All right, if you will, turn
your Bibles to Luke chapter 14, and let's continue with our observation
of our Lord's instruction to those with whom He was having
dinner. The title of our second message
today is A Dinner Date with God. A Dinner Date with God, part
two. It appears that the Lord Jesus
Christ felt compelled on this particular dinner date to instruct
the people that would listen to him as to how to behave themselves
when they come to dinner with God. It appears that what he
wanted to do was let people know that there's a way to come to
dinner when God invites you to dinner. And it appears that he
felt very comfortable with standing up and being the center of attention
on this day to instruct everybody, the folks that were coming who
had been bidden, even to the host who had prepared the feast. He was willing to instruct them
as to how to come to dinner when God bids you to a feast. Last
week, we learned fundamentally that if God bids you to dinner,
The manner in which we come is with all humility. God calls
us to come with humility. He told those as he was observing,
as they were seeking the front row seats and the $500 seats
and the $1,000 seats, the seats that allow you to get spit on
by the anointed preacher, he told them to take the back seat,
take the back row because when you take the low seat, You don't
have anywhere to go but up. And the nature of taking the
low seat is the nature of representing God in the person of Christ who
took the lowest seat, that we might even have a seat in the
house. He who thought himself not robbery to be equal with
God made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself, became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross what magnanimous humility
Christ demonstrated in terms of what it takes to be highly
exalted and given a name above every name, which he has now
in all the universe, a name above every name. And it was all a
consequence of humility. He continued his discourse as
he was teaching them and he found it necessary to speak to the
fella that had invited him to dinner. And we read over in verse
12, then said he unto them that bade him, when you ask for folks
to come over, don't call your friend, don't call your brothers,
don't call your kinsmen, don't call your rich neighbors. How
come? Because they can actually recompense
you in the same way. That's a profound ethic when
it comes to inviting people to dinner. Isn't that right? Profound. Now, be honest now, We're getting
ready to go to work. This is gonna hurt a little bit,
but just hang in there. It is not our natural tendency
to invite people that we don't know and don't necessarily like
and that are not like us to dinner. Isn't that true? This is true
with religious folks too. One of the things years ago that
used to bother me a bit about conferences, Bible conferences,
is the idea of always inviting the same people to the conferences.
It bothered me to no end that we would always just reach out
to the same comfortable people we know. And I said, Lord, help
me with that. And that's where we began our
approach to conferences of encouraging you to go beyond your family
members, the comfort zone, and invite those knucklehead neighbors
that you don't like. It's just the right thing to
do. It's the right thing to do. The ethic of our Lord Jesus Christ
cuts against the grain of our nature, doesn't it? The way he
works, the way he thinks, and what it does, as our elders sort
of intimated in his prayer, is it exposes us for our sin. It
exposes us for our weaknesses. It exposes us for our fears and
our sort of little cliquishness, doesn't it? These are the things
that occur in our lives. There's nothing wrong with having
your... By the way, when you read New
Testament theology and you read imperatives in the New Testament,
the way that Greek culture think thought or Aramaic culture thought
is not the way that Western culture thinks altogether. So be careful.
Often when God says, don't do something this way, do it that
way. He's not saying that it's not
okay to invite your friends and not okay to invite your relatives
and not okay to invite your constituents. He's saying it's not okay to
only invite them. So it's very important when you
read the scriptures how to be inclusive and well-rounded in
your approach and not to be so exclusive that you are functioning
out of sort of an irrational thing. The thing that you and
I need to know about this context and setting of the feasting,
the feasting, which I love, I told you this before, I really enjoy
eating. I hope you do too. It's a sign
that you're healthy when you like to eat. It's a real sign
that you're healthy. And the context of our discourse
is our Lord is invited to a feast and he's glad to be there. There's
no doubt about that. He is utterly glad to be at this
feast. And so here's what you and I
need to know. The God of the Bible is a God
of feasting. He is a God of banquets. He is
a God of dining. The God of the Bible is depicted
frequently through the Scriptures as not only being present at
feasts, but holding feasts. I want you to know that. From
the Old Testament through the New, the Bible closes out with
a great wedding feast on the part of the Church of the Living
God, the body of Christ, and her great husband, the Lord Jesus.
So feasting becomes for us, if you understand it, a symbol,
an emblem of joy and fullness. You remember Psalm 16 verse 11
where the psalmist says, in your presence is fullness of what? Joy. Now mark now the adjective. It's not just that in the presence
of God there's joy. It's fullness of joy. fullness of joy. It's not just
that delight and underlying sense of happiness and blessedness. It's an overabundance of it in
the presence of God. When you meet the true and the
living God on proper grounds, I'm talking proper grounds, what
you will be exposed to, ladies and gentlemen, is a God of abundant
joy, great joy. This is the way God depicts himself.
After all, God is perfect. God's holy. God's righteous. God is blissfully loving, blissfully
kind, blissfully benevolent. There's no deficiency in God.
Why shouldn't he be happy? And why shouldn't those that
are called into God's presence also be happy? That is joyful. David said, in your presence
is fullness of joy. And watch this, pleasures. Pleasures. Not only pleasures, eternal pleasures. Pleasures forevermore, you know
what David is describing. He's describing a feast He's
describing a table He's describing friends and loved ones and relatives
and anyone who wants to come to sit down and eat Come on,
tell the truth now when the table is spread and I mean really spread
Aren't we some happy people? I mean, we are really happy people.
