Well, good morning. If you'd
open your Bibles to Luke chapter 14, we're continuing our... ongoing
Bible class in Luke. We're in the 14th chapter. This
will be our second lesson here in Luke 14, and today dealing
with parables. We've dealt with parables several
times in Luke, and there's a lot more coming up, and kind of examining parables. I
thought we might kind of look at the principles of parables
and their use. in preparation for today's lesson. And it's interesting that we
find parables quite a bit in the Old Testament in Numbers
and Job and Psalms and Psalms and Proverbs and Ezekiel and
Micah and Habakkuk. all in the Old Testament parables.
So, nothing new. And so when the Lord speaks by
parables, it's because He said He was going to do that in the
Old Testament. So, join me in Luke 14. And we'll read today's
section from verse 7-11. And remembering that the Lord
had gone to this this dinner there in Luke chapter 14 verse
1. He went to the house of a chief Pharisee to eat bread on the
Sabbath day. And we went over what transpired
there. And so now he's speaking to those
ones that invited him to this He was speaking to those that
invited him to come to this supper. And for the Pharisees and the
lawyers and those that were there, it was kind of, as we learned,
for nefarious purposes. And so now he gives them a parable.
And we always find that parables There's nothing new. When you're
looking for Christ, you see Him everywhere, and when you're not
looking for Him, you don't see Him anywhere. And such is the
story of parables. So in Luke 14, he put forth a
parable. to those which were bidden."
And remember in other scriptures He spoke to them in parables
and He didn't say anything that wasn't a parable. Similarly,
we'll examine that here in a little bit, but He put forth a parable
to those which were bidden, those that were invited to this supper
the same time He was invited, and when He marked or took notice
how they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, 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. And he
that bade thee and him come and say unto thee, Give this man
place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But
when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room,
that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend,
go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship
or glory in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For
whosoever exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." And so when they had these feasts,
the Eastern tradition there wasn't, in the English translations that
we have, when we think of a higher room, we think of like a balcony
in a theater or an upstairs room penthouse or some kind of a raised
place, but really just speaks to a place of honor. And these
dinners that they had, they were kind of on the ground floor and
they kind of took reclining positions around and the host would sit
in a place of honor and then those that were that he invited,
he would assign them honorable places to sit, and it was kind
of a hierarchical arrangement. The farther away you sat from
the host, the less honorable you were. So he's talking about those ones
that came and went and sat down in the highest place right off
the bat. And so it wasn't really a room as we would think of a
room, but it's more of a station or a place of honor. And so seeing as how we're dealing
with parable, I thought it would be good to kind of examine parables a little
bit and refresh our memories on what they are and what they
mean and how they're delivered and remembering that our Bible
class, all the messages that come out of here. from Norm and
Mike and Craig or anybody that's been here, always speak to the
great gospel of the Lord's substitutionary death in the place of His people.
I love that hymn that he brought this morning. It was so humbling,
that grace, that when we were without strength, Christ died
for the ungodly. What a wonderful hymn that was.
So this law of parables, and a parable is the use of familiar
objects or customs or practices which are used by the Lord to
reveal or teach a spiritual application to the church, to the elect,
to the sheep, whatever you want to call them by whatever designation. It's regarding God and His grace
to the church and that all He has and is doing for in their
redemption. And that's just primarily the
purpose of a parable and it reveals God's grace and that would be
our message title here today, Parable of Grace. If you recall, we had a lesson
on this. We didn't focus so much on the
parable aspect of it as the parable of the sower. Remember that from
Luke chapter 8? And he was preparing these disciples
to go out with the gospel message, and he gave them this parable
of the sower. And he says, you know, you're
going to cast a lot of seed out there. And some of it's going
to fall on stony ground, some of it's going to fall on the
thorns, some of the seed's going to fall among the wayside, and
the birds are going to come and eat it up. But he said, some
of it's going to fall on the good ground, the good ground
that's been prepared by the Holy Spirit to receive that gospel
message. And that's going to take root,
and some of it's going to bear fruit, some a hundredfold and
some more. And he says, so just be prepared
that wherever you go, Give out the Gospel and truth and don't
leave anything out. Don't withhold anything. Don't add anything. And leave
it up to the Holy Spirit to prepare that ground, but just be aware
that It's not always going to have the result that you think
it should have wherever you go. That's not your purview. That's
not your business. Your business is just to cast
the seed out. Throw the seed out and then move
on. And that's what we do here. But
when he was doing this, he said there was this parable of the
sower, and his disciple says, what might this parable be? They didn't quite understand
that application of it, so he explained it to them. And then he said, unto you is
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but unto
others in parables, that seeing they might not see and hearing
they might not understand. Not that they would want to,
apart from Divine Grace. They don't want to see, they
don't want to hear. Scriptures are pretty replete with, they
stopped up their ears, or they turned their shoulder away, and
they didn't want anything to do with the gospel of grace.
