Come with me this morning, if
you would, back over to the book of Ephesians
chapter 2. I have found a wonderful verse. The Bible never ceases to be
amazing. Not only what it teaches, but
sometimes the way it teaches. what it says, but the way it
says it. We have a doctrine that everywhere
the Scripture teaches, it's filled with this particular doctrine,
this teaching. And even though the Scripture
is full of this teaching, it's still not rich the depths of
that doctrine, that teaching. And I'm talking about the doctrine,
the teaching of the Holy Trinity, the Sacred Trinity. God the Father,
the third person. God the Son, the second person.
And the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the third person. The
Scriptures are filled with that. And we come here to my text this
morning in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 18. And he takes
these 13 words and he sets forth the sacred trinity. Look how
he says it. For through him, who is that? That's the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, God's only begotten. Through him, that's
the second person of the sacred trinity. We both have access
by one Spirit. Who is that? That's the third
person of the Sacred Trinity. The Eternal Spirit. One with
the Father. One with the Son. Unto the Father. The Everlasting Father. The Father
of the spirits of all men. Ain't that amazing? How you can
take one verse, thirteen short words, and set forth what the
entire Scripture is not able to reach in the depths of such
a truth? If you were penning this down,
could you have possibly penned this down? If the Lord come to
you and said, I'm going to give you the liberty to take one short
sentence, and in that sentence expound upon the Godhead, Revealed
the unity of God, the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit.
Could you have did it? No, we'd have wrote paragraph
after paragraph, and chapter after chapter, and the world
itself could not have contained the books written upon this one
subject. And here this great apostle wrote
this down in 13 words. Doesn't that tell us something?
Doesn't that tell us that it wasn't Him at all who wrote it?
It wasn't Him that was the author of it? He was moved by the Spirit. Ain't the Scriptures amazing?
I tell you, the more you read them, the more amazed you are
at them. Just the way that it says something. This eternal, sacred Trinity. here in a mere short sentence. But we have more than even that
in this sentence. We have only this redeeming God,
this triune God, but we have His people included in this.
Did you notice that? For it is through Him that we
bow. Who are these we bow? It's the
church. It's the Jewish believers. It's
the Gentile believers. It's the one body, the one building,
the one temple. It's the church in earth and
the church in heaven. Here you have this redeeming
triune God and all His people and yet just 13 words. Ain't
that amazing? Through Him, Jesus Christ, we
both, all believers, Jews and Gentiles, all the nations of
the world, have access by this one Spirit unto the Father. That's absolutely astounding
to me. This verse also teaches us something
else as we look at it and examine it closer. What a clear system
of theology it sets forth to us. Not just presenting to us
truth or fact, but look what a clear system of theology it
gives us, as it relates to this redeeming God, saving sinners. You say, Bruce, where do you
get that out of that verse? Well, consider what we've been
teaching. What have we been studying from this chapter 2? That we
were all aforeof? That we were without God, without
Christ, without hope, even dead in trespasses and sins? How can
we possibly come back to God? How can we possibly be brought
from that position of far off to being brought near to God,
alongside of Him in love and sonship and fellowship? Well,
this verse teaches us that. By Christ, we have access unto
the Father. We that were afar off, now we're
made nigh through this one channel, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the Bible, brothers and
sisters, but thousands of verses that go into detail to teach us exactly what this
one verse teaches us. Ain't that amazing? Somebody
says, I just keep hearing the same old thing over and over
with you guys. I come Sunday after Sunday, and
it's always the same old string that you're picking on. Well,
here's the reason why, dear soul. This is the theme of the Bible. How God has purposed to bring
sinners, sinners who have gone far away, sinners who have gone
astray, and reconcile them and bring them again to Himself. From Genesis to Revelation, that's
the theme of the Bible. And lo and behold, here we have
it in this one short verse. Through Him, we, We poor sinners
who were for all, we have now access to the very presence of
God. All we like sheep have gone astray,
and God hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And then
He says, Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee. Is that
not what this verse teaches? God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself. That's what this verse teaches
us. I am the way. I'm the way back to the Father
for poor, miserable sinners. I'm the access unto His presence. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. Christ has once suffered for
sins. the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God. Having done high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near to God." All of these verses
and a thousand more teach exactly the same thing as this verse
teaches us here. In these thirteen words, we have
a system of theology that is taught throughout all the Scriptures.
