Dennis Tuuri

Well, this psalm is a wonderful introduction or lead into the text today which is found in Matthew 22 verses 1 to 14. We just sang about our relationship to Christ really ultimately as being a wedding, a wedding feast. And in the context of that wedding feast, there’s also some mention of defeat of enemies. And that’s what’s in our text today. We’re going to focus on verse 14 which is our savior’s interpretation or explanation of the parable.

We want to talk about the whole thing today. Please stand for the reading of Matthew 22:1-14. And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come 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 ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. And the remnant took his servants, and intreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof he was wroth. And he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith 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 to the marriage.” So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all, as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?

And he was speechless. Then said the king to his servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this text. Help us to understand it. May your Holy Spirit transform us by it. May he bring us to joy in the wedding feast that you’ve called us to today. That is indeed your kingdom.

In Christ’s name we ask and for the sake of that kingdom. Amen. Please be seated.

Now, we want to talk today about effectual calling. Many are called, but few are chosen. And I want to just I read that translation But I want to point out something about that word before we get started here. The word few doesn’t mean few. It means not all who were called. Some commentators say few, very few are chosen. Many are called out there.

It’s the general call of the gospel and very few actually are chosen. Well, that’s not the point of the text. Literally, it could be interpreted as many are called and not all of those are chosen. And in fact, if we actually look at the parable itself, all those that are compelled to come in, only one has no wedding garment. And so the text seems to give us an optimistic view of the extent of the wedding feast, but that’s the phrase we want to focus in on: many are called, but some are chosen.

Maybe a different way to say it: that’s our Savior’s interpretation or the spin, the message of the parable that he gives us. And it doesn’t immediately seem obvious that’s what the parable is about. The parable seems to be a lot about human responsibility in relationship to the call to the marriage supper of the lamb. And indeed it is. But our savior says the entire context and what’s going on really is this idea of the sovereignty of God in effectual calling.

This will be our last sermon on the effectual calling, the part of the third and fourth heads of doctrine of the Canons of Dort. I saw this week online. Somebody was writing up a new catechism and the first question in it asked, what are the four parts of redemption? The answer is: it’s planning, accomplishment, application, and consummation. Planning, accomplishment, application, and consummation. That really are the four areas of the Canons of Dort. That’s what they follow. Remember it’s five heads of doctrine but the third and fourth go together.

The first, remember, was unconditional election. It’s planning in eternity. The father, son, and holy spirit chose some in love not because they were lovable but because they set their love on those particular people known as the elect in the eternal sense, in the decretal sense of the term. There was this decision to take certain men and women and prepare them for redemption.

So there is the planning of it in eternity and we spoke about that when we talked about unconditional election. Then there is its accomplishment and the second head of doctrine was particular redemption, the death of Christ and its salvation affected by it. Its accomplishment happened 2,000 years ago in the actual, not some kind of symbolic atonement but the real atonement for the sins of the elect. And the accomplishment is limited not in its worth or value.

It’s limited in its scope to those that were planned for. So it’s planning. It’s then accomplished. The savior comes and makes atonement on the cross 2,000 years ago and accomplishes redemption. But it then needs to be applied. The third part of the catechism answer is application. So the Canons of Dort go from unconditional election to particular redemption to then considering together the third and fourth head of doctrine, the depravity of man, but that’s just really subservient to the idea that God irresistibly called, effectually called, the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit.

That’s really the central focus of the third and fourth heads of doctrine. We’ve talked about this. We’ve read from the Canons themselves. And this is really talking about then the application. God has planned it. He’s accomplished it. He applies it. There’s a trinitarian perspective here. While God is one God, he exists in three persons. And the father ultimately has chosen particular people. The father’s love is put upon us.

The son accomplishes our redemption. The holy spirit applies it to individuals through effectually calling them by means of the word and spirit. And then the last section of the Canons of Dort that we’ll begin on next week is perseverance or preservation of the saints. It’s consummation. So this four-part answer, planning, accomplishment, application, and consummation fits these four sections of the Canons of Dort very nicely.

If you take off the T from TULIP, same thing works out nicely. Total depravity. Okay. Well, that’s true. That’s what happened after the fall. That sort of permeates the whole thing and then gives us logic to it. But if you leave off the T of TULIP, you start with unconditional election, the planning part, limited atonement, the accomplishment part, irresistible grace, the application part, perseverance, the preservation of the saints.

So that’s sort of the way it works. This same pattern can be seen in 2 Thessalonians 2. Turn there if you will in your scriptures. 2 Thessalonians 2. I have no outline. In a minute, I’m doing introduction here and then we’ll talk about four particular aspects of effectual calling from this parable in a couple of minutes, but we’re doing an introduction to this. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, if you look at verse 13, we can see at least three of these four elements.

Paul says, “We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord because God from the beginning chose you.” So you’re beloved by the Lord. God from the beginning chose you. Chose you for salvation. So there’s unconditional election. That’s the planning part. Through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth to which he called you by our gospel. Now, we kind of skip over the atonement accomplished, but we move on to irresistible grace.