See, there's a dynamic. You need to hear me. It's going
to hurt in a little while, but you might as well enjoy this
part. There's a dynamic when God calls you and I to himself,
where he intentionally brings food into the equation. Food
is at the beginning of the book. He gave us that great motif of
the garden that he had planted full of trees and vegetables,
a garden of magnificent stature into which he placed mankind
and told mankind, enjoy yourself to the full. All the trees of
the garden are for you to enjoy. The idea is when God lays out
the spread, the people of God are to enjoy themselves. Are
you with me so far? The motif of feeding and eating
and enjoying God's word carries itself all through the scriptures,
not only in the garden, but when God delivered his people out
of Egypt, remember how he did it? With an outstretched arm
and a mighty hand, did he deliver his people out of Egypt? You
know what he told Moses to tell Pharaoh? Let my people go so
that they can hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. God wanted
to bring his people into an exclusive place called the wilderness so
that they could enjoy dining and eating and talking and fellowship
together. And then he taught his children,
the Old Testament church Israel, he catechized them in the book
of Leviticus to hold five feasts. Three demanded feasts, five feasts
every year. You know, when you get to eat
five times a year, you know how we do it around Thanksgiving
and then Christmas too? That's only twice. You get to eat five
times a year with God. You know he wants to get together
and enjoy life, isn't that right? He taught them to hold the feast
of Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of Pentecost,
the feast of in-gatherings, the feast of trumpets. And ladies
and gentlemen, all those feasts correspond, listen to me now,
to the work of redemption on Calvary all the way to glory. You know what that means? I want
you to follow this as we begin to work through our text. When
God calls you out of darkness into his marvelous light to sit
down at his table in his kingdom, he's calling you to a finished
work that's based on a redemption that's accomplished. When God
calls you to Himself to sit down and dine with Him, He's calling
you to a celebration of a finished work of redemption that He's
already accomplished in Christ. When Israel was brought out of
Egypt, the Red Sea was that great insurmountable block that they
had to go through. It was there that God destroyed
their foes, the Egyptians, and then brought them safely into
the the wilderness land to enjoy God and prepare to enter into
the land of Canaan. And so it is with you and I today.
Now, today the kingdom of God is understood primarily in the
area of spiritual things, right? Romans 14, 17, the kingdom of
God is righteousness, peace, and what? Joy in the spirit of
God. Righteousness, peace, joy in
the spirit of God. So you and I are talking intangible
things, eternal things, spiritual things, are we not? That does
not exclude or preclude the enjoyment of the physical things that are
necessary to sustain our bodies because after all, it is with
our bodies that we serve God. Glorify God in your bodies, which
are his. Therefore, the God that called
us out of darkness into his marvelous light must sustain these bodies.
I'm so glad. Every since I've been saved,
my taste buds have gotten a little bit more holy. Every since I've
been saved, I've gotten a little bit more thankful for food. Haven't
you? Yes, a little bit more thankful
for food. I appreciate my beans and my cornbread. They're getting
better every day. Hallelujah. And I love the brothers and sisters
at Grace because we are such an eclectic group. And I'll tell
you, First Sunday is a joy for me because y'all fix all these
different native cuisines. And if my sisters aren't fatigued,
they hook me up with some of my Filipino brethren food, and
then my Indian food, and then my Asian food, and then I get
down with my hot water cornbread. See what I'm talking about? God's
good, isn't he? Yeah. Now our Lord Jesus was
enjoying this right here too. But what he was thinking about
fundamentally was what he knew was neglected in the heart of
this gathering. And that is the more transcendent
issues that pertain to the kingdom of God. So let's talk truth. Let's talk some truth right now.
There was a man who was listening to our Lord straightening out
not only the people who had come with the arrogant attitude that
they had a right to be there, but he was also correcting, admonishing
the person who had held the feast because the person who had held
the feast, while he had good intentions, he failed to represent
the nature of the gospel in holding the feast. So he told him, these
are the wrong people that you invited. And the reason why these
are the wrong people and I want you to hear this is gonna hurt
a little bit Is because the people you invited don't really need
you And so I want to talk to you
about how to prepare a feast that actually represents and
reflects the gospel Because we do know that the gospel is a
feast. Is that right? The Word of God is a feast. In
fact, the meal is Christ. Is he not? The spread is the
Son of God. The spread is the grace of God.
The table that's set is the message of redemption. The food that
we eat and the drink that we imbibe is the person and work
of Jesus. Is it not? Yes. But this man
must understand something who spoke up in verse 15. And when
one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things,
he said unto him, ah, blessed is he that eats bread in the
kingdom of God. You see that? Now, if I was sitting
there with him, I probably would have simply said, amen. Boy,
you thinking spiritual just like me, amen. But you know, our Lord
is not like me. He has a tendency to see through
shallow statements that appear pious and righteous and go right
at the heart of the deceit of what prompted that shallow religious
statement. Do you notice how he responds
to this man? He actually says to this man,
what amounts to it this, I know it sounds good that you think
that you might be one of those blessed people to sit at the
feast in glory, but I'm here to tell you Not many people will
make that feast. Kind of busted his bubble. Kind
of busted his bubble. Because really what our Lord
is about to talk about is where we are versus where we are going
and the difficulty of getting there. Now in the preaching of
the gospel, the gospel always sets forth the past finished
work of Christ in terms of the grounds of our justification.
