The Wedding Feast

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. The flowers are out here in New England early in the spring. I think I have some allergies.

I�m going to have to get some Claritin or something. So you�ll have to put up with my voice today underwater a little bit. Let�s see if I can adjust the theological fine-tuning button over here so you get good theology.

We are No Compromise Radio ministry, and we try to talk about the Bible in a provocative way. We have services at the church here, Bethlehem Bible Church, at 8 .30 in the morning and at 11 o�clock in the morning, then at 6 p .m., except the first Sunday of the month, where you�re free to run wild.

Today I�d like to read a hate mail that I received at info at nocompromiseradio .com. You can always write us there. And I think this is kind of a �Hey, Haters� moment. By the way, don�t forget we are going to have a video production for No Compromise Radio ministry.

I will be hosting Carl Truman, Phil Johnson, and James White. That�s kind of, I don�t know, is that like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? I�m probably just a small little pony compared to those guys, but that should be good.

If you�ve got any questions that you�d like me to ask those guys, why don�t you email me and I�ll see what I can do. If it�s biblical and provocative in that order, I just might do it. So here is the hate mail that I received back on March 21st, and the subject line is, �I hate this show.

Now if I get an email like that, I usually read it. And so I might even read it online. And so this is from Barbara. I won�t say her last name, but this is from Barbara. And the subject line is, �I hate this show.

I think this, I think that demonstrative pronoun is referring to No Compromise Radio. And here is what Barbara said, �I hate this show because my husband and I continue to learn really good doctrine.

We are convicted often enough and we have strengthened our faith in a Holy Sovereign God. We continue to understand certain doctrine that seem essential to our walk, especially when life is hard, as it seems to be often enough.

I hate this show because everything I learn I want to share, yet those around me at our church find doctrine distasteful, divisive, and demented. She sounds like a Southern Baptist, doesn�t she? �Why learn doctrine, they say, they seem to say.

It cramps my style and I don�t feel God�s grace. �I hate this show because the more I search the Bible, the more I see the truth of what No Compromise teaches, and I think I must be resolute in my belief in what God has said.

Yet no one around me, slash us, thinks this way. Ignorance is bliss here, rules the roost. As long as we play church nicely. That�s a good name for a church, by the way. Church nicely. The nice church.

It�s good to be good and it�s nice to be nice. Isn�t it No Compromise land? �And got to question how we live our lives, we�re all good. So I hate No Compromise radio. In God�s sovereignty I have become an avid listener, far away here in the� and I won�t tell you where she lives, somewhere out in the boons.

Docks, Saskatoon. �Within his will I am also at the only church that at least tries to get the Bible right, and I know I must stand in my faith and learn to be content where I�m planted so that I won�t be sinning, wishing I were at a church like yours, where the leadership takes the Bible completely seriously and youth group and growth are secondary, or less.

I hate No Compromise radio, but my husband and I won�t stop listening. It�s a lifeline in an otherwise hostile environment. How church ever got to be hostile to doctrine is beyond me. And we care about you all over there in Massachusetts.

Yes, I had to use spellcheck. Keep on keeping on. Is that a little moralistic ditty there from Barbara? Barbara, how could you? Keep on keeping on with all that is no-co ever. Neither shall, neither shall we.

So shall we, I think she meant to say. Neither shall we. Barbara, you know I love you, but I don�t know about the neither shall we. Sincerely, your friend, Barbara. P .S. I played Steve Cooley�s Last Teaching backward and I heard Poncho and Lefty, a classic.

So, hey hater, Barbara hey hater. I won�t give you any more details because I don�t want anybody to know where she is in case somebody at her church might listen, although that might be good. So, thank you for that hate mail.

If you have other hate mail that you�d like to give us at NoCo Radio, NoCo a Day Keeps the Confusion Away, you can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com. Well, what else do I have here on my desk today?

I have the Daniel Plan from Rick Warren. That�ll be interesting, I guess. How to Throw Yourself to the Lions. Sealed with a signet ring. I can talk about that some other time. I�m Texas Atheist Flabbergasted by Outpouring of Christian Charity.

That�s in the news. I get an email all the time from this guy called Music Desk, at least that�s what his name pops up as on his internet. And he�s always sending things to idea at wretchedradio .com and then I�m copied.

