The Great Marriage Supper

Well, good morning, everyone. Mr. Cowan mentioned that an additional prayer request for Mrs. Ward, she fell this week and is having pain in her ribs. So your prayers for her, please, and that God would heal whatever is bruised or are injured in that area. I'd also like to ask for prayers for my sister as well. Her name is Johnette Ledbetter. That's J-O-H-N-E-T-T-E. That'll be a story for later. All the siblings' names start with J. My dad's name was John. My oldest brother is named John, and then my sister's name is Johnette. But she is okay. However, she is having lots of trouble with her liver and also her kidneys.

So there's even thought or talk about a liver transplant. So it has progressed to that level, it seems. But we just ask that you'll please pray for her. There is a possibility that she might be actually moving up this way and staying either on our property in a maybe a RV type of situation or in her own place. But with these health issues, she's needing to be by family. And where she is now in Austin, there's not much family that's close. My brother John is there. He is the primary caretaker for my mother.

So thought has been to have Johnette move up here and be with us. And that certainly would be wonderful. But your prayer is on her behalf. I do appreciate that. Thank you to Mr. Maggert for the sermonette message. Very fitting. And we did. The picnic was very nice. I'm so glad that there's several of you that were able to come. The Howls were there in Austin and Jacqueline and the Cowans, of course, and Curtis Grubb and his family.

So it was a wonderful time. Later the next day, the Hillwood family, which is the the deaf couple with their baby, they actually returned back to Ethiopia a few days after the picnic.

So we certainly pray for their success and that God support them there. There's not a large community in the deaf community there. And also, they're really out on their own as far as any kind of brethren in the area, anyone with a common belief system is ours. But prior to them leaving, we actually had a baptism.

We baptized Mr. and Mrs. Hillwood there in our pool before they left. We had done some counseling with them when Mark and Barbara Welch came and visited, if you remember, that was a month or so ago or more. And then since then, I've been sending them information by email. So we were able to baptize them before they left. It was a wonderful ceremony. I have pictures. I'll have to send those out later. But just to give you the scene, there I am standing in the pool with Mr. and Mrs. Hillwood. We brought the laptop and a computer screen to the edge of the pool.

So Jennifer is typing out my words as I'm asking the baptism questions and they're able to read them. And then, for extra support, Kate was there next to the computer screen signing. So it was a wonderful, unique baptism to say the least. And so I'll have to share those pictures with you. And they were very excited. And Mr. Hillwood mentioned that he wants to be a minister one day, God willing. And so he's going to do what he can to spread the gospel when he returns back to Ethiopia. And so it's just you wonder what plans God's has to place the Hillwoods in our Knoxville area for the short period of time that they were here.

But I was able to send him with a lot of information of the church. And so he was very grateful for that. So very exciting and your continued prayers for them as well. Well, we are coming up upon the fall Holy Days, and particularly the feast day of Trumpets.

And our sermonette message was fitting accordingly, and so will be our sermon. So the title of our sermon study today, The Great Marriage Supper. The Great Marriage Supper. And I invite you to open your Bibles, and we'll begin reading actually from two passages of Scripture. There'll be our only two passages of Scripture for the sermon today.

So, but the first, if you'll turn with me to Revelation 19 in verse 1, Revelation 19 will begin there in verse 1 and read verses 1 through 9 to begin. As we will now read of this great prophesied marriage supper that is to take place when God's people are gathered up at the time of Jesus Christ's return. And we find this great banquet, this great supper, if you will, mentioned to us here. And it will come to us in verse 9, but we'll begin in verse 1. So John writes regarding the time of Christ's return here. Revelation 19 beginning in verse 1, John writes, After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Alleluia, salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God.

For true and righteous are his judgments, because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication. So Christ has come and had victory. For true and righteous are his judgments, because he has judged the great harlot who has corrupted the earth with her fornication. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her. Again, they said, Alleluia, her smoke rises up forever and ever, and the twenty-four elders and four living creatures fell down and worshipped God, who sat on the throne, saying, Amen!

Alleluia! Then a voice came from the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you his servants and those who fear him, both small and great. Verse 6, Then I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and a sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia!

For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come.

