Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen

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Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you are astonished at how good God is?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you seem like it seems like you continue to be astonished more and more as time goes by?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you know what astonished means?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I talked about it one time.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: But astonished means, I know because I looked it up because I talked about it one time recently.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But of course it means to be amazed, but it means to be greatly surprised.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the definitions that you find when you look it up means to be surprised in such a way that it seems not credible.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, God seems too good to be true.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Or you continue to be amazed and astonished to where you see you're like, wow, God's better than I thought he was.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And some of us have been in this a long time.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know I have, and I continue to be amazed at how good I is.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: How good I is.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear what I just said?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: How good I is, how good he is.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I find out, you know, I'm not so bad either, like I thought I was one time.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But but that this old gospel doesn't get old.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: The true gospel, the pure gospel, doesn't get old because it continues to reveal the astonishing, amazing goodness that looks so good often that it seems to be not credible.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so today I want to talk about a passage of scripture that we find in the Bible, and it's a quote out of Matthew 23 that says, Many are called, but few are chosen.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yay! Hallelujah! If anybody yayed there, maybe it was those that know you're chosen, I guess.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also, I want to, I want, I want to jump into this because I got a little bit of a mouthful to say here.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew 22 is where this quote comes from.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I want to read the verse right before it, too.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, it says, and this is Jesus telling a parable.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then the king said to his servant, to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody say hallelujah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you say okay, thank you?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I told you to.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you said hallelujah because I asked you to, not because of, you know.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't sound like a very positive, positive verse of scripture.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm talking about this today is because Judy and I personally, we were come across this, and you you do this, you look at this, and we don't believe in an eternal torment of a fiery torment of hell, but you see verses like this, and like, okay, so what's he talking about?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, huh, well, that's a hard one.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know why he says stuff like that.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we we looked at it, we did some some some reading and talked about it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, and it became clear, and we wanted to share that with you with you today.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's where that comes from.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth because many are called and few are chosen.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what that sounds like is that most people are going to have an eternal torture.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But there's going to be a few because they've been chosen.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the way I always looked at that, I thought, okay, many are called, but few are chosen.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I guess that's those that chose him.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't, I never really believed in just, you know, the idea that we had nothing to do with it, that God just chose us and he didn't choose others.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought, but if that were the case, then wouldn't he just choose everybody?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: But then I said, few are chosen.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, maybe that has to mean, I guess, those of us that have chosen him.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But then why didn't he say, many are called, but few choose me?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Why did he say many are called, but few are chosen?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like, like the chosen, the choosing is being done by somebody else.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's get into it and let's read it and let's have some fun learning something today, and maybe something will open up and bring more clarity to things.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the what I want to show you, what I see in it, it's not a dark, horrible, scary thing at all.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful thing, it's a wonderful thing, and it declares the goodness and the beauty and the glory of God.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this passage of scripture actually does.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you'll agree with me when we're done this morning.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 21 is what I want to look at.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want to back up just one chapter because this leads us into the parable that we just looked at.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm doing this because it gives us more context into the whole conversation or what Jesus is doing here.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and in Matthew 21, he's addressing mainly the Pharisees, because at the end of that chapter, after he's talking, this says, and the Pharisees understood that he was talking about them.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew 21, verse 33, Jesus says, Hear another parable.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard, and he set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press, and built a tower.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: He leased it to vine dressers, and he went into a far country.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when vintage time drew near, he sent his servants to the vine dressers that he might receive its fruit.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the vine dressers took the servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And again he sent more servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And last of all he sent his son to them, saying, Well, they will respect my son.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: But when the vine dresser saw the son, they said among themselves, Well, this is the heir.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let's kill him and seize his inheritance.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to pause just right there.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize who's being talked about here?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You recognize who the son is, right?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: The son here is a metaphor for Jesus himself, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We I think that's an easy one.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I get that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The servants, I think, would be the prophets, the messengers who go to them and tell them.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know how Jesus said, you know, you've you've killed all the prophets from Abel all the way on, and so they did this.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: They they beat them, they stoned them, they killed them.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the vine dressers that he's talking about there would be those who are the stewards over the things of God here, and that would be the religious leaders of the day.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that what Jesus didn't like the way things were going on with them because he's like, Yeah, you guys, you're supposed to be God's people representing God and dispensing the things of God to people, but you're putting heavy burdens on people.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: You don't lay one hand to help them at all.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't enter into the kingdom yourself, and you don't let anybody else enter, enter in.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys are the ones in charge here.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Can you see that that picture here in this parable?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so he sends messengers, servants, people with with the word of God, and they just they treat them badly.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And last of all, he the son himself comes to them, Jesus comes to them, and and in the parable it says they said, This is the heir, come, let's kill him and seize his inheritance.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they took him, cast him out of the vineyard, and they killed him.