I please God to bless us together
this morning as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
14th chapter in the Gospel of Luke and we'll read the first
sentence in verse 18. The Gospel of Luke chapter 14,
read in the first sentence in verse 18. And they all with one
consent began to make excuse. The Word of God is very full
of wonderful illustrations to instruct us and to direct us
in the things of God. we do need continual direction
and continue help to do that which is right and that which
is in accordance with the word of God and his divine will and
purpose for his church and the Lord has graciously given us
this very simple picture to understand and we're told 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. And they
all, with one consent, began to make excuse. The first said
unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go
and see it. I pray thee, have me excused.
Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove
them. I pray that you have me excused. And another said, I
have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. Well, the Lord
gave this very simple illustration. And of course it wasn't difficult
for the people to understand what was meant. And it's not
difficult for us today to understand what was meant. We see that there
was this person who'd made this great supper. and invited guests. And the guests decided they didn't
want to come. And they all pretended to make
excuses. The excuses, in actual fact,
were of little value. Because we're told that it was
a supper, so it was obviously evening or night. And the first
excuse, the man said, he's going to see a piece of land. Well,
you can't see a piece of land very clearly when it's dark.
So there wasn't very much evidence, therefore, of reality in that
excuse. And the second was very similar. The man said he'd gone to prove
his five yoke of oxen he'd bought. But again, you wouldn't do that,
really, in the evening, to set them out and get them working.
And then the last was, of course, he'd married a wife. Well, he
could, of course, have brought his wife to the banquet as well.
So really, all those reasons which people gave were really
of no substance and no value. And so we might ask ourselves
the question, why was such an illustration given? Well, it
was given to direct us, of course, to the spiritual application. And that's the great favour that
we have today of being able to read the Word of God, and it's
the Lord has given us spiritual eyes to observe those truths
which are set before us in the Word of God. And so here we have
this statement, and thinking about it then in a spiritual
way, the Lord has made this great supper at supper time. A certain
man made a great supper and bade many. We might say, well what
does that mean? It means that the Gospel is to
be set before the people. And people are bidden to come
and to hear the truth of the Gospel. And that has this cogitation,
of course, that it really means that it is spiritual food. It's
not natural food. This illustration directs us
really to a natural feast, a natural food. But spiritually, it is
to come and to partake the things of God so that our soul is fed
and our soul is blessed. Well I'm sure we can easily see
the analogy and the solemn situation is that it is very easy for people
to make excuses why they should not come and worship God, why
they should not come and listen to the gospel being preached,
and they often make excuses which really do not stand up to examination. We always need to look carefully
into our hearts to see whether There are those reasons which
are valid or are not really valid. And these excuses which were
put before the people here were really not valid excuses. And how sad it is when perhaps
in our day and age which we live, there are the opportunities to
gather together for worship, gather together to hear the Word
of God and excuses are made. Well surely indicates there is
not really very much spiritual concern, not very much spiritual
life. Now of course I'm not speaking
about those situations when they are very valid and right, which
of course many are. But there are those which are
not and the Lord is directing us here to those really who were
not in that category. And when the Lord was on the
earth and he spoke wonderful words with regards to the necessity
of benefiting not from natural food, but from spiritual food. And in the sixth chapter of John,
which is a long chapter, and the thrust of that chapter is
to direct us to Jesus as the bread of life. And that, of course,
means that as we are gathered together for worship, our attention
should be directed to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we are not to come just
to have our minds alerted or minds satisfied with some very
intellectual Sermon some very intellectual discussion you may
remember there was that occasion when There were those two famous
preachers One was John Bunyan and the other was John Owen well,
they were very different naturally and John Owen had a very good
education a very learned man and John Bunyan by Comparison
was of course a tinker He repaired pots and pans, so naturally he
didn't have the same education. But John Owen's comment was that
he wished he could preach like that tinker. So you see, it is
not education and not ability, naturally, that people should
go to hear. What they should go to hear is
the Gospel preached and Christ exalted and their souls fed with
spiritual food. That must be the end of every
true believer, to seek for the blessing of God in their souls.
