Parable of the Marriage Feast

The point: Rejoice in God's gracious and lavish provision in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Martin uses the analogy of a host providing a specific garment for funeral attendees in certain cultures to explain the custom of the king providing wedding garments, emphasizing that it was a mark of respect and removed social distinctions.

We must understand something of the custom of that day. Just as in certain cultures today, if you attend a funeral, the person who is giving that funeral for a deceased loved one will provide everyone who comes to that funeral with a certain form of external garment. And if you have any respect for the person who has invited you and the one deceased, you will take that garment, be it a headdress of some kind or a dark shawl, and you will wear that as protection. You will be provided by the one who has invited you to that occasion.

7:05 - 7:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But if you live under a monarchy and a king sends an invitation, failure to come is high treason.

Martin contrasts a wedding invitation in a free society (optional attendance) with one from a king in a monarchy (failure to attend is high treason) to highlight the authoritative nature of God's gospel invitation.

He had claims upon them. Now you see, somebody can send you an invitation to a wedding and in a free society, sir, you want to go, you go. You don't want to go, you don't go. But if you live under a monarchy and a king sends an invitation, failure to come is high treason.

16:20 - 16:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand that Almighty God is your monarch and has claims upon you as your Creator.

He describes how the king's provision of a wedding garment and the lavish feast served as a 'great leveler,' removing social distinctions among the guests, illustrating how Christ's righteousness levels all sinners before God.

There were the moral and the harlots and the publicans, the cultured and the uncultured, the religious and the irreligious. The bad and good is in terms of human descriptions of external character. And here they were, what a motley crowd, all brought together to the door. But listen, once the wedding garment was placed upon them and they entered one by one, you couldn't tell the up and outs from the down and outs.

17:14 - 17:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines three categories of reaction to the invitation: bland indifference (preoccupation with worldly concerns), resolute refusal (hostility towards the messengers), and…

Martin criticizes Christian organizations that ask for donations for 'free' programs, contrasting it with the king's servants who offered a truly free feast, to emphasize the freeness of the gospel.

You know, like a lot of these Christian organizations, they plan a program and then say, donation, five dollars. That's wicked. Christian organizations, donation, five dollars. Well, these servants didn't come and say, look, free feast, donation, five dollars.

22:53 - 23:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the first phase of the royal reckoning: the king's wrath against those who refused or were indifferent to the invitation, prophesying the downfall of Jerusalem…

Martin cites the historical event of the Roman armies razing Jerusalem in 70 AD as the fulfillment of the king's wrath against those who rejected his invitation, illustrating God's judgment on the Jewish nation.

That was a prophecy of the downfall of Jerusalem. When the sovereign Lord upon his throne so disposed the Roman king, he sent the Roman armies to come in in 70 AD and utterly razed to the ground the city of Jerusalem and to disperse that nation to the ends of the earth for centuries.

35:40 - 36:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine yourself: do you have a wedding garment, are you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, or do you merely have His name on your lips?

Martin describes the 'inky black darkness' outside a banquet hall in ancient Palestine, before electric lights, to vividly portray the horror and irrevocability of the 'outer darkness' of hell.

Think now, you're in Palestine. There are no Edisons who have yet discovered electric light bulbs or invented electric light bulbs. Outside of the warmth and the fellowship and the love and provision and gaiety of the banquet hall, everything is inky black darkness. And so the king says to the servants, bind him hand and foot, render him immobile, cast him into the outer darkness.

40:51 - 41:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What was in the banquet house? There was the laughter, there was the gaiety, there was the fellowship, there was the love, there was the light, and above all, there was the king and his son. Without! And that's the hell …

Martin quotes a hymn writer who says, 'Heaven itself without thee, dark as night would be,' to emphasize that the true 'hell of hells' is abandonment from God and the absence of Christ's glory.

Without! And that's the hell of hells. A hymn writer caught that when he said, Jesus, all perfections rise and end in thee, heaven itself without thee, dark as night would be. Lamb of God, thy glory is the light above.

42:44 - 43:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the glory of real gospel endeavor: entreating men to be reconciled to God through Christ, honoring God as men embrace His provision.

Martin criticizes the 'Here's Life' campaign in New York as a 'sales gimmick' and 'Madison Avenue' approach to evangelism, contrasting it with the authoritative command to repent and believe the gospel.

And you and I are going to be inundated with it in the next few months. This Here's Life campaign that's inundated the greater New York metropolitan area, just a sales gimmick to sell Jesus.

48:05 - 48:16 Read in full sermon