Alright, now let's take our Bibles
and turn to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. Now let's say you had bidden,
you had told a company of people that you were going to prepare
a supper for them to come and to eat. And you worked, did everything
necessary to prepare that supper. You spared no expense, you got
everything ready. And then you sent word to them
that all right, the supper's ready now. It's evening time,
the supper's ready, come now, come to the table. And they one
by one began to tell you, one making one excuse and one making
another excuse. just lame excuses that for reasons
they couldn't come to your table after all you've done. What would
you think about that? Well, how would you feel about
that? When God calls sinners to his gospel supper in this
day of grace, the one calling is the master of the house, our
Lord. Our God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ, He's the master of the house. And He's the one doing
the calling. And when He calls, He calls because
He's prepared all things. Some may not like the host, but
when God gives a willing heart, you'll like the host. And we
come to His table, to His supper, to Him, to this Gospel. And whenever He bids you to come,
He tells you all things are prepared, all things are laid out on His
table, and everything that we feast upon is Him. Christ is
our bread. Christ is our water. Christ is
our wine. We feast upon Him. Some people
won't go to a dinner because they don't like the food. When
God gives you a willing heart to like His food, you'll come
to His table. You'll come to Him and you'll
feast upon Him. Now, those who are bidden and
will not come, no matter what the excuse are, are inexcusable. They're absolutely inexcusable.
Now, in our text, the Lord Jesus is seated at dinner in the house
of one of the chief Pharisees. Christ went to the Pharisees'
supper, but the Pharisee wouldn't come to Christ's supper. And
the master had given several parables where he rebuked the
Pharisees, and then it says in verse 15, when one of them that
sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed
is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Now I'm going
to divide our text tonight into three headings, and we'll just
look at them as we go. The first one is, we'll look
at a certain man and his supper. Look at verse 16. Then said He,
the Lord Jesus said unto this man, He said, A certain man made
a great supper and bade many, and sent his servant at suppertime
to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now
ready. That'll be our first heading.
And then secondly, we're going to look at excuses for rebellion
against God, for unbelief, for not coming. Verse 18, And they
all with one consent began to make excuse, The first said unto
him, I've bought a piece of ground, and I must need go and see it.
I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I've bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee, have
me excused. And another said, I've married
a wife, therefore I cannot come. And then thirdly, we're going
to see the master's response. His command and His promise. Here's His response. Verse 21,
so that servant came and showed his Lord. He came and told the
master of the house these things. Then the master of the house
being angry. That's how you and I feel if
we did all that. Ask somebody to come to our table
and they said they were coming and they didn't. They wouldn't
come. And he was angry. And here's his command. And he
said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of
the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the
haught and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it's
done as thou has commanded, yet there's room. And the Lord said
unto the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel
them to come in that my house may be fulfilled. And here's
his promise. For I say unto you, that none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. Now there's a difference in an
outward call and an inward call of grace. There's many who are
called, but there's few who are chosen. And those who are called,
chosen by God and truly called affectionately in their heart,
by His grace are made to forsake everything for Christ. And by
His grace they're made to not let anything come between them
and Christ. They follow Him, even if it means
suffering for Him. Let's look at this certain man
and his supper. Verse 16 says, A certain man
made a great supper. Now this certain man is our great
God. He's a type of our great God
here. God the Father and His Son, God
the Son, Christ Jesus our Lord, have made this great supper.
Made this great supper. The supper is Christ. The supper is His gospel. Christ
and His gospel. Isaiah 25.6, Isaiah, the Lord
said, In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all
people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the leaves,
of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the leaves well refined. We're talking about this gospel
right now. Right now. This gospel supper right now
during this day of grace. We're not talking about the marriage
supper of the Lamb yet. We're talking about right now.
This supper right now. In our text, the figure is the
same as that feast, but it's called the gospel. It's the gospel.
It's called a supper instead of a feast, because the supper
is at the end of the day. And that's what the scriptures
tell us, that this gospel supper was prepared by Christ in the
end of the world. Hebrews 9.26 says, Now once in
the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. This is the evening of time right
now, right now, the time we live in, has been since Christ came.