The Lamb, of course, being Jesus Christ and his wife, that of the church, his wife has made herself ready, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Verse 9, Then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let's stop there. So what an awesome occasion this will be, if we're told here that when God's people are finally part of his kingdom, they will be able to share in a meal with none other than Jesus Christ himself. The bride, God's church, partaking of a marriage supper with the Lamb, the bridegroom, Jesus Christ. And again, this prophesied great marriage supper that God's people can look forward to here is revealed to us, and the sharing will share this meal with Jesus Christ at his return. Now, that sets the stage for our second and primary passage of Scripture. So if you'll turn with me to Luke 14 in verse 15. This will be our second and our primary passage of Scripture. Luke 14, beginning in verse 15. If you'll turn with me now, we all want to be at this great supper to come. And we're going to see from this parable here in Luke 14 that many, many are invited to this marriage banquet. This marriage feast. However, tragically, we're also told that there will be many who will ultimately not respond to the invitation. Let's see this. Luke 14, we're going to read verses 15 through 24. This great parable. Luke 14 verse 15. Now, when one of those who set at the table with him, that's Jesus, heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then he, Jesus, said to him this parable. A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say that those who were invited come, for all things are now ready. But they, with one accord, began to make excuses.

The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it.

I ask you to have me excused. Verse 19. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen.

Incidentally, that's ten oxen, five yoke, a yoke is a pair. I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm going to test them. I ask you to have me excused. Still another, I've married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. The servant said, Master, it is done as you have commanded, and there's still room. Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways, the hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.

Let's stop there. So there you have it. Quite an impactful parable here that we come to.

And we begin here in verse 15 in this wedding banquet, this feast. But before we delve into this, it's important for us to just allow our eyes to go up to verse 1 here of this chapter, because we want to see and establish the context in which this parable emerges. I think that's important. And you'll see here in verses 1 and 2 that Jesus himself has been invited to a wedding banquet. And it's at the home of a prominent Pharisee. You'll notice, in fact, it's one of the rulers of the Pharisees here. It's a very prominent individual as the host.

And as you read through this, what you quickly notice is that in these opening verses, apart from the words that Jesus Christ is speaking, there's some real significant moments of silence, you'll notice. Luke, with an eye for detail, tells us in verse 4, you'll notice, that in response to the question that Jesus asked them regarding healing on the Sabbath, verse 4 tells us that they kept silent. So, silence among the other guests. Then Jesus asked them a second question in verse 5, a second question regarding the scenario of an ox who had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath day. And apparently, they continued to have nothing to say. Verse 6, they could not answer him.

So, once again, at this banquet, the guests are struck with silence. And there's actually three incidences leading up to verse 15, you'll notice. Three incidences that take place prior to Jesus Christ giving them this parable of the Great Supper. All of these incidences emerging from an invitation in which Jesus Christ has received to eat in a great banquet, if you will, of a prominent Pharisee. Luke tells us in verse 1 that on this occasion, when Jesus arrived, that he was being watched closely. They watched him closely, it says.

That's not surprising, of course, because the Pharisees were always doing what they could, looking for opportunities to trap him, trap him with an offense in their opinion, they were trying to dispense of Jesus any way they could. But, of course, in all of their attempts, Jesus Christ would use those moments as opportunities to respond, to confound them with parables and such. And so, while we are going to be heading into verse 5 in the Great Supper parable in just a moment, we don't want to rush there so quickly as to miss the context here of where the parable emerges. So, I want to briefly look at these three prior incidences that lead up to that parable beginning and verse 15. And in doing so, we see that the first incidence is really contained in the first six verses where Jesus is going to expose their hypocrisy here, expose the hypocrisy of the Pharisees here. The scene, you'll notice in these first six verses, there is a man present at this banquet. We're told by Luke that he's suffering from a debilitating disease, the disease of dropsy. I had to look up this disease. It's actually a debilitating, a crippling disease that involves swelling, severe swelling of the body.

It's more than likely that the Pharisees planted this man so as to use him as a means of calling into question Jesus Christ's approach to what is and what is not acceptable on the Sabbath.

So, understanding their motives, he decides to meet these things head-on and he begins to ask the Pharisees a question. Verse 3, Jesus answered, answering, spoke to the lawyers in the Pharisees, saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? Silence, of course. And then Jesus takes the opportunity to take a hold of the man, heal him, and send him on his way. Then Jesus answers the other question here in verse 5. Then he answered them, saying, which of you, having a donkey or an ox which has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?