But it also demands that you and I realize that there's a
day coming when everything that we say and profess by faith will
be affirmed and realized or either clarified as to only have been
a sham. These are the tensions in the
scripture. These are the eschatological tensions in the scripture. So
Jesus and the apostles never failed to warn us to make our
calling and election sure. They never failed to warn us
to make sure that the grounds of your confidence that you are
feeding on the gospel is not based upon some sense of self-righteousness. that the grounds of your hope
for eternity is not rooted in the presumption, watch this now,
that you are already there. It's very important for you to
know that in the Scriptures. And he's getting ready to explain
this. Now, remember, we are dealing historically and contextually
with the Son of God who has come to His own people and He knows
that the larger preponderance of the people that are even sitting
with Him right now, watch this, while they sit and eat with God
Himself, they are already rejecting the God of the feast. While they
sit in church where the gospel is preached, in their heart they
are already rejecting the God who gave them the message of
grace. So in your outline, the first
thought I want you to contemplate with me is a glorious thought
contemplated It is such a glorious thought that one day you and
I will be sitting in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
made this very plain in Luke chapter 22, where he told the
disciples right before he was crucified, you are they which
have continued with me in my trials and my temptations. Now,
saints, listen to me very carefully. He told all the disciples minus
Judas Iscariot that because you have followed me, You have followed
me all the way through my daily trials, my weekly trials, my
yearly trials because you have stayed with me. At times when
the waves were high and the billows were raging and the foes were
after me, because you stayed with me and you've gone through
the temptation with me. Because when I stood and I asked
you the question in John chapter 6, all the people that left him
when he said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood,
you have no life in you, and they all abandoned him. He turned
to his disciples and said, will you go too? Will you go do you
understand the nature of commitment to the cause of the gospel? Will
you go to and because the disciples said lord Where are we going? you Only have the words of eternal
life They were committed with christ They were bound to christ. They were sold on christ and
for them as you're getting ready to learn christ was not an option
He was the only way And now as our savior is about to be crucified,
he's actually rewarding them by telling them, as he said in
Luke 22, as my father hath appointed a kingdom to me, I am appointing
you a kingdom so that you can sit at my table with me ruling
over the 12 tribes of Israel. What a word of honor to those
disciples. And it was all because they had
followed him all the way. We've got some lessons to learn.
We've got some lessons to learn that when God calls you and I
by the message of the gospel and we consent to that proposition
to come and sit and dine with God, you and I are called to
sit with God all the way. Listen to what he says in verse
16. Then he said unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade
many. The word bid means called and
invited. Verse 17. And he sent his servants
at supper time to say to them that were bidden, come for all
things are what? So the Lord sets the context
as he is responding to this man's delightful contemplation of eating
in the kingdom. He says a certain man prepared
a feast. It's in what we call the imperfect
verb form. So what it means is he was preparing a feast. This
was a huge feast that was in the process preparing. And while
he was preparing it, he sent his servants out to call people,
invite people, give them the RSVP, let them know the day we
gonna have the feast and to come and join him to enjoy the feast
with this certain man who made the feast. You guys got the context
now. And this is what you did in those cultures as you do today. A certain man sent out the invitation
to come and join him at the feast. Now watch what happens in verse
18 and 19. And they all, with one consent,
began to what? Make excuse. The first said unto
him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and
see it. I pray thee have me excuse. The
other said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove
them. I pray thee have me excuse. And
another one said, man, I didn't got married. Man, I can't make
it. That's my translation. But notice the response. So that
servant came and showed his Lord those things. And then the master
of the house began to be what? Do you recall when you studied
the scriptures carefully, both old and new, but particularly
Old Testament scriptures in relationship to the children of Israel, in
terms of the privileges they had, the blessings that they
had, that the majority of the time God was angry with them. Do you recall that? Do you recall
when God called him out of Egypt into the wilderness? For 40 years,
he was grieved with that generation. Do you recall in the mouth of
the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and the rest, Ezekiel,
that God displayed and depicted his anger with them? Do you recognize
now that once God was manifest in the flesh in the person of
Jesus, frequently in Jesus's interchange with them, that Jesus
demonstrated as we learned last week, what? Anger towards them. Now let me help you understand
why God would be angry at these people who made all these excuses.
First, there is actually two parts to the call to the feast. The first part is the initial
invitation that comes to set the date to come. You have an
invitation. It gives you plenty of time to
prepare. In fact, it gives you plenty of time to respond back
and say, I will be there. And the intimation is, watch
this now, that when he sent his servant out to the people to
let them know that he is preparing a feast, they said they would
come. Have you ever been there? They
said they were coming, because you know what? You won't meet
that many people who, if you ask them, do you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? They'll say no. And you won't
meet many people who will say, do you believe in God? They'll
say no. Most people you meet, now watch this, most people you
meet will pretend like they don't have a war with God. They'll
pretend like they are interested in the things of God. They'll
actually pretend like they're interested in knowing the Christ
that you say you know. In other words, to give them
an invitation, they will accept the invitation. Are you hearing
me? As these people did. But once
the meal was ready and the time had come, and he sent his servants
out to tell those that were bitten. See, the householder is not under
any illusion. Shoot, you send out an RSVP and
you tell them, would you please sign this thing and send it back
in so we can know how many tables to set. If you can't make it,
we understand. Isn't that right? That's just
cordiality. Here you sign it, you say, oh
yeah, I'll be there. And then on that day, when you
are reminded, because this is what they did in Middle Eastern
cultures, that today is the day, the householder who has provided
the feast is looking for so many tables, so many chairs, so many
plates to be seated, 200, 300, 400, 50, 10. In our context, it appeared to
be a great spread, but to his utter surprise, now watch this
now, No one with whom he had given the initial call actually
came. No one with whom he had given
the initial call actually came. Now, let me ask you the question.