It's a great supper because God our Savior, Christ Jesus, made
this supper. He's the one who made all things
ready, and He's great. He's great. His supper and He
are great. It's a great supper because of
how much it cost. God didn't spare any expense
in preparing this supper. He sent forth His only begotten
Son. And His only begotten Son came
forth and He spared no expense. He paid with His blood, His life,
to prepare this table. You know, sometimes we go out
and we buy things and spend a lot of money and prepare a table.
And we'd get angry if somebody had come to that table when we'd
spent that. God gave his only son. His son gave his life to
prepare this supper for his people. It's great because the message,
the food that's in this gospel is the full provision of grace
made and the fullness of grace that's in Christ, the completeness
that's in Christ for his people. It's a great supper because great
sinners are called to this supper that have, by God's grace, been
given a great hunger and a great thirst after righteousness that
none can fill but Christ our our king, our master, and it's
great multitude that's called to it. They're called to come
to this table and there'll be a great multitude chosen before
time that will have come to this table and partaken of him. Right
now here tonight we're coming together And we're again coming
together to feast at His supper, this gospel supper. Not to Lord's
table, not talking about the marriage supper with Him, talking
about this gospel feasting upon Christ, eating the bread, eating
the wine, His flesh, His blood, through faith, through His gospel.
That's what we're doing here tonight. And then we see here
that this call went out. He said, verse 16, at the end
there, He said, He bade many bade many, and he sent his servant
at supper time to say to them that were bidden to come." Now
in our text, Christ is the servant of God. And He's come now and
He's here at the end of the world and He's standing there amongst
the Jews who had been bidden. God had been telling them all
along, He's coming, Christ is coming. And they all along had
been saying, oh, we're waiting to see Christ. We're waiting
to see Him. We want to be out from under
the yoke of Babylon. We want to be out from the yoke of Rome. We just can't wait till Christ
comes." Well, Christ came, and He was right there, and He's
bidding them, come to the supper, and they wouldn't come. There's
a lot of folks who want to be out from the yoke of Rome, just
like these Jews did, and they want to be out from the yoke
of the Pharisee, and then Christ brings them the gospel. God brings
them the gospel. And they began with one of consent
to make excuse not to come. not to come, just like these
Pharisees did. But it applies to us today, just
like it did to the Jews there. He turned from them, but God
has made this supper. He's made this supper in Christ,
and Christ the Master now has ascended to the Father. He's
in His house, and He sent forth His servant. He sent forth the
Holy Spirit, who goes and teaches His people and guides His children
in all truth. He sent forth His messengers
who go and preach the gospel and declare. The Master says,
come to the supper. That's what I'm telling you tonight.
The Master says, come, eat, believe on Him, eat of His flesh and
drink His blood by faith. Eat, eat and be satisfied. You'll be full, fullness in Him. And the bride, the church together,
we're saying come. Arthur Pink has a good comment
here on why this word is servant in this parable and over in Matthew
it's servants. It's almost the same parable,
it's servants. And he says here, speaking of
the Holy Spirit, I wonder too if maybe it's singular here because
all His servants are one servant in and with Christ. We're one
in Christ. All His true servants are one
servant in Him. We're all serving one, it's one
head and one body. Let me give you something on
that Revelation 22, 16. Revelation 22, 16. Our Jesus have sent mine angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches. I am the root, the
offspring of David, and the bright morning star." He said, I've
sent mine angel to tell you this. And he said, and the Spirit,
and the bride. say, come, and let him that heareth
say, come. You see, his angel, his messenger
he sent, John that he sent with his word, and the Holy Spirit,
and the whole church together, they're saying, come. He said,
I sent forth my servant, saying, come. Everything's ready, come. And let him that's athirst come,
and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
You see, God's people have been made one in Christ, one with
God, in Christ so that we're one servant serving Him. Well,
look back at verse 17 in our text. Luke 14, 17. This is the
good news of the Gospel right here. He said, Come, for all things
are now ready. See there in the end of verse
17? Come, for all things are now ready. Now this is the argument
God gives to those He calls Why should I come? Because all things
are ready. Everything's ready. This is the
good news of the gospel. The good news of the gospel declaration
is come! Everything's done. Everything's
ready. Everything is now ready. You
know, I got this illustration from Charles Spurgeon, and he
said he made this comment. He said in the creation, when
God made the creation, He made the living things. in the beginning. God didn't, He didn't make it
so that those living things had to provide land, or atmosphere,
or sun, or shelter, or anything like that. God made everything
beforehand. He made everything that each
living thing would need. And then He said, now called
them into being. So that the fish had water, the
cattle had pasture, the birds had trees, Adam had everything
made for him. And God breathed into him the
breath of life and he opened his eyes and everything was done.
