I just have one purpose tonight.
If I can get through this message, that's my whole purpose this
evening and my thought this last week. And then I've got another
message that I need for Sunday, if the Lord willing, and then
I can possibly sit back and wait for somebody else to preach for
a little bit. It's going to be enjoyable for me to sit and listen
to the gospel preached. Pray for these men, Kevin and
David. Oh, did I not bring that up there? Thank you. It doesn't work very well
without this. Pray for this, the men. Pray
for the messages coming up. But I ask your prayers tonight.
This is the message that we need in this hour. No sense in looking
forward to messages that aren't being preached right now. So
may God give us grace to focus on this message at this time. And ask your prayers for those
that are sick. Those who need God's healing
hand, pray for them. Tammy is not feeling
well, Joanne. Rylan, you heard from him? I
know Emma was sick Sunday. Okay, so pray for them. My cousin, Gene Thomas, struggling
with cancer. And his wife is taking care of
him. And pray for them. The Lord be gracious to them.
The Lord be gracious to them. And we pray for healing. We know
it's... I have no doubt. I just don't. I don't doubt God
can heal anything. That's not even a question to
me. I know that God's will is what
we don't know. We don't know. Somebody said
it a long time ago, if we had all power, most likely we would
change everything. If we had all wisdom, we would
change nothing. God has both. He has all power,
but He has all wisdom. I don't know what's best. I might think I do, and I'll
pray for it, and God's so gracious, He doesn't rebuke me when I ask
for things that I don't need. I ask for things I don't need
all the time, and He's not rebuking me for asking. We get impatient, don't we? If
our children ask for something they don't need, over and over
we become intolerant. But our God is very
faithful, very faithful. Pray for these. May God be merciful
upon them, especially those outside of Christ. Make a very plain gospel message,
and I want to preach a very plain message, a very simple message.
It is the message that Christ preached. It's a very simple message. And
that's my message tonight, all is ready. Isn't that a wonderful
thought? Isn't that a wonderful thing?
And yet men still will not come. It's astounding. We know when God moves on men,
they will come. They will come, and we pray for
that. We pray that God would move on sinners who don't know
Him, that they might know Him. There's nothing like knowing
Him, is there? There's nothing like knowing Him. And there's
no peace like knowing this, it's all done. It's all done. Salvation's finished, accomplished. I pray that God give us the liberty
tonight to give me liberty to preach it and everybody liberty
to hear it. Anything else need to be mentioned?
Pray for churches without pastors. Pray for churches without pastors.
Remember them. There are many. So pray for them that God be
gracious to give them pastors after his own heart. Let's go
to him in prayer. Most gracious Father, thank you.
Thank you for this opportunity again. You've orchestrated all
of our providences, all of the things that have taken place
and ordained that we should meet in this place here at this time
for this message. I need you. I can't do this without
you. There is no strength. in me to convey this message to them. But I have confidence that you
are most capable to do it. You have all power given to you. All power is yours. We pray for
strength tonight, wisdom, understanding, liberty of your spirit that you
would send him to instruct us in the things of Christ. Comfort
the living and quicken the dead. Comfort the living and quicken
the dead, we pray. We plead for your hand of mercy
on those that are sick. Body is so weak, Father. flesh
is so easily broken. But nothing is too hard for you. You can heal. We pray that you
will. Father, we understand that you
are more gracious than we could ever possibly give you credit
for. You are kinder than we would ever possibly know. Give us the grace to submit.