If you were God, wouldn't you be angry too? If you were God,
wouldn't you be angry too? That's the next point in our
outline. I would be angry too. If I were God, I would be angry
too. Now what's taking place here?
Why is it that people who hear the message of the gospel often
appear to be interested in the message of redemption, but as
it is in this case, not actually coming to the feast. Well, point
number two in your outline actually gives us a hint to it. Are you
ready? Many are called, but few are chosen. Many are called,
but fewer children. Let me share something with you
that you already know by experience, especially for those of you who
are true believers, but this often shakes you up. When God
actually called you by his grace, and that's the only way you were
called, did you hear Errol talk about it? If you have discovered
that you know Jesus, I mean know him in the truth, I'm not talking
false religion, I'm talking knowing the true and the living God and
the truth of the gospel, you know it's only by grace. Am I
telling the truth? It's only by grace God gave us
ears to hear. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, the Lord has made both of them. It's only by grace that
God gives us faith to come to Him. Isn't that right? Faith
comes by what? Hearing. And hearing by what?
The Word of God. It's only by the grace of God
that He reveals this glorious Savior Jesus Christ to you so
that He becomes so compelling that you come, that you come
to Christ. Here you are, have come to the
table. And you are delighted to meet other people that are
coming to the table. And you are involved in the process
of the call of the gospel, because that's where we all are. We are
in this realm of the call. We preach the gospel to every
creature. We preach the gospel to brothers
and sisters. We preach it to cousins and nephews.
We preach it to mamas and daddies. And you know what you enjoy?
You enjoy the fact that the room is often filled with people or
the fellowship is filled with the prospects of those who are,
as it were, ostensibly coming. Am I telling the truth? You enjoy
the idea that you have neighbors and constituents and schoolmates
and friends and peers that are, as it were, hearing the gospel
like you. But over time, over time, what
you come to discover is that people fall off. And when you
are initially coming to Christ, it'll shake you up a little bit,
particularly when you meet people who started off more zealous
to get to the table than you. You were headed to the table.
but then somebody blew past you and there was a gust of wind
that hit you and it shook you up. Remember how they were more
zealous than you? More committed to Bible study
than you? More interested in all the classes than you? And
then a year later, they're gone and you're still here. You know
what we call that? The mystery of His grace. The
mystery of His grace. And we are warned more than once
in the scripture. We are more worn more than once. He that continue it to the end,
the same shall be saved. Warned, warned, warned. And so we have to recalibrate,
don't we? We have to readjust in our souls.
We have to settle down, especially when we meet people who we see
drifting away from the table, drifting away from the fellowship,
drifting away from the cause of Christ, making excuses. And they are maybe often more
skillful and knowledgeable than you and me. They're more studied
than you and I. And they end up having learned
excuses to abandon the gospel. Can I get a witness? So now watch
this now. The reason for which the host,
the gracious host, is angry is because these people who made
excuses were forceful in their excuses. Here's where the King
James is not as explicit as it should be. In the original language,
the way that this should go is that when the servant was sent
out to let these people know that the time was at hand, we
read over in verse 18, and they all with what? One consent. But what do you mean all with
one consent? It almost seems conspiratorial
because they all are in one accord. They're all in agreement. Now,
this is the way our Lord is couching and developing the parable. We
are dealing with a parable. He's helping us understand mysteries
in the kingdom in the context of a parable. But very seldom
are you going to get everybody in agreement on something without
them all having the same premise, all having the same underlying
motive, all having the same presupposition or judgment. The reason why they
all with one consent said, have me excused is because they didn't
want to be there. They didn't want to have nothing
to do with this man. Nothing from the time that the
call came to the time that the feast was made ready, something
that transpired, which changed their mind about going to the
dinner. Are you hearing me? Something had gotten into them
and now at first they were honored because you know what when God
calls you It means that he's viewing you as his friend when
God calls you to the feast. He's viewing you as a fellow
He's viewing you as one with whom he is ready to enjoy Fellowship
with that's a high honor But for you to turn around and to
say I don't want to go creates a problem And so here's the problem
that the householder had, the host had. He had sent out invitations
to people who had unanimously began to consent to refusing
to go to the feast. Now mark how this goes. They
began to make excuses. And if you read in verse 18,
the latter part, I must needs go and see it. I'm sorry. Verse 18, the first part. And
they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said
of them, I have bought a piece of ground and I got to go and
see it. OK. See, I'm gonna be a little humorous
here. I don't want you at my feast if you buy a plot of ground,
which you didn't go see first before you bought it. But really what's going on here,
are you ready? Is you are not a good liar. But the construction
of this last part, which is done twice, is please have me excused. In other words, he's telling
the messenger, go back and tell the host whatever you need to
tell him. to legitimately excuse me from
the feast. In other words, he's putting
the burden on the messenger. I'm gonna talk about that in
a moment. I got ground that I bought and I gotta deal with it. Here's
the next one. And another said, I bought five
yoke of oxen and I gotta go test them to see if they work. These
are two ignorant businessmen, aren't they? Two very ignorant
businessmen. I pray thee, you have me excused. And the other said, I got married. I ain't coming. See, he didn't
even ask the messenger to find a way to tell the host that there
is a legitimate reason for which I can't be there. He just said
no. All three of these excuses are invalid excuses. Neither
one of these excuses have any merit even in Jewish law or Hebrew
law and Hebrew culture. Only one. When a man gets married,
the law said that he was free to abide with his wife for the
first year or graciously a few years so that they can get to
know each other in the context of a war. in which men must go
to war. You don't get married today like
a lot of our boys did in World War II and subsequent and then
go off to war. That would be a tragedy because
marriages should constitute the presence of a mother and a father.
