#401 Fridays With Pastor Jim Bachmann: "Unbelievable Unbelief"

Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to the 22nd chapter of Matthew, verses one through 14. This is the parable of the wedding feast yet another parable about the kingdom of God. Jesus told this parable during Passover week. He saw the great multitudes of volumes dropped off some reason the sterner Bibles this morning of the 22nd chapter of Matthew's gospel verses one through 14, the parable of the wedding feast yet another parable about the kingdom of God.

It was Passover week is Jesus told this parable, the city of Jerusalem was crowded with thousands of visitors and is Jesus looked at the multitude he saw them as a sheep without a shepherd. He saw far too many of them as unsaved and unaware of their danger and therefore these last days of his ministry, his teaching became more and more solemn as we will see in the parable this morning. I'm reminded of the words of the famous 17th century Puritan Richard Baxter who once said of his own preaching, I preached, is never sure to preach again as a dying man to dying men, and even more so.

Could this be said of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for the teaching of our Savior, we thank you for his atoning work in our behalf and pray that you would quicken us this morning. Give us ears to hear and hearts that would respond eagerly and with delight to what your spirit would teach us.

Spare us from deceiving ourselves and being unsaved in the unaware of our danger, and so to that end, we commit this time for our good and our growth, our salvation and for the glory of God through Christ our Lord. Amen. And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king. You gave a wedding feast for son and sent his servants to call those who are invited to the wedding feast but they would not come again he sent other servants, saying, tell those who are invited. See, I prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves been slaughtered and everything is ready come to the wedding feast, but they paid no attention when off one to his farm, another to his business while the rest seized his servants treated them shamefully and killed them. King was angry and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

They said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore the main roads and invited to the wedding feast as many as you find in 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. When the king came in to look at the guests, he saw other men who had no wedding garment said in friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment and he was speechless and the king said to the attendance, bind him hand and foot, and cast them into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few are chosen. All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's start with the question what you believe is the biggest problem in the church today is it preaching is a theology is it to commitments or the lack thereof, I would suggest to you that, if not the biggest problem certainly one of the biggest problems is the same problem. Jesus was facing in the final days of his ministry as he looked over the multitudes in the December this as we look over the multitudes of people who are in the church are members of the church around the world.

Far too many are unsaved and unaware of their danger. This is the third of three parables that Jesus told it all started in the previous chapter with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem after that Jesus cleansed the temple cast out the money changers and had a stern warning for them and after that he cursed the fig tree, and after that those troublesome chief priests and the elders showed up and said Jesus tell us about whose authority you do these things. They challenged him and Jesus answered, albeit indirectly with these three consecutive parables, beginning with the parable of two sons, one of whom refused to follow his father's instruction, followed by the parable of the wicked tenants who refused to pay the landowner what was due him, followed by this parable of the wedding feast where the invited guests refused to attend the party and so we begin this morning. Point number one by noticing the inexplicable indifference of the religious leaders to whom this parable is primarily addressed their inexplicable indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ and his great work verses three through five and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast but they would not come again.

These and other servants, saying, tell those who are invited. See, I prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves been slaughtered and everything is ready come to the wedding feast, but they paid no attention and went off one to his farm, another to his business. This was stubborn and willful indifference. They would not come. Verse three. They pay no attention.

Verse five. Jesus was despised and rejected by men, man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Here we have a king went to a lot of trouble he's slaughtered the fattened calves and they slaughtered the oxen and he prepared the dinner, but the leadership was inexplicably indifferent and had no appreciation for the sacrifice. The effort, the cost the honor and the opportunity of attending this great feast I performed number weddings in my ministry. They've they've all been interesting. I could keep you well entertained by telling you some very exciting stories we had. We had a wedding at cheek would one summer that a big black snake interrupted and and through the place and utter confusion in bedlam of the worst sort before finally order was restored after some 10 or 15 minutes. One of the first weddings ever did was atop Lookout Mountain.

The groom was a soccer player at covenant College, whose team did far better than he thought and advanced to the playoffs and lo and behold the next playoff game was scheduled the same afternoon of his evening wedding, which shouldn't of been a problem.

But lo and behold the game went into overtime and he was the goalie and he couldn't very well. Even so, it was late, quite late to his own wedding so late. In fact, that many of his invited guest gave up and left and went home.

Not knowing what had transpired, but here in Matthew 22. The situation was even worse because it wasn't as though these guest showed up and left early. They just never showed up in the first place, they would not come.

