If you will, let's begin turning
to Luke 14. We'll be in Genesis 18 next hour.
I've got 20 or 30 years of stuff to
tell you all. And it's hard to know what to
leave in and what to leave out. I'm about to email everybody,
so we're just going to have one service, and it's going to be about two
hours long. and we'll just take a break in the middle. Y'all
can go to the bathroom, shake it out, and get the wiggles out,
and get you a drink of water, and then we'll come back for
part two. I finally got it whittled down to, I think, something that's
digestible. I think the Lord gave me another
message as I was dwelling on that one. So that's what we'll look
at first. This is the soft, comforting message. There are some things
I just have to tell you. God's charged me with that. You don't
know or you forgot. I forget. or no one's ever told
you, we just have to be told these things. And just like small
children, I have to be taught. That's what John wrote, wasn't
it? It's my little children. That offend you? That make you
mad? He wasn't that old of a fella, little children. What's he thinking?
We have to be taught, we have to be instructed. I hope you believe me. I hope
you won't despise my youth. I know I'm getting some gray
hairs on me, but I hope you believe me. It'll do you good. And there'll be evidence of belief.
Do you know that? I believe in God. My wife, oven don't ever break the day
of payday. Oven always breaks a couple of days before payday.
Oven broke the other day. She had her sourdough out in
the store, mixed it up, ready to throw it in. It didn't work.
No oven. And we cook all of our food.
We don't eat out. What are we going to do? I used to make a living fixing
stuff like that, so I diagnosed her. I said, honey, here's the
problem. Here's the part. We're gonna order it. And yesterday
morning, her phone dinged. It's out for delivery. It's on
the truck. You know what that woman did? She went and got flour
and put that starter in it, started mixing it up. I said, honey,
that oven ain't fixed yet. She said, you told me what was
wrong. You told me you'd fix it. I'll make bread. She believed
her husband, didn't she? That's part of next hour, too.
I hope we can believe him. Never fool yourself in ignorance,
self-righteousness, thinking because a child of Adam remotely
agrees with a small aspect of God or God's character that a
great tide has turned. The Lord said, the plowing of
the wind is evil to me. What do they do? They plow and
then they stand back and look how straight them lines are.
Pride, isn't Sadly, there'll be many self-proclaimed preachers
bringing messages about the recent activities in this nation. I want to bring you a message.
I want to read you a sermon. A wonderful sermon. And I want
you to read along with me. This is a sermon from the sovereign
God of heaven and earth. Do you know that? Our Lord came
here as a man and preached. This is a sermon from the only
and blessed potentate, the king of kings, the lords of lords. Would a person hear him preach or would something else be more
important? Would you hear the word of the Lord or something
else more important? Would you nap? Would you take
a bathroom break? Is some other person important? Is a vacation more important?
Oh, if we could hear him. If I could find one person to
hear me today, I want to talk to them. If one person showed
up Wednesday night or Sunday morning, just one of you, I told
Bob, I said, Bob, if you're the only one here today, I'm going
to get up and I'm going to preach to you all I got. We might just
walk around the building and I'm going to talk to you. That's
what I did. They was walking together. I told him to teach
our children. He told us to do that. Take your
children, train them up. Luke 14 verse 1. And it came
to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees,
to eat bread on the Sabbath day, they watched him. They watched
him. Isn't that creepy? You ever had
somebody just stare at you? What's wrong with you? Have I
got something on me? Keep looking. Don't say nothing.
Just watching. That's weird. Stop that. That
ain't socially acceptable. They watched him as staring at
him. And behold, verse 2, there was a certain man before him
which had the dropsy. the dropsy. That's an extreme
edema. Swelling of the feet, swelling
of the ankles, sometimes the hands, the face, they swell up.
All their extremities did. And in those days it was deadly.
It was deadly. Now why do you think a sick man…
Here's a chief Pharisee. This is high up, big religious
folks. Why do you think they'd have a man of the dropsy hanging
out in his house? They brought a sick person knowing
our Lord was compassionate. knowing he healed folks. Knowing
that. And they said, let's get him
in here, and let's get this sick fella in here, and just watch
him. Watch him. Get eyes on him. Record what
they're doing. Just sit back and listen to all
he has to say. I'm gonna listen to every conversation
there is. Judging. You think he's there by accident?
