WHAT GOD HAS DONE
We are reminded in the glad tidings of what God has done. It is a very fine thing to open our hearts to what God has done. We are reminded all around us of what man has done. The glad tidings are something that man has had no hand in, no hand at all; it is God, in spite of the indifference that there has been in the creature, proclaiming something of what He has done. Oh how slow we are to open our hearts to what God is doing. Yet in spite of that indifference, as this chapter shows, God’s invitation still goes out. How often it has been refused; indifference as to God seems built-in to the human heart. At the outset Adam sought to hide himself; sought a corner where he could be away from God, make his own arrangements. It may have suited Adam to find his own way away from God, but think of the feelings of God about Adam! He raised the question, “Where art thou?”, Gen 3: 10. How many hiding places men may have sought out for themselves; yet God in the appeal of His grace would seek to call us, call us from our hiding place to come to see what He has done.
In this chapter it speaks of “a king who made a wedding feast for his son”. The great theme of the glad tidings, beloved, is Christ, Christ. The glad tidings are all about Him, it is not about you or about me, the glad tidings are all about Christ. You and I come into it indeed; the invitation goes out to us to come. The great centre of all that God has, the great centre of our eternal blessing, is in Christ, the Man, Christ Jesus. It says, “The kingdom of the heavens has become like a king who made a wedding feast for his son”. What great hopes, expectations, and joy, are centred in a wedding feast, and the whole centre of it here is the son “made a wedding feast for his son”. What delight God has found in Christ! What delight God has found in the finished work of Christ; as having settled the question of our sins, and broken for ever the power of death over man—“made a wedding feast for his son” is the great answer to that pathway of shame; the answer to the down-stooping movements of Jesus, is not only that God has highly exalted Him, but as it says here it has become like a time when He has made a wedding feast for His Son. He would like you to come and share His thoughts about Christ. The gospel has in view that Christ, and Christ alone, may be magnified. All your need and mine must be met if that is to be so. Think of God having a great end in view that Christ is to be honoured—“made a wedding feast for his son”. What joy enters into this dispensation. This dispensation comes in in this parable when God is sending out to the highways and byways. Think of how Christ has been spurned by the Jews. Think of Christ, in all His beauty and in all His attractiveness and excellence, and yet they cried, “Not this man”, John 18: 40. That was not said at the beginning of His pathway, that was said in Pilate’s judgment hall. As Pilate spoke about Him, there were witnesses all around among them of what Christ had done. There would be some there that had seen dead raised, maybe in that crowd lepers who had been cleansed, and the voice goes up, “Not this Man”. What a time it was, we might say ripe for judgment. The refusal of God’s approach to man in Christ.
In some of these parables in the gospels the Lord almost excuses the fact that they had turned away the prophets; it says they beat one and killed another, but think of them refusing the Son. It says, “And at last he sent to them his son, saying, They will have respect for my son” Matt 21: 37. O, what a display of divine grace among men in the Person of Jesus—wonder of the universe indeed. The Lord said Himself, “If I had not done among them the works which no other one has done, they had not had sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father” (John 15: 24); there is no excuse. The Jew was left with no excuse, for there had been among them the Messiah whom Isaiah had spoken of and long proclaimed; Moses spoke about Him; all the prophets spoke about Him, and there He was in Person among them—refused, rejected by those He came to call.
