and complete dependence upon
the Lord for all needed help this evening I wish to turn to
the Gospel of Luke chapter 14 and by way of text the latter
part of verse 17 Luke's Gospel chapter 14 and
by way of text the latter part of verse 17 come for all things
are now ready come for all things are now ready in verse 16 our
Lord speaking says a certain man made a great supper and bade
me and sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were
bidden come for all things are now ready the name Luke means light giver
and of course in biblical times names had greater significance
than what they do now. And when we read the Gospels
we will notice that they are all very different in their nature. Luke being one of the synoptic
Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke being the synoptic Gospels, the
main emphasis being there that they follow our Lord's earthly
ministry. But they're all actually very
different. Matthew, of course, is very direct, written primarily
to a Jewish audience. Mark, the shortest of the Gospels,
but again, quite a blunt individual style. John, is different again,
a more doctrinal treatise and addresses many of the issues
that we have today in respect of the Lord Jesus as human soul
and so on but Luke we may rightly understand to be one of probably
the most searching and reflective of the Gospels and we cannot escape the challenge
it brings to our soul's state if we are exercised rightly. It's a very sifting gospel and
the Lord's people desire to be searched, they desire to be sifted
and this is the very nature of it now by way of context we are of course dealing with
the Lord's earthly ministry and he is at the latter end of chapter
13 rebuking the Jews and he is speaking to Jerusalem he is speaking
here to those who for several centuries were alone the recipients
of grace and what was the result? Rejection
and disdain for the most part and we can see the Lord invited
into the homes of one of the Pharisees not for any genuine
reason, but you will notice almost exclusively in the narratives
we have in the Gospel, the Lord was only invited or asked a question
by the Pharisees or scribes in an attempt that they might trick
him or in an attempt that they might catch him out in some way. And although they had been foiled
many times, the hardness of their own hearts and their own foolishness encouraged them to continue in
that eventually they thought in their own minds they might
eventually catch him out and here he is invited into the invited into the house of this
Pharisee and we read that they watched him and here is this man with a dropsy
now some of you may be aware that the condition of the dross
is that of the swelling of joints a very gruesome disease of which
there was no known cure and the Lord healed him on the
Sabbath day well the legalists were upset with this but of course the Lord answered
them as he always did in that car where which of you shall
have an ass an ass or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway
pull him out on the sabbath day and they could not answer him
again to these things they were always pointing the
finger at someone else that is the way of religion blame someone
else, anybody but ourselves and here we have this parable of
this wedding here but I really want
to come to verse 15 which is the parable of the great supper and we read in this parable that a certain man made a great
supper and made many. This here is speaking of the
Lord Himself. He was the man who made the supper.
And what is the supper? The supper is the gospel of God's
grace. God here tonight makes the supper
none of us make it the Lord does this is simply his ordained means
in which he will meet with men whereby we might be amazed and in verse 17 we read that
he sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were
bidden come for all things are now ready now the servant here is the gospel
preacher that is who is made by the servant now in the immediate
context we are dealing here with the Jews but you know we make
a great mistake in the scripture if we only apply these truths
to other Jews they are indeed as applicable to us today and
we will see why he sent his servant at supper
time to say to them that were bidden come for all things are
now ready He's speaking here to those of
whom were aware that the Messiah was coming. These were the people
who'd heard this for centuries. The Lord had sent prophet after
prophet after prophet to them. And what was the result? For
the most part it was rejection, occasionally it was idolatry, And it was always only a very
small remnant who accepted these truths. And friends, it's always
been that way. In every age, and in every generation. But these were the people who'd
heard the truth. These were the people who should not be surprised
that the Gospel was to come. Most of the heathen nations around
them were virtually all pagan. And the Lord says, here come,
for all things are now ready. The Gospel has come in its fullness
and in its freeness, no longer simply in the types and shadows,
but in the reality of it. And we read in verse 18, and
they all with one consent began to make excuse. And you know
what? It's always been that way. with one consent. What does that
mean? It means this. There's only really
two types of people in this world. Now I know that there are Jews,
I know that there are Mohammedans, there's Jehovah's Witnesses and
Mormons and the what not. But there's only ever really
been two types of people. There's the regenerate and the
unregenerate. There's the saved and the lost. there's God's people
and the devils and it's always been that way but we read here and they all
with one consent began to make excuse and we have here these
characters identified and these are examples of the sorts of
things that you hear now why is it that people do not
love Christ? it's quite simply this because
they all love something else they all love something else
and the something else they all love is rooted in their own nature
it's called sin and none of us want to give it
up and that's the truth I'd heard the gospel I'd heard it for several
years but I liked nothing too much and that is the reality of the
human heart but this character here what
does he say? he said unto him I have bought
a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it I pray thee
have me excused this was a man who was aware of the certain man that had made
the great supper we know God has never failed
anyone we know it we read it it's a truth and men fail all the time this man had purchased this piece
of land from a person as far as we can
tell he hardly even knew he'd never even seen it but this is
what he was trusting he wouldn't come to the feast how many people trust in things
they've never even seen. I had a relative, and on his
deathbed, I may have mentioned it before, if I have I apologise,
he was talking about winning the lottery. That was his hope. That was what he trusted in.
