Let's be turning to Luke chapter
14. Luke 14 now. Now we're going
to continue with the parables that our Lord gave to those that
were present at this meal where he was invited to come. And these were spoken immediately
after our Lord healed the man of the dropsy, which we know
is a swelling of water, usually from congenitive heart failure,
something like that. But it's a swelling of water,
usually down in the feet it begins, and then the legs, and works
its way up. And it results in death. And
our Lord took this man and he healed him on the Sabbath day
in the house of the Pharisees. And it's a picture, it was a
picture there, an object lesson for the Pharisees and all that
were present of what we are by nature as self-righteous Pharisees
who think too highly of ourselves. And it results in death. Our pride, our arrogancy, our
self-righteousness results in death. And it's Christ and Christ
alone who heals his people, who delivers us from that deadly
pride of self-righteousness. And so our Lord is doing these
things and saying these parables in the chief Pharisee's house. And in the first parable, we
saw how our Lord was clearly speaking of the wedding of the
Lamb. of the lamb to his bride. It's a picture of Christ's marriage
to his church, to which all men are bidding, come to the wedding,
to the marriage of the lamb between the lamb and his bride. And what
happens? Hearing the call, the self-righteous
automatically puts himself in the highest room. The self-righteous
thinks, well, my works are good. This sounds great. I know I've
got a place in heaven. Look at what I've done. Look
at what I can do. Look at what I'm doing. And he puts himself
in the highest place, the highest room, which is meant to be understood
as heaven in the glories. He knows that his works have
earned him a spot with God. And that is, he trusts that until
the Lord comes in judgment. If the Lord leaves a sinner trusting
their own works, in the day of judgment, the Lord will come
to that sinner and say, give this man place. Who is he saying? He's talking about Christ. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Give this man place,
and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room." And what
is the lowest room? It's the outer darkness. It's
hell and eternal judgment and damnation. But the lowest room
is when the call goes out and the sinner hears it, the needy
hopeless, troubled sinner, the sinner takes the lowest room
from the start, under the guilt and condemnation of our sin. The sinner takes that lowest
room, mourning for their sin, troubled by their sin, knowing
I have no place. Who am I to think that I can
go to the marriage of the lamb to his bride? Who am I to think
that I could go up near to God? He'll see my sin. He'll smell
my stench. He'll know that I have no place,
no business being there. And there he sits, there the
sinner sits, until the Lord in grace comes and says, friend,
go up higher. And the Lord, through his gracious
words, through the ministering of his gospel, takes his poor,
mourning, troubled child for their sin, and he says, come
up with me. This is not for you. This is
not your place. I've made a place for you up
by me. Go up higher, friend. Go up higher. And it teaches us that lesson
of whosoever exalteth himself, our Lord said, shall be abased.
And he that abases himself shall be exalted. And it's the fruit
of the Spirit given to the children of God that puts us low. It's the grace of God that has
brought us low in ourselves and troubled us because of our sin,
to do this for us. And so we're brought to see that
we need this Savior. We come to Christ as needy sinners
needing His grace and mercy. If we come thinking we're something,
by grace, he's going to bring us low in ourselves so that we
learn that we need his grace. This is what he does. Now, having
taught his hearers that parable, he declares another parable to
them in verse 12. So Luke 14, verse 12, then said he also to him that
bade him, when thou makest a dinner or a supper. Call not thy friends,
nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors,
lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the
lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense
thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. So first to him that bade him. He's speaking to this chief Pharisee. But don't let your ears close
up on this thing. This is a word to us. This is
a word to any that would call men to Christ. This is a word
to any who would preach the gospel, to any that would bid another
come to Christ. The one doing the bidding here
might be a pastor. It might be one who stands and
preaches in the room of a pastor. This might even be one, at times,
that it could be said of one who would speak to another friend,
to a sinner, to someone who needs this word, who needs to hear
this gospel. You might be going into a house
to work with them as a physical therapist. You might go and spend
time with someone that you barely know. They might come up to you
at the farmer's market. You might be driving in a car
with someone. You might just be meeting them
in some random place, and you have a heart to minister to them,