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we know what literally happened was that they were provoked by jealousy, and they didn't like that these people were following Jesus and he was causing trouble for them and messing up their stuff.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, Judy and I were talking about this the other day.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: I said, you know, there were other messiahs, quote, Messiah, they were false messiahs that came, and many people would follow them.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, they were always like a warrior type and a leader type, a charismatic type, and and they would get a following and they would go fight against Romans usually.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, the Pharisees, one of the reasons that that it says that they were, or one of the excuses they gave for offering up Jesus to the Romans was like, well, he's causing trouble, and we don't want trouble with the Romans, and he's gonna mess things up, and the Romans are gonna come down and they're gonna, you know, destroy us or do something.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so they got rid of him.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But they didn't get rid of the other guys that were going against the Romans, and Jesus wasn't going against the Romans.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's the funny thing.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: But other people were, other false messiahs, other leaders that would come up among the people of Israel would do that, but the Pharisees didn't come against them that way, and the reason was because they were not coming against the Pharisees, they didn't contradict the Pharisees at all.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus did.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want I want you to remember this point as we go on.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: They cast him out.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now there were vine dressers, there were servants, and there was a son.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And one got cast out.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was the son.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 40.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, Jesus is asking them a question.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine dressers?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: They answered, Well, he'll destroy those wicked men miserably.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like Pharisees never recognize themselves.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Spiritual Pharisees, I'm talking about.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, he'll he'll kill those wicked, he'll destroy those wicked men miserably, and he'll lease his vineyard to other vine dressers who will render him the fruits in their season.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus cursed a fig tree because it was not bearing fruit.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was lying, it was it was looking, it was talking like it was going to bear fruit.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: It had leaves.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: When it has leaves, it should be bearing fruit, but it did not bear fruit, and so he cursed it and said, Nobody will eat of you anymore.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist talked about a tree when announcing the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, and said, Now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't bringing fruit.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus talked about a tree that wasn't bearing fruit, and so somebody said, Well, let me give me a year and let me let me put some crap around it, around its, you know, add some crap to it, and maybe that'll make it better.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Brett that said, I'm waiting for the day when Rick says more than crap.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't want it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that doesn't happen.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: But they're like, Well, let's just add more crap to it, and maybe it'll start bearing fruit.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So he gave them a year to come back, and he said, No, it didn't bear fruit, so he just cut it down.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, so it wasn't bearing fruit, but he says, They're gonna, he's gonna give it to those who bring forth fruit.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus talked about his disciples, those who believe in him, bearing fruit.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Well, have you never read on the scriptures that the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, the one rejected, the one rejected.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous, beautiful, amazing, astonishing in our eyes.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus was the one cast out.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 43, he says, Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and be given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll just mention something here that they said when he said, What will God do?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: He said, He will destroy them.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those wicked men miserably.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And how many of you that study the Bible when you read the Gospels, that a lot of what Jesus meant, a lot of it not all of it, but a lot of it, a good portion of it, was a warning or a warning about a destruction that was coming that had been prophesied by many prophets of old.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Malachi.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Very strong, that there was a destruction that was coming, and Jesus was was calling them to come out of that and to be ready for it.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And he would warn them when you see the armies surrounding the cities, go, run, don't stay there.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: And many that believed him were spared when that thing did happen in that generation after Jesus died.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of it was that.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that day, when that came down and when it happened in the year 70, something changed dramatically.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: That whole system there.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: To this day, there is no temple worship, there is no priesthood operating like that.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: There are no sacrifices, no animal sacrifices.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: All those things stopped.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why did they stop?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we've got, we open our Bible, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: We read the Old and New Testament, all scriptures, God breathed, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Inspired by God.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we read the Old and New Testament both.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that Old Testament, it's got a lot of animal sacrifice, doesn't it?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we believe the Bible.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: How come we don't sacrifice animals?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one reason, right?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't we sacrifice animals?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because of Jesus, right?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus being the Lamb.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because of Jesus.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Jewish religion does not sacrifice animals either anymore.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing, because of Jesus.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, not for the same reason necessarily that you don't, but Jesus did away with that with them too, in essence.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was taken from them.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: So now we go to the parable about the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we go to Matthew 22, the next chapter, and beginning in verse 2, Jesus says, Now the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And he sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And again he sent more servants saying, See, this parable's got a lot of similarities to the other one.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: He sent out more servants saying, Tell those who are invited, see, I've prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatted cattle are killed, all things are ready.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Come to the wedding.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now I gotta make a point here because I love this.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's telling them, he's like, You guys could just come.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to work.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to do anything.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to take part in any of this preparing of it at all.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have done it all.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Just come.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Come to the wedding.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But they made light of it and they went their ways, one to his own farm and another to his business.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: What's that have to do?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: When you think of a farm or your business, I think of work.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Any of you grow up on a farm?