Sad, but that's the reality of it. That was what was important
to him. That he could get his lottery
ticket twice a week. and I must needs go and see it
I pray thee have me excused have me excused he wouldn't be honest
but his heart lied somewhere else and that's just how it was with
him many people rely upon what seems to them to be a good thing
something that they've achieved something that they've done something
that they've attained to but you know there's no peace
there there's no real lasting joy there you know there's no
real happiness outside of Christ there isn't that this man began
to make excuse and that's all we read of him and then we come to another character
and another said I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to
prove them I pray thee have me excused so this man thrusted in something
else but really amounted to the same thing he trusted in himself and his heart lied in what in essence is perishing
we have to remember this that everything that we see around
us is dying really it's dying but we're going to a place of
substance and this man had purchased five
yoke of oxen cattle in other words he was a farmer some of
you here know far more about farming than I do but this man
was a farmer And it's been said that farming is a way of life.
I'm happy to accept that. There's nothing wrong with that. And there's certainly nothing
wrong with cattle. There's nothing wrong with having an animal. Domestic animals particularly.
You can attain, naturally speaking, a great deal of mutual satisfaction
from an animal. And no doubt it's the case for
the farmer that enjoys his work. but for this man that was his
idol and again what did he say? and I go to prove them he didn't
even know if what he was buying would be a satisfactory for the
job but this is what he hoped it this was what he loved a man should regard his beasts
A man should be kind to his animals. He should treat them well. But
he's not to make an idol of them and have them come before everything.
And this was the case with this man. I pray they have me excused. You know, people will trust in
all sorts. They will go for miles. People will go for miles to collect
what they consider to be good cattle, good sheep etc. I know
this to be the case and men and women will spend
hours looking for property just as the previous man did and they may go for miles to
prove it to use the language of the authorised version but
they won't go a few miles down the road to hear the gospel and friends it's on but it's
a reality why? because this is speaking of where
men's hearts are a men's hearts in the gospel a men's hearts
in the truth but they both made excuse they weren't even honest now
we come to our third character who is the saddest of them all
in many respects in verse 20 we read this and
another said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come now
the Word of God when it exposes a man's faults always gets a
fair hearing it always shows his good side as well always and we can say this about this
man he was honest he was really honest he said the real reason
the other two made excuses they told the truth in part but it
was only part of the truth it wasn't the real truth this man
spoke the real truth he said I have married a wife and therefore
I cannot come now the politically correct age in
which we live would not take kindly to this statement at all
but friends it's a truth that there is nothing more pathetic
and no more sad sight than to see a man totally dictated to
by his wife now when I say that I'm not advocating tyranny in
any respect I like the quotation Dr Gill
makes when he said when the Lord made Adam when he made Eve and
he took the rib from Adam there is a lesson in that she
was not to rule over him nor to be trampled underfoot by him
but to rule beside him and that is absolutely true and you know
a man and a woman's role in life a man and a wife's role in life
they are equal but they're different they are different and that's
what the world simply just doesn't understand but they are different and part of this man's responsibility not only for himself himself
included but not only for himself but for his wife and his children
if he had any we don't know if he did was that they come to worship
and that they attend a sound and an experimental ministry but this man didn't see either
of those things because he was total he was a totally weak we
are bred today my generation included a nation of wimps of
men who do not stand properly for what they should and thus
we have it here it's always been that way there have always been
men like this but he would not bring himself and his wife to
worship because she said he couldn't come. She said he couldn't come. Now, in life it's like this. God first. Our husband or wife
second. And ourselves last. But it's God first. It's God
first. And that's the point. It's God
first. And we should never allow anybody,
anybody, to prevent us coming to the house of God. Because God is to be worshipped.
