Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study 20 of Romans, chapter 1, and we are going to read Romans 1:5-7:

By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we were looking at verse 5 and we were carefully looking at the wording. We saw that it should have said of the Lord Jesus, “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, into obedience of the faith, in all nations for his name.” Then we can see exactly what God is saying: through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus (that resulted in the declaration that He is the Son of God), we (the chosen people of God) have received grace and apostleship; that is, God has saved us by His grace through Christ’s faith, and we became His servants that are sent forth with the Word of God.

We have received this grace and apostleship into obedience, but it is not our own obedience, although as a consequence, it will result, more and more, in obedience by those God has saved as God’s spirit works within us. But that is not the focus here. The focus is that it is the “obedience of Christ.” By the obedience of one, many were made righteous. That is why the direction of the word “into” is important – it is into the obedience of faith, the faith of Christ, in all nations. And we saw that “nations” refers to “the nations of them which are saved,” or the elect. It has everything to do with the Lord Jesus, the very essence of God, and His name reflects His characteristics and attributes and all that God is. This wonderful, magnificent salvation program is all for the glory of God.

Then it says in Romans 1:6:

Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

And we wonder, “Which group is being referred to?” It is referring back to “all nations,” and Revelation 21:24 defines this as “the nations of them which are saved,” or all the elect. So among all these elect, “are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.” So the people of God that are saved are counted among the nations of them which are saved. And for the readers down through the centuries, they would be included among that number if they were those that God had predestinated to salvation. They are the elect children He had determined to save, and then He did save them in the day of salvation when they heard the Word of God, the Bible. So I hope that you and I and all those that are reading this or associated with EBible Fellowship are among “the nations of them which are saved.” That is our hope for our fellow man today, because God has completed His salvation program. We can share information from the Bible, whether it be a Bible tract or Bible study, with this hope and expectation that maybe you are one of those elect. You would, therefore, be among the nations of them which are saved, and “among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.”

Regarding “the called,” we know that during the church age (which is probably the best illustration), many were called, but few were chosen. God says that in a couple of places. It says in Matthew 20:16:

So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

Many heard the Gospel call as the churches were established among the nations of the world. Various people (not all) from those nations entered into the churches and congregations and took upon themselves the name of “Christians.” They were all “called” because they heard the Bible in some way and the “call” to come to God. And many heard a distorted message as a result of those that had come into the churches, but were not saved. These were emissaries of Satan as tares among the wheat. And they would evangelize and send forth their distorted gospel message, which would bring in more tares among the wheat. Nonetheless, through the Bible there was a general call to go to God. It was the day of salvation and they were told to come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need – to beseech the Lord and cry out to Him that He might save them. (That was the true Gospel message.) Great numbers flocked into the congregations, filling the pews. Many were called, and out of the sum total of those that were called, there were about two billion professed Christians by the end of the church age. Out of those billions, only a few were the elect. There were scores of millions more throughout the church age in the same kind of situation. There were large numbers that came into the churches, but out of that large number, few were truly saved. That was God’s program, and He did not hide it in this verse: “Many are called, but few chosen.” We also see this in Matthew 22:1-7:

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. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

In these early verses in Matthew 22, we have a picture of the church age. The “call” went out. Many despised it or made light of it. Then the king was angry because they had treated his servants spitefully and slew them, so He came in anger and He destroyed those murderers and burned up their city, which would be the “house of God,” the corporate churches, also typified by “Jerusalem below.” So God has judged the churches. That is basically what this is saying; He gave space for them to repent, during which time the “call” went forth. Then He poured out His wrath upon them. But there is more to this, as it goes on to say in Matthew 22:8-10:

Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

This was “stage two,” as it were, just as we know that there were two outpourings of the Holy Spirit. The first began in 33 A. D. on the Day of Pentecost when the church age was established. The call to come to the wedding (to become saved and enter into spiritual marriage) all pointed to God’s salvation. That call went out from 33 A. D. until 1988, and then God ended that call when He burned up their city and destroyed those murderers. But there was a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and we know from the Bible that it began in 1994. And notice the location of those that were being called the second time: “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good.” Those that were bidden were not inside the “city,” because the city was already burned up. They were outside the city, and this points to the sending forth of the Gospel after the church age was over. God sent forth the Gospel through the Latter Rain into the nations of the world. He was saving the great multitude outside of the churches and congregations. So the call went out the second time, and the wedding was said to be “furnished with guests.”

Now it is interesting that the wedding is also in view in Revelation 19, where it speaks of Judgment Day. The “wedding feast” identifies with Judgment Day when Christ comes and begins to rule with a rod of iron. Just to connect this, for example, it says in Revelation 19:7-9:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Then verses 13-16 are describing the wrath of God, and then it says in Revelation 19:17-18:

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

We see only one supper in view here, the marriage supper of the Lamb. That is the time when the wicked will be devoured and destroyed – it is Judgment Day.

So if we go back to Matthew 22, after the two “calls” to the marriage supper have been made, we read that the wedding was furnished with guests. Then it says in Matthew 22:11:

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

This wedding garment would relate spiritually to the righteousness of Christ, the fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. That is the proper and only acceptable wedding attire for the spiritual marriage that takes place in God’s salvation program. If you do not have that garment, that is a problem. That is a problem that you cannot remedy because salvation is over, just as we know that in our day salvation has come to an end. That is what this parable is teaching – the time of being “called” is over and past.