And then having nothing to say, they could not answer him. And there in verse 6. So, in this first incident, Jesus Christ is establishing the clear and straightforward principle that genuine need, real emergency, requires action even on the Sabbath. And that it's hypocritical for these individuals to claim that they know anything of God, anything of his ways, if they were to put forth that they were prohibited to do so. And their prohibitions were these added laws that were ugly and were of their legalistic approach to life. Now, as you continue to read, it's obvious that the Pharisees aren't the only ones watching closely, because in verse 7 we have the second incident that occurs here, and it tells us that Jesus Christ himself had been looking around and noticing things. And in doing so, he notices that as the guests arrive, they tended to do something pretty intolerable here. Verse 7, so he told a prayerable to those who were invited when he noted how they chose the best places. So we'll stop there. So in the first incidents, he's exposing the hypocrisy. Now in the second incident, he's exposing the necessity of humility. We will see humility. So first hypocrisy, now humility. The words are very straightforward. When someone invites you to a wedding feast, he says, don't take the place of honor.

The middle of verse 8, do not sit down in the best place, because perhaps someone more distinguished than you may have been invited.

So he's now addressing the need for humility. He's addressing the propensity of the hearts and minds of men and women to be seen by just the right person, to be sitting in just the right place, our humanistic nature, to make sure our tickets are in the best seats, make sure that others know how important we are by the places in which we put ourselves. And he'll go on to teach that it's better to be asked to move up than to be asked to move down. We understand this. Some of us have attended wedding receptions. We didn't bother to look to see that there were assigned seating, and therefore we just sat where we chose only to have the host come and tell us that we've chosen the table of the top table and that we have to move. Now, of course, this has never happened to me. I've just heard it's happened to other people. I'm, of course, not speaking from experience.

But our whole society tells us that it's important to be important.

And Jesus says that that's not a good approach to life. He who exalts himself will be humbled, he who humbles himself will be exalted in the end.

But, of course, Jesus is not just teaching on the matters of etiquette or teaching on the etiquette and how to attend a banquet. Rather, he's teaching on the nature and eternal significance regarding our invitation to attend a great banquet, a great supper with Jesus Christ himself. And we'll get to that in just a moment or two. And so Jesus, seeing the actions of the people at this particular wedding banquet, seizes the opportunity to first teach them about the futility of hypocrisy and also the necessity of humility.

Then, in the third incident leading up to the parable, the parable of the great supper, we find that in verses 12 through 14, Jesus is now going to speak to the host of this particular party. And he's going to give a lesson on giving parties, on giving wedding banquets and such. So let's read this verses 12 through 14. Verse 12 through 14. Here's our final incident. And he said to him, who invited him, when you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you would be repaid. Verse 13. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Stop there. So Jesus Christ here in this third incident is introducing an invitation value system. It's an invitation value system. And it's a value system that's turned on its head, really. A value system in which gratification is not to be immediate, but rather gratification is to be viewed from the perspective of an eternal gratification to come. And if you want immediate gratification, then you will invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. That way you'll be immediately repaid. You'll feel good when they leave. But just know that that invitation list bears no implications on matters of eternity. Now, Jesus is obviously not saying that it's wrong to ever invite friends and family, of course, to your house, but he's stating this in such a way to drive home the implications of an invitation list, which is solely beginning and ending with receiving immediate gratification. Gratification in this lifetime, where there's a sole focus on the here and now, while that kind of giving is okay, the type of giving which has eternal implications is the type of giving where you know you will not get paid back. It has been said that the best kind of gift is given by the one who doesn't know who he's giving to and where the recipient doesn't know where it's coming from. So Jesus says in verse 14 that a wedding to which the guest list includes those who have no chance to pay you back, the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, the repayment for that guest list is that of a wonderful resurrection.

