Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

³  “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come.

 ⁴  “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”‘

 ⁵  “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,

 ⁶  and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.

 ⁷  “But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.

 ⁸  “Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.

 ⁹‘  Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’

 ¹⁰  “Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests.

 ¹¹  “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,

 ¹²  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’  And the man was speechless.

 ¹³  “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

 ¹⁴  “For many are called, but few are chosen.”  Matthew 22:1-14.  

The parable of the Wedding Feast continues the teaching of Jesus in the last three parables, as stated in the last devotion, that the people of Israel had rejected Christ as their Messiah and would mistreat and kill him as they did the prophets before him.  The people of Israel were the “invited ones” in the sense that they were God’s chosen people and had all the privileges of handling all of the religious services, or to put it in the language of this parable, they would be expected to handle the details and “attend” to the bridegroom.  But, not only did they refuse and neglect to even attend the event of the Wedding Feast, they seized, mistreated, and killed the king’s servants (the prophets). 

Another point of this parable is that “many are called”.  We are commanded to preach the Gospel (“invite to the wedding feast”) broadly and widely throughout the world to “as many as you find there”. 

But few are chosen.  God’s election, which includes providing all that the wedding guests need including clothes, governs who will be able to enjoy the Wedding Feast.  We need to be dressed in Christ’s righteousness to remain in God’s presence. 

There are those, like the man without wedding clothes, in this parable, who think that they can come to God’s presence as they are, on their own terms.  They are quite proud of their own filthy rags of righteousness.  But, we see what happened to this man.

We need to better understand the importance of being chosen.  “… God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”  I Corinthians 1:27-29.  “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;”  I Corinthians 1:26.  “Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”  James 2:5. 

Realizing that we must be chosen is consistent with humility.  We understand that we bring nothing to the table which motivates God to choose us.  We are like children who look only to their father and who trust only their father’s love, care, and full provisions.

So, we preach and teach “TULIP”, these doctrines of grace.  We fully realize that we are the “totally depraved”, having nothing to bring to the table.  There is no condition in us which motivates God to elect us.  His election must be unconditional in order for us to have any chance of salvation.  Because we truly understand “Total Depravity”, we exult in and embrace “Unconditional Election” and the rest of the elements of “TULIP” (which I call “the Tulips” for the title of this devotion).