Sermon in Rockford 22.11.2015

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. Let us unite our hearts in opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Dear Heavenly Father, we gather this morning around your holy and unperishing word. We thank you that you have granted us a new day of grace, and that we have been able to arise to this day and gather here in fellowship of your kingdom, with our brothers and sisters in faith, around your holy word.

Dear Father, open your word unto us, to again teach us, and to comfort us, when here we journey in such a restless world. We need your comfort, and we need the assurance that you are guiding and protecting us, and that all which happens in our lives and around us is not without your awareness, your knowledge, and your doing. Guide and protect us. Protect us. Comfort us, dear Father.

We thank you that you have been so loving, that you have given unto us bountiful blessings, that which we need in this life, and that which we need as we journey toward eternal heaven with you. You have given faith as your grace gift, and you have given unto us your only begotten Son, to die for our sins, the one who was undeserving of death, but yet loved us to the end.

We pray on behalf of our loved ones, our brothers and sisters in faith, who are in times of mourning, in times of illness, in times of distress in this life, that you would guide and protect them also until you call them, each one of us, home. And we pray that you would yet call those who are in need of your help, in the dark world of unbelief, unto the hearing of your word, that those who do not have peace and joy of the conscience or hope of eternal life with you in heaven would not need to journey in such despair, but rather could come unto the hearing of your word, and through hearing be given ears to hear, hearts to believe that which you would say. And thus enjoy peace and joy of the conscience, even on this earthly journey, but above all, to journey with the hope and promise of heaven. Amen.

Protect our country. Guide our leaders. We pray as your son has taught us. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

We will read for our service this morning a portion of God's Word which is recorded for us in the 22nd chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew, one of the parables of Jesus, verses 1-14. The words are as follows in Jesus' name. Amen.

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 entreated 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 the servants, Bind him hand and foot and 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. Amen.

Dear brothers and sisters, dear service guests, today we observe on the church calendar the end of the church year, Judgment Sunday.

And as you know, in recent days, recent weeks, we've been preparing for this time, remembering a message of watchfulness, to be vigilant and sober in our lives of faith, knowing that the signs are around us that the end of time is approaching, the time that scriptures have spoken of, that our Lord Jesus will come again, that God will end this world, and a time of judgment will take place.

And we've been preciously reminded how it's a time that we don't know. No man knows, not even the Son of Man was given to know exactly when that moment would take place.

And thus, we need to be ready at any time to meet our Savior.

And we know that in the world around us is much evilness, much sinfulness, and it can cause us much worry.

Yet we must do as God's children the only thing that we can do, and that is to put our hope, our faith, our trust in our heavenly Father, that he who has created us and he who knows all things will also care for his own, that that which happens will be according to his will.

And we, as sinful but yet grace beggars in his kingdom, want to live in obedience of faith, keeping faith in a good conscience, simply trusting in the care of the Father and this beautiful congregation mother that has been given unto us, the kingdom wherein we can dwell on this earth.

The gospel text for today, in the twenty-fifth chapter of Saint Matthew, the King, speaking of judgment day, tells of this last judgment that the Son of Man will come in his glory and all the holy angels with him.

And he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him will be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

He shall set the sheep on the right hand, but the goats on the left.

These two were the words of Jesus, and he foretold of that time, that judgment day, when the books will be open and the names in them will be read.

And one of them will be the book of life, which has the names of those sheep, the tender ones, the children of God, who were through God's grace able to live and die with the testimony of a child of God, believing upon him and the righteous work, the redemption work of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The sheep on the right hand, the goats on the left.

But it is a sobering reminder that not all inherited eternal glory, but those who were of the goats, those who did not believe, those who did not have faith in the heart or own the name of a child of God, inherited everlasting punishment, eternal damnation.

And thus we say it's worthwhile to believe.

Dear brothers and sisters and our family and our friends, the life of faith isn't easy.

We must crucify the flesh every day.

We must battle against sin and the warfare, the enemy of souls.

But God has loved us so much to help us get to heaven when he has prepared a way for us through his Son.

And we don't need to rely on our knowledge and our works.

There would be no way possible if that were the case that we could inherit life in heaven.

But all we need to do is humbly believe, to put our own knowledge away, to humble our own pride, and to believe on God's word, his Son, his promises.

And in this way believe and receive forgiveness for our transgressions and the hope of heaven.

So this is the time we remember on Judgment Sunday that this time of the church year, another church year is ending, and one day God's final judgment will take place.

I chose to read a parable which we read a moment ago, perhaps is familiar to you, the parable of the marriage supper.

We refer to it also as the parable of the marriage of the King's Son, parable of the wedding feast.

And it also belongs to this season, and this is one reason why I wanted to remember it.

It was on my mind.

For when we think of the final judgment, the end of the parable here, Jesus tells about when the King came now to the wedding, the final wedding, and saw the guests.

