Jesus was rejecting his rejectors vol. 2

JESUS WAS REJECTING HIS REJECTORS VOL. 2
AND INVITING EVERYONETO THE FEAST
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
LUKE 14:15-23The Parableof the Great Banquet
The GreatBanquet
Sermon by Ed Hartman on November23, 2015
Luke 14:12-24
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Our Scripture reading this evening is Luke chapter 14 verses 12 through 24.
It’s on page 874 in your pew Bible if you’d like to use that. Luke chapter 14.
Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Holy Spirit, we come to You this evening because we desperatelyneed You.
We stand at a crossroadswith a divine transactionbefore us. You are
enabling us to see the beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and
You’re calling us to come back. You have beckonedus over and over again.
Sometimes we’ve responded; sometimes we’ve headed in a completely
different direction. This evening, beckonus back againand cause us to find
the delight of Your presence as we draw near. In the process wouldYou
enable us to find You, that it is You drawing us to Yourself and finding Jesus
precious? We pray in His name, amen.
Luke chapter 14, verse 12. This is Jesus speaking.
“He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a
banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich
neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you
give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be
blessed, because theycannot repay you. Foryou will be repaid at the
resurrectionof the just.’
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said
to him, ‘Blessedis everyone who will eatbread in the kingdom of God!’ But
he said to him, ‘A man once gave a greatbanquet and invited many. And at

the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been
invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike beganto make
excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see
it. Please have me excused.’And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of
oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’And anothersaid, ‘I
have married a wife, and therefore I cannotcome.’So the servant came and
reported these things to his master. Then the masterof the house became
angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the
city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant
said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And
the mastersaid to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel
people to come in, that my house may be filled. ForI tell you, none of those
men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”
This is God’s Word.
This evening I’d like to begin with where I trust we’ll end, with two
applications that will make up our conclusion. And then, Lord willing, we’ll
work our way through this parable to see how we get there. One applicationis
a clearwarning. The other is a specific encouragement. The warning goes
something like this. It’s possible to be surrounded by and wrapped up in the
things of God all your life and in the end find you’ve missed it. That’s the
warning! The encouragementis this, and that comes straight from verse 17.
Still today, Jesus invites us to come, but in a certain way. It’s the only way we
can come and it’s the only waywe can follow. That’s where I trust we will end
our study. So, three things I’d like you to see as we work our waythrough this

parable. One is the story; actually that’s the secondpoint but to get to the
secondpoint you have to see the back story. That’s the first point! And then
the conclusions.
The Back Story
So let’s begin with the back story. The back story, I’ve been helped
tremendously by the book, “ThroughPeasantEyes,”written by Kenneth
Bailey. He’s an ancientnear easternstudies scholarwho taught in Beirut,
Lebanon for years and years. But it’s that book that helps us see that to
understand the parables you have to first understand the 1st century mind,
their culture and their customs, so that you see these stories through the lens
of their experience. So I’ll be pulling a lot from what he wrote. In chapter 14
of Luke you find that there’s a dinner party and Jesus is invited. We’re told in
verse 1 that Jesus was invited not primarily to honor Him but they were
looking to watchHim carefully, to trap Him, to find some advantage to use
againstHim. And so the dinner begins. It’s hostedby a prominent religious
leaderand as the meal is served, Jesus and another is, they’re having a
discussion, and a man who’s listening to the discussionin verse 15 stands up,
he raises his glass, and he says, “Blessedis everyone who will eatbread in the
kingdom of God.” Now that may just seemlike an ordinary thing to us to say,
howeverthis was a formula toast. It was said often at gatherings of God’s
people as a way of looking forward to what the prophet Isaiahhad told God’s
people to expect. If you go back to Isaiah 25, you find the real back story to
this passagebecausein Isaiah25, the prophet writes about the Messianic
banquet that all of God’s people for sevencenturies prior to Jesus had been
looking forward to. Three verses out of Isaiah 25. Verse 6, the prophet says:

“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feastof rich
food, a feastof well-agedwine, of rich food full of marrow, of agedwine well
refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is castover
all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death
forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the
reproachof his people he will take awayfrom all the earth, for the LORD
himself has spoken.”
Now with that Messianic prophecyringing in the ears of God’s people at every
banquet they’d be looking and they learn to offer this toastrecordedin verse
15, “Blessedis everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.” And the
expectedresponse when that toastwas offered was this, and all eyes were on
Jesus becausethey all expected Him to raise His glass and say, “O Lord, may
we be among the righteous and be counted worthy to sit with men of renown
on that greatday.” But imagine the surprise of the people who were there at
that banquet when this man stands and robustly says, “Blessedis everyone
who will eatbread in the kingdom of God,” and he’s looking at Jesus waiting
for the response and instead of responding with the formula response, Jesus
says, “Let me tell you a story,” and the parable begins. That’s the back story.
It’s an important thing to keepin mind as we work our way through.
You’re Invited to a Dinner Party

The story breaks down into three scenes andthe first scene I’d entitle,
“You’re Invited to a Dinner Party.” Verse 17, “At the time for the banquet,”
this is Jesus’parable, “he senthis servant to say to those who had been
invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’” Now, what you didn’t hear was
what was in verse 16. “But he said to him, ‘A man once gave a great banquet
and invited many.’” What’s happening is in the ancient near easternworld
there was a two-stage invitation given for a banquet. In the days before Whole
Foods or FreshMarketor Kroger, in the days before electricityand
refrigeration, before running water, when you held this kind of a banquet it
wasn’t quite as simple a thing as it might be for us. It was a pretty involved
process to figure out, “How do I figure out how much food, who’s coming,
how many animals do I need to slaughter, how quickly can I do it so the meat
doesn’t spoil, how much produce do I need to harvest, how do I getall of this
prepared in time for the gathering of the guests?”
So the invitation was done in two stages. First, the servantwent out and made
the blanketinvitation and he waited to geta commitment from those who
would say, “Why certainly, I’ll be there. Count on me.” He would go back to
his masterand say, “This is the number of people who have committed to
come.” Now once you told the servant, “I plan to come,” you could no longer
back out. You were duty bound to attend. And so the servants would go about
slaughtering the animals, harvesting the produce, preparing the bread, the
meal, the wine, the table. Everything would be set, and when everything was
ready the master would say to the servant, “Now go tell everyone it’s all
ready; come now.” And when that secondinvitation came, you dropped what
you were doing and you showedup. And in that custom, in that culture it was
horribly offensive to evernot show up when you saidyou would.

Something’s Come Up
And so that takes us to scene two, which I would title, “Something’s Come
Up.” In verse 18 we read, “But they all alike beganto make excuses.”What
I’d like you to see is that eachof these excuses, while maybe to us they seem
legitimate, in truth, in that 1st century world they were horribly offensive and
insulting. You’ll see in a moment why! The first excuse comes in verse 18.
“Theyall alike beganto make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a
field and I must go out and see it.’” Now, here’s the problem with his excuse!
In that 1st century world, you could not purchase property without a
sequence ofevents taking place because land was precious;it was evenviewed
as being sacred. Before youcould purchase land you had to negotiate its
purchase, and to negotiate a price, you had to go out and walk the property.
You’d have to be able to memorize and define its characteristics, its
typography, its history, the amount of income it had produced from its
previous owners, and then you had to go to the village or town elders and
recite from memory everything you’d learned about that land so at no point
could there be the statement, “Well, I didn’t know. Well I wasn’taware of
that.” You had to declare everything you knew about that land because
changing possessionofownership of land was a big deal. And so for someone
to say, “Hey, I just bought some land and I need to go out and see whatI
bought,” is a blatant lie! It’s offensive and insulting!

The SecondExcuse
The secondexcuse in verse 19. “Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of
oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’” And like the first
excuse, the secondhas the same problem. You couldn’t buy a yoke of oxen
without first trying them out to see if they pulled together. The excuse would
be almost as lame as calling your wife on the way home from work saying,
“Um, I’m not coming home this evening because I bought five cars on
Craigslistand now I need to see if they’ve gottires and whether they’ll
crank.” Wellyour wife or whomeverit would be whom you called would say,
“You’re not telling me the truth! I know you wouldn’t do that.”
The Third Excuse
And then the third excuse, verse 20. “Anothersaid, ‘I’ve married a wife, and
therefore I cannot come.’” Wellthis one’s a flat out lie because in that ancient
near easternworld, following a wedding would be a week-long reception. And
what this man was saying was this, “YesterdayI said that I would come to
your banquet, but tonight I’ve got plans for my new wife.” It just doesn’t
work!It’s offensive and it’s a wayof saying to the host, “You need to
understand that I have other things to do with my time that I’d much prefer
over againstspending it with you.”

