My text this morning is found
in the 14th chapter of the gospel of Luke, if you would turn there
with me. Luke chapter 14. In verse one, we're told that
the Lord Jesus was invited to the house of a chief Pharisee
to eat bread on the Sabbath day. And what we need to understand
is that the Sabbath day was a feast day with the Jews. They made
a large meal and they met together to honor and celebrate the Sabbath. Then in verse seven, we're told,
and he, the Lord Jesus, put forth a parable to those which were
bidden, those who were invited to come, when he marked how they
chose out the chief rooms. As these guests, Pharisees and
religious leaders, entered into the chief Pharisees' house, they
chose the best seats, upper places at the table, which these religious
hypocrites loved, coveted, and sought after. The Lord exposed
the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, verse six, what he said of
them. You love the uttermost rooms
at feast and the chief seats in the synagogues. You see the
scribes and the Pharisees wanted to be seen and honored of men. There's still men like that today,
men and women both. But the Lord tells them in verse
eight, when thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not
down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou
be bidden of him. And he that bade thee and him
come and say to thee, give this man place and thou begin with
the shame to take us to the lowest room. In other words, what the
Lord's saying here is don't sit in a place of honor, in case
a more honorable man comes and you be asked to give up your
seat. Verse 10, but when thou art bidden,
go and sit down in the lowest room, the lowest seat, that when
he that bathed thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend, go
up higher. Then shalt thou have worship
in the presence of them that sit and meet with thee. Now the
master of the feast has a right, you see, to seat his guest at
the table as he sees fit. So the Lord is saying here, if
you take the lower seat, you won't be asked to move if someone
more important comes in or someone that your host thinks to be more
important. And if anything, you'll be given
a higher, more honorable seat. In other words, show some humility,
show some lowness of mind and prevent causing yourself shame
for their may be advancement to a higher place, but not lower
if you're already sitting in the lowest seat. You know, humility
was something that the Pharisees didn't know much about. And sadly,
humility is something that by nature, none of us know a whole
lot about. But we need to learn humility
for the Lord says in verse 11, for whosoever exalted himself
shall be abased. and he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted." I don't need to say this, but I will. There
was never a man more humble than the Lord Jesus, who had the right
as God to always sit in the most honorable place, but he didn't. He showed humility all the time. The Lord begins to talk to these
proud and arrogant men about how they were to conduct themselves
when they themselves made a dinner and bade others to partake. And
these are lessons, dear friends, that the Lord teaches in a parable
that instructs us a great deal about humility. Every believer
is made to be humble. Every believer is made to be
humble. Verse 12, then said he, speaking of Christ, Also to him
that bade him, the chief Pharisee that invited him, he said, when
thou makest a dinner or supper, call not thy friends nor thy
brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors, lest
they also bid thee again and a recompense be made thee. What the Lord is saying here
is the reason you invite your wealthy friends is so that you
may in return be invited to their banquets of entertainment and
in doing so, You neglect the poor, which could use the meal
and benefit from your hospitality. And that's exactly what the Lord's
saying in verse 13. He says, but when thou makest
a feast, here's who you call, here's who you bid to come. Call
the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, "'And thou shalt be
blessed, "'for they cannot recompense thee, "'for thou shalt be recompensed
"'as the resurrection of the just.'" In other words, if you
show compassion on the less fortunate, you'll be blessed by God. You'll
receive spiritual blessings. Eternal glory and happiness will
be yours. You see, out of a principle of
love for Christ and his grace to you, you'll show yourselves
merciful and gracious to others. Verse 15, and when one, being
one of the scribes, lawyers, or Pharisees, 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 this
man had no true understanding at all of what Christ meant by
this. His religion was nothing but
talk. A lot of people, their religion's
nothing but talk. Everything with the Pharisees
was done in order that they might receive a greater blessing. And
I suppose they had the opinion that somehow or another they'd
wear a bigger crown in heaven. I've known people over the years
that, my, they're gonna need a neck brace, Steve, to hold
their head up with all the jewels in their crowns. But that's not
the case. You see, doing good things here
on earth will not bring about good things to come in heaven.