Like it shouldn�t be the other way around. It should be to Mike Abendroth at No Compromise Radio, i .e. Info. And then you can copy Friel. So, see, when I get these things where I�m just copied and Friel�s the main guy, then Massachusetts Monergist is flabbergasted by secondary blind copies.

The Athens Review had a story about the atheist who threatened to sue a Texas country, a Texas country, Texas County, regarding a nativity scene. Anyway, the people were nice to him in return. So I think all these things kind of aren�t on my theological radio at the moment, although I think I�m going to have to do the Daniel Plan.

Music Box sent that too, Music Desk. What is a Music Desk? What is a Daniel Plan? What is Ezekiel 4 -7 bread? I don�t mind Ezekiel. I think it�s 4 -7 bread, Ezekiel 4 -7 bread. I don�t mind the bread.

I just don�t want you to buy into some kind of dopey theological diet, especially after Jesus declares all foods clean. Did he declare aspartame clean? I don�t think so. I�m going on about, I don�t know, 14 months, no aspartame.

Feeling better. Still might have a splenda here and there, but hoorah for the chlorine molecules. If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew 22. And in the rest of our time today, I�d like to talk about Jesus and how he is the greatest teacher and how he often used parable or forms of parable to teach a very important lesson.

Self-Righteousness Versus the Righteousness God Provides

And so the lesson today, no compromise radio listeners, is this. The lesson is that self-righteousness is damning, but the righteousness that God himself provides, his own righteousness through his Son, is what you need to go to heaven.

You need not only to have your sins forgiven, and you need that. That�s for certain. But in addition, you also need something positive. You need, on the negative side of the equation, sins forgiven, positive side, righteousness imputed.

And in Matthew chapter 22, there�s something called the parable of the wedding feast, and it helps the listener. Now, Jesus is talking to the false teachers, and he�s shooting a scud over in their direction to blast them because of their earlier questions to Jesus about his authority being tied to John the Baptist�s authority.

In Matthew chapter 21, there�s the, I�m trying to think of this just off the top of my head, the triumphal entry. You have Jesus cursing, he cleanses the temple, curses the fig tree, and then he gives a couple parables.

Then we slide into chapter 22. And so I have this question for you this afternoon, it�s morning for me. Man-made religion deceives you into thinking that your own righteousness is adequate. So are you duped into that kind of thinking?

Man-made religion, energized by Satan through hypocritical lie speakers, people, tries to deceive you into thinking that your own righteousness is adequate to get you into heaven. Do you buy that? That�s my question.

First I said I�d ask a question, then I made a statement, so I need to finish with a question. What does it take to get into heaven, in other words? And so Jesus gives this parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22, 1 to 14.

And you can think to yourself, the Jewish leadership were missing heaven. They were going to miss the kingdom with their legalistic, moralistic thinking. And so you should ask yourself the question, well, they�re missing it.

How do I make sure I don�t miss it? Put positively, what does it take to get into the kingdom of God? And if you�re listening today, and I don�t care if you�re evangelical, Baptist, Buddhist, Catholic, I don�t care what you are, Presbyterian, I was in an Orthodox Presbyterian church last night, scoping things out, candidating, just kidding.

No matter who you are, you need A, to be forgiven, but here in this particular parable, you need to have a righteousness that is God�s righteousness. This is the trouble that vexed Luther�s soul. He knew God was holy and righteous, and to enter a holy and righteous heaven, he needed to be holy and righteous, yet he knew what some of us don�t know because we�re too into syndromes, diseases, self-esteem issues, that we have no righteousness because we are sinful, and Adam�s sin was credited to our account, and consequently, we are by nature sinners, born sinners, and then we sin.

So, it says in Matthew chapter 22, I�m using the ESV today, which I regularly do unless I�m too lazy to change the NAS to the ESV. I think I still like the NAS better for quality, but ESV is the way of the world, so see how the world has corrupted our thinking here at No Compromise Radio Ministry.

And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables. He�s talking to the religious false teachers who are promoting legalism. When we say legalism today, we think of people that can�t smoke and can�t drink, but legalism technically is exchanging God�s way of salvation for our own via works and doing things, ritualism, ceremonies, sacerdotalism, trying to just be good to get to heaven, our works.

