The King Confronts the Guest Without a Wedding GarmentBible World
22:1Matthew 22:1
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
Matthew 22:1 opens the wedding-feast parable of Matthew 22:1-14, in which the kingdom of heaven is pictured as a king making a marriage for his son. The king's invitation is a call of high honor that is met first with indifference for farm and merchandise and then with insult and violence toward his servants, bringing destruction upon the murderers and burning of their city. Admission to the feast requires the wedding garment, which is the robe of Christ's righteousness freely provided by the king and put on by receiving Christ and obeying God's will in right doing. Before the wedding the king comes in to examine the guests, showing that God scrutinizes all professed followers in the investigative judgment, accepting those found clothed and casting the speechless one without the garment into outer darkness. That invitation is the gospel feast prepared by Christ's atoning death, to be carried earnestly to all from the highways, both bad and good, that God's house may be full.
Parable Setting and Storyline
Matthew 22:1 introduces Jesus speaking again in parables, opening the wedding-feast parable that runs through Matthew 22:1-14. It begins the picture of the kingdom of heaven as a certain king making a marriage for his son, a marriage supper and wedding feast prepared with oxen made ready. The story includes both the call to come to the marriage supper, with invited guests refusing and others afterward invited, and the reckoning with the one found there without a wedding garment. That reckoning raises the question for those who identify the church as the Lamb's bride and place the marriage after Christ's return.
Like the parable of the great supper, it illustrates the gospel invitation, its rejection by the Jewish people, and the call of mercy to the Gentiles, but it brings to view on the part of those who reject a deeper insult and a more dreadful punishment. The call is a king's invitation proceeding from one vested with power to command and able to command obedience, conferring high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and the king's authority is despised. While the householder's invitation was regarded with indifference, the king's is met with insult and murder, his servants treated with scorn, despitefully used and slain. While slighting the householder's invitation brings exclusion from the supper, doing despite to the king brings more than exclusion from his presence and table, with armies sent to destroy the murderers and burn up their city. In both parables the feast is provided with guests, but this parable shows there is a preparation to be made by all who attend, and those who neglect it are cast out when the king comes in to see the guests, finding a man without a wedding garment who is speechless and then bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The king first sent servants to call those bidden to the wedding, who would not come, then sent other servants to tell those bidden that dinner is prepared with oxen and fatlings killed and all things ready. But they made light of it and went their ways to farm and merchandise, while the remnant spitefully entreated and slew the servants. Thereupon the king was wroth and sent armies to destroy those murderers and burn their cities, then sent servants into the highways to bid as many as they found. So both bad and good were gathered and furnished the wedding with guests, and when the king came in he saw a man without the wedding garment, which garment was a gift from the king whose use showed respect to him who had made every provision for the feast. The man was speechless when questioned, and was bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called but few are chosen.
The invitations were given before the feast was ready, and servants were sent to call the invited guests when it was ready, representing the gospel feast prepared for those invited to come. The marriage feast draws on marriage as a divine institution that Jesus honored and used to illustrate important truths. Christ is the Bridegroom, and the church is the bride. The king's invitation represents the gospel invitation, which is to be offered earnestly and carried to everyone who can be reached, though people may refuse the call and make excuses, and their response will matter when the judgment examines what they have done.
King's Invitation and Rejection
The call in this verse is a king's invitation, proceeding from one vested with power to command and able to command obedience, and conferring high honor upon those bidden. That honor is unappreciated and the king's authority is despised by those who refuse.
The invited refuse through indifference, making light of the call and excusing themselves with circumstances and supposed duties, going away to farm and to merchandise. They pride themselves on buying and selling and getting gain, and think they cannot afford any worldly loss or loss of worldly advantage for the sake of the heavenly feast. They make slight excuses and turn from an invitation prepared for their benefit. People may recognize the truth and hear the gracious calls to the heavenly feast as invitations to accept salvation, yet refuse to trust and obey God.
Refusal does not stop at indifference but escalates to insult and murder, for while the householder's invitation was regarded with indifference, the king's is met with insult and murder. His servants are treated with scorn, spitefully entreated, despitefully used and slain by the remnant. Those who so refused the king were more guilty than those who refused the householder's invitation.
The king is wroth at this despite done to him. He sends his armies to destroy those murderers and burn up their city, or cities. While slighting the householder's invitation brings exclusion from the supper, doing despite to the king brings more than exclusion from his presence and table.