See, it’s really not primarily about excuses;it’s about the desires and our
longings that Jesus is speaking. Think about it this way! In eachof these
excuses you have a man who’s made a decisionin response to a gracious
invitation from a generous hostand he agreed, “Iwill come, I will enjoy
relationship with you, I will enjoy celebrating the cause for this banquet. I’ll
be there.” And yet in eachexcuse there’s an attempt to concealthe fact that
other things are far more important, of far greaterworth than spending time
with the generous host. On one level, the application is relatively plain, isn’t
it? The Christian is one who has made a decisionin response to a gracious
invitation. He’s committed himself to relationship with Christ, to following
Him in discipleship. Yet many who respond to that gracious invitation choose
to follow only when it’s convenient, only when there’s nothing else on their
radar screenwhich they desire more, when they don’t desire something more
than they desire following and delighting in the company of the one who
extended the gracious invitation.
The Show Must Go On
And then there’s scene three in the parable. Scene three we’d entitle, “The
Show Much Go On. The Banquet Will Be Held. My House Will Be Full.” And
you need to notice that the masterin the parable, the host, doesn’t shrug his
shoulders and say, “Suit yourself! Your loss!” But it says, he’s angry. “The
servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the
house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and
lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’” The
invitation now shifts from those who are worthy of being invited to the
unworthy, to the outcast, to those who no one would ever expect to be invited
to this kind of a banquet – the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. And
you notice, don’t you, that this group of people bookendthis banquet. You see

them mentioned both in verse 13 and in verse 21. Verse 13, “When you give a
feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.” Verse 21, “Go out
quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled,
the blind, and the lame.” And Jesus is not being redundant; He’s driving
home a point! You know what’s unique about those people – the poor, the
crippled, the blind, and the lame? It’s really rather simple! When they’re
invited, they’ll come. You know why? Becausethe blind don’t go out to
examine farmland. The crippled don’t plow with oxen. The poor aren’t
invited to hang out with the rich. And the lame and the maimed, they don’t
get married. Who wants them? And so when they hear the invitation there’s
no excuses. Theyhear the invitation and they say, “Of course!There’s nothing
in my world that I would value more highly than this! There is no treasure
that you could offer me that would be more valuable than this. Of course I’ll
come!I’ll come running, I’ll come crawling, but I’ll come.”
And look at the contrastbetweenthe two groups of people who had been
invited to this banquet. The first group of guests I would describe as the
independent, wealthy, self-sufficient, preoccupied, capable, visionary, self-
assured, satisfied, and oh by the way I think I’ve just describedyou and me.
Think about it! The first group of people, if you lined them up, they’d look
just like us. They were the religious people. They showedup at the right times
at their house of worship, they read their holy book when they were supposed
to, they recitedScripture. They were welloff, they were educated, self-
sufficient, independent, capable, visionary, self-assuredand pretty self-
satisfied. And in the parable they found something other to do than come to
the banquet. In contrastto that first group of guests you have the second.
They’re dependent, needy, handicapped, broken, damaged, filled with doubts,
marked by baggage,afraid, they’re hungry, they’re alone. But at the banquet,
they’re the only ones there.

We have to slow the whole story way down, because as Gabe very beautifully
describedthis morning you have the contrastbetweenthe reverent and the
irreverent, here you have the contrastbetweenthe worthy and the unworthy.
And when you look at the banquet, the worthy were outside and only the
unworthy showedup – the people who recognize, “There’snothing within
myself that qualifies me to be at this banquet but praise God I’ve been invited
in.” See, there are no party crashers atthis banquet! You can only come by
way of invitation, and the invitation as the same for both groups. Both the
worthy and the unworthy heard the same invitation. The only difference was
the response, andwhat was the deepestdesire within eachof the persons in
the groups. What’s most precious? Whatis my greattreasure? At the end of
the day what will I value most? What’s the pearl of great price? There is a
banquet and the invitation still stands.
A warning Against Presumption
That leads us to the application which I’ve already at leastintroduced to you.
Two observations – one, there’s a clearwarning and it’s a warning against
presumption. Don’t presume that you’re an insider on your own terms or
your own priorities. Don’t presume that you’re an insider because you’re
here. Becauseas we saidat the beginning, you can spend your entire life
wrapped up in the things of God and at the end of the day find yourself
outside. The question is, “What have you done with the invitation? And what
have you done with the definition of worthiness and who is and who isn’t?” It
strikes me that in Luke chapter 14 followedby Luke chapter 15 you’ve got
two greatbanquets. The one of which Gabe spoke this morning; when the

prodigal son returned there was a greatbanquet and an invitation to come.
And in this parable you have a banquet and an invitation to come. Right
betweenthose two banquet parables is Jesus’clearteaching on the high cost
of discipleship. And what He’s telling us is, “Yes, grace is free, but it’s never
cheap.” There is a cost!Jesus has paid an inestimable price to make goodon
the invitation. And as the cost is set before us, the clearwarning is this – don’t
let any excuse justify giving higher priority to anything above your
relationship with the Lord Jesus and your commitment to walking with Him
in discipleship. Not your job, not your stuff, not your family, not your future.
It’s a warning againstpresumption.
The Invitation Still Stands
At the same time, there’s a specific encouragement, and I love the
encouragementbecauseit’s such a beautiful contrastto the warning. The
encouragementis this. The invitation still stands!Jesus still spreads His arms
wide and says, “Come!Welcome!Come, for everything is now ready.” I used
to so enjoy visiting Charlene Woodward. Mostof you probably don’t know
her, some of you probably did. She was an artist; a member of the church that
I pastoredfor ten years. When you walkedin her front door, just across the
hallway on the back wall, was this painting of this table lavishly spread with
food and wine and bakeryand desserts, andthe lighting and the backdrop
and the texture of the painting was so rich I’d stop and I’d look at it and I
would salivate. And on the frame beneath the painting in very simple letters
were written the words of verse 17, “Come, for everything is now ready.”
Come! It’s all done! It’s all prepared!

And the invitation stands not at the end of your life, it does that, there is a
Messianic banquet for us yet to come, but it also stands at the beginning of
eachday. Because,for example, when you wake up tomorrow morning the
Lord Jesus stands before you and He says, “Come, for everything is now
ready. It’s all prepared for you. Come meet with Me, not just at the beginning
of the day, but throughout the entire day. I’ve prepared a day for you in
which you’ll come to know Me to be precious to you. Come, everything is now
ready.” That’s the encouragement.
But there’s only one way to come, and the only way you cancome is to
recognize that you are poor, crippled, blind, and lame, that you, like the
secondgroup of guests in Jesus’storyare dependent, you’re needy, you’re
broken, marked by doubts, baggage, filled with anxieties, fears, you’re hungry
and you’re not exactly sure for what. And Jesus looksatyou and smiles and
says, “Come.”
The invitation is open to you! It’s a free invitation, but not a cheap one.
Becauseyou see, evenJesus onthe day He made that invitation, Jesus knew
that on a hill outside of Jerusalemwould stand a cross stainedin blood, His
own. And He knew that from that cross wouldbe removed His brokenand
dead body, buried, dead, lifeless in a tomb. And yet He knew that three days
later it would rise, He would rise, and ascendto glory so that He could
prepare a banquet of global, eternal proportions such as you and I cannot
even begin to imagine. And even this day He says, “Come, foreverything is
now ready. The table is lavishly spread. Everything is prepared. Nothing is
missing, but you.”

One condition! The condition we’ve talkedabout, you’ve sung it, you’ve sung
the words – “Come, ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and
sore.” Poor, crippled, blind, and lame. And he says, “If you tarry till your
better, you will never come at all.” Don’t make excuses. Don’twait until you
figure out how to make yourself more presentable. Don’t think you’ve got this
figured out and you’ve gota plan. Don’t even say, “Wellthat sounds goodbut
later,” because laterwon’t arrive. Jesus looks atyou today and He says,
“Come.” To some ofus He says, “Come back. You’ve wandered. You’ve
gottencaught up in all of your own things.” He says, “Come back.”
We sang a greathymn with which I’ll close. It’s hymn number 80, “Lord,
With Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee.” I don’t know that we’ve sung that
before. It was a new one to me. But I’ve been thinking about it all week. I’d
encourage youto go back to it sometime in your own reading and study but
the first verse, the lastphrases of that first verse included these words and
they’re in response to the invitation. The words are these, “Help, O God, my
weak endeavor;this dull soul to rapture raise:Thou must light the flame, or
never can my love be warmed to praise.” Let me translate that for you. “God,
I know you’ve invited me, but I can’t come unless you compelme to come. My
heart is so hard. My affections are so distracted. My mind is so preoccupied
with other things. Unless You grab my heart, unless You light a new flame
within my heart, I can’t come and I won’t come. As goodas the invitation is, I
need You to grab me by the heart and pull me back. Thou must light the
flame or never will my heart be warmed to praise. God, I want to come.
Would You please take me by the hand and by the heart and bring me close?”
That’s the grace that’s offeredtoday. Let’s pray together.

Praise the grace whose threats alarmedthee, rouse thee from thy fatal ease;
praise the grace whose promise warmed thee, praise the grace that whispered
peace. O Lord, let Your grace, our soul’s chief treasure, raise within us a new
and deep and abiding love for you. Do this for the sake ofYour people, for the
sake ofYour kingdom, for the joy of our hearts now and for all eternity. We
pray in Jesus’name, amen.
DON FORTNER
The GreatSupper
Text: Luke 14:15-24
Introduction:
Our Lord Jesus is in the house of one of the chief Pharisees. He had
performed a greatmiracle on the sabbath day, healing a man of the dropsy.
The Pharisees andreligious legalists, ofcourse, were terribly offended by that
act of mercy (vv. 1-6).

Then, the Mastergave out a parable declaring his own method of grace and
salvation(vv. 7-11).
(Luke 14:7-11) "And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden,
when he markedhow they chose out the chief rooms;saying unto them, (8)
When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest
room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; (9) And he
that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou
begin with shame to take the lowestroom. (10) But when thou art bidden, go
and sit down in the lowestroom; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may
say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the
presence ofthem that sit at meat with thee. (11) For whosoeverexalteth
himself shall be abased;and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
In verses 12-14, he very pointedly applied the parable, speaking directly to the
Pharisee who had invited him to dinner, exposing that man’s hypocrisy.
(Luke 14:12-14) "Thensaid he also to him that bade him, When thou makest
a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy
kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a
recompense be made thee. (13) But when thou makesta feast, callthe poor,

the maimed, the lame, the blind: (14) And thou shalt be blessed;for they
cannot recompense thee:for thou shalt be recompensedatthe resurrectionof
the just."
But there was one man in the crowd who heard and understood what the
Savior was saying. Look at verse 15.
(Luke 14:15) "And when one of them that satat meat with him heard these
things, he said unto him, Blessedis he that shall eatbread in the kingdom of
God."
It is in response to this man’s assertionthat our Lord spoke the parable
recordedin verses 16-24[1].
(Luke 14:16-24) "Thensaid he unto him, A certainman made a greatsupper,
and bade many: (17) And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that
were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. (18) And they all with one
consentbeganto make excuse. The first saidunto him, I have bought a piece

of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. (19)
And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I
pray thee have me excused. (20) And another said, I have married a wife, and
therefore I cannot come. (21)So that servantcame, and showedhis lord these
things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out
quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and
the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. (22) And the servantsaid, Lord, it is
done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. (23)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. (24) ForI say unto you, That none of
those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper."
This is a parable full of instruction. May God the Holy Spirit now teachus its
meaning and apply it to our hearts.
A GREAT SUPPER
Ver. 16. “Then said he unto him”—to the man who had declared, “Blessedis
he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”

“A certain man made a great supper”—This is not the Lord’s supper, which
had not yet been established. And this is not the marriage supper of the Lamb,
which will take place at the end of time. This great supper is the gospelfeastof
the boundless grace of God.
It is called a "supper";because made in the end of the world, in the lastdays.
It is called a "great" one, becauseHe who made the supper is the King of
kings, and Lord of lords. It is greatsupper, a feastof fat things, of wine upon
lees well refined.
· A Supper Provided by The Great God
· A Supper Table Spread at GreatCost—The Blood
· A Supper with GreatProvisions
· A Supper for Great Sinners with GreatNeed
· A Supper for a Great Multitude

· A Supper to Last a GreatTime—The End of Time
“And bade many”—Certainly, the reference here is to the Jews, the many
physical descendants ofAbraham to whom alone God sent the gospel
throughout the Old Testament.
· The Prophets
· The Law
· John the Baptist
· The Lord Jesus
· The Apostles
But we dare not limit the parable’s messageto the Jews. This wordof God is
to be applied to all who are privileged to hear the gospelofthe grace ofGod.
The King of Heaven has made a greatsupper and bids you and me come to
the supper.