God has planned it and then applies it to them. He’s called you by our gospel. So, they’re called and chosen. We could say in the context of the statement of the parable, they’re called by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast. Hold the traditions which you were taught. Persevere. So, planning, application, consummation, persevere whether by word or our epistle, how they were taught that is.

Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. So he tells them to persevere, but he tells them that God will preserve them. So, and that’s what we’ll talk about next week, perseverance and preservation where saints will persevere, but it’s because we’re preserved by God’s sovereign action.

So that planning and the application and then movement toward the consummation is given to us in 2 Thessalonians 2. By the way, if you just look up at verse 11, the idea that this is the sovereign election of God can be seen in verse 11. For this reason, God will send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie. So, some people are sent the delusion by God that they not become the objects of this stuff we’re talking about in terms of the people of God.

The Westminster Confession says it this way and effectual calling chapter 10. All those whom God has predestinated unto life and his plan for life and those only. So, it’s limited. He is pleased in his appointed and accepted time. So in time, this is applied effectually to call by his word and spirit. So word and spirit are tied together. He calls them by means of that. In our parable, the servants go out and call people to the feast.

That’s by word. The spirit of God’s accompanying the servants. They’re effectually calling particular people through the general call, but they’re effectually called by his word and spirit. Out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. So that’s a simple definition of effectual calling.

Now God has chosen some people. He’s accomplished their atonement. He applies it to them in time through the preaching of the gospel, the word and spirit combined. There’s a general invitation, a calling that’s general. And out of that general invitation, those that are chosen are brought specifically simply by the spirit of God. God transforms their hearts, etc. through his effectual calling. There’s nothing in them that makes them hear it better. It’s simply the grace of God that he’s going to use the general call, the general invitation to irresistibly call, to effectually call with the irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit those that have been the objects of his foreknowledge or forelove from eternity.

So, there’s a general invitation in our parable. Everybody’s compelled to come on in. Many are called, but some are chosen. The general call can be seen in Isaiah 45:22. Turn me and be saved all you ends of the earth, for I am God. So the call goes out to all the ends of the earth. The sincere offer, the sincere presentation, the command for all the earth to come to the wedding feast goes out to everybody, all ends of the earth.

Again, Isaiah 65:12, I called, but you didn’t answer. So there are some that God calls that don’t answer. And we see that in our parable as well. Matthew 16:15-16. Go into all the world, preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. So the general call is only efficacious for those that God has chosen from eternity. But there’s a general invitation, a serious presentation, invitation, offer of the gospel through the proclamation of the word.

That’s our responsibility. We’re these servants that are sent out. But then there’s a particular people. Remember we read last time or several weeks ago from 1 Corinthians 1:23. We preach Christ crucified. So we preach Christ. This is a stumbling block to Jews. These are the Jews who heard the general call but didn’t respond to them the crucifixion of Jesus was a stumbling block and foolishness to the Gentiles.

To the Gentiles who also heard a general call but did not respond. The crucifixion of Christ was foolishness. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So the word called in the New Testament can refer to the general call to all the earth or as 1 Corinthians points out to the particular ones who are called and saved as a result of that call.

So remember 1 Corinthians 1 is sort of the classic text we can use for effectual calling. But we also have this particular text at the end of this wedding parable. Many are called, few are chosen. Many are called some of those are chosen. Many are called, most are chosen, we might want to say with a postmillennial take to it. And that’s what we want to talk about. Now, it’s a good proof text for effectual calling.

But I think that we can see some things about effectual calling if we look at the context for that summary statement of the parable. It is a parable we’re talking about here. And it’s explicitly stated to be that a parable is kind of like a jewel. It’s got different facets on it. It throws light in different directions. It seems rather obvious that what we have going on here, this is after all this parable at its setting is a couple three days maybe before the Jews will murder Jesus.

So in the parable he’s the king’s son but he’s also one of the servants who are calling the Jews and the Jews turn and kill him the same way they had killed the prophets. So in just a few days the people that he’s actually addressing this parable to are going to do just what the parable says they’re going to do. They’re going to kill some of the servants and they’re going to kill the son, actually the chief servant.

Jesus is moving toward a full revelation of who he is. The parables indicate that. We know now, of course, it’s very easy to see in this that the city that’s burned refers to the torching of Jerusalem in AD 70. So clearly, this parable has a particular facet to it that shines light in the historical context in which it was spoken, but it kind of throws light in other directions as well. And we’re going to talk about some of those other directions here.

And as I said, we kind of want to put the whole parable in the context of the last saying, “Many are called but only some of those are chosen.” By the way, Jesus also just before this in verse 43 of chapter 21 said to these same Jews, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” This had been prophesied in Hosea, my word will go out to a different people.

The Gentiles are going to come in. And clearly the parable, it’s obvious. We see that as well, right? So the people in the city get called. They don’t come. He strikes out at them in his anger. And then other guests, the Gentiles then are called in outside of the city. The city won’t come. It’s going to be torched. The highways and byways going out of the city to the Gentile nations, they then are the recipients of this.