And He is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. And friends,
I think of the words of Isaiah. When the Lord speaks, and he
says seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while
he is near there is a great implication
in that if we are to find the Lord we have to seek him in the
right places and the place wherein he is to be found upon earth
is in Zion it's in the Lord's house it's at the gospel feast
and this friends is a feast of fat things I remember being told when I
was about 14, you will never regret coming to the house of
God. And I never have. I never have. My only regret
is I never came earlier. We must never let anybody stand
in the way of attending the Lord's house. If it's the place we desire
to be, we're in a blessed I have married a wife and therefore
I cannot go and thus we read no further of this character
so the servant came and showed his lord these things then a
master of the house being angry 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 halt and the blind this is the
gospel going to the Gentile church and does this not describe the
characters for whom the gospel is for our pastor was speaking to me
and one or two others here some of you may remember this conversation and he was recounting a conversation
he'd had on the phone with another gospel minister and he made this
statement he said you know you can always tell someone who's
a strict Baptist background when he's preaching because he preaches
to character he preaches to character what does he mean by that? well
he doesn't just presume everybody in his congregation is a regenerate
individual. The distinctives that we stand
for are distinctives of discrimination, of separating between one and
another. And you describe the character
of the child of God. And they are described here.
The Gospel is going out to the Gentiles. and again this upset the Pharisees
no end but it's the way it is go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor the poor the
poor now this particularly means from the original the spiritually
poor spiritually poor. The Lord was speaking before
attending the wedding and taking the lowest place. Not thinking that we've got it. We are something special. The poor. those who feel themselves
to be lacking but there is a sense in which it means we have to
remember the general level of poverty in the Middle East then
would have been worse than it is obviously in our Western society
today the everyday average person our Lord's disciples they were
ordinary average everyday people as naturally speaking as the
world would say the poor and the maimed what does that mean? means those who cannot do for
themselves and it's like that in the gospel you know human
nature comes out and it displays itself in all sorts of ways Naturally speaking, one of the
most difficult things to do is to receive a gift absolutely
freely. What I mean is if you receive
an invitation somewhere, the first thing you often ask is
what can I bring? What can I bring? What can I do to help? And that's not wrong, it's perfectly
natural. because we do not like to think
of ourselves as helpless in any way but you see man thinks he
can do this with God he can come and bring something he can contribute
something in some way this is how he is but you know with Christ we can
only come exactly as we are with all of us with all of our doubts,
with all of our fears, with all of our burdens the maid you can't
do it yourself and that's what you realise duty faith is out
of the window and the halt this is an old-fashioned word it would
have been used probably up to the 19th century the halt describes
someone who knows where he wants to go but not how to get there if I gave you the address of
my parents in Leeds but I did not supply you with a map you
would know where you were going but you wouldn't know how to
get there necessarily and this is it's like this with the Lord's
people when the Spirit is working inside them when it's working
with them they're looking for something This is how the Spirit
often leads his people into high doctrine churches. This is how
he works. Because they realise that they
can't have duty faith. They can't have works religion.
They can't have all this likeness. They can't have it. Something
unsettles them. They want to find the truth,
but perhaps they don't know how to get there. And we know, through
history, when God has anything to say, He always sends a preacher. He sends His servant. This man
was a gospel preacher. He was a servant of the Lord.
And that's what the Lord does. The halt. You might have been
like that. You were looking for something.
