UK 14:15-33{)THE parable we have read was spoken in reply to one of the company who said, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Then the Lord set forth, under the figure of a great supper, the greatness of what God has provided. It is a great thing for us to get hold of and understand, in some measure at least, the goodness of God, and that which His heart has provided for us.
What is here put before us by the Lord is not a purpose in God's heart; it is what He has already, accomplished, and accomplished by the one who alone could accomplish it; and therefore, all that remains for us, is to take possession of it and to enjoy it. But in order to enjoy a thing there is something more needed than the mere possession of it. Many a man has property who has not health, and of what avail is his property to him then? You need health in order to enjoy what is given you.
Now it is most important that I should know, the things that are in the heart of God for me. He had a purpose to bring me into a wondrous place,: and that purpose He has accomplished in His Son. Just as in the case of the children of Israel, He says to Moses, Bring my people out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. His purpose was to bring them into the land, and that purpose was accomplished. There were difficulties and dangers-by the way, and failures too, but God's purpose was accomplished. We have not-only to get out of Egypt, there is a land for us to enter and to take possession of; a house prepared by the Father to which. He calls us; a feast to which He has bidden us.
Have you understood anything of the love that is in His heart? The Lord sets it forth in this chapter as a feast; in the next chapter He shows how the guest is fitted for the feast. He tells us out the Father's heart-how He feels about us. It is not the prodigal's feelings; it is the Father's feelings about the prodigal coming home. God there says, I am a Father who will receive you when you come back to me, and whose heart will rejoice to welcome you. There is one Man who has told us of the Father's heart. He was the only one who could, for He was the only one who knew it-the Son of God. And He was the only one who ever knew the enormity of my offense -against God-the in that had put me at such a distance from God-and He bore it. I do not know the measure of my sin, and therefore I cannot pay the penalty it incurred; but that One knew it, and He paid it; and He also knew what none other man ever knew, even the love that is in the Father's heart; and that love He declares.
Thus the first thing that comes out is the purpose of God: God makes a feast. The Lord introduces you here to the Father's thoughts and counsels for you. One of the company says, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdoms of God." That was nothing in comparison to what the Lord had to tell, and He answers, "There was a certain man who made a great supper." But, before speaking a 'this supper, I should like to say a word about the guest. In the next chapter you get three things about him He is first kissed; next robed; and then feasted. Now without this revelation of the Father's heart we never could have known what the Father's love is. Could philosophy teach it to us? The present race of philosophers are the most contemptible because they borrow from this Book and deny the Anther of it. The old philosophers never got beyond benevolence because they had not this Book' to reveal love to them. Love delights in the one it serves. This I get in the fifteenth of Luke in the wonderful way in which it unfolds the Father. The prodigal is first kissed by Him; next robed; and then -feasted. A kiss is the intimation of affection on the part of him who gives it. The heart of God, which was denied by Satan and doubted by man in the garden of Eden, is the first thing He brings out. The first impression of having to do with God is what Scripture calls a kiss, though grace had already worked in him. The second thing is the robe " Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him.". And notice that, as soon as the robe is on, he is in the Father's house, though he was "a great way off" when it was brought to him. This robe is what fits him to enter the house; it is the new nature.. The moment you have the nature you are qualified to enter. The word is, "Bring forth the best robe." You do not say bring forth a thing when you are inside a house; you must be outside if anything is `to be brought forth to you. But now that they are inside, it is " Bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry." When they were outside it was "bring forth; ' now that they are inside it is "bring hither." He has brought us inside. He has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." There is not a saint on earth who is not fit for heaven; but there is not one who is perfectly fit for earth. The Only one who was fit for earth was the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Son of man who is in heaven. You are left here heavenly men upon the earth; there is no provision made for your being earthly ones. That is the marvelous place you are put in; you cannot understand what it is to be fit for earth until you have been to heaven.
Now this great supper is not a future entertainment, any more than the Father's house in chapter fifteen is a future heaven. It introduces you into that wonderful scene which is typified in the Old Testament Scriptures by "the holiest." You cannot worship anywhere else, and that is what we are brought to now. Mark! now—not by-and-bye. We are brought now by God into a position which is altogether beyond nature.
