“And the servant said, Lord, it is done as Thou has 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.” Luke 14:22-2322And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23And 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. (Luke 14:22‑23).
“Yet there is room!” To an anxious seeker of salvation, what comfort is in these words! They tell that the door is yet open, that the voice of grace yet sounds, and that whoever comes shall be made welcome!
But where is it that “yet there is room”? In the Father’s house, the Saviour’s home, at the “great supper” which God has spread, and to which He has invited you, my reader.
God wants you to be His guest. He has spread His table with every bounty love could furnish, more than our poor needy hearts could desire, and sent out His servants with the word, “Come; for all things are now ready.”
And what is the result of this loving call? All invited have “made excuse.” Man does not want to be God’s guest. God wants man’s company, but man does not want God’s, in such close proximity as a feast suggests, so he politely says, “I pray thee have me excused.”
Alas! “a piece of ground,” “five yoke of oxen,” or, strangest of all, “a wife,” sufficed to prevent the acceptance of God’s call. There was no heart. Had there been, the one just married would have said, “Where I am wanted, my wife will be welcome too; I will take her with me.”
It is a sad picture, dear unsaved reader, of your heart, Is it not? But listen to me. God is in earnest. He will certainly have His house filled. If you will not fill a seat in His house, some one else will. Do not miss your chance, I beseech you.
To you I now say again, “Yet there is room.” O, heed the call of God. Where will you spend eternity? It must be with him whose “guests are in the depths of hell;” or with God, who now again invites you to be His guest in heavenly glory.
Again, He calls; Will you again refuse? You are a stranger to Jesus and His blessed salvation. Will you continue in the same dreadful state? God forbid! “Yet there is room.” Come now to Jesus. All you have to do is to east yourself simply on Him. He has died, and risen again. The work of atonement is accomplished. God’s claims are all met. The question of sin has been forever settled on the cross. There He “who knew no sin, was made sin for us;” and the sins of all who trust in Jesus have been borne forever away. Will you not trust Him?
If you had anything to do, you might delay; but when all is “finished,” and all “ready,” the only thing left for you to do is to come, and appropriate in faith what love provides for your present and eternal blessing.
I assure you God is waiting to bless and save you. Nay, more, He is most anxious about you being His guest. He says, “Compel to come in.” Are not these strange words? They show the reluctance on your side to come, and earnestness on God’s side to get you to come.
O, let me “compel” you to come ere you drop this paper. God loves you; Why do you refuse Him? Christ has died for sinners; Why do you not believe Him? You are going straight to hell; Why do not you turn to the Lord?
Have you no shrinking from the “wrath to come”? Do you not see the awful folly of your present path? Blinded by Satan, sin, and the delusions of this present world, you are hurrying on to a scene of endless despair. O, sinner, you must wake up to your state. You are unwashed, unpardoned, unclean, and unjustified, and you will soon stand a self-condemned criminal at the bar of God. Countless are your sins indeed; but the crowning, damning one of all will be this, that you refused grace, despised mercy, rejected Christ, and “excused” yourself from being saved; and, consequently, ensured your eternal damnation!
O, my fellow-sinner, I call on thee, awake, awake! arouse thee to thy danger; see thine impending doom. “Escape for thy life,” I beseech thee. “Compel to come in,” warrants me in calling on thee, with all the earnestness and affection I possess, to turn to the Lord. “Yet there is room,” may assure thee that, if thou dost but come, thy salvation is certain.
But thou must no longer delay. God’s house is nearly full, I am sure. “Some guest will be the last,” has been well said; and then the shut door will solemnly thunder to lazy, half-awakened sinners, – No room, no room, NO ROOM!
What crushing conviction will then possess the soul that finds itself too late! It will be willing, but too late; wishing, but too late; wanting, but too late; weeping, but too late; praying, but too late; pleading, but too late. O, how dreadful!
Reader, fancy yourself going down to hell with: “yet there is room” resting on your memory, and “too late” ringing in your ears, and stamped in living characters of fire before your guilty, godless soul forever. This must be the fate of a gospel-neglecting, Christ-rejecting soul. Shall it be your fate? With you now lies the opportunity, and the responsibility of accepting God’s call.
Once more, “Yet there is room.” O, my friend, be persuaded. Yield yourself just now to the Saviour. His words are sweet and true, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.” Again, “He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.”
Then just come to, believe on, and henceforth follow Him, till He comes to take all His own to be forever with Himself.
“Thy precious Name it is I bear;
In Thee I am to God brought near,
And all the Father ‘s love I share,
O Lamb of God, in Thee.”