Between Called and Chosen

Introduction

Matthew 22:1–14 KJV 1900

1 And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3 And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4 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. 5 But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: 6 And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. 7 But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. 9 Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. 10 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. 11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 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. 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Body

The Dinner

All the privileges of the New Covenant are depicted by this dinner

The blessings of the Covenant

Forgiveness and remission of sins

God’s favor in our lives

Peace that passes all understanding

Joy unspeakable and full of glory

Exceeding good and precious promises

Access to God’s throne room

Promise of everlasting life with Him

This is the a dinner prepared for Christ’s wedding to the church

When we enter into this New Covenant we are espoused to Christ

Some day we will be enjoying the wedding feast with Jesus in heaven

It’s a feast

A feast is a time, and a place, of plenty

It’s a time of rejoicing

It’s a time of laughter

It’s a time of fellowship with your fellow man

It typifies the gospel message and the life we are to live under the New Covenant

But it comes at great cost

The day of feast under the law is a time of sacrifice

It’s a time of slaughter

The wedding feast is prepared on the foundations of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice at Calvary

There’s always a price to be paid. Paid by someone else, or paid by you

Account of my parents paying for meals vs. me paying for them

The King sends out invitations

With so great an event, with the King attending, you’d think it would be the event of the year

But the King has to promote the event, and have His servants go out and extend invitation to everyone

God is always the initiator and we are always the reactor

God sends the invitation to EVERYBODY. Everyone is invited and the only way for that to be rescinded is for us to disqualify ourselves

How did they respond to the King’s invitation?

They would not come

They made light of it and went back to their lives

They abused and even killed the King’s servants

The King sends His servants to others because the others were not worthy

They had disqualified themselves by their choices and by their actions

They were called first, but because of their actions, they were not chosen. They were instead rejected.

This next section is the one that bothers me the most

Acts 8:5–21 KJV 1900

5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. 6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. 8 And there was great joy in that city. 9 But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10 To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. 11 And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 12 But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. 14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: 16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. 18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, 19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. 20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. 21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.

The King discovered someone without a wedding garment

Someone who said “Yes” to the invitation but had no inward desire to celebrate the wedding supper

This individual has one foot in the Kingdom and one foot in the world

This individual wants the benefits of the Kingdom but still wants to determine right and wrong themselves. Still wants to determine their own direction for their lives

They want a Saviour, but not a Lord

Interestingly, none of the other guests noticed his lack of wedding garments. Only the King saw him, and only the King engaged him

God confronted this individual because he was lukewarm. Because he had not made up his mind. He had not yet made a choice

Because of this he was disqualified from the wedding feast and was bound, and was cast out

For Many are Called, but Few are Chosen

There’s a great divide between “called” and “chosen”

We can see this divide illustrated in the lives of great men of scripture

Joseph

Moses

David

There’s a great divide between being “called” to salvation and actually entering into heaven

There’s a great divide between being “called” to a ministry and actually qualifying for that ministry

Many things will transpire between the “calling” and the “choosing”, but easy and hard, but how to choose to respond to each event will push you closer to, or farther away from, your calling

Called to salvation

Called to ministry

Called to a closer walk with Jesus

We’ve spoken on the incredible power of choice in our lives

Everything in our spiritual walk is determined by the choices we make

No one will, or even can, force you or anyone else to serve God

No one will, or can, force a professing Christian to come to church, come to prayer, live according to scripture, or draw closer to God

But these choices, and these choices ALONE, determine my walk with God, and they will determine my place in God’s Kingdom

Parable of the Talents

It’s not the amount of talents we receive of the Lord that matters, but what we choose to do with them

When we receive the Word of God, what do we choose to do with that?

When a special service is called, do we choose to go, or do we choose to stay home?

When God tells us to do something, do we choose to obey, or do we choose to disobey?

Every single one of these choices determine:

Our walk with God

Growing, vibrant, exciting

Stagnant, don’t want to pray, don’t want to come to church

Our ministries

God speaks through me, I’m confident in God’s answer in prayer, I’m focused on pursuing my ministry

Don’t really have one, not all that interested or engaged, only for “spiritual” people

Our salvation

Moving every day toward heaven

Moving every day toward hell

Everyone’s moving somewhere. No one stays in the same place

This means that if you’re dissatisfied with your present circumstance, you’re one choice away from improving it!

My simply making different choices we begin to qualify ourselves for greater service

We can qualify ourselves for a closer walk with Jesus by the power of our choices

ONLY YOU can make those choices

Mom and Dad cannot make those choices for you

Pastor can’t choose for you

That means you don’t have to wait around for someone else to get their act together. You only need to wait on you

Conclusion

We work our our own salvation with fear and trembling

You will stand before Jesus one day and give an account of the choices you made

Lets determine tonight to live our lives so that, in that day, we can give our account with joy