THE SERVANT
Ver. 17. “And sent his servant at supper time”—The servant here may refer
to John the Baptist, or to the Lord Jesus, to the Apostles of Christ, or to the
Spirit of God[2]. Certainly, the servantis representative of every servantof
God who is sent forth to preach the gospelof the grace ofGod to perishing
sinners.
“To sayto them that were bidden, come”—Gospelpreachers are God’s
servants, sent forth into the world to call sinners to the table of grace, to call
sinners to Christ.
Now, watchthis. We proclaim, all God’s servants proclaim a feastof God’s
providing.—“for all things are now ready.”

· RighteousnessReadyto Wear
· Pardon Readyto Give
· Redemption to Bestow
· SalvationReady to Give
· Sonship Readyto Bestow
· No Gifts Accpted!
EXCUSES FOR UNBELIEF
Ver. 18. “And they all with one consentbeganto make excuse”—Unbelievable
as it may appear, all who are called to Christ make excuses notto come. All
who are called make the same excuses. All who are called of God by the gospel
to life and salvationin Christ, all who are calledto believe on the Son of God,
all who are bidden to follow Christ, have (in their own minds) completely

reasonable excusesfordisobedience. Ratherthan praying to God for mercy,
they say, “I pray thee have me excused!”
“The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, or a field, and I
must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excused.”
Ver. 19. “And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove
them: I pray thee have me excused.”
Ver. 20. “And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot
come.”
“The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go
and see it.” What foolwould buy a piece of ground, and then go see it? He
bought a piece of ground from a man without seeing it. What confidence he
must have had in that man.—But he has no confidence in God!

The secondwas worse. “Andanother said, I have bought five yoke of oxen,
and I go to prove them.” He bought five yoke of oxen without knowing
whether they could bear a yoke or pull a cart, taking a man’s word for it. You
will do that. But you will not believe God!
The excuse which the third makes, is worstof all. “I have married a wife, and
therefore I cannot come.” Had he said, I will not come, would at leasthave
told the truth. It is not your impotence that keeps you from Christ, but your
will, your want of a will to trust him.
· He who has married a wife is doubly responsible to come to the feast. He
is responsible for himself and his wife.
· If his wife will not come, he is a fool to let her keephim away.—Theythat
have wives must be as though they had none. We must not allow carnal
unions, sentiments, and affections to keepus from following Christ.—Adam
paid a very high price for hearkening to the voice of his wife. Our Lord
requires that we forsake husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers
and fathers, as well as houses and lands, if we would be his disciples.

THE SERVANT’S REPORT
Ver. 21. “So that servant came and showedhis Lord these things”—Gospel
preachers watchover the souls of men as those who must give account(Heb.
13:7, 17).
“Then the master of the house being angry”—You may think it is a light thing
to trample the blood of Christ under your feet, but that will not always be the
case. Godalmighty will make you see how offensive your unbelief is to him
(Pro. 1:23-33;29:1).
“And said to his servants, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city;
and bring in hither the poor”—
· Who have no bread for their souls.

· No righteous garments, but only filthy rags.
· No money to buy.
· No means to pay their debt.
· Poorin spirit.
“And the maimed”—Impotent, helpless sinners, without strength, without
hope, without life, without help.
“And the halt”—Lostpeople. People halting because they do not know where
to go for grace and mercy and help, and do not know the way. Not only lost
and ignorant, but cripple, being maimed by a terrible fall.
“And the blind”—Yes, the Lord God bids us go out and call poor, maimed,
halt, blind sinners to the feastof grace, the blind who cannot see, the halt who
cannot come, and the poor who have nothing to bring!

PLENTYOF ROOM
Ver. 22. “And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded; and
yet there is room.”
There is plenty of room in the house of grace and penty of bread for hungry
sinners.
COMPELTHEM
Ver. 23. “And the Lord said unto the servant go out into the highways and
hedges:and compelthem to come in”— Yes, we are to compel, persuade, and

force sinners by the persuasive preaching of the gospelto come to Christ (2
Cor. 4:18-6:2).
This shows us “the nature of the Gospelministry, which is to persuade
Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem; and the power that attends it by the
divine Spirit; the case andcondition of souls, who are generallybashful and
backward, judging themselves unworthy; as also the earnestdesire, and great
liberality of Christ, the master of the feast.”
(John Gill)
“Thatmy house may be filled”—And filled it shall be! God’s house shall be
filled with chosen, redeemedsinners, as a sheepfoldfilled with a flock of
sheep. And eachone shall be filled with grace and glory. “And so all Israel
shall be saved.”
Ver. 24. “ForI say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall
taste of my supper.”

1. There is an infinite, boundless provision of grace in Christ for all who
want it. Christ is the Breadon the table. All who are hungry are welcome to
eat. Christ is the Water of Life. All who are thirsty are welcome to drink.
(Isa 55:1) "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that
hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat;yea, come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price."
(Mat 11:28-30) "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. (29)Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am
meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30)For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
(John 6:37) "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise castout."
(John 7:37) "In the last day, that greatday of the feast, Jesus stoodand cried,
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."

2. If you perish in your sins, if you go to hell, if you will not come to the
bounteous feastof grace, you will have no one to blame but yourself.—Then
your lands and oxen and relations will be fuel for the fires of your everlasting
torment.
3. How canI compel you to come to Christ (2 Cor. 4:18-6:2).
· Eternity!
· Immortality!
· Judgment!
· The Love Of Christ!
· A New Creation!

· A Finished Redemption!
· The Urgency of Obedience!
[1] Though there are clearly points of similarity betweenthis and the parable
of the wedding feastin Matthew 22, these are two distinct parables, spokenon
two separate occasions.
[2] A. W. Pink wrote, “In Luke 14:16 we read, "A certain man made a great
supper, and bade many." By comparing carefully what follows here with
Matt. 22:2-10 severalimportant distinctions will be observed. We take it that
these passages are two independent accounts ofthe same parable, differing in
detail according to the distinctive purpose and design of the Holy Spirit in
eachGospel. Matthew's account - in harmony with the Spirit's presentation
there of Christ as the Sonof David, the King of the Jews - says, "A certain
king made a marriage for his son." Luke's account - where the Spirit presents
Christ as the Son of Man - says, "A certain man made a greatsupper and
bade many." Matt. 22:3 says, "And sent forth His servants;" Luke 14:17 says,
"And sent His servant." Now what we wish particularly to call attention to is,
that all through Matthew's accountit is "servants," whereasin Luke it is
always "servant." The class ofreaders for whom we are writing are those that
believe unreservedly, in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, and such will
readily acknowledgethat there must be some reasonfor this change from the
plural number in Matthew to the singular one in Luke. We believe the reason
is a weighty one and that attention to this variation reveals an important
truth. We believe that the servants in Matthew, speaking generally, are all
who go forth preaching the Gospel, but that the "Servant" in Luke 14 is the

Holy Spirit Himself. This is not incongruous, or derogatoryto the Holy Spirit,
for Godthe Son, in the days of His earthly ministry, was the Servant of
Jehovah(Isa. 42:1). It will be observedthat in Matt. 22 the "servants" are
sent forth to do three things: first, to "call" to the wedding (v. 3); second, to
"tell those which are bidden ... all things are ready; come unto the marriage
(v. 4); third, to "bid to the marriage" (v. 9); and these three are the things
which those who minister the Gospeltoday are now doing. In Luke 14 the
Servant is also sent forth to do three things: first, He is "to say to them that
were bidden, Come: for all things are now ready" (v. 17); second, He is to
"bring in the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind" (v. 21);
third, He is to "compelthem to come in" (v. 25), and the last two of these the
Holy Spirit alone cando!
In the above scripture we see that "the Servant," the Holy Spirit, compels
certain ones to come into the "supper" and herein is seenHis sovereignty, His
omnipotency, His divine sufficiency. The clearimplication from this word
"compel" is, that those whom the Holy Spirit does "bring in" are not willing
of themselves to come.”
ALL THINGS ARE READY, COME
NO. 1354
A SERMON
DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, MAY 13, 1877,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,NEWINGTON.
“Come, for all things are now ready.”