Christ is the only way and reason that any sinner will be in heaven's
glory, first and foremost, and trusting in the finished work
that he accomplished is the only way that any of us will even
get there. I believe it was John Newton,
the one that wrote Amazing Grace, who talked about the three wonders
of heaven. First, he said, there'll be a
lot of folks there that I didn't think would be there. And he
said, secondly, there'll be a lot of folks I thought would be there
that wouldn't be. And thirdly, the greatest of
all wonders would be that I'm there. That's the way the child
of God feels. Verse 16, then said he unto him,
the man whose religion was nothing but talk, he begins this parable
and he says, a certain man, now this certain man here represents
God in this parable. He made a great supper and he
bade many. Now that great supper is the
gospel of Christ. That feast is the preaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is that feast that is
prepared and ready. The gospel is preaching of Christ's
unsearchable riches. Salvation is accomplished. Redemption
is ready, finished, and prepared. He bade, God did. He called,
that's what the word means. Many, but not all, many. Many are called, but few are
chosen. And in verse 17, He sent his servant representing the
gospel preacher. At supper time, at the appointed
time of love, when the fullness of time was come, when salvation
was accomplished and finished by Christ, God sent his servant
to say to them that were bidden, come, now look at this, come
for all things are now ready. The time of redemption is at
hand. This is the message of gospel preaching. Come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shall be saved. That's our message. Believe on
Christ, come to Him. And it was God who provided this
great supper as we've seen. This great supper is the provision
of the gospel and it's already ready. There's nothing to bring,
Linda, nothing to bring. There's nothing to do. Christ
is who we partake of in order to receive life. He accomplished
the work. He finished the work. Believe,
come, all things are ready. Christ is the great banquet of
God's grace. How great is the love and mercy
of God displayed to chosen sinners in the person and work of Christ.
Why he did for me what I could not do for myself. That's my
only hope of ever being reconciled to God. That's my only hope of
ever being in fellowship with a perfect and holy and righteous
God. Now the flesh of Christ is our
spiritual meat. The blood of Christ is the choicest
wine. When we partake of the Lord's
table, that's what we do. His body, which was broken for
us, we partake, we eat of it. His blood that was shed for us,
He's the reason. What a great supper God has prepared. It's provided without money and
without price. Who would not come to such a
gospel feast? Come for all things are now ready. You know, the Apostle Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, he said, but of him, speaking
of God, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, is
made unto us. Christ is already made unto us.
Not will be made unto us, but already is. He's already made
to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Everything that we need, God
has provided. In Colossians chapter two, verse
nine, you know the verse well. Paul wrote, for in Him dwelleth,
not will dwell, not will someday dwell, but right now dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him. Not will be complete or someday
be complete, but complete right now, right this second. Come
for all things are now ready. That's the message. Everything
that you need to be saved is ready. Everything that God requires
of you has been provided for you and is now ready. Why wouldn't
you come? Why wouldn't you come? Ready
right now, nothing for you to bring, nothing for you to do,
nothing but believe and rest in Christ. Now, if there's something
for me to do and I can't do it, what comfort, hope, and assurance
would be found in that? There's no hope, comfort, or
assurance found there. But you can come with full assurance
and hope when you hear all things are now ready. Nothing to do.
Just come. Come and partake. Come and eat. wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Christ has already been made
those things unto us. For in Christ dwells all the
fullness, all of it, all the fullness of God in that body
that He gave. The child of God is complete
in Him. There's nothing lacking, they
do. It's all complete in Him, in Him, in Christ, nowhere else.
And if you're in Jesus Christ, you cannot be more saved. You
cannot be any more holy. You cannot be any more righteous.
You cannot be any more perfect. You cannot be more acceptable,
not than you are right now in Christ, because God says all
things are right now ready. So come as you are to this great
gospel feast. Now, what was the response to
this glorious message? Verse 18, and they all, how many? All, with one consent begin to
make excuse. Isn't that so alarming? What
was the sinner's response to God's salvation? All of them
began to make excuse. Now, these men were not called
to a prison of misery. They were called to a blessing.
They were called to a marriage banquet. All things had been
made ready for them. They were poor, spiritually poor. They were maimed, spiritually
afflicted. They were lame and could not
walk. They were blind and could not
see. What they needed most was healing, and that's what was
accomplished for them. All they had to do was come.