And not come and just tick a box, you know. And just perhaps come
and be accepted, perhaps amongst the Church of God. There's a
very similar account to this one we read in Luke, in Matthew.
And in the account in Matthew, There were many people bidden
to the feast and many went in and the Lord came and he looked
at all those guests and he saw there was one there that shouldn't
have been there. And that person did not have
on a wedding garment. Now that person, whoever it was,
in that parable, male or female, we're not told, but a person,
And they'd obviously been accepted by the people. And they hadn't
noticed particularly there was any difference. But there was
a vast difference. The great fact was that person
did not have on a wedding garment. Therefore, he was not strictly
allowed into that feast. He was not allowed to go into
that situation. And the illustration really shows
to us that it's no good us coming and going amongst the people
of God and worshipping with them and thinking we're alright because
we do all the right things and say the right things. The great
question is, do we have on the wedding garment? And what is
that? That is none less than the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us never settle down in just
what I might term a nominal religion. That means a religion with a
head knowledge. We may be able to speak very
learnedly about the things of God, but that will never get
us to heaven. It will never bring us to the
marriage supper of the Lamb. What we need to be blessed with
is a spiritual knowledge And that means we've fed upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and that we have been clothed with his righteousness
that we do have on a wedding garment. How important it is,
how vitally important it is for you and me today that we have
the evidence that we do possess the life of God in our soul and
that we are clothed with Christ's righteousness. And because of
that we are justified as we spoke on a Friday evening on those
verses in Galatians. Now just coming back then to
this reading in the 6th of John where we read about the Lord
Jesus Christ being the bread of life and every true child
of God partakes of this bread of life. It's not a theory, it's
a fact. It's a reality. And so the Lord
Jesus tells us, these are the Lord's words. Wonderful, isn't
it? I know in one sense the whole Bible is the word of God and
the words of Jesus. But nonetheless, we have those
specific situations where the Lord, when he was on the earth,
spoke and there was that record of the things that he spoke.
And in this sixth chapter, the Lord says, I am the bread of
life. Naturally, you and I need food
to eat, don't we? If we don't eat food, and basically
we need simple sustenance, and bread is one of those wonderful
things that possesses goodness. If we don't eat, naturally, what
will be the effect? Well, we shall perish. We'll
die. And that is exactly the same
truth with regard to our spiritual life. We need to be fed. We need to be fed. I suppose
we could ask ourselves, well, when was the last time that we
had a feast? When was the last time that we
partook of the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ? This is
the real centre of religion. It's not a question of just ticking
the boxes and doing this and doing that. The true child of
God feeds upon Christ. Let us be very clear about that.
And so here the Lord tells us, I am the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger. That means that if we have never
come to the Lord, If we've never partaken of him, then we hunger. We may not always realise it. We
may think we're alright, but what we are is destitute. We're destitute. And so the Lord says, he that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. So here we come. It's a very
important aspect, don't we? Do we, do you and I, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Not just as a historical figure. Many people will say they believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But my friends, do you and I
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the bread of life to our soul? That one whom we have fed upon,
that one who has strengthened our soul that one who has given
us new life spiritual life and so he that believeth on me
shall never thirst there's a eating and drinking of the things of
God and we come down to that a bit later in this little account
in this sixth chapter and so the Lord goes on to say but I
said unto you that ye also have seen me and believed not." And
that's a very striking and sad position, wasn't it? There were
many, you see, when the Lord lived on this earth who had seen
the Lord Jesus Christ physically, but they never believed on Him
as the Son of God. They never believed on Him as
their Saviour. They never believed upon him
as that one who would die for them to atone for their sins. It was just a theoretical knowledge
lacking the great blessing of God. And so the Lord says that
you also have seen me and believe not. Well this morning do we
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or do we not? All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me." The Lord gave, the God the Father
gave to His Son, His Church, that Church whom He would redeem. And they would be redeemed through
His death, through giving His life to pay that price for their
life. And so the Lord says, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. This is a great and glorious
invitation, isn't it? A great and glorious invitation.