to prepare a meal, as it were, and just speak to them of Christ. It could be a neighbor, it could
be a friend, it could be someone that you barely even know, that
you just met. and you're speaking that to them
of Christ. You're bidding them come to Christ. Now this dinner or supper that
one makes again here is to bid another to feed upon Christ. What we're speaking of when we're
speaking of Christ is we're bidding that one whom we're speaking
with to feed upon the bread of heaven. Haste and see that the
Lord is gracious. We're bidding them to feed upon
Christ, to eat the bread that we eat, to drink the blood that
we drink, to feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ
and him crucified because he is the one whom living souls
feed upon. He's the one who nourishes us. He's the one that strengthens
us. His meat heals us. He comforts us. He is our helper. He is our joy. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. He is our friend. He is our husband. He's all to
us. And so we're ministering that
same meal that nourishes us and fills our bellies with Christ. We're preaching Christ. This
is how the spiritual man, the new man, is fed by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Savior said it this way over
in John 6, in verse 55 and 56, Christ said, my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. He's speaking
about you that hear this meal of Christ, who feed upon him
and are helped and nourished and strengthened by him. Our
Lord also added in verse 63 of that chapter, it is the spirit
that quickeneth. These are spiritual words that
give life. The flesh profiteth nothing. And that's contrary to the amount
of time and labor we spend on the flesh. We give a lot of thought
to the flesh. And Christ says, that flesh that
you're spending so much time nourishing and caring for and
pampering is not profitable. It cannot help you with spiritual
things. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Well, so it is of the preaching
of Jesus Christ. It is a spiritual meal prepared
for our hearers, given, served to our hearers. He calls it either
a dinner or a supper. Now, perhaps I'm wrong or off
in this, but when I think of a dinner, it's more formal, right? You're expected usually at a
certain time. There's a time frame. You're
going to be there from this time to that time, and you're more
likely to change your clothes that you were wearing that day.
You're going to put on nicer clothes, and you're going to
freshen up, and you're going to go to that dinner, and it's
going to be a more formal meal. You may not know the people that
well, You might be working together, maybe they're putting on a little
dinner party, or you're going to a dinner. It's more formal.
Whereas a supper, it's more like you're going to a home-style
meal with family. You're not changing your clothes.
If you're wearing a t-shirt and shorts and flip-flops, that's
probably how you're going to show up. It's OK if you're 20
minutes late. Nobody cares. Just come. Come
on. When you can get here, just come on. And it's more familial,
and it's more friendly, usually, and less stuffy, if you will. And you can just relax and let
your guard down and be at peace with one another and have a good
time, whether it's supper or dinner, more formal or more intimate
in its nature. Come to the meal. It could be
either one at different times there. But now our Lord tells
us who not to call. Now he says, who are we not to
call? And first he says in verse 12,
call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen,
nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and
a recompense be made thee. All you're gonna get out of these
is a worldly return recompensed to you, given back to you. And
all you're gonna get from these is more worldliness, more flesh. All right, now, it's gonna be
clear to you who these people are once we understand who we
are to call. So we're gonna look at verse
13 to who we are to call first. All right, so verse 13. But when
thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the
blind. What's he's telling us here?
What is he telling us here? What's the heart of what our
Savior is giving us here in this parable in Luke 14? It's what he's saying here is
that when you preach the gospel, when you serve this meal, this
meal of Christ, and you're telling another of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you preach that word in such a manner so that the poor in
spirit are called. You preach this word in such
a manner so as the poor in spirit are called, those who have nothing. You that have not so much as
the ability to bring a jug of lemonade to the meal, who have
absolutely nothing. You're hopeless. You're empty. You're poor. You're ragged. You
smell with your works. You that have nothing in yourselves,
nothing to recommend you to God, that's who you're calling to
this marriage. That's who you're calling to
the dinner or the supper. You're to call the maimed. The
maimed, those who are crippled with their infirmities, with
their sin. Every time they get up to go,
they're falling on their face. They're stumbling. They can't
go from here to there without feeling pain and suffering for
it. They're troubled by it. They're
embarrassed by it. And they're really struggling.