Did it on purpose, didn't he? Verse 3, And Jesus answering,
spaking to the lawyers and the Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath day? Is it lawful to heal this man
on your religious, restful holiday? And they held their peace. Oh,
if people, even the heathen know too, if people would just hold
their peace at the Word of God. Here's what God says. Shut up
and do it. Hold your peace. Stop talking.
Stop waiting for me to stop talking so you can tell what you know.
Hold your peace." And he took him and healed him and let him
go. Is it lawful for me to do this? Nobody said nothing. Come here,
son. He healed him and he said, now
get to walking. Go on, let him go. and answered
them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into
a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath?
And they could not answer him again to these things. Now these
religious folks, these Pharisees, they sought to strangely stare
at him and trip him up, and they could not. They cannot. So Christ gives them a lesson
in humility. to all the people there, many
of them. It said there was multitudes.
This is a chief Pharisee. It's a big house, and this is
a big gathering he has. He's throwing a party, having
a big dinner. A lot of people are there, a
lot of them. He gives a parable of good instruction,
of good common sense that's not so common to the self-righteous.
Look here in verse 7. And he put forth a parable to
those which were bidden, those that are there, when he had marked
how they chose out the chief rooms I'm sitting up here at
the head table. Y'all see me? Put my picture
out there. Put my name out there. I'm going
to sit at the big table." He saw them doing that, and he said
unto them, verse 8, 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. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It just may
be possible that someone's more important than you are. It could
just happen to be someone is more important than me. I need
to hear that. Verse 9, And he that bathed thee,
he come in and say, Give this man place, and thou being with
shame, to take the lowest room. No, somebody else has showed
up. Go sit over there. You go sit over there. You don't
sit here. You be careful about where you sit down. Don't sit
there. It's what the Lord's telling us. But when thou art bidden,
verse 10, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he
bade thee to come, he may say unto thee, Friend, capital F. Do you see that? Is it capitalized
in your Bible? Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have
worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. What's
he saying? Our great Redeemer was sitting
at the lowest seat at that very moment. He was sitting in the scribes
and Pharisees' house with children of Adam, and he spoke these words
to them. Soon, he's going to be exalted.
He's a friend, capital S, that's closer than a brother, isn't
he? The Lord's going to bid him, well done, my good and faithful
servant. The Father's going to raise him from the dead, and
we're going to sit with him, and we're going to eat at that
wedding supper and worship, and worship. Here's what our Lord's
saying. For whosoever exalteth himself,
verse 11, shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted. He gave him a good lesson. Now the Lord Jesus Christ,
God in human flesh, has a word for the head of the house. He's
going to speak to the head of the house, his host, the one
that brought him there. It says in verse 12, And then
said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner
or a supper, Call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, nor thy kinsmen,
nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again, and
a recompense be made thee. Now, this thing to be touched
on. I have to teach these things.
I have to say it. It has to be said. The Lord's not teaching
you to go into someone's home that's invited you over to dinner
and correct them how they're supposed to do things. He's not
saying that. He has every right to go into
someone's home and correct them. We don't. We don't. You say thank
you and hold your peace and go home. And if there ain't enough
food to feed you, stop at McDonald's on the way home, you'll be fine.
Be gracious. This also doesn't mean that we're
never to have our friends and neighbors over for a cookout.
What he's saying is, you don't feed someone, a peer or one greater
than you, an expectation they'll invite you over for dinner. Why
don't you come over to my house? I'm gonna give you a peanut butter
and jelly sandwich, and then I know next week you'll have me over
and you'll have steak. We'll go over to your house and eat
lobster. That's personal gain, isn't it? That's not the gospel.
Our Lord's preaching the gospel to him right here. That's not
quid pro quo. You do this and I'll do that.
