What Is the Wedding Garment?

What Is the Wedding Garment?

DELIVERED ON LORD'S DAY MORNING, MAY 20, 1888,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And when the king came in to see the guests he saw there a man which
had not on a wedding garment: and he said unto him, Friend, how came
you in here 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." Matthew 22:11-13.

Two Sabbath mornings ago I preached from this parable and I trust many
were encouraged by it. But I noticed among enquirers who came to see me
afterwards, a desire to know about the wedding garment. For they feared
lest, in coming to join the Church, they should come like the man of
whom I shall now speak. Many true hearts are extremely sensitive to the
impression of fear and they seem to be on the watch for reasons for
anxiety. I do not condemn them–on the contrary I wish there were more
of such holy tremblers. It is much better to be afraid of being wrong
than to be indifferent as to what you are. I perceive among the very
best of the saints a considerable number who are deeply anxious as to
their state before God.

Those who will one day be cast out of the wedding feast are feeding
themselves without fear, while those who have the most right to enjoy
the banquet are full of gracious anxiety. Solomon says, "Happy is the
man that fears always"–he will cling closely to his God and that will
make him happy. He will not run risks like the presumptuous and so he
will be happy. Holy fear spreads few banquets but it takes care that
when there is a feast we go to it in a wedding garment.

My chief object this morning will be to allay the fears of gracious
ones. If they understand what the wedding garment really is, they will
probably discover that they are wearing it. And, if not, they will know
in whose wardrobe that garment ofjoy is to be found and they will
gladly ask to be arrayed therein. May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
give a wedding joy this morning to each wedding guest, by causing him
to see for certain that he is clothed in the wedding robe.

Immediately after our text, we find these solemn words–"Many are
called, but few are chosen." This is a conclusion drawn from the whole
parable in which we see processes at work which separate the chosen few
from the many who are called. A distinction was made by the summoning
of the invited guests. The simple delivery of the invitation set a
difference between the loyal and the rebellious–a distinction most
marked and decisive. So it is in the preaching of the Gospel–we preach
it to every creature within our reach. Lovingly, tenderly, earnestly.
Not so well as we would, but still with all our heart we call men to
the royal feast of Divine Grace.

And straightway the very invitation begins to gather out the precious
from the vile. Pure Gospel preaching is very discriminating. You can
tell Cain from Abel as soon as the sacrifice is the subject. Preach
salvation by Divine Grace and you find that some will not have it at
any price. Others postpone all consideration of it and a third party
raise questions without end. Still do men make light of it and go their
way to their farms and to their merchandise. Thus, dear Friends, every
Sabbath Day, without our attempting to sit in judgment on men, the
Gospel is, in itself, a refining fire.

In the Gospel the Son of David has a throne ofjudgment as well as of
mercy. When men will not have Christ and His Grace, the Word preached
by His humble servant drives them away and they go with the chaff. But
the work of discrimination is not finished after the Gospel has been
heard and men have been brought into the Church. Alas, even in the
Church division has to be made. Indeed, it is there that this is most
fully carried out. "His fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge
His floor." If He uses a scourge nowhere else, He will be sure to use
it in His own temple.

Among the sheep there are goats. Among the virgins there are foolish
ones. And among the guests at the wedding feast there are those who
have not on the wedding garment. Until we come to Heaven itself we
shall always discover necessity for the work of self-examination. Even
in the Apostolic College Judas carried on his dishonesty, as if to warn
us

that no rank in service, no honor among Brethren, no length of
experience can screen us from the necessity of saying, "Lord, is it I?"
when His warning voice says, "One of you shall betray Me."

In our text we see a man who has hearkened to the invitation and has
come into the feast and thus has passed the first test. And yet he is
unable to abide the second. He has been received by the servants but he
cannot deceive their Master. The King detects him as a spot in the
feast and he is cast out from the palace of mercy into the outer
darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. May
none of us be of this sort.

I shall endeavor to answer four questions naturally arising out of the
parable. First, what is meant by the king's coming in?–"when the king
came in to see the guests." Secondly, what is the wedding garment?
Thirdly, who is he that has it not? And fourthly, why did he stand
speechless when he was asked, "How came you in here not having a
wedding garment?"