How then could they be so unwilling to come? Who but a fool would
refuse a banquet of love? Well, no doubt it's true that
we're altogether unprofitable. It must be true that there's
not one who seeketh after God. What frivolous excuses these
excuses were, we'll look at them in a moment. Obviously, no one
had respect for this generous friend. None would sit at his
table and receive his bounty. Our Lord said, you will not come
to me that you might have life, and they wouldn't. Their will
was not to come. I'm not much interested in hearing
men today talk about their will. They call it free, it's anything
but. Their will's in bondage to their nature. Their will is
in bondage to their sin. No such thing as free will. And
when you argue about it, you're not arguing with me. That's what
the Lord Jesus himself said. You will not come to me that
you might have life. Now the great supper, this unsearchable
riches of Christ that God provided, the gospel of our salvation is
no doubt a white backdrop to set forth the blackness of a
man's heart. We're often accused of preaching
Calvinism. Well, I'll say this about Calvinism. Calvinism is not the gospel,
but John Calvin had five good points, five good ones. And the
first one is total depravity. And what a picture we see of
that here in this parable. All of them, with one consent,
begin to make excuses. We'll not have this man rule
over me. We never just see how dark, black, and evil man is
until the gospel is preached to him. And they all, with one
consent, begin to make excuse. All of them. Without God's divine
intervening, as we spoke about last week, this parable proves
it to be so. By nature, every man and woman
refuses to partake of Christ, who is the great banquet. God
has to make them willing to come. We are in and of ourselves altogether
unprofitable. Now that's what God says about
us. There's none that seeketh after God. There's none that
doeth good. And he reiterates by saying,
no, not one. Now, when we understand the definition
of excuse, we understand a little bit more of our great sin. You
see, excuse means an attempt to lessen the blame. Excuse is
to seek or defend to justify our unwillingness. Now if our
hearts weren't so deceitful, it wouldn't make excuses. But
it is and it does. And you're guilty of it and so
am I. We won't be honest with God, we won't be honest with
ourselves. Now had these who made excuse
spoken truthfully, you know what they would have said? They would
have said, we don't wanna come. I'm convinced that people do
what they want to. And people don't do what they
don't want to. Sinners don't come to Christ because they really
don't want to. Now, these men had no intention
of coming. They tried to excuse. They tried
to justify. They tried to defend their actions.
And the reason is simple and plain. By nature, men and women
do not see their sinfulness. That's just a fact. They will
not accept any pardon because they don't really think that
they need any pardon while they can work out their own salvation. I had a man tell me a few years
ago that he didn't need the church. And I told him, I said, but you
know, you've passed from death into life by your love for the
brethren. We need one another. We need to encourage one another.
We need to worship the same God together. He said, nope, don't
need the church. He said, I'm going to make a
go of it on my own. You can't do it. You can't do
it. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. You know what that means? That
means without Christ, you can do nothing. Excuses are nothing
more than a means to justify and defend your depravity and
your unwillingness to bow to Christ. But our excuses, they're
worthless. They really are. They're worthless.
Excuses only attempt to cover and justify the truth. We give
excuses because we don't want anyone else to know what we really
want or don't want. But God knows it. And we might
hide it from others, but you can't hide it from Him. Those
who will not come to Christ don't want to come to Christ. God is
clear that no man can come to Christ. That simply means that
no man or woman has the ability to come. But by the divine intervention
of the Lord Jesus Christ, no man or woman will come. He is
the way, He is the truth, and He is the life, and no man, no
woman, no sinner, nobody comes to the Father but by Him. To not to come to this feast
is to actually despise God's sole and only provision provided
for salvation. Men make excuses, they justify
their actions because they're not honest enough to say what's
really so. Men and women want to be on good
terms with their conscience. But they're cowards. They compromise
with an excuse. And how ironic is it that men
and women seek to hide things from the very one who knows everything? Who are we fooling? Only ourselves. Only ourselves. And Satan is
so ready to help us, isn't he, with our excuses. Oh, if we fire
the gun, he'll provide the ammunition. He'll always keep you supplied
with excuses. Adam. Why did you hide to cover
my nakedness? Who told you you were naked?
Have you eaten up the tree? The woman you gave me, she gave
me to eat, and I did eat. Woman, the serpent you left in
the garden, he did beguile me, he did trick me, and I did eat.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. You know, our self-righteousness
prompts our excuses. If we could sit in judgment upon
ourselves, the verdict would always be not guilty. We'd find
an excuse for our guilt, wouldn't we? We play the blame game. The
woman you gave me, the serpent you gave me, really, God, it's
all your fault. If you hadn't given me the woman and if you
hadn't left the serpent, why, I would have been just fine.