Are you guys hearing me? We can go into a whole another
dimension with that and talk about another war that separates
husbands and wives. But you don't go under the law
of God. You stay there, develop the relationship, strengthen
the accord, and then you left after you and your wife were
cheered up. In this context, there is no legitimate reason
for which they left or excused themselves. And here's the warning. What they were demonstrating
is what we have in the parable of the sower and the seed. You
remember the stony ground, hearer? Where the seed was sown on stony
ground, And because the stones were not removed, it choked the
word. And these have everything to
do with the way life works. See, from the call to the dinner,
life can choke your love for Christ, your aspiration for Christ,
your zeal for Christ, your commitment to Christ. See, all we are dealing
with is the cares of this life, a business, a family, the cares
of this life. Now, granted, even a family is
a very, very important thing, and yet your family can keep
you from being devoted to Christ. I'm here to tell you, even your
family can do it. See, if you look at our Lord's
words in Luke chapter 13, starting at verse, I'm sorry, we're at
chapter 14, starting at verse 26, after this parable, Those
people that were following him who heard him then, he had to
say these words in verses 26 through 29. If any man's going
to come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his
wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea, even what?
His own life, he cannot what? Whosoever does not bear his cross
and come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you intending
to build a tower That's a business stretch not down first sits not
down first and counts the cost whether he has sufficient to
finish it less happily after he's laid the foundation is not
able to finish it and All that behold to begin to mock him saying
this man began to build but was not able to finish You see what
our Lord is doing He's intensifying the standard of following him
that says there's nothing in this world that's more important
than the gospel call. Nothing. Will you please listen
to me? Nothing in this world more important than God calling
you to his feast. And yet every day, you and I
are gonna see people who depart from the gospel for a job, for
a wife, for a husband, for the cares of this life, for lands,
for property, for business, for frivolous things. Listen to me,
ladies and gentlemen, let me help you understand this. You
are going to see it happen. You are going to see people who
say that they were invited to the feast demonstrate either
by their words or by their actions. Watch this now, that the feast
to which they were invited to, was simply a choice. It was simply
a choice. Listen carefully to this proposition
as we go to this host who is so gracious response to these
people. When the gospel is just a choice
to you, there will inevitably be something that comes along
that takes you away from the gospel. when the word of God
is simply a choice to you. When all it is is a leave it
or take it message. If the message of the gospel
is just an invitation to come to Jesus, I guarantee you something
else in your life will take you away. I guarantee you that. And this is what you will see
in the life of multitudes of people. Listen, watch this now,
let me cut the lights on. Young people, 18, 19, 20 years
old, 21, 22 years old, 23 years old, struggling with their hormones. And God gives them a sense of
their sin. And they start listening to their
parents and say, oh, mom is right, I'm a sinner. You come to Christ
ostensibly. You start reading your Bible
and getting grounded. Are you hearing me? Loving the
Lord till you meet that boy. Lights on till you meet that
girl. Then all of a sudden your love
for worship, your commitment to scripture, your diligence
and personal devotion to Christ begins to wane off. You get your
degree if you can make it through that cesspool called college.
If it doesn't diaprax you and turn you into a beast. And then
all of a sudden you are scrambling for a job. You'll come to church
every now and then. But once you get that job, you
end up getting married to that job, and the gospel church, the
gracious host who invited you to Christ, doesn't see you for
months on end. Can I tell you why? The gospel
is a choice to you. It's just an invitation. It's
just an invitation. Just as it was for these people.