Now, even though it doesn't indicate it, I'm almost certain that at the end of verse 14 it would have also been met with silence, for sure, because after all those who were currently participating in this banquet to which he had been invited, of course everyone would immediately begin to take application of this, and they would begin to look around and say, well, I got to tell you there isn't one single person that's present here that fits that bill except for that poor dropsy fellow who we just brought in as a prop, you know, to make a point. And I think when someone, when you have this type of situation where individuals are being struck to the core and you have this kind of silence, it would be quite a moment here that's occurring at the end of verse 14. And when you have this kind of moment, there's always someone who will try to move past the awkwardness of the moment. You see this often when you have someone say something, anything, to break the silence and to move on. And I think that's what's happening here in verse 15, perhaps. Jesus had given the very piercing instructions leading up to this point. They'd all landed like a lead balloon. People are looking around at one another saying we're not fairing too well with this instruction here from Jesus Christ. Someone at the table breaks the silence by saying, verse 15, Well, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Now, we don't exactly know the tone by which this individual has said this. It seems the the inference of this would seem that the individual was saying this in such a way as an attempt to perhaps separate himself from the group to which Jesus Christ is now chastened, whereby Jesus would be able to recognize that although he was surrounded by a group who weren't really on terms with his instruction, that this one particular individual was. And therefore, to make it clearly known in front of the whole group, this individual, whoever he was, would now declare, blessed are those who will eat in the feast of the kingdom of God.

In other words, the inference here is that this man was saying, blessed is the man who will eat there, and guess what? It's me. Jesus, just so you know, I'm not like these other guys to whom you're speaking. Perhaps he hopes or he thinks that Jesus will say, well, I'm glad there's at least one smart fellow in the group. I'd like you all to pay attention to our insightful friend here and what he has said. Maybe that's what the man is thinking Jesus will say, but to the extent that that's true or not, this man would have never imagined that Jesus Christ was actually going to use his comment as a launching pad from which to launch a few more scud missiles, if you will.

And these missiles were now going to be sent. We're going to be even more penetrating, even more destroying of strongholds, of hypocrisy, destroying of self-righteousness that was pervading this current guest list. So here we are, the parable of the Great Supper. Now, custom at this time, the host, whenever they were throwing a party, whenever they were throwing a big banquet, they would send out an invitation to those who were on the guest list, an invitation to friends, neighbors. That would be sent out first, an invitation would be sent, and because they were absent telephones, they were absent mechanisms of communication that we have today. The host would then send out a follow-up announcement on the day at the moment to say the wedding feast is now ready. And they would send a serving out to the invitees to follow up on the initial invitation and say, okay, it's time. The soup is on, you know. The salad is on the plate. Everything's ready. Come now. The invitation said, this is something to look forward to. It's coming. And now the servant would go out and say, get there. It's here. And the people understood how that worked. Come. Everything now is ready. Now, we understand and know that these individuals knew what Jesus Christ was speaking about here. They recognized the man's statement concerning the feast in the kingdom of God. They recognized that, and they understood that Jesus is now moving beyond their present wedding banquet, and he's now projecting forward to the great banquet to come. The feast in the kingdom of God. They understood Jesus Christ is moving beyond the present and taking them there. And this idea of an invitation going out to that great prophesied supper to come. And they knew of this invitation. The prophets had been the ones that had been getting them ready for it. Jeremiah, Isaiah, stood on the stage of human history, proclaimed that the kingdom is coming. An invitation is to be extended to them. They understood that. They couldn't miss the point, then, that Jesus is making here in verse 17, when the host sends the servant to tell those who have been invited come for all things are now ready. That's verse 17. He sent his servant at supper time, verse 17, to say to those who were invited, come for all things are now ready. The king of the coming kingdom is here. Today, Scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing. It's now. I'm the king. Jesus said, it's my coming kingdom. Are you in or are you out?

So suddenly, everything changed, and there was a great new significance at this point.

Now, when we put it in those terms, you realize, then, that the excuses which are here to follow the invitation to this great marriage supper, the excuses, then, are representative of the kind of excuses made by men and women, when they have been invited to share in the feast of the kingdom of God and choose not to respond. You will notice, this is very interesting, I think, that the excuses are very civil. The excuses are really quite respectable. You might even say they're acceptable excuses.

Because you don't want to just, when you're invited to a banquet or party, and you don't want to go, you don't just call the host and say, you know what, I don't want to come. You can't just say that. Rather, you have to come up with acceptable ways, civil ways, nice ways of saying, that you don't want to come. So, they excuse themselves on the basis of things which are acceptable. They're lawful. You don't want to say, I'm not coming to your banquet because I'm going to go rob a bank or something. You know, it's not these kind of excuses. No, you say, I'm sorry, I'm unable to make it. Verse 18, I bought a field and I have to go look at it.