O, beloved, that is man’s side, and as I said, we do not want to speak about what man has done, but I only say that to show the background to what God has done. And into that black background God has come to invite you and me to a wedding feast—“made a wedding feast for his son”. O, the delight God has found in Him! They said, “Not this man”. Peter said in his preaching, “whom heaven indeed must receive” Acts 3: 21. On earth rejected, by man despised, but received up in glory. O, what a Person! What an answer to His downstooping! What an answer to that time in the grave, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; the answer to that is that He has been received up in glory, and given a name above every name. Peter’s heart must have been full as he preached of what God had done. He says, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2: 36)—this same Jesus “whom ye have crucified”—that is what you have done, that very Jesus whom you put on the cross God has made Him both Lord and Christ. That makes way for the wedding feast. God has made Him both Lord and Christ, and in spite of our histories—never mind for a moment what the Jews have done—in spite of our histories, what we have done, God is inviting us to the wedding feast. He does not say you are to bring anything, He does not say you are too bad to come. I believe the enemy is active in every gospel preaching to remind souls of how bad they are. God does not say anything about that. He knew what the Jews had done to Jesus, and it is to them that Peter was preaching—"this Jesus”, he says, “whom ye have crucified”, God hath made Him “both Lord and Christ”. Think of those guilty souls being invited to the wedding feast. Such is the grace of God, beloved, such the kindness and God’s love to man. What a Saviour God that the very persecutors of His Son were being invited to the wedding feast. Did He not know how bad they were? Yes, He did. Did He not know that judgment lay upon that nation? Surely He did, but the answer to it is God’s appreciation of Christ and what He has done. Though man refused Him He went to the cross of His own accord; He went that way, making His soul an offering for sin of His own accord, more precious to God perhaps at that moment than at any other time in His pathway. It says, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God” Heb 9: 14. Oh what God saw in that, the offering of Christ, offering Himself. He felt those taunts of the Jews; He felt the refusal of man; even as He came in there was no room for Him, still less as He healed them and blessed them; there was still no room for Jesus, and yet, and yet, in spite of that He offered Himself to God an offering and a sacrifice. He offered Himself to make way for this invitation to go out. There was hardly the fulness of God coming out with an invitation for all men to come in in the Old Testament; it awaited the work of Jesus. That is why the invitation goes on; the parable the Lord speaks brings out man’s indifference, it brings out man’s hatred and yet the invitation goes on. God’s invitation is based on God’s valuation and appreciation of the finished work of Christ. Had that invitation depended upon anything else, it could not have continued, but in spite of men saying that they would not come, God’s invitation goes out the wider, because of the delight that the King has in His Son. He invites us to enjoy the best, as I said, He knew their state. He knows how bad you and I may be, but he says, ‘Come’. That invitation does not go out to any special strata of society, it goes out in the highways to as many as can be found, both evil and good. There is power in that finished work of Jesus; there is atoning power in that blood that has been shed to make us all fitted, suited, to enjoy the wedding feast. How attractive the king makes it; it says, “Behold, I have prepared”. He does not tell them to prepare and get things ready, he says, Come, I have prepared. How rich these things would be if we understood them!—“my dinner; my oxen and my fatted beasts”. As we come into this wedding feast, we find, I believe, how God is feeding on Christ—“my dinner”. O, what God has for Himself that He would share with us. It says, “I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatted beasts are killed”. What rich references to Christ, and what He has done; what He is as a Man who has satisfied God about the sins of the universe. This king is very propitious towards the subjects. There has never been a king like this. The invitation and all that is in the heart of the king is not affected in any way by what it finds. There is nothing judicial about the king’s attitude in this early part; it is all the outgoings of his heart about his son. So he puts this in the invitation, “I have prepared my dinner”—what an enticement to come—“my dinner”. Think of making light of all that God has, and all that He would provide, as to what He has found in the Man Christ Jesus. What poor comparison! It says, “and went, one to his own land, and another to his commerce”. What poor comparisons with what the king proposes in “my dinner” and “my oxen” and “my fatted beasts are killed, and all things ready”. What a feast has been set on, beloved. This dispensation brings out how full and how rich that feast is; it brings out the fulness of all that is to be enjoyed, and God is inviting you today, inviting men today; not to think of themselves but to come, to come in submission to His call of love—Come, for all things are ready—all things ready. O, beloved, whatever we need, and what needs we have. These persons hardly thought they had a need; they preferred their land, they preferred their commerce. They laid hold of the bondmen. O, what pride and arrogance is brought out in the human heart. The incoming of Christ has made the world thrice guilty, it not only refused a man, a prophet, but it has refused God’s beloved Son. This second group of persons would be ourselves: that is where we would come in. From the refusal of the Jews as a nation, God has widened out and would have all men to be saved—Jews, Gentiles, rich, poor. It says they “went out into the highways, and brought together all as many as they found”. Think of God’s feelings! He says to His bondmen the feast is ready, who is going to come and share it? Who would come to enjoy His thoughts about Christ? “My dinner”—“my oxen”—Who is going to come today? How many we pray and trust will be coming today; coming to enjoy God’s thoughts about Christ; coming to enjoy a scene of unparalleled blessing and happiness, but everything is founded on the finished precious work of Jesus.
O, the soul peace in knowing Christ glorified, a Christ who has met the whole question of our sins, so that through that blood which has been shed God is able and ready to forgive; He is able to pardon those who would come. We see in the passage we read some who would not come who fall into judgment, but in the second lot he sends out he says everything is ready, whatever you need—and who would not but feel their need being invited to such an occasion, the need of forgiveness, the need of our sins being met, for that is what stood out between God and man. It was the question of our sins. I believe in that invitation God is saying that all things are ready, He is saying that the work has been done.