That's who you're to call to this supper. You call the lane. In another place, further down,
it's translated halt. That means that they can't go.
They get going, and they stop. And you see them one day, they're
going this direction. The next day, you see them, they're
going that direction. They don't know where they're
going. They're lost. They're feeling around and stumbling
around, and they have great difficulty. And they don't know how to please
God. They don't know how to come to
God. They try this one way, then they try it another way, and
they're just lost. They're lame, lame of feet. They're
not going to get to the meal. You call them. You call them. You call the blind who are in
darkness. They have no understanding. They
don't get it. And they're shut out from the
formal understandings of religion. They're just shut up to that. They feel like, I don't have
any place there. They don't want me there. I'm nothing but trouble. I don't understand what they're
saying. I don't get it. You call them. You call them
who have no peace in themselves, no hope. That's who you're to
call. This message is for those who
are called sinners. This message is for the needy.
This message is for those who have nothing to bring to God,
who have nothing to contribute to their righteousness, nothing
to give to improve themselves, to recommend themselves to God. Because we can say these things
in such a manner so as to put a burden on you. To say, well,
you've got to do this. Make sure you come like this.
Make sure you stop that, and you start doing this. And what
happens? The sinners say, I can't do that. I might as well not even bother
showing up, because I don't have what it takes for me to be there
and worship that God. He's saying, don't call them. Don't preach this message so
as to attract your rich neighbors and your friends and your kindred.
You preach this message so that the ones that are called, that
hear the call, that want to come, are the sinners. The poor, the
maimed, the lame, the blind. That's who you are to call to
this, because they've got nothing to give to you. They've got nothing
to add to you. And so open the door for sinners. Why? Because sinners gladly eat
the bread of heaven. They'll gladly set and eat what
you set before them in the preaching of Jesus Christ. Those that are
needy sinners, those that are troubled, those that are wounded,
sick and sore, broken, hurting, despised, rejected, that's who
Christ came to save. That's who he came to save. Preach
to them, preach to them the bread of heaven, because they'll love
it. They'll love it. In Luke 5, our Lord, speaking
to the Pharisees there, said, they that are whole need not
a physician. I don't hardly ever go to the
doctor, and I have no desire to go to the doctor unless I
absolutely have to. They that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. In my early days in religion,
I was so troubled by the false gospel that I was hearing that
I was in complete darkness and complete trouble and hopeless
in myself for a long, long time. We're talking years of constant
discouragement, constant burdens, just constantly being undone
because of my sin and what I am. And it's only when I heard the
grace of God, preached in Christ, that that burden began to fall
off, and I began to draw near to the Savior. Gladly, then I
wasn't afraid of Him. I drew near to Him who saves
the sick, who saves the sinner. And so, that's who you're to
call. This word is for the sinner,
the sin-sick sinner who has nothing to give to God. That's who you're
to call. So now with that understanding,
now we know who is not being called. Now we know who's not
being called. We're not bringing a message
that appeals to the self-righteous. When you exalt Christ, that is
not a word that the self-righteous Pharisee wants to hear, has any
delight in. They have no delight in that
word. The law keepers and those that
are circumcised of flesh, they don't want to hear about free,
sovereign grace for sinners. They want to hear, tell me what
I can do. Tell me what I got to do. Tell
me what I need to be working on to fix myself so that I can
get a reward and a pat on the back from God. I want to bring
something to this thing. Tell me what I got to do. Don't
tell me about the one who's done everything. That leaves me with
nothing to glory. Tell me what I gotta do. And
that is to call thy friends, and thy brethren, and thy kinsmen,
and thy rich neighbors, those that can profit, those that can
do something. Those that can really make something
of this work. Call them. Get them in here.
