I think I've got it figured out. We're going to go to. We're going
to go over to Luke. Chapter 14. We're going to be starting there around
verse 15, and I will say this about this text as we're reading
this. You know, oftentimes in the Bible,
there's there's a couple of meanings. You know, there the scripture,
as they say, is bifocal. The primary thing we will be
reading about is the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ came into
his own and his own received him not. He came to the nation
of Israel, the people of his day, and they had no interest
in his message, no interest in that. That was true of the Jews
at that time, and that's true of the world today. So there
is a dual sense of meaning here in this text. It says here in
verse 15, One of them that sat at meat with him heard these
things and said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in
the kingdom of God. Now our Lord said, Then said
he unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bade many,
and sent his servant at suppertime to come to them that were bidden,
to say to them that were bidden, Come for now, for all things
are now ready. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I bought
a piece of ground, I must needs go and see it, I pray, have me
excused." Now again, this supper was made. And I've been around
long enough to know when supper is. Supper is late in the day. That's when it is. It's late
in the day. And at the time this supper was made, it was late
in the day. Our Lord came to this world in the last days. Since He arrived, it has been
the last days. He spoke to us in times past
by prophets, and He hath in these last days spoken to us by His
Son. It's the last time. It's supper
time. And he sent word to these men
to come. And I love what he says here.
Now, here's the reason. I'm pretty simple. I'm not much
of what you call a point preacher. I hardly ever... I hope I can
get to my point, but I'm not sure I ever have points. My main
thing to say here is this. There's reasons. Reasons why
they should come. Reasons for it. And it says it
right here. Here it is. Come to my supper. There's a
great supper. Come, for all things are now
ready." Now ready. Now ready. It was ready then,
and it's ready now. All things are ready. We read
in Isaiah 25. Look back over there for a moment
or two with me. Isaiah 25. If you read this whole chapter,
the chapter really is dealing with our Lord conquering all
His enemies. all his enemies. He finally,
in Moab, is just being referred to as his enemies. How he is
like a man swimming with his arms out, just knocking down
everything around him, destroying all his enemies. That's what
this is about. But I love what it says here in verse 6, and
in this mountain In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the
lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees, well refined."
Great feast. And you know, it's in this mountain.
In the Bible, and particularly in the book of Isaiah, when you
hear about a mountain, it's usually basically talking about the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in this mountain. It's in
this mountain that he has brought this feast to pass. And this
feast being described here is Christ Jesus our Lord. That's
right. Fat things. You know, one of
the reasons I know this is talking about the gospel dispensation
is because you couldn't eat fat. The Old Testament Jews could
not eat fat. This is talking about a feast where you can eat
the fat. You can eat tomorrow. This has got it all. It's got
the great food. The great food. This feast, and
it tells you something about it, it's a feast of wine on the
leaves. I've had a few wines in my time.
I hate to admit such things, but down at the bottom you'll
see that little sediment. That old wine on the leaves getting
all the taste out of that sediment. You know that? That old wine.
You know what that is? That was the hidden wine of the
gospel. Hidden from the foundation of
the world. The infinite, eternal, everlasting
love of God for His people. Now that, my friends, is feast. Wines on the leaves. You can't compare. You've never
been in a wine shop like this. Wines on the leaves. It's wine
of love. A long time it's been there. It's a strong wine of everlasting
love. Wine on the leaves. A wine of
the grace of God in Christ Jesus. That's what he's talking about.
And this is, we see this in the church, it's preached in the
church, and he says here in verse 7, he will destroy in this mountain,
right here in the church, he'll destroy in this mountain the
face of the covering cast over all the people. And the veil
that's spread over all the nations, all the Gentiles. This church,
the church of God, this feast is a place of great light. All
the traditions of men are done away with. This face of the covering,
this ignorance that we lived in for years, Gentiles lived
in, dancing around totem poles and all this craziness, the face
of the covering has been done away. Just like Goshen's land,
there's light, but there's darkness all around. In this mountain,
it's in this mountain. It's crystal clear here. The
veil is taken off. And verse 8 says, He will swallow
up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces in this mountain. And the rebuke of His
people shall He take away from off all the earth. You know why? Because the Lord has spoken.
