if you don't think through it.

But if you think through it, it's simple. Jesus said in Luke 5 .39,

No one after drinking old wine desires new. For he says, the old is good.

No one after drinking the old wine desires new. For he says, the old is good. Now wait a second.

I thought older wines better than newer wine. But here, the new is Jesus and the old is the

Pharisees. What's going on? Did Jesus misspeak? I don't know a whole lot about wine.

But is old wine always better? Depends on the grape.

Depends on the water. Depends on the vineyard. Depends on who's the one making it.

Old isn't always better. Now sometimes you think, oh, it's vintage 2017. But what if it's a bad year?

So here the point is simple. You guys never want anything new.

You don't care about the quality. You don't care about how good the grape is. You don't care about who's the one that's making it and fermenting it and everything else.

All you think is, your default is old is good. Old is good. Old is good. And Jesus is saying, old is always good because the new is here.

I'm the new. The old is better.

The old is better. The old is better. No, the new is better. And all you have to do is read Hebrews. And if you type in the

English word better, you get things like this. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

That's Jesus, the high priest, the new one. So Jesus essentially says, you don't get the big picture.

You want old. You want to patch stuff on. You want to combine the two.

It's never going to work. Now this could get really practical if I wanted it to get practical, and I do.

Somebody says, well, you know what? I was a pretty good person, and I do more good than bad, and I've been baptized, catechized, and confirmed, and everything else.

And I just kind of keep my old system, but I'll just add on Jesus for fire insurance.

That would be an application here. Or it could be, you know what, I'm now learning about Jesus, but I don't really want

Jesus because I like my old ways. I'm satisfied with that. I'm not going to upset my family.

I'm not going to upset my friend. I don't want to move out with my girlfriend. All these other things. I understand who Jesus is, but I'm refusing to go for new.

I'll stick with old. I, with my heart, you might say, like law.

I like legalism. Because then if I do these things, I know I'm okay with God. But if I believe in grace, sovereign grace, grace incarnate, how am

I going to ever know that I'm right with God? Because simply trusting in Him doesn't seem to be enough in my mind.

You're seeing how these don't go together. Works and grace. How many particles of works can go into grace before it makes grace no longer grace?

Do they mix? I'm trying to be good and I'm going to believe in Jesus. No, no, we're not good.

We believe in Jesus and in light of that, out of gratitude, we'll be good. I've used this before.

I might as well use it. Because I'm going to California soon and Steve will have to clean up after me.

What do I care? Here's what I used to say to the kids. When you're thinking about works and you're thinking about grace, and you're saved by grace alone, no works.

Saturdays at our house, when we had a dog, I'd make the kids get gloves on and go pick up the dog remains.

They'd have to throw it away. They didn't like that job, but neither did I, and that's what kids are for. I helped.

And then we were inside and Kim was making some food, like a strudel or some brownies, and I would say to the kids, what's the least amount of that stuff you just picked up?

Could we put in the brownies and you'd still eat it? What's the minimum amount? They're like,

Dad, you're crazy. Of course, because that's exactly what happens. They don't mix.

Legalistic, pharisaical, I'm going to get to heaven because I'm good. You ask people today that are unbelievers, how are you going to get to heaven?

Are you going to go to heaven? Yes. And what's the very next thing they say? I'm a good person.

This doesn't go together, and Jesus is here to make sure that's true, and if it did go together, why did

Jesus even die on the cross? He could have been a good example. It took the death of Jesus to show us it is grace and grace alone.

Romans 11 makes it very clear. They don't go together. Any part of work.

I know I'm going to heaven because I'm baptism. It destroys grace. Well, I'm a church member.

That's why I'm going to heaven. No, no, it destroys grace. How could

Luther say I'm going to patch up the old garment of Rome with the gospel of Jesus?

It didn't work. How can Wesley say

I've got to leave the legalism of the Church of England for sovereign grace?

Now, while I was thinking about this, I want to end with Matthew 22.

I could talk more about joy. We talked about that last Sunday a lot. And so we've seen in our passage

Jesus as not just physician, but as the groom, and then the fulfillment of all the

Old Testament. And while I'm thinking about feasts, I want to take you to Matthew 22.

It lends itself to discussions about Pharisees, works, heaven, joy, and hell.

