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It Is Written

John Bradshaw

The Invitation

We'll begin with prayer, then together we'll open the Bible.

Our Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to gather around your throne and listen to the sound of your voice as expressed through your word.

Guide this time, be honored, allow us to see what we should see, banish every distraction that would prevent us from catching hold of some ray of light that shines from heaven's throne.

Bless us now we ask you, we thank you, in Jesus' name, Amen." He claimed it was a joke that got out of hand.

But many people didn't find it very funny.

The man ran a pub in a city halfway between Gloucester and Birmingham in the west of England.

Now, You know that pubs in England are a little different, a little different to a typical bar in the United States or a pub somewhere like New Zealand or Australia.

Historically, they've tended to be gathering places, community centers, I don't mean to over stretch it, a place where you can get a meal, play darts, not typically just a place for getting drunk, but nevertheless, this was a pub.

By the way, in England, We were filming a program on John Bunyan in the city of Bedford, where Bunyan was from, and we noticed there a pub, a large pub, rather a nice-looking building.

The pub was called The Pilgrim's Progress.

I don't think that's what John Bunyan had in mind.

I don't think there were many pilgrims in there, and I can assure you few of them were making any progress.

But back to our friend, the 1 who said it was a joke.

At his pub in the west of England for 20 years he had told stories of his time in the military.

He even claimed that he had seen wartime action and that he'd won a medal for gallantry, a medal for bravery, a medal for devotion to duty under fire.

He said that he served in a parachute regiment, and in Great Britain, parachute regiments are taken pretty seriously.

That's quite the achievement, quite the honor.

But when he was confronted by 2 actual veterans who had a list of all of the winners of the medal in question, the 1 our friend claimed to have won, this man was forced to admit that he had lied.

He'd never served in the military And he hadn't ever been decorated with a prestigious medal.

In fact, this is true, when confronted with the evidence that he had lied, he literally ran.

People who were there said it was the strangest thing.

Presumably he came back later, but he was unable to handle the shame of the situation, and he ran.

What he had committed was something which in the United States is referred to as stolen valor.

That's when someone who didn't serve in the military claims that they did.

Stolen valor can refer to someone who embellished their military records and many people have done so.

Like the man in Alaska who was wearing the uniform of the Green Berets, the U.S.

Not just the uniform, he was wearing medals on the uniform.

When actual former servicemen found out about this imposter, they were not happy, and they put a rather public end to his very dubious deception.

Now, in the Bible, We have a case of something like stolen valor.

It's 1 found in Matthew chapter 22, in which not just 1 person, but the truth is many, many people, claim to be wearing a uniform when in actual fact they were not doing so.

The story is the story of 1 man who arrives in a place where he ought to be wearing something.

He claims he has the right to be there, but he's not wearing something he should have been wearing.

So let's look at the story of stolen valor.

We start in Matthew 22 and verse 1 where the Bible says, And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come." Now, what's being spoken of here is the work of the gospel, the work of the effect of the Word of God, the work of God's work in a person's life.

The marriage being spoken of represents the union of humanity and divinity.

And in this passage, this parable, you see that a loving God is inviting lost people to be saved.

This is a representation of God inviting lost people to be saved.

Did you know science reveals, and this is unquestionably true, there are billions of galaxies in the universe.

Ours, the Milky Way, is 100, 000 light years across.

That means that if Adam, on the day he was created, started traveling at the speed of light and he started on 1 edge of the Milky Way galaxy, by now, 6, 000 years later, he would be barely 5% of the way across our galaxy.

The Bible says that God, or rather that the heaven of heavens cannot contain God.

So God, the Creator, the 1 who gives life, the 1 who makes the sun rise and the sun set, the 1 who calls the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust, God issues an invitation.

To scoundrels, to the very people that nailed Jesus to an old rugged cross.

This is the holy God calling to unholy people.

And yet the people in this story are Disrespectful of the honor being shown them they should have fronted Simply because it was the king extending the invitation But the king was not done, you know Somebody said no to God God was not done.

I just heard from 1 of my colleagues today about a couple who have given their lives to Jesus.

40 years ago, They walked away from God and walked out of the church.

God has been working with them for 4 decades 40 long years appealing to them and pleading with them Until the day came that their neighbor who was not a church member said I'm gonna go to some meetings down at the local church.

Aren't you glad that God doesn't give up?

Again, He sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden or invited, Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready.

Come to the marriage, it's just waiting for you, come on.

But they made light of it and went their ways, 1 to his farm and another to his merchandise.

The farm, the merchandise, they were going nowhere, but people prioritized work over God, commerce over God.

Would you think for a moment about what you are putting in front of God?

It might be work, it might be business, It might be school, it might be another individual, it might be social media.

But if there is something, anything that you are prioritizing before God, placing over and above God, My prayer, my encouragement is that you would do a moral inventory and ask God to set your priorities in order.

God first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and everything else Way on down the list.

Well, the Bible goes on in Matthew 22 in verse 6.

It says the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them Well, you know what's on the mind of Jesus here.

Jesus is referencing the rejection of the gospel.

The Savior of the world was in their midst, and they were looking at ways of getting rid of Him.

Jesus was speaking to the time when Israel would rebuff Him.

The persecution of the early church was going to take place.

That's what Christ is talking about in the early part of Matthew 22.

Verse 7, But when the king heard thereof, he was wrath, he was furious, angry.

He sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

This is Jesus warning the people that Jerusalem would be destroyed about 40 years into the future in the year 70 A.D.

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The Invitation

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