Merely an invitation. Now granted, mark this now, The
context in which we are speaking is the context of the Jewish
people. Jesus is talking about Israel. He's talking about how
God had called Israel to his feast all the way back in the
days of Egypt, taught them through catechism that there was a great
feast coming in the days of Jesus. The servants that were calling
the children of Israel were the prophets. Prophet after prophet
after prophet after prophet preaching, come to the feast, come to the
feast, come to the feast. God is preparing a feast. And
then all of a sudden, John the Baptist comes on the scene and
he points and he says, the feast is ready. The householder, the
host is here. The table is spread. It's time
to eat. John the Baptist and the Lord
Jesus announced the presence of the kingdom, affirmed the
presence of the kingdom by signs and wonders and healings and
great evidences that God was with them. They were calling
the Jewish people to come to the table. Guess what? They would
not come. See, our Lord said in Matthew
chapter 11, you guys remember it, what shall I liken unto this
generation? I'll liken them unto people to
whom we piped but they wouldn't dance. In other words, we say,
hey, we're feasting, come join us. They said, no. And then when
we mourned, we warned them that death is imminent. They act like
death wasn't imminent. They continued to party. You
see what I'm getting at? Our Lord knew conscientiously
that the very people to whom he was preaching were the people
that were rejecting the feast that God had prepared. That's
the Jewish people. That's the rulers that were sitting
with Jesus in that feast that day. That's everybody who was
under the assumption, I want you to hear me now, that the
gospel is merely a choice. If your notion of the gospel
is that it's a late leave it or take it thing, you are in
trouble. Let me help you. I was talking with our men on
Saturday night about a week ago and one of the questions came
to me, I think this was the time, one of the questions came to
me, there's somebody that's struggling with a physical illness and they're
They might die of their disease and and yet they haven't bowed
the knee to Christ, but they keep telling me it's alright
I'll get right on my deathbed and right before I die. I'll
make a decision for Jesus pastor What do you say about that? Here's
what I say about that his heart her heart in all likelihood will
be so hardened By the time they lay on their deathbed That calling
on Jesus will be impossible Are you hearing me let me help
you You can't come to Christ on your own. No man can come
unto me except the Father which sent me. Draw him. You're not
coming to God when you want to. This is the false notion of thinking
the gospel is a choice. Are you hearing me? And this
is what Israel thought. They were some of the biggest
proponents of free will than anybody in the world. They thought
they had the power to reject God and come to God whenever
they wanted to. And a lot of people that we know act like
that. I was talking to one of my brothers a little earlier
today about some individuals that we knew formerly used to
be so zealous to come hear the word, formerly were more committed
than most to hear the word of God. And now they are making
excuses as to why they don't have to go to church anymore.
They're making excuses for not being under the preaching of
the gospel And and my brother was asking me. Well, how do you
deal with it? I said man, you remember what the word of god
said you remember that the word of god says when you are my disciple
When you're my disciple indeed in truth Watch this you will
continue in my word. The operative word is continue
Continue. Abide. Continue. Remain. Proceed. Make your way under the Word.
When you are Christ's disciple, you never ever contemplate separating
yourself from the Word, from the worship, from the gospel,
from the people of God. This is all part of your salvation. When you are the people of God,
you know that it is essential to your edification, your sanctification,
your keeping, that you stay under the word. Wherewithal shall a
young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. Are you guys hearing me? It's
the Word of God that's able to build you up and give you an
inheritance among those that are sanctified. Without the Word
of God, you and I would quickly fall away. It's the Word of God
that reproves us and corrects us and admonishes us and straightens
us out. It's the Word of God that pulls
us out of the pit when we get inside that pit. It comes and
retrieves a brother. Remember the word unto your servant
upon which you have caused me to hope. This is my confidence
in my affliction because your word quickens. Hear me now, when
you are a child of God and you get in the pit, the only thing
that's gonna get you out of the pit is the word of God. Don't you fool yourself. And
some of you are in pits right now. Pits. Pretending that you're
coming to Christ. Pits. Your hearts are hardened. hardened against the God of glory
who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And
you're just like these people in our text, making excuses. When God has been spreading his
table of gospel feasting week in and week out, the cares of
this life have taken you away from the feast. Now watch how
our Lord responds. He tells us that these people
to whom he had initially gave the invite are in for a rude
surprise. Verse 21. So that servant came
and showed his Lord these things. The master of the house being
angry said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets.
Do you see that? And the lanes of the city and
bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt. and the blind. Do you see verse
21? Bring in here the poor, the main, the blind, and the halt. And verse 22 says, and the servant
said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded. Now watch this,
and yet there is what? There's room. Now, this servant
needs to be commended. Because this brother has had
to take hits from the religious folk who told him to find a way
to make an excuse to the householder that they can't come. He goes
back to the householder and he has to observe and embrace, absorb
the anger of the householder and maintain his cool. Now this
word servant is doulos in the Greek. You know what that means?
Slave. Let me help you with that. When
you are a slave, you don't operate out of your own will. As a slave,
you are bound to the will of your master. What that means
is sometimes your master is going to put you in very precarious
situations where between the master and the people with whom
the master is engaging, you become the medium. You know what that
means? You got to take the hits. Can you imagine what that brother
went through, those brothers went through, those sisters went
through, when they kept telling the folks that were invited,
you need to come, everything's ready, you don't have any excuses,
the table is set, we've got a ready gospel, we've got a prepared
gospel, and yet the people who said they were coming found ways
to argue with them and debate with them, and found ways to
tell them to go back and tell the host, hey, I ain't making
it. You know how they have to feel. You know how you feel when
you share the gospel with people you love and you encourage them
to continue in Christ and they find ways to tell you to stop
talking to me about the gospel? You're judging me. Leave me alone. Now, here's one of the big ones
that will shut you down. Are you ready? I already know. You shut down
at that point. You already shut down. And see,
I'm going to share with you another corollary parable that goes with
this. It's Matthew chapter 22. You don't have to go there. It's
the same construct, only in that feast, this is a feast that's
held by a father for his son. And the same formula is there.