Luke 14:17.
THIS invitation was first of all made to the Jews, but it seems to me to have a
peculiar appropriateness to ourselves. It is later in the day than when first the
Lord was here and therefore the supper time is
evidently closerat hand. The shadows lengthen, the sun of the present
dispensationis nearing its setting—by nearly 1,900 years has its day been
shortened since first the Lord sent forth His servants at
supper time. The fullness of time for the marriage supper of the Lamb must
speedily arrive and therefore
it behooves us to be more than ever earnestin delivering the message to the
invited guests.
And if all things could be said to be ready, even in our Savior’s day, we may
say it with still greater
emphasis now, for when He delivered this parable the Holy Spirit was not yet
given. But Pentecosthas
now passedand the Spirit of God abides with us to accompanythe Word, to
fill it with power, and to
bless our souls as we feedupon the truth. Very emphatically then at this time
all things are now ready
and the supper awaits the guests. I pray you do not begin to make excuses,but
be prepared to follow us
when we bid you come, to go with us when we seek to bring you in, or at least
to yield to our entreaties
when with all the sacredviolence of love we would compelyou to come in. We
will not grudge the use
of all the three increasing modes of persuasionso long as you are but led to
“Come, for all things are
now ready.”

There are two things clearly in the text and these have a close relationto one
another—a plain invitation, “Come,” and then a forcible argument, “forall
things are ready.” The argument is fetched from the
divine preparations, gatheredfrom among the dainty provisions of the royal
feast. “My oxen and My
fatlings are killed, come to the supper.” The readiness ofeverything on God’s
part is the argument why
men should come and partake of His grace, and that is the point upon which
we will dwell at this time—
the readiness ofthe feastof mercy is the reasonwhy men should come to it at
once.
I. We will begin our meditation by laying down the first statement which shall
make our first division of discourse, namely, that IT IS GOD’S HABIT TO
HAVE ALL THINGS READY, whether for
His guests orHis creatures. You never discoverHim to be behindhand in
anything. When the guests
come, there is not a scramble to get the table arranged and the food prepared,
but the Lord has great
forethought and every little point of detail is well arranged. “All things are
ready.”
It was so in creation. He did not create a single blade of grass upon the face of
the earth until the soil
and the atmosphere had been prepared for it and until the kindly sun had
learned to look down upon the
earth. Imagine vegetationwithout a sun or without the alternation of day and
night. But the air was full
of light, the firmament upheld the clouds, and the dry land had appeared
from out of the sea, and then all

things were ready for herb and plant and tree. Nor did God prepare one
single creature that has life, nor
fowl that flies in the midst of heaven, nor fish that swim the seas, norbeast
that moves on the dry land
until He had prepared its habitat and made ready its appointed food. There
were no cattle before there
were meadows for their grazing, no birds till there were trees for their nests,
no, nor even a creeping insecttill its portion of meat had been provided. No
creature had to wait in a hungry mood while its food
was growing—allthings were ready—readyfirst for vegetation, and then
afterwards for animal life. As
for Adam, when God came to make Him as His last and noblestwork of
creation, all things were ready.
The gardenwas laid out upon the banks of flowing streams and planted with
all kinds of trees. The fruits
All Things Are Ready, Come Sermon #1354
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were ripe for his diet and the flowers in bloom for his delight. He did not come
to an unfurnished house,
but he entered into a home which his Fatherhad made pleasantand agreeable
for his dwelling. The
world was first fitted up and then the man who was to governthat world was
placed in it. “All things are
ready,” the Lord seems to say, “Spring up, O herbs yielding seed.” And then,
“All things are ready,

come forth you roes and hinds of the field.” And then, “All things are ready,
stand forth, O man, made in
My own image!”
In later times we may gatherillustrations of the same truth from the ways of
God with men. The ark
was first of all built and the various creatures were gatheredinto it, with all
their necessaryfoodfor that
strange voyage which they were about to take. And then the Lord said to
Noah, “Come you and all your
house into the ark.” “All things are ready, come,” was His voice to the chosen
eight as they entered into
the ark. There was no need to tarry any longer, every preparation was made,
and therefore God shut
them in. Everything is done with punctuality and exactness by the only wise
God. The same day that a
thing is needed, it is prepared.
Take anotherevent in providence, such as the going down of Israelinto Egypt.
God had determined
that Jacoband his seedshould sojourn awhile in the land of Ham, but how
wiselyHe prepared the whole
matter. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, and Josephwas there upon
the throne clothed with
powerto nourish them through the famine. He had been there years before,
all in goodtime to store the
wheatwhile the sevenyears of plenty lasted, that they might be well fed
during the sevenyears of famine. Goshenalso was at the disposalof Joseph, so
that the flocks and herds of Israelmight dwell in that

fat land. Not into Egypt shall God’s Israel go till all things are ready, and
when all things are ready they
will come out again with a high hand and an outstretchedarm.
So it was when the tribes migrated into Canaanitself. God took them not to
the promised land until
all things were ready. They were made to wait for the fitting time, for the
Lord said, “The iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet full.” Not till the inhabitants of the land had passedthe
bounds of mercy and were
condemned to die, were the Israelites brought upon the scene to be at once
their executioners and successors. And when the tribes came to the river
Jordan, God had prepared everything for them, for He
had sent the hornet before them to drive out the people and a pestilence also
for the spies said, “It is a
land that eats up the inhabitants thereof.” The Lord God had gone before
them to fight their battles before they came and to prepare a place for them,
so that when they entered they dwelt in houses which
they had not built and they gatheredthe fruit of olives which they had not
planted. They came to a land
that flowedwith milk and honey, a land in a fine cultivated condition and not
a wilderness which with
hard labor must be reclaimed. Israelcame to a country which was as the
garden of the Lord, whose fruit
might at once be enjoyed, for they ate of the old corn of the land almostas
soonas they passedthe Jordan. So you see, “All things are ready,” is a
proclamation which the Lord has often in spirit made to
those whom He choosesto bless.

Now the factthat in the greatgospelsupper all things are ready teaches us,
first, that God’s thoughts
go before men’s comings. “Come, for all things are ready.” Not, “If you come,
all things will be ready,”
but, “they are ready and therefore come.” Graceis first and man at his best
follows its footsteps. Long
before we ever thought of God, He thought of us. Yes, before we had a being
and time itself beganin the
bosom of the Eternal there were thoughts of love towards those for whom the
table of His mercy is now
spread. He had planned and arranged everything in His august mind from of
old. He had indeed foreknownand predestinatedall the provisions and all the
guests of His supper. All things were settledin
His eternalcovenant and purpose before the earth was. Neverthink, oh
sinner, that you canoutstrip the
love of God. It is at the end of the race before you are at the beginning. God
has completedbefore you
have begun. His thoughts are before ours and so are His acts, for He does not
say, “All things are
planned and arranged,” but, “All things are ready.” Jesus, the greatsacrifice,
is slain. The fountain for
our cleansing is filled with blood. The Holy Spirit has been given. The Word
by which we are to be instructed is in our hands and the light which will
illuminate that sacredpage is promised us through the
Holy Spirit. Things promised ought to encourage us to come to Christ, but
things already given ought to
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be irresistible attractions. All things are already completed by the sacred
Trinity before we come to cry
for mercy. This should make us very hopeful and eagerin our approaches to
the Lord. Come, sinner.
Come at once. This ought to encourage you, since all that God has to do in
your salvationis done before
you have a thought of Him or turn one foot towards His abode. All things are
ready. Come!
This also proves how welcome those are who come. If you are invited to see a
friend and when you
reachthe place, you find the door lockedand after knocking many times no
one answers, forthere is no
one at home, you reckonthat there is some mistake or that the invitation was
not a sincere one. Even if
your host should come to the door and let you in, but should evidently be
embarrassed, for there is no
meal provided and he has made no arrangements for your rest at night, you
soondetectit and like a wise
man you quickly move off somewhere else, forif you had been welcome,
things would have been prepared for you. But oh, poor soul, if you come to
God, all things are ready for your entertainment—
“Spreadfor you the festive board,
With His richestdainties stored.”

The couchof rest and quietness is prepared for you. All things are ready. How
freely does Jehovahwelcome you, how genuine is the invitation, how sincere
the desire that you should come to feast with Him.
So much upon our first remark; it is the habit of the Lord to have all things
ready for His guests.
II. Our secondstatementis that THIS READINESS SHOULD BE AN
ARGUMENT THAT HIS
SAINTS SHOULD COME continually to Him and find grace to help in every
time of need. O children
of God, I will lift the parable away from the immediate use which the Savior
made of it to employ it for
your good. You know, beloved, that wheneverthe Lord Jesus Christ invites
His people to come to Him
and to taste of His bounty, all things are ready. It was a beautiful scene by the
sea of Tiberias when the
Lord spoke to those who had been toiling on the lake at fishing and saidto
them, “Come and dine.”
They were willing enough to dine, but they were busy dragging to the shore
those greatfishes. Remember, when they did land, they found the invitation to
be no vain one, for it is written, “They saw a fire of
coals there and fish laid thereon, and bread.” How the coals came there and
the fish, and the bread, the
evangelistdoes not tell us, but our Lord would not have askedthem to dinner
if He had not been able to
give them a warm reception. There were the fire of coals and the fish laid
thereon and bread. Whenever
therefore your Lord and Master, by His blessedSpirit, calls you to come near
to Him, you may be quite

sure that all things are ready for your immediate enjoyment. You need never
pause or hesitate, but approachHim without delay. I want to caution you
againstreplying, “But Lord, I do not feel ready.” That
is most true, but that is not an argument which you should use to excuse
yourself in holding back. It is
His readiness that is the main thing, not yours, and as all things are ready, do
come whether you feel
ready or not. I have heard of some Christians who have said, “I do not feel in
a proper frame of mind to
pray.” My brother, pray till you do. Some have said, “I do not think I shall go
up to the house of God
today. I feel so unhappy, so castdown.” When should you go so much as then,
in order that you may
find comfort? “Still,” says one, “you would not have me sing a hymn when of
heavy heart?” Ay, would I
not, I would indeed, I would have you sing yourself up from the depths of the
sea where all God’s billows have gone overyou. David full often did so. When
he began a psalm in the deeps and then gradually rose and rose and rose till
he was in a perfect rapture of delight before the psalm was over. All things
are ready with your Lord, therefore do come whether you happen to be ready
or not.
Note the times when this truth ought to have power with you. All things are
ready, therefore come to
the storehouse ofdivine promises. Are you in spiritual poverty? Come and
take what God has provided
for you, for all things are yours and all the blessings ofthe everlasting hills
belong to all the people of