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: My wife did.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was a life of leisure, wasn't it?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Come, I've got a wedding.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Come, I'm not asking you to work.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you to do anything.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's no labor involved.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing for you to do except come.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, No, we're going to go work.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the rest of them seized his servants, the messengers, treated them spitefully, and killed them.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in Matthew 23, there's a quote there that I want to read to you in verse 37.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is talking about what that religion, what those, not the religion as a whole, what those kind of people were doing.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, remember, this is when before he's he's a he's about to go to the cross in a few days.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he's looking out over Jerusalem, and he says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets, and you stone those that are sent to you.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: See, these are the servants in the parable.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: How often I wanted to gather your children together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you not, you were not willing.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: See, your house is left to you desolate.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's all going to be destroyed.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's not going to be one stone left upon another.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Please believe me, I'm inaugurating a new and living way.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: For no man had seen God at any time, but the Son, who's in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you are coming to know your heavenly father more?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, you're falling deeper and deeper in love with him?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you are finding that making it's making you a whole lot happy?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot more joy, love, and fruit of the Spirit because of the beauty and the goodness of your Father that's revealed in Christ Jesus.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: It just makes me more excited about him.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: It just makes me more, more in love with him.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Feel so much closer, have so much more faith, confidence, and trust in God and our union, our relationship together with him.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Let's continue with the parable in verse 7.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: But when the king heard about it, the king was furious.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he sent out his armies and destroyed those murderers and he burned up their city.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I gotta say this.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, he's telling a parable, a story that they can understand.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's not necessarily telling them the nature of God when he talks about a king here.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: But the point of the story is that this destruction would come.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: There again, in that the year 70, it did come.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So he's he's really referring to this quite a bit here.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then in verse 8, as we continue the parable.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then the king said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore go to the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all that they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to pause right there for a moment.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, So I want you to get the picture of this, that he invited these people, and they didn't come, and so there was, so he burned up their city.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem literally got burned to the ground.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was coming.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: But in the parable, then he says, Well, they didn't come, so go to the highways and get all you can find.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it says he found all these people and they were both bad and good.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it filled the house.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: The house was filled with guests.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now get the picture of it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: The house is full.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: You ever been in a full house?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: The house was full, and they were both bad and good.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this didn't have anything to do with those that were invited and those that were welcomed into the house.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: It had nothing to do with whether they were bad or good.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Bad and good were in the house.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Grace 101, right there, right?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Both bad and good were in the house because it had nothing to do with them.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was about the goodness of the one who was inviting.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so he just what did he want?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted the house filled.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: What did God want?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Many sons to come to glory, that all would be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted the house full.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: But when the king came again, he saw a man.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody say, a man.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: A man there who did not have on a wedding garment.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've I've read this story a number of times.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what my thought was is that, okay, so this symbolizes those that that that aren't saved.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is those that, you know, they're not one of us.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're one of those out there.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have on the wedding garment.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: But remember here, there's a lot of people in this story.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a crowd of people that were invited and their city was burned.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's others that filled the house, many that filled the house.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's the one.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not the many, but the one.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: There was one who didn't have on a wedding garment.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: What's the deal with this wedding garment?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't seem to matter to all the these other, they became both bad and good.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do they all have wedding garments on?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say one way or the other.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But this one didn't have on a wedding garment.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: What's this, what is this wedding garment?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I look it up, and there's a uh something that the Jews do is that they that at a wedding they there's this thing called a kittel, and it's or I think it's how you pronounce it, and it's a white linen robe that signifies purity.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And people would would wear that at a wet wedding, specifically the groom for sure would.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: This white linen robe that signifies purity, and this man's not wearing it.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And verse 12, the king looks at him and he says, What's this?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the man was speechless, didn't say anything.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's asking him, Why don't you have a wedding garment?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I gotta break this down a little bit because I want you to see something.