We're satisfied with our own program. And we don't want anything
to counter that. So that parable of the sower
covered in Matthew 13, 10, the disciples came and said unto
him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, It's given unto you to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it's not given. That's
pretty cut and dry, pretty plain. Therefore I speak to them in
parables, because they, seeing not, and hearing, they hear not,
neither do they understand. And it's like we mentioned earlier,
you know, people that are saved by grace and looking for grace,
they see grace. They see grace in everything.
They see God in everything. They see Christ in everything.
And it's like Luke 24 where He told those, He expounded to them
in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. And the application
is spiritual things, are only spiritually discerned. That's
what it says in 1 Corinthians 2.14. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them. He's
not able to know them because they're spiritually discerned.
They're right there in front of him and he sees them, but
he can't discern them, can't understand them. And the first time this use of parables
is brought out in the scripture really is where it's actually
named a parable, not that it's not used in other forms where
it's just not actually called a parable, but it's out and out
called a parable in Numbers, the 23rd chapter. When I read
this, I kind of got tickled because I read it over and it just struck
me funny. So if you turn over to Numbers
23, and the parable dealt with the king of the Moabites, Balak,
wanted Balaam to curse the children of Israel. In Numbers 23... Numbers 23 and... He'd ask him to curse the people
and Balaam said, okay, we'll build me some altars here and
we'll sacrifice seven oxen and seven rams. And they sacrificed
the burnt offering and Balaam went up to speak to the Lord
and hear what he had to say. And in Numbers 23.5, the Lord
put a word in Balaam's mouth. and said, Return unto Balak,
and thus shalt thou speak. And he returned unto him, and,
lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes of Moab.
And he took up his parable, and he said, Balak, the king of Moab
hath brought me from Aram out of the mountains of the east,
saying, Curse me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel. And he said,
How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy
whom the Lord hath not defied? From the top of the rocks I see
him, and from the hills behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell
alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. He was just
kind of saying, when you see Jesus, you just see him everywhere.
When you see the Lord, you see him everywhere. He says, I see
him from the top of the rocks. I see him from the hills. Who
can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth part
of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last
end be like his. And Balak said unto Balaam, what
have you done to me? I wanted you to curse these people
and you just turned around and did the opposite and blessed
them. And because that's what the Lord told him to do. And
he answered and said, must I not take heed to speak that which
the Lord has put in my mouth? So I can only, it's just like
we can only say the gospel because that's what we know. That's all
we know. And that's what we can speak. And then we get to the
funny part here. And Balak said, come, I pray
thee, with me unto another place. Come, let's go, let's go look
at this from over here. and try it again. Come with me to another place
from whence thou mayest see them, and thou shalt see the uttermost
part of them, and shalt not see them all, and curse me them from
then, from that place." And so they did the sacrifice and the
altar and everything, and the Lord met Balaam and put a word in
his mouth there in verse 16, and said, Go again unto Balak,
and say thus, and give him another parable. And when he went to
him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes
of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What
hath the Lord spoken? And he took up his parable, and
said, Rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken to me, thou son of Zippor.
God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that
he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good?" Boy, what a statement about God. You know,
you can sit there and try to manipulate Him all you want to
from your standpoint, which is in unbelief, and it's not going
to have any application. It's not going to have any result
whatsoever. "'Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Hath
he not beheld it? He hath not. beheld iniquity
in Jacob." Boy, what a statement of grace there in this parable.
He's not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. Not that they weren't in their
natural condition and as a nation, not that they weren't those things,
but in the eyes of grace for the Israel, not all of Israel
which are of Israel. He saw no spot, no wrinkle, because
they were in Christ. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of
Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. There's no enchantment against
Jacob. This is an important thing for
the church to lay hold of. There's no enchantment against
Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to
this time, it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath
God wrought? What a work of grace hath God
wrought? And it can't be denied. Behold, the people shall rise
up as a great lion and lift himself as a young lion. He shall not
lie down till he eat of the prey and drink the blood of the slain.