Thy will be done. Forgive us our sins. Set our minds and hearts from
the things of this world. Give us grace to set them upon
Jesus Christ, our Savior. our king, our brother, and our
friend. We pray this in His name and
for His glory. Amen. Alright, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. Beginning in verse 16, He said
unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many,
and sent his servants at suppertime to say unto them that were bidden,
Come, here's why, for all things are now ready. And that's the title of the message,
All Things Are Ready. All things are ready. Now in
this chapter, This is one sitting, the Lord has been invited to
eat bread, obviously at a wedding feast at this Pharisee's house. And he comes to this Pharisee's
house and the scripture says there was a man there that had
the dropsy. Now this was no doubt a staged
event. The scripture says, and they
watched him. It was a Sabbath day, and they wanted to try to
find some way to accuse him. So they invited him with all
the pomp and pretense of admiring him, but they set this man there
in front of him, knowing his grace, knowing his mercy. Now this guy has the dropsy. Now the dropsy is a disease that
it fills the body with fluid and it swells up so much that
it bursts the skin. It's a horrible disease. This
man had a malady. He was bursting with all kinds
of fluids pouring out of him. What a picture of sin. We, like
this man, have a sinful dropsy. It swells up within us and it
bursts out of us. All manner of vile stench came
out of this man. That's how it comes out of us. Isaiah said, from the sole of
our foot to the crown of our head is nothing but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores. That's how we are. You can dress
it up all you want to. We can put on nice clothes, put
on some perfume, and put on all kinds of things to make us smell
good and look good, but our nature is filthy. And the Lord says they tempted
him. You know what he does? He says,
is it lawful that he healed on the Sabbath day? Now they didn't
even answer him. They don't care about the answer
to that question. He heals him. And this is exactly
what God does for the sinner. When the sinner comes to Christ
in such a wicked condition. Whatever men have as their motive,
it doesn't matter. This man belonged to Him. This man was Christ. You know
what? He took Him and healed Him. That's
what He did to me. In spite of the religious world,
in spite of my sin, He took me and had mercy and healed me. And after this, our Lord, they held their peace. And look
at this in verse 7, verse 5, let's see, verse 6, I'm sorry. And they could not answer him
again to these things. And he put forth a parable to
those that were bidden, and he marked how they chose out the
chief rooms, saying to them, When thou art bidden of any man
to a wedding, sit not down at the highest room, lest more honorable
men come than thou being bidden of him. And he that bathed thee
and him come and say to thee, Give up this man, give up place
to this man, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
When thou art bidden, go down and sit down in the lowest room.
When thou art bid, when he that bathed thee cometh, he may say
unto thee, friend, go up higher. Then thou shalt praise and worship
in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. And this
is the whole point. He gives now the whole point
of that observation. He said, for whosoever exalteth
himself shall be abased. And he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. He noticed how they chose the
upper room. They chose the upper rooms. They
sought out the best places of honor for themselves. Isn't this the nature of man?
To always try to set himself above somebody else. I was thinking
about this. When I was in, I was a jailer. I was in prison guard when I
was much younger. I noticed this, that you could
have thieves and murderers and rapists and all sorts of vile
base men. But we had to put people who
were pedophiles into a different cell area because the murderers
and rapists thought that they were the lowest. They would have
killed those pedophiles. because they thought they were
better. Now get that. That's our nature, to always
try to find a better place, a higher place. And we do this by our
works. This is what men do. But Jesus
said, take the lowest place. Why? Because that's where you
really belong. The lowest place. The lowest
place. For whosoever exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
The sinner in his lost condition is always seeking the highest
place in pride, always seeking to set himself above someone
else. But the truth here our Lord reveals
is this, everyone who exalts himself will be abased. This is not a speculative statement. It's true. Any man that seeks
to come to God by his own works shall be abased. All such men will be called to
give up their seat. Why? Because the place of honor
doesn't belong to us. It belongs only to one man, Jesus
Christ. He is the only man that is deserving
of the highest place. And anybody who tries to equate
themselves to him, it's kind of like having a marriage ceremony
and some guy go up and sit in the bridegroom's seat, thinking,
oh yeah, I deserve to be here. Somebody's going to come along,
the bridegroom's going to come along and punch him if he sits
next to his wife. No, that's my wife. Move down.
He'll be abased. But everyone that humbles himself
takes his place. But this is more speaking of
Christ as speaking of himself. You realize that? Whosoever humbleth
it. You ever humbled yourself enough?
You ever sat down in the lowest room? There's one man that ever
sat in the lowest room. It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
No man ever humbled himself like Christ did. He who was rich for
your sakes became poor. He humbled Himself. He humbled
Himself. And when He humbled Himself,
the one that came along and said, was the Father. The Father came
along and said, Oh no, you don't belong here. And He exalted Him. The Scripture says, For God hath
highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every
name. that at the name of Jesus Christ. That's not an incantation. People
say, In the name of Jesus! Just an incantation, that's not
what he means. By the authority of His name,
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, every sinner ought
to mark Christ. They ought to mark Him who was
rich, and yet He became poor. Even so, we as sinners must follow
Him. We must continually take the
lowest place. We'll take the lowest place.