No need now to labour, the work has been done;
To be in God’s favour, believe on the Son!
(Hymn 324)
O, beloved, the work has been done. That is all conveyed in the invitation. The sin question and all that kept us at a distance, God has settled it all. The invitation is, Come. Those invited were not worthy, but it says, “as many as ye shall find invite to the wedding feast”. God is no respecter of persons; He is not looking for any special persons: it says, “all as many as ye shall find invite to the wedding feast”. That is what goes on today for the whole world, they are all invited. Very few may respond but they are all invited. O, what a God He is! Man’s invitations are very limited, necessarily so because he cannot meet all the needs that may arise, but God, beloved, has provided for everything, all are invited—invite as many as ye shall find, “invite to the wedding feast”. That is how the gospel goes out today. There is no soul who is outside the reach of the invitation to Come, Come to the wedding feast. It says, “And those bondmen went out into the highways, and brought together all as many as they found, both evil and good; and the wedding feast was furnished with guests”. That is what is coming about in this dispensation, beloved; if there may be some refusing, the wedding feast is being furnished with guests. That is a very fine word—“the wedding feast was furnished with guests”. It was not so at the beginning of this chapter, the feast was all there and God wanted to share. The Lord is saying the kingdom of the heavens has become like this today. This is the time when God is extolling Christ, exalting Him, and now the wedding feast is furnished; it does not say with sinners, it does not say it is furnished with lame or any of these kind of persons, it says it is “furnished with guests”. They have added something to it, the feast could not go on without them. What a wealth has been secured through the glad tidings being proclaimed—the wedding feast has been furnished with guests. It is not an empty place. The whole house may be there but unless it is furnished it is very empty, but here it is furnished, with guests, forgiven sinners. Persons who were once in the highways, persons who were once far away, lost and undone. We were speaking today of persons once being strangers and foreigners; well, they are not that here though they once were. The gospel found us in all our need, met our sins and all our liabilities, but now ‘guests’ as this passage shows, involves that the persons are dressed; it involves that they themselves have been clothed in all the worth of God’s beloved Son. There is no disparity, may I say, between the Son and the guests, no disparity. It is a very odd thing if somebody comes in who is strikingly out of place. The wedding feast that was furnished with guests means there is something about them that is suited to the wedding feast, and to the King and to His Son.
That is what the gospel is about. There is power in the glad tidings, beloved, to meet our every condition, to meet all that we are as lost and undone as sons of Adam’s race. What a transfer from these thoroughfares and highways, what a transfer to be taken from that to a wedding feast and to be one of the guests, not just an onlooker. The gospel does not leave you outside the house; the gospel brings you into the house—furnished with guests. The joy of the wedding feast may be heard afar off, but the guests are the persons who are participating in the glory and blessedness of the occasion. In the glad tidings that is what God is securing; He is furnishing the occasion with guests.
It says, And the king went in to see the guests. O, what a delight that must have been! You can think of the expectancy of the king. If you just speak simply of this parable—the expectancy of the king going in—it does not say to see his son, though that would be in his mind, but it says, “And the king, having gone in to see the guests”. What would he see? He would see each one with some appreciation of Christ, it is somewhat like the inn we were speaking about, everybody in that inn would be telling of their own appreciation of the Samaritan. So here all the guests would be speaking about the son, the Son. They would not be speaking about what they were wearing or what some one else may be wearing, but they would be speaking about his son. That is what God is looking for, the great effects of the glad tidings; that instead of men being engaged with themselves and with the world where Christ has been rejected, the gospel transfers us into a scene where persons are engaged with Christ. What an occupation! “Having gone in to see the guests”. Think of the king’s delight as he saw one and another, come from afar, come from great liabilities, those liabilities gone, and they are there clothed with a wedding garment—except one man, and the king says, “My friend”. The king’s attitude is still the same, friendly, the king’s disposition is still there towards them even though they are there in indifference—“how camest thou in here not having on a wedding garment?”. It points to a man’s indifference, how self-centred man is. I think this person was very self-centred, instead of taking on the spirit of the glad tidings—God’s appreciation of Christ. Well, there is no room for that kind of man. God, in spite of all that is going on is sending out his bondmen that the wedding feast may be furnished with guests. May we enjoy, beloved, our place as a guest, a guest of the King, a guest to honour the Son. May our hearts be filled with something fresh of His beauty and His glory and His charm for His Name’s sake.
CROYDON
23rd November 1986