The Lord has spoken. The ignorance is gone. I look
back at what I used to believe. I was raised a oneness Pentecostal. I didn't believe in the Trinity,
and I was an absolute confused religious moron. But thank God,
the veil has been taken off. I see Christ. I see Christ. I'm telling you, it's a feast.
And the people that attend this feast will find that death has
no power over them. It's been swallowed up in victory
because of this One who came and dealt with it. This One who
came here and put away our sins. And as a result of that, it's
yet to come, but our tears are all going to be dried up. And
there's coming a day, this One who conquered death with victory
when He arose from the grave. There's coming a day that's going
to be true of us. And all the reproach. All the reproach, all
the persecution, all the hatred that we've ever faced in our
lives for this gospel that we preach will all be taken away. What a day! That's the feast
talking about here. So why? Come! Come to the feast. Come to the feast. You see that?
Why is that? Well, he says it back here. He
said, Come, for all things are now ready. Ah, I love that word. I love the word ready, but I
love the word now. Now. You know that? It's now
ready. Our Lord in His mercy has had,
I guess you could call it forethought, but it's much, much more than
that. You know, back in Genesis, in
the creation, there was never a creature created until he had
food and a house provided for. The cattle weren't made until
the meadows were made. The fish were not made until
the sea was made. No creature, no creature you
will ever read of, the birds, they were not made until the
trees were planted. And you will not find one creature
in the creation of God that ever had to listen to a grumbling
stomach for 24 hours. I know people think, oh, that's
just, those are ages being spoken of. No, no, no, my friends. Believe
me, it's just a day. A morning and the evening or
one day. And I'm just here to tell you,
none of them were hungry waiting for their food to be there. Even
Adam. Adam, when he was created, arrived
in a garden that was complete. He was given instructions the
day he got there, don't you eat of that fruit. Why? The fruit
was there. All things are ready. All things
are ready. Now ready. It's always been that
way throughout the Old Testament. If you look at the You look at
the days of Noah when the ark was preparing. All that time,
the creatures were being brought in, the provisions were being
brought in, and finally one day the Lord said to Noah, Come thou
and all thy house into the ark. But you know what? All things
were ready. Now. Now. Jacob's seed I mentioned that
a while ago. Jacob's seed didn't go down,
even in the famine, until one of his sons was sitting on the
throne to provide for them when they got there. They couldn't
take the land of Canaan. There were only 70 of them. They
went down for 400 years, just like the Lord told, look over
here at Genesis 15. We have to get everything in
place. We have to put Joseph on the
throne and everything that was involved in that to make things
ready. And here in Genesis 15, if you
look at verse 13, the Lord said to Abram, He said to Abram, know of a surety
that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,
and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them for four hundred
years. And also that nation whom they shall serve, I will judge.
And afterwards, they shall come out with great substance." The
Lord provided that. Four hundred years before, the
Lord told them when they leave Egypt, they're going to have
their hands full of gold and silver. That's why all those people there
in Egypt coughed up that money. were willing to give it to him.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and shalt be buried
in the good old age. But in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full." You know, they could not return back there until
the Amorites had completely fulfilled all the iniquities. and were
way beyond anything that God would consider a mercy towards
them. He brought them back when the Amorites were that wicked. And when he got them to the country,
to that land, after forty years of wandering, they came into
that land, and before they came in, he sent in a hornet, the
hornets before them, the Scripture says, to run those Canaanites
out. They come across the Jordan,
and the first day they came into the Jordan, they ate the old
corn of the land. The manna stopped falling. No
reason for it. There's plenty of food right
here. And then they walked in, and they went in and took over
houses that they did not build, and vineyards that they did not
plant. And they had vines, and everyone
sat under their fig tree. How'd that happen? All things
were ready. You see there? That's the way
He is. That's the way our Lord is. All
things were ready. They didn't build. They're just
all ready. So come, come, come. I love that
word. And here, verse 18, it says,
well, they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first
said, I bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it.
I pray have the excuse, have me excused. As I said, this is
primarily talking about the Jews of his day who did not believe
him, nor the testimony of John the Baptist, but it's also the
way it is with men today. They're full of excuses, full
of excuses. This first man said he'd bought
a piece of ground, but he hadn't looked at it. But he was very apologetic. I pray that he had me excused.