I. May the Holy Spirit help us while we consider, first, WHAT IS MEANT
BY THE KING IS COMING IN.

"The king came in to see the guests." They were all reclining at the
tables, for "the wedding was furnished with guests." They gathered
while the sun was up but darkness covered the world outside when "the
king came in to see the guests." They had feasted and now the king came
to honor the assembly.

It was the crown and the culmination of the feast. No matter how dainty
the viands, nor how bright the hall, the feast has not reached its
height till his majesty appears in gracious condescension. It is so
with us, Beloved, in reference to our greater King. When we are
gathered in this house, which has often proved to us a palace of
delights, we never reach the height of our desire till the Lord
manifests Himself to us. You delight to hear the preacher and to join
in the song and to say Amen to the prayer but these are not all. Your
heart and your flesh cry out for God, for the living God–you look to
behold the King in His beauty.

When the glorious Father reveals Himself in Christ Jesus, then the
Sabbath is a high day, for our prayer is answered, "Make Your face to
shine upon Your servant." Our glorious King is not always equally
manifest in our solemn assemblies. Doubtless because of our sins He
hides Himself. In truth He is always with us. For the feast is His and
the hall is His and every guest is brought in by His Grace and every
dish on the table is placed there by His love. But yet there are times
when He is specially seen among His people. Then our communion with the
Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, is sweet, indeed.

These are seasons of gracious visitation–times of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord. When the King comes into the assembly, the
preaching of the Word is in demonstration of the Spirit and in power.
Then the day of Pentecost has fully come, the Spirit is abundantly
outpoured, souls are saved, saints are edified and Christ is glorified.
The spiritual soon detect the Divine Presence and the shout of a King
is heard in the camp. When I think of it, my heart cries out with
Isaiah, "Oh that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down,
that the mountains might flow down at Your presence!"

The presence of our God brings with it heavenly happiness, solemn
content and overflowing joy. Well does Dr. Watts sing–

"The King Himself comes near, And feasts His saints today; Here we may
sit and see Him here, And love and praise and pray."

"One day amidst the place Where my dear God has been Is sweeter than
ten thousand days

Of pleasurable sin."

Beloved Friends, you know better than I can tell you when the King is
near and you know sorrowfully when He is not in the assembly. Alas,
from how many congregations is He absent and that absence not mourned!
When the Lord is gone we spread our sails but there is no wind–we
bring the sacrifice but there is no fire. The wedding would have been a
failure without guests. But what would the feast have been if the host
had refused to come in and see the guests? But the King came in in due
time. Yes, came in among that crowd of wayfarers gathered from the
highways at a moment's notice and His presence crowned the festival
with honor and rapture.

This coming in to see the guests indicates a glorious Revelation of
Himself. When the King saw the guests, the guests saw Him. But,
inasmuch as His sight of them was the more important sight of the two,
the chief thing is mentioned while the minor matter is implied. Do we
know what it is to see God? This is the special privilege of the pure
in heart. When the Lord's way is in the sanctuary, then His sanctified
ones behold Him. Spiritual eyes have looked to Jesus by faith and He
says, "He that has seen Me has seen the Father." Have you ever been
like John in Patmos, ready to swoon away because of the Revelation of
the Father in Christ?

When Jesus has been set forth evidently crucified among us, we have in
Him beheld the face of the great King and our hearts have leaped for
joy so that we have been ready to leap into Heaven itself if the word
had been given. When Augustine read those words, "You can not see My
face and live," he was bold enough to answer, "Let me die to see Your
face." Blessed vision!–

"Lord, let me see Your beauteous face!

It yields a Heaven below;

And angels round the throne will say,

It is all the Heaven they know." The King delights to see His guests
and His guests delight to see Him. Then is our worship full of bliss
and no place out of Heaven is so like to Heaven as the place of our
assemblies. We read in the Gospel of John–"Then were the disciples
glad when they saw the Lord." And well they might be. Then are we glad,
also, when we distinctly discern Him as our Lord and our God. My own
soul knows this joy unspeakable but because it is unspeakable, I say no
more.