They paid no attention. It matters not how how great the cost was or the sacrifice for the honor of going. They simply were inexplicably indifferent in the Lord Jesus Christ was here exposing this handled the great scandal of this inexplicable indifference.

Jesus came to his own people in his own people received him not his own people been so long, looking for the Messiah and praying for the Messiah and expecting and watching for the Messiah to come in at long last here he was, every day living among them breathing, walking, talking, preaching, teaching, performing signs and wonders and miracles that time and again attested to his person and work truly was a son of God as a Roman centurion said he was the Christ, the son of the living God. As Peter said, but they missed. They paid no attention. They refused to buy in to him to his person and is working out tell you it all to send a shiver down our spines with these people who were so eager to see the Messiah. Nevertheless, so easily and so confidently made such a ghastly mistake. It was unbelievable unbelief on the part of people who should have known better. Now this inexplicable indifference was made inexplicable. Secondly, by the fact that the invitation itself was an incredible invitation verses nine and 10. Go therefore the main roads and invited to the wedding feast as many as you find in those servants went out in the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

What made this invitation so incredible, number one, it came from the King number two. It was absolutely free all-expenses-paid and number three.

It was indiscriminate.

The doors were open to both good and bad.

Marvelous. Unbelievable invitation for anyone who wanted to partake. Weddings are important. As you know you have been in weddings. You have been married perhaps you have had children get married, we've had three children, two daughters, one son get married.

We found out as nearly everyone finds out that weddings take a lot of work and can cost a lot of money and that particular for the brides we we had to take some deep breaths along the way but they were happy occasions are large weddings. It was a joyful time but we learned something that surprised us, which was the number of people who failed to RSVP to our invitation and we assumed it was just a careless mistake or oversight. Perhaps invitation was lost in the mail. Who knows, but one must come to grips with the fact that what may be of the utmost importance to you may not matter at all, may not be a blip on the radar to someone else and by the way is you've noticed, I'm not keen. I like to be king you'd like to be king but were not King and were never going to be king. But this man was keen this wasn't just any wedding invitation and wedding invitations are all special.

But how much more so one that came from the king as this one dead water and honor to be on the recipient list needed to have an invitation to attend this this tremendous celebration. People should have clear their schedules and circle the date on the calendar made this of the highest priority, but instead they paid no attention and they refused to come. Unbelievable. Unbelievable unbelief and inexplicable indifference to an incredible invitation. I mean who in their right mind would ignore an invitation from the king himself is to three years ago Kristin and I received a very fancy ornate letter in the mail and it turned out to be an invitation to the presidential prayer breakfast, the national prayer breakfast takes place every year in Washington DC and while we were impressed. We wondered how the world we got this sort of thing and we felt like God King Trump himself had personally invited us and so we made plans to go and we we went and we settle in our hotel room and and actually went downstairs and stood in long line to get the packet of information's for the conference and and I got to the front of the line. We were told we need to go to another line so we went to this other line and stood for a while and finally made of the front and will remain at the front. We were given the bad news and the bad news was that we owed X number of dollars in that X required another deep breath on our part. The invitation said nothing about the cost.

We probably wouldn't have grown even gone to the conference and we known of the calls, but there we were in so deep breath and all.

We pulled out the checkbook and paid the bill.

This is free and this came from the king and this was completely indiscriminate, both good and bad or invited to come and no one was disqualified just as no one is disqualified from the kingdom of God. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, rich and poor and good and bad in black and white and male and female June Greek. Whosoever good and bad had the opportunity to enjoy the feast of a lifetime, but those troublesome chief priests and elders paid no attention and refused to go because they cared more about the farms. More about their businesses than they did the kingdom of God. If they cared about it at all. And so, in their minds invitation was not incredible invitation was worthless, but for others as Jesus taught elsewhere. It was just the opposite.

For others, the invitation was priceless. Like the pearl of great price and when that man found that pearl of great price. You remember what he did. He went to his farm. No it went to his business Navajo. He sold everything he had. In order to purchase the pearl of great price. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That's the kingdom of God is the treasure hidden in the field of man finds he does whatever it takes to purchase that treasure to obtain that treasure and it was indeed a priceless invitation for those who are far away for those who would fall under the bad category for the cripple to blind, the lame, the prostitutes, the outcast, the tax collectors and sinners, faraway strangers and aliens to the covenants of promise, poor in spirit.

They saw this and cherished. It is a in honor of of all owners blessing above all others.