These themes are put together. And essentially, this is a call to salvation. Essentially, this is if you're a

Christian, you can be glad you are because it's by sovereign grace. But if you're not a Christian, I want you to work through this parable from the

Lord Jesus. He put three of them together. This is the third one because this is the most important thing you'll ever hear about in your life if you're not a

Christian. Not because I've said anything, but because your eternity is at stake. You will die one day and then what?

And so thinking about feasts and celebration and everything else, we come to Matthew 22.

Some Jews are going to miss the kingdom. Don't you miss it with them. Don't you miss it with her.

If you think you're going to heaven because you're moral and nice, this passage needs to be thought through.

Matthew 22 verse 1. And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.

Here we go again. The wedding, the feast, heaven. How do you describe heaven?

Well, you pick the thing that's the most joyous celebratory thing in all the world, a wedding. Something like that. And by the way, this is not just a regular person.

This is the king, the best, the most gourmet. I don't know what they would have back in those days.

Sometimes Nero liked plates of flamingo tongues. Maybe it was escargot. Maybe it was caviar.

Who knows? But whatever they could have the best, it was the best of the best. And you already know ahead of time, this feast is talking about heaven, fellowship with God.

There's a king that's offering to unbelievers a feast of fellowship with God.

How can I be right with God knowing that I'm a sinner? The king's putting on the feast. Think about the preparation. Think about the work that had to be done.

I thought I had a vacation last summer, but we were planning a wedding. It didn't work. Well, the wedding worked, but the relaxation didn't.

And he sent his servants, verse three, to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they wouldn't come.

Hey, come to the feast. This is wonderful. This is just like you telling an unbeliever to be forgiven, to know that you're with Christ, to know that He's your

Savior, to know there's hope of heaven, to know that God works everything together for good. There's a feast of the banquet of God.

Won't you believe? Won't you come? Won't you think about your sins rightly? Won't you repent?

Now, in those days, what would happen, similar to our days, so you get a little RSVP, come to the wedding.

And we're supposed to go online and say yes on Knotfinder or Knotthing or whatever it's called,

K -N -O -T. We're going to go. But we're not reminded. Back in those days, well, they didn't have iPads, obviously, and so you get the invitation, and then the day of, they come and remind you because maybe you forgot.

Maybe you don't have a calendar. Maybe you don't have iCal. There's all kinds of things. Outlook is gone. It's a feast.

Free. Who would not go to a king's feast back in those days? Plenty of advanced warning for people.

The Jews were advanced warning. We told you ahead of time, come, it's ready. Now we're telling you again, it's ready.

Just like for you, if you're not a Christian, there's advanced warning. You've probably been told by parents and people.

You've been reading the Bible yourself. I tell you again now, plenty of patience by God. And again, verse 24, he's outdoing himself.

What patience? What long -suffering of this king? Tell those who are invited, see,

I prepared my dinner, my ox and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.

He not only re -extends the invitation graciously, but he then tells about the good stuff that's going to be there.

All typifying and showing us how great heaven would be. Verse 5, they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.

You preach the gospel to people, I'm busy, I can't be bothered, I have work and school and other things, excuse after excuse after excuse.

And other people, verse 6, it's happened in church history, the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully and killed the king's servants.

The persecution of Polycarp, the persecution of Jan Hus, the list goes on and on.

Peter, Paul, the king, how did the king respond? After patience, after graciousness, after kindness, calling people to heaven and they never want to come, they never want to come and one day they die and then it's what?

The king was angry, he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

This is the judgment that's coming for every single unbeliever, but it's not burning and looting, it's the eternal wrath of God and the fires of hell forever.

And of course, 70 AD, when Titus took care of Jerusalem, that was a foretaste of God's judgment.

Verse 8, then he said to his servants, I mean, he's not going to be stopped.

The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. There's going to be people who are going to come.

Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you can find. Open to all, royal banquet.

How about tax collectors, sinners, publicans, fornicators, liars, cowardly.

Let's go get them all, invite them in. Porn addicts, get them all. What mercy of God, what love for God.

Love of God. And verse 10, those servants went out to the roads, gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

I mean, upper echelon of society, low lives, blue collar, white collar, rich, poor.

So the wedding hall, just like heaven's going to be, filled with gifts.

Nope, filled with guests. So far, so good.