And the host, you know, puts his hand over the phone and the wife says, who is it? And he says, well, it's Levi. He doesn't want to come to our banquet. And of course, that's not what Levi said. Levi, I assume, was a common name back then. Levi said, so it said, no, I bought a piece of ground and I've got to go look at it. But what he's actually saying is, I don't want to come. You see?

In other words, I've got better things to do with my time, more important things to do than to respond to your invitation. So, anyway you look at it, it's not a reason, it's an excuse.

And what are you going to do when you go look at the field?

Well, I'm going to go look at it, okay? What are you going to do the second 20 seconds that you go look at, after you look at it? Well, I guess I'll look at it some more, you know.

These are some of the excuses men and women say to the invitation to the kingdom banquet. Someone else says, I've got to go check my oxen. I've got to go try them out. My five yolks, ten new oxen, I've got to go try them out. So, do you think that a good rancher will buy livestock without checking them out first? You know? No, I don't think so. You don't buy ten oxen and never look to see if one of them's limping or whatever it may be. No, he checked them out beforehand. They had to be good oxen before you'd purchase them. So, I bought ten oxen, a five yolk, I've got to go try them out. The third excuse is probably the best, in my opinion.

I married a wife. There's some certain understanding in that, husbands. I'm sure you can agree.

I just got married. Why can't you come? She won't let me. I can understand that one.

Actually, what he's probably doing is relying upon the... there was an Old Testament picture, there actually really was, where if a man got married, he actually had a year that he didn't have to go into the military service. So, he didn't have to go for a year. He could stay home, show his wife what a great husband he was during that year. But that's a far cry from not showing up to a marriage banquet, a marriage supper. I can't come. I married a wife. Well, why can't you bring your wife? You know. So, excuses, excuses, excuses.

In fact, I don't want to come.

So, Wells says, one of the invitees, I'm not saying that I'll never come.

I'm not even saying that I shouldn't come. I'm just saying I don't want to come now. Does that ring a little bit this morning with anyone?

You think about spiritual things. You think about God and his purposes. You think about the fact that the kingdom is coming, and Christ is the king, and he died to make entry into this kingdom possible, to make even an invitation possible. And you're not prepared to say that you shouldn't come. You're humble enough to say that you should. Or you're not prepared to say that you will never come because you believe that you will. But what you really want to say is that you're not coming now. You've got fields, family, future, pressing things. Much more pressing things than accepting an invitation to a marriage supper, to a kingdom that's been prepared for you. So, you see, every excuse is basically saying to the host, I've got better things to do than to spend time in your company.

So Jesus is saying these are the kind of excuses that people make to the invitation from his father.

So it's no surprise that the host becomes angry. Verse 21. Verse 21. So that servant came and reported these things to his master.

Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and into the lanes of the city, bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.

So you remember that group from just a few verses ago, verse 13. You know, Jesus was saying, this is the guest list that you put together. This is the guest list. What he's saying is what my father, the host, has put together. This is who you invite, the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.

And they would have thought to themselves, why would you invite a list like that? Why would you put an invite list together in that way? And he's explaining it to them.

This is how God works. This is how the real host works. He actually removes names from the list because they're smug, selfish, and complacent.

He adds names to the list of the people who would never imagine that they would be included on such a guest list.

So you think the host had a right to become angry?

He extends an invitation. When it finally comes time, the people say, I can't come because of this, this, or that. They don't treat the invitation as precious.

They elevate their self-view. Maybe they expect it to be on the list in some way or another. God looks from heaven, having prepared a marriage supper, having put out a specific guest list to a group that he's chosen at the expense of his son, sent out servants to invite you to take place, take your place in the marriage of the Lamb, and you say, I'm sorry, I have a car, I've got to go tinker with it, whatever it may be, a career, I've got to go satisfy that, a future.

And then I'll come, and I'm sure the door will be open for me.

God looks from heaven and says, I can't believe it.

He's angry.

And so, who are those who are excluded?

They are those who reject the invitation.

That's the basis of exclusion. For those who have been invited, and you reject the invitation, no one is in without an invitation.