How is God saving sinners? How can we get into His holy
presence? Saving. We approach unto Jesus. We approach unto the Father through
Jesus Christ. And as we do, we find Him to
be a gracious and merciful and pitiful Father. And this is what the Bible teaches
throughout. And this is what is taught here
in this verse. Through Him, we have access unto
the Father. But notice this verse closer. Look at it a little bit closer.
And this system of theology that is preached to us in this text
is so thorough and is so precise, it leaves nothing out that's
necessary for our returning to God. You say, Bruce, what's more
necessary than having a mediator? What's more necessary than having
one to come through? Well, there's something else
that's necessary. And Paul gives it to us here
in this simple verse of Scripture. The Son is the door. He's the
channel to this glorious Person, our Father. It's through Him
that we're brought to the Father. But note this, what's the cause
of our coming? What's the cause of our coming
through Him to the Father? Through the Son to the Father?
We were strangers. We were far off. We were dead. What was it that caused us to
come? You see, if God just says, here's
a mediator. I've set a mediator between myself
and a fallen humanity. Now I've left it up to them to
take advantage of it. I've left it up to them to come
to recognize what I've done and to come to me through Him. You
know if He just stands back and does nothing, nobody will approach. Nobody will come. So Paul's system
of theology here, he's so precise in it. So he adds this. Not only is it through the Son
to the Father, but he says it's by the Holy Spirit. He sees the necessity of that,
doesn't he? By this means. He is the cause. He's the reason that we approach. The Holy Spirit has caused us
to come to God through Christ. He's drawn us. He's taught us. He's influenced us. He's encouraged
us to come. When the Spirit of Truth is come,
He will guide you unto all truth. What is the truth? Here's the
truth, that there is access. for poor, miserable sinners through
Jesus Christ to God the Father. That's the truth. That's the
truth. And when the Spirit of God has
come, the Spirit of Truth, He guides us into that truth. He
opens our hearts and makes us to know that we do and can and
are welcome to approach to the Father through the Son. We have
received Not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God. Why is it necessary for us to
receive the Spirit of God? That we might know the things
of God. And what are the things of God?
Here's the deepest thing of God, that we can approach unto Him
through Jesus Christ our Lord. What's more important than that,
brothers and sisters? What's more necessary than that? This is the very truth that the
world is ignorant of this very morning. The truth is, we have access. And the truth is, through this
access, God is a forgiven and gracious and receptive Father
to all who come to Christ through Him, by the Spirit. Now, He's not saying that the
Spirit infuses in us some sort of merit, not even His graces. And therefore, we have merit
to come. Therefore, we're worthy to come
to the Father. No, that's what he's not saying.
He's not saying that at all. We can't come to the Father on
the grounds that we have these graces in our hearts, because
they're so weak, they're so imperfect. But what the Spirit does, He
tells us, He teaches us the truth that we come to the Father through
the merits of someone else. That's what He teaches us. Do you ever notice as you read
the Scriptures that the Son of God has the preeminence? We have
this wonderful Trinity, this sacred, holy Trinity. But as
we read the Bible, one of the conclusions that we reach is
this, that the Son of God has the preeminence in the Word. It pleased the Father, it's pleased
the Spirit, that that should be that way. That in the Son
should all fullness dwell. But the Scriptures never exalt
the Son and His person and His work and the necessity of it
at the exclusion of the work of the Father and of the Holy
Spirit. They're all necessary. Unto the
Father? What is that? What is that? Unto the Father. We have access
unto the Father. What is that? That's the glorious
end of it all. That's the happy and holy end
of it. Coming to the Father. That's
the purpose. That's the finality of it all.