And so Jesus has already told them this is what’s going to happen. They knew quite clearly what he was saying to them that the kingdom was taken from them and now the Gentiles would be brought in. And so this general call invitation is seen as going to Jews first and then Gentiles. And that of course is the progression of history over the next decades and centuries. Matthew 28, go into all the world, proclaim the gospel, bring the invitation.

And that’s what we see happening here. All right. So, let’s think about this parable and specifically in terms of effectual calling. Many are called but few are chosen. I want us I have four basic points here and you can write these down. The first thing I want to talk about from this parable is that effectual calling is the fruit of the general call to great joy. So, effectual calling is the fruit of general call and that general call is to great joy.

Great joy. Secondly, we want to say that effectual calling is to responsibility. So the effectual call is a call to responsibility and we’ll see that in the parable. Third, the effectual calling is gracious. It’s not, you know, depending upon the person that’s called. It’s the grace of God that is clearly set forth in the parable as what is behind and surrounding and in the context of the effectual call.

And then finally, the effectual calling is away from damnation, away from destruction, damnation, horrible things. Okay. All right. First of all, then and and let me just say at the beginning as well, those are the four points. And here’s what I’d like at the end of this time to have accomplished. Here’s what I asked God for now that the end result of this text in your heart would give you a confidence in issuing the general call of the servants of God.

A confidence in inviting people to the banqueting feast of Christ. So, so for you personally, you make those four points, but the application is I want you to have more confidence as servants of God calling people to salvation. Secondly, I want you to have confidence in the garments of salvation and as part of that, you know, kind of make sure your priorities are challenged a bit as well in terms of that.

So, confidence in the robes of salvation, the garments of the wedding garments, and I’m going to make the case that they’re of two types in a little bit. And then third, primarily what we want from this text is thanksgiving, rest, joy, and the feast. You’re called today. You got up, your alarms went off, your mind started working. Oh yeah, it’s Sunday. God called you. What did he call you to? Well, this parable says he’s called you to the kingdom.

And the kingdom in ritual form is placed before you today. And what God has called you to is a wedding feast. Praise God. He’s called you to great joy. And I want you to rejoice in that today and rest in it. I don’t know what happened this last week in your life, but this helps us get our minds straight again about what the kingdom of God is all about. Yeah, you know, his labor, his work, trials, tribulations.

But here in this parable, our savior describes the kingdom of heaven. I mean, this is what we’re in the midst of now. The kingdom that he initiated with his death and resurrection. That kingdom is a place of great rest and joy and thanksgiving. That’s the essential nature of our lives. Now, that is clearly there’s an eternal dimension to the parable, but that’s not all that’s going on because in people aren’t kicked out of heaven and fall from grace.

The idea of the people being dismissed from the wedding feast who don’t have wedding robes on this makes it temporal for us. The kingdom of heaven isn’t postponed to the end of time. We’re in the kingdom. And so even though our lives we have the short very few short years to willingly and joyfully serve the king in the joy of the wedding feast. That’ll be the only thing we know in eternity. There won’t be temptation to think that it’s not a feast.

But here in this life, there’s a temptation to forget that God has given us all the fruit in the garden to rejoice, to eat, to delight in. And so that’s my last piece of application for you that I hope we’ll we’ll find as we go through the text. All right. First of all, effectual calling is the fruit of the general call. And this general call is to great joy. So the parable says that this is the kingdom of heaven.

And as I said, The kingdom of heaven is the whole McGill. It’s what life is about. It’s not postponed to the future. It is what’s happening now. Temporal events are described here. The burning of the city, the destruction of Jerusalem, the expulsion of certain people. You can’t come to the wedding feast unless you’ve got wedding garments. These are temporal truths. Now, they’re eternal truths as well, but they’re temporal truths.

The kingdom is here and now. And what is this kingdom? He says, “Well, it’s like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and he sent out his servants to call those who are invited to the wedding. And there’s this feast. So, you know, the imagery used for what the kingdom of heaven is. What’s your life about? You’re a member of the kingdom. What’s it about? Well, it’s like a feast. Adam was created hungry.

He wanted to eat. We’re hungry. We want to eat. And it’s a it’s true in its literal sense, but it’s also true that we hunger and thirst for good things in the world. And God says that he’s providing good things in the kingdom. It’s a feast. And a feast is a good time to get together and rejoice. Got this neat agape to get, you know, we have and there’s good stuff to eat and we eat the sweet. You know, in the Lord’s day, we eat a little richer food, a little nicer food.

We drink a little more wine. It’s a feast. And that’s characteristic. The Lord’s day is characteristic of what the whole kingdom is like. It’s a feast. But it’s not just a feast. It’s a wedding feast. And as we know from a couple weeks ago, the concerts, those of you that went to that wedding or other weddings you’ve gone to. It’s a good feast. It’s good things to eat and you know there’s champagne and there’s good tasty stuff and it’s a joyful time.

