Luke chapter 14. Begin our reading
in verse 16. And I've entitled this message, The
Lordship. The Lordship of Jesus Christ. Scripture says, and 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, for all things are now ready. And they all with one
consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground, I must needs go see it. I pray thee,
have me excused." Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen
and go to prove them. I pray thee, have me excused.
And another said, I have a wife and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and showed
the Lord these things. And the master of the house,
being angry, said unto his servants, Go out quickly. Go into the streets
and the lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and
the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said,
Lord, it is done. As Thou hast commanded, yet there
is room. And the Lord said unto him, Go out into the highways
and the hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may
be filled. where I say unto you that none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.' And
there went a great multitude after him, and he turned and
said unto them, If any man come unto me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sister, and
yes his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. and whosoever
doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."
Our Lord here Preaching to this multitude, preaching to these
people the gospel of the salvation, he did so in a parable. In a
parable easily understood. A parable is an easily understood
story of human events that picture a very spiritual thing, a very
real and spiritual matter. And so he said that there was
a king, a man. Now we know that this man was
a king in the parable that's parallel to this in Matthew's
gospel. He said a king made a supper.
And so this man who is a great householder, a wealthy man, no
doubt is intended a king. A king made a supper and he bade
many. Now religious people will tell
you that that means he invited them to come. No king ever invites
anyone to do anything. A king bid them to come. He bade them, he commanded them
to come to his supper. And this supper was one of great
expense. This supper was one that was
provided totally by the king himself at his own cost. And
he said, all is ready. That was the message they were
to deliver. All is ready. Come to my supper. And they all,
with one consent, made excuse. They set aside a command of their
king because of the affection and love for the possessions
they had in this world. I like the way that the Lord
did that. He said, I've bought a piece
of ground. I need to go see it. I pray you
have me excused. That's like someone saying, well,
man, you're ugly. Bless your heart. It's a backhanded excuse. It
is a polite way of saying, I will not come. I've got something
more important to do. I've got something more important
than to obey the command of my king. Have me excused, please. I will not go." When their master heard this,
he was angry. And he sent his servants into the gutters, into
the streets, into the highways, to get the most unworthy people. the blind, the halt, the lame. He went into the highways, into
the gutters, into the slum houses, and He said, fetch them and bring
them into My house that it may be filled. He said, compel them to come
in who have no merit, who have no price, not based on their
worth or anything they could add to the glory of My kingdom.
bid them to come. Now listen, can you not by this
simple explanation see the gospel here? It is very plain, isn't it? Very
plain. So we'll go through this and
see the gospel of Jesus Christ in this parable. First of all,
the decree of the King. God is the King. God is the King. And He sends forth a decree.
And this is His decree. This is His command. Salvation
is ready. Salvation is accomplished. In
that parallel passage in Matthew, it says, I have killed my ox,
I have killed my fatling. Everything is prepared. It's all ready. The salvation is a picture by
the feast, and it all is made ready by the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, the Father who purposed the salvation of His elect people,
and a covenant of grace had given all of them to His Son. All of
them to His Son. Therefore, He was made and purposed
of God to be all their acceptance with Him. Now what is said in
Ephesians chapter 1, according as He hath chosen us in Christ
Jesus before the world beget, that He, that they should be
holy without blame before Him, in love having predestinated
them unto the adoption of children, how? By Jesus Christ. It was always by Jesus Christ. It was never by them. It was
always accepted, in verse 6, in the Beloved. Look over at Isaiah chapter 9.
Isaiah chapter 9. I want you to see that Jesus
Christ, this supper, is a picture of Him. Is a picture of His salvation. That all of the salvation of
God's elect was dependent totally upon His work. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6. For unto us a child is born.
Unto us a Son is given." Now, the Son of God is the one here
given. God gave His Son. Therefore, a child was born. God the Son became the Son of
Man. For what purpose should God the
Son become the Son of Man? What purpose? The government
shall be upon His shoulders. What does that mean? It means
that God made the responsibility of all His church to rest on
His shoulders. That He was responsible for the
salvation of all the elect the Father had given Him. The responsibility. Don't you know this? That if
you are saved, you are saved by Him. He was responsible to save you. The government shall be upon
His shoulders. His name shall be called the
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, and of the increase of His government. Here's
success. Here's the promise of success.