There was one guest who didn't have a wedding garment on, and we heard what happened in that case.

He was bound and cast into outer darkness.

We will return to that in a moment.

There's another reason why this portion of God's word was on my mind.

I'll just freely share with you that today my beloved wife Noella and I celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary.

And for many, many years I had wondered and thought about our wedding sermon and ceremony.

I knew it was recorded if we had listened to it before it was only early in our married life, and that recording had been misplaced.

I fear it was even lost for a long, long time.

But a couple of years ago, when we were moving, much to my joy, I came across the recording of our wedding, and I thought now, forty years, this would be a nice time to listen.

Brother helped me digitize it.

I didn't want to damage that recording in any way.

And so a couple evenings ago, Noella and I sat down together and listened.

It was so fun to remember the joy of that wedding day and also thank God that he has given unto me this gift, this wonderful gift of a believing spouse where up to this point we've been able to share life journey together for forty years, to raise a family and enjoy all of that which it brings.

Of course, as with any life, there are the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows, but we've been able to support each other and to live in this way together.

What a wonderful blessing.

But our wedding was at a time soon after the heresy, and I know as I look around there are those of you here today that were at our wedding even though it was that long ago.

And it was, of course, a joyous occasion, but there was an element of tension there for this reason, that it brought together individuals, people who were not always or often seeing each other.

Especially in those times after the heresy, there were, of course, the believers, the congregation of God, and there was a family there who were in unbelief, those I know from my relationship who had not been in faith or exposed to faith since their time of childhood but now had come to a wedding occasion where God's word would be spoken.

There were those who fairly recently had been deceived into heresy and had not seen believers in those times since that separation took place.

But as weddings often are, they bring people together that otherwise do not meet in the course of life.

And so this was the setting.

And the brothers who serve there are yet dear, I know to many of you.

Brother Elmer Alayoki spoke the sermon and Peter Nordstrom kept the ceremony.

And I know and I appreciate more today than ever before because now when I had this time of life to serve as a servant of the word, realize that sometimes settings can be very difficult to serve in.

We tremble.

And our brother Elmer who served now with a sermon was one who had experienced much ridicule during the time of the ceremony.

We could say he was, along with Peter, some of those brothers who were on the walls of Zion watching and sounding the trumpet when that warfare was taking place.

And truly they suffered much for it because of the bitterness that came forth from the hearts of those who were deceived.

Yet brothers served in this setting.

And certainly a loving message to my wife and I as we were being united in marriage, but also a very loving call to those who were outside God's kingdom in unbelief and to those who had been deceived in heresy.

Our brothers spoke of the love of God, the love he has shown unto us through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

And with love he admonished, encouraged those who had been deceived to return unto their first love, that the grace doors were still open and to remember where God's kingdom is a world.

And so I thought as I was listening and remembering that time about this parable that our Lord Jesus spoke, where in a way, in a broad way, he speaks about God and God's love and the work and the nature of God's kingdom.

A loving invitation that has gone forth throughout God's time.

But yet even though many have been called to hear that invitation, it has been rejected so often.

And the invited guests would not come.

Here it says that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son.

Of course, Jesus here is referring to the King as our heavenly Father and the Son is Jesus himself.

But Jesus again used this wedding occasion as a way to teach about God's kingdom and today when we see how marriage is disregarded, trampled upon, misused in ways that are contrary to God's word, again strikes me how Jesus so often used this occasion to teach about God's kingdom and what it is like unto the people of his time and unto those of us here yet today.

So this is what the kingdom of heaven is like: a king who we know is an authority, a ruler, the eyes of man and the highest position.

And he has made a marriage for his son.

When we think of a royal wedding, we know even in an outward sense today when there is that kind of a wedding which takes place, it is outwardly beautiful, a wedding with all of the glitter and pomp and circumstance that man could imagine.

Here Jesus is saying the kingdom of heaven is like a royal wedding.

Nothing is lacking.

All is beautiful.

All has been prepared.

And we notice that the servants were sent forth to invite, to call guests to the wedding.

This too is how God has worked from the beginning of time.

He has chosen to call workers in the vineyard, servants to serve, to bring forth his message, to do the work of his kingdom on this earth.

And so servants were called to invite to the wedding.

When we think even to the early days of man, the first days of the Old Testament, there were the patriarchs who brought forth the message of God.

They foretold of the promise of a coming Savior.

They encouraged and invited those hearers of their time to listen, to come unto the wedding that is being prepared for them.

But in this parable Jesus says they would not come.

But God in his love didn't say, "Off there."

He continued to call, and he sent forth other servants, extending forth the invitation again to tell them which are bidden, tell them who are invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready, come unto the marriage."

When God has prepared the wedding, it is lacking nothing.

All is perfect and fulfilled.

And here Jesus says of the king that the dinner has been prepared, the oxen and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.