We bow at the feet of Jesus Christ. I thank Old Mephibosheth. Think
about that. He was the grandson of Saul and
his father Jonathan, and yet his line, Saul's line, was condemned. God removed Saul from being king,
and his line and his posterity, according to the law, David had
every right to kill Saul and Saul's children and his grandchildren. When Saul died, they all hid. This man, Mephibosheth, was no
different. He was in a place hiding. And David, unbeknownst
to Mephibosheth, I like this. Mephibosheth didn't have any
clue about this covenant. He didn't know anything at all
about it. And David said, Who in the house of Saul can I show
mercy to for Jonathan's sake? I made a covenant with Jonathan
that I was going to save his children. Now where are they
that I might show mercy? They said, well, Mephibosheth,
he's down there in Lodabar. It's a house of no bread. He's
poor. He can't help you. He's lame
on his feet. He can't do any service for you, David. Why would
you want him? David said, get down there and
fetch him. Get down there and fetch him.
Where did he fetch him? Did he fetch him in the highest
place or the lowest place? Where God always fetches children.
In the lowest place. And old Mephibosheth, he didn't
think David was going to show him mercy. He saw the soldiers,
those men of war, coming to his doorstep. He knew it was certain
death. And you think about it, he asked
those soldiers, he said, where are you taking me? What's going
on? He said in a word, David told me to fetch you. I'm fetching
you. They took him and they put him
before David and he bowed down on his face. And he said, Mephibosheth! My servant, my slave. He said, you're going to come
and sit at my table. And you're going to sit with
my children at the king's table. Listen, all the days of your
life. And what did Mephibosheth say?
He said, well, it's about time. You know, I mean, I've been waiting
all this time for you to recognize my goodness, my usefulness to
you, David. Isn't that sick? That's what religion does. I
can't wait for God to notice me. Notice what I've done for
Him. No, those kids died. Those were
the rebels of Saul's line that rose up against David. They're
dead. He hung them. He said this, what is thy servant
that thou shouldst look on a dead dog? When our Lord said take the lowest
place, this is what His people do. Because it's right we take
the lowest place. And He said when a sinner takes
the lowest place, He said then, I'll bring him up. If you will not abase yourself,
God will abase you. There's no doubt. If you will
not come to Christ as a sinner, having nothing, no merit, no
hope, no help, no usefulness. If you don't come like that,
oh, you'll be abased. But everyone comes like that,
he said this, they'll be exalted. They'll be exalted. And thirdly, Jesus speaks to
the host, this next portion of Scripture, in verses 12, 14 he
talks to the host he said when you make a dinner don't call
your friends don't call your rich neighbors Don't call those
that can pay you back Instead what you should do is you should
call the poor and the main and the blind you you need to call
people who can't pay you back why because that's how I save
sinners and That's how God saves sinners.
He only saves those who can't repay. Has God not called thee? When God called you, were you
His equal? No. Has He called those that
can repay His mercy and kindness? No. All things belong to Him. Therefore,
the Lord gives us in this a picture. Now, He comes to this portion
of Scripture and He's going to... Some religious guy, he just had
to shout out something. When men are at a loss, sometimes
they just say something. This guy said, well, blessed
are they that eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. You know,
just trying to be religious. Well, the Lord is going to bring
this point home as to who are going to eat bread in the kingdom
of heaven. And he uses this parable, the
parable of the great supper. He said there was a certain man
that made a great supper and bade many. and sent his servant
at supper time to say to them which were bidden, Come, for
all things are now ready. I'm just going to explain the
parable very clearly. The man who made the supper is
God. A great man. That's God. In this parable, He's the one
that makes the supper. The supper salvation. The supper is Christ. The whole reason for this supper
is Christ. In Matthew 22, he delivers the
same parable, only he's more specific. He said a king made
a supper, a wedding supper for his son. And so this supper was
made for Christ, and listen, Christ is the supper. He sent his servant. Now who
is his servant? His servant are preachers of
the gospel. They're the ones sent into the
world. And we are sent with a very specific
and plain message, one that must not be added to. One that is
not based on our opinion, or how we feel, or what we think,
or what we see. It is a very plain message. Here
it is, all things are ready. That's the message. All things
are ready. To us who believe there is not
a more gracious sound in all the world. Are you not glad that
all things are ready? That there is nothing left for
us to contribute? All things are ready. God has
prepared our salvation. God purposed our salvation. Christ
accomplished our salvation. The Spirit comes and in this
time of calling, He quickens us so that we recognize this,
that all things are ready. He gives us our need. Do you
have a need for Christ? You have a need. This is not
natural. It's not natural to have a need
for Christ. You have a need for Christ? The Spirit of God gives
us this need. And then, what does He do? He
comforts those who have this need. He says, look, it's okay. All things are ready. All things
are done. God prepared this supper and
it's a supper of great joy. It's the supper of salvation
for sinners. And now His servants go out with
this gracious message, come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Now I want to
look at this. I want you to first see that
this supper is prepared. It's purposed. It's first of
all purposed. Before it's prepared, it's purposed. If you make a supper, you've
got a purpose to do it. You don't trip on a banana peel
and somehow accidentally make a supper. You've got to prepare
it. This is not just any supper.