So really, God, it's all your fault. Excuses, excuses. Did you notice that in this parable,
every excuse given had to do with being too busy? Busy, busy,
all we live in a busy world, don't we? It's all an excuse.
Look at verse 18. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground and I must need to go and see it.
I pray thee, have me excused. Now I know you've asked yourself
this question and reading this verse before, but who buys a
piece of ground without first going to see it? When was the
last time you bought a house to live in without looking at
it first? Not a good excuse at all, really. And then verse 19,
and another said, well, I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to
prove them. I pray thee, have me excused. Well, this man had to go prove
these yoke of oxen. He had to go try them out to
see if they would work. But who buys oxen without trying
them out first? When was the last time you bought
a car and didn't test drive it? That's not a very good excuse.
Lies, lies, and more lies. Look at verse 20. I have to give
this guy at least some credit. He says, and another said, I've
married a wife and therefore I cannot come. He didn't ask
to be excused. He just said, I cannot come.
At least this man didn't make an excuse. He thought getting
married was excused enough. He simply said, I cannot come.
Well, why not? I got married. I cannot come. Well, he could have brought his
wife with him. Too busy, too busy. Nobody ever starved because
they didn't have time to eat. And if God gives us time to support
our physical and natural body, he'll most certainly give us
time to feed the soul. And I'm too busy to come. What
a pitiful excuse. We're not too busy to breathe.
We're not too busy to eat. We're not too busy to dress.
I look out at those of you that are here this morning, I've known
some of you for a long time, almost 40 years, and I've never
seen any of you go anywhere half-dressed. You always dress very nice and
very complete. And I'm going to tell you something.
If my house was on fire and I didn't know it, and somebody saw the
fire and broke down my door and said, David, your house is on
fire. You better get out. What in the
world would you think if I told you that I would, but I'm too
busy to leave? You'd think I was crazy and you'd
be right. And the bottom line is this.
Those that are well have no need of a physician. That's really
the bottom line. You won't go to a doctor if you're
not sick. You won't go out to eat if you're
not hungry. And you won't come to Christ
if you have no need of him. Those who quit the gospel never
really had a need. Those who don't need Christ never
really had a spiritual need. There was a man that attends
here a couple weeks ago. He said to me, I don't feel great,
but I had to come hear the gospel. Do you know why he had to come?
He's got a need. Every child of God has a need.
Tell this sinner again and again what Christ has done for them.
That's something that I need to hear over and over again. That's why every true child of
God who are bidden to come, come. Why? Because they have a great
need. This man in the parable said, I cannot come. He had married
a wife. He thought it was unreasonable
to be expected to come. You know, we're married to a
lot of things in this world. This man thought little of the
feast giver or he would have come. This man had no respect
for this gracious man mentioned in this parable who bid him to
come. The truth is he had no need at all. Actually, he had
contempt for the supper itself. He had contempt for the provision
that was made. He had contempt for Christ. He
said, I cannot come. He said, I will not come. Well,
I can have just as good a supper at home. My new wife, she's a
good cook. I can do just as well on my own. You see, he wasn't dependent
on anyone. He had originally promised to come, but now he
retracted his promise. Now he says, I cannot come. He
dismisses the matter. His mind is made up. The matter
is settled. He didn't need anyone. Not many
people will be honest and say, I hate the gospel that you preach.
Instead, they make excuses. What about this excuse? Well,
that preacher out there, he says that we have no will in the matter.
I just can't go for that. I can't hear a man that says
such a thing. Well, let me tell you something.
If you're talking about me or another preacher like me, it's
not the preacher that said it. The Lord Jesus Christ said it.
The Lord Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might
have life. Paul said, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The child of God
is born spiritually, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God." Now, that's what this book
teaches. The child of God will not come.
Well, to those who give these pathetic excuses, it didn't matter
if the great giver was grieved. There's nothing said about it.
Well, I hope he's not upset. It didn't matter if the food
was wasted. It's bad enough to refuse God and say, I cannot
come. But friends, it's far worse to
say, I cannot come to Christ. And it's even worse to say, I
will not come to Christ. I will not have this man to rule
over me. No, sir. If the bidden guests
did not come and come at once, listen, they'd never come. Because
there's only going to be that one supper. that one great banquet
of the marriage feast. There would not be a series of
banquets, just one, just one. The great man that prepared the
feast did not intend to prepare another one. There's only one
Jesus Christ. Christ in the flesh came once.