No one is out without rejection.

So, if you are one of the first to be invited, no one is out without rejection. Again, those who are excluded are those who reject the invitation.

And so, what he's saying in this little parable, this story, is that those who have been first to be invited, they've rejected this invitation. So therefore, the servant goes out to the streets, the alleys, to bring in the most unlikely people. And the Pharisees, those who deem themselves the religious experts, you would expect them to be flooding in. They knew so much about God's law.

But Jesus did not come to call the righteous in their own eyes. That's a key.

He came to call those who know their sinners to repentance.

For example, the woman at the well. Don't you realize that she has five husbands and she has a live-in lover?

What is she going and telling people about Jesus Christ?

Who is she to tell others about this man?

She's the perfect person to tell others about Jesus Christ.

Because she knows he gave her that which would truly quench her thirst.

She knew, and it's now been revealed, she was on a dead-end street.

She knew that once she was exposed, she was brought to nothing. There was only one who could transform her heart and mind. Only one who could have the water to quench her eternal thirst.

And the key is, on that day, she knew herself to be in need of the invitation.

She needed the invitation. It pierced her heart that he would invite her. She didn't deserve it, but there it was being offered by Jesus Christ himself.

And it was in the knowing she didn't deserve it that that would become the means by which she would never let it go.

Well, I'd like to say, blessed is he who eats in the feast of the kingdom of God. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Sit back down.

I'll get you back in a moment. So what is Jesus doing here?

The straightforward implication of what's happening here is those who expect to enter into the kingdom, to partake of this banquet feast, because they've received the first invitations.

If they don't treat it as precious, they may be cast out.

And those who expect it to be shut out from such an event, such a glorious event, because they would understand that they were in need of a great supper in a bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who could transform and release them from the bondage of sin, they would be let in.

So thank God you and I don't write the invitation list. I think myself, I would put together a guest list that perhaps would be the wrong people. You know, from our humanistic point of view, we may put people in from all the wrong they're all the wrong people, all the wrong reasons, you know, those that look the part, perhaps.

Jesus said, no, you go out, you get the cripple, the lame, the blind, and the poor. And the servant does that and he says, well, there's still more room. And he says, well, in that case, go out to the highways and hedges, have them come in so that my house is full. God's house will be filled with or without us.

Will you accept the invitation or will you reject it?

So in conclusion, I'd like to just say three things very quickly.

Three implications of this parable. We're going to go through them very quickly as we begin to end here. Three implications of this parable.

Number one, very clearly, there is a warning to be heeded. That's number one. Implication of this parable. There is a warning to be heeded, and primarily to be heeded by those who are first to be invited.

It's a warning that goes out to those of us here sitting here today. Us who have had our minds open to know God, to know Jesus Christ, but may have mistaken our understanding for that of genuine repentance and genuine faith in what he did.

You may be in this space if you see in yourself a disconnect between the words of your mouth and the follow-through of your heart and how you're following through on the words.

That's how you kind of know if you're evaluating yourself, if there's a disconnect between what you say and then you're able to look at your life and see what it's actually displaying.

It is because we might be saying the right things, we might be in the right places, we might be sitting in the right seat, but we might not be truly empowered by the Spirit of God and therefore living a life representative of being on the guest list at this great banquet to come.

Not all who profess faith in Jesus Christ in the end will partake of this great supper.

The Bible makes that clear.

So you may be in the process of rejecting the invitation.

So an evaluation is needed.

So that's number one, warning to be heeded. Number two is an invitation to be accepted.

So it's on the flip side here. Number two, there is an invitation to be accepted. Now, as we look at ourselves as a church, you know, we may look at ourselves as a body and think, you know, I wish we had more people. I know I've thought that to myself many times.

We need to go out and get more people who like church or maybe we need to get more lively songs, whatever it may be, draw more in, draw a bigger crowd. You know, it's relatively easy to draw a crowd. We could actually, next Sabbath, go out and put a large pink elephant on top of this building.

And we would probably double our attendance, if not more.

People coming in to see why there's a big pink elephant on top of our building.

But we should never mistake the fact of numbers as an indication of the fact that people are being added to the guest list. Very important.

And accepting this wedding invitation is not some trivial acceptance. Rather, the invitation to accept this invitation is an invitation to come and to die.