For the King to come in and see the guests includes a manifestation of
special favor. He comes in, not to judge the guests but to look upon
them. You that were here last Thursday might will remember my
text–"Look You upon me and be merciful unto me, as You used to do unto
those that love Your name" [Psa. 119:132]. The Lord is accustomed to
look with favor upon those who love His name, for He is pleased with
them. O Brothers and Sisters, when the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit–when the Father lifts upon us the light
of His countenance–then our summer weather is come! Can anything be
compared with the favor of God? The smiles of kings, the friendships of
emperors–do not mention them in the same breath.

Some of you know that the Lord loves you. Yes, that He loved you from
before the foundation of the world and He will love you when the world
has ceased to be. Oh that the King would come here this morning in that
sense and look into all your faces and give you all the full assurance
that you are in His heart and shall be there to all eternity! Oh that
this whole Church may be a living temple in which the Lord shall
delight to dwell. May every stone of it be brilliant with the reflected
light of His favor. May all our testimonies and labors be acceptable
unto Him and may He be very gracious at the voice of our cry!

O Jehovah, manifest Yourself here as You did between the cherubim! For
Your sake we have borne reproach–Lord be our glory! We have held fast
Your Truth. We beseech You, let the light of Your countenance encourage
us!

But here is the solemn point to which I call your attention–this
visitation brings with it a time of discovery and searching of heart.
When the King comes in to see the guests, the light grows stronger and
hidden things are revealed. For all things are naked and open to the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do. When the Lord visits His Church,
His fire is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem. Then the man without
a wedding garment is winked at no longer. You can go on sleeping as a
Church when God is away and no members will fall off. For those who
know not the Lord will come in and go out among you as before.

The dead will remain quiet till the Lord sounds the trumpet of
resurrection–mere professors will not know that they are making a
false profession but will remain at ease in our solemn feasts. But when
the King comes in, all things are changed. "Who may abide the day of
His coming? And who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a
refiner's fire and like fullers' soap." You cannot receive abundant
spiritual life into the Church without the discernment of the unworthy
and the expulsion of the spiritually dead. One goes away because he is
offended at the doctrine, another is grieved at the heart-searching
experience, and a third feels himself too sternly rebuked as to his
life.

Thus the Lord's visitation of Divine Grace becomes an assize ofjudgment
and the finger of the Lord writes upon the wall, "You are weighed in
the balances and are found wanting." If the Lord our God were to come
into His Church today there would be an awful shrinkage among the
number of His guests. A panic would seize the assembly and the door
would be blocked with men hastening to escape His eye.

Look how the king's discernment is recorded in the text. One man, only,
had refused to put on a wedding garment. But the king at once fixed His
eye upon him. The Savior, by a kind of heavenly charity, mentions only
one intruder but I fear we must regard the one as the type of many. If
the King should come in at the time of our communion, I am afraid He
would de-

tect more than one. Still, if there were but one, he would concentrate
His gaze upon that one and speak to him by himself. If you are the only
person who has dared to enter the Church knowing that you are not
converted, the King will spy you out.

If you make a profession of religion out of bravado and keep it up by
sheer deceit, you may hide yourself away among your family connections,
or think that your respectability will screen you. But you are
mistaken. You have to deal with One whose eyes are as a flame of fire
and He will so unmask you that you will not have a word to say in your
own defense. This is a solemn matter. It will not make the true-hearted
wish the King to stay away but those who are willful deceivers may well
tremble. The King does come to this Church. He is specially present in
the midst of this people and the consequence is that His judgment is
strict with us. I have seen the rod of His discipline here in a very
striking manner. I have seen the fair professor wither in the heat of
love and the rootless Christian dried up in the noontide of Divine
Grace.

He might have gone on very well in any other Church but he has not been
able to abide the brandished sword of the Spirit and its dividing
asunder soul and spirit, joints and marrow. He has not been able to sit
it out but has been obliged to go away and find an easier rest. Just in
proportion as we really have the King in the midst of us making glad
the saints, we shall have the King in the midst of us discerning the
false and casting them out. First into the outer darkness of the world,
which lies in the Wicked One and at last into the outer darkness of
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Still, be the result what it
may, our prayer this morning is, "God be merciful unto us and bless us.
And cause His face to shine upon us."