A wedding feast is more joyful than any other feast. So God could have just left it that the kingdom of heaven is like a feast. He does that in other places of scripture. But here in the context of effectual calling, what are we called to? We’re called to a feast which means joy. But we’re called to a wedding feast which means enhanced joy. A lot of joy. Big joy. But this isn’t just a wedding feast. It’s the wedding feast that a king is putting on for someone.

Now, the king, he’s rich. He’s got the fatted ox, the calves, the big fancy sweet stuff. He’s going to provide a really cool feast. Probably be some music, be some dancing. There’ll be relaxation, maybe some glorified air. There’ll certainly be glorified liquid. There’ll be, you know, really glorified food. You won’t just get grain to eat. Going to have animals and good stuff. Maybe some Hershey bars, whatever it the king, he’s going to provide a really nice feast.

And I don’t know, I’ve never been to a king’s feast, but you can sort of read online, you know, what they have at the White House. That’s the equivalent of our kings, I suppose. And you can read accounts of king’s banquets. I mean, when the Bible tells us that the kingdom is like a wedding feast put on by a king, well, hey, you can’t get much better than that, can you? It’s a great thing. So, effectual calling is not to, you know, drudgery, lack of joy, just putting one foot in front of the other.

Sometimes that’s all you can see to do. But for the joy that was before him, Christ endured the cross. If we leave out the message that the effectual calling is to joy, a joy of a feast, better joy, a wedding feast, even better. Yeah. A wedding feast put on by a king. Well, now we understand the nature of what we’re called to, you see. But it can get better because this wedding feast isn’t just a feast. It’s a wedding feast put on by a king.

It’s put on by a king for his son. That’s the ultimate. See, there can’t be a bigger feast, a better feast, a more joyful feast, a better rejoicing time, a more festive occasion than the wedding feast of a king for his own son. That’s the ultimate that’s the ultimate feast of all feasts. And so, this is what our savior says. We’re chosen to. We’re effectually called to. We’re called to joy. I think that one of the reasons why people have enjoyed life at RCC in the last 25 years is that over the years, we’ve understood this.

We’ve understood from the beginning. We’ve had that meal together as a little symbol of this. But we understand that we’re Calvinists, but man, we’re not called to some kind of dry, dusty, joyless life. We’re called to joy. And the Lord’s Day observance is this wonderful joy. Effectual calling is to a time of great joy. Not just a feast, a wedding feast. Not just a wedding feast, a king’s wedding feast. Not just a king’s wedding feast, but the king’s wedding feast for his own son.

This is a great thing. This is what the spirit in Revelation 22 is saying. The spirit and the bride, that’s us, are telling people, “Come.” And let who hears say, “Come. Let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. We’re supposed to be able, we’re part, we’re we’re the bride and our job is to extend the general call that the word and spirit will use to effectually call particular people, those that God has planned and accomplished atonement for.

And it can be seen as real difficult. I, you know, I read sermons. I read a couple sermons just last week on effectual calling and they’re describing what goes on and well, you know, the guy’s got a come to a deep conviction of sin and then he gets deeper and then he knows he’s a jerk and then he knows it’s horrible and he does this and this and this and this and then he starts to turn and he rejoices in the salvation.

They put all these steps in front of it. Now you know there’s some truth to that but here it’s really made quite simple. What we do when we go out and talk to our neighbors about Jesus is we invite them to joy. We invite them to a wedding feast. Hey come to church on Sunday. We have some really good wine. You got neat bread and then afterwards the feast just flows out of that feast in the in worship we have a good time together come to the wedding feast that’s what the kingdom is and you know one of my goals in this talk is to make it easier more biblical for you to do your work of calling people to faith in Christ and faith in Christ here the kingdom of heaven is described as a wedding feast it’s that simple come rejoice first thirsty we got stuff to drink It’s better than anything you’ve ever wanted before.

You know, we’ve always said here, well, we got this theology that drives community, but people usually come to RCC because of community first and they learn the theology. Well, okay. Isn’t that what this is all about? This parable in front of us, invitation to the feast. And when they get there, well, there’s some theology stuff. They start to realize, well, I can’t be here unless I have garments. Okay? I really can’t be here.

So, there’s implication that work out. But it’s as simple as being the bride that says to people, “Come to a tremendous joyful time, the kingdom of heaven.” Isaiah 25:6. “And in this mountain, this place of worship, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of meryl, of well-refined wines on the leaves. Tremendous feast. So throughout the Bible, beginning in the garden, all the trees except this one for now are yours.

I invite you to a feast, Adam. That’s what life with me is all about. And this the simplicity of the gospel message is that the effectual call is to tremendous joy. And that is the message, the general invitation is the same thing. We invite people to this kind of joy. The kingdom is a time to be dressed in good apparel. It’s a time to sing, to feast, to play. It’s a time to dance, eat, drink, make merry.

It’s a time to be glad. It’s the time of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ that began on that cross and in the resurrection 2,000 years ago. This is the feast that was promised really for 4,000 years and has come to culmination. And this is the simple message of the gospel. The Lord God calls us to feast. The gospel in short, as one commentator said, is an offer of food to the hungry. Joy to the mourner, of a home to the outcast, and a loving friend to the lost.