It was all ready. It was finished. And that's what
the gospel is bidding you come. He's telling you come. I have
done everything beforehand. It's all finished. It's all done.
It's ready. Long before God ever caused his
children, long before we ever thought about God or even had
any kind of thoughts of of who God is or anything like that
in eternity. God prepared everything. He gave
everything into the hand of His Son and prepared everything.
He predestinated the preparation of all things by His Son, by
giving it into His hand. And His Son came forth and He
finished the work that was given Him of the Father. He came forth
and all things are now made ready because of what Christ has done.
There's a robe. You're going to have to be dressed. You say, I don't have anything
that's good. I don't have anything nice to wear to come to Him. There's a robe of righteousness.
He's already prepared it. It's all done. It's finished.
Come and you'll find there's a robe of righteousness. You
come to His table and you'll find that the bread, the bread
of life, it's already, it's ready. It's ready. The water of life,
it's already ready. It's already there, already prepared.
The wine of his blood's ready to be drunk. It's all done. The feast of free justification
from all our law-breaking and all our disobedience, it's ready. the feast of free, complete,
thorough forgiveness of all our sins. It's already. It's done. And he says, all the work is
done. Christ came and he fulfilled
all righteousness. And he went to that cross and
he laid down his life, having been made sin for his people,
and God satisfied justice. by pouring out wrath on his son.
And he's risen now, and he sends forth his servants, and he says,
come, everything's done. And this is not a restaurant,
and it's not a potluck. You can't come and pay for anything. He says, everybody that's thirsty,
come, without money, without price. You can't buy. And it's
not a potluck. You don't even, when you come
to Christ, you don't even bring a packet of salt with you. Everything's
provided. Everything's done. You don't
bring anything you've made. Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. Until a man's been made to take,
willing to take freely, he hasn't been made willing yet. We can't
come bringing something that we've made or come and expecting
to barter with God at this table. If somebody invited you to their
table, say they invited you to their table, you've probably
had this happen before. Somebody invites you to come
to their home for dinner, and they forget about it or something
like that. You show up at their house, and you knock on the door,
and they come to the door and open it up, and you can just
see the shock on their face. They forgot. And man, they go
to scrambling trying to get something together and to feed you or whatever.
And you're just like, well, don't bother. Or you go to their house
and they're not even there. Maybe they weren't even sincere
when they said, come. They were just making a mockery
of you and saying, come. You get there and there's nobody
even there. Well, that won't be so with the Lord. It just
won't be so. When He says, come, You're going
to find it just like He says. If you come, you'll find everything
just like He said. Everything is ready. Everything
is prepared. Everything is done. It's all
there. The good news is that everything,
you don't have to do anything. The sinner that comes to Christ
doesn't have to do a thing. But the natural heart, it's a
cold, callous, hard, lifeless thing, isn't it? And that brings
us to the second thing. Here's what the heart does. Make
excuses. Excuses. Excuses for your rebellion
against God. Look at verse 18. And they all
with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him,
I bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I
pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I bought five
yoke of oxen. I go to prove them. I pray thee,
have me excused. And another said, I've married
a wife, therefore I can't come. Now salvation by grace, it's
already paid for by Christ. He paid everything. It's purchased. All the, everything that's needed
to feed our empty soul and to fill us with everything that
God requires, it's done. He paid for it. He bought it.
It's purchased. And Christ has been proven. He's
been proven. Proven by God in the furnace
of affliction. He did seven times to perfection. He's been proven and found faithful
through and through. And he's a sure foundation. He's
a sure foundation, proven and faithful and sure. And he has
a bride. And everyone that makes up that
bride, his church, they're going to all be called and they're
going to all come to Christ and be found in Him. Not having their
own righteousness, but the righteousness which is by the faith of Christ.