And we should lay hold of it and pray that the Lord would
indeed look upon us in this way to realise, he that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out. So let us realise, let's hope
for all of us, that you and I may come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord tells us, doesn't he,
earlier on in the Gospel of Matthew, in the 11th chapter at the end,
he says, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. And so if you and I are burdened,
heavy laden with our sin, wondering whether there's any hope for
us, any hope of eternal life, we have here a blessed word from
God himself. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. And God's word is true. Don't listen to the devil. For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And what is the will of the Father?
The Lord tells us. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that 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 every one which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Now, what does
this really mean? It means, does it not, that you
and I are directed to the Saviour? There's no other way of salvation. There's no other way. Jesus is
the way. And may we therefore hear the
gracious words of the Saviour, recorded in the Word of God,
for our encouragement and for the strengthening of our soul,
that we may come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may find help in time of need. There is every encouragement
for a hell-deserving, undone sinner to come to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. this is the word of him that
sent me that everyone which saith the son believeth on him may
have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day
the Jews then murmured at him because he said I am the bread
which came down from heaven and they said is not this Jesus the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, how is it then
that he saith, I came down from heaven? Men would always raise
reasons why you and I should not believe. The devil would
always raise reasons why you and I should not believe, why
you and I should not hear the great and glorious simple truth
of the gospel. The devil always tries to make
true religion complicated, and always tries to tell us, well,
it's all right for others, but not for you. Jesus, therefore, answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me, except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. Well, what a blessing. for us
today if we have the wonderful effect of the drawing power of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this is not something
that you and I possess naturally. There's nothing that you and
I would see in Christ to naturally desire him. Nothing. But bless
God if the Holy Spirit comes and gives us the view of the
Saviour as the only one who can save our soul. And we realise,
and we feel in our heart, we're drawn to Him. Drawn to Him. It's a very clear evidence of
the life of God in our souls, when we have that drawing effect
of the Saviour. And so may we understand and
be blessed with this wonderful favour ourselves. And accept the Father which has
sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the Prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. All the children of God are taught
of God. And they are taught of God to
come to the Saviour. And they are taught of God to
to partake of this spiritual food. This is the great and glorious
teaching of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Well,
my friends, this morning, have we come to the Lord or have we
not? Has the Holy Spirit moved our
hearts to draw us to Him and have we come to Him just as we
are? came to Jesus as I was, weary
and worn and sad. Oh isn't it wonderful to know
that we have a Saviour who understands us. He knows what you and I are
thinking today. He knows all about our attitudes.
He knows whether perhaps we've been amongst those who have,
with one consent, begun to make excuse. Why we should not. hear the Word of God, why we
should not come to this supper that has been prepared, why we
should not turn our back upon this gracious and blessed invitation
of the Gospel. And so the Lord goes on to say,
not that any man has seen the Father save he which is of God.
He has seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread
of life. Well, these are great words,
aren't they? Aren't they simple? They're so important. He that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. Well, has the Spirit of
God, my friends today, given us, drawn us to Him so that we
do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? The Word of God tells
us. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. How important for all of us to
be found within the compass of those simple words. I am the
bread of life. And then the Lord goes back and
draws the analogy of the children of Israel eating natural food. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. Yes, they died. This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and
not die. Why? Because it's living food. Why? Because it's spiritual food. It's that which does not die.
And if we possess, and have been partakers of this heavenly food,
this bread of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, then, blessed be
God, we possess everlasting life and it will be well with our
soul. See how needful, how necessary
it is. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. The
Lord says, I am the living bread, the Lord himself. I am the living
bread. He spells it out simply. Given this introduction, he comes
and tells them now, I am the living bread. Nothing else will
do. Give me Christ or else I die. Which came down from heaven.