You know how powerful that message is today? We live in a culture where people are alienated and where joy is not the mark and where the news every day is filled with all kinds of mourning sorts of stuff and real difficulties in lives. The idea of feasting together in community of friends and joy and dancing and celebration, this is a powerful gospel message. And when we think that our duty is to go out and preach something other than that as the goal, then we’ve kind of not caught the drift of what the effectual call is and what we as servants of the king are to call people to do.

This is how Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven. The effectual call is to this kind of truth. Now, secondly, the effectual call is to responsibility, however. Okay? So, it’s it’s a part of the general call and it is to joy but it quickly moves to a consideration of responsibility. The general call offers this wonderful blessing but effectual calling ultimately calls people to exercise responsibility for what they have heard.

What happens in the parable? Well, people act irresponsibly. They’re not willing to come. And he says, “Well, I, you know, it’s going to be a great time. I’ve gotten everything ready. My ox and my fatted cattle are killed and all things are ready come to the wedding. They made light of it and went their way. So the the demonstration of irresponsibility of those who are generally called but not effectually called is not that they went away breaking all the ten commandments.

That’s not how people are portrayed in this text as missing out on the joy and ending up in damnation. The simple fact is that most people’s rejection of the general call means they’ve rejected an effectual call to responsibility which starts with prioritization of the things of God. You know, it’s as if you have this bright huge signage sun, this glorious sun in the sky. You can blot that sun. You just pick up a little piece of gold or silver or a coin and you’ll bring it closeness to your eye and you can’t even see the sun.

Well, that’s kind of the idea here. These people give excuses. says one went to his farm, the other went to his business. So we got country and city covered in this. There’s no value being in the country. Doesn’t make it easier to respond to the god. There’s no value in the city. Doesn’t make it easier whether you’re city or country. People are distracted by the things of life and they see those things. That’s what they’re holding so close that they can’t see the amazing feast they’re being called to.

They’ve got their poultry little feast and they can’t even see because their emphasis upon it. We’re called to responsibility and responsibility begins with the correct prioritization. We’re to put the right value on what the king is presenting to us. Well, first of all, because it’s the king, I don’t care if he’s calling me to, you know, coffee and donuts or a wedding feast. I don’t care if there’s no food involved at all.

If the king calls us were to honor the king and if the if the president of the United States invited you to a dinner, I think you’d probably go out of your way to try to make it. You priority poritized him and his honor. We’re effectually called to prioritize the honor of the king above everything else in our lives. We’re effectually called to prioritize rejoicing and moving in kingdom ways to everything else in the context of our lives.

This is pretty dramatic stuff if you just think about it a little bit. As I said, you know, it’s not that people are, you know, horrible law breakers., that’s not the ones that he ends up being mad at and angry at and killing. It’s just those who prioritize the things of their life higher than the things of the king and the kingdom. Simple carelessness, inattentiveness, carelessness is the great sin.

One commentator said, Matthew Henry said, “Making light of Christ and of the great salvation wrought out by him of the joy of salvation we would say is the damning sin of the world. They were careless. No, multitudes perish eternally through mere carelessness who have not any direct aversion but a prevailing indifference to the matters of their souls and an unconcernedness about them. Thousands, millions perish through a mere carelessness to attend to what God says we attend to.

Another commentator said this open sin may kill its thousands, but indifference and neglect of the gospel kills their tens of thousands. Crowds will find themselves in hell, not so much because they openly broke the Ten Commandments as because they paid no attention to the truth. They reject Jesus through carelessness. So effectual calling is a calling to act responsibly and to ask ourselves today, remember these were people who were going the festivals.

These were people who were part of the visible church. These were the circumcised, right? And but they didn’t prioritize Jesus Christ in his kingdom. And we can come to church every Sunday and yet not have his kingdom as the priority of our lives. And we can at the end of the day say, “Well, we did some stuff for you.” And he’ll say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” If we’re indifferent to the kingdom and its calling on all of our lives, if we fail to properly prioritize Christ, we’ve rejected the effectual call to responsibility through a proper prioritization of the things of God and the things of the kingdom.

The father is ready to love and receive. The spirit is ready to pardon and cleanse guilt away. The spirit is ready to sanctify and renew. Angels are ready to rejoice over the returning sinner. Grace is ready to assist him. The Bible is ready to instruct him. Heaven is ready to be his everlasting home. One thing only is needed and that is that the sinner must be ready and willing himself. Let this also never be forgotten.

Let us not quibble, as one commentator says, and split hairs upon this point. God will be found clear of the blood of all lost souls. The gospel always speaks of sinners as responsible and accountable for their actions. Effectual calling doesn’t obviate the responsibility of those who are called. Jesus has no problem describing people who go to hell because of their indifference or their failure to abide the joy of the of the wedding feast and the proper garments for it.