The first-invited refusers are the Jewish people and nation, who had the privileges and opportunity of the banquet. They rejected the Son of God and the garment of His righteousness, and thereby separated from God. The parable also applies especially to the Christian world that claims to believe in Christ.
Meaning of Wedding Garment
The marriage pictures the union of humanity with divinity, and the wedding garment pictures the character everyone must possess to be counted fit to attend the feast. It sets the standard of character each person must reach to be a fit guest, and its full meaning must be carefully studied because it holds a lesson of the highest consequence. Presumption in matters involving eternal interests is warned against, where measuring character by human ideas instead of God's standard and continuing in sin results in loss of soul and hinders the fulfillment of God's promise. Everyone deciding for Christ must take a firm stand and surrender to God what is already His own, accepting the righteousness of Christ as set forth in the sixth chapter of John, without which no one has on the wedding garment.
The wedding garment is the robe of Christ's righteousness, His distinguishing dress of spotless character washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, the white linen of clean pure character. It is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone, the garment woven in the loom of heaven, and no garment of one's own gives a position of honor there. To think one's own defiled garments and own righteousness good enough to come into Christ's presence insults the Lord, for contemplation of His unsurpassed purity shows each person as unholy, weak, poor, defective, lost and hopeless, clad in self-righteousness like every other sinner. Salvation comes not by superior intellect or refinement of ideas but through the grace of God, and only that righteousness makes the sons and daughters of Adam members of the heavenly family. Coming in citizen's garments — keeping stubborn self-will, leaning on others instead of making God the dependence, and lacking the humility, meekness and lowliness of Christ — unfits a person for seeing and understanding the working of the Spirit of God and leaves him to be led by another spirit.
The garment was purchased for the guest and prepared by the Lord Jesus Christ, spotless as the pure white lily, and is proffered freely to all, even to the lowliest who will believe in Jesus as a personal Saviour. Each guest must accept this robe and put it on, for worthiness to sit at the feast comes only from Christ's robe. Its use shows respect to Him who made every provision for the feast, while entering without it does the greatest dishonor to Him who invited and provided the robe. Securing this garment is the richest gift that can be bestowed on mortal man and demands the whole attention. Guests must not come in their ordinary, worldly condition but must be clothed in the white robe prepared for them, for coming to the supper means drinking fully from the cup of truth held out through the message of justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Wearing it means receiving Christ as personal Saviour into the heart and representing Him in character. Righteousness is right-doing, and deeds reveal character and show whether faith is genuine, so profession of belief or church membership alone is not enough. Genuine conversion is shown by keeping God's commandments and doing what is right, with characters made like Christ and obedient to God. Partaking of the feast says by that act that Christ has been accepted as personal Saviour and the truth as it is in Jesus has been accepted, no longer living the old citizen life lived in ignorance, with changed speech and conversation in altogether another line, that faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Those who receive Christ, surrender to God's will, obey His commandments, and develop Christlike character wear the garment; receiving the invitation alone does not make a person fit.
Coming without it is professing to believe the truth while remaining unsanctified, carrying self so there is no room for Christ, with no reformation of heart. It is nominally accepting the truth but not practicing it, feeling at liberty to come to the supper while refusing to put on Christ's righteousness, accepting truth in name and not in life. Many go over the world full of talk of the Word, uttering the highest oracles, keeping truth in the outer court while keeping Christ out of the heart, building on a sandy foundation as hearers only and not doers, to whom the work of the Holy Spirit is strange and the living oracles are not guide and directory. Such guests cherish hereditary and cultivated traits that misrepresent Christ, show love of ease and selfish indulgence, misuse entrusted talents instead of returning them in honest faithful service, fail to serve faithfully to seek and save the lost, and have only a form of godliness without the inward work. They are professedly circumcised yet among the uncircumcised in practice through covetousness and walking with the uncircumcised, keeping self and citizen's dress and trusting self-righteousness, which leaves them spiritually blind and unprepared.
Judgment and Final Reckoning
Before the wedding the king comes in to examine the guests to see who wears the wedding garment, and that inspection shows that all face the scrutiny of God. This examination of professed followers of Christ is the investigative judgment before Christ's marriage and reception of His kingdom, the closing work of the heavenly sanctuary. Only those clothed in Christ's righteousness are accepted, for righteousness is right-doing and deeds reveal whether faith is genuine, so profession of belief or church membership alone is not enough.