If any man eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. Of course, this is not partaking
of the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ in a physical way. It is in a spiritual way, as
you and I may be blessed with that godly meditation to realise
that without Christ we are lost, and that we need Christ, and
we need to know that Christ is our all-sufficient Saviour, and
that is feeding upon Christ. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, and
this is very necessary for us to notice and to remember, Verily,
verily, and when the Lord says that, It's always a very important
statement. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except, except, there's no exceptions, except ye eat the flesh of the
son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. That means that you and I are
spiritually dead. There's no life. And therefore
there will be no desire to come to this feast. No desire. And we shall be among those that
this word tells us. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. But then the Lord tells us, Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the
last day for my flesh is meat indeed. my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him.' Well, those words
in the 6th of John are very clear, are they not? And I hope I've
made it very simple for you to understand today, and how necessary
it is therefore that you and I are partakers of the flesh
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as our meat and our drink. And that means that you and I
are able to meditate and to realise that the Lord Jesus Christ himself
did indeed die upon that cross at Calvary. He did indeed shed
his precious blood. And as we think of that glorious
scene, to realise that you and I have an interest there, an
interest in that transaction. We must have an interest in that
transaction. We must have an interest to know
that when the Lord spoke those gracious and blessed words, it
is finished. It was finished on our behalf. The work of redemption was complete. and that through his death we
are redeemed, redeemed with his precious blood. Now to the living
child of God this will be food and drink to their soul. It is the life of God. It is that which you and I will
rejoice in. And it won't just be something
which will leave us cold and unconcerned and we won't be then
like these that we read of who began to make excuse. We will want to come and hear
the glorious gospel. We will want to come and to receive
eternal food for our souls. So what does it mean? It means
perhaps to ask ourselves the question, how did we come this
morning? How did we come this morning?
Well of course it was Sunday morning and I normally go to
church, well that's good and right. But did you come hungry and thirsty
for the things of God? Did you come to be fed, not with
natural food, but to be fed with spiritual food? You see the word
of God directs us again and again to the vital need that you and
I might possess the gift of God and the favor of spiritual food. And we come just as we are. We come just as we are. We have
those wonderful words in Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah, where
the prophet says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, And if you think
of that, that's very important and it's very solemn and it's
very blessed. If you today are thirsting after
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that means you and I are thirsting
after the personal knowledge to know that the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his blood upon Calvary's cross in order to redeem our
soul. So have we, are we, thirsting
for that today? Ho everyone that thirsteth. What are we to do? Stay away,
ignore the gospel invitations, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money, we've got nothing to warrant any notice
from God. We are bankrupt, we're sinners
with nothing to bring. What a mercy then if we come
in with those lines of the hymn writer when he said, nothing
in my hand I bring, nothing, simply to thy cross I cling. That means you're looking to
the Saviour and he that hath no money Come ye buy and eat. How can we do that? Yea, come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. The Gospel
is free. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
glorious to know that we don't come and earn our salvation? We never would. We'd never be
able to earn it. but thankful it is that there
is the glorious and gracious invitations to come. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye. Well, have we come this morning
thirsting, thirsting for the blood of the Saviour? And are
we hungry for that spiritual food, the body of Christ? The glory of the Gospel and the
glory of the Christian religion is that the Lord Jesus Christ,
just before he was crucified, he instituted the Lord's Supper,
which of course took the place of the Passover, which had been
carried out more or less every year since it was instituted
when Israel came out of Egypt. And of course, that Passover
set before us a very beautiful picture, a very wonderful picture. It set before us, first of all,
the shed blood of the Lamb, and there was only safety under that
blood, which was to be placed on the doorpost and the lintels.