He has no problem describing all those people and then at the end saying many are called and few are chosen. They’re not chosen. He doesn’t say many are called and few choose the right thing. Many are called and God but God is only chosen. Some a subset of the general call. There’s no, you know, tension between responsibility and God’s sovereignty. And in fact, effectual calling is a call to exercise responsibility.

Now, there’s another thing going on in this parable that emphasizes responsibility. There are those who are indifferent to Christ and the king is wrath is wroth rather. Let me point this out in verse 7. The king hears about this. He’s furious. They accelerate in their rejection. They kill the servants. You know, they killed the prophets. They killed Jesus. They’ll later kill the apostles. And the king is angry.

He’s furious. He sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. This is fulfilled in AD 70. Over 1 million residents of Jerusalem were slaughtered by the Roman hosts and by the other groups that crept in to kill all these Jews. God sent troops, his troops, Roman Empire, were God’s troops to go into Jerusalem and murder over 1 million of those who had rebelled against Jesus. Jesus was ang God the Father is angry.

There’s nothing wrong with anger. There’s something wrong with sinful anger. I just reviewed a chapter I wrote on anger for a seven deadly sins book and I thought it was pretty good. I wrote 101 15 years ago but I kind of liked it and you know Bill Gothard has an anger seminar. You’re supposed to get rid of all anger. Well that’s not biblical here in this parable. A reminder that there’s a proper sense of anger on the part of the king.

King is God the father. And in that anger, he strikes out at Jerusalem, kills millions of people. And then the temple is torched. And one of the Roman soldiers apparently was burning things. Let’s do that. He throws it in one of the windows of the temple. The temple starts to burn. The people of the city seeing it while they’re being slaughtered by the Romans. Cry out on, “Oh, the temple’s being burned now.”, nearly the entire city was eventually burned and raised by the Romans.

Few high places were left, but not the temple. God fulfilled this. parabolic prediction of what he would do to those who improperly prioritized a call uh to rejoice in kingdom rejoicing. Look at the great thing they they reject here. But in any event, so then he goes on and he compels others. He invites them to the wedding and those people come in and then it says the king comes in to see the guests. He sees a man there who didn’t have on a wedding garment and he says, “Friend, what’s going on?

Now, now we can make a very direct parallel to the services of the church. We invite people here and as people are this morning Molly was brought into union with Jesus Christ and the garment of righteousness, the gar the wedding garment that’s provided here by the father, you know. So, so they’re to be responsible to robe up and you know, they’re they’re called in from the highways and byways in Luke parallel account in Luke 14.

There are the blind, the halt, the lame. They’re brought in. Well, they’re not going to have a wedding garment. Some of them, most of them couldn’t afford a wedding garment. Things were quite bad financial state. And the point is that they’re rushed right into the wedding. Where are they going to get their garments from? The king provides them. The king provides the wedding garments. And so, the wedding garments are provided by the king.

And I think that we can look at, we’ve done this before, but we can look at what garments are about in the scriptures. And part of it is being clothed at the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because of our union with Christ, the righteousness, the beautiful garment, the wedding garment, the pure white wedding garment that is described in various places of scripture, including the book of Revelation, that purity and righteousness belongs to Jesus ultimately him and him alone.

And when we’re united to Christ in baptism, then we can be said to have put the garment on. So the garment is first of all the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we have by means of our union with him through baptism. It’s Christ’s righteousness that is our own. That’s why it’s a garment. We read Psalm 15 saying Psalm 15 earlier. You know, who gets to go to the temple of God? Well, ultimately Psalm 15 is not true of you or me.

We’ve sinned against those things. Jesus hasn’t. He’s the one that brings us up to the holy mountain in association with him. He’s perfect. He’s got the pure white wedding garment and it’s in association and union with him that we have these in these wedding garments as well. So these garments it’s our responsibility to see that our entrance into the feast is on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

In Revelation 6:11, a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer and these are people that have been martyred for the faith. So as they go to the heavenly marriage supper, a white robe is given to them. You know, it has been the p there are some churches in medieval period when you’d come to church. You know, all of you would be the choir. You’d all get a robe.

You’d put on your white robe as you entered into the worship facility because it’s a reminder that we come. We’re acceptable in the righteousness alone of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have ual calling is to responsibility. A responsibility to acknowledge that apart from the wedding garments of Christ, apart from his righteousness, we don’t have standing with God in the feast. Now God says if you’re here, he calls you friend.

You notice that he’s going to send this guy out. He’s going to send him to the outer darkness to where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth. But he calls him friend. The presupposition is the general invitation to which he has brought people into the church, into the worship service of the church by means of That presupposition stands intact. And when we see people in the context of the church who seem to reject the righteousness of Christ, we address them, but we call them friends because they’re here.

But this friend doesn’t respond with any kind of defense. So I I see. Yeah, sure. I understand the righteousness of No, he doesn’t say anything. He justifies his lack of a garment. And so he’s consigned to hell. Effectual calling is to responsibility to take the robe or to recognize that We’ve been robed to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and it we have that this in righteousness of Christ is our righteousness.

