The Guest without the Wedding Garment.
I. The service of Christ requires qualifications. Many may be attracted to the service who shrink from obtaining these necessary qualifications. Yet they may for a long time pass muster, and they may even bring themselves to believe that they have a right to pass muster. Their conceptions of the qualifications required may be utterly inadequate, till a light suddenly flashes in on their conscience, to convict, to expose, and to condemn. Now what do we mean by the expression "not having a wedding garment?" What is the kind of disqualification which is here indicated? There is but one qualification for the presence of Christ faith in Christ. We must honestly wish to be Christ's servants. We must trustto His love and power to make us so.
II. Note the danger of appearing in Christ's presence without the true qualification. Faith in Christ has been presented to us not as a cold dogma, not as a badge of party, not as the devout but somewhat effeminate antagonist to an honest and calumniated reason; but as the guiding rule of lives which we are sure must be pleasing to God. If we have not gathered from the Bible the true nature of that wedding garment in which the redeemed of Christ must appear before their Master it is our own neglect. We, too, shall inevitably be speechlesswhen the question is put to us: How camest thou in hither? We are not tempted to be unbelievers; or rather, that is not the main temptation of our day: we are tempted to be dishonest Christians; we are tempted to let our Christianity influence everything our tastes, our prejudices, our professions everything but our hearts. But it is on these that Christ looks. He sees at a glance whether they are cold or warm.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,1st series, p. 387.
References: Matthew 22:11; Matthew 22:12. D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3,209; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 241.Matthew 22:11-13. E. Cooper, Practical Sermons,vol. iii., p. 262.Matthew 22:11-14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 976. Matthew 22:12. J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church,2nd series, p. 303.