And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless
them at all. But Balaam answered and said unto... He tried to
take the neutral ground there. He said, since this is not going
my way, let's just not do anything. And Balaam said, Hey, told not
I thee, saying all that the Lord speaketh that I must do? And
then it gets funnier again. In verse 27, Balak said unto
Balaam, Come, I'll bring thee to another place. I'll take you
over here. Peradventure it will please God
that thou mayest curse me then from thence. Isn't that like
religion, you know? I know you believe grace. I know you believe that God is
sovereign. But come over here and look at
things from my standpoint. Come over here and look at things
from my standpoint of free will or come over here and let's look
at this. God died universally for all
and then it's just up to you to exercise your free will whether
to choose that or not. And the religion is full of those
kind of things where they try to misapply the word of God to
their own their own traditions and teachings. And so he brought
him to the top of Pior and built the altars and sacrificed him
again and the same thing. It's kind of what do they say
about insanity is just doing the same thing and expecting
different results. But you can't see that. In grace,
you just can't see that unless you have experienced grace. So anyway, I thought that was
an interesting use of a parable in the Old Testament there. And
then the use of parables is I mentioned a lot of places where it's written
in Ezekiel and Micah and Proverbs and Psalms. There's a couple
of uses in Psalms and we'll look at two of them today. One in Psalm 78 verse 1 through
4. In Psalm 78 we have the use of
a parable foretold and the purpose of them. Psalm 78.1, Give ear,
O my people, to my law, and incline your ears to the words of my
mouth. And he says, I will open my mouth in a parable, and I
will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known
and our fathers have told us. And that's just nothing more
than the gospel. Just the gospel. It's been around forever. We
will not hide them from their children. And then he says, here's
what it's about. Showing to the generation to
come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful
works that He hath done. The sum and purpose of parables
tells us about grace. In our text in Luke 14, a parable
is used to compare human nature and pride versus a work of grace
in the heart. And this parable also kind of
gives us an insight into how God views things. He doesn't
view things as man views things. He takes no pleasure in those
that come with their own righteousness, come with their own works, come
with their own view of things when He has supplied all that's
necessary. And as Norman said this morning
and always says, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Because that's what we would do. If we were able to come to
the Lord and say, well, I did this, all these I've kept from
my youth up, we'd be gone. I did that part, and I only needed
this much Jesus, not very much. And you know how he views that,
the blood of his son is the only acceptable payment for sin. So
we have this view of how God views things, and a picture,
it's really this parable's a picture of opposites. What we think and
do of ourselves to promote ourselves versus grace, and I loved what
Hawker wrote, he says, grace is kind of simultaneous, I'm
paraphrasing here, he said simultaneously lifts us up and humbles us. Isn't
that interesting? It lifts us up because it's like
that hymn we sang. There was nothing lovable in
me. It's just because of your sovereign love and electing mercies
that you saved me. It was nothing that I did. It's
very humbling that He would say out of all the millions, I have
chosen you, and yet He lifts you up and says, I chose you
and I loved you. And it's very, very uplifting
to know that the Lord has loved you from eternity and worked
all things for good for you and called you by his gospel and
saved you by his grace. And so it's kind of a picture
of opposites here. And Proverbs 3, 34 says, surely
he scorneth the scorners. But He giveth grace to the lowly.
The people that say, you can keep that for yourself. I don't
need it. If that's what you need, if you need that little crutch
or whatever, fine for you. But it's foolishness. I don't need it. It's useless. He has scorn for that. It's a
slap in his face to say that his son was of no value there. But he gives grace to the lowly,
those that he brings to that point where they say, he saved
me by his grace and made me willing where I wasn't willing. Proverbs 11.2 says, when pride
cometh, then cometh shame. Those two things are attached.
But with the lowly is wisdom. When you come in the view of
grace, you become wise unto the Lord and what He did to save
you. It's just an infinite array of
things that He has brought to pass to bring home all of His
sheep. at their appointed time. The
pride, the lust of the flesh, those are not from the Father.
Those are from the world. That's what it says in 1 John
2.16. Those things originate in man
and stick with him and are hard to overcome. You know, there's
a warning for the church in 3 John where he says, you need to watch
out for that diatrophies guy. He loves to have the preeminence.