Those found with the garment, the spotless character washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, are accepted as worthy of a place in God's kingdom. The man found without it is speechless when questioned, then bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That dealing is severe, for to accept the invitation yet refuse the garment purchased and provided as a gift, thinking one's own defiled garments and own righteousness good enough to enter Christ's presence, insults the Lord, abuses His gracious benevolence, dishonors Him who made every provision, and separates the refuser from God's presence. While slighting the householder's invitation brings exclusion from the supper, doing despite to the king brings more than exclusion from his presence and table, showing on the part of those who reject a deeper insult and a more dreadful punishment, and showing there is a preparation to be made by all who attend.
When the examination is finished probation closes and the door of mercy shuts. In the marriage-feast invitation there is no second bidding, so those who received warning and the offer of pardon and salvation but refused will have no later call to the heavenly feast. Those who make slight excuses and turn from an invitation prepared for their benefit are shut out and seek admission too late, for sloth and postponed preparation for everlasting life lead to loss.
The warning means people must be ready when the King comes, for the time to prepare is limited and short, the end is near, and the Son of man may come unexpectedly. All must now accept the robe of Christ's righteousness so as not to be found without it, and have the peace of Christ. This warning belongs to this day, calling all to make decided preparation for the conflict before them. For many are called but few are chosen, since accepting the invitation does not by itself make one ready, and some who profess to accept lack the garment, living with a form of godliness but without the inward work of the Holy Spirit.
Gospel Call to All
The call, Come for all things are now ready, is the gospel feast, the banquet of God's Word, the marriage supper of the Lamb prepared by Christ's atoning death. It offers redemption, peace, joy and rest, and what satisfies every want as a rich repast of truth. Invitations were given before the feast was ready, and servants were sent to call those invited when it was ready. Those who receive it must not live to please themselves but must work as Christ worked, wearing the robe of His righteousness and by message and life proclaiming redemption and carrying the invitation to others.
The invitation and its promises are not for a few but for all who will come, to be offered earnestly to everyone without distinction and carried to everyone who can be reached. It gathers both bad and good from the highways and hedges, including the poor and needy, that God's house may be full. No walls are built to keep any living soul from salvation, for wonderful possibilities are provided for everyone who has faith, becoming one with God through faith in His Son sent to die for the world. It is a lifelong invitation reaching into eternity, and merely receiving it without surrender to God's will, obedience to His commandments and Christlike character does not make one fit for the feast.
It is the final invitation to the gospel and marriage supper of the Lamb to be proclaimed to the world in places not yet reached. Young people are called to proclaim it with the message of Christ's soon coming. It is to be carried persuasively to people of every class, to those in the highways of life, to people of high standing, influence and wealth as well as to the poor, because the rich also need spiritual food and preparation for future immortal life. Those who accept can use their means and influence to help reach others. Few believers gain association with the higher classes, with worldly, unenlightened and uninformed men in high places and in the highways of life, so giving them a fair chance to receive and weigh the evidence is a serious, solemn, wise work requiring travail of soul, and much more should be done in it.
It was to call all classes in the Southern field. People of every class, including the colored people of the South, are to be called to the feast. Souls in Cooranbong and the surrounding bush are expected to accept it and respond. Again and again opportunity has been given to go out into the highways and hedges and compel those there to come in, including organizing workers to bring the truth before thousands now in vice and iniquity that they may be redeemed from dissipation and sin.
Preparation and Christian Living
Merely hearing the truth and agreeing with it is not enough, for the truth must transform the life. The guest found without a wedding garment stands for those who profess faith yet do not receive Christ as a personal Saviour and bring Him into the daily life, wearing instead their own self-righteousness. To come to the banquet of God's Word without the garment of Christ's righteousness is to profess to believe while remaining unsanctified, keeping self so that there is no room for Christ and no reformation of heart. Many go about full of talk of the Word and uttering the highest oracles, yet keep truth in the outer court and keep Christ out of the heart, building as hearers only and not doers on a sandy foundation to whom the work of the Holy Spirit is strange and the living oracles are not guide and directory. Those who answer the final call to the supper must be cleansed from impurity and made holy, receiving the white robe of Christ's righteousness. Refusing that robe dishonors Christ, leaves one spiritually blind and unprepared for His coming, and those who remain uncleansed from sin and unchanged in habit and practice will be found wanting before the Judge, for God requires the whole being in His service. Holiness must begin in this life, and those who do not become saints here cannot be saints in heaven.