II. Now I would answer the second question–WHAT IS THE WEDDING
GARMENT? You are probably aware that this has been a point greatly
disputed among theologians. Is the wedding garment justification, or
sanctification, or what? I am not going to be theological and bring
doctrinal matters to the text. But I shall read the parable as it
stands and interpret its details by its general run. It is called a
"wedding garment"–a garment suitable for a marriage feast. Let us
translate the figure rather than attempt to rivet a doctrine to it.
What does a wedding garment mean? What is that which we must have in
connection with our Lord's marriage or be cast out forever?

I think I may say plainly that it must signify a distinguishing mark of
Divine Grace. Everybody does not wear a wedding garment–he who wears
it has put it on because he is a wedding guest. You know the wedding
guest at once by his attire. He dresses in a way which would be
considered singular if he were so arrayed every day. Your steady
citizen indulges in a white waistcoat on the nuptial occasion but he
never dreams of going down to his office in the city in such gear. True
members of the Church of God wear a distinguishing mark. If you are not
different from other people, you have no right in the Church of God. If
a servant can live with you for years and never discover your love to
God, I should think there is none to discover.

If you are just the same as those you lived with in your former days,
if you have undergone no change and are like the rest of men, you have
not the distinguishing mark which sets forth your right to be in the
Church of God. There ought to be a something about us which sets us
apart–a something which can be seen and understood by common people,
even as a wedding garment could be seen and its meaning at once
perceived. Your religion must not require a microscope to perceive it,
nor should it be so indistinct that few can discover any meaning in it.
It should be as visible as the white garment which was worn by Easterns
at a marriage. Is it so?

I may boldly add here that the wedding garment was a distinguishing
mark of Divine Grace. For as these people were fetched in from the
highways they could not have provided themselves with wedding garments.
It is the custom in the East for a king to provide robes for his
guests. Therefore this wedding garment was a mark of Divine Grace,
freely given and received. Is there, then, a something about you which
the Lord in love has given you? Do you differ from others, not in
natural attainments but in spiritual Grace? Does the difference mainly
lie in what God Himself has done for you? That is the question involved
in the symbol of the wedding garment.

Do you differ from what you used to be. Do you differ from what you
were years ago? Do you differ from those with whom you used to
associate, so that you seek other company and turn aside from those who
once were charming fellows to you? If so, you have on the wedding
garment. It is a distinguishing mark. I do not mean to put this in a
way that would grieve anybody here unless they ought to be grieved. But
if they ought to be grieved then we would have them cry to God for
renewal by His Grace. May the Lord make you to wear His livery! May He
give you the spot of His children and cause you no longer to be of the
world! A distinguishing mark is plainly the first meaning of the
wedding garment.

In the next place, it was a symbol of respect for the king. To be fit
for His company, the dress must be special. The absence of such a dress
was, in the case before us, the badge of irreverence and disloyalty.
This man said to himself–"I will feed at the feast without
acknowledging its intent. Whoever stops me, I will push my way in and I
shall sit there in my everyday garments to let the king know that I do
not respect Him in the least and will not wear the robes He provides."
It is as if you had lost a

son and some wretched man should say, "I will attend the funeral in a
wedding suit. I shall thus wound the feelings of the mourners and show
my contempt for the whole affair."

What an insult it would be! To turn the picture. Suppose you were being
married and somebody forced his way into the wedding dressed in
mourning, with crape upon his hat and black kid gloves upon his hands?
What a wanton insult! If such impudence were met with a horse-whip, who
would be surprised? Now, this man acted in that fashion–he had no
respect for the king–he showed his traitorous nature in the worst
possible manner–spiting the King in His own halls upon a tender
occasion.

Dear Friends, I trust that you can truly say, "I have on the wedding
garment of reverence for the King. I do not despise the Lord God. But I
bow before Him in true worship. I would come into His Church, not to
dishonor Him but to give glory to His name." The wedding garment was a
token of respect to Him who had provided the feast and presided over
it–judge this day whether you have on the wedding garment, by
enquiring whether you honor and reverence the Lord God and labor to be
obedient to Him in all things.