Perhaps you're like that tonight, but you don't know how to get
there. The halt. and the blind those that know
nothing perhaps you knew absolutely nothing you are as ignorant as
it could be you knew nothing but you see the gospel teaches
the spirit teaches the spirit opens the heart it opens the
mind and ye are taught of the Lord and what did he say? and the servant said Lord it
is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room there is
room what does that mean? well We know that the Lord endures
all things for the elect's sake. We say this regularly. Not for vain repetition, I trust,
but for emphasis. That the purpose of the continuation
of these things is that the Lord is gathering in his people. He's
gathering in his elect. The unregenerate are only suffered
for the elect's sake it's to his people that all things are
ordered and that is why providences and situations are often turned
on their head for the benefit of God's people individually
and collectively an example of that we look at
the great reformation that took place in this country the unregenerate don't appreciate
it they're not interested in it and to many respects it affects
them very little but it's a great prize to God's people because
we can worship freely we can come to his house we have the
word of God we have the writings of good men that are left down
for our instruction these are providential blessings that are
ours by the hand of the Lord 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 now here in many respects we have
a great misunderstanding because people then try and attempt to
use this text as an exhortation to activism and then I've mentioned
this before but every night something's going on we've got to be doing
this that and the other and the whole emphasis is trying to get
people in at any cost now we are not to be indifferent to
the state of men's souls we're not to be complacent at all it's
very easy and comfortable isn't it preaching to people that agree
with you all the time but what it means simply friends
is this if you're challenged as to the hope that is within
you we ought to be able to give an answer a good answer solid and dependable. I like the book
that was recently put out by the Gospel Standard Trust and
in it, Mr. Macronola, who was past here,
said that every Christian ought to be a theologian. What an excellent statement. in other words, you have to give
a reason to every man as to why you believe Christ to every man we need wisdom to
be able to speak when we are to speak and keep silent when
we are to keep silent but we read in respect of those
men this very definite statement for I say unto you that none
of those men which were bitten shall taste of my supper they were all men who knew the
truth in the letter of him and as a young man it was often
as a young unregenerate man it was a teenager it was an exercise
to me to read those words every time I read them I felt condemned
to whom much is given much shall be required much shall be required to know
the truth and to not love it but to simply love ourselves
and our sins but you see the gospel is good
news but it's good news for sinners and here still today in the words
of verse 22 there yet is room In Revelation chapter 4, we see
the 4 and 20 elders sat around the throne. One of the proof
texts that the rewards of Christians are all the same. We have 4 and
20 elders sat around the throne. Not one in front of another.
They're all sat around the throne. They all cast their crowns. before
him. Every single one of them is in
the exact right place. Not one of them is missing. Not
one of them. The 24 elders, 12 being the number
of the church, 24, that great all-round number, all sat before
the throne. They were all in their place.
The servant here is saying, there yet is room. This is still the
day of grace and God is still saving His people. But you see,
He is saving the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind. People say to me, I get fed up
of it sometimes, you people, you don't preach the gospel.
You gospel standard people, you're fatalists. We're not fatalists.
We are not fatalists. This is who the gospel is for. And it's for none of us. It's
not offered. This is a gracious invitation. It's an invitation to those who
have no hope in anything else. It's not universal, it's not
general, it's particular. It's particular. The Lord here
was dealing with particular people and he describes particular characters. And this is who the Gospel is
for. Come, for all things are now
ready. Ready. Ready. we're about to see that last
hymn number 11 was sung at my baptism and the verse that I
could write as my own experience was this verse 4 I believe I want to quote
it exactly right thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
you see the Lord's mercies are greater than all of our fears
They're greater than all of our doubts. Doubts and fears are
God dishonouring. We're not to be proud of them.
Some people are, but we're not to be. But nevertheless we have
them. Which wonders to feel its own
hardness. There's a hardness of heart in
every one of us. Our hearts are hard. We love. anything but Christ
this is the message here that was the message of those men
various things but they all amounted to the same well our hearts are
hard dissolved by thy goodness I fall
to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy I found you
see there is mercy with God there is forgiveness with Christ there
is assurance of salvation despite what people tell you there's
assurance of salvation God is real and he does not have his
people in doubts and fears forever the gospel is a two-edged sword
and he brings them out of darkness and into light and this is the light the Lord
says come for all things are now ready the Lord invites repenting sinners
the Lord invites penitent sinners, He invites those of whom can
look nowhere else nowhere else and He says come for all things
are now ready.