The parable sets forth the marriage of humanity with divinity and shows the standard of character each must reach to be counted a fit guest, whose full meaning must be carefully studied. There must be no presumption in matters involving eternal interests, measuring character by human ideas instead of God's standard and continuing in sin, which brings loss of soul and hinders the fulfillment of God's promise. Everyone who decides for Christ must take a firm stand and surrender to God that which is already His own, accepting the righteousness of Christ as set forth in the sixth chapter of John, without which no one has on the wedding garment. No one can share in Christ's feast without that garment, and Christ does not give rest apart from Himself. Those who have wronged Him must repent and confess, and then He freely forgives and they may receive the Holy Ghost. People may recognize the truth and hear the gracious calls to the heavenly feast inviting them to accept salvation, yet refuse it by failing to trust and obey God.
No one's own righteousness will do, and to accept the invitation yet refuse the purchased robe of Christ's righteousness and think one's own defiled garments good enough to enter His presence insults the Lord and abuses His gracious benevolence. Each must put on the robes of Christ's righteousness and be like Jesus, conquering appetite and every unholy passion through the divine strength and divine power He secured by His long, emaciating fast in the wilderness temptation and by treading the winepress alone to break Satan's power upon man and hold him under control. Those who receive that righteousness are prepared to serve in His work and spread the invitation of mercy, for the Lord has given His church the opportunity by coming to the feast to invite others to come with them. Again and again opportunity has been given to go out into the highways and hedges and compel those there to come in, that God's house may be full, including organizing workers to bring the truth before thousands now in vice and iniquity that they may be redeemed from dissipation and sin. The invitation is a persuasive gospel call to people of every class, including those met in the highways and people of high standing, and those who accept can use their means and influence to help reach others. Christ's atoning death has prepared the feast as redemption offered to the world like a rich repast of truth, and those who receive it must not live to please themselves or absorb means to flatter vanity but must work as Christ worked, proclaiming by the message they bear and the garment they wear that redemption and conveying to others the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who wear the garment thus testify to the atoning death that prepared the feast and carry the invitation to others through self-denying service and faithful work to seek and save the lost. Those who have had every privilege of knowing Bible truth yet have not brought it into the inner sanctuary of the soul, but show love of ease and selfish indulgence and misuse entrusted talents instead of returning them in honest faithful service, nominally accept the truth but do not practice it and feel at liberty to come while refusing to put on Christ's righteousness. Such are accountable for neglected privileges and misused talents and will not be spared any more than the veriest sinner, being professedly circumcised yet among the uncircumcised in practice through covetousness and walking with the uncircumcised, to be destroyed with the uncircumcised.
Refusing the provision is clinging to the old citizen's dress and holding aloof from what the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared, refusing to put on Christ's righteousness while thinking to walk and work in the light. Coming means drinking fully from the cup of truth held out through the message of justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ and understanding the true state of the church. Many refuse because they pride themselves on buying and selling and getting gain and think they cannot afford to lose any worldly advantage for the sake of enjoying the heavenly feast, though accepting requires putting off the common citizen's dress and wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness to show they are His church, married to Christ as His bride. To come in citizen's garments is to keep stubborn self-will, lean on others instead of making God the dependence, and lack the humility, meekness and lowliness of Christ, which unfits a person for seeing and understanding the working of the Spirit of God and leaves them to be led by another spirit. Entering without the wedding garment does the greatest dishonor to Him who invited and provided the robe. The warning belongs to this day, calling all who would cast in their lot with the people of God to make a decided change of attitude, obtain the essential experience, have eyes anointed with eyesalve to discern clearly, and prepare for the conflict before them.
Each person may respond to Christ's love, but the response is not forced. The marriage-feast invitation is Christ's invitation to souls, and its banquet offers what satisfies every want. Christ waits for a response and sets before the invited a banquet that will satisfy every want, which is His Word full of marrow and fatness, and the issue rests wholly with themselves whether they come. Those who seek God with all their hearts will find Him. If every family decides and searches for Him with all the heart, He will give an outpouring of His Spirit as on the Day of Pentecost.