And he's speaking here first to the Pharisee. And that's why
he's saying, don't call your friends. Don't call your family,
those that are all just like you, imperfect. Don't call them. You're only going to ruin the
place. That's not what you want to fill it with. So they describe
the self-righteous. They describe those who have
a show of religion. They've got a medallion around
their neck, and they look great. And they smell wonderful, and
they bring all kinds of talents and gifts to the dinner party. Don't call them for their religious
works and services, filling the church with dead letter religionists
who don't want to hear about the savior of sinners. They don't
want to hear about him who did everything. They're not going
to eat that bread. They're not going to drink that
wine. They despise it. They got better. They want you
to give them homework, right? They want to go out here with
things that they can do and work on and tweak and perfect themselves. so they can feel like they're
getting a reward. Don't spend your energy and your
time navigating the middle to try and please everyone. Preach
a little law and a little grace. You're not gonna please anyone
there. And if you preach the law, you're
just gonna bring in law workers, people that can do it, and you're
gonna keep out the sinners. Preach grace. That's gonna bring
the sinners in. That's gonna bring those who
need Christ. Preach him. Don't beg the ones
who we think are gonna benefit the church most. This one's got
talent, they got money, they got skills, they got everything.
Love to have them in the church. They're not gonna be happy. They're
not gonna wanna be here. They're gonna be miserable when
you preach Christ. And they're going to be divisive. And usually, people with the
most are the stintiest with it anyway, unless they're getting
some reward for it. So basically, the people that
we would naturally judge by the flesh to be the ones that you
want are the ones that the Lord says, don't call them. It's not
for them. They're well. They got it together. They have no interest in the
savior of sinners. You preach, you call the sinners
to the supper. You call them. And so to them,
you know, tell them, definitely tell them, of course, but don't
spend your time laboring, trying to beg them and change things
and tell them different things to get them to come in, because
they're not going to be happy. But when you find it, we're to
preach to sinners. We're to preach to sinners, not to appeal to
the self-righteous helpers of God. And when you find a sinner,
the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, when you find
a sinner, urge them to the supper. Compel them to come in. Encourage
them to come and hear Christ, to feed upon Christ with you.
Urge them, compel them to come in. Make sure that they know
he's the savior of sinners. That he gives life. Everything
you need, he provides it. He'll give it. Just trust him.
Just come and hear and taste that the Lord is good. And everything
you need, trust him. He'll give it. If you lack in
some way, he'll provide it. If you're filthy and stained,
he'll wash you. If you're naked, he'll clothe
you with his righteousness. He'll provide everything for
his child. And so preach it to them, preach
it to them, brethren. And now in Luke 14, In Luke 14,
verse 14, our Lord says, And thou shalt be blessed, for they
cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection
of the just. So let it be understood here
that the resurrection of the just is who? What is the resurrection
of the just? It is that first resurrection
when the Lord gives His Spirit and gives you a new birth in
Him. That is the resurrection. You
that are just are born again, raised from the dead, because
the Lord calls the sinner. the empty, poor, maimed, lame,
blind sinner to himself and he gives them life. They come in
with nothing and they receive everything of Christ. And then
when the Lord has done that, when he's given life to his children
and blessed his children and brought them in, now you have
a true brother, a true yoke fellow, someone who puts their shoulder
to the plow with you and gladly serves in the church, gladly
serves in the body rejoicing and praising the God who saves
sinners, saves sinners. And so in that day, brethren,
that'll be our recompense. Yes, there's another recompense
coming when all things will be made right by the Lord. But here
now, the resurrection of the just speaks of our coming in
and being given life and made new creatures by the Lord Jesus
Christ. where the old form is put away
and not trusted in or relied, and all things are resting upon
the shoulders of Christ. And all who are there are laboring
and rejoicing together in Christ, happy, feeding upon the bread
of heaven, drinking that wine, that spiritual wine of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so I pray the Lord bless
that word to our hearts. have a good understanding of
who the Lord is calling, sinners, brethren. Amen.