Coming to the Father. There's coming a day. When the
purpose of God is finished, and all the nations of the world
stand there before the judgment bar, and the Lord Jesus will
gather all His people, all His children, and they'll be there
at His side, and He will, as it were, look up to the Father,
and He'll say, Father, behold Me and the children that You've
given Me. I brought them all the way home. I brought them back to you. That's the glorious end, brothers
and sisters. It's not just about a new heaven
and a new earth. It's not just about streets of
gold and no more tears and no more sorrows. Those things are
wonderful in themselves. But here's the glorious end of
it all. Jesus Christ is bringing us back
to the Father. He's the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God. And all of this is for the sake
of the Son. For His sake, through Him and
by Him. And here's the cause of it all.
Here's the way it's being brought to pass. by the grace, and by
the aid, and by the help, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. He's working in us to bring this
to pass. Jesus Christ, our Lord, has purchased
the way to come. The Holy Spirit gives us a heart
to come. how necessary the work of the
trial in God is. Now let me ask us this this morning
concerning this verse, concerning the teaching, concerning its
theology. What do you and I know experientially
about what this text teaches? Do we have conviction in heart,
in our souls, about what this verse teaches? You say, Bruce,
what do you mean? What's our conviction about coming
to the Father? We read this and we say, here's
the doctrine of it. Through the Son, by the Spirit,
we come unto the Father. Do you feel a necessity of coming
to Him? Do you realize, is it the conviction
and the knowledge of your heart, someday all men are coming? Is that the conviction of your
soul? Has this been put in your heart to the point where you've
actually came? You've come unto the Father.
You know Him as your Father. Not only did you feel the necessity
of it, now you've experienced it. This is the theology of it
unto the Father. But this has jumped off of the
page and got in your heart. You've experienced it. You've
actually come. It'll do no man any good just
to read the theology that's taught you. It's necessary. We've got to know the way. We've
got to understand the way. Have knowledge of the way. But
just having knowledge of it isn't enough, is it? Have we experienced
this unto the Father? Have we experienced this? Is
this the conviction of our souls through the Son? Through the Son. You say, Bruce,
what do you mean by that? We have groups today, and you
may not be aware of it, but they talk about a relationship with
God. having a relationship with God. They talk about coming to Him,
praying to Him, having fellowship with Him and serving Him. And
yet all of this is apart from the Son. They never talk about
a mediator or the necessity of a mediator. And let me ask you,
my dear brothers and sisters, how do you feel about that? How
do you feel about such a group? How do you feel about such an
attitude of approaching unto the living God apart from the
Lord Jesus? Can you stay silent when you
hear of such a thing? Are you so shy that you say nothing? You say, well, I don't want to
judge. Is that our attitude or do we have this deep conviction
that burns in our soul? That we can't help but telling
someone like that. That's utterly impossible. Not
only is that in vain and useless, but it's sinful to even attempt
to approach unto the God of heaven apart from the Son of God as
the mediator. This is theology, but it's gone
off of the page into our hearts. It's the deep conviction of our
souls. You remember when Peter and Job
was brought up before the Sanhedrin. I think it's there in Acts chapter
5. You can go there sometime and read this. And these were
the most influential people. The authority, especially the
religious authority of the day. There were several people there.
The guards and the captains and the chief priests. Powerful men. that had the means and the power
to do John and Peter, who were just common people, harm. And Peter stood up with boldness
and looked at these men right in the eye and said, listen to
me. You profess to know God. You
profess to do His will. You profess to come to Him and
serve Him and love Him. All the while you are denying
the Son of God. Not only have you denied Him,
you've took Him in by your wicked hands, you've crucified Him and
slew Him. And Peter made this wonderful
statement. He said this, there is salvation in none other, neither
is there any other name whereby we must be saved than Jesus of
Nazareth. What made him so bold? I tell
you, theology of what Paul was teaching here had got in Peter's
heart. He had experienced this. He said,
there's no way to the Father, but through the Son of God. He's the way, the truth, and
the light. What do you and I think of those
religious denominations and cults that claim to worship and have
a relationship with God? while all the time denying this
one access. What do we think about that? You look at this text closely
and you'll notice how exclusive it is. Notice how narrow it is. Notice how dogmatic it is. Through Him, by one Spirit, and
to The Father. Isn't that exclusive? Isn't that
narrow? Is this not the straight gate,
brothers and sisters, in the narrow way? Wouldn't this have been a perfect
time, an excellent time, for the Apostle Paul to say, let
me not be so narrow. Perhaps there is Maybe not another way, but maybe
this way is broader than I first thought. Maybe it's not exclusively through
the Son. Maybe Mary is a cold mediator. Maybe instead of just going through
Christ, maybe we could pray to Mary. Maybe we could say, Holy Mary,
the Mother of God, pray for us sinners. This would have been
the perfect place to insert that, would it not? Instead of this
apostle being so dogmatic and narrow, he could have made that
statement, but he doesn't. He doesn't. And what's the reason
that it's so exclusive and narrow? It's because it's the truth. It's through Him only. It's through
His merits alone. Through His blood. Through His
intercession. By this one Spirit. By this one
Spirit. And to this one Heavenly Father. What do we think of this? Not
only unto the Father. That we've experienced that.