Count Von Zinzendorf in this in this hymn one of the hymns we sing says this Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are my glorious dress makes flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. So we’re clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says in Philippians 3:9 that he is in Christ quote not having my own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness or garment we could say which is of God by faith.

So effectual calling is a calling to responsibility to understand that we’re rolled only in the righteousness of Christ as the ultimate entrance ticket as it were to remain in the context of the feast. Now Revelation goes on however to speak of a different kind of garment the only other pl so we can look at other wedding garments and they’re talking about the righteousness of Christ that we have by means of union but the only other place where there’s a wedding feast and garment explicitly and garments are put on is in Revelation 19 and we read this that let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready and to her it was granted to be arrayed and fine linen, clean and bright.

Now listen, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Blessed are those, he says, who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. Well, there’s no doubt that what the Bible, as we’ve read in a couple of verses now, clearly talk about the wedding garments as having an aspect, one piece of light that shines out from this parable is that we come to the feast only in association with Christ’s righteousness.

But We would be foolish if we did not see as well that the calling to responsibility is to act and live responsibly as well to engage in righteous acts. And if you come to the supper today and the elders find out that you’ve smirched your garment up and you know killed some people last week or you committed adultery and you haven’t repented, you know, or you’ve done something else. Once more, as with those who don’t believe in the imparted righteousness of Christ.

Those who don’t practice their lives in such a way as to have righteous acts are barred from this table. The king oversees the table. How? Well, he comes to be with us, but his representatives in the wedding feast are his servants, the pastors of the church, the elders. And we’re called, you know, to inspect the gar the garments of those who come as well. So, our calling to responsibility, the effectual calling is to great joy, but it’s also an effectual calling to responsibility to hear and come and not un, you know, not say that the wedding feast is a lower priority than the rest of my life.

And it’s a calling of responsibility to accept the robes, the imputed, we could say, the righteousness we have of Christ, being in union with him, that his righteousness is ours because we’re one with him through baptism. And also the practical righteousness of the state. These are the three areas of responsibility that the text points out for us I think as it shines out this parable responsibility to prioritize the kingdom highway the pri the responsibility to understand that only Christ’s righteousness ultimately allows us to come to the holy hill to the great wedding feast of God and then the responsibility to add to that righteous actions as well as a prerequisite for continuing participation in the re great rejoicing feast which is the joyful supper of the king’s wedding feast for his son.

So these are areas of responsibility. So effectual calling is a calling to great joy. Effectual calling is a calling to responsibility and effectual calling is a calling that is gracious. Third point, it’s gracious. Well, this is pictured all over the parable as well. He graciously ignores the first rejection of the invitation, right? To the first group, to the Jews. He invites them. They don’t come. He invites them again.

He’s gracious. There’s nothing they have in them that deserves the wedding feast of the king. By implication, it’s a gracious offer by a great sovereign who has tremendous things to give to them. And then explicitly, he’s gracious in extending the invitation several times. It’s gracious also because he when he talks about bringing in the Gentiles or bringing in the rest of the world. It says that he invited them and in Luke it actually says he compels them to come in those who are the bad and the good.

It’s irrespective of the works of the people that the call effectual call is given to them. Okay? It’s a gracious call because it goes to people irrespective of what we may see as good or bad. And in Luke, the group is described as the lame, the halt, the blind. It’s people that are actually not just kind of neutral. They’re in bad shape. So effectual calling is a gracious calling, a condescension as it were to people that have no right to eat of the banquet.

A condescension that overlooks rejection, first rejection of the invitation and continues to extend an invitation. It’s gracious because it goes out to people irrespective of their particular value. You know, because of the great love with which he loved us. That’s why we’re here. The emphasis in the is the great love. The NIV when it translates that for says when what God loved us therefore meaning that there’s some kind of lovableness in us.

There’s nothing lovable in us. The love of God is put on us irrespective of our goodness, badness. And in fact, we’re all halt blind and lame. We’re all suffering the death and effects of the fall. So the effectual falling is gracious. And finally, it’s gracious because the king provides the garment. As I said, haven’t seen this explicitly, but he commands them to come in. Where are they going to get the garments?

The king’s provided it. So, the effectual calling of God is a gracious calling. It’s a gracious calling. And finally, the effectual calling is away from damnation. What happens to those who hear the general invitation and may even persist for a while in the context of that rejoicing feast? There’s a guy eating and drinking there in the wedding feast. There’s a guy coming to church. But The king oversees things and he looks in and he says, “Well, you don’t have a wedding garment on friend.” What happens?

And the friend doesn’t answer. And what does the king do? Well, the king then sends him out. He says, “Bind him hand and foot. Make him unable.” You know, it’s it’s not fun being bound hand and foot. It’s a constraining that’s described there. And he’s not just bound hand and foot. He’s then is cast into outer darkness. Complete isolation as it were, nothing to get one’s bearings. tremendous place of fear is where this person is sent to.