This is a great supper. It is a very lavish supper. It
is an expensive supper. I want you to know this, that
all the salvation of men was purposed of God. Not accidental. God from eternity in an act of
eternal, infinite, and powerful love toward an elect people whom
he purposed to adopt as his own sons, who he purposed to give
this supper to. God purposed this from eternity.
We read this in Ephesians chapter 1. It is, I think, one of the
clearest passages of Scripture. I've got many I could turn to,
but This one always helps me because it's concise. I don't
have to turn to several passages. This has got it all right here.
Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Why? He has blessed us, we who believe, with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. How did He do it? According as
He has chosen us in Christ. When? When was this supper prepared? When was this purposed? before
the foundation of the world. What's going to be the result
of this supper? That we should be holy. You that believe, don't you realize
God purposed you to be holy? And I don't mean purposed, I
don't mean He just kind of wanted it. He decreed it. He said to His people, you will
be holy. and without blame before me.
Now why'd he do it? In love. There's his motive.
You want to know why God did it? Love. In love, having predestinated
us, predetermined, determined beforehand, predestinated us under the adoption
of children, and listen how, by Jesus Christ. He's the supper. He's the reason. He's the purpose. By Him. By Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. Oh friend, this supper I'm talking
about has been purposed and decreed by God the Father. It is decreed
for a people that God chose for Himself. I don't know who they are. I
have no clue. I only can tell them by this,
they believe. Now their belief does not make
them elect. They believe because they are
the elect. God chose them. Purpose that
they should be saved. Objects of his love. He chose
us not based on what we would do, but rather according to his
own grace. Secondly, he purposed that this
should be fulfilled by his Son. Those words, by Jesus Christ,
in that lies the whole of salvation. All that God wanted He wanted
you to be holy. He wanted you to be without blame.
He wanted you to be His sons. But the only way that that takes
place is by Jesus Christ. That's it. He purposed that His
Son should be the Savior. His Son should be the Redeemer.
His Son should be the Mediator, the High Priest, the surety for
His people. These elect were not born holy. In fact, There is no difference
between the elect and anyone else from birth. No difference. We are all born dead in sins. We are all born haters of God,
all walking in the vileness of our lusts. And I'll tell you
this, by nature, none of us would come to Christ. When we heard
of this supper, these people going to make excuses? We made
excuses. We made excuses why we couldn't come. No difference. Nor could we ever come by our
works. We could never be accepted. Therefore
the Son of God was ordained to be the representative man of
all the elect. He was ordained of God to be
the offering for sin. You know what you can't have?
You can't have a supper without a sacrifice. We went to a, I
had a good steak today. Now tell me I could have a good
steak and that cow somehow live. Impossible. That cow had to die
in order for me to have that meat. A supper, a sacrifice must
be made. And that sacrifice is Jesus Christ. This was the purpose sacrifice.
He was ordained to be the representative man and the offering for sin
in order to make us acceptable to God. Now, our Father, naturally speaking,
is Adam. God made Adam a representative
man. Now this is despised by religion. It is hated. But it's true. Adam represented
all of us. Both the vessels of mercy and
the vessels of wrath. All of us were represented by
Adam. He was a figure of Christ, actually. Scripture tells us in Romans
chapter 5 and verse 12, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world. Now, how'd sin get in here? Satan
didn't bring sin into this world. He was the very first sinner.
