Luke's Gospel, Chapter 14. Our
Lord Jesus often used parables to teach us important lessons,
and that's what we're going to look at today. In Luke, Chapter
14, the Lord had been noticing, He was at this feast, and He
had been noticing how some people sought out The chief seats at
the wedding feast, they had different seats and houses and buildings
that they would meet in and some would come in and they'd want
the chief seats. And the Lord told them, when
you go in to a wedding feast, you take the lowest seat. You
humble yourself and take the lowest seat and let somebody
more worthy than you are, more important than you are, take
the better seat. And then he comes to this man
that had invited him to this feast, and here is what he says
to him in verse 12 of chapter 14. Then said he also to him that
bade him, him that had invited 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 a recompense is made thee. But when thou makest a feast,
call the poor, and the maimed, the crippled, and the lame, and
the blind. And thou shalt be blessed, for
they cannot repay thee. They can't repent thee. For thou
shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. 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.
Now this is the parable that the Lord spoke. Then said he
unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bade many. And he sent his servant at supper
time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things
are now ready. And they all with one consent
began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have
bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I
pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them. I pray thee, have
me excused. And another said, I have married
a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and
showed his lord these things. Then the master of the house,
being angry, said unto the servant, Go out quickly unto the streets
and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor. and the maimed,
and the haught, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it
is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the
Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges,
and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I
say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste
of my supper. And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to
me, and hate not his father, and his mother, and his wife,
and his children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
wife also, he cannot be my disciple. For whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." I want to look at this parable.
I want to just go over it and sort of explain it to you, first
of all, from just a natural standpoint, as the Lord gives this parable
to us. And then we will see what is the meaning of this parable.
How can we understand it? And first of all, just looking
at it from a natural standpoint, this certain man must have been
somebody important. He must have been somebody of
reputation and influence in the community. You say, Bruce, why
do you say that? Because he sent his servant out
to tell those people that probably lived around him and knew him
well, it's supper time. Drop everything you're doing
and come to this supper that I've provided. And he did it. with a full conviction that they
would drop everything and come to this dinner because they knew
something about what a great man he was. Drop it all and come
now to this dinner. And this man must have been a
man of great means because can you imagine going out into large
streets in the city and then going out into the lanes and
going out into the back alleys and then going out into the country
and just keep bringing people in and you've got room in your
house to seat everybody. He must have been a man of great
means. And then to provide this dinner
for them. How much food did it take? How
much drink did it take? to serve such a meal. You ladies,
you've served 50, 60 or 100 people. You know how much food it takes
just to serve that many people. How many hundreds of people,
thousands of people, did this certain man believe would be
there? And yet he said, I'm not concerned
at all that I don't have the means to feed this group of people.
So it was a very influential man. He was a man of means and
he made a great supper. If you went to his supper, you
had food, not only food enough, but you had food that you never
ate before. This was a man of means. He sends his servant out at suppertime,
and he says to them, Come, for all things are now ready. Now, isn't this strange that
he sent his servant out at suppertime You would have thought that if
he wanted a lot of people to come to his dinner, that he would
have sent them out a week before. He would have sat and noticed
this and said, this time next week at two o'clock on a Sunday
afternoon, I want you all to come to my dinner. But he waited
until supper time, and then he sends his servant out and says,
come now, for all things are ready. That's amazing, isn't
it? He seemingly required no preparations
on their part. Everything that they needed would
be provided. Come, for all things are ready. And don't you imagine the master
of the house thought within himself, that's going to leave everybody
without excuse. If I have provided everything,
then you can't say, well, I don't have proper clothes to wear.
I don't have anything to bring. Just come. Just come. Everything is ready. And then
in verse 18 and verse 19, when this servant went to these people,
they began to use excuses. One says, I've brought some property
and I've got to go check it out. It don't seem like to me that
that's a very wise thing to do. I know a guy that just bought
a house, and he didn't check it out very well, and he's in
trouble with it. He needed to see a real estate
agent or get somebody to inspect the land for him, shouldn't he?
I bought some property, and I've got to go check it out. Another
one said, I would come, but I bought some options, and I've got to
go try them out to see if they're worthy of the price I gave. Well,
another wouldn't even use that excuse. At least he didn't say,
I pray you have me excused. At least these first two men
realized that this was an influential man. This was a great man. And
no doubt he was going to put on a spread. So they said, we
don't want to just brush him off. So what are they going to say?
I would come, but I've got obligations. I've got this land. I would come,
but I bought these oxen. I would come, but I've got this
wife that I really love, and I can't leave her. They must
have knew, boy, this man was serious when he invited us because
they bagged off, didn't they? In verses 21 and 22, the master
of the house was highly upset. The word that our Lord used here
was angry. He was angry. Boy, His emotions
were stirred in His heart that these men had slighted Him. They
had slighted His work. They had slighted His preparation.
And He tells His servant here to go out into the streets and
to the back alleys and to find the poor people and the crippled
people and lame people and blind people and bring them here to
this dinner. Can you imagine seeing this servant
go out and he's gathering up such people. He comes down the
street with them. I mean, the street is full of
people, blind people, crippled people, poor people, raggedy
people. And he's taking them all to his
master's house to eat dinner. What a sight that must have been. And then in verse 23, they came
and tell him, Lord, there's yet room in your house. You've got
a huge house and there's room. And he sends his servant out
in the country, all the way out in the country. He said, I want
you to leave town, go all the way out in the country, and you're
going to find those who live out in the country. Some of them
are farmers. And there's hedges out there. J.C. Ryle tells us about these men
who worked behind these hedges. He said they had to leave town
because they were criminals. And they left town and they'd
find these people way out in the country and they had hedges
along the road and they would work for that man because they
could hide behind the hedges. If the authorities were looking
for them, they couldn't find them. So they went there to hide
out. He said, go there where those
criminals are and compel them to come in. Because I will have
my house to be full. And then he sums it up with this promise. None of those men that I bid
first will taste of my supper. Not a one of them will taste
of my food. Not a one of them will ever come
to my house. Not a one of them will ever sit
at my table. and eat my food." And he says,
he makes this statement here to those way out in the country,
he said, you go out and compel them to come in. Now, I just can't believe that
this servant went out and hogtied these people and brought them
kicking and screaming, can you? Compel means to necessitate,
to constrain somebody. But how did they compel him to
come in? Well, don't you imagine one thing? They told these criminals how
great his master was. Listen, my master is a great
master. You would not believe what a
house he's got. You would not believe the preparations
that he has made for you to come and eat at his table. You've
never seen anybody like this. You've never experienced food
like this. Yeah, but we're criminals. We're criminals. He's taking
care of that, too. He knows the judge. He knows
the sheriff. You won't be arrested when you
come. And don't you imagine, too, they told them, if you don't
come, The master may be angry with
you too. Those he first invited to come, they would not come
and I saw the face of my master. He's angry with those men. I'm
telling you to come because you don't want his anger. You don't
want his wrath. They compelled him to come in
and they brought him in and his house was full. Now, what's the
meaning of this parable? Well, this certain man has to
be God. Nobody else but God. He's a great
man. He's the greatest of men. Our
Lord Jesus likened Him to a great man. In another place, He's called
a great king. He's the eternal God. And this
great supper is the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has made to
atone for sin. My flesh is meat indeed, and
my blood is drink indeed. Whosoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood hath eternal life. What a supper, what a meal to
eat and live forever. And this servant, he has to be
the Holy Spirit. He's not talking about preachers.
He's talking about a servant, one individual. And that has
to be the Holy Spirit. And what's this invitation? Well,
this invitation that He sent out to these that refused it,
that's what we call a general call. It's written everywhere
in His Word. Here, O earth, look unto Me and
be ye saved. Come unto Me and be ye saved. And that call goes out everywhere.
But who obeys that call? Nobody. Nobody. How many Bibles, I wonder, if
you went up and down this street, I wonder how many Bibles are
laying on the shaft of almost everybody up and down this street.
And if they will open up their Bible, they'll find the very
last book in the Bible says, come, come. But do they come? No, they don't
come, do they? They don't come. They use every
kind of excuse in the world not to come. And this call probably,
and these people that refused these calls, was probably these
Pharisees and scribes that the Lord Jesus often preached to. They never would come to Him.
You will not come to Me that you might have life. And what
happens when the scribes and Pharisees wouldn't come? He turned
to the harlots. Our Lord turned to the publicans,
the tax collectors. And He says, what you're going
to do, you Pharisees and scribes, you reject Me, you hate Me, and
you're going to watch these publicans and harlots going into the Kingdom
of Heaven before you, and you're going to be cast out. And here this man stood looking
at his oxen. And here this man over here was
looking at his land. And here come this whole group
of people. And they were lame. They were
crippled. They were blind. And there they
were going to the feast. And this man was stuck with his
oxen. That's all he was left with.
And his track of land. But the Lord didn't stop there,
did He? He sent His gospel. The Holy Spirit took the gospel
through His preachers to the dead dog Gentiles. Those that
were way out in the country. Those who were far from God.
Those criminals hiding in the hedges because they were afraid
to expose themselves. Criminals against heaven. And
the Holy Spirit brings them in. And the kingdom of God is being
filled. Now, that's the meaning of this
parable. Let's look at it just a little
bit closer then. Look at it this way. When God
sends His call to sinners to come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
I mean, when He writes it down in His Word, come now and let
us reason together. when He tells sinners to come
to His Son and be saved, come for life, come and be forgiven
of all your sins, come and serve Him, bow down to Him and worship
Him. Why does He put such narrow restrictions
and conditions upon it? Why does He say come For all
things are now ready." Ain't that strange? That's what
God says. He sends the call out and He
says, come now. That's so important, isn't it?
Why does God put such a narrow restriction and condition upon
a sinner coming to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't He just leave
it up to us to determine the conditions and the terms we come
to Christ on. And He does it, does He? He makes
the terms Himself. Well, first of all, God does
this because salvation belongs to Him. The terms of being saved
and being forgiven and having life everlasting, those are terms
that God has fixed. He's not left it up to the sinner
when he can come and how he can come and why he can come. God can afford to set the terms
and conditions, and he sends the invitation to those who are
not worthy in and of themselves in the first place to come and
sit at his table. God sets these terms and conditions
on purpose, brothers and sisters, to prove those who hear this
invitation to come. How important is it that you
drop everything you're doing and come to the Lord Jesus Christ
right now? How important is it that you
lay aside your plans and ambitions and seek the Lord Jesus Christ
at this very instant? How important is that? It's the
most serious thing you've ever heard of in your life. When should we believe on Jesus
Christ? Right now. When should we come
to Christ? Right now. When should we follow
him? Right now. The Lord never comes to any individual
and says, listen now, it's 12 o'clock. Tomorrow at 12 o'clock,
I want you to come to me. Between now and then, you've
got 24 hours to do whatever you want to do. If you've got any
wild oats to sow, you go ahead and do it. If you've got anything
you want to accomplish, go ahead and do it. But tomorrow at 12
o'clock, I want you to come to me. He never says that, does
he? He comes to us right in the midst of our busy life, and he
says, lay everything aside and come to me now. He never says,
wait. Sometimes I come here and I tell
you, go home and get on your face and seek the Lord. That's
not what the Lord tells you. He tells you to come while you're
sitting in this building right now. He never tells you to move
a member of your body, but he tells you to look outside of
yourself to Jesus Christ and be saved. He tells you to come
to Christ in your heart. And he says, do it now. That
is the terms and the conditions that he sets. Isaiah 1 verse
18, Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. But it has
got to take place right now. Now is the accepted time. Today
is the day of salvation. And when men hear that from this
Word, and when they hear the preacher say it, and they make
excuses, whatever those excuses are, they're putting themselves
in a serious condition. They're putting themselves in
a serious situation. They're tempting God's wrath. That's what the Lord tells us
here in this parable. The whole problem with those
who make excuses for not coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, the
whole problem was in their heart. They pretended to respect this
certain man. They said, we pray you, we beg
you to have us excuse. We know he's important. We know
he's a man of influence. But you know something, brothers
and sisters, they didn't believe that at all. They didn't believe
that. They didn't respect this man,
did they? They loved their track of land
and they loved their oxen and their wives more than they loved
this man who had provided this dinner. The whole problem was
not with their pressing obligations. Their whole problem, they had
no need for this man who had provided this supper. They had
no hunger for his dinner and no thirst for his drink. That
was the whole problem with it. If it hadn't been for this track
of land, it would have been something else. If a man hadn't have married
a wife, well, I'm taking care of my mother. Wait till my dad
dies, then I'll come. It's the heart, isn't it? When
men will not share God and obey Him and come to Jesus Christ
to be saved by Him, it's the heart. It's the heart. It wasn't a piece of property
he wanted to flip. It wasn't these options that
he wanted to prove. It wasn't this wife that he says
he loved. He had no heart for God. He had no hunger and thirst for
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they found excuses not to
come. There are people who have snares
laid in their way to keep them from coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And these snares are laid there
on purpose to prove them how important is the Savior to you. How much do you need Him? What
difficulties will you fight through to follow Him? There are those who by grace
come to Christ over all of their difficulties. They get through
everything to come to Him. And they find themselves in Him
because they need Him more than anything else in this world.
And that's why these snares are laid in people's way, to prove
them. I have seen men pretend to want
to come to Christ. And I've watched and say, what
am I going to see these people doing? And I've seen trouble
come their way. I've seen things prevent them
from coming to the worship, prevent them from reading His Word and
seeking Him. These things prevent them. But
those things would not prevent them if they really wanted the
Lord. It's a hard thing, isn't it? These men who were close by and
knew something of the greatness of this man, they never come.
But those miserable criminals, Those men down in the back alleys
and those women who had rags on, they came. They needed Him. They needed Him. I think here in verse 26 and
verse 27 is the key to understanding why these men did not come when
they were invited. Look in verse 26. The Lord Jesus
looked around him when he finished this parable and he saw a multitude
of people. And boy, look at the terms and
conditions that he put upon coming to him and following him. If
any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
wife also, He cannot be my disciple. These were excuses that they
used. But what was the problem? It
wasn't that they loved these oxen. It wasn't that they loved the
land. It wasn't that the man loved
his wife. He loved himself. It's all about me, he said. What
I want. This is my life. And when you come to Christ and
you come to God by him, you lose your life. Jesus Christ will
not play second fiddle to anybody. He won't stand in in case somebody
else gets sick and he'll fill in for them. He has to be first. That was their problem. They
had found their life. And my life is just buying another
piece of land to flip. My life is finding some more
oxen to buy. My life is enjoying my wife. Then you cannot be a cross disciple. God will not widen the gate to
accommodate the sinner's self-love and self-centeredness and self-importance. The sinner must come and give
himself up to the Lord Jesus Christ to follow Him and worship
Him. And when he does not, there is
no excuse that will be acceptable. And that's the meaning of the
first part of this parable. One thing every one of us need
to realize this morning, brothers and sisters, when God gives instructions
and commands in His written Word to sinners to repent and believe
the Gospel, He is dead serious. He is dead serious. To play religion, to play with
the things of God, is for a man to take his eternity-bound soul
in his own hands. It is the most dangerous thing
in this world. A man exposes himself to God's
anger. It is plain to see in the Bible
that there are deadlines that sinners can cross. And when they
do, their eternal misery is certain. None of these men who rejected
me and my words, Not one of them shall eat at my table. Not one of them shall taste any
saving mercy from me. I will not bestow upon one of
them one ounce of saving grace. I will never smile upon them."
Man, that's serious, isn't it? It's serious. To hear the Word
of God when He says, Come to My Son and not come. That's serious. I just don't
think we can comprehend the seriousness of this matter. Our land is becoming
the land of sudden death. How many young people can you
name, just seven here, that has died suddenly? How many people
pass away without apparently even being sick? We've become
the land of sudden death. And you know what that is? He
that being often reproved and stiffens his neck against me,
and will not take me serious, shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without any remedy." That's what this parable is about. And it's scary, isn't it? When the Lord said, Come down,
let us reason together. Your sins may be as scarlet,
I'll wash them and they'll be as white as snow. If you be willing
and obedient, you'll eat the fat of the land. If you refuse
and rebel, you'll be devoured. My sword will devour you. Brothers
and sisters, that's serious. Don't play with the things of
God. Go get on a little league team
somewhere. Go get on some kind of a sports
program. Go to the Y and work out, but
don't play with God. That's serious. That is so serious. What kind of a people did the
Lord Jesus Christ come to save and receive into His kingdom? He passed by these people and
said, You don't want to come? You've heard my word. My servant
has brought it to your attention. You don't want anything to do
with me? I'll fill my kingdom up with other kind of people.
You scribes and pharisees, you don't want anything to do with
me? I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring in
the poor people. I'm going to bring in the crippled
people. I'm going to bring in the lame and the blind people. And they're going to fill my
kingdom up. Aren't you glad for that? I'm
thankful for that, brothers and sisters. You see, you're calling. Not many wise men after the flesh.
Not many mighty. Not many noble are called. Why
is that? God's chosen the foolish things.
He has chosen the insignificant things to bring to nothing those
things that are. Why does He do that? That no
flesh should glory in His presence. He turns to the miserable Gentile
world full of criminals against heaven. He finds them hiding
out in the hedges and He brings them into His kingdom. And he
tells us here in verse 14, look back at it again. You know why
the Lord saves who He saves? You know why He saves these poor
and crippled and blind? Look what he says in verse 13. When you make a feast, call the
poor and the maimed and the blind and the lame, and you shall be
blessed, for they cannot repay you. The Lord calls people into His
kingdom that has nothing to repay Him with. All they can do is
just praise Him for saving them. The Lord ain't got nothing else
to give you. I give you myself. I give you my praises. You've
owed me nothing but your judgment, and you've showed me mercy. You've
saved me, and here I am eating at your table. Here I am looking
upon your smiling face, and you're the King. And I can't repay you
a thing. All I can do is bless you and
give thanks unto you. This may be the mystery that
the Lord doesn't reveal in this parable. Can you imagine how filthy these
people were? Have you ever seen homeless people?
You ever seen a homeless person, he was clean shaved, he had a
nice big suit on, he smelled great? You go to Indianapolis,
and usually if you see a homeless person, it may be an older lady,
and she got her bag, there it is, full of tin cans that she's
gathered out of the dish line somewhere. Or you'll see one
of them picking up a trash can outside the restaurant and turn
it over and looking in it to see if he can find a sandwich
that somebody's thrown away. They don't smell good. They don't
look good. They're filthy. And yet, his servant took these
people to this great man's house and set them down at his table
to eat. Isn't that a mystery? What about these crippled people?
They couldn't walk. How did they even get there?
And what about these blind people that couldn't see their way to
the house? How did they find the house to begin with? And how in the world did this
servant persuade these criminals that were hiding in the hedges
from the authority that they should not be afraid? Come and
expose yourself. Well, I think verse 17 gives
the answer, brothers and sisters, to all of these. How did the
blind come? How did the filthy, ragged people
come? Why did the criminals come? Verse 17 said, He sent His servant
at supper time to say unto them that were bidden, Come, for everything
is ready. Everything is ready? If they had to be clean to come
into this rich man's house, and he says, don't take time to wash,
then he must have had a bath for them. If the servant says, you can't
go into my master's house dressed in those filthy rags, if everything
was ready, then clothes must have been provided for them. If that blind man said, I can't
even see how to cut, then somebody must have been there to lead
him. What I'm saying, brothers and
sisters, is this. If God says, come now, He doesn't
want you to be making preparations to come. He does not want you
providing the provision to come. If everything is ready, that
means everything. When He says, come now, He means
to come now. What He requires, He'll provide. Are you filthy? He'll wash you. Are you naked? He'll clothe you.
Are you blind? He'll give you eyes to see. All
He says to you is, come right now. That's what people have
trouble with, isn't it? I've got these, I've got these
things. I would come, but I've got these things. I just can't
come right now. I'm afraid to come right now. You're going
to have to come right now, just as you are. You'll never come
any other way. If you wait till you get everything
settled, if you wait till you get your own provisions, you
will not come. If he says, come now, that means
you've got to leave everything, just come as you are. I remember
1973. I don't know what day of the week it was. I don't know
what month it was, but I know it was sometime in 1973. Your
pastor went and bought a Bible. And I sat down to read it, and
I might as well have been blind as a bat. I could not understand
a thing. But I sat and read it anyway.
And then all of a sudden, gradually, I began to peek through these
blinded eyes and I began to understand something of His Word. And the
first thing I understood was Romans chapter 2 where He said,
You are heaping up wrath until the day of wrath. And that scared
the daylights out of me. And boy, I began to think seriously,
is there any way I can be delivered from the wrath to come? And I
kept reading. And I found that Abraham in the
fourth chapter believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And in the tenth chapter, I read
that with a heart man believeth unto righteousness. And I started
trying to believe and couldn't. I was like these cripples. I had no power to come. And I
thought, I remember this, I was sitting at my table in a little
kitchen, lived in Muncie. 1106 East 28th Street is where
I lived at. I remember it just plain as it
happened this morning, I was sitting there at the table reading
the Bible and I thought to myself, I could keep the law easier than
I could believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. That's how helpless
I felt. I was this crippled when the
servant says, come, how am I going to come? I'm lame. I'm blind. And I'm saying this, brothers
and sisters, this morning, just come. When you get ready to try to
get up and come to Christ, you'll find out that He gives you feet
to come. When you want to look to Christ,
you'll find out that He gives you eyes to see. I remember 1973, I started listening
to an old man that's been dead for a long time, L.R. Shelton,
pastor of the church down in Louisiana. And I remember him
saying one night, listening to him on radio, it's almost like
he was speaking to me. He says, sinner, are you having
trouble looking? Man, I said, I can't look. You know what he said? Look.
And He'll give you eyes to see. Look. And I looked. And He gave me eyes. I came and
He gave me feet to come. And here's the thing I'm saying
to you. I don't know what questions some of you may have. But they'll never be answered
till you come. Cindy was telling me this morning
about hearing a young man preach a message. kept wondering if
he was one of the Lord's sheep or not. Am I one of the Lord's? Am I one of the Lord's? And he did not reach the conclusion
that he was until he looked to Christ. There's difficulties that you
may be up against that you can't get over. You think, I can't
get over this. Come to Christ and you'll see
those difficulties vanish. That's the thing about this parable,
isn't it? Come now, for everything is ready. God has provided everything He
requires and everything you need to come to Jesus Christ. Therefore,
come. Just come. I hope all of us. I hope all
of us come. Boy, I need to come. I need to
come to Christ. I want to come to Him. I hope
you want to come to Him this morning. If you do come to Him,
right where you sat, come to Him. Father, thank you. What a great God you are. You
are indeed great beyond our comprehension. And you have provided for us
a kingdom, and in your kingdom are many mansions. You have provided
for us a sacrifice to atone for our sins, that open fountain
for us to wash in. O God in heaven, give us a heart
to come. Give us a need to come. Give
us a hunger and thirsting in our spirits for the Lord of glory. Help your dear children this
morning. Give them grace to come. And for every lost person here
this morning, give them grace to come. Strip them of all excuses and
put in their hearts a hunger for the Son of God. For His glory
we ask. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Please remember the Thar's funeral
tomorrow, Sister Jean, stay in contact with her and encourage
her as you can.