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: He calls him friend, for one thing.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, he calls him friend.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm telling you, this was a friend of the king.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Are you sure, Rick?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe what maybe he's just saying, hey, buddy, you know.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Buddy, there's a word for friend that's used all through the New Testament.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's used 29 times.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's the word for friend, it's philo, like phileo, love, affection, philadelphia, phitium, brotherly love, philo means friend.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you call someone who's your friend.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're my philo, you're my friend.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: This word is the word heteros, H-E-T-A-I-R-O-S, and it's it's it's deeper.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: It means a companion, a comrade, a partner, a close associate, a fellow participant in a partnership or an activity.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody see where I'm going at?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Friend, my partner, my comrade, my fellow participant.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Where why don't you have a wedding garment?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the man doesn't answer him.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Isaiah 53, 7, was like a lamb led to the slaughter.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: He opened not his mouth.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Where's your wedding garment?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where was the wedding garment of Jesus?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where was the white linen robe of righteousness and purity?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: I remember reading that Jesus literally, physically, was stripped of his clothing.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I remember him reading that as he hung on the cross, they gambled for his robe, for his clothing down there.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, Isaiah said that he would come clad in righteousness.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Here he came, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, who went around doing good and healing all that were oppressed to the devil, for God was with him, clad in righteousness.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: But where is it now?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Stripped, hanging naked, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the Father.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Where was his clothing?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we, the many, not the few, would be the come the righteousness of God in Christ.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 19 says this about us, verse 7.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb, does that sound familiar?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now I remember reading that and I thought, okay, what do we got to do to make ourselves ready?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: I used to preach it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming back for a spotless bride.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, church, we got some work to do.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bride without spot or wrinkle.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: We got some washing and ironing to do.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Come on, church.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: The king didn't ask them to come and do anything except come.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't ask them to prepare for the wedding.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I've prepared everything.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just come.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then how did the bride make herself ready?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: How do you make yourself ready for Jesus?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, it tells you.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And to her it was granted, it was given to be clothed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where was his clothing?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's on us.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who is the one that laid down his life for us?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Who is the one that was no that him who knew no sin that made to be sin?
• 21:59
  unknown: Who was
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: The one stripped of his clothing?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Who was the one that they gambled for his clothing?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Who was the one that hung there naked without clothing?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And who are the ones fully clothed in righteousness?
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And back to the story in verse 13, what happens to this man without the clothing?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Take him away, was Jesus taken away.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Cast him into outer darkness, was Jesus cast out?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I used to think that that that he actually, that God had turned his back on him, but the Bible says the opposite of that, says that God was with him, said God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, the night that he was to be arrested, he said, You're all gonna, you're all gonna forsake me, but I will not be alone, for the Father is with me.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: So why did he say that?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because he felt what we all felt.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: He was there, he was experiencing that that sin, that death, that's that sense of separation that mankind hath, cast him into outer darkness.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus suffered, he bled, he cried, Jesus wept.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus experienced agony, his sweat became like blood.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: He hung on the cross and he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Weeping, gnashing of teeth, not to the many, but the few.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because verse 14 says, For many are called, but few are chosen.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where you might get thrown off because the word few, uh, Holy Ghost, it doesn't designate a number.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Few here doesn't mean uh three, four, five, six, seven.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you hear that.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a few.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: It just means a minuscule.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Something small, the few, it's being cast out.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is the one cast out.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the word chosen.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Many are called, but few are chosen.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Greek word eklektos.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lectos, you might realize, is like election or elected, which means chosen.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Ek is a prefoot fix that means out.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: It literally means to be chosen out, to be picked out.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the definition you you find when you look it up.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's often used for a specific purpose or service, such as the Hebrews, the Messiah, Christians are chosen in that sense.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Chosen, picked out, believer, your chosen generation, those in him.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: But in this sense, there was one that was picked out, one chosen out.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: How many know the word was in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, the same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him, for without him there's nothing made that was made.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then it goes on and says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: How many know that the word him, that God himself, expressing himself that way, existed forever?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole plan that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: This whole thing was chosen, this whole thing you can you can say conspired, if you will, a comrade, a fellow participant, was the son a fellow participant in this whole thing with the father?
