I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. I've entitled this message, God's
Strange Guest List. Our text is found in Luke chapter
14 beginning in verse 12, Then said He also to him that bade
him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends,
nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors,
lest they also bid thee again, and recompense be made to thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the
lame, and the blind. Now I want you to imagine a banquet
with every chair filled with poor people and disabled people
and crippled people and blind people. Every chair filled with
nothing but that type of a person. Picture that in your mind. And
he says in doing this, verse 14, thou shalt be blessed. blessed of God. Thou shalt be
blessed for they cannot recompense thee. They can't pay you back
for what you've done. For thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just. You'll get paid back in the resurrection. Now, many people think that that
means when you do a good deed here, you're going to get paid
back for it and rewarded on Judgment Day, and that's when you'll get
your payback. But I hope you'll understand, as you hear this
message, that that is not what that means. And if I am doing
anything in order to get a payback on Judgment Day, all I prove
is I don't know God, and I don't know His grace. But what is meant
by this? Now obviously the Lord is not
saying that we should never have our friends or brethren or relatives
or rich neighbors over to eat with us. You know a great part
of the joy of life is eating with our loved ones. I love to
eat with my loved ones whether friends or family. It's a joyous
occasion and we all enjoy doing that. And the Lord frequently
ate at other people's houses. You remember Him eating at Martha
and Mary's house. And He didn't have a home when
He ate at somebody's house, which is what He generally did. It
had to be at somebody else's house. And the Lord just did
that a lot. What he is saying is be compassionate
and generous toward the needy, the poor, the maimed, the disabled,
the lame. And that word lame means more
than a limp in your walk or cripple. It can also mean dejected. It
can mean hesitant. It can mean depressed. And the
blind, those who cannot see. In Galatians chapter 2 verse
10, James and Peter and John said to the apostle Paul, we
would that you would remember the poor, and Paul said the same
which I was also forward to do, something I very much wanted
to do. This was something frequently
done by the Lord, remembering the poor, doing things for the
poor. You'll remember even when Judas
went out at night with the bag, he was the treasurer. I think
it's interesting that the traitor was the only one of the disciples
that held an office. He was the treasurer. And when
he went out at night, all the disciples thought he went out
to give something to the poor. Evidently, that was something
frequently practiced by the Lord to help poor people. The Lord
says, do what you do. without self-promotion, without
payback in mind. Let not your right hand know
what your left hand is giving. Don't do what you do to sound
a trumpet before men so they can see what you've done. Don't
do what you do in order to get some kind of recompense or payback. Do things for people who cannot
do anything for you, not looking for anything in return, no expectations. isn't what our Lord calls upon
us to do beautiful. To do something for someone with
no expectation of payback, reward, or recompense. To truly reach
out to the poor, to the disabled, to the lame, and to the blind. And he says in doing this in
verse 14, thou shalt be blessed. Oh, how blessed you will be. It's more blessed to give than
to receive. Those are the words of the Savior.
And oh, how blessed you will be in doing what the Savior says. How blessed I will be in doing
what the Savior says. He says, You shall be blessed,
for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed,
you will be paid back, at the resurrection of the just. Now I want to speak a few minutes
about that. Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
Now this word just is the word that is generally translated
righteous. the just and the righteous. There
will be a resurrection. Things are not going to stay
the way they are. There's going to come an end
to everything, and there's going to be a resurrection. And the
Lord here speaks of the resurrection of the just. The just is the
righteous. I want to read a couple of verses
to you from 2 Peter 2, verse 6. It says that God turned the
cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with
an overthrow. making them an example unto those
that afterwards should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot." Remember
the resurrection of the just? Here's the same word. He delivered
just Lot. You remember Lot, the nephew
of Abraham? He delivered just Lot, vexed
with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous
man, now this is God's testimony of Lot. that righteous man. Now hold on. If you look at Lot's
history, if you didn't have this passage of scripture, you'd probably
say he wasn't saved. He was opportunistic. When he
was given the choice between taking the well-watered plain
or the other side, he chose the best when he should have deferred
to Abraham. He was a worldly man, it appeared. He pitched his tent towards Sodom.