It's not indebting another for your benefit. Is that what the
Lord did to us? Do we indebt him to us? Of course not. And you see how
that, when God does a work in somebody's heart, it ain't playing
church on Sundays and Wednesdays. It comes out. That bulletin today
is for me. Every bit of it. If a woman's
pregnant, you ain't going to tell everybody. It won't take
long. It's going to show. When the Lord works in somebody's
heart, it's evident where they work and in their home and throughout
the gas station, grocery store, driving down the road in traffic.
It comes out of you. That's what the Lord's showing
him here. He's just thinking he's teaching how to throw a
party. He's not an organizer. Verse 13, But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor. Call the ones that cannot buy
you anything. Call the ones that have no possessions. And the
maimed, those wounded and broken hearted. They got a gash and
wound on them. The lame, those that can't work. Those that can't go out and make
money. The blind. This came to me early this morning,
real early. You know a blind person, I can't enter into that.
They must feel lost often. I mean, they got a good idea
where they are, their senses. I don't. They can tell where
they're at in a room, kind of, and they remember, I guess. But if you're
blind, they don't know what street they're on. They have to trust
another, don't they? They're enabled. They're lost. That's
why he's telling them. Christ instructs this one that bade
him. He said, let me tell you to have a proper supper. First
off, make a feast, not a snack. A feast, and you make it. You
make it. And second, call all those that
have nothing to bring, those that are wounded and contrite
heart, those that are lame and can't bring themselves, those
that cannot see the way, those that have no idea where you live.
They have no idea what you look like. He said, you call those
people. Is that what he does? He said,
you call those people. What's the result of having a
feast and calling these people do? Verse 14, and thou shalt
be blessed for Here's the reason you're going to be blessed, because
they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just. Recompensed at the resurrection?
Wait a second. You mean the Bible's not teaching us a home economics
class on entertaining guests? No, it's not. The Lord's teaching
us about glory, about how he saves sinners. Now is that going
to change how you entertain guests in your house? You better believe
it. You better believe it. Somebody asked Henry one time,
I said, is that man a believer? He said, I don't know, I don't
live with him. I don't go to church with him ever. I ain't
in that town. I don't see him interact with
his children and his wife. I don't know. I don't know. I
don't know if he's faithful to thee. Our Lord's telling this
pious rebel how God saves sinners. This is preaching. Do you know
that? Oh, I wish I could see that. I wish I could preach like
he preached. I'm going to tell you how he
preached. I'm getting up here to read his sermon to you today.
Oh, he preached to them. He preached to them. And stiff-necked people heard
him too. They listened. They didn't hear him. They listened.
They went into their ears. I had to stop. I had to... I
want to be simple. I want to give simple illustrations.
I want to make it so a child can understand. what I have to
tell you, because I have to give an account for your souls." We'll
see that next hour. What happens when Christ speaks?
He preaches in power. What happens when He does it?
He's given a general call to many people there with Him. There
are several illustrations here of how He saved sinners, but
He also effectually spoke to one of His own. Multitudes were
there. We'll see at the end of the chapter.
Multitudes were there. Many were there at that supper. But he
affectionately spoke. Same word. Affectionately spoke
to one of his own. Look at verse 15. And when one
of them that sat at meat with him heard these things. When
he heard. He'd listen to him talk all day.
Oh, now he heard these things. He said unto him, Blessed is
he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Someone heard. Someone heard, blessed is he
that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. The one speaking to him
is the bread. He just saw that, didn't he?
You're the bread of life. The one speaking to him is the
kingdom of God. And to be with him is what truly
means to be blessed. People say, I'll have a blessed
day. I hope I'm in Christ today. That's the blessed man. To be
in his presence, be one with him. And in a short sentence,
this man heard. and in front of all those people.
What shame? Well, I've been here. I'm a Pharisee
for 25 years. I can't go back on that. People
will think less of me. I don't care what y'all think.
It's blessed to be in your presence. I want to eat bread with you
in your kingdom. Remember me this day, Lord. That's what he's
saying. What does the Lord do to those that he reveals himself
to? If he reveals himself to them, what does he do to them?
