GOD’S BOUNTY DISPENSED
Luke 14:15-24; Matthew 22:1-14
I have read these scriptures because I have been greatly impressed with the way that God supplies His people – indeed, humanity; and the grace in which that is undertaken. The more I think about my own history and my own condition, the more I see the need for that grace, and the more humble I feel about the lack of any merit or worthiness for any of the blessings which God has put within my reach. Maybe many of us here have come to that too, but I think it would be good if we all felt like that. It would give more room for God and it would tend to exclude the flesh, not only from our thoughts but from the enjoyment of fellowship, if we were more humble and appreciative of the circumstances in which God has chosen to bless us.
We referred in the reading to the possibility of increasing in our knowledge of God. The knowledge of God does not come by investigation, or searching; the knowledge of God comes by revelation. What we know of God is what God has revealed to us. We know as we read the history in Scripture that, over the course of time, God has revealed Himself in different ways. I do not go into that, but any student of the Bible will know that. Blessedly, in this time in which we as believers are, He has revealed Himself in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the fullest revelation there will ever be of God! It has come to Christian believers. It is not because we are better than those who knew God in previous times, but in the bounty of His grace. We call the way in which God has so revealed Himself ‘the Trinity’; it is not a word we find in scripture, but that is what we mean. We also use the word ‘economy’. I once asked my father if the Trinity and the ‘economy’ were the same thing, and his answer was, ‘No, the economy includes us’. That was a very simple statement to make and it has taken me a long time to understand it, but it is true that what we speak of as ‘the economy’ includes us. The idea of an economy conveys to me not simply that God has chosen to make Himself known in a particular way, but in making Himself known He has also set Himself among His people in a relationship with them. How gracious that is of God, when you consider the failures among those that He has taken up in that way. Consider for example the children of Israel, and the condition in which they were when God took His place among them: “I will dwell among them, and walk among them”, 2 Cor.6:16. What an economy that was; all the grace and all the blessing needed to make that relationship a reality, supplied by God Himself.
As God has revealed Himself in those different ways, and as God’s relationships with His people have developed to reflect the way in which He Himself was known, we have what we refer to as ‘dispensations’. A dispensing is a giving, and what we mean by that expression is simply that, when God takes His place among His people, He gives them all the resource and favour and blessing and privilege that is needed to make that relationship work. What a wonderful thing it is that God should, in the declaration of who He is, bring out of the bounty of His heavenly store all the favour and blessing that is needed to make His relationship with us work, and to manifest Himself in the process as a Giver. He loves cheerful givers, (2 Cor.9:7); because He is one Himself! It is a feature of the divine nature that giving should be cheerful and we see it in the way that God Himself has come out.
We have just started reading the book of Genesis in our local readings. When you read Genesis 1, you see a summary of the history of creation, and the Creator is referred to in chapter Genesis 1 as “God”; there is the use of that supreme but blessed name of God. In chapter 2, we move on from the creation to man’s history, and the name ascribed to God changes. It says that Jehovah Elohim did certain things, beginning with the forming of man out of the dust. Now, we do not get the idea of God declaring His Name until we come to Abraham (Gen.17:1). Then we have the declaration of the name of Jehovah to Moses (Exod.6:3), although Moses uses that name throughout the book of Genesis, as knowing Him in that way. What Moses thus indicates is that, in taking up man, God moved into a relationship with him, which proved to be a very difficult relationship.
Think of that in relation to your soul history, and the journey that your life will comprise, that God was with Adam all the way. He made Himself known to Adam before he fell into sin, and He did not leave him when he fell into sin. He made provision for him; “Jehovah Elohim made Adam and his wife coats of skin, and clothed them”, Gen.3:21. Now you will find when you look at those chapters that, when Satan enters into the story, he denies that relationship. He said, “Is it even so, that God has said…” (Gen. 3:1); Satan is not said to have used any name of relationship. He is driving a wedge between God and His creature as he has always done. But God in faithful patience continues in His commitment and in the relationship that He had established with man and He resources that relationship. First, “Jehovah Elohim planted a garden in Eden eastward” (Gen.2:8), and then when Adam falls into sin, He provides the coats of skin. What a precious thing that is. Faced with such an awful calamity that seemed to threaten even the possibility of the moral and spiritual relationship that He sought, God out of His great resource finds what can be given, an innocent life even, in order that there might be a basis on which He can continue in His relationship with man. It has been said that the coats of skin meant that He no longer had to look at the nakedness of sinful flesh, but He could now look on the perfection of His own work, and Adam was clothed with it. What a God we have!