He always wants that uppermost seat. He always wants that to
be the focus of the attention and not Christ. He always wants
to be the center of the attention and to be thought of as wise
and religious and in charge. They like to be in charge. They
like to control things. He loved to have the preeminence
among them. And He received us not. He didn't want to receive
grace. What a telling verse that is. You know, this parable shows
a similitude or a pattern of Jesus who humbled Himself. Isn't
that the truth? He made Himself of no reputation. We go back to our scriptures
here in Luke 14. I'll get my finger on the right
button there. When you are bidden of any man
to a wedding, sit down not in the highest room, lest a more
honorable man than thou should be bidden of him." I wonder where
they made Jesus sit or where they told Him to sit. I bet it
wasn't at the most honorable place. "...that he that bade thee and
him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and thou begin
with shame to take the lowest room. And when thou art bidden,
go and sit in the lowest room, that when He that badeth thee
cometh, He may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher. Then thou
shalt have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with
thee. Whosoever exalted himself shall be abased, and he that
humbled himself shall be exalted." Well, I can't think of anybody
that's more exalted than the Lord who's sitting at the right
hand of God and making intercession for us back where He was. Philippians 2, verse 7 said,
He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. And He endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself, in order to pay the
sin debt of his people. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall
find rest in your souls. He didn't come in and order everybody
to... I should be sitting here. Everybody
moved. He would just go in and give
them the gospel and let things happen. And the parable was,
they didn't get it. Not many would understand it.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, thy king cometh to thee, he is just and having salvation."
All the things that make him glorious and magnificent, and
yet it says he's lowly. He's in a depressed condition. come down to take care of his
people, to save them from their sins. That's what that word lowly
means, depressed in mind or circumstance. Compared to where he was, it
was a pretty depressed circumstance that he was in, riding on a donkey's
foal there. He humbled himself. Psalm 75 tells us a little bit
about how God views things in respect to this. In Psalm 75,
starting in verse 5, and we'll read a few verses there, God
is the judge. Those who are humble and grateful for grace or those
who are proud and lofty in their own eyes is the subject of this
psalm. So whether you're humble and
grateful for grace or whether you're proud and lofty and depending
on your own works or righteousness, he says, lift not up your own
horn on high. Speak not with a stiff neck.
For promotion, or that means to be exalted or honored, it
comes neither from the east, and that means from where the
sun rises, or from the west, or where the sun sets, nor from
the south, which represents the wilderness. But God is the judge. He puts one down and setteth
up another. In verse 10, it says, all the
horns of the wicked also will I cut off. He says, don't lift
up your own horn. It's going to be cut off. All the horns of the wicked also
will I cut off, but the horn of the righteous shall be exalted. And the horn of the righteous
is Christ. And that's their horn. The other people have their own
horn. In Psalm 138, verse 6, "'Though
the Lord be high, yet he hath respect to the lowly, but the
proud he knoweth far off.'" He knows who has a contrite heart.
He knows who is humbled by His saving grace. And He knows those
that are far off. He can see them a mile away. I don't need you. I've done all
my own thing." Or, my path is just as valid as your path. Or,
I don't need to enter in at the straight gate. There's many paths
to heaven. The proud he knoweth the far
off. You know, our nature always seeks self-worth and self-honor. Just, it's our nature. It's what
Cain said, I worked hard for this stuff. This is what I have
done. And the Lord had not respect
for that. You know, in Matthew chapter
20, verse 20, the mother of Zebedee's children, John, the sons of thunder,
they were called. She went up to the Lord and said, a certain thing to the Lord,
and he says, what do you want? And she said, grant that these
my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other
on thy left, in thy kingdom. I want my sons to be important. I want them to be looked at,
upheld, and everybody looks at them and says, my, my, my. How religious, how important
they must be. And he said, you know what? You don't know what
you ask. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism
that I'm baptized with? And they say unto him, oh yeah,
we're able. And he saith unto them, You shall
indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with me in the baptism
that I am baptized with. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my Father." And that's kind of an
interesting topic there because You know, the way people view
things in this world, and the way religion views their relationship
supposedly with the Lord, it's like, well, if you don't do enough
good work, you're going to be in the nosebleed section. You're
going to be so far away that Jesus only looks like he's this
tall, you know, just minimal. But they have no understanding
of the God with whom we have to do. You know, the Scripture
says, wherever two or three are gathering My name, there I am
in the midst of them. In the midst means we all have
that same connection. We all have that same access.
We all have that same spacing or distance. There's not going
to be, well, I'm so far out that I can never touch the hem of
His garment. It's just not that way with Him. He is just more
than what we can think of. And when He says, I'm here in
the midst of you, just because you don't see Him does not mean
that He's not there. The same as that servant of Elisha
that said, I don't see anything. And he said, open his eyes that
he may see. And when the Lord opened his
eyes, there was all these chariots. Where did they come from? They
were there all the time. He just didn't have eyes to see
them. And if you don't have eyes to
see Christ, then Him being in the midst of you is really far
away. And in heaven, the thought that you're just
going to be so far out in the fringes that you can't ever get
there is not scriptural there. It's really counter to our nature
not to seek prestige and to look important before our friends.
We're all guilty of that. We want to look knowledgeable,
important, or smart, or strong, what have you, before our friends
and have them be impressed with our character and things. But you know, the Lord, He called
out those Pharisees for that. He said, you love to have the
uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the market and
the most prestigious seat at the suppers and feasts. But he
says, woe unto you, because you're just doing it to be seen of men.
You're not doing it for any good, legitimate purposes. And it's
better to be humble and say, I'm just glad to be there. Wherever
God wants me to sit, that's where I'll sit. And thank God I'm there. And those that try to wangle
their own seat up front and be important are not going to have
an enjoyable time. He says, all their works they
do to be seen of men. Humbleness is hard. And it really
only comes by grace. And keeping our eye on Christ
keeps our eye off of ourself, keeps our eye on Him. In 1 Peter
5, verse 5, it says, likewise, you younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility. We shouldn't be going
up to one another and saying, I'm way more important than you.
I can't be bothered with you. You may kiss my hand if you want
to. Other than that, scat. Go away. Be clothed with humility
and realize that, hey, we're all saved by grace. We're all
saved out of the same pit. We're all subject to the same
corruption. It took every bit as much blood
to save any single one of us as another. It takes all the
blood of Christ for all His people. Be clothed with humility, for
God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. So humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time. Isn't that kind of an opposite
of our natural... If I humble myself, how am I
going to be exalted? What's that saying? He that toots not his own horn,
his horn shall not be tooted. When the Lord exalts you and
lifts you up in His Son, and sees you in His Son, and has
made us to be kings and priests, and we finally are able to come
to an understanding of His eternal love and grace that He has effected
in us, that's uplifting. casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you." You know, we think if we do these things,
we exalt ourselves and we're taking care of our own issues,
and we're not casting our care on Him and saying He did it all. One hundred percent. One hundred
ten percent. He did all of it. He paid double
for your sins. Two hundred percent. So in grace,
we don't look to our own deeds or works, but we look to Christ
who's blessed us with all spiritual blessings. And verse 11 states
a spiritual fact, which is really amplified in Matthew 25, where
we have that great throne and the Lord is speaking to those,
the goats and the sheep. And let me turn back to verse
11 here in Luke. He said, "...whoever will exalt
himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall
be exalted." Well, in Matthew, 25, and you've
probably heard this a million times, so I'm not gonna, we're
about out of time, so I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but he said, when I was thirsty,
you gave me to drink. When I was hungry, you fed me.
And when I was naked, you clothed me. And those on the right hand
says, well, when did we do that? I didn't do anything. I'm a poor, unprofitable servant. I didn't do anything. And to
the ones on the left, they say, when did we not do all that?
We did all these good works. And he said, because you didn't
do it to the least of one of these, you did it not to me.
When they were thirsty, you didn't give them the water of life in
the gospel. When they were hungry, you didn't
feed them with the gospel. You just gave them more religious
stuff and more stuff to do. And you wouldn't enter in yourself.
And those that wanted to enter in, you hindered. Depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you." So, when did
we do that versus when did we not do that? That's the difference
between a humble heart and grace and a self-righteous person that
needs not Christ. In closing today, we're going
to look at Isaiah 57, 15. For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the
high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and
humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones. So, into that parable. And the next time we'll be looking
at this parable of a great feast and look at the principles that
apply there. So until the next time, as always,
be free.