He gives them life. Verse 16. Then said he unto him
dwell on that." Somebody said, I read the Bible in a year. That's
too fast. That's too fast. You didn't soak nothing in. Then
said he unto him. There were so many people at
this feast. One heard. And this parable we're about
to look at was spoken to one man. Everybody knows this parable.
Oh yeah, I remember that. I remember that. I remember that. He was
speaking to one person. One person. I prayed for days
that the Lord would speak to just one person here this morning.
That He would speak through me and compel just one person today. Maybe it's me. Maybe y'all just
have to watch. Maybe the Lord's speaking to
me today. And that ought to teach me a lesson, too. If one shows
up, people get so discouraged. They say, well, it's hard to
go to church. Tell me about it. You stand up here and tell me
about it. I'll not be that way. Oh, that's my flesh, my flesh
work. If one was made to show up, I would give it all I have. Our Lord, ain't you glad? Ain't
you glad he comes for just one in that city of Sodom and Gomorrah?
Lord, would you leave just one for one I'll spare? I won't lose
one. I won't lose one. Then he said
unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bade many.
The certain man is Christ. He made a great supper and bade
many. This is not speaking of the Lord's
table. It hasn't been established yet. It's not speaking of that
marriage supper of the Lamb we read in Matthew 22. But this
is the gospel message in our day. This is a parable of the gospel
feast, the publishing of the bread of life, We must live. We must eat to live. It's a blood
atonement of God in human flesh. We must drink that we'll never
thirst again. We must take His obedience as
our obedience. We must take His sacrifice as
our sacrifice. And I must take His faith as
my faith. That's what this is. This is a great supper of the
gospel of the grace of God. This is a supper, the last meal
of the day. Because we're in the last, supper's the last one.
You got breakfast, dinner, and supper. You take a dinner bucket
to work, you don't take a supper bucket to work. Breakfast, dinner,
and supper, that's at the end. We're in the last days. Things
are about to get dark. And here soon we're all gonna
sleep. Everybody is, we have that day coming, don't we? It's
great because of who purposed to make it. That's why it's great.
It's great because of who planned it. That's what we're going to
have. What's going to be served at this great supper? He planned
it, didn't he? It's great because of who made
the supper, who did the work, and it's great because of who
paid for it. This is a real expensive supper. What was paid? His Son, God's only begotten
Son. His blood was shed for this supper. Is that important to you all? We are all bidden to eat and
live, because the Son of God willingly laid down His life
for sinners. Many were bade." This is speaking
of the Lord sending His word to the Jewish people. For almost
4,000 years, from Abraham until our Lord walked this earth, one
nation had the gospel preached to it. Everything was given just
to the Jews. His prophets were given to them,
His sacrifices, His tabernacles, His law, His ordinances, His
priests. Everything was just sent to them. He healed some lepers along the
way. And all those people, right here's a gospel laid in front
of you and nobody gives a hooey. That's what happened, wasn't
it? Nobody cared. We know about that
stuff. I've heard that preached ten
times. I've heard all those. They despised the gospel of God's
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ and He turned from them. That's
what happened. But don't you read this passage
and categorize the national peoples. Well, this is speaking to the
Jews, and this is this, and this is that. This is for you and
me in our day right now. This is the hour that God has
sent for us hearing. This is a message for us. This is what happens in Hamul,
California every Wednesday and every Sunday until the last seat
is taken. This is the message that goes
forth. This is what happens in every town where God sends one
of his servants, one of his ascension gifts, until the last sinner
is brought to cross feet. Verse 16. Then he said unto him,
that's one fellow. Boy, how precious. Speak to me,
Lord. Speak to your people. A certain man made a great supper
and bade many, and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them
that were bidden, For all things are now ready.
That's my only message. That's all I got. I was talking
this morning. I don't want to be a theologian.
That's a person that studies theology, the study of theos,
the study of God. I don't want to study him. I
want to know him. I want to learn more of him.
I don't want to just read a book about him. All things right now
are ready. Come. Nothing needs to be done
on your behalf. Come. Come. Don't bring anything
to this feast. That's fine. You go to somebody's
house, don't show up empty-handed. Bring a ball of wine or something.