Matthew 22:1 opens the wedding-feast parable of Matthew 22:1-14, in which the kingdom of heaven is pictured as a king making a marriage for his son. The king's invitation is a call of high honor that is met first with indifference for farm and merchandise and then with insult and violence toward his servants, bringing destruction upon the murderers and burning of their city. Admission to the feast requires the wedding garment, which is the robe of Christ's righteousness freely provided by the king and put on by receiving Christ and obeying God's will in right doing. Before the wedding the king comes in to examine the guests, showing that God scrutinizes all professed followers in the investigative judgment, accepting those found clothed and casting the speechless one without the garment into outer darkness. That invitation is the gospel feast prepared by Christ's atoning death, to be carried earnestly to all from the highways, both bad and good, that God's house may be full.
Parable Setting and Storyline
Matthew 22:1 introduces Jesus speaking again in parables, opening the wedding-feast parable that runs through Matthew 22:1-14. It begins the picture of the kingdom of heaven as a certain king making a marriage for his son, a marriage supper and wedding feast prepared with oxen made ready. The story includes both the call to come to the marriage supper, with invited guests refusing and others afterward invited, and the reckoning with the one found there without a wedding garment. That reckoning raises the question for those who identify the church as the Lamb's bride and place the marriage after Christ's return.
Like the parable of the great supper, it illustrates the gospel invitation, its rejection by the Jewish people, and the call of mercy to the Gentiles, but it brings to view on the part of those who reject a deeper insult and a more dreadful punishment. The call is a king's invitation proceeding from one vested with power to command and able to command obedience, conferring high honor, yet the honor is unappreciated and the king's authority is despised. While the householder's invitation was regarded with indifference, the king's is met with insult and murder, his servants treated with scorn, despitefully used and slain. While slighting the householder's invitation brings exclusion from the supper, doing despite to the king brings more than exclusion from his presence and table, with armies sent to destroy the murderers and burn up their city. In both parables the feast is provided with guests, but this parable shows there is a preparation to be made by all who attend, and those who neglect it are cast out when the king comes in to see the guests, finding a man without a wedding garment who is speechless and then bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The king first sent servants to call those bidden to the wedding, who would not come, then sent other servants to tell those bidden that dinner is prepared with oxen and fatlings killed and all things ready. But they made light of it and went their ways to farm and merchandise, while the remnant spitefully entreated and slew the servants. Thereupon the king was wroth and sent armies to destroy those murderers and burn their cities, then sent servants into the highways to bid as many as they found. So both bad and good were gathered and furnished the wedding with guests, and when the king came in he saw a man without the wedding garment, which garment was a gift from the king whose use showed respect to him who had made every provision for the feast. The man was speechless when questioned, and was bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness with weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called but few are chosen.
The invitations were given before the feast was ready, and servants were sent to call the invited guests when it was ready, representing the gospel feast prepared for those invited to come. The marriage feast draws on marriage as a divine institution that Jesus honored and used to illustrate important truths. Christ is the Bridegroom, and the church is the bride. The king's invitation represents the gospel invitation, which is to be offered earnestly and carried to everyone who can be reached, though people may refuse the call and make excuses, and their response will matter when the judgment examines what they have done.
King's Invitation and Rejection
The call in this verse is a king's invitation, proceeding from one vested with power to command and able to command obedience, and conferring high honor upon those bidden. That honor is unappreciated and the king's authority is despised by those who refuse.
The invited refuse through indifference, making light of the call and excusing themselves with circumstances and supposed duties, going away to farm and to merchandise. They pride themselves on buying and selling and getting gain, and think they cannot afford any worldly loss or loss of worldly advantage for the sake of the heavenly feast. They make slight excuses and turn from an invitation prepared for their benefit. People may recognize the truth and hear the gracious calls to the heavenly feast as invitations to accept salvation, yet refuse to trust and obey God.
Refusal does not stop at indifference but escalates to insult and murder, for while the householder's invitation was regarded with indifference, the king's is met with insult and murder. His servants are treated with scorn, spitefully entreated, despitefully used and slain by the remnant. Those who so refused the king were more guilty than those who refused the householder's invitation.
The king is wroth at this despite done to him. He sends his armies to destroy those murderers and burn up their city, or cities. While slighting the householder's invitation brings exclusion from the supper, doing despite to the king brings more than exclusion from his presence and table.