In the second of the first of Corinthians we read, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God, hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." The point here is to show the Corinthians that they were above nature: A man that acts below nature is a monster. But here you are above nature. You are on a higher level than that which is naturally your own, just as a man on horseback is above his own level and power. Do you say to me, See what lovely things! How the eye rejoices in them! -Well; I say, so it does, and there is nothing wrong in an eye; but still " Eye hath not seen."-Do you say, Listen to those sweet sounds I did you ever hear anything more lovely? How the ear rejoices in them!-I say, so it does, and there is nothing wrong in an ear; but still "Ear hath not heard."Do Tout say, Look at the wonderful feelings of the heart? What sensitiveness! what refinement 1. what delicacy!-I say, so it has; the heart does feel wonderfully; but still it has." not entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him." This is what we find in. Isaiah; he says it is a hidden thing; man has not seen it, heard it, or conceived it.
Well now, what is heaven? Oh! you say, we do not know. We believe it is something very grand, but we do not know what it is like. Then you have not got beyond Isaiah if you do not know what heaven is like; "what God has prepared " is not a hidden thing to us. " God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit." That is the Great Supper; but none of our natural powers can enter into it.
It is an immense thing for the heart to get into this place. The Lord, speaking of the children of Israel, said, that- He was " come to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them unto a good land, and a large." And, speaking of His people now, He says that He has revealed all these good things unto us by His Spirit. If you say, We believe' we shall have it all by-and-bye; that implies you have not got it now. The first thing the sinner meets with now is the mercy-seat. It was the first thing that Moses was told to make, but the Jew bevel. could get to it; it was hidden in the holiest. But, " we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh."
Have you ever entered the holiest? Has your heart ever entered that wondrous scene? " By a new and living way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh"-that is what you are to pass through And, having entered, there you eat of "the old corn of the land-" there feed on Christ at the Fathers right hand in glory. Is that what you are doing? or is all that only future to you Is that union with Him there to be by-and-bye? Oh, it is an immense thing to know-that it is now! It makes you superior to everything! See the seventy-third Psalm. There the prophet was cast down, troubled, perplexed; he could not-understand God's dealings. But when once he gets into that scene how differently he views everything; there is no more perplexity for him now, no more dissatisfaction; he says, " When I went into the sanctuary, then understood I."
Even in natural things what a different effect is produced upon us by an object according to the level from which we look at it-whether we see it from above or from beneath. And you cannot be on both at the same time; you must keep either to one level or the other. The apostle says, "What man knoweth of a wan, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Thus what God has done is, He has brought in another power. He has revealed these things to me, and given me the power to understand them. He says, By the Spirit of God I can unite you to the One who sits at my right hand; I can bring you into association with Him up there. Do you say, I do not think I ever have enjoyed what you speak of? Well, if you have not, it is a good thing to be awakened to find it out. All that I say is that " all things are ready; come to the supper." It is not you that have to make them ready.
Now Satan has a device to hinder souls getting to this supper. And I would say he will let you go through the world pretty fairly if 'you do not aim at the top of the ladder; he brings all his guns to bear on the top, if he finds you are set for that. It is not at the first round of the ladder that he aims; it is at your hands that he strikes, not at your feet. If he struck away the round you are standing on, you might hang on by your hands, but if he strikes away what you are holding to with your hands, you can make no progress. It is the highest point of truth you have that he aims at. It is the most advanced bit of truth that any person in this room holds that he will let go the first when he begins to let anything go. We find throughout Scripture that Satan has always aimed at the highest truth that was held at any given time.
The device that is now current in Christendom to hinder souls getting to the supper is the thought that they will get heaven when they die. Now, this is not true. I shall be in heaven when I die, that is true. Enough; but, as to position, I am in heaven now. But if you say I shall get heaven when I die, then you imply that you have not got it now; and that it is the earth you have got now. That is Satan's device. He puts heaven in the future, and presents earth to you now. The wine is, red, and, as you look upon it, it deceives you.
Tell me is there any Spirit of God? And, if there is, what does He reveal to you? Where is Jesus? In heaven, you say. And do you never get there? do you never get to Him? Surely I am made acquainted by the Spirit of God with Christ where He is now. By the Spirit I am brought into heavenly places. Our translators have made it " heavenly things," but it is really " heavenly places." And from these heavenly places I am to come down and act on earth as a heavenly man; Christ imparts power to me from above so that I may thus walk, and my heavenly walk sets forth God's own glory. I am a heavenly man on earth. Is it a question what I am to do? I am responsible fox' nothing but to come in as Christ was upon the scene, and not as a mere man.