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. And so we have the high priest and the Pharisees standing there listening to Jesus, and Jesus is going to tell a story and it�s going to indict these people, but it will teach us a valuable lesson as well, and that is you need Christ�s righteousness, and you need to look to Christ by faith, believing in his death, burial, and resurrection, as well as his life.

And so you can imagine this king back in those days has a wedding feast for his son, and the wedding feast in those days were a big deal. What�s that sound? That sound here is a chord, the studio here, I need some people in the studio to help me, except I just sit here by myself on a Saturday morning.

So this wedding is huge, the production, the time, the effort, the money, nothing is left undone because the king wants to lavish his love upon his son and his daughter-in-law to be. Many kings back in those days would show the people in the realm and in the land and in the kingdom how great they were by how big the production was for the wedding.

This is no small thing. I�ve been in eastern countries and in India, for instance, I think the celebrations for a wedding go on for a week. It�s a big deal in the eastern countries, and rightfully so.

It says in chapter 22, verse 3,. �And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. And so there is no doubt in our minds as we read this that the religious leaders are the people who wouldn�t come to the wedding feast.

It�s the scribes, it�s the Pharisees, it�s the chief elders that Jesus was just talking about in Matthew chapter 22. And what would they do in those days? If you get a manners and customs book, which you should have, by the way, a manners and customs book, because we don�t understand the manners and customs of the Bible days, and we need to get that so we can understand this parable and other parables as well.

�They sent out another invitation. And so there was a general invitation and then there was a secondary one because they did not have calendars and smart phones and all those things, so out goes the secondary invitation.

�It was the custom of the day to give the guest a reminder the day of the wedding. Yes, this is the day. And if you were to say no, this would be a declaration of war against the king. All that the king has provided with his luxury, with his generosity, with the table spread as it were, with every good thing there.

By the way, back in those days, there would probably be things at the king�s wedding feast for a son that you could have never tasted again in your life anyplace else because you were too poor. And so here it�s all decked out.

�And the guest persistently refused. It�s the imperfect tense. �We want nothing to do with you. This was a declaration of war or treason. It was a very serious offense. �We don�t want you. And you can just see what Jesus is trying to teach, and he�s going after these false teachers.

�And he�, look at the extravagant generosity of the king, �sent other servants, saying, �Tell those who are invited, �See, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding feast. He outdoes himself, not only in his banquet table, but he also outdoes himself in his generosity. He could say, �Send out my soldiers to kill these people. But he sends out more servants, i .e., sends out more prophets.

He sends out Isaiah and Zechariah and Hosea and Amos and John the Baptist, one after another after another, �Come to God�s wedding feast. How patient is God? How long-suffering? How much forbearance does our God have?

�Come to the banquet. Come to the wedding. This is food that they would not be able to get. I�ve been, like I said before, to eastern countries, and it�s a staple of a lot of carbs and a lot of rice and not much meat, unless you�re the special guest speaker from America.

And here, the calf, oh, just come and enjoy. Verse 5 of Matthew 22,. �But they paid no attention and went off. We can�t be bothered. We�re more concerned with our own affairs. We don�t care about the royal command, the divine injunctions.

One do his farm, another do his business. �While the rest seized his servants and treated them shamefully and killed them. Isaiah, by tradition, sawn in half. You can go through the list of prophets that God sent that the people killed.

Energized by the false leaders, all the way up to John the Baptist. The king was what? Angry. �And he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Eventually, Jerusalem in AD 70 would be destroyed, wouldn�t it?

Then he said to his servants, verse 8, �The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. Now, the story picks up, and the way it picks up is through Jesus� use of the present tense.

It makes it very vivid. You can just feel the pace. Then he said to his servants, �The wedding feast is ready, and off you go. Go to the roads. Go to the highways and the byways. Go find poor people.

Go find the riffraff. Go find the homeless people. Go find people that normally don�t get invited to the royal banquet. Go find those people. And so what are we seeing here in this parable? We are seeing the love of God.

As Jesus is preaching about the love and mercy and grace of God, how God loves the sinners from all walks of life, all kinds of people, all manner of people, Jews and Gentiles and free and slave and men and women.

He loves people, and he has accomplished a great salvation at Calvary, and now the invitation is there. �Come to the banquet. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good.