They're going to come and be found in Him. And yet, one of
the many excuses that men give when they hear this gospel is,
I can't believe on Christ because I've never seen Him. I've never
seen Him. And yet, men pay money And this
is free. What I'm talking about is free.
And yet men will pay money to purchase something that they've
never seen before. Buy it sight unseen. eBay, when
you buy stuff on eBay, you see a picture of it. You don't have
a clue what that thing looks like in person or if it runs
or anything else. And men will buy it. You'll buy
it without looking at it. Men say, well, if I had it proven
to me, the man in that first example, he had bought a piece
of ground. He hadn't seen the piece of ground. He said, I bought
a piece of land. I need to go see it. Have me
excused. A man will say he'll use this
excuse. Well, just prove it to me. Prove to me. Show me proof
that what you're saying is so. If you would just prove it to
me, show me some kind of sign and prove this to me, I believe.
And yet men buy things every day, pay for things that you
have to purchase that are not free. And take men's word for
it. When it's not proven, you don't
know if that thing is, is what it claims to be or not. Not proven. And we'll believe
another sinful lying man. But we won't believe God. We
won't believe God in his word. The problem is, is that the unregenerate
man covets He covets this cursed ground called flesh and he covets
the riches of this world. That's what we see in that first
man. He coveted his land. That's what he had his heart
set on, what he had bought, what he purchased in this world. And
the problem with an unregenerate man is, is we think we have some
fruits that we can produce out of this cursed ground, that this
ground is good. That we got something, this is
good ground. And what we can't see is, it's
cursed ground. I'm talking about our flesh,
it's cursed ground. And we'll rather forsake Christ
and the supper he's bid to us for some piece of cursed ground
in this earth. Some coveted treasure of this
earth that won't profit us at all. Another thinks he only needs
a little help. He's strong, he's mighty. This
second man, he need to go get some oxen because he could plow
the land, he just need a little help plowing it. He just needed
some oxen to help him plow it. And so he paid to buy some oxen
to help him plow it. And that's man's problem by nature.
We think, I got the strength. I can plow the land. I can bring
forth some fruit. I just need a little help to
do it. I just, I don't need Christ to do everything. I just need
him to help me a little bit. What can I pay to just get a
little help? Or you have somebody who's just
completely, thoroughly married to the flesh, married to this
world, married Married to the earthy. And you notice that man,
that third man, he didn't even say, I pray that you have me
excused. He just said, I can't come. I married a wife, and I
can't come. I can't come. He's what you call
a henpecked fellow. He couldn't come. He couldn't
do anything. That's what all men are by nature, who's married
to this sinful, God-hating flesh in this world. They're under
the thumb, and they can't get out. They can't come. They just
can't come. Well, surely somebody that loves
their wife, or their husband, or their father, their mother,
or their children, or their siblings, surely God would excuse them
for taking care of them. Now you could understand if it
was for land. You know, covetous man is going
after the world. God wouldn't excuse that. You
can understand it if it's a man who's looking after his business,
farming, and he's trying, surely God wouldn't excuse that. But
now a man is trying to provide for his wife and all that, and
you know, she's a gift from God to men. This is the lesson right
here, verse 25, the Lord said, there went great multitudes with
him, and he turned and said to them, if any man come to me,
And hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children,
and brethren, and sisters, yea, in his own life also. He can't
be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." It's going to
be painful. It's going to be painful to have to crucify the
flesh. It's going to be painful to have
to go with Christ when dearest loved ones are saying, I don't
want you going. It's going to be painful. But
the Lord said, you just have to be painful. When you got something,
we got something, we got our eyes set on, we really want it.