If you say we shall get heaven by-and-bye, that puts off heaven till you die. Are you never there now? People confuse going to heaven with eternal life. Eternal life is that I have the capacity now to enjoy the things of God, and, because I have it, I pass into a scene where I can eat the old corn of the land; where I find perfection, quietness, satisfaction Christ Himself. I dwell where I can enjoy Him, where, by "beholding the glory of the Lord," I am " changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Do not let any one here say it is too much. God, in His grace, has come in and ended the history of man in the flesh, in the -cross, and now by the Spirit I am brought into association with His Son at His own right hand in heaven. Christ wins my heart in humiliation; He satisfies it in glory. A won heart is not necessarily a satisfied heart. But I believe if a heart is truly won by Christ it never will be satisfied without Him. No heart that is won is ever satisfied but in the company of the one who won it. Absence does not " make the heart grow fonder! " You only discover in absence what you have gained in presence.
God's thought is to bring me into the best-into the highest-place. Paul was taken up into heaven on purpose that he might come down and show us into it, just like a servant to show us through the different rooms of a house. Look at the queen of Sheba; "there was no more spirit in her; " she was lost in the surroundings of king Solomon. Were you ever lost in the things of Christ? Were you ever in an ecstacy? Do you think if people were in an ecstacy to God they would be so taken up with things down here? It is true I have to be occupied here, but is it as one who comes out from heaven to do duty for Christ? There is a great difference between a man working in an office and that same man at home. Have you ever seen one glimpse of heaven? If you have it will have thrown earth into the shade. The more you look closely at man's things the more you will find out their defects; take a microscope and see what the finest things of man's manufacture will look under it. But the more you subject to examination anything of God's, the more beautiful, the more wonderful, and the more symmetrical it will appear. Now God has brought man into His own heavenly scene, but man could never take it in. To begin, there are numbers of saints who have not got hold of the power that can keep them separate from the world. It is not a question of thus merely coming out of Egypt: we are to " go in and possess the land."
I will just turn for a moment to the tenth chapter, that we may look at the earthly side of this. Here we find the parable of the man" who fell among thieves. We are upon earth evidently; here there is a " neighbor;" you do not want a neighbor in heaven. -Now there are three things connected with this neighbor. First, he pours in oil and wine. We are poor, helpless things, full of wounds, half dead; that is the only attraction we have. But misery is an attractive thing to grace; that is a great comfort to a poor soul. Man meets a miserable creature In the street, and he shrinks from him; but never did a poor creature meet Christ in the street that He was not attracted to him.
The second thing in the parable is something entirely new to man-something he never had before. "He set him" on his own beast." This is a very difficult thing for man to accept; there is nothing so difficult as to induce a man to leave his own legs for the power of Christ. Everyone likes to have wine and oil poured into his wounds, but the Many do not like to go farther than that. Not So Paul. He had a power outside of himself; he says, "I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me,- for when I am weak, then am I strong. ' No one minds a difficulty, when there is power to meet it. You see a woman standing by the side of a street, wanting to cross, but not daring to do it. A policeman comes and takes hold of her arm, and at once she goes straight across without any fear; -and yet there is just as „much difficulty as there. was before; the difficulty is there just as much when the policeman is with her as it was before he came. What then is the difference? She is trusting in his power to take her across. A difficulty is no difficulty when there is power to meet it. He set him on his own beast. But, that is not what saints want. They would like the Lord to make them prosperous on the earth-to help them along on their own legs. But that is not what He does. "He set him on his own beast."
Then thirdly, “He brought him to an inn." Now an inn is a place for strangers. People try to be strangers; which just proves they are not strangers. For- instance, John the Baptist had to eat peculiar food, and dress in a strange way to show the Jews that he was a stranger amongst them; and this showed that he was not really a stranger. The Lord has put me on His own beast, and brought me to an inn, and that is my place on earth, I have no other. That is the. earthly side: " strangers and pilgrims." The fifteenth chapter is the heavenly side; and in the fourteenth, we get it as the feast.