You won't garner too big of a crowd with that message, but it's the truth.

The invitation to accept is to come and lose yourself. He told them, leading up to this parable, you remember two things.

You better not have hypocrisy, and you better be humble.

Two major things. If you want to start somewhere to evaluate where you're going to be when the servant comes and says time is ready and whether you're going to have a seat at the table, start with those two things. Get the hypocrisy out of your life.

What you say and what you do must line up, and then be humble. No matter what progress you've made with the help of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit, no matter what progress you made, no matter where you are, you don't deserve a spot at the table. And only by God's grace are you there. Two big things in evaluating your seat at this great banquet to come.

The invitation is to bow down in the discovery of the wonder of this invitation that's been offered to you and those who exclude themselves in their mind by thinking, I'm not a person to whom should receive this invitation. My life is a mess. If some of it was revealed, well, I'm sure my invitation would be rescinded. Some of you are here. I know I feel that from time to time. I want to tell you, that's actually a pretty good posture to be in. You don't want it to be negative, but it's a good posture to be in because this parable is a great encouragement to those who don't deem themselves worthy of the invitation. Why? It's because it is the awareness of the fact that we're dirty, which makes the bath so attractive. Isn't that the case? The awareness of the fact that we're dirty, which makes the bath so attractive. Those who think they're clean don't take baths. You see. The dirty take baths. Oh, but I'm clean. Well, I guess you won't be taking a bath.

So, you see, this is what the law does for us. The law is so wonderful because it penetrates the facade that we've built, and it reveals the fact that we are dirty. It reveals the fact that we are in need. So, we say thank you for the law.

And Jesus's invitation is those who know themselves of needing cleansing. And the law then brings us to the one that can offer it to us. It's a wonderful process by which God has ordained. And those who are prepared to say to God, oh God, I'm in a mess. Please come and help me. Help me to be more like you. Those are the people in the hedges. Those are the people we should be going to, you know, in the hedges and say, come in, you know. And so, God can go to the poor. He can go to the blind. He can go to the lame and speak to them and to actually be received more readily than the individual that says, I always like to say, blessed is he who eats in the feast of the kingdom of God, you know. It's those who think their names shouldn't be on the list, who might find that they are. And those who think their names should be on the list, who might find that they aren't. So, first, a warning to be heeded. Second, an invitation to be accepted. Finally and very quickly, the number three implication of this great parable, there is a mission to be accomplished, a mission to be accomplished. The task of the servant who has responded to the invitation is not to sit down and wait for the great banquet to come and say, I've got my invitation. I'm so glad here I will sit and wait.

Rather, that fact that we are on the invitation list and we've been pierced by it and we're working toward it, it should instill in us a longing to have others sit next to us, to have others heed and accept the invitation. The word to the servant in verse 23 is to compel them. And I love that word.

The word to the servant is now to compel them to come so that God's house may be filled.

Does this mean we twist arms and bend arms and draw, you know, bring them in that way? No, of course, God provides the invitation. We know that. Not everyone's being invited at this moment.

Everyone one day will. But as part of the first fruit invitation list, not everyone is being invited. But we don't know who God is inviting, do we? So therefore, as a servant who's heeded the warning and has accepted the invitation, we are to compel those to whom God has placed in our path, those to whom we have an influence with. Compel them. Compel them by the life you lead. Compel them by who you are. Compel them by behavior that we display. Compel them by the words that we give. All of it. Compel them. Our whole lives should be representative that we are one who will one day sit at the great marriage feast.

So we are to live compelling lives. That's our mission. So pray to God that he might use you in this way. That he might send you out to find those in hedges and highways. Help other of his invitees to know that their poorness, their maimness, their blindness, those things far from being a disqualification might actually be the very mechanism to which God brings them into his marriage supper. Just in the same way, the self-righteous, that self-righteousness may be the mechanism by which God says, I'm sorry, your seat is now taken. And so, as we come to this great feast day coming, the great feast of trumpets, looking forward to the return of the bridegroom, we, as his bride, must make ourselves ready. There is a warning we must heed, an invitation to accept, an omission to go out and do. So let's pray altogether that we can come and partake one day at this wonderful meal. Come to the great marriage supper, for all things are now ready.