And even here we see a picture of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, how in preparing for this eternal wedding, this final judgment, God sent his Son into this world as he had promised over and over again throughout the Old Testament times that he would send the Messiah, Savior would come.

And those believers believed upon that promise and they sacrificed these tender sheep, these animals, in remembering that promise and believing upon it, that one day the perfect sacrifice would come.

And Jesus came as man into this earth as flesh.

His birth we soon will remember and celebrate.

And he lived here as man and he suffered for us but yet was without sin.

As he taught and performed miracles and healed, and then he submitted himself to the death on the cross so that we could live, giving his body and his blood so that we could have the hope of eternal life with him.

The king had prepared his dinner just as our heavenly Father prepared for the wedding, the eternal, ultimate wedding.

My oxen and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready.

So that time is pictured when Jesus' work has been fulfilled and he has arisen victorious and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God.

And there is waiting for that time when he will come again and the eternal wedding will begin.

But even to this invitation that was brought by the servants of the king, we are told that they made light of it.

They didn't take it seriously.

They looked elsewhere.

Some went their ways unto his farm, another to his merchandise.

And the remnant took his servants and treated them spitefully and slew them.

Of this he says of those who went their ways to the farm, they were those who were filled with their own pride and they could not humble themselves to put this pride away, submit themselves unto the kingdom, unto the king as a grace beggar.

And others went to the merchandise.

This represented the ways of the world, the attractions of the world that are also such a temptation for us that we must be careful, must be watchful that none of those things which this world has to offer would begin to be more, mean more to us than our love of heavenly Father and his Son and matters belonging to eternal life.

But those who were overcome by the ways of the world and could not leave those in order to give their heart to follow the heavenly Father and his Son and to believe upon this beautiful wedding feast that had been prepared for them, the way to heaven, they also made light of the invitation and went their way.

And then there was the remnant.

There were those who took the servants that had brought this message of invitation to the wedding and they were treated spitefully and slain.

And here we see false spirits.

We see that work of the scribes and Pharisees, for example, Jesus' time, who in their zealousness, in their belief that they were so good that they could follow the law or fulfill the law with their own goodness, their own works and knowledge, and then their hatred for the Lord Jesus was so great that they slew him, put him to death.

We have seen how the wrath of God has come forth from time to time in Old Testament times also when the children of Israel fell away from teachings of God and his word and worshipped false idols, false gods.

God allowed those times of punishment to take place.

Even Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jewish people were scattered.

Here too is a picture of that which has taken place over time when call has been given to come unto the wedding but yet has been rejected and those who have brought forth the invitation have been persecuted and God's wrath has been incurred.

Then in this parable we are told that the king said to his servants, "The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy."

Those who had received the invitation that rejected it were not worthy, those Jews, the nation of Israel.

Now the servants were instructed to go therefore into the highways and as many as ye shall find bid to the marriage.

And we know what happened in the time of Jesus in the early days of the New Testament, how there the word began to spread beyond the Jewish people.

For scripture says, Jesus came unto his own, but his own received him not.

And this message of salvation, the redemption work of Jesus, spread unto the non-Jews, the Gentile people.

As Jesus here pictures, the servants went forth into the highways and as many as they could find invited to come to the marriage.

Yet the time that we live today, where so openly God's word is proclaimed among all people, all nations, as God has led and guided believers to travel, to live, to preach, to confess their faith and to invite to the wedding into the highways as many as he shall find.

And so it continues to tell us that those servants receiving this instruction went into the highways and they gathered as many as they found, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.

The time came, the wedding was prepared, all was ready, and the guests were present.

The end of time was approaching when Jesus would come again, God would end this world, judgment would take place.

The king came to see the guests, but it says that he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment.

What does this mean, brothers and sisters?

We know that when we go to a wedding, festive occasion, we usually dress very specially for it.

We put on the best clothes that we have, something which is clean, something that looks nice and is fitting for this wonderful festive occasion, to in some way be a suitable, acceptable wedding guest.

But in this parable Jesus speaks of one guest there which didn't have a wedding garment on.

He wasn't dressed appropriately for the wedding.

He wasn't a suitable wedding guest.

When we think of this from a matter of faith, with eyes of faith, we realize that when we have been given grace to believe, when we have finished as grace beggars, we have seen no good in ourselves.

Our knowledge has meant nothing.

We've had no understanding and our attempts to battle against sin have failed and we've fallen again.

We've had nothing to offer except to beg for God's grace and mercy.

And when through God's love we have been able to hear the preaching of forgiveness of our sins in the name and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and been able to believe, that in this way and only in this way am I able to be righteous before God and acceptable to him when my life ends or this world ends and Jesus comes again.

Then we have received a robe which isn't of our own righteousness, which is a false righteousness, but we've been able to receive a beautiful wedding garment, a robe of righteousness which has been placed upon us by our Lord.