But when the king came in to look at the guests, I want to kind of see what all these servants did. Who'd they round up?

I mean, the religious leaders said no. A lot of the big shots said no. The moralistic people said no. The nice people said no.

Who's going to be in my feast? I prepared this feast. You will enjoy it. So the king comes to inspect.

What does he find? Somebody very conspicuous. He saw there was a man that had no wedding garment.

What in the world? No wedding garment. Now here's what will really help you.

Did you know in those days, you prepare the wedding feast and you have people come and attend.

They usually had one set of clothes, maybe two. And they often had to work in their only clothes.

And so if you're a king, guess what you do? You come to the wedding. You get to eat everything.

And by the way, when you enter into the wedding feast, we give you a change of clothes that look nice, that are clean, that are wonderful.

You get new clothes. The king provides the clothes for the people to come to the wedding. Sound familiar?

Sound biblical? Sound like if you're going to get to heaven to be in God's holy presence and you are sinful and I'm sinful, we're going to need new clothes.

We're going to need something to cover us. We're going to need an atonement. We're going to need the righteous robes of Jesus put over us so that we're cleansed.

We're going to need new clothes to get into heaven provided by the king, Christ Jesus, the Son. Sound familiar?

Sounds familiar to me. And here's this man. He's there. He has no clothes.

He was offered the clothes. He was given the clothes. He could put the clothes on by faith and he said,

I will enter into your presence without what you've provided me. I don't need Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I come to heaven on my own. Accept me. My dirty street clothes, my filthy garments of unrighteousness are good enough to get into heaven.

And if you person, who are here today, who's not a Christian and you think you can saunter to heaven by simply dying, that's how people believe it.

What do I need to do to get to heaven? Die. You need to be forgiven. You need to have the righteous robes of Christ that the king of the feast has provided for you that you receive simply by faith.

They didn't have to pay. They didn't have to do anything. They didn't have to get ready. They just had to receive by faith, by faith alone.

Verse 22, and he said to him, ESV says friend, but it's got kind of a punch to it.

It's not good friend. It's kind of like buddy. It's kind of like pal. How did you get in here without a wedding garment?

And just like on judgment day for anyone that won't believe on Jesus, he was speechless.

And then the king said to the attendants, now remember, mercy has been shown, patience, generosity, kindness, asking again, sending the servants out.

He's shown himself for who he is, merciful, kind, welcoming, at his own cost, the son.

The king said to the attendants, and this is true for every unbeliever who's hard -hearted and will not trust in the

Lord Jesus, bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You don't want that, do you? Unbeliever, you don't want that. Why don't you instead say,

I realize as I'm coming into the presence of the king, my goodness, my robes, my clothes aren't good enough.

I can't just saunter in. I've been to some restaurants in the world and some places where a suit and tie are required, sports coat and tie required or you can't get in.

Why don't you just say instead, God, I am sinful. I will be humble before you because you know my mind, my heart, my past.

You know everything I've ever done. And I realize I can't get in heaven on my own. Would you please provide for me forgiveness and mercy because I can't do it on my own.

Doesn't that sound like what a sinner should be saying? Like the tax collector who said,

Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner. And then we end with verse 14.

Does any of this refusal take God by surprise? Answer of course is no for many are called but few are chose.

If you're a Christian, rejoice that God was patient with you and saved you. He made you the offer in the spirit of God.

Had you say, I will be indifferent to the gospel no longer. I will be angry against the gospel no longer.

I'll be self -righteous when I own robes no longer. And if it wasn't for the grace of God, I'd still be that person rejecting and I'd still be the one headed for hell.

But God, you're rich in mercy. I was rich in sins but you were rich in mercy and I thank you because what heaven is gonna be like, it's not gonna be oxen and fat calves and everything else.

It's going to be the wedding supper of the lamb. Thank you. And in light of that,

I think we as Christians can have joy. You're going to a feast. Let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for your word. I praise your name for so many dear people here who have been invited to the feast and have come by faith, provided 100 % righteousness from Jesus, earned by obeying the law.

Would you protect us from adding legalism to grace? Would you help us to be gracious to other people and tell them the truth?

And I pray if there's someone here today that will not believe in the Lord Jesus but maybe feels a conviction or a tug, would you grant them no rest until they rest in you?