There's no doubt about that. He's the father of lies, the
creator of it, but he didn't bring it in. Wherefore is by one man sin entered
in the world, and result, death by sin. Notice our connection, so death
passed. Now, when Adam sinned, we all
agree, he died. In the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die, but not just him. When He ate, He represented
all of us and therefore we all are born dead in sins, dead. But just as Adam was an earthly
representative of all men, our Lord Jesus Christ was also a
representative man. The scripture calls Him the second
Adam. He's only second in view of time,
but truly he was the first representative man He represented his elect
long before Adam was created Yet in time he is revealed to
be the second Adam one because he like Adam represented a people So when Christ came into this
world and When I said this earlier, he humbled himself. He became
obedient unto the law. Subjected himself to the law
of God. And he did so as a representative
in order to obey the law of God for us. Now this is how salvation
is ready. This is how it's done. This is
how it's made. It's made by a representative. Romans 3 the apostle tells us
in verse 22 even the righteousness of God which is by Now how's
the righteousness of God made? You can't go to heaven without
it. You gotta have it. How is it made? by the faith of Jesus Christ
That's how it's made He didn't say faith in Jesus
Christ. That's not how righteousness is made. Righteousness is made
by the faith of Jesus Christ. And yet now this righteousness
is then given by faith in Jesus Christ. That's not how it's made. The supper was made by Jesus
Christ. He made the righteousness all
by Himself. Where were you? When He made
that righteousness, where were you? The only thing we who believe
understand is, I was in Him. He was my representative. I was
in Him. That's when I made the righteousness
of God, when I was in Him. He obeyed the law in my stead.
I thought of Adam's weakness. Consider this, Adam had a perfect
environment. Now isn't this our natural foolish
thought? Well, if everything was just
perfect, surely I wouldn't sin. Now Adam had a sinless nature,
which you didn't have. And he was in a perfect environment,
and yet he could not help but sin. He failed. The best of us. Now we look down
at Adam. Don't look down at Adam. He's
the best of us. He was the best of us. And yet consider the strength
of Jesus. He came in a ruined world. with everyone opposed to him.
And yet he still honored God in every thought and word and
deed. Can you imagine? I can only imagine
because I can't really grasp that. I've never experienced
what it is like to honor God completely. But he did. He did
completely in a ruined world, in a cursed world. And by his obedience, Christ's spiritual posterity
was made righteous. Look at that in Romans 5, I told
you Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 12, Wherefore
by one man sinned in the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. For all have sinned, we all sinned
in Adam. Now look at verse 19. For as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. How were you
made a sinner? You were made a sinner by Adam,
by one man's disobedience. Many were made sinners. Notice
how many are made righteous. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. Consider Christ, who not only
obtained our righteousness, but that wasn't it, was it? He didn't
just live in this world to obey God for us to obtain our righteousness. No. Sin had to be dealt with
for our salvation to be ready. For all things to be ready, Christ
Himself must offer Himself a sacrifice for sin. And so then by His one
death, by His one death, He has forever
put away all sin. He has forever put away all sin. By one man, all righteousness
was gone. Now by one man, all righteousness
is restored. by one man and one sin, one sin
brought death upon the whole race. Listen, by one death he
forever removed all the sins of his people. Jesus by his great death has
not only redeemed us from one sin The sin of Adam, but he also
justified us from the multitude of our sins. Now is the justice
of God forever satisfied. When God says this, all is ready,
you know what he's telling you? He's telling you this, righteousness
restored. Redemption accomplished. Payment
for sin. Do you feel guilt at times for
your sin? I do. It weighs heavy on my heart.
But you know what? When I think of Christ, I think,
that's just an illusion. Christ has removed my sin. He's
removed my guilt by being made to bear our guilt. He removed
it forever. Scripture tells us in Hebrews
10 that by His one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Perfected forever. He hath blotted
out our sins by His blood. So therefore, our message then
is simple. All is ready. All is ready. God purposed the
supper, salvation to an elect people. Christ came for those
people. He obtained righteousness for
those people. He died for those people. He rose again and right
now He is in heaven and He has sent His messengers with a very
clear message that cannot be added to or taken from. I am
not going to tell you all is ready except. No, all is ready. It's done. Salvation is accomplished. I tell you, look to Christ. What
is it to come to this supper? To come to this supper is just
what Christ has been telling them this whole time. Believe
on Me. Trust Me. Lay your soul on Me. For what? Everything. Everything. Because Christ says, all is ready. Is it? Is it? Is it done? Is your salvation
complete? Are you still trying to work
at it? Friends, look, right now the
gates of heaven are open wide. They just are. The door is open.
