THE GREAT SUPPER
John C. Gray
It is a great matter, that God has made a great supper. We read in Matthew 22 that it was for the celebration of the marriage of His Son, that is Jesus, that He made a great supper, and invited persons. The sad thing is that in the setting of this scripture the many who were invited and declined were the Jews. That is what this scripture really means. God invited them: “And he sent his bondman at the hour of supper to say to those who were invited, Come, for already all things are ready.” But they declined.
It was not just the Jews that declined. Men through all generations have declined or excused themselves, putting it politely. God has gone to such an extent in the glad tidings to do everything possible that we might be saved for eternity and yet, will you refuse it? The Jews were told, everything is ready. The Lord Jesus came here, ministered the kingdom of God in three and a half years of public service, and died on the cross. He suffered and died, shed His blood, that is, He gave His life - we will speak about that in a minute – then went into the grave, and then He arose from the dead. What a wonderful triumph that was, God raising Christ from the dead! That was one of the greatest miracles that has taken place on this earth. These different miracles that the Lord Jesus did were wonderful matters; all that He did in restoring and healing people, but the great pointers in the way in which God has come to secure you and me were firstly the incarnation, that God Himself became a man, and secondly that that Man, Jesus, has died on Calvary’s cross, and thirdly that He rose from the dead - the triumph of Christianity! Now He is in glory. God has received Him up in glory, right into heaven itself. Wonderful climax!
So all things are ready, but are you ready? Has everyone here put their trust in Jesus as their Saviour? Has everyone here their ticket assured for eternity? It is a very solemn thing. The Jewish nation had every favour from God and there are persons also in the western world who have heard the glad tidings for generations and generations, because God sent the glad tidings largely to the western world and, like the Jews, most have declined it. Now, will you be among those that will decline it because there is a very solemn statement made at the very end “that not one of those men who were invited shall taste of my supper.” That is very solemn. It means that persons who are not saved will be lost.
Now I do not think that persons who listen to the message of God’s free salvation would really want to be lost, but God is laying this supper out as a celebration in view of the forthcoming marriage of His Son, that persons might be ready with a wedding garment on. Of course, Luke does not tell us about the wedding garment: you have to read Matthew 22 – read it when you go home – to find that you require a wedding garment on, that is your fitness in Christ by believing on Him.
Everything is ready then, so we get the guests in. We are having a few marriages this year amongst the company that we are identified with and marriages are always going on generally, I suppose. You just picture it that if you sent out a hundred invitations to guests to come to the wedding, what would happen if one hundred declined or excused themselves? What would you think? You would not be very pleased. Your daughter might not be very pleased either nor her future husband. What do you think God feels? Do you think God is pleased with every excusing? The word is the same as Hebrews 12, the note tells us, as the word given by Moses on the mountain: “they …declined the word being addressed to them any more”. They “declined the word”. ‘It is not for me’. That is what people in the world will tell you: Christianity is not for me, I am not religious. But it is a matter of life or death, do you not see? Whether you are going to enjoy the celebration of this supper for which God has made every preparation or whether you are going to be left outside and lost. People do not see it that way. Do you see it that way? Are you sure about your salvation - every one of us?
We have to examine whether we have a real living link tonight with Jesus, whether my link is steady, constant, whether my link is in life. It is a wonderful thing that Jesus came and the things prepared and ready are to bring us into life. These persons were wanting to go on with things down here which are attached to a system that is characterised by death, because all these things eventually will pale off and die. Whether the land or the yoke of oxen or the wife, each is attached to a scene that is characterised by death, but Jesus wants to give you life. God wants to connect you with a scene and a company of persons that is marked by life. The Lord Jesus says in relation to the flock in John 10 that He is “come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”, John 10: 10, and immediately after that He speaks about His death: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”, (v 11). So the things made ready require the death of Christ. Oh what God has gone through in giving His only beloved Son that things might be ready!
I would like you all really to think about this: whether you are going to enjoy the company of Jesus in the celebration of this supper-feast or whether you are going to go away tonight and say, No, I have this reason for not believing in Jesus; I have that reason, I will leave it, I will forget, I will just leave it aside, I will not bother. Is that what you would think? How terrible to think that about things that God is offering. He is offering you the very best, forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, offering you justification. He would justify you, not just forgive you by faith in the blood of Jesus because the price was paid in the giving of Jesus’ life. That is how we come into life because He gave His life, but God is justifying me because not only does He have the blood of Jesus before His eyes but He has raised Him up. How wonderful that is! How it warms the heart of every believer! You see warm faces here that trust in Jesus and enjoy being justified before God. It is part of this supper, part of the things we enjoy. Men make a great lot of food and the kind of food they eat and get chefs to cook the best and do this and that so that they can enjoy their food. But what about my soul? God has a supper that we might come in and enjoy these wonderful things in reconciliation. Our brother was praying for the gospel in the house about being reconciled to God through the death of His Son. That is, it has cost God the death of His own Son. Do you think He did not love His Son? Of course, He did. Never was one loved so much as the Father loved the Son, and yet He gave Him that He might die for me. Has He died for you? Can you say your sins are forgiven? Can you say you have the gift of the Holy Spirit, because the invitation here is into the house. In the house we find that God is there, God is dwelling: it is God’s house. “That my house may be filled”, He says. God wants His house filled and it will be filled, but will you be there? Oh, I plead with you, dear friend, that you might think seriously of it and make sure that you will be there.
