“A CERTAIN man made a great supper and bade many, and 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 nature of the excuses will be seen by reading the 18th 19th and 20th verses of the 14th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.
It will be observed that these excuses are used in connection with temporal mercies and temporal ties― “five yoke of oxen, a piece of ground, and a wife.” These were of more value and interest than was “the great supper.” And worse, he who had so graciously provided it was treated with slight, if not with positive contempt. The serious thing to be noticed here is this, that things right enough in themselves, may so absorb men, that God Himself is shut out, and constantly forgotten. Look at this: making use of the very mercies which He in providence bestows, to exclude the God who bestows them. This is a great sign of depravity, yet many are deluded by supposing that being engaged in right things, attending to what may be termed “duties of life,” they have nothing to fear.
I mean to say, a man need not be a drunkard, or a wife-beater, or a thief, to be lost; he may be kind, temperate, and honest to a degree, and yet be eternally lost “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3.) What harm is there in buying oxen or land, or in marrying a wife? None; but supposing these right things so engross you, that God is slighted, His salvation neglected, and the door of heaven becomes closed upon you, what’s the harm of that, my reader? “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24:37, 38,37But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, (Matthew 24:37‑38) and 39).
Now, in these verses is seen the same thing― “eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage.” All perfectly right in themselves, and more, the blessing of God should be asked upon them. Quite so; yet how much did people heed the preaching of Noah? The building of the ark should have aroused them; but they were rocked to a fatal sleep by earthly things, yea, right things! They were aroused, it is true, when too late. Their eyes, which had been fast closed, were now opened, but only to see the judgment of God in the swelling, rising, deadly waters of the deluge, to find escape impossible.
There was only one place of safety then, the ark, the despised ark! There is only one place of refuge now. Does the reader despise or neglect that? The day of judgment is nearing; depend upon the truth of this. Jesus now says, “I am the door: by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:99I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)).
There was only one door to the ark, and that was in the side thereof.
Can you say―
“Rock of Ages, cleft for sin,
Grace hath hid me safe within.”
If you are not “safe within,” you are outside, and not safe, not for an hour, not for a minute. Are “right” things hindering you? absorbing your mind. It is wonderful how these do absorb. And the more people possess, the greater the danger. “How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom.”
A Christian man engaged in business told me, that one Lord’s Day morning he was reading his Bible in one of the London parks, resting on one of the seats in the park. In a short time a man whom he took to be a foreigner approached him, and in broken English asked him if it was the Bible he was reading. “Yes,” was the reply. Conversation was then entered into respecting the things of God, and some interest shown by the foreigner. Also, he began to attend meetings where the Gospel was being preached. On one occasion it was arranged that the now apparently interested man should meet my friend at a meeting for the preaching of the Gospel. However, on this occasion, the stranger failed to keep the engagement, but on meeting a little time after, said he had no excuse to offer; he would tell the truth, he had deliberately refrained from going to the meeting referred to, and then by way of explanation, asked the question: “Do you mean to tell me that no one is saved but through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?” “Certainly; no one,” replied the believer. “Then,” said the other, “I shall not be saved, and for this reason: If what you say is true, my mother is lost, for I am sure my mother never heard of the blood of Jesus Christ, and rather than be in heaven without my mother, I would prefer to be in hell with her.” Here is a terrible instance of how people can be lost forever through right things taking a wrong place. Obedience and love to parents are enjoined in the Word of God. But to love father or mother more than Christ is to be unworthy of Him.
What a hell would that be to the deluded son were he to find, after all, that unknown to him his beloved parent had heard of the blood, and believed in its power and efficacy! It is an awful thing to lose one’s soul for someone else, or for something else? “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.”
An eccentric preacher once said, we should be surprised to find a good many in heaven we did not think would be there, and a good number not there we thought would have been there; and lastly, he should be surprised (I suppose in view of his own shortcomings and the difficulties of the way) to find himself there. We can take this for what it is worth. Yet remember, each one will have to stand before God and give account of himself.
“‘All things are ready,’ come,
Oh make no vain excuse;
No yoke of oxen, wife, or field,
Instead of Jesus choose.”
Who can tell, fully tell, what is meant by being eternally lost? Who now can fully describe the agonies of the undying worm. Reader, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe now, and sing
“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
To enter while there’s room,
While thousands make the wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?
‘Twas the same grace that spread the feast,
That sweetly forced me in;
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin.”
W. R. C.