Something like a piece of land, or something in our business,
we want it. But we're gonna have to part with Christ to get it,
or we're gonna have to let that come between us and Christ to
get it? This ground, and these oxen, and this wife expresses
what John said when he described the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Every unregenerate man
is under one of these or all of these and he can't get out. But brethren, there's a lesson
for us here too, for those who believe the Lord, because the
piece of ground and the oxen and the wives, they weren't evil
in themselves. Nothing wrong with having a piece
of ground. Nothing wrong with having a business where you need
to go buy you some new piece of equipment like oxen or stuff
like that. Nothing wrong with having a wife
and loved ones and all that. The problem is this. The evil
is when the heart is set on those things so that those things come
between you and Christ and you and his gospel. That's where
the problem is. That's when the test is this. Does Christ have the rule in
our hearts? It's one thing when it's a now and then thing, but
it's something else when it's got the rule, when it's the norm,
when it's the common practice that we're ruled by the lust
of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life. We may consider
a piece of land or we may consider some possessions that we've got
to be a great blessing from God. And if you have something like
that, believe it, thank God for it. It's a blessing you that
you have it. But it's a mighty poor way to thank God and return
thanks to Him by spending our time with those gifts and forsake
Christ and His gospel. Or just let it come between us
so we don't have anything to do with it. Don't come and hear
His word consistently. We may consider that love of
our life that He's given to us, maybe we consider that's a great
gift He's given to me. That husband or that wife or
that child or that brother or sister or whatever. It's a mighty
poor way to thank Him to let them come between you and the
gospel, between you and Christ. That's a poor way of thanking
God. It's not hard to worship God when we don't have anything
competing with Him. We don't have anything competing
with Christ. But when he started having things compete with him,
and we got to toe the line, that's where the faith is proven right
there. And the fact is, if somebody's
got a wife or loved one or whatever, they're more responsible. They got more responsibility
to come and worship God and hear his gospel than the other. to bring them with, to bring
that loved one with you. I could promise you this, you
ladies listen to this, if you have somebody, he's been faithful,
he's been a believer, he's been faithful to the gospel. And I
hope you don't look for any other kind than that. He's been faithful
to the truth of God, a believer. But he starts all of a sudden
when you start, you start, dating him or whatever, and he starts,
all of a sudden now, he skips and everything starts revolving
around you. And he stops worshiping God,
and that quits being important to him. I know it may be flattering
that you're that important to him, but know this, as soon as
something else comes along that grabs his attention like you
have, he'll do the same thing with that other thing, too. Leave
him alone. Just leave him alone. And don't
let anything come between any kind of carnal unions or any
kind of carnal sentiments or any kind of carnal affections.
None of that can come between us and Christ. I told you this
one time, I have a friend, he has a brother that he was having
some trouble with the gospel and my friend went to his pastor
and he said, I'm thinking about skipping services this Sunday
and taking my friend camping. And I said, because it might
be an opportunity where I can talk to him about the gospel.
And his pastor said, well, he said, you could do that. He said,
or you could just tell him, why don't you come and hear the gospel?
And he said, not only then would he hear the gospel preached,
but you'd be showing him just how important the gospel is.
And it'd be a twofold witness to him rather than just you You
go out there and tell him all you want to about how important
it is, what it's going to come down to when he's grasped for
every other straw and reject you, what it's going to come
down to is this, if you really loved him, why aren't you there
worshiping him? And that's what we're saying
when we don't. It's undermining everything we try to teach men
and friends and loved ones. Every trial, every temptation,
And every one of them, he still says come. He's still saying
that they've come. All things are now ready. He's
still saying to us, come. Somebody will use this excuse.
And we got all kinds of excuses. Oh, I'm just so sinful. I can't
go to the Lord about this. I've been so inconsistent, unfaithful. I can't go to the Lord and ask
Him anything. I can't even pray to Him. What
better time to pray to Him when you can't do anything? Well,
we go pray to Him and say, pray. I pray they have me excused.
God, that's the time to go to Him and ask Him. Somebody uses
excuse. They say, I've just been so lifted
up in pride and I feel I see it now or I've been so cast down
or I've been so in so much sorrow lately. I just can't go hear
the gospel preached. There is no better time to go
hear the gospel preached. No better time to go hear the
gospel preached. Somebody will say, well, my understanding
is so feeble. I have so many things competing
for my time. I can't read his word throughout
the week and all those things. His word's given to teach us.
That's what his word's for, is to teach us. It's to teach us. He doesn't bid us to come to
the table because we're full. He doesn't bid us to come to
Him because we're full. He bids us to come to Him because
we're hungry and we're empty and we got no strength, we got
no power, we got no ability. That's why He bids us to come.