That His government will increase. That His government, that everyone
the Father had given Him, shall come to Him. and peace there shall be no end
the peace that he made by the blood of his cross and upon the
throne of his David upon the throne of David and upon his
kingdom in other words he's going to sit upon the throne of heaven
which he did at his resurrection after he ascended into glory
he sat on the throne of David and his kingdom to order it,
to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth forever,
the zeal of the Lord shall perform it." Does that sound iffy? Does that sound questionable
as to the success of Christ? No! He was made responsible. He bore all of His people when
He came into this world. And He lived for them. He died
for them. He rose again for them. And He is now seated at the throne
of heaven, and He shall call every one of them. And by what
message will He call them? All is ready. All is ready. This is the decree of God. All
is ready. Christ had made all ready. Our Savior is a successful Savior. He said this in John 17, as thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal
life to as many as, not one less, not one more, as many as the
Father hath given Him. To give them eternal life, that
they may know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Do you see that, that Jesus Christ
is above all things? That God has set Him to have
the preeminence over everything. And that at His feet, every knee
of every man, woman, boy, and girl shall bow to Jesus Christ. Every one of us will. And so
what is our message then as servants of God? God sent His servants
to tell everyone all is ready. And I'm not asking you to come.
God's not asking you to come. He's telling you to come. He demands you to come. Come to Christ. If I have a message
this morning, it is this, come to Christ. If I have a message
for you this morning, it's this, all is ready. All is ready. Believe on Christ, bow to Christ,
surrender to Christ, and be saved. But I tell you this, this is
the second thing here, the response of man. We see the command of
God, we see the provisions of God, but now then, we see the
response of men. And they all with one consent
begin to make excuse. Did anybody here misunderstand
me when I said God commanded you to come to Christ? Anyone?
You not understand what that means? You don't know what that
means? Command you! Come to Christ! Command you to
believe on Christ! You not understand what all is
ready means? Anybody misunderstand that? All is ready. Can these words be misinterpreted
in any way? And yet men still say, have me
excused. They still begin to make excuses
as to why they will not come. They understand my words, but
they will not come. Listen, they may be polite about
it, you may have this sob story as to why you cannot come, but
listen, it is nothing less than rebellion and treason. You might as well spit in the
face of God when you do not come. That is exactly what you're doing.
Be as polite as you want to. You are spitting in the face
of God. You are telling Him, I am not, I will not bow to Christ. That's exactly what you're saying.
I want you to understand what you're saying when you will not
come. You're spitting on the very sacrifice
of Christ. and telling God it's not sufficient. Now why do men not believe on
the Son of God? Why will they not bow to the
Lordship of Christ? Now this is the one issue between
God and men that's preeminent, isn't it? The Lordship of Jesus
Christ. They will not bow because they
will not have Him to rule over them. That's why you won't believe. You will not believe because
you want to rule your own life. You want to be master of your
own destiny. You will not have the Word of
God tell you what you can and cannot do. You want to have your
own way. But in order to do that, you've
got to spit at God. Men, by nature, will not obey
God's command and submit to the Lordship of Christ. Now, the
natural man is religious. No man denies that. I remember
reading this one man, he wrote, he said, you would sooner find
an archaeologist professed to be a Christian. I don't know
what he, if he was or not, but he said this. He said, you would
sooner find a civilization without an alphabet as you would find
one without a temple. You know why? Man is instinctively,
naturally religious. Religious. The religious man,
he will profess to believe in Christ. Many religious men today
profess to believe in Christ. So long as they can have their
part in salvation. Now, I believe God makes salvation,
but I don't think everything's ready. I don't believe it's all
ready. I believe I've got to contribute something. I have to do my part. They confess
that the work of Christ is necessary. They believe that His work is
greater than their own. But, unless they do their part,
the feast is unfinished. Salvation is not complete except
a man add his will or his religious exercise. Therefore, when the
command comes to believe, to forsake all their works, to forsake
all your righteousness, your religious deeds, to forsake all
your self-righteous deeds, and come to the perfect work of Jesus
Christ, they say, no. No. With one voice, they begin to
say, well, I have a free will. Now,
preacher, how dare you tell me I don't have a free will? I've
got to add my will to it, or Christ's work is ineffectual.