The wedding garment was, moreover, a token of honor for the Prince.
Those who put on the wedding garment did as good as say, "We join in
the joy of the Prince and come here today to show our attachment to
Him, and to wish Him joy of His Bride." My Hearers, do you feel a love
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Many do not. I grieve to say we have a race
of men sprung up nowadays who call themselves Christians who pour
contempt upon His precious blood and ridicule the substitutionary
sacrifice. Dreadful assertion! But it is a matter of fact.

The name of Jesus, why, it is to our lives what the sun is to the
skies! What the rivers are to the plains. Nothing makes us so glad as
thoughts of Jesus. I am sure when I hear a sermon about Christ, my
Master, my very heart grows warm within me! Is it so with you? Well,
then, you have on the wedding garment. That is to say, you do truly,
though it is but in a simple way, pay homage to the Prince of Peace.
You love the Name and Person of Jesus and you come into His Church
because you do so. The wedding garment also signified a confession of
sympathy with the great occasion. Every man who ate of the fatlings,
every man who drank of the wines, every man who gave his presence, was
a helper in the honors of that wedding feast, save only this one
intruder, who would not even pretend to join in the joy for he refused
the simple act of putting on a robe fit for the feast.

Dear Friend, do you feel sympathy with the Lord's purposes of Divine
Grace? Do you rejoice that Jesus finds a Bride among our race? Do you
bless God for the Covenant of Grace, which includes incarnation,
redemption and sanctification? Do you bless the name of the incarnate
God for taking into everlasting union with Himself a people prepared of
the Lord? Well, then, you are in sympathy with the marriage of the Lamb
and you have a right to be present at the feast. You evidently wear the
wedding garment which denotes your joy in Christ, your interest in His
Church, your part and lot in the joyous work of His salvation.

The wedding garment means, in a word, conformity to the requirements of
the occasion. It was a wedding and the guests must put on a suitable
dress. This man refused to put it on. He was proud and would not wear
the gift of Divine Grace. He was self-willed and must needs be singular
and show his independence of mind. The regulation was by no means
irksome and to the rest of the guests the commandment was not grievous.
But this man would have his own way in defiance of the Lord of the
feast. What could come of such folly?

Now, Beloved, one of the requirements of the feast is that you, with
your heart, believe on the Lord Jesus and that you take His
righteousness to be your righteousness. Do you refuse this? If you will
not accept the Lord Jesus as your Substitute, bearing your sins in His
own body on the tree, you have not the wedding garment. Another
requirement is that you should repent of sin and forsake it. And that
you should follow after holiness and endeavor to copy the example of
the Lord Jesus. You are to possess, as the work of Divine Grace, a
godly and upright character. Have you such a character? Even though you
are not perfect, inasmuch as you follow after righteousness, you have
the wedding garment. You say that you are a Christian–do you live like
a Christian? Are you in a position and condition which agree with the
Gospel feast? If so, you have on the wedding garment.

Those who came unto the feast were, when they came, both bad and
good–so that the wedding garment does not relate to their past
character but relates to something with which they were invested when
they came to the banquet. The putting on of a wedding robe cannot refer
to an elaborate ceremony, or a feat of the intellect, or to a deep
experience of the heart. And yet it involved joining in the wedding, or
not joining in it. It involved reverence for the King and homage to the
Prince and sympathy with the whole matter. Look well to yourselves and
see whether you truly yield yourselves to the Lord and agree with Him
in the whole matter.

III. Thirdly, WHO IS THE MAN THAT HAS NOT ON THE WEDDING GARMENT?

I should say, first, he is the man who rejects God's revealed Gospel
that he may follow his own thought and his own wisdom. He says that he
is loyal to Christ and he expects all his fellow guests to be firm
friends with him, for is he not in the banquet as much as they are? But
he does not mean by loyalty what they mean by it. He is among Believers
but he is not truly of them. He talks about atonement. He does not mean
substitution. He talks about the divinity of Christ. He does not mean
the Godhead of Christ. He talks about justification by faith. But he
does not mean the old-fashioned doctrine.