Now if you read through the history, with one generation succeeding another, a further thing you will find is that it was God’s thought to exalt Christ. We can see suggestions of that in the dominion that Adam was given in the first chapter of the Bible; it was God’s thought to exalt Christ. One thing you will find, as you read through the Old Testament, where there are pictures which speak of Christ, is that when someone who is a type of Christ is exalted, God’s people prospered, and the resources that came from God seemed to increase and flow more freely. So we have for example in Isaac “he became continually greater, until he was very great”, Gen.26:13. Joseph was ‘a man that caused prosperity’ (Gen.39:2, note ‘e’). God sent him before His people to preserve life (Gen.45:5). What was in God’s mind to reveal, not only about Himself but about His bounty and fulness, everything He was going to dispense in His relationship with man, was connected in His mind and in His heart with the exaltation of Christ.
Look at David, for example: was there ever a golden day in the history of Israel like the reign of king David? The kingdom expanded to the river Euphrates; imagine all that country included in the promised land! You might say that it is unimaginable, but these things happened when Israel prospered under someone who spoke to God of Christ, a man after God’s own heart. Under Solomon, there was no adversary or evil event, everyone dwelt under their vine and under their fig tree (1 Kings 4:25). Solomon was not able to keep that up, he introduced taxes and other things which made the people bitter and angry, but think of the wealth that seemed to well up among the people of God. It was all from God’s great store, as David says, “of that which is from thy hand have we given thee”, 1 Chron.29:14. Think of God providing even the means whereby He could be served, God going on and on with man, one generation succeeding another.
And then we find in the gospels the journey of His Son through this world; think of the blessing that was brought. We read of needs that people had that were untouchable. Think of the testimony to John the baptist, incurable maladies reached by the touch of Christ (Matt.11:5). Think of Him feeding the five thousand and the four thousand, raising the dead, healing the blind, touching lepers. You might say that the blessing of God was taking on a wholly new character, reaching closer to the moral needs of man and not just his physical and material needs. Mr Darby says,
‘Poor man his God to know!’ (Hymn 188).
What a God He is! A God who, faced with the indifference and hostility of man away from Himself, nevertheless allows one dispensation of blessing to be succeeded by another.
And so we come to the day in which we are, and that brings me to these two scriptures. I know the scripture in Luke’s gospel has a particular application to the people to whom the Lord Jesus was speaking. It is addressed to the Jews, and it speaks of how, presented with the dispensation of divine blessing that I have just been speaking about, they chose to excuse themselves from it for different reasons. There were things that they were happy to occupy themselves with, which they would not share with this Man, including interestingly a marriage, but God’s response is very interesting. We will look at some of the differences between the two parables I have read; they are not the same parable told in different words, they are different parables, I believe, told on different occasions.
One of the differences is this, that in Luke’s gospel there is only one bondman, and it has been suggested that it is a reference to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come with this testimony that all things are ready and He is behind the testimony to that great truth that is going out now in the gospel. It is the Spirit’s testimony. Think how it has been received, or not received. I remember someone saying once that there has never been a person more sinned against than the Holy Spirit, and here He comes with this invitation to come to a table furnished by God Himself. It is God’s thought to bless other people. There is a selflessness about this story in Luke’s gospel, in that God’s purpose as expressed was simply to confer privilege and blessing and enjoyment on other people. What a heart God has! It is done in such a selfless way. And the Holy Spirit has come bearing witness to what God’s heart is full of, what it is all about. But people made excuses. Have you made an excuse once or twice? It is a humbling thing, is it not? There is no downside to this invitation, there is no ticket or price, there is no condition, there is nothing to lose, and yet we have made excuses; something in our own affairs has claimed priority. You might not like to think that was true of you, but then we are tested practically, are we not? The brethren arrange meetings, opportunities to sit at this table and feast on what God Himself has provided, but it may be that my business comes first. Even at the Supper, it may be that something comes in, some interest that diverts my mind and my affections. I might get away with the brethren not knowing about it, but my heart is not in what God Himself has provided.