He ended up being in Sodom, and when God was going to destroy
the place, he lingered, and the angels had to grab him by the
hand and pull him out. He was a drunken man. He was
an incestuous man. I mean, he seemed to be a very
sinful man. If you look at his conduct, he
seemed to be a very sinful man. I dare say, if we didn't have
this scripture, I'd probably say, well, Lot probably wasn't
saved. But what does the Lord say? What
does God say about him? And remember this, what God says
is the way things really are. Here's what God testifies concerning
this man Lot, who had indeed been guilty of all the things
that I spoke of. Scripture points that out. But
look what God says regarding Lot. For that righteous man,
dwelling among them and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds, the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptation. Now God calls
this man godly. He says he is a righteous man
and a righteous soul. This demonstrates, my dear friends,
the reality of justification, the central theme of the scripture,
how God justifies the ungodly, how Christ justifies those that
he died for. Now justification What a glorious
truth. If Christ died for me, if he
was delivered from my offenses and raised again for my justification,
I'm justified. I really am just before God. I have no sin. I've not committed
sin. If I'm justified. Now, somebody
says justification is just as if you've never sinned. No, that
won't get it because if it's just as if you've never sinned,
you still sinned. Justification is, I never sinned. Oh, that is so gloriously mysterious
and awe-inspiring that the Lord Jesus Christ saved in such a
way that that poor old publican who saw himself to be the worst
sinner to ever live went down to his house Justified. Justification is so real that
all who are justified will be rewarded on judgment day. I'm
going to hear God say to me, well done, thou good and faithful
servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. And you know
if God says well done, You know what? It's because it was well
done. You see, the righteousness of Christ is so much my righteousness
before God that I'm gonna hear him say to me, well done, thou
good and faithful servant. Everything you did was perfect.
You always did that which was right. You never did that which
was wrong. You're just in my sight. You
know, people talk about the believers, the judgment of believers' sins.
You know, they don't have any sin to be judged for. I am perfect
in Christ Jesus. That's what justification is. And at the resurrection of the
just, every believer will be rewarded with perfect righteousness
for a job well done. You always did that which was
right and you never did anything wrong. Now, a lot of religious
people think that what this means is on the resurrection day and
on judgment day we'll be rewarded for our good works and some will
have more rewards than others. I even heard a preacher here
in Lexington say to his congregation, he said, some of you will be
shining my shoes in heaven. Now, let me tell you one thing,
that fellow won't be in heaven, because that is a complete denial
of what justification is in the first place. If you're justified,
you're not guilty before God. And all of God's people have
the same righteousness, the same standing, Christ Jesus alone. That's what justification is.
Now, most people say they believe in justification, most religious
people, I mean, the words in the Bible so much, but where
they, mistake, where they go wrong, is how a sinner is justified. If I say I'm justified because
I, fill in the blank, whatever it is I did, I'm justified because
I believed or because I repented or because I stopped smoking
and drinking and chewing and I stopped this and I started
doing that and I started reading the Bible, if I believe I'm justified
because of anything I do, because I made a decision, because I
walked an aisle, because I felt this, because I did that, if
I think God rewarded me with justification because something
that I've done, I believe in justification by works. Plain
and simple. I don't believe I'm justified
because of anything that I've done. I'm justified because Christ
died for me, put away my sins, and was raised again for my justification. When he said it is finished,
every sinner he represented was perfectly justified before God. That is my justification. And at the resurrection of the
just, I and every other believer will be justified. Thank God
the justifying work of Christ is so real that in the resurrection
of the just, we'll actually be rewarded for a perfect life. In Micah 6, verse 8, Micah asked
this question, what does God require thee to do justly? to love mercy and to walk humbly
with thy God. Now, did you hear what he said?
To do justly. Everything you do must be perfect,
perfectly just. And if I'm in Christ, I've done
justly. He did justly, so have I. He said to love mercy and oh
how I love being saved by the mercy of God. And I love to be
merciful. When I see God's mercy to me,
it wants me to be merciful toward others. And is there any other
way to walk but then to walk humbly with your God? He's God.