And also, it set before us the Lamb of God roast in the flame,
roast in the wrath of God. That was the great picture which
was set before Israel. And of course it was fulfilled
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we think then
of the Lord, the gracious God, just before he was to be crucified,
instituting the Lord's Supper on that Passover night. That
was the last Passover that was ever to be carried out with any
reality because when the Lord was crucified upon that cross
at Calvary and cried those glorious words, it is finished. The veil
of the temple, which separated the holy of holies, was rent
entwined from the top to bottom. And that had been the position
the high priest had entered into the holy place, not without blood,
in order to atone for the sins of the people. once every year
on that great day of atonement. And so we shall be thankful to
know the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, which sets
before us today the great and glorious picture of this truth,
the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, his broken body
and his shed blood. and the Lord instituted it, lest
we forget. Remember, do this in remembrance
of me. And it's a wonderful blessing,
and it's a wonderful favour, and it's a great, great mercy
if you and I are directed to this, so that we are concerned
to be amongst those who do join the Church of God and partake
of this supper of remembrance. Well, it will indicate how hungry
we are, how thirsty we are, if we desire to be a true follower
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And so, remember this,
ho everyone that thirsteth. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. They all with one consent began
to make excuse. Well, this morning, I wonder
how important to you, how important it is to me that we are partakers
of the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This great
supper has been made and the Lord has bidden us to come to
the supper, come to partake of this spiritual food, this heavenly
food. Because natural food, the manner
that the children of Israel partook of, stopped it, finished. This
spiritual food is an everlasting food. It's that which is eternal. If you and I are blessed with
partaking of this spiritual food, rejoicing in what Christ has
done, and praising Him for that great sacrifice, and blessing
Him for that glorious salvation, then you see this is from our
heart. And that's the great aspect,
isn't it? It's not a theory. It's the work of God in our heart.
It moves our spirit to have the evidence that we are amongst
those who are born again. We possess a new life, a spiritual
life. The light has shone into our
dark heart. and revealed Christ as our Saviour. Oh, my friends today, are we
amongst, therefore, those who hear this gracious invitation
and do not turn away, do not make excuse, do not make excuse. On the surface, you see, perhaps
we might think, well, I make these excuses, it depends where
our heart is, doesn't it? You see, what was the command
then? Those people that had been invited
were passed by. Oh, very solemn, isn't it? Were passed by. So that servant
came and showed his lord these things. Then the master of the
house being angry said to his servant, go out quickly, into
the streets, the lanes of the city, and bringing hither the
poor, the maimed, the haught, and the blind." We can think
of that, can we not? And also, in a spiritual way,
those perhaps who had never been privileged to hear the Word of
God. And those who were in this way,
they were maimed, they were blind, and they were haught. Yes, and
those who had been privileged to hear and to receive the gracious
invitation were passed by. So that servant came and showed
his lord these things. The servant said, Lord, it is
done as thou has commanded, and yet there is 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 filled. This was done. This was done.
And for I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden
shall taste of my supper. There can surely be nothing worse
than hearing the gospel, hearing the gracious invitations of the
gospel, and making excuses why we should not partake, why we
should not come, and therefore to realise such a word might
be spoken to us, that none of those men which were bidden shall
taste of my supper, or that you and I, my friends, might be blessed
with this drawing power of the Saviour, that we may know the
great need we have of a saviour, and that our sins may be a real
burden to us, and that we realise that unless we are saved we shall
end up in eternal hell. And our case is desperate, which
it is. Look unto me, says the Lord Jesus,
and be ye saved, for I am God, and there is none else. None
else. Don't look anywhere else. Don't
look to man. Don't expect accolades from man. Look to the Lord. You and I need
personal dealings with our God. We need the personal evidence
that we possess the life of God in our souls. We need a personal
assurance that Lord Jesus Christ has come to redeem our soul,
redeem my soul. You will need to know that, my
friends. Don't go on just casual. Don't go on thinking, well, I
hope it'll be all right in the end, because it may not be. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts. or these people here, they harden
their hearts. They harden their hearts and
therefore the Lord says that they would not taste of the supper
which was provided for them. Very solemn, isn't it? And so
may you and I really be moved by the Holy Spirit and may we
pray urgently and earnestly that we may be moved by the Holy Spirit
to seek unto the Lord. Seek, and ye shall find. There are so many encouraging
words, as we read together in that sixth chapter of John, and
many other places in the Word of God. Many words of encouragement. And so may we not be found amongst
those that this Word describes, and they all with one consent
began to make excuse while they should not come to the feast
which was prepared. Amen.