Well, you just have me excused from such a thing. I don't want
to be a part of that. Well, I've got to perform some
religious ceremony, some religious act. I've got to do something.
I've got to be baptized. I've got to join the church.
I've got to do some good work. I've got to do something. Anyone who believes that They do not bow to Christ. They
do not believe on Him. They do not believe His work
is finished. Now some say, well, I would come,
I would be a believer, so long as I don't have to suffer the
loss of anything. As long as I don't have to leave
anything. As long as I can keep my sin,
keep my family, keep my friends, keep my health, keep my wealth,
then I wouldn't mind coming. The religion today preaches that
God does not require such a sacrifice. doesn't require any suffering.
They say God wants everyone who professes and makes a decision
for Jesus, cites some catechism. If He wants you to be healthy
and happy and wealthy in this world, that's what He wants. That's not God. That's not what
Jesus said. I just read it. If any man come
unto me and hate not his father and mother and sister and brother
and his own life also, You cannot be my disciple. No. To come to
Christ, there's great sacrifice. There's great sacrifice. In order
for these men to have come to the supper, they would have had
to left their land, their ox, and their wife. Ain't that right?
They would have had to left those things in order to come. But Jesus That's not coming. That's not
faith in Christ. You remember when Jesus fed those
5,000? What did they profess to believe? They professed Him to be the
Christ. They said, that's that prophet. That's the one Moses
spoke about. Let's make Him king. They all
wanted to make Him king. You know what Jesus did? He left
them. And they sailed all the way across the sea and they said,
Master, why did you leave us? We wanted you to be our king.
We thought you were the Christ. And you left us. Jesus said this
to them. He said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, you sought me not because you saw the miracles, but because
you did eat the loaves and were filled. He said, you sought me not as
Christ and king to bow down to me. You sought me to be king
over you, not for salvation of your souls, but that I should
only fulfill the lust of your flesh." How many people want
Jesus to be king so long as He fulfills the lust of their flesh?
So long as He makes them healthy, happy, wealthy, and wise. That's
all they want. Many will prepare to have Christ
as king so as to ease their conscience. How many people do this? They have this twinge of guilt
and sin, they fear hell so much and they say, well I'll believe
in Jesus! And yet they never leave their
sin. I know of a man who professes
so heartily that he believes in Christ. He is so demanding. Every time I see him, he wants
me to confess that he's a believer.
He wants my approval that he's a believer. And yet all the while,
he's a fornicator, adulterer, a drunkard. And you know what? He never leaves. He's never left
that life. He never attends the worship
of God. He never loves the saints. What did John say about that?
If any man does not love the saints, he is a liar and the
truth is not in him. That's not one who's bowed to
Christ. How many churches today are saying, well, you come to
Christ and keep your sin? Well, if you're a homosexual,
well, you come to Christ and you keep on doing that. If you're
an adulterer, come to Christ and you keep on being an adulterer. that's not coming to christ that
religion in that that faith is nothing but a hollow shale it
is of any real meaning or value but i am thankful for this that
though many will not come and bow down to christ yet some will
some will Look at the response of these other men. So in verse
21, So the servant came and showed his lord these things, and the
master of the house was angry. And he said to his servant, Go
quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring
in the poor and the maimed, and the halt and the blind. And the
servant said, Lord, it is done, and I was commanded, yet there
is room. And the Lord said, Go out into
the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that
my house may be filled. Now all of these, the blind,
the poor, and the maimed, what do they have? They have nothing. They have
nothing. They're not like these other
men who had possessions that would keep them from coming.
These people had nothing. Who are these people? These are
sinners. That's who they are. Sinners. And that's the only ones who
will ever come to Christ and bow down. Sinners. Others who were bidden had some
possession of the world that would keep them, but these have
nothing. They're beggars, they're impoverished, they're poor, they're
hungry, they're clothed in rags, not fit for a palace of a king.