Oh, you say, but none of us would refuse the Great Supper! The Lord say " They all with one consent began to make excuse.”
Now mark! It is not -sin that refuses the supper-it is nature. Nature has got something that satisfies itself. There is no sin in any of the reasons given as excuses for refusing the invitation. There is nothing wrong in a person buying a piece of ground; on the contrary, it is one of the strongest instincts in our nature to own land: " The earth hath he given to the children of men;" there is nothing more attractive to man; you never knew a man yet that did not like a bit of land. There is no sin in it; but it is nature; and nature cannot rise to the Great Supper.
The next buys " a yoke of oxen." You see this is in advance; he has the land; and now he wants to cultivate it. And the third marries a wife, and therefore he cannot come. He wants to settle down and make himself happy in his own home. Is there anything wrong in that?—No, nothing. But they refused the supper.
Then the Lord turns, round to the multitudes and says, Nature will not do; every relation in life must be taken, up in a new-way if you are going to follow me. The tree, i.e.' yourself, will be in the same place that it was before; the leaves of it withered often, and the sap was often not there; now there is a new" nature put- into it, and the leaves may never wither; and the sap should be ever flowing in its branches. Such is the wonderful elevation to which IT am brought, that in all My earthly relationships I derive grace from Christ, and am in them to His glory. God sets me in every relation in keeping with this place which He has given me in Christ.
Love in nature is not the point: it is sure to rail when put to the test. A mother loves her child, and yet when it is peevish and cross, she may get cross too. The Lord says, If you do not take up these relationships in grace, you will never be able to finish the tower, or to meet the enemy. The tower is defensive to arrest an attack; the army is aggressive, to make an attack you will not be equal for either, unless you have a power outside nature. If you are not superior to all natural ties—" If any man come to me, and hate not father, and: mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
I am in the same place that I was, but I am only used there now by Christ. Christ's cross Sets me free as I bear it and go after Him, a slave to Him on the earth. Saints often think that unless they are doing something very great, that they are not serving the Lord at all. It is often said,- " Mary has chosen the better part," as if there were two parts. There never was but one part, and Mary chose " the good part;" the other part was the invention of Martha's own heart, and not from Christ. She judged from her own feelings that a tired traveler 'would like refreshment;—she had studied her own thoughts more than the Lord's. But Mary knew His heart, so she sat at His feet and heard His word. this is what is lacking in service now; this is where_ lies our real difficulty as to pleasing Christ; we need His mind to know what He would have us do, so as not to be going after our own thoughts. What we labor for is, that' " whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing to Him. In conclusion, I would say that the higher you go, 4he more is man exposed to you.- No amount of actual conversance with the things of God will do; but once get into the holiest, into the presence of God Himself, and you will get a sight of man's moral state that will almost shock you. The Lord grant that each beloved child of God may be encouraged to press forward; as the Lord said to Paul, " Be of good courage," and to Joshua, " Go in and possess the land."
" MY GROANING IS NOT HID FROM THEE."- A groan to God, however deep the misery, however—prostrate the spirit, however unconscious that we are heard, is always received above as the intercession of the Spirit, and answered according to the perfectness of God's purpose concerning us in Christ; therefore the charge. is, " Ye have not cried unto life when ye howled. upon your beds:" and there is no consequence of sin which -is beyond the reach of this groaning to God, nothing indeed but the self-will which will not groan to Him at all.
This is a blessed thought! Such is our intercourse with God in joy and in sorrow; and I doubt not that in is poor blessed creatures; that the truest, the most blessed (what will shine most when all things shine before God), are these groans to Him; they cannot, indeed, be in their fullness, but where the knowledge of the' glory of blessing is. I can see them precede the greatest works and words of Jesus. The sense of the wilderness, taken into His heart, made but the streams which could refresh it flow forth. in the sympathy of the Spirit which it called forth; and now the Spirit is in us. (Ex. 2:2424And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (Exodus 2:24); Acts 7:3434I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. (Acts 7:34); John 11:33-3833When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 35Jesus wept. 36Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! 37And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? 38Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. (John 11:33‑38). Rom. 8:22,23,2622For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22‑23)
26Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26); 2 Cor. 5:44For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. (2 Corinthians 5:4).) J. N. D.