God. Are you needing strength? There is a promise, “As your days so shall
your strength be.” It is ready,
come and take it. Are you needing consolation? Do younot know that all
things are ready for your comfort, that two immutable things, wherein it is
impossible for God to lie, are already setbefore you?
Come you and take your solace. Ay, remember that all that God has promised
belongs to all those who
believe the promise and that you may therefore come at all times, however
deep your need and if you
have but faith you shall find the specialsupply for the specialwant. All things
are ready, therefore come
with holy confidence and take what is ripe enough to gather, ripe for you.
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Come next to the Mercy Seatin prayer, all things are ready there. The Mercy
Seatis sprinkled with
the precious blood of Christ. The veil also is torn in two and from between the
cherubim; Jehovah’s glorynow shines forth with mildest radiance. Let us
therefore come with boldness unto the throne of the
heavenly grace, becauseeverything there is ready for the pleading suppliant.
You have no need to bring
anything with you. You have no need of making preparations other than the
Holy Spirit waits to give

you in the form of groanings which cannotbe uttered. Come, child of God,
notwithstanding your carelessnessandindifference, or whatever it may be you
have to complain of, for though you are unready,
the throne of grace is ready and therefore draw near to it and find the grace
you need.
If at this time we feel strong promptings towards communion with Christ,
what a blessing it is that
Christ is always ready to commune with His people. “Behold,” says He, “I
stand at the door and knock.”
We think that we stand at the door and knock, but it is scarcelyso. The
greatertruth with regard to His
people is that Jesus asksforfellowship with us and tells us that if we open the
door—and that is all He
bids His people do—He will enter in and sup with them and they with Him.
Suppose there is no supper,
He will provide it—He has all things ready. The Mastersays, “Where is the
guestchamber?” He does
not say, “Where is the feast?” IfYour heart will be the guest chamber, He will
provide the supper and
you shall sup with Him and He with you. At whose door did Christ knock
according to the Scriptures? It
was at the door of the Laodiceanchurch, at the door of the very church
concerning which He had said,
“Because youare neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth.”
Therefore, you poor Laodiceanbelievers that are here this morning, if you
have any promptings towards Christ, arise, for all things

are ready and before you are aware, your soulshall be as the chariots of
Amminadab. He is ready to receive us to His heart of hearts. How sweetlythis
ought to constrainus to fly into the arms of Jesus.
I think the same thought ought to cross our minds with regardto every daily
duty. We wake up in the
morning, but we do not know exactly what lies before us, for God’s
providence has constantlynew revelations, but I like to think in the morning
that all things are ready for my pathway through the day, that if
I will go out to serve God in my ministry, He has prepared some ear into
which I am to drop a gracious
word and some heart in the furrows of which I shall sow some blessedseed
effectually. Behold, all providence with its mighty wheels is co-working with
the servantof the living God. Only go forward in zeal
and confidence, my brother, and you shall find that every step of your way is
ready for you. Your Master
has trodden the road and marked out for you the houses of refreshment where
you are to tarry till you
shall come to the celestialcity itself and the hallowedspots where you shall
bring glory to His blessed
name. For a useful life all things are ready for us.
Yes, and if beyond the daily service of life, we should feela prompting to
aspire to a higher degree
of holiness—ifwe want to grow in grace and reach the fullness of the stature
of a man in Christ Jesus—
all things are ready for us. No Christian can have a sacredambition after
holiness which the Lord is not
prepared to fulfill. You that will to be like Your Master, you that desire to
make a self-sacrifice thatwill

show the powerof His grace in you—the Holy Spirit waits to help you—all
things shall work for you,
for all things are ready. Come therefore without fear.
One of these days it may be that you and I shall either be grownvery old or
else disease willlay hold
upon us and we shall lie upon the sick bed watching and waiting for our
Master’s coming. Then there
shall suddenly appear a messengerfrom Him who will bring us this word,
“All things are ready, come
unto the supper,” and closing our eyes on earth, we shall open them in heaven
and see whatHe has done
who so sweetlysaid, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a
place for you I will come
againand receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
Oh, it will be a joyous
moment when we shall hear the summons, “All things are ready, quit your
house of clay, your farm,
your merchandise, and even her who lies in your bosom, for the marriage of
the Lamb has come and you
must be there. Therefore, rise up, My love, My fair one and come away. The
winter is over and past, the
time of the singing of birds is come for you, all things are ready, come!” I feel
tempted to linger here,
but I must tear myself awayfrom this point to pass on to the next.
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III. THE PERFECTREADINESSOF THE FEAST OF DIVINE MERCYIS
EVIDENTLY INTENDEDTO BE A STRONG ARGUMENT WITH
SINNERS WHY THEY SHOULD COME AT
ONCE. To the sinner, then, do I address myself. Soul, do you desire eternal
life? Is there within your
spirit a hungering and a thirsting after such things as may satisfy your spirit
and make you live forever?
Then hearkenwhile the Master’s servantgives you the invitation. “Come, for
all things are ready”—all,
not some, but all. There is nothing that you can need betweenhere and heaven
but what is provided in
Jesus Christ, in His person and in His work. All things are ready—life for
your death, forgiveness for
your sin, cleansing for your filth, clothing for your nakedness, joyfor your
sorrow, strengthfor your
weakness—yes, more than all that you canever want is stored up in the
boundless nature and work of
Christ. You must not say, “I cannot come because I have not this or have not
that.” Are you to prepare
the feast? Are you to provide anything? Are you the purveyor of even so much
as the salt or the water?
You know not your true condition or you would not dream of such a thing.
The greatHouseholder Himself has provided the whole of the feast—youhave
nothing to do with the provision but to partake of it.
If you lack, come and take what you lack. The greateryour need, the greater
reasonwhy you should

come where all things that your need can possibly want will at once be
supplied. If you are so needy that
you have nothing goodat all about you, all things are ready. What would you
provide when God has
provided all things? Superfluity of naughtiness would it be if you were to
think of adding to His “all
things.” It would be but a presumptuous competing with the provisions of the
greatKing and this He
will not endure. All that you want—I can but repeat the words—betweenthe
gates ofhell, where you
now lie, and the gates of heaven, to which grace will bring you if you believe,
all is provided and prepared in Jesus Christ the Savior.
And all things are ready, dwell on that. The oxen and the fatlings were killed.
What is more, they
were prepared to be eaten, they were ready to be feastedon, they smokedon
the board. It is something
when the king gives orders for the slaughter of so many bullocks for the feast,
but the feastis not ready.
And when, beneath the blade, the victims fall and they are stripped and hung
up ready for the fire, there
is something done, but they are not ready. It is when the meat is servedhot
and steaming upon the table
and all that is wanted is brought forth and laid in proper order for the
banquet—it is then that all things
are ready, and this is the case now. At this very moment you will find the feast
to be in the best possible

condition. It was never better and never canbe better than it is now. All
things are ready, just in the exactcondition that you need them to be, just in
such condition as shall be best for your soul’s comfort and
enjoyment. All things are ready. Nothing needs to be further mellowedor
sweetened. Everything is at
the bestthat eternal love canmake it.
But notice the word, “now.” “All things are now ready”—justnow—atthis
moment. At feasts, you
know, the good housewife is often troubled if the guests come late. She would
be sorry if they came
half-an-hour too soon, but half-an-hour too late spoils everything, and in what
a state of fret and worry
she is if, when all things are now ready, her friends still delay. Leave food on
the fire awhile and it does
not seemto be “now ready,” but something more than ready and even spoiled.
So does the greatHouseholderlay stress upon this, “allthings are now ready,”
therefore come at once. He does not say that if
you will tarry for another sevenyears, all things will then be ready—God
grant that long before that
space oftime, you may have gotbeyond the needs of persuasionby having
become a tasterof the feast,
but He does say that all things are ready now, just now. Just now that your
heart is so heavy and your
mind is so carelessthatyour spirit is so wandering—allthings are ready now.
Just now, though you have
never thought of these things before, but dropped in this morning to see this
large assemblywith no motive whatever as to your own salvation, yet all
things are ready now. Though your sins are as the stars of

heaven and your soul trembles under an awful foreboding of coming
judgment, yet, “all things are now
ready.” After all your rejections of Christ, after the many invitations that
have been thrown awayupon
you, come you to the supper.
And if they are ready now, the argument is come, now, while still all things
are ready. While the
Spirit lingers and still does strives with men. While mercy’s gates still stand
wide open that, “Whoever
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will, may come.” While life and health and reasonstill are spared to you and
the ministering voice that
bids you come canstill be heard, come now, come at once—allthings are
ready—come!Delayis as unreasonable as it is wickednow that all things are
ready.
Notice that all things were ready for those who were bidden. They did not
come, but they were not
mockedwhen they were bid to come. The factof all things being ready proved
that the invitation was a
sincere one, although it was a rejectedone. There are some who will not have
us give an invitation to
any but to those whom we believe are sure to come, no, in a measure have
come. That is to say, they

make a minister to be a mere superfluity. Why need he come and invite those
who have already begun to
come? But we believe it to be our duty and our privilege to invite the whole
mass of mankind and even
those who will not come. If we knew they would not come, we should not
therefore exempt them from
the bidding—for the servantwas sent to bid them to the wedding who,
nevertheless, allwith one consent
beganto make excuse. Theywere invited and earnestlyinvited and all things
were ready, though they
came not. O my dear hearers, if you do not come to Christ you will perish, but
you will never be able to
say you were not bidden and that there was nothing ready for you. No, there
stands the feastall spread
and you are sincerelyand honestly bidden to come. God grant that you may
come and come at once.
IV. Now I am going to pass on to my fourth and last point, which may God
bless to the comfort of
some seeking soul. THIS TEXT DISPOSES OF A GREAT DEAL OF TALK
ABOUT THE SINNER’S
READINESS OR UNREADINESS, because,if the reasonwhy a sinner is to
come is because all things
are ready, then it is idle for him to say, “But I am not ready.” It is clearthat
all the readiness required on
man’s part is a willingness to come and receive the blessing which God had
provided. There is nothing
else necessary. If men are willing to come, they may come, they will come.
Where the Lord has been

pleasedto touch their will so that man has a desire towards Christ; where the
heart really hungers and
thirsts after righteousness, that is all the readiness whichis wanted. All the
fitness He requires is that
first you feelyour need of Him (and that He gives you) and that secondly, in
feeling your need of Him,
you are willing to come to Him. Willingness to come is everything. A readiness
to believe in Jesus, a
willingness to castthe soul on Him, a preparedness to acceptHim just as He
is, because youfeel that He
is just the Savior that you need—thatis all. There was no other readiness,
there could have been none in
the case ofthose who were poor and blind and crippled and maimed, yet came
to the feast. The text does
not say, “You are ready, therefore come.” Thatis a legalway of putting the
gospel, but it says, “All
things are ready, the gospelis ready, therefore you are to come.” As for your
readiness, allthe readiness
that is possibly wanted is a readiness which the Spirit gives us, namely,
willingness to come to Jesus.
Now notice that the unreadiness of those who were bidden arose out of their
possessionsand out of
their abilities. One would not come because he had bought a piece of land.
What a greatheap Satancasts
up betweenthe soul and the Savior! What with worldly possessionsand good
deeds, he builds an earthwork of huge dimensions betweenthe sinner and his
Lord. Some gentlemen have too many acres everto

come to Christ. They think too much of the world to think much of Him.
Many have too many fields of
goodworks in which there are growing crops in which they pride themselves
and these cause them to
feel that they are persons of greatimportance. Many a man cannot come to
Christ for all things because
he has so much already. Others of them could not come because they had so
much to do and could do it
well—one had bought five yoke of oxen. He was going to prove them. A strong
man, quite able for
plowing, the reasonwhy he did not come was because he had so much ability.
Thousands are kept away
from grace by what they have and by what they can do. Emptiness is more
preparatory to a feastthan
fullness. How often does it happen that poverty and even inability help to lead
the soulto Christ. When a
man thinks himself to be rich he will not come to the Savior. When a man
dreams that he is able at any
time to repent and believe and to do everything for himself that is wanted, he
is not likely to come and
by simple faith repose in Christ. It is not what you have not but what you have
that keeps many of you
from Christ. Sinful selfis a devil, but righteous self is sevendevils. The man
who feels himself guilty
may for a while be kept awayby his guilt. But the man who is self-righteous
will never come. Until the

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Lord has takenhis pride awayfrom him, he will still refuse the feastof free
grace. The possessionof
abilities and honors and riches keepmen from coming to the Redeemer.
But on the other hand, personalcondition does not constitute unfitness for
coming to Christ, for the
sad condition of those who became guests did not debar them from the
supper. Some were poor and
doubtless wretched and ragged—theyhad not a penny to bless themselves
with, as we say. Their garments were tattered, perhaps worse. Theywere
filthy. They were not fit to be nearrespectable people—
they would certainly be no credit to my Lord’s Table, but those who went to
bring them in did not
searchtheir pockets,nor look at their coats, but they fetched them in. They
were poor, but the messengerswere told to bring in the poor and therefore
brought them. Their poverty did not prevent their being
ready and oh, poor soul, if you are literally poor, or spiritually poor, neither
sort of poverty can constitute an unfitness for divine mercy.—
“The poorer the wretch the welcomerhere.”
If you are brought to your lastpenny, yes, if that is spent and if you have
pawned all and you are left
in debt over head and ears, and think that there is nothing for you but to be
laid by the heels in prison
forever, nevertheless, you may come, poverty and all.

Another class ofthem were maimed and so were not very comely in
appearance—anarm had been
lopped off or an eye had been gougedout. One had lost a nose and another a
leg; they were in all stages
and shapes of dismemberment. Sometimes we turn our heads awayand feel
that we would rather give
anything than look upon beggars who show their wounds and describe how
they were maimed. But it
did not matter how badly they were disfigured—they were brought in and not
one of them was repulsed
because ofthe ugly cuts he had received. So, poorsoul, howeverSatanmay
have torn and lopped you,
and into whatsoeverconditionhe may have brought you, so that you feel
ashamedto live, nevertheless,
this is no unfitness for coming. Just as you are, you may come to His table of
grace. Moraldisfigurements are soonrectified when Jesus takes the character
in hand. Come to Him, howeversadly you are
injured by sin.
There were others who were halt, that is to say, they had lost a leg or it was of
no use to them, and
they could not come exceptthey had a crutch and crawledor hopped upon it,
but nevertheless, thatwas
no reasonwhy they were not welcome. Ah, if you find it difficult to believe, it
is no reasonwhy you
should not come and receive the grand absolutionwhich Jesus Christ is ready
to bestow upon you. Lame
with doubting and distrusting, nevertheless, come to the supper and say,
“Lord, I believe; help You my

unbelief.”
Others were blind people and when they were told to come they could not see
the way, but in that
case the messengerwas nottold to tell them to come, he was commandedto
bring them and a blind man
can come if he is brought. All that was wanted was willingness to be led by the
hand in the right direction. Now, you that cannot fully understand the gospel
as you desire to do, that are puzzled and muddled, give your hand to Jesus
and be willing to be led, be willing to believe what you cannot comprehend,
and to graspin confidence that which you are not yet able to measure with
your understanding.
The blind, howeverignorant or uninstructed they are, shall not be kept away
because ofthat.
Then there were the men in the highways. I suppose they were beggars.And
the men in the hedges, I
suppose they were hiding and were probably thieves, but nevertheless they
were told to come and
though they were highwaymen and hedge-birds that did not prevent their
coming and finding welcome.
Though outcasts, off-casts, spiritualgypsies, and people that nobody cared
for, yet, whatever they might
be, that was not the question—they were to come because all things were
ready. Come in rags, come in
filth, come maimed, come coveredwith sores;come in all sorts of filthiness
and abomination, yet because all things are ready they were to be brought or
to be compelledto come in.
Now, lastly, I think it was the very thing which in any one of these people
lookedlike unfitness,

which was a help to them. It is a great truth that what we regard as unfitness
is often our truest fitness. I
want you to notice these poor, blind, and lame people. Some of those who were
invited would not come
because they had bought some land or five yoke of oxen, but when the
messengerwentup to the poor
man in rags and said, “Come to the supper,” it is quite clearhe would not say
he had bought a field or
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oxen, for he could not do it. He had not a penny to do the thing with, so that
he was cleandelivered from
that temptation. And when a man is invited to come to Christ and he says, “I
do not want Him, I have a
righteousness ofmy own,” he will stay away, but when the Lord Jesus came
along to me, I never was
tempted in that way, because Ihad no righteousness ofmy own and could not
have made any if I had
tried. I know some here who could not patch up a garment of righteousness if
they were to put all their
rags together—andthis is a greathelp to their receiving the Lord Jesus. What
a blessednessit is to have
such a sense ofsoul poverty that you will never stayaway from Christ because
of what you possess.

Then, next, some could not come because theyhad married a wife. Now, I
think it is very likely that
these people who were maimed and cut about were so injured that they had
no wife and perhaps could
not getanybody to have them. Well then, they had not that temptation to stay
away. They were too
maimed to attract the eye of anybody who was looking for beauty and
therefore they were not tempted
that way. But they found at the ever-blessedsupper of the Lamb an
everlasting wedlock whichwas infinitely better. Thus do souls lose earthly
joys and comforts and by the loss they gain supremely—they are
thus made willing to close in with Christ and find a higher comfort and a
higher joy. That maiming
which lookedlike unfitness turned out to be fitness.
One excuse made was, “Ihave bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove
them.” The lame could
not do that. When the messengertouchedthe lame man on the shoulder and
said, “Come,” he could not
say, “I am going out tonight to plow with my new teams.” He had never been
over the clods ever since
he had lost his leg, poor soul, so that he could not make such an excuse. The
blind man could not say, “I
have bought a piece of land and I must go see it.” He was free from all the
lusts of the eyes and so far
was all the more ready to be led to the supper. When a soul feels its own
sinfulness and wretchedness
and lostestate, it thinks itself unfit to come to Christ, but this is an assistance
to it, since it prevents its

looking to anything else but Christ, kills its excuses and makes it free to accept
salvationby grace.
But how about the men that were in the highway? Well, it seems to me that
they were already on the
road and at leastout of their houses, if they had any. If they were out there
begging, they were the more
ready to acceptaninvitation to a meal of goodfood, for it was that they were
singing for. A man who is
out of the house of his own self-righteousness, though he is a greatsinner, is in
a more favorable position and more likely to come to Christ than he who
prides himself in his supposedself-righteousness.
As for those who were under the hedges, well, they had no house of their own
and so they were all
the more likely to come and fill God’s house. Men do not take to hedges to
sleepunder them as long as
they have even a hovel where they may rest their head, but oh, poor soul,
when you are driven to such
distress that you would gladly hide under any hedge, when you have nothing
left but a fearful looking
for of judgment, when you think yourself to be an outlaw and an outcast
before God, left to wander like
Cain, a waif and stray, lost to all good, you are the very man to come to
Christ. Come out of your hedges, then. I am looking for you. Though you hide
yourselves away, yet God’s own Spirit will discover
you and bring you, I trust, this very morning, to feedon love divine. Trust
Jesus Christ that is all, just as
you are, with all your unfitness and unreadiness. Take whatGod has made
ready for you, the precious

blood to cleanse you, a robe of righteousness to coveryou, eternal joy to be
your portion. Receive the
grace ofGod in Christ Jesus. Oh receive it now. God grant you may for Jesus
Christ’s sake. Amen.
A BAD EXCUSE IS WORSE THAN NONE
NO. 578
A SERMON
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 3, 1864,
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT BAYSWATER.
“And they all with one consentbeganto make excuse.”
Luke 14:18.
THE provisions of the GospelofChrist may well be compared to a supper,
provided as they were, in
the evening of the world—“in these last days.” The description, “a great
supper,” is well borne out if
we consider the greatness ofthe provision; how much love and mercy God has
displayed towards the
sons of men in the personof Christ Jesus;how much of power and of gracious
working He has shown
by His Holy Spirit. A greatsupper it is if we think of the richness and
sweetness ofthe provision—it is a