The first-invited refusers are the Jewish people and nation, who had the privileges and opportunity of the banquet. They rejected the Son of God and the garment of His righteousness, and thereby separated from God. The parable also applies especially to the Christian world that claims to believe in Christ.
Meaning of Wedding Garment
The marriage pictures the union of humanity with divinity, and the wedding garment pictures the character everyone must possess to be counted fit to attend the feast. It sets the standard of character each person must reach to be a fit guest, and its full meaning must be carefully studied because it holds a lesson of the highest consequence. Presumption in matters involving eternal interests is warned against, where measuring character by human ideas instead of God's standard and continuing in sin results in loss of soul and hinders the fulfillment of God's promise. Everyone deciding for Christ must take a firm stand and surrender to God what is already His own, accepting the righteousness of Christ as set forth in the sixth chapter of John, without which no one has on the wedding garment.
The wedding garment is the robe of Christ's righteousness, His distinguishing dress of spotless character washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, the white linen of clean pure character. It is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone, the garment woven in the loom of heaven, and no garment of one's own gives a position of honor there. To think one's own defiled garments and own righteousness good enough to come into Christ's presence insults the Lord, for contemplation of His unsurpassed purity shows each person as unholy, weak, poor, defective, lost and hopeless, clad in self-righteousness like every other sinner. Salvation comes not by superior intellect or refinement of ideas but through the grace of God, and only that righteousness makes the sons and daughters of Adam members of the heavenly family. Coming in citizen's garments — keeping stubborn self-will, leaning on others instead of making God the dependence, and lacking the humility, meekness and lowliness of Christ — unfits a person for seeing and understanding the working of the Spirit of God and leaves him to be led by another spirit.
The garment was purchased for the guest and prepared by the Lord Jesus Christ, spotless as the pure white lily, and is proffered freely to all, even to the lowliest who will believe in Jesus as a personal Saviour. Each guest must accept this robe and put it on, for worthiness to sit at the feast comes only from Christ's robe. Its use shows respect to Him who made every provision for the feast, while entering without it does the greatest dishonor to Him who invited and provided the robe. Securing this garment is the richest gift that can be bestowed on mortal man and demands the whole attention. Guests must not come in their ordinary, worldly condition but must be clothed in the white robe prepared for them, for coming to the supper means drinking fully from the cup of truth held out through the message of justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Wearing it means receiving Christ as personal Saviour into the heart and representing Him in character. Righteousness is right-doing, and deeds reveal character and show whether faith is genuine, so profession of belief or church membership alone is not enough. Genuine conversion is shown by keeping God's commandments and doing what is right, with characters made like Christ and obedient to God. Partaking of the feast says by that act that Christ has been accepted as personal Saviour and the truth as it is in Jesus has been accepted, no longer living the old citizen life lived in ignorance, with changed speech and conversation in altogether another line, that faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Those who receive Christ, surrender to God's will, obey His commandments, and develop Christlike character wear the garment; receiving the invitation alone does not make a person fit.
Coming without it is professing to believe the truth while remaining unsanctified, carrying self so there is no room for Christ, with no reformation of heart. It is nominally accepting the truth but not practicing it, feeling at liberty to come to the supper while refusing to put on Christ's righteousness, accepting truth in name and not in life. Many go over the world full of talk of the Word, uttering the highest oracles, keeping truth in the outer court while keeping Christ out of the heart, building on a sandy foundation as hearers only and not doers, to whom the work of the Holy Spirit is strange and the living oracles are not guide and directory. Such guests cherish hereditary and cultivated traits that misrepresent Christ, show love of ease and selfish indulgence, misuse entrusted talents instead of returning them in honest faithful service, fail to serve faithfully to seek and save the lost, and have only a form of godliness without the inward work. They are professedly circumcised yet among the uncircumcised in practice through covetousness and walking with the uncircumcised, keeping self and citizen's dress and trusting self-righteousness, which leaves them spiritually blind and unprepared.
Judgment and Final Reckoning
Before the wedding the king comes in to examine the guests to see who wears the wedding garment, and that inspection shows that all face the scrutiny of God. This examination of professed followers of Christ is the investigative judgment before Christ's marriage and reception of His kingdom, the closing work of the heavenly sanctuary. Only those clothed in Christ's righteousness are accepted, for righteousness is right-doing and deeds reveal whether faith is genuine, so profession of belief or church membership alone is not enough.