But it isn’t just outer darkness. It’s a place where there’s weeping. The Old Testament over and over again, the saints of Israel weep. He wept when God chastised them for their sins or when they were in punishment. Esau wept, not tears of true repentance, but he weeps nonetheless. And then finally, it isn’t just being bound and constricted and then being put into a place of utter isolation and darkness with no hope, not a single ray of hope upon you.

And it’s not just that, it’s also where you’re weeping actively going on perpetually. That’s the state of damnation that effectual calling is away from. But it’s worse than that. It says there’s gnashing of teeth. Now, what does that mean? I’m not exactly sure. It could be the individual gnashing his own teeth. Could be that. I’ve often thought of it that way. And yet, There’s some psalms Psalm 37:12 for instance.

Listen. The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. Psalm 35:15-16. In my adversity they rejoiced and gathered together. Attackers gathered against me and I did not know it. They tore at me and did not cease. With ungodly mockers at feast they gnashed at me with their teeth. I think the imagery that the Jew who was familiar with his Old Testament, who had heard this parable in its first instance.

That’s what they would associate it with. Hell is not just isolation. It’s not just confinement. It’s not just a place of great sorrow. It’s a place where your attackers perpetually gnash at you with their teeth. Carrot you. Now, some have said, well, the great loss of those who reject the gracious call of God is the loss of the joy of the wedding feast. That’s the big problem. That’s the big loss for the man who refuses the righteousness of Jesus and refuses to walk in a way that befits his calling by God.

The man has refused this tremendous joy of a feast, a wedding feast, a king’s wedding feast for his son. Tremendous. And so some commentators have said, “Well, this is the greatest problem, you know, for those who reject the effectual call of God.” One commentator says this, “If we refuse the invitation of Christ, someday our greatest pain,” this commentator said, will lie not in the things we suffer, but in the real realization of the precious things we have missed.

I don’t think that’s true. I think there is truly a great pain and a realization that we have cut ourselves off from joy. The highest kind of joy we can imagine in human society. But I think that the very real damnation that’s described here of confinement being wrapped up being in a place of isolation where there’s no hope complete loss of hope in life being in a place where weeping is per actual and being in a place where your enemies gnash at you at their teeth forever., I have to put that at least on a par with the pain of those who reject the general invitation and by so doing demonstrate their lack of effectual calling.

It’s never God’s fault when men reject the general invitation. This parable makes it quite clear that human responsibility and effectual calling are not at odds with one another. And in fact, effectual calling establishes responsibility No one can say what did God say about Israel. What more could I have done for her? He said, “What more could I have done? I made this vineyard. I gave it good place to I made great soil.

I gave it good water. I tended it well. What more could I have done?” And for the sinner who rejects the invitation to the greatest joy and as a result inevitably moves toward the greatest pain and suffering. This sinner cannot say that God should have done something more for him. God says, “What more could I have done? We have a hard time putting that together. Jesus didn’t. Jesus says, “Many are called.

Not all of them are chosen.” And they demonstrate this by their rejection of responsibility. As I said, my hope today was to help you to get your priorities straight. Understand that people, the Jews were coming to the worship festivals just like you do. The Gentiles in the in the parable were coming to the wedding feast just like you. And yet the Lord Jesus said they had not properly prioritized the joy of the feast.

They didn’t properly, you know,, cling to the righteousness of Christ. They didn’t act responsibly because of their carelessness ultimately. May the Lord God grant that we not be careless, recognizing, you know, if you’re careless on these steps and I fall, okay, I might twist an ankle. If I’m on the edge of the Grand Canyon and walk carelessly, I do so to my eternal harm. Well, not eternal but to my the death of my physical life.

And here the Bible says if you walk carelessly in relationship to the call of the gospel to the great wedding feast, you do so dangling on the edge of eternal damnation of a sort where you don’t want to go there. May the Lord God give us a proper sense of prioritization. May he give us a proper sense of the wonderful blessing that we’ve been called to having been saved out of that damnation to the work of Jesus Christ that we’re brought together today in great joy.

May we rejoice, give thanks. May our fellowship meetings be time of thanksgiving to God. May this be a day of rest, recognizing the great truths, the great rejoicing feast that God has given to us. And may we be empowered by this simple parable. Our savior couldn’t have made it simpler for you as you go into this week to be part of the general invitation that will effectually be used by God to call saints to himself and expand the manifestation of the kingdom.

It could have made it simpler. All you’ve got to do is talk to your neighbor, your friend, your associate, the man you sit next to on the bus, whatever it is, and invite them to a time of the greatest joy that a person could possibly know. It’s as simple as that. Bring them here. Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for the beauty of this parable, for its simplicity, for the many directions the light from it shines forth into.

We thank you for our effectual calling. And we thank you, Lord God, for calling us to great joy, to responsibility. You’ve called us graciously, Lord God, and you’ve saved us. You’ve called us away from damnation. Help us as we come forward now once more, commit ourselves afresh to be your faithful servants, to go out into the highways and byways, and effectually call people, Lord God, by calling everyone to come to the wedding supper of the lamb.

In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.