And yet, why is it that they should come? What mandate have
they to come? Listen, the king commanded them
to come. Sinners, what right have you
to come to God? In yourself, what? Nothing. You have nothing that you could
add to God. Nothing that by which you can
merit God's favor. And yet this is the one God calls. He commands you to come. And so I come by a divine decree. And so when anyone asks me what
right have I here, I have a decree. I think Spurgeon mentioned this
story, and I don't know if it was a true story or if he was
just making an illustration of it. He said, if the Queen of
England were to invite a peasant, send him a royal decree to come
to the palace, he may be stopped by every guard on the way, and
all he would have to do is show the decree. No matter how he
looked, no matter how he dressed, no matter how bad he smelt, He
had a right to come in. Why? Decree. You see how one
is a negative thing. If you have something to come,
you must sacrifice it. It is a negative thing. The command
of God is negative. But if you have nothing, what
is it? It's a positive thing, isn't
it? So when I say that the command of God is to come to sinners,
it's a positive thing. Why? We don't have anything.
We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So like all of Adam's race, we
were rebels like these men, weren't we? These other men, we had our conversation in time past just
like these men. We rebelled against God's decree. This all began in the garden
when Adam first rebelled. You remember his rebellion? God
said, don't eat this fruit. And Adam, knowingly, willingly,
defied the decree of God in eating that fruit. Eve might have been
deceived, but he was not. He would throw off God's rule,
and He ate. And since then, every one of
His race have been rebellious to this decree of God, this salvation
of God. But God comes to all of His elect,
and this is where He finds them. He finds them in the slums. He
finds them in blindness, in darkness. He finds them in poverty. and starving for righteousness.
When God comes to His elect, He strips us of all our self-righteousness
and makes us know our debt of sin and the poverty of our soul
to pay it. He makes us to know the blindness
of our soul to know God, to see how He is able to show us mercy. We're made to see the lameness
of our nature. Jesus said, no man can come unto
me. When God sent his preacher, is
this not the first thing that you knew? Is this not the first
thing that you felt? When God began a work of grace
in the heart of man, this is the first. This is necessary,
that you see you are blind, miserable, and naked. If you don't ever see that, you'll
never come. Like old Mephibosheth. What a
wonderful picture of us is Mephibosheth, that lame man. You remember,
he was born of a fallen king, Saul. He was the son of a fallen
king. And David, rising up as the new
king, had every right to slay the son of the fallen king. And
you remember, David sent out his men to fetch Mephibosheth.
And when they went to him, he couldn't run. He couldn't escape. He was lame on his feet. And
those soldiers came and carried him all the way to David and
they dropped him down in the presence of David. Old Mephibosheth fearing. And
David when he was in his presence said, Mephibosheth! And he said this, listen, Behold
thy servant. He bowed, knowing David had every right
to kill him. If you ever come to God, you've
got to know that, that God has every right to kill you. But instead of killing him, he
said, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan
thy father's sake. Do you realize that God is going
to show men kindness for Christ's sake? Because God has made a
covenant with His Son. For who? The lame, the poor,
the blind, the miserable, the sinner. I will show you kindness
for Christ's sake. and I will restore all the land
of Saul thy father and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually."
And listen, he bowed himself. Do you not see now the correlation
between faith and submission? Faith, friends, is the absolute
surrender to Christ. The unconditional surrender of
everything to Jesus Christ. So here's the word to dead sinners.
I will show you kindness. I will restore all that Adam
lost. And you shall eat at my table
as a king's son. And all who come to God by Christ,
what do we do? Are we not daily feasting on
this supper? Constantly feasting on Christ. His blood, His righteousness,
His broken body. We feast on Him. He is our life
source. He is our nourishment. He is
our strength. He is our comfort. We feast on
Him at His table. You remember old Mephibosheth,
he stayed at that table every day. Every day he ate at David's
table. Welcome, just like every other
son. And yet he was still what? Lame on his feet. Isn't that
us? Mephibosheth, he couldn't, first
of all, couldn't run from David. David brought him. He deserved
death. David gave him mercy. David set
him at the table. He didn't even set himself at
the table. David set him at the table. And you know what? He
couldn't even take himself from the table. He was lame on his
feet. That's how I am. Everyone who
comes to Christ. I ain't got no place else to
go. I can't go nowhere else. Why? I'm still lame on my feet.