The door is open. The fountain of the water of
life right now flows freely for every thirsty sinner. The feast
is ready for every hungry sinner. The way to the Father is open,
but it's narrow. What do I mean by narrow? Religion
has the way to heaven as a tightrope of some sort that you got to
walk on a rope and balance yourself with the law and somehow make
it in. That's not what he means. He
means that there's only one way. That's what he means by narrow.
Christ is the only way. The only way to the Father. He
said, I am the way. Now you misunderstand that. You
tell me there are many ways to God. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth and the life. Listen to this, no man comes
to the Father but by me. And so what do we tell sinners?
We say, come. I don't care how great a sinner
you are. There's no qualification here. All is ready. For who?
Anyone. There's no qualification here.
I don't have a qualification. I can't sit there and God didn't
say all is ready for this person and this type of person and you
judge who's... No, I'm not judging who's ready
for. It's ready. My message is simple. It's ready.
Come. You believe God's got... I believe
God's got to elect people. I know He does. I believe Christ
died only for them. But I also know this, that every
one of them is going to come And they're going to come because
of this. All is ready. That's why they come. That's
why they come. So we call sinners, if you're
the greatest sinner there is. Door's open. All's ready. Sinners of the vilest sort come.
Those who cannot by any means pay anything to God, you are
welcome. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, come buy wine and milk with what? Without
money, without price. Why? It's free. It's ready. It's
ready. What's ready? All of it. All
of it's ready. Come and bring nothing. Our message
is, well, what do I need to bring? Nothing. Matter of fact, the
only way you're rejected is if you try to bring something. Now who's this message suited
for? I'll give you the answer right away.
It's suited for those that have nothing. Listen to me. The only people
that won't come are the people who still have something. Now
look at your text. Look back there for me real quick. the response of man by nature. Look at verse 18. They all with
one consent begin to make excuse. Now, listen to this, because
I thought this was exactly what this is. I wrote it down. Somebody said it. It's not mine.
I'd love to give credit to whoever said it, but I didn't even write
that down. So I don't know who said it actually. An excuse An
excuse is a lie wrapped in reason. An excuse is nothing but a lie
wrapped in reason. These men said, yeah, I can't
come because of this. Well, that's a lie. You wrapped it in a reason, but
it was a lie nonetheless. It's not you can't come, you
don't want to. That's the lie. And so what do
you wrap that lie in? A reason. An excuse. The first
man, look at this, here's his excuse. He said this. The first
said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground. I must needs
go and see it. What idiot buys a piece of ground
that he's never seen before? I got a bridge I'll sell you. It's in Arizona. Beautiful bridge
on a beautiful sea in Arizona. Only a fool would try to purchase
something that he couldn't see. What is this? This is the love
of the world, the pleasures of this life, something you pursue
but you never see. Have you found contentment in
the pleasures of life? Have they brought you the satisfaction
that they promised? I can't come to Christ, I have
so much more that I need to do. Please excuse me. Pleasures of this life are nothing
more than an illusion. Nothing more than an illusion.
I can't come to Christ. I've yet to fulfill these pleasures. I'm too young. I've got so much
more to do. Oh, I can't come now? That's
what Felix said. He said, come tell me this at
a more convenient time. I'm too busy. Too busy. Behold God has never left himself
now men say well, I can't see Christ. I can't see this salvation
you're talking about Why should I follow that when I can't see
that? Listen God has not left himself without witness after
witness after witness this thing when I this message. I'm telling
you all is ready You can't help but see what God has left witness
after witness telling you that it's ready. I You know one estimate of prophecies
of Jesus Christ. You know how many prophecies
of Christ there are? One estimate. That's just one. Three hundred
and fifty-four. I think that's a low number.
Three hundred and fifty-four prophecies that Christ must fulfill. And my friends, He has fulfilled
every single one of them. What do you mean, you can't see
all's ready? God purposed Christ to come and
make all things ready, and when He came, you can't mistake who
He was. He was the Son of God in human
flesh. You couldn't mistake it. And
that thing He did, was that done in a corner? I mean, consider that small little
country over there and that one man, and yet this tale, this
message has been proclaimed throughout the world. Nobody don't know
his name. They don't like him, but they
know his name. Our Lord left many witnesses.