He speaks of regeneration but means evolution. He girds himself with
the garment of philosophy but he refuses the robe of Revelation, for
the cut of it is too old-fashioned for him. He is no more a wedding
guest than he is a clown–perhaps, not as much so. He wears raiment in
which the robe of righteousness and the garments of gladness are not to
be seen. The looms of Free Grace and dying love have never woven him a
wedding dress. His robe is not of God's provision. It is from his own
wardrobe. He glories in his own culture and not in the Revelation of
God, nor yet in the work of Divine Grace upon the heart. He is in the
Church but he is not in Christ. He has a name to live but he is dead.

The next person who has not on the wedding garment is the man who
refuses the righteousness of God because he has a righteousness of his
own. He thinks his work-day dress good enough for Christ's own wedding.
What does he want with imputed righteousness? He thinks it immoral–he
who is himself immoral! What does he want with the precious blood of
Jesus? He does not need to be washed from crimson stains. He writes a
paper against the sensuousness of those persons who sing–

"There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins."

His own righteousness, though it be of the Law and such as Paul
rejected, he esteems so highly that he counts the blood of the Covenant
an unholy thing! Ah me, the insolence of self-righteousness! Its pride
is the very chief of sins, for it slights the righteousness of God.
Practically, the self-righteous man does not see any wedding in the
Gospel system. He does not see anything in the Gospel to make him glad,
nothing for him to sing about, nothing to make him shout for joy of
heart. He will not praise the Prince. Not he! He is under the Law and
he is content to be a slave. He is trying to save himself by his own
works and Law knows no holidays. He is not a wedding guest but a mere
drudge.

Another sort of person has profession without feeling. If he were
outside of the Church his conscience might trouble him–he has come
inside of it, and now he says to himself, "It is all right." He does
not care to watch his feelings. He never had any–he would rather not
have any. To the power of the Word he is a stranger, though he knows
the letter of it. As to repentance and the burden of sin, he never knew
them and does not want to know them. He thinks Mr. Bunyan must have
been superstitious or morbid when he wrote "Grace Abounding." Joy in
the Lord is equally a thing unknown to him, for he hates all
excitement. He has no solemn depressions and no raptures, for he has no
spiritual life.

As he has no holy feeling, so he has no holy action–he is a Christian,
he says. But having put up the sign-board, he drives no trade. His
religion operates far more upon his boots and his hat than it does upon
his heart–that is to say he comes out respectably dressed on a Sunday
but his religion never affects his conduct. Nobody can find much fault
with him except that he is as dead as a door nail. He commits no gross
sin, he certainly performs no brilliant deeds of piety. Spiritually he
is a very well washed corpse–and that is all he is.

We have others who are in the Church who think that what they have done
themselves, or what nature has done for them is quite enough. They do
not seek anything supernatural. They do not want any wedding garment
more than their everyday coats. They are quite reputable in appearance
even now, and with a little touching up they will be good enough
without the new birth and without the Holy Spirit. Alas, my Hearers!
All that nature can ever do for you will leave you on the wrong side of
Heaven. You may cultivate nature to its utmost–it will never bring
forth the fruits of the Spirit. "You must be born again."

If you have not come into living contact with a living Savior by the
work of the Holy Spirit you may be in the Church but you are not in
Christ and have not on the wedding garment. Why, some dare to come into
the Church who have not even common morality. It is shocking we should
have to say it, but nowadays we meet with those who call themselves
Christians who can drink upon the sly, who can commit uncleanness with
their bodies, who can be dishonest in their trading, who can be liars,
who can hate their own flesh and blood and be at enmity with their
Brethren–and yet dare to come to the communion table!

In the highlands of Scotland it was at one time difficult to get
Christian people to come to the Lord's Table, for they so trembled
under a sense of their unworthiness. We do not want to push this too
far, but that is a great deal better than that unholy daring, which is
to be found in the minds of so many who serve Christ and Belial. God
save His Church from

degradation! Unholy professors have not on a wedding garment–their
outward robes by no means befit the King's feast. They are a dishonor
to Him.

I do not see how that man can be said to have on a wedding garment who
takes no interest in the work of the Church. You see, when a man puts
on the wedding garment, he does as good as say, "I am interested in the
wedding. I wish God's blessing to the Bride and Bridegroom." But many
come in now to the King's feast who do not care a snap of the finger
for the Church of God, nor for Christ, either. They come in because a
sort of selfishness makes them anxious to be saved. But as to the
Bride, the Lamb's wife, they do not care whether she starves or
flourishes.