He don't say, you make yourself ready and then you come. He says,
everything's ready. You just come. For we have not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Let's go back to the context
here and look at this. This gospel's got to be openly
proclaimed. It's like the school bell, you
know, when the school bell goes off, When it goes off at the
school, it just rings for everybody. This has got to be proclaimed
like that. And when we invite somebody to
our supper, we tell them to come to our supper, there may be some
unexpected guests that show up, or there may be some that we
thought was going to be there that don't show up. But that's
not the case with God. Every place setting at his table
has a name written on it, a name that was written there before
the world began. a name written there in the indelible ink of
his own son's blood. And then there's not going to
be any empty vacant seats at his table. They're all going
to be filled. Every one of them is going to come. Now, just as
true as that's the case, Listen to me now, you sitting here that
have not believed, don't cry, listen to me. Just as true as
it is that everyone that God chose before the world began,
he's gonna have at his table. He's gonna bring them and none
of them's gonna be lost. Just as true as that is, when
God calls here, you hear this gospel, come to his table, God's
not mocking you. He's not telling you to do something
that's not prepared. He's saying come. If you come,
you're going to find a place already prepared for you. You're
going to find everything already done and provided if you come. You're going to find it just
like God said it was. Everything's made ready. But
if you don't come, it's going to solely be your own fault.
It's going to be because you were bidden to come, but you
just made excuses not to come. Just as true, if you don't come,
just as true, you will not have altered God's eternal purpose
from the beginning, one bit, not one bit. What if some did
not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? God forbid. Let God be true in
every man alive. As it's written, that thou mightest
be just in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
Now when we see here sinners making excuses and rejecting
Christ, he's sitting right there in front of them rejecting him.
There he is with them and they rejected him. And when we see
sinners have the gospel and rejected, won't come, won't hear, no consistency
about him, no faithfulness about him. They got other things that's
more important. You know what it reveals? It
reveals the hardness of the heart and it reveals the necessity
that God worked this inwardly by that effectual call, when
He calls inwardly and creates man anew. Look at the third thing. We see the Master's response.
We see His command and His promise. Here was His response, verse
21. So that servant came and he showed his Lord these things.
He came and he said, Lord, Lord, I went out and I told them. I
went there and told them. I was going to show them the
way. I was going to show them anything
they needed. I was going to lead them to you
and show them, here's the house, here's where he is, this is it.
And they just all made excuses and left. And they didn't come.
They wouldn't come. And the master of the house being
angry, he was angry. God's angry. He's angry when
sinners trample underfoot the blood of His Son. And that's
what we do. That's what men do. Trample underfoot
the blood of His Son. I got better things. Maybe the
gods of the land will mediate for you when you come into his
presence. Maybe the gods of riches will mediate when you come into
God's presence. Maybe the baseball gods will
mediate for you when you come into God's presence. Maybe that wife or that son or
that daughter, maybe they'll stand up and say, well, they
just love me so, that's why they didn't come to you, God. You
reckon that'll pull any weight with God? It won't, will it? Trampled underfoot, the blood
of Christ. Proverbs 29.1 says, let's read
this. Proverbs, go to Proverbs 1 first. Let's go there first, Proverbs
1. Look at verse 23. turn you at my reproof. Behold,
I'll pour out my spirit upon you. I'll make known my words
unto you, because I've called and you refused. I have stressed
out my hand, and no man regarded. But you set it nought, all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at
your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then
shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated
knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would
none of my counsel, they despised all my reproof, therefore shall
they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their
own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay
them, the prosperity of fools shall destroy them, but whosoever
hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from
fear of evil. Look at Proverbs 29, while you're
there. Proverbs 29, look at verse 1. He that being often reproved,
hardeneth his neck. He often, often reproved with
this gospel, and yet hardeneth neck, shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy. That's a solemn warning. God's
angry with the wicked. He's angry with men who trample
underfoot the blood of His Son. Well, here's His command. Back
in our text, Luke 14, 21. He said to His servant, go out
quickly. Go out quickly. The Spirit of God is coming quickly. He's coming into the hearts of
His children right on time. And He tells us that we must
be about our Father's business, about our Master's business.
It's still the day. We must be about it while it's
day. It's the day of grace right now. The evening's coming, the
supper is ready, and it's time, so we need to be about our Father's
business. But look at this, look who he
sends this command to. Verse 21, he said to his servant,
go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, out into
the gutters and the alleys. That's what he's saying, where
the scum is, where these Pharisees look down their noses at those
kinds of fellows. He said, go to them. He went
to the Gentiles, they called them dogs, us. He went to the
Gentiles. But he says here now, he says,
you turn and you go to them and bring in here to the poor and
the maimed and the haught and the blind. God won't have any
self-righteous, self-boasting holy men at his table. There
won't be any there. He despises them. He despises
them. There's none holy but God. There's
none righteous but his Son. He won't have somebody competing
with his glory at his table. That's just not going to happen.
But he tells us to go out. He says, go find these gutters,
these ones that are in the gutters and the alleys. And he says,
those that are poor, they got no way to pay anything. They
can't go buy a piece of land or an oxen. They can't go buy
something to take away their time. They can't even pay the
wages of sin that they owe, and they know it. They can't do it.
He said, go to them and talk to them. He says, go to the maimed
and the haunted and the blind. That man who's preached this
gospel to those that are, that man that can't, he can't, it
wouldn't do him any good if he had a little help. If he had
some oxen, he still couldn't plow. He's maimed and he's hauled
and he's blind, he can't see. lead them, guide them, bring
them to God's house. He said, those that in our flesh
dwells no good thing, those that were conceived this way, those
that came forth from the womb this way, those from the top
of the head to the bottom of the feet, there's nothing in
them, no good in them. The Master says, come, all things
are ready. Are you like that? Is there anybody
here like that? Come, all things are ready. And he says, and go
out to the highways and the hedges. It doesn't matter if you're in
the city or you're in the country. It doesn't matter where you're
from. That doesn't matter. God's got a people all over this
globe. But this is the ones he's sending
this word to, sinners. One said, it can't do anything.
Can't see, can't walk, can't run, can't work, can't do anything. You know your desperate need
of Christ by His grace. Those are the ones He's calling.
Is there anybody that knows themselves to be that way? That's who He's
calling to His table. And He says to them, come, everything's
ready. It's all done for you. It's done. And look at verse
22. And the servant said, Lord, it's
done as Thou has commanded, and yet there's room God's got a
big table. You think of how many people's
been called by his grace since the world started, all the way
up to this day right now. And yet he says, there's still
room at my table. How do you know there's still
room at his table? Because the gospel's still going
forth. He's still sending forth his servants saying, come, come,
come to this table. And until that table's full,
he's gonna keep sending them out. Come to this table, come. And he says, all things are ready.
And then he said there in verse 23, he said to the servant, go
out to the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that
my house may be filled. Now the Spirit of God is the
only one that's going to be able to compel you in your heart. He's the only
one that's going to be able to move you in your heart. But this is
what we do, just like Paul did. Paul said, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Don't be afraid to persuade men.
Don't be afraid to tell men with every reasonable argument come. Let us reason together. Look
at these scriptures. Persuade man. Paul said, now
then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you
by us and we pray you in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled to God. Sometimes I think we're afraid
to give that command. Be reconciled to God. That's
what Paul said. I'm speaking in the behalf of
God as if Christ was standing here speaking to you in His room
instead. I'm standing here telling you,
be ye reconciled to God. That's what he said. And he said,
we then as workers together with Him, beseech you also that you
receive not the grace of God in vain. You got the gospel come to you. Don't take this as a light thing. You're born in a country where
you got a Bible, you pick up, read the thing. Don't take that
as a like thing. You got all the Jews had every
kind of advantage, the oracles of God were given to them, and
yet they just received it all in vain. Had excuses, other things
to do, better things to do. When that house is full, that's
when it's going to be Look at John 6. When that house is full,
the Father's will is going to be done and the Christ's body
is going to be complete. He's not going to stop bidding
His children to come until He's got every one of those seats
filled. It's got His children's name written on it. Look at John
6.37. All that the Father giveth me,
the Lord said, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. I love those two things together,
don't you? This is the Father's will, all which He has given
me I should lose nothing. He said all that He's given me,
they're coming to me. This is His will, all that He's
given me, they're coming to me and I won't lose anything. I'll
raise them all up to the last day. And at the same time, He
said this is the will of Him that sent me. Everyone that sees
the Son and believes on Him may have everlasting life and I'll
raise them up to the last day. It's what I was trying to tell
you a while ago. Ain't anybody coming but those the Father gave
to Him. Those the Father draws, those that are tall of Him. They're
the only ones that's coming. And yet we freely tell you this
is the Father's will. Whosoever believeth on Him and
sees the Son and believes on Him, He may have everlasting
life. Come. And here's the promise. The Lord
stood up at the last day and He said, Come unto Me. All ye
that labor and are heavy laden, I give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, learn of me, I'm meek and lowly in heart, you'll find
rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy, my burden's light.