Those found with the garment, the spotless character washed clean in the blood of the Lamb, are accepted as worthy of a place in God's kingdom. The man found without it is speechless when questioned, then bound hand and foot and cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That dealing is severe, for to accept the invitation yet refuse the garment purchased and provided as a gift, thinking one's own defiled garments and own righteousness good enough to enter Christ's presence, insults the Lord, abuses His gracious benevolence, dishonors Him who made every provision, and separates the refuser from God's presence. While slighting the householder's invitation brings exclusion from the supper, doing despite to the king brings more than exclusion from his presence and table, showing on the part of those who reject a deeper insult and a more dreadful punishment, and showing there is a preparation to be made by all who attend.
When the examination is finished probation closes and the door of mercy shuts. In the marriage-feast invitation there is no second bidding, so those who received warning and the offer of pardon and salvation but refused will have no later call to the heavenly feast. Those who make slight excuses and turn from an invitation prepared for their benefit are shut out and seek admission too late, for sloth and postponed preparation for everlasting life lead to loss.
The warning means people must be ready when the King comes, for the time to prepare is limited and short, the end is near, and the Son of man may come unexpectedly. All must now accept the robe of Christ's righteousness so as not to be found without it, and have the peace of Christ. This warning belongs to this day, calling all to make decided preparation for the conflict before them. For many are called but few are chosen, since accepting the invitation does not by itself make one ready, and some who profess to accept lack the garment, living with a form of godliness but without the inward work of the Holy Spirit.
Gospel Call to All
The call, Come for all things are now ready, is the gospel feast, the banquet of God's Word, the marriage supper of the Lamb prepared by Christ's atoning death. It offers redemption, peace, joy and rest, and what satisfies every want as a rich repast of truth. Invitations were given before the feast was ready, and servants were sent to call those invited when it was ready. Those who receive it must not live to please themselves but must work as Christ worked, wearing the robe of His righteousness and by message and life proclaiming redemption and carrying the invitation to others.
The invitation and its promises are not for a few but for all who will come, to be offered earnestly to everyone without distinction and carried to everyone who can be reached. It gathers both bad and good from the highways and hedges, including the poor and needy, that God's house may be full. No walls are built to keep any living soul from salvation, for wonderful possibilities are provided for everyone who has faith, becoming one with God through faith in His Son sent to die for the world. It is a lifelong invitation reaching into eternity, and merely receiving it without surrender to God's will, obedience to His commandments and Christlike character does not make one fit for the feast.
It is the final invitation to the gospel and marriage supper of the Lamb to be proclaimed to the world in places not yet reached. Young people are called to proclaim it with the message of Christ's soon coming. It is to be carried persuasively to people of every class, to those in the highways of life, to people of high standing, influence and wealth as well as to the poor, because the rich also need spiritual food and preparation for future immortal life. Those who accept can use their means and influence to help reach others. Few believers gain association with the higher classes, with worldly, unenlightened and uninformed men in high places and in the highways of life, so giving them a fair chance to receive and weigh the evidence is a serious, solemn, wise work requiring travail of soul, and much more should be done in it.
It was to call all classes in the Southern field. People of every class, including the colored people of the South, are to be called to the feast. Souls in Cooranbong and the surrounding bush are expected to accept it and respond. Again and again opportunity has been given to go out into the highways and hedges and compel those there to come in, including organizing workers to bring the truth before thousands now in vice and iniquity that they may be redeemed from dissipation and sin.
Preparation and Christian Living
Merely hearing the truth and agreeing with it is not enough, for the truth must transform the life. The guest found without a wedding garment stands for those who profess faith yet do not receive Christ as a personal Saviour and bring Him into the daily life, wearing instead their own self-righteousness. To come to the banquet of God's Word without the garment of Christ's righteousness is to profess to believe while remaining unsanctified, keeping self so that there is no room for Christ and no reformation of heart. Many go about full of talk of the Word and uttering the highest oracles, yet keep truth in the outer court and keep Christ out of the heart, building as hearers only and not doers on a sandy foundation to whom the work of the Holy Spirit is strange and the living oracles are not guide and directory. Those who answer the final call to the supper must be cleansed from impurity and made holy, receiving the white robe of Christ's righteousness. Refusing that robe dishonors Christ, leaves one spiritually blind and unprepared for His coming, and those who remain uncleansed from sin and unchanged in habit and practice will be found wanting before the Judge, for God requires the whole being in His service. Holiness must begin in this life, and those who do not become saints here cannot be saints in heaven.