You have to give him credit for that. But I must needs go see
this property. Now, I'm just here to tell you,
he's talking about the present necessity of going to see something
that he had not looked at before he bought. When you can buy land without
seeing it, you've got too much land. You have too much of this
world. And that's the bottom line of
this man. He had too much of this world to be interested in
the things of Christ. To regard the things of this
earth, the property that we have, I tell you, what does it gain
a man? What does he profit a man? If
he has everything. If you have everything in this...
I mean, I'm not just talking about the state of Virginia.
I'm talking about the United States. And you have the rest
of it, all the gold, all the silver, everything here. If you
had all that and lost your soul, what in the world have you been
profited? What a stupid excuse. I won't, you know, you really
can't speculate about this, but I will tell you something here.
There's something really more valuable to this man. And I find
that in this world, the less valuable things really are, the
more people value them. They just do. This world. Point in case. Is the truth better
than wealth? Is it? The world don't think so. Most
men don't think so. Which is it that men want most?
The truth or wealth? The world is full of Bibles sitting
in houses. And there are bookshelves around
the world, groaning under all the weight of all the things
that men have ever said. And you can read, you can read
all the writings of men. And you might get a drink from
it, my friend, but it ain't nothing but a mud puddle. And folks won't
open a Bible and learn anything about God. Spend their lives
in ignorance. It's amazing. Go through this
world and never give 15 minutes of serious thought about eternity.
Ah, I've got some land. I've got some land. Now, I tell you, that's what
I said a while ago. That ought to show you the depravity of
man. Are we depraved? Yes, we are by nature. Everybody
is. In verse 19, another said, I
bought five yoke of oxen. I must go and prove them. I pray
thee have me excused. Once again, he's very polite.
I bought these oxen. Five yoke, ten oxen. I've got
to go hitch them up and prove them. It's supper time. You don't
hitch up your oxen at supper time. These are just vain excuses
that men make. Vain excuses. We call it begging off, I think,
is the old expression. In verse 20 it says, another
said, I have married a wife, therefore I can't come. No apologies. I just, I've married a woman.
I can't come. Let me tell you something. There
are a lot of people that have believed the gospel over the
years and have been persecuted for believing the gospel. And
that's rough on them. But you know what keeps more
people away? Their love for somebody else. Love, love for somebody
else. They've got a husband. They've
got a wife. They love. And they just can't come. I cannot
come. I cannot come. Love will hinder. Our Lord says
down here in verse 26, look down here in this same chapter, down
at verse 26, if any man come to me and hate not his father
and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Our Lord will
have nobody, nobody stand between the soul of his children and
him. Can't be my disciple. Cannot
be my disciple. I will tell you this, if you've
got a wife you've married, bring her along. It will do you good. Years ago, I and my wife went and heard the
gospel, as will one of my children. The bottom line is, as you read
these things, there's one thing that's obvious. All of these
men were making light of the feast. They had no real regard
for the provisions of that feast. They had no real interest in
it. They saw nothing priceless about
those provisions. They figured they had something
at their house that was just as good to eat tonight for dinner.
They didn't realize the provisions of that great feast. They thought
they had something that was good. And the world is like that. Men
don't come to Christ for righteousness because they think they've got
something just as good. They don't worry about eternity
because they think they're moral. They think they're as good as
their neighbors. But my friends, I'm here to tell you this morning,
God Almighty is not grading on a curve. There's no 99.999% that will
do. It's 100%. You have to be holy,
perfect, righteous, and just. And there's only one way you
can be that way. It's in Christ. It's in Christ. That's the feast
I'm talking about here. And they saw no reason for this.
It was a contempt for the feast. It was a contempt for the One
who had provided all these things. All things that were now ready,
they held in contempt. They did not care, the Jews didn't,
to have the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm here
to tell you, we're in a religious generation just like that now. Well, so you see, the reason
to come, and then the reasons men didn't come, and then this
third thing I have to say, and again, I'm not really known for
being tricky. I'm here to tell you, there's
no other feast. There's no other feast. Verse 21, So the servant came
and showed the Lord these things. And the master of the house,
being angry, said to the servant, Go out quickly into the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed
and halt and blind. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the
Lord said to him, verse 23, to the servant, Go out to the highways
and hedges and compel them to come in. that my house may be
filled, for I say unto you that none of those men which were
bidden shall taste of my supper." That's talking about the Jews
of that generation. They're not going to taste of
that supper. But that's talking also about everyone who refuses
to come to Christ for whatever their excuses are. They'll never
taste of that supper. Never taste of it. My point is,
as I was saying, there is no other feast prepared. All things
are now ready. All things we cannot count the
blood of the covenant, a common thing. Hebrews 10, look at this
for a second. Hebrews 10, 26. It's a warning
to the Jews who had come and it's a warning to all of us who
had who can profess the faith in Christ, he says here, for
if we sin willingly, willfully after we've received the knowledge
of the truth. There remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins. Do you realize that? The Lord's
never going to make any other sacrifice for sins. I hear folks
saying, well, one day the rapture's going to happen and they're going
to rebuild the temple and they're going to start worshiping again.
