C.H. Spurgeon, who pastored in
London, England, well over 100 years ago, as he began to get
a little older and he aged quicker than some, was plagued with a severe problem
with gout in the church. Every winter would send him to
Menton, France, to just find some relief. Just the weather
was a little bit better for him. And one time he had finished
his meal and laid some bread from a sandwich or whatever the
bread was in the window seal in his balcony. And as he sat
reading, he saw a little sparrow come, got a little bit of something
to eat, flew off. And just a little bit, the whole
windowsill was covered with sparrows. And he said, I thought to myself
that sparrow must have gone and told all of his friends where
they could come get a good meal. And that's a pretty good way
to describe what we do in witnessing the gospel of God's grace. We
go tell hungry sinners where they can get a good meal. And
in the preaching of the gospel, we bid sinners Come, feast at
the great supper. God has spread for your souls
in Christ Jesus. Feast not once, not now and then. Come not once, not now and then,
but continually. In fact, Peter puts it this way.
He says, if so be that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious
to whom coming. Coming. For most religious folks,
Salvation is an incident, took place sometime in life, doesn't
have much to do with anything. For the believer, salvation,
this thing called life, faith, is continually coming to Christ
Jesus the Lord. Coming with all my hunger, all
my thirst, all my emptiness, all my need to have satisfaction
found in his boundless fullness. And we have an illustration of
this in a parable that our Lord gave in Luke chapter 14. Let's
turn there, if you will. In the first part of this chapter,
our Lord had been invited to the house of a Pharisee, one
of the chief religious leaders of the day. And this Pharisee
had put on a big dinner, invited a lot of people. Principally,
the purpose for this particular gathering was apparently to give
our Lord, to set a trap for him so that they might ensnare him
and trick him into doing something by which they could lay blame
to him. And so there was a man there
with the dropsy. This is a disease that affected
the various organs of the body with great swelling, no cure
known to man. A man dying with a disease from
within. And nobody could help him. Well,
somebody could. Somebody could. And that's a
pretty good picture of you and me. We are by nature, men and
women, plagued in our hearts with a disease called sin, spiritual
death that will ultimately bring us to eternal ruin and eternal
misery unless somehow God Almighty, in his providence and grace,
crosses our paths, and causes us to be made recipients of His
grace. Well, our Lord healed this man.
And it was on the Sabbath day. Of course, the Jews, the religious
legalists, were upset. They were offended by this. And
the Lord gave out a parable, declaring His own method of grace
and salvation. Let's read it together, beginning
at verse 7. And he put forth a parable to those which were
bidden, to those who were bidden to come to this man's great feast,
when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, the chief
seats in this man's house. And this is what he said to them.
When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in
the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden
of him. And he that bade thee and him
come and say to thee, give this man place, and thou begin with
shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bitten, go
and sit down in the lowest room, the lowest seat. That when he
that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend, go up
higher. Then shalt thou have worship.
honor, esteem, reverence, in the presence of them that sit
at meet with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself
shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Now, as I have told you, our
Lord is not here giving this Pharisee and this group of Pharisees
lessons in pretentious piety. He's not giving them lessons
in good manners. He's teaching them something
about his method of grace. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world and took the lowest seat. And he has been exalted. And
if you would come to God, you must come taking the lowest seat. Take the place God gives you. Take the place God gives you.
Take the ground God gives you. Now this is the ground God gives
you. You are a sinner. That's all. Inside and out. Nothing about you but corruption
and sin. Nothing but vileness. Nothing but that which is obnoxious
to God. Not one good thing in you. Take your place. A sinner with
nothing to offer God. A sinner with no claim on God. Take the lowest place. And he
who comes before God Almighty, humbling himself at the footstool
of mercy, shall be lifted up by the hand of his grace in the
kingdom of God. Read on. In verses 12, 13, and
14, our Lord pointedly applied this parable, speaking directly
to the Pharisee who had invited him to dinner, exposing this
Pharisee's hypocrisy. This Pharisee wanted the praise
of men. Then said he also to him that bade him, when thou
makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy
brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors, lest
they also bid thee again and recompense be made thee. Now
again, our Lord is not giving lessons in morality. He's not
giving us a book of etiquette. He's not telling you when you
have a dinner, don't invite your friends. That's not what he's
doing. He's telling us how God saves sinners. But when thou
makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the
blind. You want to do something good?
This is how you do it. And thou shalt be blessed, for
they cannot recompense thee. They can't give you a thing.