The invitation is given to everybody to come to the son's feast. They
all said they would come, but they wouldn't. And then the father
sends out servants to the people to let them know it's time to
come. And you know what the servants experience by the people who
should have come? They get beat up. They get abused. They get maligned. They get persecuted. They get beat down. And you know
what the text says in Matthew chapter 22? And the host who
gave the feast was so angry that he produced an army to go and
kill those people. Now, let me help you understand
Middle Eastern thought in this regard, because as a Westerner,
you don't get it. In Middle Eastern thought, When
a dignitary invites you to dinner, this is the short version, you
better go. Are you hearing me? When a prince invites you to
dinner, the only legitimate excuse for you not being able to show
up is because you're dead. Please hear me. because this
corresponds to the God of the universe, the God who created
the heavens and the earth, whose message, come to me, is to us. There is no earthly excuse for
you not to come. In fact, when you tell God, I'm
not coming, you know what the text tells us? You are waging
war against God. Let me help you. In Arabic culture,
when you didn't come to the feast, you basically said that the host
is your enemy. Now, isn't that the way the Jews
viewed Christ? As their enemies, so much so
they wanted to kill him. They were ready to kill John
the Baptist and they killed him. They were ready to kill the apostles
and they killed them. Now, let me help you understand
this in a more contemporary context before we go to our master's
response, his alternative response. For those of us who are the Lord's
blessed servants, who share the gospel with men and women, and
this is not only the pastor, this is brothers and sisters
who are compelled to share the gospel with people. Are you hearing
me? You represent God. And when you come across people
who said initially that they're coming to the feast, But somehow
in the diabolical scheme of the adversary and their own fallen
nature, they find a way not to come. Expect them to seek to
kill you in some form or another, either by maligning your character
or excusing you as someone not qualified to invite them to the
feast. Because as they did it to the
master, they've got to do it to you. And this is one of the
evidences that they are at war with God. Are you hearing me? This is one of the... See, it's
not enough for them to say, I'm just not coming. No, they got
to make you bad because you keep encouraging them to come. That
means they've got a problem with God. They've got a problem with
God. And God knows that. God knows
that. So he responds in this text by
telling his servant to go to people on the outside of this
circle with whom we are most frequently engaged with. Look
at it again, verse 21. Go out quickly into the streets
and the lanes of the city and bring in hither who? The poor,
who? The maimed, who? The haunt, who? The blind. Now watch this, saints. This time, He didn't say to his
servant, go and bid them to come, go invite them to come, go and
offer them to come. You know what he said? Bring
them, bring them into my house. The message changes radically
in terms of the method. and consequence of this invitation. I want you to stay with me now
because you're getting ready to learn something about the
efficacious nature of the gospel of grace. Are you ready? When
the gospel comes to you as an invitation, you do not see yourselves
as you really are. When the gospel is merely an
offer that you can take or leave, you don't see yourself as poor. You don't see yourself as maimed.
You don't see yourself as lame. You don't see yourself as broke.
You don't see yourself as undeserving. You don't see yourself as hell
bound. You don't see yourself as a wretch. You don't see yourself
as miserable. You don't see yourself in need
of the king. Because you can make a choice.
Can you imagine? What happened when this gospel
of this glorious king came to people who are on the outside
of the church, outside the church, outside the kingdom, outside
Jerusalem, outside Judea. You know where they are historically?
Samaria, Capernaum, Galilee, the Decapolis. These are the
folks who are the rejects, the abjects, the folks that the leaders
of the church said are cursed, didn't know God. These are the
ones to whom the gospel not only came, are you ready? It came
in power, in power. It came not only telling them
there's a dinner for you, but we taking you there. We're going
to bring you to the dinner. Now watch this. And it's not
an invite. You come in. Are you hearing me? See, now
watch this. When the gospel comes in power,
it's not an invitation. It's a summons. It's a command
with power. And you can find yourself, watch
this, at the table. This ain't negotiation. This
is not dialogue. This is not trying to clear your
schedule. This is God coming to you in your abject state picking
you up and bringing you to the table and letting you know God
fixed a meal for you. This is the difference between
the elect and the non-elect. This is the difference between
the sheep and the goats. This is the difference between
the power of the gospel and the life of undeserving sinners in
the rest of the world that thinks they can come and go when they
please. Now hear me now. Hear me sinner. If today you
have rejected the gospel because you think you have the capacity
to come when you won't, you will never come. You will never come. And hear me, you church people
who are dripping away, incrementally departing from the gospel, making
room on your calendar for something else, you are departing and there
is no guarantee that you will come back. There will be a day
when you will not hear my voice. You will not hear the message.
You will not hear the gospel. You will be so far away from
the gospel that you can't get back. That you can't get back. See, there's a timetable for
the dinner. There's a timetable for the banquet. There's a timetable for the feast. Pastor, when's that time? Now
is the time. Today is the feast and God will
have the poor and the maimed and the lame. You know who he'll
have? He'll have people who cannot
help themselves. He'll have people who don't have
the ability to come. He'll have people who are too
broke to pay him back. He'll have people too blind to
find their way to the gospel. He'll have people who are rejected
by everybody else, but God, how glorious is God in his character? Think about that. He's the only
perfect being in the universe and he loves to dwell with the
broken and the contrite. How glorious is, think with me
for a moment. Give me five more minutes of
your time. Think about how, how the church of the living God
should really look. if the power of the gospel is
actually operating like it ought to. You know what it's filled
with? A room full of broke, poor, lame, maimed, blind, deaf, dumb,
whore, sinners. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? That's what it should look like. That's what it should look
like. Humble sinners. Humble. And watch this. The servant
was told to go out into the streets and into the lanes and into the
cities. Do you see that? And then it says, when he came
back, having done that with his own posse and group, he looked
around and said, my master has set a table for thousands of
people and there's plenty room yet left. See, the servant was
thinking like his master. Can I tell you what that is?