It is pure.

It is without blemish.

This is the robe that we wear, God's children, and it has been given to us.

This is the robe that we wear to that beautiful wedding.

But the one who has not on this kind of a garment is not an acceptable wedding guest.

One who still is clothed in that kind of garment that reflects his own understanding or pride hasn't been a humble child, a grace beggar, not an acceptable wedding guest.

It is like the Jesus also spoke in the parable of the ten virgins where there were those wise virgins who had oil in their lamps and those foolish virgins who did not have oil in their lamps.

When that time came for the wedding, it was too late for those without oil to obtain oil.

And that oil represented faith, living faith in the heart.

That is what is needed.

Dear brothers and sisters, as we prepare for that beautiful wedding day when we will meet God's children, God's congregation as the bride of Christ will meet our bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ, for that time when we will be joined together forever in an eternal wedding.

And so Jesus said in this parable concerning the one who didn't have a suitable wedding garment on, we notice how among the guests the king saw this right away that here is one who is not clothed appropriately for the occasion.

And we cannot hide from God.

Outwardly one might travel with God's children, live a clean life, but if faith of the heart is not there, our heavenly Father sees that.

If faith of the heart is not there, the suitable wedding garment is not on.

And the king noticed this.

He says, "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?"

How is it that you came here without a suitable wedding garment?

And we are told that in answer to this question that guest who was not a suitable guest was speechless.

When we think of our lives, God's children, I think every child of God has had a moment or those moments where they have realized what it means to be a child of God.

For some who have been in the world and then been given grace to come to God's kingdom, to repent of unbelief and sin and desire to believe, they know that time in their life, that moment when they were able to first believe.

And for prodigal sons and daughters who have been in faith and deceived but through God's love able to return, they too know what it meant when that time came that in their distress they were able to believe again.

That moment they knew.

And even to you who have been given this beautiful gift to live as a child of God all your life, growing up in believing homes and remaining in faith, you too have known time to time what has really meant to me that I can be a child of God, that my sins are forgiven, that I don't need to live in turmoil, distress as the world does.

I have this beautiful kingdom around me, the escorts on the journey and protected so much.

How fortunate I am that I have been able to be a child of God, that God has chosen me because he has loved me.

Yet I am so undeserving of his love.

But to the one who has come through the back door, who in an outward sense would somehow want to believe but in their heart not accept that which is taught, proclaimed, believed from God's kingdom, the preaching of his word, has never known that moment of what it means to be a child of God.

They are like this one who didn't have the acceptable wedding garment on, who wanted to receive the blessing of eternal life but yet not give up that which this world has offered, and their heart hasn't been a heart of living faith.

It's been a divided heart which is still there with the world and its attractions.

Unto this one receiving this question, "When did you come? How did you come not having a wedding garment?" he was speechless.

He could not answer.

Such one could not answer because they knew not that moment when they gave grace to believe.

Unto such one the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

This binding of the hand and the foot is capturing that pride and false righteousness and the works of man and throwing them out with the one who had an unbelieving heart.

And this weeping and gnashing of teeth pictures all manner of torment that awaits those who inherit eternal damnation.

For many are called but few are chosen.

When we think of the final judgment, it may seem harsh to us.

It's hard for us to think that there are so many who live so good and that this kind of end would await them.

Seems harsh.

But yet we have to remember and believe what God's word says.

We have read from God's word what here Jesus spoke in this parable of the end of time and that feast of the wedding of the King's Son and other portions as well.

As we read in the beginning about the sheep and the goats, that the sheep would be called to sit at the right hand there with our Father and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

But unto those on the left waited the everlasting punishment.

But the righteous received life eternal.

Yet we also see how God's will has been that none would perish but that all would come unto repentance.

And for this reason he has lovingly continued to call again and again.

And God's word is a victory throughout the world.

God continues to call and we want to simply believe that he who has created all and knows all will also grant unto those chosen that victory which he has promised through his work which is his and not any one that is any of ours, for we are only weak servants.

The call goes forth and God's word is proclaimed.

We too want to preserve that gift which God has given unto us so that we would have on the acceptable wedding garment when the time comes that the king will come and the wedding will take place, that eternal wedding.

This we do, dear brothers and sisters, when we can put our own sins away, believing all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

Then our robes are washed clean and we are there as acceptable wedding guests to await the king, not with fear but with joy and glory when this time will end, then eternal life in heaven begins.

Uplift your heart to believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood, and the life is forgiven and all blood and live in hope and joy, peace of the conscience, looking forward to that festive wedding day that will never, never end.

Our heavenly Father, through his Son, has loved us and prepared that feast which is perfect, and we will be partakers of it.

I want to believe all my sins and doubts forgiven.

Can you preach that gospel to me?

I want to believe with you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us close with the Lord in benediction.

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.