I don't know. But this feast, you don't bring nothing. Everything's
provided. Don't observe the ceremonies
of man. Don't even wash your hands. Wash up. We're about to
have dinner. Wash hands! We yell that in our
house every meal, don't we? To this feast, don't even wash
your hands. Don't pay attention to man's silly religion and ordinances. You just come. Supper's ready.
Eat. A certain man has made all by
himself a great supper. Come, everything's finished.
That's it. That's the message of a servant.
That's my job if I'm sin of him. If somebody's God's preacher,
this needs to be said too. And they tell you something other
than come to Christ, all the work's done. Well now, you got
to do something. They ain't sin of God. And he
says, his word says, they shall not profit my people. Well, Kevin,
you can't say that. There's churches all over this
county. They tell you to do something other than just believe on Christ,
run to Him and don't ever let Him go. That you've got to do
something. They're lying to you. How would we know? Maybe He'll
send a man to tell you that. How are we going to know what
to do in this house? We'll see this next time. How are we going
to know how to run this place according to God's word? Well, let's pray
that he sends man after his own heart to you students. Hey! Ain't what you was looking
for, huh? You like something different?
I thought he looked different. Paul showed up here to preach
to you, the apostle. That's him? I thought it'd be
a lot different. I thought it'd be taller or stronger
or have thicker shoulders or something. And commercial fishermen
called apostles show up. They ain't little pushovers.
You ain't going to bully them in a corner and deal with them
and make them do what you want. They'll take you up back and
bend you over their knee. Well, the servant went. There's
one response to this general call of the gospel. I'll stand
on every rooftop I can and say, come, the work's done. It is
finished. Salvation is accomplished. Come
eat. Let me tell you about who did
it. Here's the response. Verse 18. And they all with one
consent began to make excuse. One consent, all in agreement
and solidarity. Well, they said different things.
Nah, it's the same thing. It had come out of their mouth
different, but the motive in the heart was the same. They
make excuse. they make excuse. I want you
to hear the excuses the Lord gives us here in this parable
as an example. I want you to see how crazy these
things are, how senseless they are. A child would laugh at them
and say, that don't make no sense. And now I'm going to ask you
a question. You ready? Verse 18. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground and I must need to go see it. I haven't
seen it yet. I pray thee, have me excused.
There was no Zillow back then. Do you know that? There wasn't
no Realtor.com. They didn't see the picture.
I know people that's bought houses. I say, ah, we come and saw this.
It's got past the smell test, you know. It may look pretty
in pictures and maybe a sewage plant next door. You never know.
But they didn't have this back then. What fool buys a piece
of land and doesn't know it? You know what that's saying?
Here's the motor of the heart. I pray thee, have me excused
while I spit in your face and find something better to do.
That's what he's saying. There was a man come to me and
said, Hey stranger, I got some land for sale. Well, I'll trust
you. I'll buy it. I ain't even seen
it. Here's a certain man. The God man has prepared a supper.
Come eat. It's all ready. Why am I listening
to that? I got more important things to
do. I got, I got land to tend to. And another said, verse 19,
I bought five yoke of oxen. I go to prove them. I'm gonna
make sure they ain't lame, make sure they ain't hot. I'm gonna
make sure these oxen are good. I paid for them. I pray thee, have me
excused while I spit in your face. Who in the world would
buy oxen and you didn't know if they could pull anything?
So we'll hook them up to a yoke and we'll see. Okay, well, that
one ain't got a broke leg or nothing. I ain't paying you for
that. Here's a stranger comes. I got some oxen, they're good.
Well, I believe you, stranger. I'll take your word on it. Here's
a certain man with a feast that's prepared. Supper's ready. Come and eat. You ain't got to
do nothing. I got better things. I got more
important. I've seen people not come to church because of a dog.
I can't imagine. The Lord hears all. He knows
man's heart. You know the silly excuses I've heard. People make
up. It's all from the same heart.