I'm a sinner saved by grace. There isn't any other walk but
a humble walk. Now, every believer will be paid
back at the resurrection of the just. Things are not going to
stay this way. The day is coming when God will
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained,
the resurrection of the just. They'll all be placed beside
Jesus Christ with a perfect likeness to Him, and they will be rewarded. And if I'm not just like that
man whom He has ordained, I'll be cast off. You know, the Lord
talked about the resurrection of the just and the resurrection
of damnation. You can read about that in John
chapter 5, verses 28 and 29. Now, I entitled this message,
God's Strange Guest List. And I want us to zero in on who
is told to be invited. He said, you invite to your feast
the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. That's who you
are to call to this feast. You call these people to this
feast. The call of God. I love to think
about that, the call of God. Now these people are mentioned
once again later on in this chapter in verse 21 of chapter 14. So the servant came and showed
his Lord these things. Then the master of the house,
being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed
and the halt and the blind. These are the people that God
brings in. These are the people that God
calls. Now, the call of God. First of all, the call of God
is a divine summons. Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth. It's not a call you can reject.
It's not a call you can resist. It comes with irresistible and
invincible grace. Somebody says, well, I resisted
God. He never called you. If He calls you, you won't resist.
You must come, just like Lazarus must come forth. Zacchaeus, make
haste, come down. Today I must abide at thy house.
And he made haste and came down and received Him joyfully. It's
a divine summons but it is a compassionate wooing. The call sounds something
like this. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He's calling on
those who labor, labor under a sense of sin, burdened by their
sin. He says, come to me and I will
give you rest. And this call of God is the call
of ownership. I've called thee by name, thou
art mine. That's the way God calls. It's
the sign of ownership. You belong to him. Now, who does
he say to come into his presence? Who are to be called? Who does
he tell this man to call? Well, you call the poor, the
lame, the maimed, and the blind. Now if you and I have been called,
we will fit this description, poor, maimed, lame, and blind. Now remember, it's very important,
you or I cannot believe the call is to us unless we fit the character
for whom the call is made. I've already quoted this scripture
once, but think about this. The Lord said, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, that are burdened. Who's
he called? Those who labor and are heavy
laden. The Lord said, O everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, yea, come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. Who's called
to come? Those who have nothing to pay. If you've got something, he's
not calling you. If any man thirst, let him come
to me and drink." If you're thirsty, you're called to come to Him
and drink. I love God's call. I love the
description of the people He calls. He says, Let Him take
the water of life freely. Are you willing to be saved by
His grace? Are you willing to be saved on His terms? Then come
and take the water of life freely. Now you can't take the call to
yourself and believe it's to you unless you fit the description
of the one to whom this call is made. In 1 Timothy 1.15 we
read, Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
the chief. The only way you can assume that Christ came to save
you is if you're a sinner. Romans chapter 5 verse 6 says,
For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly. The only way you can know if
He died for you is if you're without strength and ungodly.
If you are, the scripture says He died for you. Now you see,
you can't take the promise to yourself unless you fit the character
of the one the promise is made to. Now all of these people have
one thing in common. These poor people, these maimed
people, These lame people and these blind people, they all
have this in common. They can't pay. They have nothing
to pay with. They cannot recompense. And if God is calling you, one
thing you know, you don't have anything that you can give to
Him that would render Him obligated to save you. You know that. You
know there's nothing you can do to pay, to earn, to buy His
favor. You're going to have to be saved
by pure, free, sheer grace, the unmerited favor of God. You'll be saved that way or you
won't be saved at all. Now, all of these people had
this in common. Now, let's consider this description
of God's strange guest list. First, he calls the poor, the
poverty stricken, those who have nothing, not one single thing
to recommend them to God. Now, this same word is translated
a beggar. One who's completely dependent
upon the charity of others. One who's completely dependent
upon the grace of God. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You know, when you find someone
walking in pride and arrogance, you know that's someone God hadn't
done anything for. You see, if the Lord does something
for you, if He does something for me, it's going to make me
poor in spirit. I have nothing to recommend myself
to God. I wouldn't dare bring one work
into His presence and think that He could accept it, because I
have nothing. I'm poor in spirit. There's no
sense of entitlement. You really believe you're a sinner,
and you really believe that if God left you to yourself, you'd
go to hell. You've got no sense of entitlement
to heaven. You're totally dependent upon
His grace because you're totally poor. Are you poor? I'm not asking you if you're
rich. You remember the church at Laodicea? They were rich in
their own eyes and increased with goods and had need of nothing.