We've actually come to Him. What has been our experience
concerning coming through the Son? And what is our experience
in this, brothers and sisters, the necessity of being taught
by the Holy Spirit? As you and I grow in grace and
knowledge, our conviction becomes even stronger, the necessity
of the work of the Holy Spirit. We stop leaning upon the arm
of flesh, haven't we? We stop leaning upon man's natural
wisdom and his ability. Or upon the abilities of the
preacher to say something just right. Oh, if we can just get
our loved ones under this particular person, under this particular
preacher. He says things so right. He's
so plain. As if though the preacher can
do the work. The farther we go, the more we
experience of the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the more we
see the necessity. It has to be by Him. It's by
Him. We've talked to our children.
We've talked to our loved ones. We've talked to our wives. You've
talked to your husband. You've talked to your neighbors.
And you finally realize, if it's not made effectual by the Holy
Spirit, it will accomplish nothing but a further condemnation on
their part. We've experienced that, haven't
we? We've experienced that. What have we experienced in the
reality of something else that this verse teaches us? And I
mean prayer. Doesn't this not teach prayer?
Is prayer not here so evident? We have access through the Son
by the Spirit to the Father? Does that not at least imply
prayer? Do we not come to Him through
the Son to pray unto Him? What do you and I know in our
hearts about prayer? Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. Has the doctrine of this text
become a heart reality to us? Do we indeed go to the Father
through the Son? You and I talked sometime about
the difficulty of prayer, the labor of prayer, and I'll be
the first one to confess that. The Scripture teaches that. And
I think it's so evident in my life, in your life, that praying
sometimes can be a laboring thing. That's why I don't pray any more
than I do. That's why we don't pray any longer when we do pray. So that's true. And sometimes
heaven seems to be shut up and shut out our prayers. And we find out what it means
to endear and hang on and keep going back to the throne of grace.
But having said all of that about the endearing in prayer and continuing
the labor of all of it, have you and I not found great joy
in prayer? Have we not found strength to
help us in prayer? How often have we gone to the
throne of grace, and we've been so anxious about something, and
so worried and burdened down, and we've come unto the Father
just as this text teaches us. And though we've approached unto
God in our anxiety and burden and temptations, when we've left
the throne of grace, we've left with such confidence and joy
that things are well. Haven't you experienced that?
Prayer is a doctrine. It's taught in the Scripture.
But isn't it a wonderful thing to experience it? I love to experience what that
hymn writer said when he said, Sweet hour of prayer, that calls
me from a world of care. and bids me at my Father's throne."