You want to truly be good and gracious and kind? Then do for
men who cannot do anything for you that which they desperately
need. For thou shalt be recompensed
in the resurrection of the just. Now how do you know that our
Lord is here talking about something other than just good manners? Look at the next line. There
was one man in that crowd who understood what he was talking
about. 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. Oh, now our Lord turns and focuses
on one man. Oh, may he focus on one man tonight. May he speak directly to you.
He's now not talking to the Pharisee. He's not talking to the religious
crowd. He's not talking to those folks who were just there out
of curiosity. He speaks to one man. He speaks
directly to this man who understood what he said. And in response
to this man, he gives a parable that is full of instruction.
A parable of the Great Supper. Let's look at it together, line
by line, and pray that God the Holy Spirit will teach us the
things that are here written. Then said he unto him, this man
who said, Blessed is he that eats bread in the kingdom of
God. Oh, blessed is that man whom the Son of God bids come
to his feast. Blessed is that man for whom
the Son of God spreads his feast. He says, blessed is he that shall
eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. And the Lord said to him, a certain
man, a certain man. Of course, the certain man speaking
of our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A certain man made
a great dinner. Now this is not talking about
the Lord's Supper. That had not yet been established. This is
not talking about the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's described
in the parable in Matthew 22. This is a different parable.
But this is talking about a parable that takes place today. It's
talking about the parable of the gospel feast. It's talking
about the proclamation of the bread of life given to sinners. Christ Jesus, that bread which
you must eat. That one whose flesh you must
eat, whose blood you must drink. What's he talking about? You
must by faith take his obedience for your obedience. And his sacrifice
for your sacrifice. Believing on him, eat of this
bread. And you'll never hunger again.
Eat of this bread and your soul shall be satisfied. So he's talking
about the gospel of the grace of God. It's called a supper
because this gospel is set before us in the end of the world in
these last days. It's called a great supper. Because
he who made the supper is the king of kings and the Lord of
lords. It is a great supper, a feast of fat things, wine upon
these well defined. It is a supper provided by the
great God. It is a supper spread at great
cost. You're bidden to eat and live
because the Son of God laid down his life for sinners. This is
a great supper with great provisions for great sinners with great
need. And it's made for a great multitude of sinners. And it
shall stand for a great time until the end of the days. And
he bade many. Certainly the reference here
is immediately in the context of the Jews to whom God first
sent the gospel. The Lord God called Abraham and
Abraham's children and revealed his word and his law to Abraham
and his seed. For the better part of 4,000
years of Old Testament history, God spoke to no one but to the
Jews. The whole Gentile world was lost
in pagan superstition and idolatry, groping about in darkness in
foolish nonsense. Men worshiped the things they
made with their own hands and groveled before graven images.
And God left them in their darkness for the better part of 4,000
years. He sent his word, his law, his
prophets, his ordinances, his sacrifice, his priests. Everything
was given just to the Jews. But they despised the gospel
of his grace. And the Lord turned from them.
But it is a mistake. It is a mistake. to limit these
parables or any other portion of scripture to a specific group
of people. To do so is to rob yourselves
of the Word of God. This parable is spoken by the
Son of God to you and me right now. He bade many. He bade many. The Word of God is proclaimed to you. Some of you have been listening
to it all your life. God speaks through this vessel
of clay. And if God speaks, Paul says,
it is as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
name be you reconciled to God. I'm not here to debate religious
opinions. I'm not here to prove anything.
I'm here, unless I'm totally deceived, I'm here, Wes Roseboom,
with a message from God Almighty for you for this hour. And you
better hear it. Bob Duff, you better hear it.
God speaks. One of the old fellows, was it
John Warburton, used to pray that, Lord, will you be pleased
to speak through this worthless, empty, rusty pipe? That's just
what God does. He speaks through this worthless,
empty, rusty pipe, but God speaks. He paid many. Oh, what a privilege. for God to send his word to you. What a privilege. What a responsibility. Now you're responsible to hear
it and to obey it. And he sent his servant at supper
time, the servant here, clearly has to be identified as a gospel
preacher. I know I've read a lot of commentaries
and so forth on this passage of scripture and folks debate
about it, but as we go through the parable it will be obvious.
The servant here is not talking about the Lord Jesus, is not
talking about John the Baptist going to the Jews is not talking
about the Holy Spirit, but rather he is talking about God's messengers
sent with God's message to bid sinners come to Christ Jesus
the Lord. This servant is representative
then of all who are sent of God to preach the gospel to perishing
sinners. And this is what he says. He
sends his servant to say to them that were bidden, Gospel preachers are God's servants
sent forth into the world to call sinners to Christ. That's all. That's all. I get so weary. Things I read
and listen to from sometimes men I highly respect. I think
hell must hoot and throw a party when fellows get up in the pulpit
as I am standing before you tonight to speak in God's name to eternity
bound men and women and debate fine points of theology and try
to prove things and prove a position and prove a denominational creed
or prove a doctrinal point and try to defend the gospel Ron,
our business is to call sinners to Christ. That's our business. The preacher, he's like that
pole on which Moses fastened the blazing serpent. And all
the purpose of that pole, all the pole was good for, is to
hold up that serpent of brass. That's all. And that's all preachers
are to do. Just talk, oh, I'm going to defend
the gospel. You know what? It's kind of foolish for a fellow
to talk about defending a stick of dynamite. What you do with
a stick of dynamite is you light the fuse, throw it, and get out
of the way. And the gospel is the dynamite,
the power of God unto salvation. We simply proclaim it and bid
sinners come to Christ and do the best we can to stay out of
the way. Call sinners to the table of grace to feast upon
Christ. Now watch this. We proclaim all
God's servants proclaim. All who preach the gospel, all
who are sick to God proclaim a feast of God's providing for
all things are now ready. All things are ready. Isn't it difficult? One of the
most difficult things for us to do is to graciously receive
a gift. We were just talking about it.
One of the most difficult things on this earth for us to do. If
somebody invites you to a dinner party, what can I bring? I want
to bring something. If somebody invites you to come
to a picnic, what can I bring? I want to bring something. Not
much, I want to bring something. I want to do something, make
some contribution, so I don't feel like this is totally a matter
of charity. Listen to me. If you come to Christ, You can't bring anything. Nothing. Nothing. Not a resolution,
not a determination, not a promise, nothing. Not any good work, not
any gift, nothing. This is one dinner party to which
you must come empty-handed with nothing. Anybody who comes to
the gate with a gift to bring cannot come through the gate.
It's too narrow. You can't come in. The only way
to come is empty-handed. All things are ready. Here is
righteousness ready to wear. for naked sinners. Here is pardon
ready to set you free. Here is life ready to be obtained. Here is forgiveness ready to
bestow. Here is sonship ready to confer. All things are ready. Come on.
Come on. And then we read a strange thing. Look at verse 18. And they all
with one consent Isn't that strange? Merlet says,
oh, he's saying they all got together and took a vote and
said, this is what we'll say. They all with one consent. Everybody. Everybody who heard the word.
Everybody who heard the gospel. Everybody who was bidden. All
of them said exactly the same thing. All of them. And it is
exactly true. I was in Cherokee the other day.
Some of us were at breakfast and someone had decided that
she was going to leave her husband and said, well, you know, we
never did love each other. Never did. I just don't love
him anymore. And Brother Greg Yonkers popped
up and he said, who writes the script? Who writes the script? This is what everybody says.
And I responded, I said, you mark it down. If she doesn't
love him anymore, she found somebody else to love. It's always the
same, never changes. Well, the same thing is true
with regard to men despising Christ. Men's excuses for despising
the gospel of God's grace means excuses for not believing, means
excuses for not obeying, means excuses for not worshiping, means
excuses for not doing what God in his word commands that they
do, are always the same. They, with one consent, began
to make excuse. And rather than praying to God
for mercy, it's astounding. God Almighty calls you to come
to Christ. Come to Christ for righteousness. Come to Christ for life. Come
to Christ for atonement. Come to Christ for grace. Come
to Christ for mercy. Come to Christ for help. Come
on! Rather than coming, say, Lord,
thank you. Oh, how bounteous, gracious,
and kind! I pray they have me excused.
Lord, won't you receive an excuse for me while I spit in your face?
Won't you receive an excuse for me while I tell you you don't
care for nothing? Won't you receive an excuse for
me while I tell you to get out of my way? I've got a life to
live. The first sin, I have bought
a piece of ground or a field, and I must needs go and see it,
I pray thee have me excused. Verse 19, and another said, I
bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way right now to go
prove them. I pray thee have me excused. And another said,
I married a wife, and I cannot come. What fools. What absurd. Well, I would come to the supper,
but I'm not really sure I can trust God. I'm not really sure
His words so. I'm not really sure I can believe
Him, but I'll tell you what I did. I bought this farm over here
in the next county from a fellow I met on the street this morning.
And he told me it was a good piece of ground. And I paid him
the price he was asking for it. And now I'm going to go see that
piece of ground that I bought on his word. So I prayed, God,
while I spit in your face you had me excused. Another one says,
I bought five yoke of oxen. Because a fella came by this
morning, I saw him on the streets, and he told me he had five yoke
of oxen. He said they were the best he ever found. He said,
Paul Bunyan never had an ox like this. These oxen, they can pull
a cart, they can pull a plow, they can do anything. I told
him, well that man's good work, he paid him good money. Now I'm
gonna go see if I've got any oxen. I believed him, but not
God. Not God. He that believeth not
hath made him a liar. I have things more important
to tend to. I have some ground to take care
of. I've invested my money. I have some oxen to take care
of. I've invested my money. This is my livelihood. Do you
understand? Do you understand? The Lord knows. He knows. He
knows what I've got going on. He knows how many irons I've
got in the fire. I pray thee have me excused.
I hear folks offer excuse after excuse after excuse after excuse
for not coming to worship God. And I'm telling you, it's just
excuses. It's just excuses. And you know what I found out?
They don't tell me anymore. Not at my service. You tell Brother
Don I can't be there because. Excuse me. Take it up with God
Almighty. Try it. Try it. And then the
third one. He said, I've married a wife.
I can't come. Had he said, I've married a wife
and now I will not come, at least he would have told the truth.
Let me tell you something. You who are sitting here tonight
without faith in Christ. And you attempt to find some
consolation for yourself because of God's sovereignty. And you
say, well, I'm impotent, I'm dead in sin. I can't come unless
the Lord calls me. I can't come unless He does something
for me. I know that. If I want to go
through it, He'll take care of me. He'll call me in time. That's
not your problem. I'll tell you why you don't believe
on Him. It's because you won't believe on Him. You have no will
to believe on Him. You choose something other than
Christ. That's all. I've married a wife,
and I'm not about to come. Oh, he's doubly responsible. Because now, he's not just responsible
for himself, he's responsible for his wife and his family.
Years ago, I first moved to Danville. I ran across a fellow fairly
often. And I used to attend services here. And I would encourage him
to come hear the gospel. Every time I'd see him, he'd
say, I need to get started back in church. We're going to do
that. We're going to do that. And I just got tired of hearing
it. I just got tired of hearing it. Just yack. And finally, I
made up my mind. I knew I was going to see him
that morning. I knew. I'm going to get started back
in church. I need to do that. This is what
I said to him. You better. Because you're responsible to
God Almighty for you, your wife, and your children to hear the
gospel and worship God. You better. You know what? You're responsible. David Peterson is responsible
for his household. And Don Fortner is responsible
for his household. That's our responsibility. It's
called being a husband. It's called being a man. So I
don't like that. Like it or not, that's the way
God's arranged it. And you're responsible. Well,
if his wife won't come, what does he do? He's a fool to let
her keep him from coming. I don't know that I ever said
this publicly. I'm going to say it now, and
Bobby won't mind me saying it. When Judy first came and talked
to me about marrying you, asked me if I'd marry her, I said,
of course I will. But don't you presume that you're
going to make any changes in that man. What you're getting
is what you're getting. That's just the way it is. And
this I'll say to you, don't ever nag and badger him about coming
to worship God. If he wants to come, be tickled
to death, he'll come. Be a good wife to him, but don't
let that man keep you from worshiping God. Don't let that happen. You see, the time comes when
they that have wives must be as though they had none, and
they that have children as though they had none. We cannot, we
must not, we dare not, Allow property, or oxen, or business,
or even that dear lady to keep me from worshiping God. We dare
not. If any man come after me, and
hate not father, and mother, and brother, and sister, and
son, and daughter, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple. We follow the Master. Now, look
at the servant's report, verse 21. So that servant came and
showed his Lord these things. I don't know what all this passage
in Hebrews 13 means. But Paul urges you to obey and
follow those who have the rule over you, your pastors. For they
watch for your souls as they that must give account. And I give account now, in a
sense. I get done preaching to you, and I go home, sit down,
and I pray that God will cause you to hear. Make the Word effectual
to you. But the day is coming, I'm going
to give an account. The Lord, He heard. And he believed. Oh yes, yeah. Yeah, I preached
to her too. And pleaded with her in Christ's
name to believe. But she preferred land and oxen
and family. And she would not come. Then
the master of the house, being angry, Oh, you may take it lightly. Think it's a light thing to trample
under your feet the blood of Christ. But you won't always
take it lightly. God Almighty will make you see
that nothing out of heaven, nothing on the earth, nothing in hell
itself is so hateful and contemptible to God Almighty as unbelief. Nothing. He that being often
reproved hardeneth his heart will be cut off suddenly and
without remedy. and said to his servants, because
he was angry, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of
the city and bring in hither the poor, those who have no bread
for their souls, no righteous garments for their backs, but
only filthy rags, no money to buy, no means to pay their debt,
the poor, the poor in spirit, and the maimed, impotent, helpless
sinners, without strength, without hope, without life, without help.
and the halt, lost people. Did you ever go somewhere in
a large town, or even in our little town, you walk down the
street and you see somebody just standing there, and you can tell
they don't have any idea which way to go next. They don't know
where the place is they're looking for. Downtown, oh, it's been
a year or so ago, and I found this little woman out there on
the streets, Shelby was with me. I let her off somewhere.
I found this lady. And I could tell she was lost
as a goose in a snowstorm. She didn't have any idea how
to get back to where she was going. And I stopped and asked
her. I said, ma'am, could I help you? And she said, son, I'm lost.
I know my address, but I don't know how to get there. I said,
get in the car. I'll take you. Just a couple
of blocks away. Drove up there and saw to it
she got in the house all right. That's what it's talking about,
folks. Haunted. Because they're lost. Lost. Don't know which way to turn.
Don't know which way to go. They don't know where to go to
find mercy. Where to go to find grace. Where to go to find help.
Because they're blind. God bids us to call poor, maimed,
haunted, blind sinners to the feast. Do you remember what he
said back there about fantasy? He said, when you make a feast,
don't call your friends. Call those folks who can't give you
anything back. Call those folks who cannot recompense
you a thing. Call those from whom you can
expect nothing in return. That's what our God does. He
calls poor, lost, lame, haught, blind sinners to Himself to feast
at His table. Now look at verse 22. And the
servant said, Lord, it's done. As thou hast commanded, I have
gone out, and I have called the poor, and the maimed, and the
haught, and the blind, and still there's plenty of room. Remember
what the prodigal said, there's bread enough in my father's house
and to spare. There's plenty of room in the house of grace
for you. I sometimes hear my buddies preach
as though they're scared to death some of the non-elect might accidentally
get in. Come on in. Come on in. Come on to Christ. Come take
the water of life. Come eat the bread. Come plunge
into the fountain and be made clean. And I guarantee you, it's
made open for you. The water's for you. The bread's
for you. The life is for you. Then he
says, verse 23, the Lord said to the servant, Go out into the
highways and hedges. Go out into those places where
the sons of Adam, like their father, are hiding from me. And
compel them to come in. What on earth is that talking
about? Compel them. Force them. Force them. Not with sword. Not with law. Not with legislation. Not with
trickery. Force them with the gospel. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. Persuade them. John Gill says
this shows us the nature of the gospel ministry. God sends his
servants to preach the gospel to persuade Japheth. You remember
the promise, Japheth shall possess the tents of Shem? to persuade
Japheth, to persuade the Gentiles to come into the kingdom of God.
And it speaks of the power that attends the preaching of the
gospel when God the Holy Spirit calls His word to be made effectual. And it speaks of the case, the
condition of men's souls who, judging themselves unworthy,
say, I can't go. Surely that's not for me. That
must be for somebody else. Come on. Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? Come and drink. Come on. Must have been for me. Cause
he quenched my thirst. Hear me. You who think God Almighty
will not look favorably upon you and will not be gracious
to you, believe on the Son of God. And as surely as you believe
Him, He died for you. He rose for you. He lives to
save you. He says, compel them to come
in that my house may be filled. And I want to tell you something.
His house shall be filled. It's described in the book of
Revelation as a city of four square. That means it's in perfect
symmetry. We see around the throne 24 seats. And there's not an empty seat
in the bunch. There are 24 elders sitting in those seats. Speaking
of all God's elect. There are 144,000 whose names
have been written in the book of life of the Lamb, sealed in
the forage by the grace of God, who shall be with Him in glory.
You mean just 144,000? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's talking about a complete
number gathered out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue
to make up the whole Israel of God, a multitude which no man
can number, but every one of them are there. Every one of
them. For I say unto you that none of those men that were
bitten shall taste my supper. Today is the day of salvation. Harden not your heart. Hear me,
God help you to hear me. There is an infinite, boundless
provision of grace in the Son of God for your soul. Whatever it is you need, to bring you before the holy
Lord God with His complete approval, righteousness, pardon, redemption,
whatever it is you need. It's there in Christ, the God-man
mediator who sits on the throne of God. And if you want Him, He's yours. If you want Him, He's yours.
If you want Him, He's yours. Oh, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come.
Come ye, buy and eat, yea, come. Buy wine and milk without money,
without price. The Master says, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, now give you rest. He
says, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. And
if you perish in your sins. If you go to hell, listen to me now, if you go to
hell, it will be entirely your fault. And that tormenting worm will
eat at your conscience as the fires of hell forever. So I beg you, come. Come feast upon Christ, the bread
of life. All things are ready. Come, feast on it.