When our master sets a table, every table has a chair and a
plate in front of it with knives and spoons and forks and two
glasses. You do with that what you want. And every table, every chair,
every plate is designated to be filled. not one plate will
be empty in God's house. Are you hearing me? Which means
God's slaves for Christ are never satisfied so long as there is
room for a sinner to come sit and feast with God. Are you hearing
me? See, we think God's thoughts
after him. It's not done until it's done,
until there's no more room in the kingdom of God. It's not
done until it's done. That means I will preach until
I breathe my last breath and then somebody will take my place.
and preach until they breathe their last breath. Until in God's
own prerogative, every table in the house is filled up with
God's elect from every nation, every kindred, every tribe, every
tongue from the beginning of time to the end of the world.
Our objective is to bring them in. Notice what he said. He said
over in verse 23, and our Lord said unto the servant, go out
into the highways and the hedges and compel them. Do you see it? To come in that my house may
be full. See now, the servant, if he was
thinking his own thoughts after him, he could have said, now
the house is three quarters full. Master, ain't that enough? A
brother been working hard. First, I get jacked up by all
these religious folk for telling them to come and they didn't
come. And then I go out in the highways, and I'm, you know,
I'm out there with those really weird religious folk called the
Samaritans, and their theology is all jacked up. You know how that goes, and endangering
my life. And they come in, I mean, you
know, three quarters ought to be cool. No, he didn't think
like that. And not only did he not think like that, but his
master told him, now I want you to go into the far extremities. I want you to go out into the
furthest regions. want you to go out into the vineyards
into the fields into the far country out into the desert go
out there where folks houses is miles and miles and miles
away from anybody and let them know there's a table and a chair
and a plate for you in the master's house are you guys hearing me
I want you to go to Judea Jerusalem Samaria and the uttermost parts
of the world to call my people to sit at my table with me. Go! And by the way, compel them. Now, if you are ignorant to what
I'm talking about, you and I are the very product of that command. 2,000 years later, The Holy Ghost
is still calling men and women through the Gospel from the furthest
regions of the world and bringing them to God's table and feast.
Are you guys hearing me? Compel them. And the word compel
there doesn't mean to threaten. It doesn't mean to beat up. It
doesn't mean to manipulate. It doesn't mean to lie. It means
to compel, persuade, influence, Deconstruct all their arguments
because you see the people that are now having to be persuaded
are people who are saying, I don't deserve to come. You know what
you have to say? I know you don't deserve to come,
but I don't deserve to come either. So I'm telling you, both of us
don't deserve to come. So I want you to come. So how
do we compel them? They'll say, well, I can't come
because I'm lame. I know you're lame. I was lame
too. But the master of the house has provision for lame people.
You see these two brothers? They will pick you up and carry
you. So you don't have an argument
there. Well, I'm just too ashamed to come. Well, I know you ought
to be ashamed. You're a hell bound sinner. But
we got something for shame. Do you know what that is? The
righteousness of Jesus Christ. A covering for your nakedness. I'm too dumb to come. I know
you're too dumb to come. God thought that went through
too. But God's not calling the mighty, nor the noble, nor the
wise. He's calling ignorant folks,
dumb folks like you. He will take your dumbness and
give you his wisdom. He'll give you knowledge to make
you wise unto salvation through Jesus Christ. See, when God compels
a sinner through the gospel, he disarms all of his arguments. The only grounds upon which you
and I are called to come is the fact that God called us to come.
Are you hearing me? And it is no option. So let me close with the two
points of application that are in your outline. It's very important
for you to note this. This is important. The two things
in closing are this. Our Lord is teaching that he
will have a feast where his people fellowship with him both now
and for all eternity. And the energy and effort with
which he has called his servants to go out and reach those undeserving
sinners is a vital Christ glorifying method of evangelism. Are you
guys hearing me? They will call men and women
to God with an urgency and an effort and a compassionate effort
worthy of the glory of God. In other words, as we talk about
evangelism, which for some of y'all, you know, it may be a
little scary thing. We are called to evangelize the
world. We are called to reach men and
women with the gospel of Christ. We are called to confront them
and present to them this glorious Savior. Make sure, however, that
you give them the right message, the true message, and make sure
that your heart is right as you do it. Make sure your heart is
right as you do it, because we are dealing with a religious
age that's duping and deceiving people everywhere, are we not?
A vital God-glorifying evangelism compels men and women to come
to Christ based on the truth of the gospel. Secondly, this
man was urged, these servants were urged, you and I are urged
on the grounds that God's house shall be filled. Are you hearing
me? Now follow me now. And our mission
is not done until it's filled. And what that means for you is
if you don't have the ability to share the gospel with your
co-workers and your friends and your family, you at least ought
to have the ability to pray for those of us who share the gospel
with our friends and our families. If you don't have the ability
to witness the truth of Christ, you ought to have the zeal to
get on your knees and pray for the success of the gospel for
those of us who have to share the gospel. See, it all works
together with God. We need people praying. We need
people going. We need people telling. It all
works together. You get your part of the credit
too. Paul said it. You supplied my end of the preaching. You will receive your reward.
But don't you ever think that so long as the world is standing
And God has allowed the Son to rise and to set, that He's done
with the saving of souls. Don't you ever think it. Amen.