If you're sick, I don't care. Because I know that the Lord
controls all the germs in earth. Come on. Come. The supper's ready. This might be the last time you
get to eat. This might be the last time the gospel's ready
for you. Come. People say, well, I can't come
to church. I'm just too bad of a sinner. That's from a heart
that says, I don't believe God can save me. His blood can't
atone for sin. You're lying. You found something better. You're
waiting on something better. All the same. One consent. It's one voice that they're having. Another said, I have married
a wife, and therefore I cannot come. We'll look at this next
hour. That's what got me all here in
this text. Until 1970, this was silly. The Lord's saying something preposterous
here. Well, my wife won't let me. What? Get in the car. What are you doing? We're worshiping
God today. Or I'm going to go. I'm going to be mad at you. You're
going to be in a doghouse. I don't care. I'm gonna go worship
God." A husband or wife should never be forbidden to come to
Christ. You'd be appealing to an unbelieving
spouse, an unbelieving husband, or an unbelieving wife, and you
go home and love them like Christ loved you. And you'd be as patient
to them as Christ was patient to you. And you forgive them
every sour, cursing word that comes out of their mouth, just
like Christ forgave you. be appealing, but now if they
say, you cannot do this, I won't have it, now they've abandoned
you. That's where the line's drawn,
that's plain. Part of Christ's terms of surrender.
He said in Luke 14, 26, if any man come to me and hate not his
father or his mother and wife and children and brethren and
sisters, yea, even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Does that mean you got to purposefully
hate your wife? Of course not. You go kick your mommy and daddy?
No! Honor your mother and father. But if you don't forsake them
for him, you cannot be his disciple. And yea, your own life also.
Well, I'm just not really the part. I'm a single person. I
don't have any children. I don't have a wife. I don't
have nobody. My mommy and daddy's dead. I'm all by myself. But
now I just, I got to fish or I got to go snowboarding or whatever
it is. I need this. I need my time. my time for me. I just need some alone time.
If you ain't ready to forsake yourself, you cannot be my disciple."
That's what he said. I asked the question now. What's
a good reason to refuse to come to Christ? Can you give me one? I don't want to hear that gospel.
I don't want to hear that that food's already cooked and I don't
even have to wash my hands. That's unhygienic. Oh, this stuff. I get emailed. What's a good
reason to not come to Christ? You give me one. What's a good
reason not to bow to Him? Not to have this man reign over
us. Oh, what a faithful man this is. What a good cook. Oh man, what a meal He's provided
for us. What's a good reason not to come
and hear the preaching of the gospel? And I mean it. You give me one. Don preached on this and he said,
I'll tell you what, he said, nobody tells me their excuses no more.
He said, don't tell Shelby. Don't tell people here. They
don't tell me. And that happens a whole lot. People say things,
I show up and they stop talking. You know why? Because you know
it's wrong. That needs said. That's true. God looks on the
heart. Is there a good reason why we
should forsake the assembly of the saints and worship God now?
There's those that cannot. There's those that cannot. They're
housebound. They physically cannot. The Lord's
put them in Providence in a place where they cannot come, and that
may happen to all of us one day. Sometimes you have to work. I
got up this morning at 4.30 knowing I had to preach this message.
My oldest one's at work right now. It's in process, and he
has to. He told me, he said, I can't
work on Wednesdays, and I can't work on Sundays. And I said, that's fine, but
this is the only day we do it, and boy, he's tore up. He said, Daddy,
I know it's the Lord's Day. We got to go to service. What
do I do? And I said, that's fine. You got to eat. You got to work.
It happens sometimes. Sometimes. Children have to eat.
Our Lord spoke through Paul and said, For even when we were with
you, with this we commanded you, that if any man would not work,
neither should he eat. That doesn't say he could not
work. It said would not. What about those that are widows
and those that are orphans and those that are lame? Lord, it's
crippled in their bodies. Normally that's the ones that
have the heart to do everything they can. They give themselves
to provide everything they could and the Lord makes it where they
can't. But those that would not, don't feed them. You're fully
capable to go work and you won't, don't give them food. Is he lying? He ain't. It's not that these people bidden
could not come, it's that they would not. The man with the land,
the man with the oxen, the man with the wife, they would not
come to his supper. He tells him that in John 5,
and you will not come to me that you might have life. Verse 21 says, So that servant
came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the
house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly. Hurry
up with haste right now. Right now. I know what the Lord
told Philip. He said, You get down there. One of mine's on
the road. There's a unit. You go talk to him. And he ran.