Sad and wretched business this! If members of the Church only
distribute tracts or attend meetings for prayer–if they are doing this
and show an interest, thus, in the wedding–they have on the wedding
garment. But if all they do is simply listen, either to criticize or to
enjoy, but never work for Christ, nor pray for Christ, they have no
sympathy in the wedding feast and therefore they have not on a wedding
garment.

IV. To close, WHY WAS THIS MAN SPEECHLESS? We do not often meet with
people who have no excuse. Excuse-making is the easiest trade out. A
man can make an excuse out of nothing at all, or out of what is less
than nothing–out of a direct lie. But here was a man who could not
speak? Why was that?

Well, I think, first, the affront was too bare-faced. "How came you in
here?" If he did not like the King he should have stayed outside. There
was no need why he should come in at all and there, display his malice.
If any of you are resolved to be lost, you need not add to your eternal
ruin by making a profession of religion–for hypocrisy is a superfluity
of naughtiness. But this man willfully refused the wedding garment. Now
those dear souls I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon do not
willfully refuse the Lord's Grace–I am sure they do not. Oh no, they
are afraid they are not right but they do not wish to be wrong. Such
are not among those whom this parable condemns.

Next, the affront was so audacious. "How came you in here?" said the
King. He must have pushed by the deacons at the door. The fellow would
come in. When the king said, "Bind him hand and foot," I think it was
because he had used hand and foot to get in. He would get in. He said,
"I will get in. I will defy the King to His face and sit in among His
guests without a wedding garment." You, dear Friend, do not wish to do
that–I am sure it is the last thing you would do. Why, we have to
persuade you to come in at all. For you are so tenderly jealous lest
you should be mistaken. Do not let this parable condemn you.

But why was the man speechless? I answer once more, because it was the
King Himself who spoke to him. Ah, if I speak to you, what am I but
flesh and blood? You do not mind me! But if the King Himself were here
today, and He said to any one of you, "Friend, how came you in here not
having a wedding garment?" the tone of His voice, the glory of His
presence, would flash in upon your hearts–you would be obliged to feel
it and you could not invent an answer. If you do not love Him, if you
have no reverence for Him, no sympathy with His Son, you will be
speechless before His bar.

Lastly, the reason why he was speechless was because, even if he could
have spoken and been free from terror, there was nothing to be said. He
could not cry, "Lord, I did not know it." He saw all the rest with
wedding garments on. He could not say, "Lord, I could not get a wedding
garment"–each one had received a garment gratis and he might have
received the same. He could not say, "Lord, I was pushed in here by
somebody else." No, he had willingly chosen to come and to defy the
rules. The guests had all looked at him–some had edged a little way
off from him.

Some had tenderly said, "Brother, will you not put on the wedding
garment?" He answered, "No." "Will you not go out before the King comes
in?" "Why," he said, "I came on purpose to defy Him. I mean to keep my
place." I do not wonder that the king said, "Bind him hand and foot and
cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth." Our Lord Jesus Christ says very strong things about the future
of the wicked. I have been accused of representing the state of the
lost in too horrible a manner. I have never gone beyond the dreadful
descriptions given by our Lord Himself.

Do not risk your eternal future. Come to the Church of God and join it
but do not join it unless you love the Lord. Do not come to the Gospel
feast unless you reverence the King. Unless you love the Prince. Unless
you are in sympathy with the great work of Divine Grace which is
pictured as a wedding feast. If you have sympathy with the wedding,
love to the Bridegroom, and delight in the Bride, then come and
welcome. For you have the wedding garment.

I am thinking just now of all those other hundreds of people at the
wedding, all of them clothed with the wedding garment. What joy they
felt! Many had been bad and all had been poor–but they all had the
wedding garment and not

one of them was cast out. If you will but put your trust in Jesus and
so honor the Son–and rest in the love of the Father and so honor the
King, it is written, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
God bless you for Jesus' sake! Amen. Amen. Amen.