And the Lord said, you don't know that you're poor and wretched
and miserable and naked and blind. Oh, what a blessing it is to
be poor, to have nothing. Because only when you have nothing
is Christ all. Oh, when you have nothing, how
easy it is to receive Him as all. Christ is all, in all, only
to those who are poor. And the second description He
gives is maimed. That word means disabled, disabled
in the limbs. Now, when God does a work in
a man's heart, Not only does he find out that he's poor, he
finds out something about his inability. You've never even
believed until you find out you can't. You've never repented
until you find out you can't. You've never loved until you
find out you can't. You see, the Lord said in John
chapter six, verse 44, no man can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him." He's speaking of the inability of man. I don't
have the ability to do anything spiritual. I can't believe, I
can't repent, I can't love, I can't do any of these things. And it's
only when I found out I can't do any of these things that I'm
going to cry out for mercy. Oh, be merciful to me. Give me
faith. I can't even believe. Give me
faith. Give me repentance. I can't even repent. Give me
repentance. I can't love. Give me that love.
Create a clean heart in me, O God. Renew a right spirit within me
because I'm completely unable to do anything. I'm in a prison
cell and I can't get out. I need you to come and unlock
the door and give me the grace to do these things because if
you don't help me to, I won't do them. I am disabled. I'm unable. Paul said the will
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I
find not. I'm unable. The Lord said without
me you can do nothing, and we know that to be true. Now the
third description that he gives is lame. That can mean crippled. That can mean you have a limp
in your walk. You remember after The angel,
who was nobody less than the Lord Jesus Christ, wrestled with
Jacob. In Genesis chapter 32, the rest
of his life, he walked with a limp. And if God has done something
for you, you see a severe limp in your walk. Others may not
see it, but you do. God sees it, and you do too.
And you know that there's a limp in your walk, and you're so ashamed. There's a limp in your walk.
You know, even the seraphims covered their feet. They were
ashamed of their walk. They covered their faces, couldn't
look in the presence of the divine glory, and they covered their
feet because they were ashamed of their walk. There's a limp
in your walk, and you know it. And it means more than that.
It can also mean dejected, hesitant, unconfident. Elijah said, how long halt ye
between two opinions? They were undecided, they were
hesitant. This person is so filled with unbelief, they think, how
could God have anything to do with me? They cry with that man,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Oh, the limp that's
in their walk, their hesitancy, their dejection over themselves. But that is the one who's called
to this feast. And finally, the Lord says, call
the blind. to the feast. I'd like to read
you a very interesting scripture in John chapter 9 where the Lord
makes a statement that is just amazing. He says in verse 39
of John chapter 9, And Jesus said, For judgment I'm coming
to this world, that they which see not might see, and that they
which see might be made blind. And do you hear what the Lord's
saying? Are you someone who can't see? You can't see why God would
ever look your way in favor. You can't see why God would ever
do anything for you. You're so sinful. You can't see
why he would give you his grace. That person, Christ says, I'm
gonna give him sight. He's gonna see. And that person
who says, well, I see why God would save me. I did this, I
did that. I quit doing this, I started doing that. You know
what Christ says to that man? He's been made blind. He's under
the judgment of God. Now let's go on reading. And
some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and
said unto him, are we blind also? And Jesus said unto them, if
you were blind, you should have no sin. If you're one of these
people who cannot see why God saves you, you're the person
God saves. You have no sin. Christ put it
away. But now you say, we see, therefore
your sin remaineth, and it will be remaining on judgment day. O would to God that I would,
and you would fit this description, the poor, the maimed, the lame,
and the blind, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We have
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