And now it is the time of the wedding feast, the supper of the Lamb. And the king has now come to see the guests. You know, the king did not see the guests when the first call went out and many refused and made light of it, and so forth. It was not the time yet. Then the second call went out, and the call was, “The wedding is ready. Come to the wedding.” But, again, it was not the time yet. Now when the king came in to see the guests, he is coming personally to the wedding, and he is meeting the guests. Remember that frightening verse, “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” And now the meeting is taking place, and that is the time we are living in, the Day of Judgment, and we are presently in that day. At this point in time and for a few years to come (according to the Biblical evidence), God is meeting the guests that have come to the wedding, the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He is performing an inspection – it is the time of “testing” and you and I and everyone else that have appeared at this feast to which we were called will be tested to see if we were also “chosen.” And if we were chosen, we will have on the proper attire, which is the righteousness of Christ as portrayed by the fine, white linen of the saints.

So the king came in to see the guests, and it says in Matthew 22:12:

And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

God is not mocked. He cannot be fooled or deceived, as God knows the heart: “…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”

And now is the time of having to deal with God, and God is looking upon this one and that one. And, of course, Jesus is God. Jesus has intimate understanding of those that are His and, simultaneously, of those that are not His. There are those whose sins He died for, but there is the rest of mankind whose sins He did not pay for. So God looks at one person and He knows he is righteous still and will be righteous for evermore. And then He looks at this other one, and He sees no wedding garment. He sees no righteousness, but He sees filthiness, and this one is filthy and will be filthy still until he is destroyed, and that destruction will be for evermore. This is the inspection that is underway, as God continues to open the Scriptures to reveal truth and doctrine (which is understanding rightly the Word of God), and as He does so, it is as if He is coming to someone without a wedding garment, saying, “Here is the Word of God. What are you going to do with it?” They reject it. They respond, as it were, “Oh, May 21, 2011 was all wrong. You cannot trust the Biblical calendar of history and we cannot trust any of these dates. And Sunday is not the Sabbath. What are you talking about? You are wrong about that, and we are not saved by the faith of Christ.” (I am just listing some errors of people who previously said they understood these things, but now they are turning around.) They say, “Yes, there is election, but we have to play our part.” And they go back to former doctrines that included much error, and they go back to their high places and set them up once again as idols in their hearts. And God sees it and, of course, He can only do one thing when He finds someone without a wedding garment. He first asked, “How did you come in here without having a wedding garment?” And the man was speechless. What could he say?

Of course, this is happening on a spiritual level and many – if not all – of these people are self-deceived. They are deceived by their own hearts. They are deceived into thinking they are one of God’s elect because they listened to Mr. Camping and Family Radio for many years, so how could they not be saved? It is just like when somebody would tell you, “I go to church, and I listen to this faithful pastor and that faithful pastor. I am Reformed. How can I not be saved?” You see, it is the same mindset, but it has just transferred outside the churches as God was winnowing the harvest and separating the wheat from the tares. There were some “clingers on” that came out of the churches and they followed the Biblical teaching of the end of the church age. They latched onto it because they liked that idea, as independent-minded individuals. And, basically, that allowed them to be their own boss when it came to the Scriptures. They could be independent and not have to listen to the churches anymore. For the most part, they followed Mr. Camping’s teaching as long as it fit in with the things they believed.

But then God began to open up doctrines outside the churches like the doctrine of no (place of) eternal suffering for the sinner, or the doctrine of the Lord Jesus’ atonement being made at the foundation of the world, and not at the cross. Then the dead sinner with that heart of stone (who had managed to come out of the churches along with the others), in pride and anger, turned away. Maybe he did not go back to the churches, but he turned away from this doctrine or that doctrine, and he started to not like Mr. Camping. But being the independent-minded person he was, he stayed outside of the churches.

Then came May 21, 2011 and that was a severe test that shook the proverbial tree greatly, and all kinds of people fell away that had been holding on for dear life as God tested and tried His people in a mighty way. But there were those that realized, “I have no place else to go, Lord. Where can I go? You have the words of eternal life. I do not know what is going on and I do not know why May 21, 2011 did not happen as we thought it would, as the Bible had guaranteed it and locked in that date. I do not know, but I will wait on the Lord. I will keep looking and studying in the Bible.” That was the mindset of God’s elect.

But others could not take the ridicule and the mockery from the world and the churches. They could not stand it. It hurt their pride so badly, and they had to get away as quickly as possible. So some fled right away, and some waited for the first opportunity, and then they heard it was a spiritual judgment and they said, “Oh, I do not believe that!” That was their opportunity. Or, then came the information about no more salvation, and it just kept getting harder and harder to hold onto these truths, even though the Bible was proving them and locking them in. So they turned back, feeling justified in going back to former doctrines or in going back to the churches, or maybe they just gave up and went back to the world.

But that is what God has been doing as He is inspecting the wedding guests. As some have gone back, it is really that God is doing this, as it says in Matthew 22:13-14:

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. For many are called, but few are chosen.

This is the testing ground for the chosen of God and the true elect of God. We will not be cast out of the wedding.