So the wedding hall was filled with guests. And so the king would be in another room usually. Everybody else is having a big party, and now he would come in to see the people at the party, at the feast.

At the wedding. But when the king came in to look at the guests, verse 11, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. Huh. That�s no good. Now, you might be saying, �Well, he just was too poor. He didn�t have anything to wear.

Now, what the king would do back in those days, especially with these poor people who had nothing good to wear, who wants to have someone show up in dirty, smelly, icky clothes? I don�t know if you would go invite a homeless person to come to your daughter�s or son�s wedding.

Homeless people smell because they have to live in their clothes 24 -7. I�ve had homeless people into my home before, and pretty soon your home begins to smell like a homeless person. So what happens?

Back in this culture, not only would the king send out double invitations, the king would also provide a garment. And so, you�d have something nice to wear. So, there would be no distinction of class.

Everything would be focused on the king, his son, the wedding, the daughter-in-law. And so, this man would have received an invitation, and he would have received a wedding garment, but he doesn�t want to put it on.

He thinks his own clothes are good enough. He thinks his own righteousness is good enough. And you can see where the parable is going. Does your own righteousness save you, or do you need the righteousness of another?

The wedding clothes were provided by the wedding host? What a gracious host! What a wealthy host! What a generous host! And this guy says, �Forget it and he crashes the party. And we have the Jewish false teachers who crash the party of God.

And he said to him, verse 12, �Friend�—by the way, when the context is like this, when Jesus says, �Friend� or quotes somebody saying, �Friend�, something ironical is coming, because the way that this person is going to be treated is not in a friendly way.

�Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment And he was speechless. You must come to King Jesus on his own terms. You must come to the Father, technically speaking, on the terms that he has laid out.

And those terms are through Jesus and Jesus alone. He is the only mediator, the only advocate, our representative, our substitute, our risen Savior. Coming to Christ Jesus on his terms. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness.

That�s who we need. This man was speechless. Same term used in Romans chapter 3. �Then the king said to the attendants, �Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Send him to hell. This patient, generous, long-suffering, forbearing God we have eventually says, �That is enough and his hand is forced. No pleasure in the death of the wicked. He would rather have people turn from their ways and live, Ezekiel 18, but enough is enough.

The mercy and love of God extended to sinners, even providing the wedding garment that you need to put on by faith. And so today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, I ask you the question, do you have the righteousness of Christ cloaked on you?

Are you in Christ Jesus? Have you turned from your sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and what the Bible teaches about His life and His death for sinners like you, confirmed by the resurrection?

You might say to yourself, �This is taking God by surprise. All these people invited, not many show up. Well, the parable ends by Matthew chapter 22, verse 14�s declaration, saying, �For many are called, but few are chosen.

So we have the gospel call, �Come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. We can tell it to every single person on this planet and give them what theologians call the general call. This is preaching.

The banquet meal is set. Come to the banquet. And so I'm telling you today, if you're not a Christian, come to the banquet of God. Free forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Here we have this figurative banquet just set out before you.

Come to the banquet. Come to the feast. How great is God? But you say, �You know what? I don't need Jesus's sacrificial death for me. I'm not really a sinner. I don't need God's wrath poured out on His Son in my place.

Then for you, the King is going to be very mad and you're going to be thrown into hell. And you'll have deserved that very thing. So stop thinking that way. Repent. Change your mind. �Many are called and few are chosen.

And we know that left to yourself, you're not going to come. So God needs to do the initiation. He does the wedding feast. He sets everything out. He has Christ Jesus go. He sends Him. Jesus gladly and voluntarily goes and accomplishes redemption.

He's raised from the dead. And now what happens? We know that we even need the Spirit of God to energize you so that you're able to come to the banquet. It's all of God. Salvation is all of God. We want you to hear the call of God and respond by His grace.

The invitation's gone out to you. Come enjoy the free grace of God provided for you through Christ Jesus' life so you get His righteousness and His death so you get His forgiveness. And God confirmed that by raising Him from the dead.

God is not caught unaware by the rejection of the false teachers nor your rejection. So turn from your sins now and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to the banquet. Come to the wedding feast. Come to the gracious extravagance of our Lord God.

Of God.