No, sir. There's no other sacrifice for sins that will ever be provided
for by God. This is the feast He has provided.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has died and there's salvation in none
other name under heaven. It's this salvation, it's whereby
we must be saved by this one. We must be saved. How shall we
escape if we neglect so great, what a word, so great, so great
salvation? How shall we escape? We have
in this feast a surety that's come down from heaven, down from
His glory, down into poverty. You and I have never seen the
likes of being born in a stable, going through this world without
a place to lie His head. The foxes had their holes and
the birds of the air had their nests, but the Son of Man was
just poor all His days. A man of sorrow, acquainted with
grief, bearing our sins from the day He got here. Went to
that cross in the room instead of His people, and don't let
anybody ever tell you it was for anybody else. It was for
the folks that came to the feast, okay? That's who it was for.
He bore their sins and their sorrows. Just like that lamb
back there in Egypt, the Passover lamb. No blood on any door, but
on the houses where the people of the Lord were. And in the
morning, there wasn't a mouthful of that lamb left. You know that? Anybody thinks that this salvation,
this satisfaction before God was for anybody other than the
elect is not paying attention to the Scripture. All the sacrifices
of the Bible have been particular for the people of the Lord. And
He died for His people. Bore each and every sin. And
I can't fathom it. I can't fathom it. Those sins
were rolled up, pulled up, and caused to meet on Him, Isaiah
said. Bore our sins. Took them to the
grave. came out of there, folded that
napkin and said, I'm gone. And so are my sins. So are your
sins. That is what we're talking about.
A perfect satisfaction. We're talking about a kinsman
redeemer, just like was spoken of throughout the Old Testament
that Ashley came and paid for all that we owed. Everything
we lost. A complete satisfaction. Eternal
satisfaction. Daniel called it in Daniel 9, Everlasting righteousness. You
know what that actually translates? The righteousness of the ages.
How can it be the righteousness of the ages? Because it started
way back yonder. And it's going way over yonder.
Because the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting. And you know how long it's going
to be? To everlasting. You don't want to come to that
dinner. You just can't understand reconciliation. Peace with God. How can it be? How can men refuse such a thing? Well, they do, but I'm here to
tell you the feast goes on and the people who made excuses,
they had their excuses, but that didn't mean the Lord wasn't going
to have his house full. And all the people that had everything
they wanted had what they wanted. And he went out to get people
that had nothing. Nothing. You go out into the
highways and byways and you get the poor. The poor. I love that. I don't have much, but thank
God I'm poor. And I don't care how much you've
got. I hope you're poor. Poor. You know, poverty never
keeps a man from coming. As a matter of fact, it will
help. This feast is a feast of free grace. Poor. I know a young lady who grew
up with my oldest daughter, Renee. And for years, she sat in the
church and listened to the gospel. And she believed the gospel.
And one day it dawned on her, I think she was in her early
twenties, I need to confess Christ in baptism. And she went and
had Henry baptized. And afterwards my daughter said
to her, why did you wait so long? You believed this all your life.
And you know what she said? She said, well, I felt like if
I got baptized, I would have to bring green bean casserole
to any dinners we had at the churches. She was being funny. But the world's like that. People
are like that. People are like that. They think.
I got to bring something. No sir, you don't have to bring
a thing. Leave your green beans at home. This is what I'm talking
about. Poor, poor people and the maimed, the maimed. People
who've lost an arm, lost an eye, had something terrible happen
to them. People like that that are not very pretty. You don't
have to worry about that man. That man talking about he's married
a wife, most of the women may not have anything to do with
him, and this poor man we're talking about here, he's not
buying any property he hasn't seen. He's too poor for such
a thing. We're talking about true people
that are poor, spiritually poor, maimed, unable to do anything,
halt, can't walk. Can't walk. That man's not going
to talk to you about having to plow with ten oxen. He can't
walk. I'm not going to talk about,
I walk with Jesus. No, sir. God Almighty will enable
him to walk with Jesus. No man does that apart from Him.