Go out quickly. into the streets and lanes of
the city, and bring hither the poor, and the maimed, and the
haught, and the blind." This servant had to give an account.
He had to come and show the Lord these things. That's why Hebrews
13 talks about the Lord sending somebody after his own heart,
and I care for you. I look out for you. People don't
think I need to look out for them. Boy, that means I gotta look
out for you doubly. I look out for your souls as one that must
give account." What's that mean? After this service was over,
like every other Sunday, I'd go home and say, Lord, please make these
words effectual to your people. Apply it to their hearts. Make
them hear it, Lord, please. Apply it to my children's hearts. Apply it to my heart. I count
to Him. Well, this one was angry. He
said, kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish from the
way when his wrath is kindled but a little. That's something
that needs to be told too. God's angry with the wicked every
day. Come to him, the sufferer's ready. He will punish sin. Come to him. And he says, poor,
maimed, haught, and blind. That's just what he told that
fellow at 13, wasn't it? Verse 13. When you invite somebody
to your feast, you invite these people, those that can't come
of their own. You go get those that you affectionately call
them. They pick up their beds, lower them through the roof.
That's who needs to come. Luke 15, we read this, the Pharisees
and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. He's having poor people come,
lame people, lame people. What in the world's he doing?
I'm thankful. He receives sinners to this great
supper. to this gospel message, and he
eats with them. Where two or three are gathered
in my name, there I'll be also. Verse 22, and the servant said,
Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. The Lord's gave us a commandment,
go into all the world and preach the gospel. Every creature. We've done that,
Lord. and there's still room. How can
I know there's still room? That's what some old theologians
get mad to. They're scared to death that
someone that's not the elect might slip into this supper.
That's all right. Lord will take care of the wheat
and the tares. I'll just stand up and say, come. How do we know there's still
room? The sun's still shining. That's how I know there's still
room. Today's the day of salvation. Come unless you starve to death.
Come unless you die of thirst. Come for all things are now ready. Come. Verse 23, and the Lord
said unto his servant, Go into the highways and the hedges and
compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Compel
there means constrain, show necessity. I have an urgency. If you've
never believed God, believe on him now that you may have life. Obey him, do what he says, come
to him, rest in him. We read over Mark. He says, Go
ye to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. I believe you're
having a supper. You obey. It's your head you
obey. He says, My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they
follow me. But he that believeth not shall be damned. He says
that my house may be filled. Oh, when that last day comes. Last child of God will be called
to know Christ. Whether they're called home or
they're called to see him, and it might be in the middle of
a service. This world's over. It's served its purpose. And
his house will be filled. Some old preacher said one time,
glory will have no empty seats and plenty of room. It won't
be a seat empty. Every seat's got a name on it,
but we ain't crammed in there. It ain't gonna be uncomfortable
at all. It'll be just right. Just right. Verse 24, for I say
unto you that none of these men which were bidden shall taste
of my supper. Oh, that's a burden of the Lord. Look people in the eye. Look
them in the eye when you preach to them and tell them who God
is. Tell them what wretches we are.
Tell them we're starving to death and we're going to thirst to
death. We're in a wilderness. We're in a famine right now. He's got
a meal already. Come to him and eat. Come to
him and drink, and out of your belly's gonna flow rivers of
living water. And have not care. I quit yesterday
morning, I'll tell you that right now. I gave up, 8.30, gonna drive
down here, get to working. And I said, that's it, Lord,
you've deceived me. You've tricked me. I preached,
and I preached, and I preached, and I just don't feel like it's
doing nothing. Right then, right when I was
at my lowest, Inside of my bones, it just burned. Did you see that? He spoke to one man. I got to
show somebody that. I got to tell somebody. His word
burned in my bones and I had to tell somebody. He's faithful. He's faithful to save to the
uttermost. Come. Everything's done. Don't
even wash your hands. All right. We'll meet back at
1030. Bye!