feastworthy of the greatKing. The flesh of Jesus is our spiritual meat, and
His blood our choicestwine.
Our souls are satisfiedwith covenantmercies, mostfitly set forth as, “A feast
of fat things, a feastof
wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well
refined.” A greatsupper it is,
moreover, when we considerthe number of guests invited. “Go you into all the
world, and preachthe
gospelto every creature.” The callof the Gospelcomes to every man and
woman within hearing of the
ministers of God—
“None are excluded thence, but those
Who do themselves exclude;
Welcome the learned and polite,
The ignorant and rude.”
No other king ever sentout an invitation as broad as this. But wisdom “cries
at the gates, atthe entry
of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my
voice is to the sons of man.”
Is it not strange that when the householder made so greata supper, when he
offered it without money
and without price, that all his neighbors should with one consentbegin to
make excuse? He did not call
them to prison or to misery, how then came they to be so unwilling to obey the
summons? Whence this
unanimity in the rejection? We find good men differing, how it is that evil
men can hold togetherso

well? What! not one who has respectenoughto his generous friend to sit at his
table and receive his
bounty? Not one.
Truly, here, brethren, we have a picture of the universal depravity of man. All
men are thus vile, and
refuse the mercy of God. We never know how bad man is till the Gospelis
preachedto him. The Gospel
acts as a white backgroundto setforth the blackness ofman’s heart. Here,
human nature reaches to the
greatestheightof sin’s enormity. Spitting forth his venom againstthe Lord of
infinite love, man proves
himself truly to be of the serpent’s brood. The Gospelis preachedto
thousands, and do all make excuse?
So the parable has it, and truly so the fact proves it. What! is there not one
whose free will is inclined
towards Christ? Is there not one of so gooda natural disposition that he will
come to Jesus? No, the text
says, not one, “Theyall with one consentbeganto make excuse.”
How thoroughly has father Adam ruined our understandings! What fools as
well as rebels we are to
refuse to partake of the banquet of love. We are altogetherbecome
unprofitable, there is not one who
seeks afterGod. You will, perhaps, remind me that there were other men
besides those who made
excuse. Mosttrue, but these were in the highways and hedges, orin the streets
and lanes of the city, and

so those who do not hear the Gospel, and therefore are not guilty of rejecting
it, yet nevertheless are far
off from Godby wickedworks, andstrangers to the commonwealthof Israel.
Thus, taking the two
A Bad Excuse Is Worse Than None Sermon #578
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characters to representall mankind, we find all to be enemies of God. Those
in the highways need to be
“compelled” to come in, they had a natural reluctance to feastat the good
man’s table, and so all sorts of
men are averse to the Gospel. Theyare perfectly willing to sin—contenteven
to perish in sin, but to
come to Christ, to acceptthe greatatonement, to put their trust in Jesus, this
is a thing they care not for,
and with one consent, when they hear the Gospelthey begin to make excuse.
We fearthat there are many in this meeting house this morning, which have
been blessedwith
hearing the Gospelfor years, hitherto, the only treatment they have given to
the gracious messageis to
make excuses aboutit. I hope to deal with such very simply and very
affectionately, earnestlydesiring
that they make their last excuse this morning, and that it may meet with its
death blow. O that they may
come to the feastwhich they have long rejected, and rejoice in the mercy of
God in Christ Jesus.

Why did they make excuse? Letus, first, try to accountfor their conduct,
secondly, what excuses did
they make?—letus recount them, and thirdly, how foolishthus to make
excuses!—here letus encounter
them.
I. Let us try to ACCOUNT for the fact, the sad fact, that men are so ready to
make excuses rather
than to receive the Word of God.
We accountfor it in the first place by the fact that they had no heart at all to
acceptthe feast. Had
they spokenthe truth plainly, they would have said, “We do not wish to come,
nor do we intend to do
so.” If man’s heart were not so deceitful, it would not make excuses, but it
would say outright, ‘“We will
not have this man to reign over us;’ we do not feelour sinfulness, we will not
therefore acceptpardon,
we believe that we can work out our ownsalvation with our own doings, or, if
not, we are content to
take our chance. If it shall go ill with us, it will go ill with a greatmany people.
We will run all risks, we
do not need salvation, we choose rather to have our full swing of carnal
delights, your religioninvolves
too much self-sacrifice, it is altogethercontrary to the lusting of our minds,
and therefore we decline it.”
This is at the bottom of it.
Some of you, my hearers, have often been impressed, and partially convinced
of sin, but you have

put off Christ with excuses.Will you bear with me while I solemnly assure
you, that at its core your
heart is at enmity to God? Your excuse may look very pretty, but it is as
flimsy as it is fair. If you were
honest with your ownsoul, you would say at once, “I do not love Christ, I do
not want His salvation.”
Your put-offs, your false promises, your excuses,are worthless, any one with
half an eye cansee
through them—they are so transparent. You are an enemy to God, you are
unreconciled, and you are
content to be so. This truth may be unpalatable, but it is nevertheless most
certain. May God help you to
feel this, and may it humble you before His presence.
Still, if they would not come to the good man’s feast, why did they not sayso?
If the realsecretof it
was that they hated him and despisedhis provisions, is it not melancholy that
they were not honest
enough to give him a “Nay” atonce? Well, they certainly were not, and one
reasonmight be because
they wished to be upon goodterms with their conscience.Theyfelt they ought
to go. He was one who
had a claim upon their courtesy, if not their gratitude, and therefore feeling
that they ought to go, and yet
not intending to go, they sought to compromise by an excuse.
Conscienceis a very unamiable neighbor to men who live in sin. It is said of
David, “David’s heart

smote him,” and it is a very hard blow which the heart is able to give. In order
to parry the blow, men
hold up a shield of excuses. Youcannot quite extinguish your conscience,
which is the candle of the
Lord, and therefore you put it under the bushel of an excuse. The thief fears
the watchdog, andtherefore
throws him a sop to keephim quiet—that sop is made of excuses.
John Bunyan tells us that Mr. RecorderConscience, whenthe town of
Mansoulwas in the keeping
of Diabolus, used sometimes to cry out at such a rate that he made all the
inhabitants afraid, and so they
put him in a very dark place, and tried to put a gag in his mouth to keephim
quiet, but for all that,
sometimes when his fits came on, he made the town feel very uneasy. I know
what consciencetells
some of you, it says to you, “How is it you canforget divine things? How can
you trifle with the world
to come? How canyou live as if you never meant to die? What will you do
when you come to die,
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without an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ?” So, that consciencemay be
quiet awhile, you make an
excuse, and persevere in refusing to come to the feast.

It may be that you make this excuse to satisfycustom. It is not the custom of
this present age to fly
immediately in the face of Christ. There are not many men of your
acquaintance or mine, who ostensibly
oppose religion. Your father fears God, your mother is a woman of great
devotion, your friends go to the
house of Godand speak experientially of divine things, you do not like
therefore to sayto them, “I will
never be a Christian, I dislike the ways of God, I do not choose the plan of
sovereigngrace,”and
therefore to spare their feelings you make an excuse. You do not want to
grieve dear friends, you are
afraid if you spoke out honestly what your soul feels, it might bring your
mother with grey hairs to the
grave, or make your father’s heart break, and so you make the excuse, that
they may entertain a
comfortable hope whereas, while you make excuses, there is no hope for you
at all.
For my part, I would rather you speak outright and saywhat you mean. I
would that you would say,
“I am an enemy of Christ, I do not believe His Gospel, I will not serve Him.”
This might sound very
badly, but it would show, at least, that there was some sincerity in you, and we
would hope that, ere
long, you might be bowed to the will of Christ. Excuses are curses, and when
you have no excuses left
there will be hope for you.

It may be you make these excuses because youhave had convictions which so
haunt you at times
that you dare not oppose Christ to His face. You have gone home from the
services to weep. That little
chamber of yours is a witness that you cannot live altogether without prayer.
The other day when you
went to a funeral, you came home with your mind very solemn and you
thought then that certainly you
would yield to the commands of Jesus. When you were sick, and had that
week ortwo upstairs alone,
then you vowedand resolved, but your resolves melted into thin air. The tear
starts in your eye, you are
almost persuadedto be a Christian, you breathe a prayer, but ah! some ill
companion tempts you the
next morning, and according to the old proverb, “The dog has returned to his
vomit, and the sow that
was washedto her wallowing in the mire.”
Ah! how many times did I have convictions of sin, and terrible ones, too, and
yet I said, like Felix to
Paul, “Go your wayfor this time, when I have a convenient season, Iwill call
for you,” but I could not
quench these convictions by downright opposition to Christ, I knew too much,
and felt too much to do
that, and so I tried to patch up a truce betweenmy soul and my convictions.
Satanis always ready to help men with excuses. This is a trade of which there
is no end. It certainly

commencedvery early, for after our first parents had sinned, one of the first
occupations upon which
they entered was to make themselves aprons of fig leaves to hide their
nakedness. Readthe Scriptures
through, and you will find that excuse-making has beena habit in all ages and
among all classesof
people, and till the last sinner shall be savedby sovereigngrace, Isuppose
men will still be setting up
their vain excuses in the temple of God.
If you will fire the gun, Satan will always keepyou supplied with ammunition.
When he thinks that a
truth is about to come home to you, if you cannotframe an excuse, he will do
it for you, he will run
betweenyou and the cannon shot of God’s Word to prevent your being
wounded by it. If the preacher’s
swordshould be too sharp for you, and make your consciencebleed, the evil
one has a satanic plaster
with which he very soonbinds up the wound.
The natural self-righteousness ofman prompts him to frame apologies.We
are all the bestmen in
the world according to our own gauge and measure. If we could sit as judges
upon ourselves, the verdict
would always be, “Notguilty.” Sin, which would be very shocking in another,
is very venial in us, nay,
what would be abominable in other men becomes almostcommendable in
ourselves, so partially do we

judge our own case. Since the sinner cannotthink it quite right for himself to
be an unbeliever in Christ,
since his enlightened conscience willnot let him saythat he is quite safe while
he refuses to fly to the
wounds of Jesus, he runs to excuses in order that he may still say, “I am rich
and increasedin goods,”
and not be driven to the unhappy necessityof crying, “I am nakedand poor
and miserable.” Sinful selfis
hard to conquer, but righteous self is the worst enemy of the two.
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When we can make men plead guilty, then God pronounces absolution upon
them, but while men
will interpose their extenuations, there is little or no hope for them. O great
God, our Master, rend away
the excuses fromevery sinner here, and make him stand guilty before Your
bar in his own
consciousness, thathe may cry, “Godbe merciful to me, a sinner,” and find
pardon through the blood of
Jesus Christ. Take heed, O you ungodly ones, lestyou go on excusing, and
excusing, and excusing, until
you excuse yourselves downto the pit of hell, for this know, you will never be
able to excuse yourselves
out again.