I still need forgiveness of sin. I still need mercy. I still need
grace. I still need Christ. Therefore,
I continually bow in faith to Christ. And I rejoice in this. Me and
Mephibosheth are not alone. God will have many come. He said, go out and compel them
to come in. We who preach the gospel, that's
exactly what we do. We compel every one of you to
come in. Now listen to me. Every one of you, come in. If
you didn't understand that, I'll say it again. Come in. What's a qualification? Poor,
blind, lame. Anybody. Anyone. Come in. Why? The King demands you to
come in. And listen, if you've got nothing,
that doesn't sound so much like a command, it sounds like love. And it is love. It is a command
of love. It is a command of a benevolent
King who knows you have nothing. And yet He's provided everything. It is the rightful decree of
God that you should come and bow before Christ and believe
on Him. And this house, listen, it shall be filled." Right now,
there's room, isn't there? We've done this and many have
come and there's room still. Is there any breath in your body?
Today, is there any breath in your body? Then there's room.
Come in. There's still room. But soon that house will be filled. You remember in Revelation, how
many elders were there? Twenty-four elders. How many
chairs? Twenty-four. Exactly right. There's sufficient. There's sufficient
room. Come in. All that the Father
chose in the day of His power, He will cause you to come in.
He will compel you to come in. And when you come in, there won't
be anything else you could do but come in. Matter of fact,
you won't even know you're in until you've already come in. My, He brought you in. He brought
you in. Have you believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ? Let me tell you something about
faith. Faith is not what men suppose it to be. They suppose
faith to be nothing more than a mere decision, a mere act of
will or determination. They suppose it to be nothing
more than an act of obedience to some ordinance. Now, I want
you to understand what faith is. Again, faith is the complete
and absolute surrender of everything to Christ. Your mind, your soul, your spirit,
and listen to this one, your body, your money, your property, your home, pay
attention, your family. All of it must be surrendered
to the sovereign will and care of Jesus Christ. Most men desire to give their
heart to Christ but their flesh to sin. They desire to give their
mind to Christ, but their money to the world. They desire to
give their soul to Christ, but their bodies to pleasure. No,
that's not faith in Christ. That's a lie. I know this, God's
people are capable of such evil. We sing that song, I surrender
all, and conviction overwhelms me that I have not surrendered
all. Yet it is my heart and soul's
desire that I must surrender all. my children." There in His hands. And if they impede me from Him,
I must hate them. That's faith. I cannot tell you how many times
I weep for people who say they love Christ and have no love
for the brethren. Who say they love Christ but
they will not give up their property. They will not give up their money.
They will not give up their houses. They will not give up their lands.
What are they saying? Please have me excused. Is that
not what they're saying? Well, I'm the exception. Nope.
Jesus said, if you hate not father, and mother, and sister, and brother,
and yes, your own life also, you cannot be my disciple. Do you not see how faith and
the Lordship of Jesus Christ are the same thing? You cannot
have faith and not bow to Him as Lord. You cannot do it. You
cannot have Him as Savior if He is not your Lord. Please don't deceive yourself. If you will not surrender all,
it's because you do not believe all is ready. To the blind, to the halt, to
the lame, what are we giving up? If I give up my home, what am
I giving up? Nothing. If I give my money,
what am I giving up? Nothing. If I'm giving up my family, what
am I giving up? Nothing. Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all. Our Lord says, if salt had lost
its savor, what good is it? If a man says he believes in
Christ but will not bow, what good is his faith? It's like salt without taste.
It's empty. It's empty. The believer's life is wholly
spent in service to Christ. Why? All is ready. Listen, I'm not giving up anything
because all things are mine. All things are mine. If I have
Him, I have all things. If I give up my literal family,
don't you know I have a bigger family? You're my brother. You're my sister. My mother. My brother. Now what Christ said?
He said, those are my mother. Those are my brethren. Riches? What are we giving up?
Nothing. We have the riches of eternal
life and glory that can't be bought with silver and gold. So now hear the decree. Everybody
listen. Hear the decree of God. All is
ready. Come in. But to come, you must
bow. You must have nothing, else you'll
never come. But when you come, you have everything.
Isn't this the wonderful, the great exchange? Nothing for everything. Why would you not come? May God even now command you. And I know when He speaks, you
will come. You will come. May God bless you. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer.