The lesson this morning found
in Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14, verses 15 through
24. This is a parable that our Lord gave
to these Pharisees about a great supper. Let's read these verses
together. Luke 14 verse 15. And when one of them that sat
at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed
is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said
he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many,
and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden,
Come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I bought
a piece of ground, and I must needs go and seek. I pray thee,
have me excused. And another said, I bought five
yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I've married
a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 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 into the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed,
and the haught, and the blind. The servant said, Lord, it is
done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the
Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways and the
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. Now there's four things I want
us to look at in this parable. I want us to look at the supper
itself. and see what it is that he's
talking about, what it is that this, we know it's a symbol,
he's not talking about an actual supper, but he's using symbolism,
he's picturing something here, typifying something. And then
I want you to see in this a sincere and merciful invitation. Everybody
that was invited was invited. Come on. No roadblocks, no hurdles. Come. As we said, come. And then I want us to see a slap
in the face. Just a slap in the face. And
then I want us to look at the assurance of a full house. The Lord's house is going to
be full. So let's begin with the supper itself. Why does he
use the term supper? The Lord's Supper. All these
pictures he gives us, he calls it a supper. Well supper is the
final meal of the day, is it not? Is not the portion of time between
the appearance of Christ in this world as a man till the end of
time called a day? How many times does he say in
the scripture, the day is far spent, night draweth nigh. Is Christ not called the day
star? Does he not tell us that we're
children of the day? He said, let us who are of the
day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love. and for a helmet the hope of
salvation. Supper is the last meal of the
day. We're living in the last days. And supper is the meal you consume
that's going to carry you through the night. Night comes when no
man can work. There's not going to be anything
to do. Night time. Night here pictures eternity.
What are we going to consume that's going to carry us through
eternity? What's going to? Supper. Supper. That's what takes you
through the night. You know, you eat breakfast, just a few
hours later you eat lunch. You eat lunch, a few hours later
you eat supper. But then 12 hours passes before
you eat again. Or 10. Or in my case, about 4. But in this parable, he not only
calls it a supper, he calls it a great supper. And this is not the Lord's supper,
which is an ordinance not yet given, nor is it the married
supper of the Lamb, which shall be in the end of the world. This
is the great and gracious gospel supper. That's what he's talking
about here. It's a feast. A gospel feast,
a feast of boundless grace and mercy set before hungry sinners,
called from the four corners of the earth. And this supper
is a meal of words. You remember in, is it John chapter
6, where he told them, he said, except you eat of my flesh and
drink of my blood, you have no life in you. And they said, he's
crazy. He's talking about cannibalism. And they left him. They left
him. And he turned to his disciples
and he said, will you go too? And they said, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. They knew what he was talking
about. He said, my words are spirit and they are life. They're
to be spiritually understood. This supper is likened unto the
eating of the book. In Revelation 10, John receives
from the hand of him who took the book from God's own hand,
the book of all God's eternal decrees, of all God's redemptive
will, and then he gives a smaller version, a small book. He gives
the smaller version to his servant, and he said, eat it. Eat a book? Eat it. It's spiritual food. Eat it. And oh, he said, it's
going to be sweet to your mouth. When you put it in there and
chew it, it's going to be sweet in my mouth as honey. And when
you chew it and you preach it and you contemplate its mysteries,
it's so sweet. So sweet. But it's going to be
bitter when you digest it. Why? How bitter it is to know God's
will and be unable to do it. How bitter is it to know something
about the love of God and not being able to show it? Paul said, the good that I would,
I do not. And the evil that I would not
do, That's what I do. I bind in a law, a fixed principle
that when I would do good, evil preys it in me. The spirit lusts
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit so that we
cannot do the things that we would. It's bitter. It's bitter. It's sweet. Oh,
how sweet to contemplate the free grace of God and the love
of God and all those things. But then we digest it, and it
just don't have the effect that it did when it went in the mouth,
does it? It's called a great supper. It's
great because of who has arranged it. God has arranged this supper. This gospel supper is made all
but commonplace in our day. It's no more than fulfilling
some earthly obligation to keep a day. But in this parable, our Lord
calls it a great supper. And it's great because of who
arranged it. Gospel preaching and assembly
worship is arranged of God. Why? Why? To honor His Son. That's what
this great supper's for. That's what it's about. It's
to honor His Son. I was preaching for a small group
over in West Texas. And they were talking to me about
the schedule. And they said, well, we'll call
you when we find out how we can work you into our schedule. And I said, no. We're going to
set a day of worship. And you're going to arrange your
schedule around that. Needless to say, I didn't go
back. What's this supper all about?
It's a supper to honor God's Son. It's not about our titles,
our positions, our reputations, and our name. It's about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this man? That's what
this supper's all about. It's to tell us about His Son.
It's to honor His Son. It's about His titles. Who He is. Who is this man Jesus
Christ? That's what this supper's all
about. The Father's going to host the supper and He's going
to tell us about His Son. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why He came. What He did. Where He's at. What's
He doing. It's about the name of God set
forth in the person of the Son. And it's His name, not mine. It's His glory, His offices, His achievements,
His titles, His honor, His glory. And the basis of his invitation
is his grace and mercy. Nobody, who deserves to come
to God's supper? Huh? I don't know how many times
people told me I've invited them to church and they said, well,
one of these days when I get myself straight. One of these
days when I get my life around. One of these days, one of these
days, I'm going to do this. You can't get rid of, you're
not worthy to come to their supper. When He says come, the basis
is His mercy and grace. Come on! If it were anything
else, nobody'd come. There would never be a word said. It's His mercy. Whosoever will,
let him take of the water of life freely. Are you willing? You know, I think about this
a lot because I'm a preacher. What did his servant say? When the master sent his servant
out, what did he tell him to say? One word. Come. Isn't that what this is? Come. Not stay. He's not to go out there and
say, You ain't able to come. No. Master already said you could. Come. Come. With the command will come the
ability. Come on. Whosoever will, let him take.
And that's the word given to the servant was to come. One
old hymn writer wrote, this came to me in my study, Jesus has
a table spread. where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people,
come and dine. With his manna he doth feed and
supplies our every need. Oh, to sweep, to sup with Jesus
all the time. Come and dine, the master calleth.
Come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table
all the time. You fed the multitude and turned
the water into wine to the hungry called it night. Come and dine. Come. That's the message. Are you hungry? Come and eat. Are you thirsty? Oh, he said,
if you'd asked me, I'd give you living water. Are you weary? Here's rest. Scripture said, everyone that
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life. And Christ said, I'll raise him
up at the last day. The master of the house made
a great supper, and he bade many. And when supper was ready, he
sent out his servant and said, come. Now listen to this. Here's the second thing I want
you to see. A full provision. He said, all things are now ready. It's ready. You don't need to bring anything.
Whenever we're invited to go eat, first thing my wife tells
me, what can I bring? What can I bring? And that's
feeding when you're invited somewhere to eat, but not this supper. You don't bring anything. You
just come as you are. Come as you are. You don't need
to bring anything, or be anything, or do anything, just comply to
the message that you heard. All things are ready, come, come
unto me, he said, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.
All that the Father giveth me, what are they going to do? They're
going to come. All of them. They're all going to come. Now here's the supper. It's the
flesh and blood of the Savior, His life, His death, His resurrection,
His rule, His lordship, His will, His power, His grace. And it's
all on the table. It's all prepared. What's it need? It doesn't need
anything. Here it is. It's on the table.
Coming now. Coming April. Full provision,
nothing lacking, nothing needed, coming down, that's what he says. Here's the third thing, a slap
in the face. Now I want you to, I'm going
to keep repeating myself, this is God's supper. One supper, not fifty, one supper. One supper, one table, one meal,
one food. One supper. God prepared it.
Why? To honor His Son. He's going to honor His Son.
His Son bears His name. His Son has manifested His glory. His Son has accomplished all
things. Made this supper possible. And
He says, Come. Come. Verse 18. And they all with one consent
began to make excuses. I bought a piece of ground. I bought some oxen. I married a
wife. This supper was arranged at a
great expense. The death of Christ, the blood
of the Son of God, the humiliation and shame of this one being honored. And there's not going to be four
or five suppers, just one supper, one gospel, one faith, one spirit. And if you can picture this,
they received a formal invitation. God sent his servant to them
and said, come. And they couldn't get to the
master, so they told the servant, I bought some oxen. Can you make
One time in eternity, God has prepared a table. He's invited
unworthy sinners to come by His mercy and grace and partake of
this supper. And I bought some oxen so I can't
come. I bought a piece of ground. I
need to go look at it. You mean you bought it and never
looked at it? I married a wife. I'm not going to go down the
list. I'm going to let you do that in your own head. How many
excuses do you have when the gospel meal is sitting on the
table? What is it that takes priority
over that? Nothing. Nothing. And yet we offer our petty excuse. You just have to excuse me. Son of God being honored by his
Father and you too busy to attend, too involved with ourself to come.
But mostly it's because we think too much of ourself. That's what
it is. We're too busy pampering ourself,
honoring ourself. Listen to this. This is in Hebrews
10 verse 28. And this is the very thing he's
talking about. Here's this gospel supper. Here's this sacrifice
of Christ. Here's the only way of salvation. And you're invited to come and
eat. All things are ready. Now listen to this. But you found
somewhere else to go. He said, he that despised Moses'
law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sober punishment,
suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite under the
spirit of grace. Here was these Pharisees. God
had arranged a servant, a supper, and sent his servant Christ out,
and he's out here inviting poor sinners to come and partake of
this supper. And they smiled at God with that
religious facade and said, Please excuse me, I got this to do. Now listen to me. All those who
gave excuse were not excused. Not one. He said, all those I
beg shall not taste of my suffering. None of those men that were bidding
shall taste of my supper. They might stand out there at
a distance and see it. They may gather in a little group
and talk about it and argue about it. They might even talk about whether
it's an invitation or a command. They'll sit around and debate
about that, but they're never going to taste his supper. You know, Peter talks about being
born again and all those things, and then he comes down in that
second chapter, he said, if so be you tasted that the Lord is
gracious. Where are you going to taste
that? Where does a man get his first taste of Christ? Where
does he get that sincere milk of the Word? He gets it through
gospel preaching. That's where it comes from. God
sends his servant. He invites you to come. Come
on. What's holding you back, you
see Him? Why won't you come? What's holding
you back? What excuse have you got? Oh, they'll never taste of my
supper, He said. They'll never benefit from it,
be sustained by it, or experience it. But then lastly, I want us
to see that God's house is going to be full. And everybody there
is going to honor the Son. See, the purpose of this supper
is to honor the Son, and proud Pharisees cannot honor the Son. A self-righteous legalist cannot
honor the Son. And so the Master goes to where
sinners live. He goes to where sinners live.
in the highways and the hedges and in the streets and lanes
of the city. And who does he call? The poor. Isn't that what he said? The
poor and the maimed and the haught and the blind, helpless sinners,
hopeless sinners, outcast, poverty stricken, disabled, homeless
sinners. And every servant the sinner
was sent Two, the servant brought to the house. Isn't that what
he said? Bring him. Bring him. He didn't tell Christ,
try to bring him. He said, bring him. And he brought
him. And he still is. Bring hither
to me was the master's charge. Compel them to come. And all that he chose came to
the supper, and his house was full. Not gonna be a vacant seat
in the house in that day. Every seat that was set out,
our Lord, the Master, knew exactly who to call, when to call, what
was involved in the call, and it's an effectual call, and the
seat's gonna be filled. And those first ones bidding,
who were so proud, and so busy with themselves, they're not
even going to taste of the supper. But here's these four sinners,
and they're going to feast at Jesus' table. Oh, my God. Help us to see what our Lord
is teaching us, Pastor.