II. We come to RECOUNT these excuses.
Many will not come to the greatsupper—will not be Christians on the same
ground as those in the
parable—they are too busy. They have a large family, and it takes all their
time to earn bread and cheese
for those little mouths. They have a very large business—many servants in
their employ, and from the
first thing in the morning to the lastthing at night, if they do not see after
business, their affairs must go
wrong. Or else, if they have no business, yet they have so many pleasures, and
these require so much
time—their butterfly visits during the morning take up so many hours—the
dropping of their small
pieces of pasteboardat other people’s doors occupy all their leisure, and they
really have no opportunity
to think about matters so unpalatable as death and eternity. This excuse
scarcelyneeds a word from me
to answerit, because everyman knows that it is grosslyfalse. Nobody goes
starving because he has not
time to eat.
Now, if God has given time for us to support our natural frame, much more
has He given us time for
the soulto feed. I do not find my friends in the streethalf dressed, but I find
some of them spend many a
half-hour over that other pin, and that other ribbon. Now, surely, if they have
time to dress the body,

they must have had time given them in which to put on the robe of
righteousness andarray the soul. If
you have not the time, Godgave it to you, and you must have misspent it. God
gives you time as a
steward, and if you say to your Master, “I have it not,” He will reply to you, “I
entrusted it to you, you
must have spent it on yourself, you have robbed God.” A little earlier rising, a
little less time at the
table—eitherof these might give you time enough. You know you have the
time, and when you say you
have it not, the lie is too thin, you can see through it.
O soul! O soul! when holy men canfind hours for prayer, when such a man as
Martin Luther, when
he was very busy, used to say, “I must have three hours prayer today at least,
or else I cannot getthrough
my business,” do not tell me that you have not time to seek the Lord. Besides,
it is not an affair of time.
Salvationmay be wrought in an instant. There is life in a look at the crucified
One, there is life at this
moment for you, and betweennow and the time when this service shallhave
gone, there is time enough
for you to have laid hold upon eternal life, and to have receivedChrist Jesus
to your soul’s salvation.
That excuse will not do.
But then they fly to another. They are too good. When I have preached free
grace and a full Christ, I

have heard some say, “Thatis a goodsermon for the crowd in a theater, for
ignorant, low-lived people,
but we respectable people do not require such salvation. To offer a free
salvationto men who are neither
drunkards nor swearers, whythe thing is ridiculous. The sermon was very
goodfor Magdalenes, for
thieves, and such like, but not for us.” No, you are too goodto be saved. You
need not a physician,
because you are whole. Your own table has enough upon it, you do not need to
come to this feast. But
think, I pray you, whether this is not all a mistake. In what are you better
than other men, after all? What
if you do not indulge in open sins, does not your heart often go a-lusting
towards evil? Does your tongue
always speak that which is right and true?
If you cannot remember sins of commission, what about the sins of omission?
Have you fed the
hungry? Have you clothed the naked? Have you taught the ignorant? Have
you loved God with all your
heart, and soul, and strength? Have you given Him all that He demands of
you? Why you cannotsay
this. Now the perfection, the holiness which God demands in order to
salvationmust be like a perfect
alabastervase, if be is a single crack orspot on it, all is spoiled. You may say,
“Well, it is not much
broken, we have not seriously damaged it,” nay, but God requires it to be
perfect, and no matter how

Sermon #578 A Bad Excuse Is Worse Than None
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5
slight the damage it may have sustained, you cannotenter heaven upon the
footing of your good
works—youare castout forever. Hear these words, “By the deeds of the law
there shall no flesh be
justified in His sight.” “Cursedis everyone that continues not in all things
which are written in the book
of the law to do them,” and “As many as are of the works ofthe law, are
under the curse.” Godsave you
from that false excuse.
Another class says, “We are too bad to be saved. The Gospelcries, ‘Believe in
Jesus Christ and
live,’ but it cannot mean me, I have been too gross anoffender. When I was
but young I went into evil,
and since then I have gone from bad to worse. O sir, I have cursed God to His
face, I have sinned against
light and knowledge, againsta mother’s prayers and tears. I have spokenevil
of God’s Word, I have
laughed at the very name of His Son Jesus Christ. I am too evil to be saved.”
Here is another bad excuse.
You know, sinner, if you have been a hearerof the Gospel, that this is not
true, for bad as you are, no
man is excluded from Christ on accountof his vileness. “All manner of sin and
of blasphemy shall be

forgiven unto men.”
The invitations of the Gospeldo not stop at a certain point of sin, but on the
contrary, they seemto
selectthe worstsinners first. What did the Saviorsay? “Beginat Jerusalem.”
But, Lord, the men live
there who crucified You. “Beginat Jerusalem.” But, Lord, it was in Jerusalem
that they shed Your
blood, and thrust out the tongue and laughed at You, and made a mockeryof
Your prayers. “Beginat
Jerusalem”—the worstfirst. Just as the surgeonin a battle, is accustomedto
look to the worstcasesfirst.
Here is a man who has losthis finger. Ah! well, let him bide awhile, we will see
to that. But here is
another who has lost a limb, and he is bleeding fast, and if the blood be not
stopped, his life will ooze
out. The surgeongives him the first turn.
O you greatsinners, you who feel yourselves to have been notorious offenders,
I pray you be not so
guilty as to make this an excuse for not coming to Christ, on the contrary, use
it as a reasonwhy you
should fly to Him at once. The more filth, the more need of washing;the more
sick, the more need of a
physician; the more hungry, the more welcome to the table. Come to Jesus
just as you are, with all your
sins, “Though they be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;though they
be red like crimson, they

shall be as wool.” No form of sin, imaginable or unimaginable can by any
possibility be a bar to any
man’s salvation, if he will but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then comes another excuse, “Sir, I would trust Christ with my soul this
morning, but I do not feel in
any state to trust Christ. I have not that sense ofsin which I think to be a fit
preparation for coming to
Christ—
“‘If aught is felt, ’tis only pain
To find I cannot feel.’”
Ah! my dear hearer, this is an excuse which looks like a very goodone, but it
has no truth in it.
There is no fitness wanted before you may trust in Christ. Whatevermay be
your present condition, if
you trust Jesus Christ with your soul, you are saved on the spot, your sins are
forgiven you, you are
made a child of God, you are acceptedin the Beloved. Where do you read of
fitness for Christ in the
Scriptures? Were the dead whom Jesus restored, fit to be raised think you?
Why, Martha saidof her
brother, “Lord, by this time he stinks, for he has been dead four days,” was
there any fitness in Lazarus
for a resurrection? And yet Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth!” Does the
Gospelsay, “He who is in a
certain state, and then believes, shall be saved,” no, but, “He that believes and
is baptized, shall be
saved.”

How am I bidden to preach to you? Am I to say, “Whosoeverfeels this is to
come,” no, but,
“Whosoeverwill, let him come and take the waterof life freely.” Are you
willing to have Christ? Then
you may have Him, for Christ is as free to every needy sinner as the drinking
fountain in the streetis
free to every thirsty passer-by. Trust Jesus, evenif your heart be hard as
granite—He can softenit. Trust
Him, though conscienceis asleep, though all the mental faculties be
perverted—trust Him. It is His
business to make you holy, not your business—trustHim to do it all. He is
calledJesus because He
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saves His people from their sins. Trust Him to overcome your corruptions, to
kill your evil temper, to
subdue your will, to soften your heart, to enlighten your conscience, to inflame
your love—trust Him to
do it all. O, be not so foolish, as to say, “I am too ill to send for a doctor, when
I getbetter, when I feel
better, then I will send for him.” Do not say, “I am so black, if I felt cleaner, I
would wash,” no wash
because you are black, washbecause you have nothing but filth about you,
send for the greatPhysician

because there is no health in you. There is nothing in you but wounds, bruises,
and putrefying sores,
therefore, let your faith entrust your healing entirely to Him.
Here comes another, “O sir, I would trust Christ with my soul, but it seems
too goodto be true, that
God would save me on the spot, this morning. You little know where I was last
night or what I did
yesterday, you cannottell who I am, nor how bad I have been, and you tell me
that if I trust Jesus Christ,
I shall be saved. Sir, it is too goodto be true, I cannot imagine it.” My dear
friend, do you measure
God’s corn with your bushel? Because the thing seems an amazing thing to
you, should it therefore be
amazing to Him? What if His thoughts should be as high above your thoughts
as the heavens are above
the earth? Is not this just what He has saidin Scripture? I know you find it
hard to forgive your fellow
man, but my Father, my God, can readily forgive you—
“Crimes of such horror to forgive,
Such guilty daring worms to spare:
This is Thy grand prerogative
And none shall in the honor share.”
He creates like a God, He does not make a few insects, or here and there a
star, but this greatworld
He fashioned, and He scatteredthe starry orbs about with both His hands. So
when the Lord comes to

Jesus was rejecting his rejectors vol. 2

Jesus was rejecting his rejectors vol. 2

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