So another lot of folks are called. This is the amazing love of God. All behave in the same way. Everyone born initially turns down God flat. You would expect him to say, ‘Let all humanity be lost’, but he sends his messengers out yet again. ‘Round up the people – just bring them in.’ If you have spent your life rejecting God, he may come yet again – and move and affect you, and melt you down till you are converted.
No one is worthy to be invited into the kingdom of heaven. Israel as a nation was not worthy and neither are any other peoples of the world. Yet when Israel failed to believe and rejected their Messiah, it was the trigger for the gospel to be sent into all the world; the apostles were sent by Christ to preach to the Gentiles. It is these who are represented by the ones found in the highways. If any will not regard themselves as unworthy of the kingdom of God they cannot come in. When those out on the highways and byways were met by the king’s servants, they must have had difficulty believing that the king would seriously consider inviting them to his son’s wedding. It should be the reaction of all who hear the gospel, that they have some difficulty in taking seriously an invitation from the King of kings to come to him for eternal blessings. And yet, we examine the seals on the message; we see that this invitation has the authority of the Scripture; it has the signature of the Lord himself on it, and the seal of his Spirit. It cannot be a fake invitation. We dare to respond. You don’t have to be worthy to come to God. He will wash away your sin. The poor say, ‘I can’t go to the palace. Look at my clothing and my tumbledown house or this shelter in the hedge where I sleep.’ ‘Never mind,’ says the messenger, ‘the King will come to the outer rooms and put on you a wedding garment. You will be washed, your hair combed, and you will look like nobles in the presence of the king.’ We have no worth of our own, but when we come we are forgiven, washed and clothed.
What is conversion to Christ like? Think of that marquee set up and that food prepared, almost beyond imagination. It is going to be an occasion of goodwill, and happiness, and rejoicing. It is a picture of conversion. Have you thought what it must be like? Is it a matter of rites and miserable religious duties, giving up all I enjoy? No, it stands for tasting and experiencing things you could never usually experience. All those delicacies. God fills your understanding with truth. You can begin to enjoy God. The mind comes to life. There is answered prayer, peace with God, sins forgiven. A wedding illustration becomes inadequate. This is a nobleman’s wedding. It represents fascination, discovery, endless provision. It is about salvation, happiness, peace in the conscience, understanding, new desires, and a sense of purpose: we are on the road to heaven. People will be brought into a church, their sins forgiven, in union with the Son. That is the kingdom of heaven.
God is determined to save some. It cannot be that the redeeming work of the Son of God has a small result. Isaiah brings us the words of the Messiah, and the Father’s response. ‘And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. 6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth’ (Isaiah 49:5-6). It is God’s good pleasure to see his house filled.