Why then would you pursue Earthly joys that really nobody has ever
found that Satisfies it's like buying a piece of land that you
never seen it's foolish It's like laying all your hope and
all your joy on an illusion that nobody's ever had fulfilled I
Used to watch that Hollywood true Hollywood star stories,
and they just tell about these people man. They had everything
and And they all end up killing themselves or dying of some drug
overdose and all kinds of horrible things happen to them. They never
found it. You think you will? You think
you'll find happiness with the things in this world? No. Listen
to my message. All is ready. No, no, just excuse
me. I've got so many other things
to do. Okay. Second excuse. Look at this one.
He said, another said, I have bought a yoke of oxen. I have
yet to go prove them. Now who in the world buys some
ox if they've not been proven to be able to bear the weight?
This is what these people did for a living, mostly as plowed
fields. And if you bought an ox that
you've never seen, you might get this skinny old ox that can't
even pull the plow. Only a fool would do that. Friends, a natural man hates
the gospel in the face of The gospel of free grace. Men
hate the gospel of free grace because they always desire to
have their part in it. This excuse is really made by
the religious. Talking about works. When I tell
you all is ready, what does a religious man say? No, I'd rather prove
my own salvation. I'll prove my own works. I thought
it interesting, this supper was at night. This guy said you gotta
go prove some oxen at night. Can't even see in the dark. He's out there trying to prove
oxen, that's foolish. But consider how foolish it is
for a man to try to earn his salvation. There's nothing more
foolish than trying to prove that you can earn your way to
heaven. A lost religious man doesn't
like a message that all is ready. He desires to put his hand to
the plow in some way. He desires to prove that he is
sufficient. But behold, this is the message.
Salvation is ready. And if you put your hand to it,
you defile it. The moment you add anything to
Christ, you defile it. In other words, I'm telling you
all is ready, and you're telling me what? It's not. Remember Uzzah,
when David brought that Ark of the Covenant back on that cart,
when he wasn't supposed to, he brought it back on a nice new
cart, and that ox stumbled. And the cart began to fall. And
that priest put his hand up. Uzzah! He put his hand up to
steady the ark. God killed him. Now why'd God
do that? What was the purpose of that?
He had a good sincere motive. He didn't want that thing to
fall in the mud. Why was he killed? Because that's God's picture
of salvation. And when you put your hand to
Christ, God will kill you. You want to add your works? God'll
kill you. Thirdly, third excuse, this man
says, well, I've got a wife, I can't come. Who has the pants
in that family? Well, I can't come, she won't
let me come. No, this guy here, this is a
picture of everyone who was set family and kin above Christ. I've told you about this guy
so many times. That man that came to me after
a service to preach the gospel of God's free grace in Christ,
and he came to me and he said, Preacher, what you said is true.
My family that's died is in hell. I simply asked him, why would
you go also? Why would you follow them? And he went away. He was
sad. I don't know what happened. I hoped the Lord would save that
man, but I don't know. Yet people put their family,
their children, their wives, their husbands, above this. And if you put your family above
this, you'll never come. I think of Pilgrim's Progress. Remember him? He had that big
burden on his back. And he was in the city of destruction.
And he heard from evangelists that God was going to destroy
this city. And he tried to tell his family. He tried to tell
his children. And they all laughed. They all
mocked at him. And you remember the burden became
so heavy that he just took off running, and his children came
after him, and his wife came after him, and he put his hands,
he said, ìLife, life, eternal life!î He just ran. If you ever hear this message,
thatís what youíll do. Youíll forsake everyone for Christ. Christ said, ìIn fact, if you
donít, you cannot be my disciple.î Well, then who hears this message?