That's what we're talking about this morning. Through the Son
unto the Father, to the throne of Him who is the King of all
nations. Bids me at my Father's throne. Why? To make all my wants and
my wishes known in seasons of distress and grief My soul has
often found relief. Is that not your case? And how
often have you escaped the tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour
of prayer? Brothers and sisters, what do
we know about prayer? Do you get great delight out
of going and just saying, My Father, My Father, Have you ever
just said that, and the joy of it, and the confidence of it,
and the assurance of it reaches your heart? Nobody else is around. You're just by yourself. Maybe
late at night, and you can't sleep. And there you lay, or
you're sitting in your chair, and you just murmur out the words,
My Father. And it dawns upon you, you've
come into His presence. My Father. My Father. I tell you, I have learned more,
and I've experienced the joy of being a Christian. And I have
gained more strength in a short time in the presence of my Father
in heaven than I have in all other experiences together. And
I found out what I've learned in His presence has stayed with
me longer. And the experience of the strength
has kept me stronger and going longer than anything else I've
ever experienced. Have you felt that? What have
you experienced from this text? When you come through the Son
unto the Father, how often do you find David praying in the
Psalms? And he's concerned about something.
He's anxious about something. Sometimes his soul is cast down
within him, or he's earnestly praying for someone else. And
before he's finished his prayer, he's filled with confidence and
joy. That's what I'm talking about.
That's what the text is talking about. Look over here with me in Psalm
chapter 17, just for a minute. Psalm chapter 17. What have you and I experienced
from this text as it got off of these pages into our hearts?
We come here and at first we read this passage of Scripture
and we may even begin to think, well, that's theology. But as
we continue to look at it, we realize that, oh, that's so practical.
It's so practical. Look here what David says in
Psalms chapter 17. If I have it. Yeah, this is it. This is a prayer
of David. A prayer of David. Look what he begins to say. Hear
the rite, O Lord. This is his prayer. This is Him
at the throne of grace. Attend unto my cry. Give ear unto my prayer that
goeth not out of sinful lips, deceitful lips. Let my sentence
come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal. You have proved my heart. You
have visited me in the night. You have tried me and shall find
nothing. Sounds like he has some merit
somewhere, doesn't he? Merit not his own. You're going
to find nothing. No sin? No sin. I have purpose
that my mouth shall not transgress concerning the works of men by
the word of thy lips I have kept me from the past of the destroyer. And look what he says. Here David
sees the necessity of prayer. He knows in and of himself That
he don't have the strength, the understanding, the will, the
affection to continue to pray. So what does he say about prayer?
He says, hold up my goings in prayer. That's the paths of the
Lord. That my footsteps slip not. That I don't get discouraged.
That I don't feign and quit praying. God is a God who hears prayer
and answers prayer. I want into His presence through
Christ my Lord. So what's He saying? Oh, give
to me the Holy Spirit. Give to me a supply of the Holy
Spirit. What's He got to do with it?
Well, brothers and sisters, it's Him that holds us up in prayer.
We know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercessions
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You study sometime
and look at that passage. in the 11th chapter of the book
of Luke, where the Master was praying. And His disciples heard
Him, and they said, I want to pray like that. And they came
to Him and said, Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. And He gave
them that prayer. Our Father which is in heaven.
And then He goes on and teaches them something else about prayer.
He said, you've got this friend. He said, prayer is like this.
You've got this friend, and he's come to spend the night with
you and you don't have any bread. So you go to your friend's house
that lives next door and you start beating on the door. And
you say, I've got a friend that's coming. I don't have anything
to feed him. Get up and give me some loaves of bread. And
your friend says, no, no, I'm in the bed. My kids are in the
bed. We're asleep. Go back home and go to bed and
come in the morning. He says, no, no, I need it tonight. My friend is hungry. Get up and
give me some loaves. I know you've got it." He says,
go away. Please, just leave us alone.
Don't bother me tonight. No, you've got to give me the
bread. You've got to give me some loaves of bread. Finally,
he gets up, and he goes to the cupboard, and he gets him out
the bread, and he takes to it, and he gives him the bread. Not
because he's his friend, but because he's just aggravating
him to death. Is that the way prayer is? The Master said, I'm going to
teach you how to pray. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. That's the way you pray. But you're going to find out
this. You're just going to have to keep praying. And keep praying. And keep knocking. Isn't that
what He said? And keep asking. And keep seeking. Don't grow weary. Don't faint. Because it seems like the Father
don't show you the first time. Don't go weary and quit praying. Be like that friend that just
kept knocking. And then he says something else
to him about prayer. And this had to be so encouraged.