Philip Yancey is told of wonderful stories and every time I read this parable. I think of his story. I think I've shared it with you before, but it bears repeating again about a young woman who was engaged to be married so excited. But sadly, her fiancé came down with a bad case of cold feet and canceled engagement and double sadly she was unable to obtain a refund for her reception and as she thought about it, she decided to go ahead with the party and invite not her wedding guests but send the invitations to homeless shelters and to rescue missions in honor of her former fiancé. She change the menu to boneless chicken and that summer night, June 1990 in Boston, the Hyatt hotel hosted a party like no other party before Philip Yancey describes it by saying that a warm summer night in downtown Boston. People who were used appealing scraps of pizza off cardboard boxes instead dined on chicken Cordon Bleu waiters and tuxedos served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers bag ladies vagrants and addicts took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks and sipped champagne, a chocolate wedding cake and dance to big band melodies into the night. The wonderful picture of the kingdom of God with the exception that it only lasted one night. This was an everlasting feast Jesus here talking about the kingdom of God, good and bad, free, indiscriminate come and enjoy fellowship with the king, Muir thirsty says the prophet come to the waters and you have no money and you have no merit and you have nothing come and feast with the king the Spirit and the bride say, come leave the farms and leave the business as and sees this golden opportunity to obtain the pearl of great price, incredible invitation, which made the indifference so unreasonable and inexplicable within third last on this most solemn note, we are introduced to one of the guests who did come to the feast, but it turned out to be an independent idiot verse 11 and 12 when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment and he said to them, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment and he was speechless. Here's a man who had enough sense to come to the feast. He wasn't about to let a good meal pass him by. But he didn't have enough sense to dress appropriately and people always want to know will what should have worn what, what's this wedding garment is this what's the symbolism what's the meaning here and the fact is we don't know that a lot of wonderful theories as to what it may be, but we do know is this, that the king didn't like it. And the king was offended in some way the king was disrespected by this. After all, the king it done.

Here's a man who insisted on coming in his own way on his own terms refused to be a team player and do what everybody else did what everybody else found easy to do and for one silly little foolish as the hymn writer says gilded toy of dust one silly little idol he held onto and wanted.

I'm even using the words little and silly what it seemed that way.

It had disastrous damnable consequences because the king says in verse 13, bind him hand and foot, and cast them into the outer darkness and in place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few are chosen such a tragedy.

He was so close he was in the banqueting hall. He could smell the food is not taste it, but he insisted on doing it his way and in close is a close doesn't work close doesn't count Agrippa King Agrippa was close to the kingdom almost to persuade me to be a Christian.

He said to Paul and Jesus said to describe your not far from the kingdom of God but close doesn't get us in close gets us into outer darkness close gets to that place where there's eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth goes when he knew he was so close and for silly idle.

The silly issue he forfeited his place in the everlasting kingdom improved that he was, not chosen called and invited yes he heard that general invitation, but he wasn't chosen. After all, and limit. Sadly, this man represents thousands of people in our churches today who care about the forms and care about your businesses that are false sons in her pale false sons in the church as the hymn writer says they hear the call of the gospel that general call not the effectual call, but the general call they hear it there close they attend. Maybe they join maybe they contribute, but at the end of the day they're not hungry and not hard after God and not hard. After the kingdom of God.

Other things are much more important that care about their pleasure, the care about their hobbies or care about. To successfully care about your power their farms or businesses in the kingdom of God is not on their radar and they hear that general call and assume it's meant for someone else but not intended for them. How do we know were chosen until people not to worry about that. That's the business of God that's in the that's in the mind of God. If you want to make your calling and election sure is ugly as Peter said repent of your sins, repent of nominalism repent of that dreadful lukewarmness repent of that unwillingness to engage with the body of Christ and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness like that deer pants after the water brooks, like the man sells everything to obtain the pearl of great price, seek God with all your heart and you will know that you've made your calling and election sure because the CS Lewis once said, a lukewarm faith or think you said it was a moderated religion is really no religion at all, and much more amusing to the devil. Let's pray hello father.

We prelude sparrows from deceiving ourselves. Sparrows from lukewarmness and nominalism. I thank you for your wonderful invitation away because of her slumbering quickness if we are in danger alert us Lord list we settle for just getting close to your kingdom make us hungry, make us fervent in passionate all for Jesus whirling's Preiser gyms of beauty and cling to gilded toys of dust.

Father, we would we would rest beneath your wings. We would we would be all for Jesus. So rid us of every idle in every hindrance that would impede our devotion to you and help us to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. We ask this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen