(LUKE 14)
IT goes without saying that all that God does, and is, must needs be great; for He is a great God, as, in fact, all His thoughts, words, ways, and works alike prove Him to be from all eternity to all eternity. Hence it is evident that when He opens His bounteous hand, and spreads the Gospel Feast, the supper He invites the sinner to partake of must needs be “great.” Yes, the very One who called creation into being—the Eternal Son of God—is He, from whose blessed lips the glorious fact is declared, “A certain man made a great supper, and bade many.” Here divine love shows its holy activity in the midst of a selfish, dark, and starving world. But, mark it well, dear reader, it is “at supper time,” the last meal at the close of the day, when the shadows of night are falling, that the servant is sent out to say to “them that were bidden, Come for all things are now ready.”
This glorious invitation was, no doubt, primarily sent to Israel as a nation, after Christ’s rejection, in accordance with His divine command that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,” but “beginning at Jerusalem”; and for nearly nineteen centuries have those golden words of grace been ringing in the ears of a lost and guilty world, “Come, for all things are now ready.” Yes, ever since redemption’s mighty work was accomplished at Calvary, followed by Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of God, and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, the glad tidings of a full and free salvation have gone forth. But how have they been received? Let scripture answer: “They all, with one consent, began to make excuse.”
Alas! the heart of the natural man despises grace; and anything, therefore, will do as an excuse; and the three great reasons for nonacceptance of the invitation to God’s great supper are as ready today as they were at the beginning. “I have bought a piece of ground,” says one; “and I must needs go and see it; I pray thee have me excused.” Yes, earthly power sways the minds and actions, not only of nations, but of individuals; and the “pride of life” as much shows itself today in the one who wants to explore his worldly possessions as it did in the case of Nebuchadnezzar of old. Another, equally polite in his refusal, having bought “five yoke of oxen,” excuses himself by saying, “I go to prove them.” This supposes “wealth,” and the Lord searchingly points out in His sermon on the Mount, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Was there ever, since the world began, a greater thirst for power, and lust for gold, than now? and so strong a hold have both these things on the hearts of men that they have no desire at all for the great feast which divine love has spread.
But there was yet a third excuse, even more emphatic than the other two, because it was a point-blank refusal on the part of the man who, having married a wife, boldly said, “Therefore I cannot come.” “Natural affection” comes first, with the natural heart; and well does Satan know how to make that, which though right enough in itself, is only, alas! too often made a plausible excuse for refusing God’s great salvation. There is no greater snare than this, for young or old; and thousands go down to eternal perdition who have deliberately refused the wooings of divine love for some mere earthly affection.
But the Provider of the feast, though justly angry, is not to be hindered in the action of His grace; and the overflowings of that grace are further shewn by the command to “go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, the maimed, the halt, and the blind.” Yes, it is only when a deep sense of real need is felt in the soul that there is any true desire for the “great supper” which God has provided. Hence those who in themselves have no resources, who are wounded by sin, and have neither strength nor sight—the shipwrecked ones on the shores of time—these are they who make no “vain excuses,” but are only too glad to sit down at the royal feast which divine love has spread; there, not only “to taste and see,” but also to prove, that “the Lord is gracious.” And the servant said, “Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.”
Ah! who shall fathom the exceeding riches of God’s grace? That mighty heart of infinite compassion knows no bounds; and, for the third time, the decree goes forth, “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled,” for that almighty heart of infinite love will only be satisfied when “He shall see of the travail of his soul” in the coming day of glory. Meanwhile, all those who refuse the invitation to the “great supper” of God’s great salvation do so to their own eternal sorrow; and, amid the ceaseless wailings of the lost, will forever regret the vain excuses once made on earth which caused them to despise and refuse the pleadings of God’s grace.
God’s house, however, will not be half empty, as some have foolishly supposed, but full to overflowing; yet the only sure way of your being there, dear reader, is to unreservedly accept now His glorious invitation; for thus the holy record runs, “Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.” Christ Himself is that “Living Bread,” and God would have us taste His own joy and delight in His Son. What, may we ask, has God so richly provided for the poor sinner who will just take Jesus now? Let His word and Spirit supply the answer: Mercy, pardon, peace, justification, eternal life; yea, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and countless blessings more, all shall be yours as a free gift if you will only accept them now. Love and light and joy are there; but outside there is nothing but “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Will you then still refuse such royal bounty, and perish in your sin? God forbid!
“Pass in, pass in! that banquet is for thee,
That cup of everlasting love is free,
Room, room, still room!
Oh! enter, enter now.”
S.T.