The parable sets forth the marriage of humanity with divinity and shows the standard of character each must reach to be counted a fit guest, whose full meaning must be carefully studied. There must be no presumption in matters involving eternal interests, measuring character by human ideas instead of God's standard and continuing in sin, which brings loss of soul and hinders the fulfillment of God's promise. Everyone who decides for Christ must take a firm stand and surrender to God that which is already His own, accepting the righteousness of Christ as set forth in the sixth chapter of John, without which no one has on the wedding garment. No one can share in Christ's feast without that garment, and Christ does not give rest apart from Himself. Those who have wronged Him must repent and confess, and then He freely forgives and they may receive the Holy Ghost. People may recognize the truth and hear the gracious calls to the heavenly feast inviting them to accept salvation, yet refuse it by failing to trust and obey God.
No one's own righteousness will do, and to accept the invitation yet refuse the purchased robe of Christ's righteousness and think one's own defiled garments good enough to enter His presence insults the Lord and abuses His gracious benevolence. Each must put on the robes of Christ's righteousness and be like Jesus, conquering appetite and every unholy passion through the divine strength and divine power He secured by His long, emaciating fast in the wilderness temptation and by treading the winepress alone to break Satan's power upon man and hold him under control. Those who receive that righteousness are prepared to serve in His work and spread the invitation of mercy, for the Lord has given His church the opportunity by coming to the feast to invite others to come with them. Again and again opportunity has been given to go out into the highways and hedges and compel those there to come in, that God's house may be full, including organizing workers to bring the truth before thousands now in vice and iniquity that they may be redeemed from dissipation and sin. The invitation is a persuasive gospel call to people of every class, including those met in the highways and people of high standing, and those who accept can use their means and influence to help reach others. Christ's atoning death has prepared the feast as redemption offered to the world like a rich repast of truth, and those who receive it must not live to please themselves or absorb means to flatter vanity but must work as Christ worked, proclaiming by the message they bear and the garment they wear that redemption and conveying to others the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Those who wear the garment thus testify to the atoning death that prepared the feast and carry the invitation to others through self-denying service and faithful work to seek and save the lost. Those who have had every privilege of knowing Bible truth yet have not brought it into the inner sanctuary of the soul, but show love of ease and selfish indulgence and misuse entrusted talents instead of returning them in honest faithful service, nominally accept the truth but do not practice it and feel at liberty to come while refusing to put on Christ's righteousness. Such are accountable for neglected privileges and misused talents and will not be spared any more than the veriest sinner, being professedly circumcised yet among the uncircumcised in practice through covetousness and walking with the uncircumcised, to be destroyed with the uncircumcised.
Refusing the provision is clinging to the old citizen's dress and holding aloof from what the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared, refusing to put on Christ's righteousness while thinking to walk and work in the light. Coming means drinking fully from the cup of truth held out through the message of justification by faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ and understanding the true state of the church. Many refuse because they pride themselves on buying and selling and getting gain and think they cannot afford to lose any worldly advantage for the sake of enjoying the heavenly feast, though accepting requires putting off the common citizen's dress and wearing the robe of Christ's righteousness to show they are His church, married to Christ as His bride. To come in citizen's garments is to keep stubborn self-will, lean on others instead of making God the dependence, and lack the humility, meekness and lowliness of Christ, which unfits a person for seeing and understanding the working of the Spirit of God and leaves them to be led by another spirit. Entering without the wedding garment does the greatest dishonor to Him who invited and provided the robe. The warning belongs to this day, calling all who would cast in their lot with the people of God to make a decided change of attitude, obtain the essential experience, have eyes anointed with eyesalve to discern clearly, and prepare for the conflict before them.
Each person may respond to Christ's love, but the response is not forced. The marriage-feast invitation is Christ's invitation to souls, and its banquet offers what satisfies every want. Christ waits for a response and sets before the invited a banquet that will satisfy every want, which is His Word full of marrow and fatness, and the issue rests wholly with themselves whether they come. Those who seek God with all their hearts will find Him. If every family decides and searches for Him with all the heart, He will give an outpouring of His Spirit as on the Day of Pentecost.