He came into the world once to save sinners. There's only one
sacrifice for sin, just one. Unbelief will keep you out. Do
not turn away from this one door of life. Do not refuse the only
way of salvation. Don't do it. This feast, the
preaching of the gospel, if it's slighted, if it's forsaken, it'd
be better off if you'd never been born. Now look at verse
21, and I'll begin to wrap this up. I'm out of time. So that
servant came and he showed his Lord these things. Then the master
of the house being angry, the master of the house was offended.
He had a right to be. And he said to his servant, go
out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city and
bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the haught and
the blind. Now this is talking about the
effectual call of God. I love to talk about the effectual
call of God. I love to think about the effectual
call of God. You know why? Because I would
have never come if he hadn't done it. He said, go out and
bring them in. Jack Shanks used to call it fetching
grace. That's what it is. He doesn't
say here, invite them in. He says, bring them in. Matter
of fact, they couldn't come in on their own. Why? Well, because
they were crippled and they were maimed and they were haunted
and they were blind. They had to be brought in. It
wouldn't have done a bit of good to invite them. And let me make
it clear that I'm not saying that God doesn't invite sinners
to come to Christ. I lean more towards it being
a command of God. I know God said, come let us
reason together. But men, preachers, they've made
an invitation at the end of a service, what they call an altar call.
Preachers have made it the means of being saved. Now do you know
what I mean by that? If a man walks down front, if
a man makes a decision, if a man lets go and lets God, then he's
saved. and they leave Christ totally
out of the equation. Salvation is being effectually
brought to God. Salvation is God divinely intervening
in our lives as we saw last time. Salvation is God sovereignly
interrupting in our lives, and thank God that He does. He interrupts
in the lives of the crippled, the maimed, the haught, and the
blind. You see, a crippled man is not
able to come. lay him on both of his feet from a great fall.
But Phibeshev couldn't come to the king. He had to be brought,
he had to be fetched. You can invite him all you want,
but he's got to be brought. You see, by nature, we're halt,
we're always halting between two opinions. We're going back
and forth and we're tossed about by every wind of doctrine. One
day we believe this, the next day we believe that. God's got
to divinely interrupt. Blind, unable to see the beauty
of the Lord Jesus Christ and unable to see our own sinfulness. We're blind. And Christ's parable
here shows us so well that if a man is invited and does not
come, that makes God angry. I know that men have portrayed
God to be the little old man upstairs wringing his hands and
loves everybody and just wants somebody to love him back. But
that's a lie. That is a lie. That's not the
God of the Bible. He's represented in this parable
as being angry. God is offended with those who
are offended with his son. Look at verse 22. And the servant
said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded. It always is.
And then he says this, and yet there is room. That's the most gracious words
that may ever been written in this book. Yet there is still
room. God's still saving sinners. God's
still saving sinners. He sure is. There's not a more
encouraging word in all the Bible, more encouraging than that. You
know, election doesn't shut you out. We've had that conversation
before. It never has. Yet, there is still
room. Won't you come? All things are
made ready. Look at verse 23. And the Lord
said unto the servant, go out, go out into the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. Go out into the highways. People that are far off, go out
into the hedges. I just picture evil people hiding
in the hedges. And he says, compel them to come
in. Compel, that's a strong word.
compels a strong word. It means to put constraint upon.
It means to handcuff them and bring them in if need be. It's
more than just inviting. It means to necessitate. It means
to make necessary. It means to demand, to leave
no choice. It means to exact force if need
be. And you say, well, brother, nobody
has ever been drugged to heaven against their will. I know it
because God made them willing in the day of his power and they
come willingly, but that wasn't the case. They had to be compelled
to come in. God makes the rebellious child
of God willing in the day of his power. And every prodigal
son and daughter comes willingly. God makes them come to their
senses. And they say, well, even the servants in my father's house
have it better off than I do. I think I'll return home to my
father." And as they're walking down that long drive, the father
sees them and he comes running. He says, kill the fatted calf,
bring the best ring, bring the best robe, for my son, my daughter
who was dead, is now alive. There's still room. There's still
room. Today, today, if you'll hear
his voice. Look at verse 24, for I say unto
you that none of those men which were bidden, all those men that
made excuses, none of those men shall taste of my supper. But
today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. To whom
swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them
that believe not. Do you believe? Have you come
to Christ? Or are you still making excuses?