He's poor, he's halt, he's maimed, and he's blind. Ignorant. Ignorant. I tell you, ignorance will not
keep a person from the feast. You don't have to know much.
You just come to the feast. And the covering, the veil will
be lifted. The veil will be lifted. You don't run into a lot of theologians. I just love it when a simple
person comes to the feast. And our Lord said, you've been
through the cities, you've been through the streets, you've been
through the lanes, you've gone out the highways, out there where
all the ruffians are hiding out, people that might just steal
your wallet as you're coming down the road. And you go out
among the hedges, out there in the hollers, out there in Wheelersburg,
Ohio, Roanoke, Rocky Mount, out in the hedges, out with common
people. You go out there and you tell
them, you compel them to come to this feast. I love that word. Therefore, knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. I mean, I know this, I know nobody's
ever going to come other than the Lord's elect, but I don't
ever want to be a callous man when I'm preaching. I'm here
to tell you, you have been invited, everyone under the sound of my
voice has an invitation to come. I don't know who the Lord's elect
are, but we preach a gospel saying come. Our Lord Jesus did. He said, look over here, look
at Matthew 12 for just a moment. I won't keep you too long. Matthew 11. I love this verse.
Our Lord's talking about the sovereignty of God. He says here
in verse 25, listen to this, this is one of the first, only
times you'll ever hear about our Lord rejoicing. He says in
Matthew 11, 25, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and the prudent and hath revealed
them unto babes, simple, poor, maimed, haught, ignorant, blind."
That's it. I thank you. Thank you, Lord. Even so, Father, here's the reason
for it. So it seemed good in thy sight. That's the only reason
you're ever going to get. It just seemed good in his sight.
And all things are delivered unto me of my Father. But God,
my Father's given me everything. And no man knoweth the Son but
the Father. We're in union. Nobody really
knows the Son but the Father. And neither knoweth any man the
Father save the Son. And He whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. You're never going to know anything
about God unless you come through the Son and be revealed through
Him. So what's the point? Come unto
Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Come! Come. Come to the feast. All things are prepared. Go out
and tell them, speaking in the Master's name, to come. The house
is going to be filled. Did you notice that? My house
is going to be filled. And I know when that day comes,
we're going to walk in and there's not going to be any vacancies.
Every one of those chairs is going to have a name in front
of it, just like some nice bank that you've been to. It's going
to have your name on it. There won't be one empty space.
It's going to be filled. with the maimed, blind, lowlifes
of this world, people that were just nobodies. They had no fitness
to come. No fitness to come. And I'm going
to tell you something about these people. They never dreamed of
ever having any fitness when they got there. The garment was
prepared and put on them. All through the merits of the
Son of God. His death. His burial, His resurrection,
His glorious name, His gospel, His feast, come. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
you will not come unto Me that you might have light. But I'm here to tell you, His
people come. I love the way the book of Revelations
ends. Have you ever noticed there in
Revelations chapter 22? Look at it for a second. It's no mystery or secret why
the Bible ends this way. Look at this in verse 17. The
Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him hear that heareth. Talking about hearing. Do you
hear? Do you hear? Our Lord said, Today. Paul wrote that three times,
I believe, in the third chapter of Hebrews. Today. That's the
only day you've got. You don't have tomorrow. Today,
if you will, hear, hear, be attentive, believe His voice, the gospel. Come. You that hear, come. And him that is a thirst, come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. I'm telling you, we spend our
days when we come to Christ in this life. Thank God I did it
years ago. But I still do it. It's to whom
coming, Peter wrote. We continue coming to this one.
And I'll leave you with this. When it's all over, when it's
all done, that day, that day when the goats are separated
from the sheep, our Lord is going to say, come. You blessed. Oh, blessed of the
Father. Blessed of the Father. To do
what? To inherit? You didn't earn this. I've seen some people inherit
some things in their lives and they didn't earn it. The only
reason they got it is because they were children. You come
and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Come. For all things are now
ready.