He said, if your son came to you and he says, Father, give
me a piece of bread, would his father give him a serpent? If
He said, Father, give me a piece of fish, would He give him a stone? If
He asked bread, would He give him a stone? If He asked some
fish, would He give him a serpent? If He asked an egg, would He
give him a scorpion? No, He says. He'll give him bread. He'll give him meat. He'll give
him fish. He'll give him an egg. He'll
give him what's good for it. If you, being evil, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how much more does your Father
in Heaven? Listen to this now. Prayer. Here's what He says.
Here's His conclusion of prayer. How much more would your Heavenly
Father give the Spirit to them that ask Him? He's not saying that you're regenerated,
and then you go pray and ask Him for the Holy Spirit. You're
saved, but you don't have the Holy Spirit. That's not what
He's saying at all. That's utterly ridiculous to
interpret that spiritually like that. What He's saying, you need
the Spirit of God. You need My Spirit in your heart,
that you can pray with the Spirit, and pray with the understanding.
When we go without any heart to pray, without any desire to
pray, and we're so cold and indifferent to prayer, one of the first things
we need to do is say, Father, grant me the Holy Spirit to hold
me up in prayer. Give me a heart. You say, Bruce,
you mean to tell me that this Scripture in your text teaches
all this? I think it does. I think it does. That's what I'm saying when I
read this. This is amazing. It's so amazing. One more thing,
and I'll close. Back over to the text again.
And this is the last point. Look how wide the access is in
this text. I said it a minute ago how narrow
it is, but look how wide it is. Any without distinction is included. That's why I did it. You say,
Bruce, how do you say that and why do you say that? Because
he said through him we both have access. We both. Who is the both? I've done answered
it haven't I? But let me answer it this way.
I tell you who the both is. They're not only among the Jews,
But they're among all the Gentile nations of the world without
distinction. I love those Scriptures. And you see it different places
in the Scriptures. In Him shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. All the nations of the earth
be blessed. But I love it the way it says
it sometimes because it says it like this. In Him shall all
the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Doesn't that narrow
it down some? Well, all the nations is one
thing, but now He's brought it down to all the kinfolks. Without
distinction. But then He even does more than
that. He says, In Him shall all the
families of the earth be blessed. It's as though the Father in
Heaven says, I'm not going to leave out anybody. If you can
find a family where I've not blessed one, you bring them to
me and I'll bless them. Ain't that wonderful? Without distinction, without
nationality, without race, without sex, without culture, without
age. That's pretty wild, ain't it? That's pretty wide. That's why
missionaries have left their family and their country and
gone off into some strange land to preach Christ. Because access,
access is without distinction. How dare us, brothers and sisters,
make race an issue. Are sex an issue? Are nationality
an issue? The gospel gives all nationalities,
all races, all sexes, total access. The door, the way is narrow. Yes it is, but it's wide open
for all of those who come to the Father through the Son. I
love that parable. You find it in Luke chapter 14.
It's a wonderful parable. When the Lord teaches, He teaches.
He's talking about this man. You remember the parable. He's
talking about this man who made a great supper. And he sent out
his servant at supper time to bid those who were bidding, to
bid those who he had invited to come. And you remember these
groups. He sent to the first groups and
they seemed to be the elite people. The wealthy people. You go out
and you tell them that my supper is ready. Come. And you remember what kind of
people they were. They must have been somewhat wealthy. They had brought
land. They had bought oxens. They were
attending these big weddings. We're having a wedding here.
Can't you see that? Look at all the guests. We're the affluent
people. We're the rich and the famous.
But he sent them to those people. They come back and the servant
said, they have no interest. They have no interest in this
dinner, this feast. And the master was angry. And
he sent them out to another group of people. He said, you go out
there into the streets and the lanes of the city. Get out of
the rich neighborhood. And you go down in the lanes
and streets and the back alleys, and you find there the poor people
and those who have been maimed. And they don't get Social Security
to help them out. And there's no soup kitchen.
And they're just barely existent. And you tell them that the Master
has prepared this great supper and for them to come. Well, we
have the rich. We have the poor. We have the
affluent. We have the common people. We
have those that's got plenty and those that's got nothing.
We have those that's healthy and those who've lost limbs and
have diseases. You go to them too. But he doesn't
stop there. Remember what he says? They come
back and said, we brought in these crippled. We've had to
carry them. We've led the blind here. They didn't know where
it was, so we led them. We brought in the poor. And there they sat.
There they sat eating, enjoying themselves. And yet we've noticed they're
still rude. Your house is so big, they're
still rude. And he said, here's what you
have to do. I want you to go out into the country. I want you to go out into the
highways and to the hedges. I want you to go outside of town
into those highways. Now who was it that used to live
by the highways? It was robbers. That's what you
had to be concerned about. Traveling in those days, Paul
said, I was in pearls of robbers. They'd lay wait and rob you.
Take what you had. And sometimes take your life.
They were criminals. Robbers and crooks. Go out there. Go out there. And you tell them
that the Master has sent me here to tell you that the dinner is
ready. You come. Oh, no, he said, you've got to
be mistaken. We've heard of him. We've been by there. We see where
he lives. That's a mansion up there. That's a castle up there.
You're mistaken. You better go back and check
with him again. Don't you know who we are? We're thieves. He
wouldn't trust us up there. We're robbers. And then he said,
go to the hedges. You know what the hedges were?
They were farms. They didn't have barbed wire
and electric fences like we do today. They planted, either put
up rocks, or they planted these thick farms, these hedges around
their farms, and it kept animals from getting in. They planted
crops. And behind those hedges, you
couldn't always see them when you were traveling the main highway,
but behind those hedges were poor servants, or slaves. Working in those fields for hardly
anything. Some of them being abused. And
they crawled through those hedges, the servants did. And they went
out there in the field. And they found these people with
their clothes so worn, and their hands were so calloused, and
their face was blackened by the sun. And they said, my master
has made a great meal, and he sent me to invite you to come.
Can you imagine trying to convince those people to come? Can I come
like this? Look at me. You think I'm going
like this. I may be a common person, but I've got some dignity,
and I'm not going to his house looking like this. Besides, what
can I bring? Well, he said to be sure and
tell you don't bring anything. The supper's ready. Just come.
Just come. Robbers? Slaves? Poor people? You know what the Lord said about
those people when He sent His servant out? He didn't say what
He said before. Before, He said, you go out and
get them or bring them in. This time, He said, you compel
them. Why did He use that word, compel?
Because He knew that when you're going to people like that, You're
going to have to compel them. You're going to have to use every
argument that you can to get them to come to the Master's
dinner. You tell them that if they're
coming here and they start through the door and a guard just happens
to stop them and say, what are you doing here? You tell them
to be sure and say, the Master has sent for us and we're welcome
here at His Word. I call them here. And if they
hesitate to come, you tell them what happened to the first ones
who didn't come. Compel them to come here. So
what do you have at the Master's table? What do you have in the
Kingdom of God? Who do we have approaching unto
God by the Son and through the Son? You've got all kinds of people,
without distinction. That's how broad, brothers and
sisters, the way it is. Now, I've told you this morning all
of this, and some of you are practicing it. You practiced
it this morning. You came to the Father through
the Son. Some of you haven't yet did it.
You've been told several times, but you haven't yet did it. Why
haven't you done it? Why haven't you done it? How many times have you been
compelled to do it? Ask yourself this question. Examine
your own heart. What's keeping me from coming
to God? Why will I not come? Can you
find any reason or excuse for not coming? You sure can't say,
I don't have merit enough. That's what keeps most people
from coming. It's through the Son's merit that you come. You
cannot doubt what you'll be received, even though you're by a sinner,
because there's blood to worship. And you see, as soon as you start
coming, you'll arrive. It's not a laboring for a year
or two years. As soon as you say, I'm coming,
you'll probably find out that you've just arrived. Why haven't you come? Why haven't you come? We're all coming. Dear friends, come now. Come now. The way is narrow, but if you'll
come that narrow way, you'll find there's access for you.
You'll have permission. You'll have admission to come. God help you to do it. Let's
pray.