Some people want to be out from under the yoke of the legalist,
but they don't want to be under the yoke of Christ. Some people
want to be out from under the yoke of authority, but they don't
want to be under the yoke of God's own house and his own order. They just don't want it. What
they want is to be done with it all and have nothing else
to do with God. God said, come to me. Now, if
you don't come to Christ, you'll perish. But you won't have anybody
to blame but yourself. Won't be able to blame God about
it. Because you're bitten. You're simply unwilling to come.
That will that man likes to boast in so much. My will's free. I can do what I want to. But
you come and submit to Christ then. That very will that a man boasts
in wouldn't let him submit to God and believe Christ. God's
gotta make a man willing. If He's made you willing, come.
This is the Master's promise concerning those who refuse Him.
Verse 24, Luke 14, 24. I say unto you that none of those
men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. None of them. They were bidden and they took
it lightly and they said no. They said they ain't coming.
How about you, huh? You ask somebody to come to your
house and eat at your house, and you did everything and prepared
everything. And they tell you, make up some excuse, say, I ain't
coming. He said, they ain't eating my
food. They're not even going to taste a crumb of it, he said.
Now let me tell you this. About two, three weeks ago, you
all know I went up to New York to that dinner up there. I got
a call. I got a call. And they said there's
gonna be a dinner in New York City. Everything's gonna be ready. You just go there. It's free.
It's all taken care of. I didn't see it. I didn't have
any proof of it. I just believed them. I believed
them. The proof was, I believed them.
They said it. I believed it was so. I didn't
need any more proof. So I went. I came to where they
said come to. I went. And when I got there,
you know what I found? It was exactly like they said
it was gonna be. And you know what I did when I got there?
I sat down at a table and I feasted like a king. Now this is what
God says to you who have not come to him. The call's going
out. He says, submit to me, believe
me. And when you believe him, when
you believe God, you'll find out it's exactly like God said
it would be. Everything is prepared. Everything's
done. And you'll find out it was done
for you before the world ever began, before God ever created
a thing. And you know what you'll do when
you come? You'll start feasting like a king. That's exactly what
you'll do. And for you who have come to
Him and go home with this now, there's nothing in this world
worth valued enough to come between
us and Christ. Nothing. Keep coming to him. That's what Peter said, to whom
coming? We never stop coming to Christ. To whom coming? Continue
to come to hear his gospel. Don't let anything interrupt
it. He's given you gifts. Show your gratitude by worshiping
him, not them, not the gifts. Lead your loved ones to him,
not away from him. And here's the third thing. One
day, he's gonna say this to us. He's gonna say, leave your house
of clay, leave your land, Leave your business. Leave your dearest
loved ones. And he's gonna say, all things
are now ready. Come. And you, you're not gonna
miss that appointment. None of his children are gonna
miss that appointment. I'm talking about death. He's gonna say it's
ready. Come now. And when we come to
him, he says, blessed are those servants whom, when the Lord
cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, he shall
gird himself and make them to sit down to meet. And he'll come
forth, and he'll serve them. And you know what we're going
to say in that day? We're going to say, how on earth? What crazy, foolish, ignorant
thing was it of me to ever even think about letting something
come between me and him? between me and one so wonderful
and lovely as His. We'll find out we didn't lose
a thing. We were gainers the whole time.
Amen.