Well, look who hears this message. The servant come back and he
said, Lord, look what happened. They didn't believe me. You said
all is ready. I told them to come. They didn't
believe me. They didn't want to come. And the master was angry
and said to his servant, go quickly into the streets and the lanes
of the city and bring here to the poor, the maimed, the halt,
and the blind. And we're going to see the urgency
of this message. It's urgent. This message is urgent because
if you're outside of Christ, you realize that you are a breath
away from hell. It's not meant to scare you,
just truth. That's all it is, just truth. If you've not come to this supper,
you're one breath from hell. And my message is urgent. Here
it is, all is ready. God purposed it, Christ did it,
it's ready. It's ready. Come. Notice who
he calls now. He calls the blind, the poor,
the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the
lame. This is exactly what our Lord
was telling them just before this when he says to call those that
can't repay you. Because why? This is the only
ones whom the supper is really for four. The poor. I'm not talking about the poor
like we have in this country. Poor in this country still eat
great. I'm considered probably poor, but I eat great. We eat
fine. No, what he's talking about is
people who don't have a cent, who have nothing. People who
have no good clothing, filthy rags, sitting in the middle of
the street, begging for bread. These are the people. In other
words, those who have no righteousness whatsoever. Anybody poor in righteousness? Well, the Father sent me to call
the poor. Any poor. Anybody that don't
got anything to pay. Look at God's salvation, how
wonderful it is. You got anything you can buy
it with? Okay, come. That's who I'm talking to. I'm
talking to somebody who has nothing to pay. If you got something
to pay, you'll make an excuse like the other fellas. But if
you have nothing to pay, what do you got to lose? You have
nothing anyway. Come. Come! He says, come to
the maimed, those who have no ability. Can you imagine that?
See a guy with no legs? And he says, hey, you come. This is the power of the Holy
Spirit in that sense. We who cannot come. Have you
felt that? I know when the Lord was working in my heart, that
scripture ran in my heart, no man can come to me. No man can
come to me. And I thought, well, man, he
told me to come, but I can't. Are you one of those that can't
come? Well, that's exactly who he's calling. He's calling those
who can't come. And you know what he does with
those that can't come? He picks them up and brings them. Just
like Mephibosheth, he fetches them, brings them to himself.
And the third one is those that are halt and maim, those who
don't know which way to turn. Man, I was that way. When God showed me my sin, I
didn't know which way to go. I didn't know which way was up.
I didn't know which way was down. I knew I was a sinner. I knew
I deserved to die. I knew that I had no hope in
myself. Are you that way? Are you hauled? Can't move? Well,
you're the ones He's talking to. Come. It's all is ready. All is ready. He says the blind,
those that can't see. Those who don't know. He says,
come. And you know what? He comes back
after He's done that. And the servant says, look, there's
still room. Listen to me. I know God's got
to elect people and I know that only them are going to believe.
Only them are going to hear. Only them are going to come.
I know that with all my soul. But I know this, there's still
room. You know why? He's not come back
yet. When He comes back, then I know
the door's shut. Until then, the door's open. Listen, come now. Come now, why
wait? All's ready. You don't have to
bring anything. You don't have to marry anything.
You don't have to earn anything. It's done. Come and taste the water of life
freely. In Matthew 22, and I'm going
to give you this, our Lord says that there's a man who came to
the wedding feast. The master came by, the king
came by, and he saw him, and there was something wrong with
this man. He said, friend, where's your wedding garment? I provided the feast. I provided
the garment. And you come in your own garment?
Where's the wedding garment? How many try to come to Christ
in their own righteousness? Listen, if you come in your own
righteousness, you are telling me that the wedding is not ready,
that all is not prepared, that you have to contribute. I know this. You must persevere. You must believe. But you that believe, and you
that persevere, Isn't that part of the all that's ready? Didn't
he provide that too? The message is clear. All's ready.
Who's going to come? Only those who have nothing. If you have something, you'll
make an excuse why you can't come. Which is what? A lie wrapped in a reason. I'm so thankful all is ready.
I'm thankful I don't have to depend upon anything I have done
or ever will do to merit this feast. God prepared it, Christ
made it, and He gives it freely to everyone that believes. You know what, this feast is
never ending. It's an eternal feast. It'll
never run short. We worry about that in conference,
don't we? We always worry about the food running short. It's
never running short. You need mercy? Plenty of mercy. You need grace? Plenty of grace. Forgiveness? There's plenty of
that. Take a thimble full of the ocean,
how much you've taken out? That's how much forgiveness and
mercy you've taken out of God when you just take a thimble
full. I've tasted, and it's good. It's good. I pray God give you
grace to eat on Christ. Let's stand, be dismissed, and
pray. Gracious Father, dismiss us with
your own blessings, please. I pray you make this message
as clear as plain to those who in need have nothing, those who
can't come, those who find themselves unable O Father, please, show
them all is ready. Give them the strength and faith
to believe in Christ. I pray you do it for your own
glory and the glory of your Son. In His name I ask, Amen. Namaste.