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Was he?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Did he come into this world for that specific purpose?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he did.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: So who are the calls?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's all of us.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Who are the many?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that the 95% scream and wail forever and ever and ever, and five percent of us get to be happy about it.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: The one that experienced that was the one that was chosen to experience that.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 5.18, I think, says it the clearest and the best.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And how many of you are familiar with Romans 5?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: You recognize that in Romans 5, Paul says the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: He just keeps repeating it, just changing a word here and there to make this make sure you get the point.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Romans 5 18.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even so, through how many?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: One man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all stand up?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh the glory of the Father.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: How great is his love.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: We sing a song sometimes, How great are you, God?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very well-known song in the church world.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: How great is our God, how great is our God.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I often sing it as a question.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: How great is he really?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: How much does his goodness and his mercy endure?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: How astonishing is that grace that's amazing?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: What are the boundaries of it really?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we all have our ideas about it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's okay to have your ideas.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think what we're doing around here is saying, lift up your eyes and see.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Be amazed and astonished, because maybe God's a lot more beautiful and better than what the stewards of the things of God have told some of us.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what we like to do as Christians is we like to hear people validate what we think today.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if they do that, oh, that's a good preacher.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: If they agree with us, oh, that's good.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you sense in your spirit that God's drawing you into love so that you can be so enamored with him and so much in love with him that your confidence and assurance forever is that work of righteousness in your life.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: And your trust and your faith, your love for him, your sense of closeness, and it affects your love for people of this world because you begin to see it like Daddy does.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: What I pray is for the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened that we may behold the riches of his glory.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of fear, not the fruit of fear, but the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, etc., abounds in our life.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know I keep saying this, but this is what happens in our life.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I were talking about it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll, you know, Judy and I were saying this.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I were talking about this.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Judy and I, I know.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's how we do in our house.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: But we're talking about peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where is the peace?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: People say, it's right here, if you can see it, it's within us.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Peace with God, peace with man.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Peace with who you are in all of your weakness, being absolutely loved.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what you thought was many of those things you thought God was demanding that it change.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But you find out.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: Probably the greatest thing you get from grace is finding out that God loves you if you never change or get any better.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: This house is filled, not this, the house I'm reading, is filled with both bad and good.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: This one's all filled with good, I'm sure, right?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I, you know, I I preach love.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I preach the love of God because I become enamored with it.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just keep being drawn into a depth of it.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Producing fruit.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's producing fruit that I've been had been longing for many, many years.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: I like when I feel the love and understanding and compassion for humans now.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like that I feel the confidence and assurance and the peace and the trust and the faith that used to be a hard thing to muster up.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: I like feeling the rest that comes because clothed in righteousness, but resting in daddy's arms and his bosom, if you will.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you this morning before we go out of here, and we're going into our Thanksgiving week, I want to tell you that you're absolutely safe in God.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: In him there is safety.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's some hard things that we deal with in this life, but ultimately you're safe.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you're loved, and you are cared for, and you are not alone.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the God that you may have wondered if he cared or did he approve, or is he near?
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: I say yes, yes, and amen.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he's nearer than you or I myself know, and he's dearer, and he's more involved, and you're lovable by him, and you're lovely to him, and you're worth it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're worth it to him, and he's not losing patience with you.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I don't I got a glimpse of it, but the way that he loves mankind goes beyond my brain.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I know it's real.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: The more I know that, the more I see that fruit of love happening.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where's the peace on earth?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's right in here.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: When will it be all over the world someday?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: From here to there, to there, to there.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Where do we see it one heart at a time?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I love you and I thank you for your absolute beauty and goodness.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's you that we have to celebrate today.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's you that we give thanks for, for in you is true life and soteria salvation, the well being and the wholeness of our souls.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: We give you the thanks, we give you the praise.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're beautiful, Father.