It comes to this that people excused themselves and went away and so places were vacant and the master of the house says, “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring here the poor and crippled and lame and blind.” Are you prepared to take that place – “poor and crippled and lame and blind”? It is like what the Lord Jesus said in the sermon on the mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens”, Matt 5: 3. Are you “poor and crippled and lame and blind”? It is interesting that these four conditions are the kind of people that you invite into your house (see verse 13): “But when thou makest a feast, call poor, crippled, lame, blind”: these are persons who have accepted the glad tidings, persons who have accepted that they went on in self-will, and were really crippled, that is they acknowledged that they were sinners, but now they are saved. Call them in! God is calling you in tonight on that basis, that you might repent towards God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made the glad tidings simple for everybody to follow and understand: “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead”, Rom 10: 9. That is what this kingdom of God is: “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” It is those who acknowledge Jesus as their Lord, a new Master.
How long have you served Satan and sin? Oh how many years I served Satan and sin, but Jesus is now my Master because I believe in Him. I put my trust in Him. I follow Him. Is that what you do? What a thing it is to come to Jesus and believe in Him. And then confess Him. Believe in your heart first as a secret transaction between you and God, but then confess Him. That is public, so you tell your neighbours, tell your father and mother, tell your friends. Thus a testimony is spread. Come into the kingdom of God, a system of rule and organisation with love at the centre. There is no system, no kingdom in this world, where you can eat bread and find love because all is marked by hatred because it is marked by sin, but when you come into the kingdom of God, it is a kingdom of love, a system where Jesus is the centre and where He is loved, where God is loved. Do you not want to come into that to enjoy being forgiven, justified, reconciled to God, and made a son of the Father? God wants you to be that. He does not want you to be a tool of the devil. He does not want you even to excuse yourself to carry on an easy idle life here. He wants you to be compelled to come in. Oh I wish I could compel persons to come in!
“Go out into the ways and fences …”: that is the next stage. It was not just that there were the poor and crippled – that might refer to the Jews as the testimony went out, firstly by the Lord Jesus, who called in persons who were prepared to acknowledge that they were sinners. It says that the tax-gatherers and sinners were coming to Him. They believed Him. The Pharisees and scribes who knew Moses’ law and knew the prophets and were listening to it in the synagogue every week missed it because they did not believe on Jesus. Then after Jesus was raised and glorified, the testimony went out by the apostles and the people refused that too. They refused it in Jerusalem: James was killed, Peter was imprisoned and Stephen stoned. And God turned to the Gentiles. He went to the “ways and fences”, that is other nations in order to “compel to come in”.
Will God compel you to come in tonight? It is not that God is using force. In church history there were persons that went out with the sword and all sorts of physical means to force people to join the church. That is not the idea at all. The compelling to come in is to persuade you by love to come in: “For the love of the Christ constrains us”, Paul says to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5: 14) in a different setting, of course. Oh can I constrain you tonight, compel you to come in?
God says, “that my house may be filled”. Do not be left outside. It is a terrible thing to be left out! It is imperative that you come in repentance. Just say to God that you are a sinner. Tell Him privately; tell Him now, if you like, in your heart; find Jesus as a Saviour. He is waiting with His arms outstretched to receive you and bless you, as one forgiven. Have faith in the blood of Jesus! How great these things are in the gospel! What richness it brings! Then there is the blessing of the Holy Spirit in the house. The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. It says, “it sat upon each one of them”, (Acts 2: 3) and it “filled all the house”. Think of God coming to dwell here in believers. Our lives are changed, because forgiveness makes you different and you have a new Lord in Jesus, One who loves you, One who cares for you, a Friend, a Shepherd, One who can take your hand and make sure you are going the right way as a Friend, One who can as a Shepherd lead you out and go before you to show you the way.
Oh, dear friends, could I compel you to come in? “Compel to come in”: it is God’s word, compel by love. God enjoins all men everywhere to repent. Why does God enjoin you to repent? - because He does not want persons to be lost and come under judgment. Such is God’s love, His desire is for all men to be saved: “compel to come in, that my house may be filled”. God has arranged for us to be in good company, the company of Himself, to know God as our Father, the company of the Lord Jesus, the One who will be eternally a man, and the Holy Spirit; “He shall be with you for ever”, John 14: 16. What company to have! And then the company of all the saints! How can you stay outside? “Compel to come in, that my house may be filled”: what a supper it is! May everybody enjoy it for His Name’s sake!
DUNDEE
2000