The bondman here refers to the Holy Spirit, and I want you to think for a moment about what the servant did next, what the host asked him to do next. He went out “quickly into the streets and lanes of the city”, and when that was not enough to satisfy the greatness of the heart of God, he went “into the ways and fences”. The bondman is not now only commending the benefits of this supper, but compelling people to come in. I think about myself, where was I found; what grace was it on the Holy Spirit’s part to reach me at all? You may say that you were brought up in fellowship, you were right on the doorstep of all this; but that was not how I came: the Holy Spirit has compelled me! And He has done it in wonderful down-stooping grace. Let us admire, let us adore, the way the Holy Spirit has worked. Let us just be frank and honest with ourselves. We were talking at the morning reading about the way Paul placed so much emphasis on this in the epistles. Take the Ephesians; you might say they were sitting at this supper table. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ had been presented to them, all the counsels of God had been unfolded. You might say these must be a different kind of people, there must be something special about them. But Paul says “remember that ye, once nations in the flesh ... were at that time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise”, Eph.2:11,12. Think of that, “and you, being dead in your offences and sins – in which ye once walked according to the age of this world” (v.1). These are the lanes and fences, these are the streets of the city; these are the places where the Holy Spirit has gone. Think of the city of Ephesus, one of the wonders of the ancient classical world, but without a trace of many of the moral values which can still be found where there has been any knowledge of God. And the Holy Spirit has gone abroad in a city like Ephesus, like Birmingham, like London, compelling people to turn from the corruption and darkness and evil, not only of the city but of their own hearts, and come to what God has prepared.
What grace it is, beloved! Scripture speaks for itself about the wonder of the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work. Think of what Paul says to the Corinthians; he says, “these things were some of you … but ye have been sanctified”, 1 Cor.6:11. You might ask if it is possible. Paul says to the Colossians, “you … were alienated and enemies in mind by wicked works”, but he adds, “yet now has it reconciled”, Col.1:21. What a work God has done! When you read on in Ephesians you come to “a habitation of God in the Spirit” (chap.2:22). Those who were afar off have been brought nigh; we have access through Christ and by one Spirit, the same people as Paul speaks of in the beginning of the chapter. They have the same identity, but what a change the Holy Spirit has wrought. Think of the material that God in His grace and in the working of the Holy Spirit has taken up to use. I was thinking of the construction of the tabernacle. It sounds a very wonderful thing and the people were ready to give all that precious material to build a tabernacle. It had all come out of Egypt, it was not all family heirlooms that they had inherited from the patriarchs; much of the material was Egyptian. It had passed under the shelter of the blood and through the Red Sea; it was in that sense redeemed and available to God, but think of God proposing to construct a sanctuary out of material like that. Such is His grace, which we ought to allow to inform all our thoughts about His things. It was a God who acted in grace like that who has given us access to the things that were in His heart to share with us.
I come to the passage in Matthew’s gospel because it is a bit different. Now we have a purpose for the feast. This feast is to honour the king’s son, to honour Christ. It has a purpose, not just for my blessing – it will be my blessing – but it is to honour Christ. I was very touched by what we said in the reading, that there was a time when the Lord Jesus at great cost to Himself, in shame and reproach, has honoured God. He says ““I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17:4. He says in the psalm, “for thy sake I have borne reproach”, Ps.69:7. Think of what the Lord Jesus did for the Father’s glory. He says “I do not seek my own glory”, John 8:50. What a path of suffering it brought Him into. Now the tables will be turned and, in the same world where the Lord Jesus upheld the honour and glory of His Father, God proposes that people should come to the wedding feast He has made to honour Christ.
Are you coming, beloved? Are you going to come to this wedding feast? And now the invitations are not in the hands of just one bondman, but many, or some at any rate. You might be one of them; you could be! The suggestion is not of preachers only, but of those who have ministered the glory of Christ to His people and the richness and bounty of God’s thoughts connected with that glory. We have the distinctive favour of having access to a wonderful legacy and current flow of such testimony; there are bondmen. There have been bondmen during my adult life; hardly any of them are still with us, most of them taken, their journey over, their work complete. There have been those who recovered us to a proper and due appreciation of the glory of Christ and the need for conditions among His people to be such that He is actually glorified among us; that is the Father’s will. It says “they made light of it”. It has been said by some that ministry does not count any more; “they made light of it”. They made light of the testimony that the Father is going to glorify Christ. What a dreadful thing to do. It is a very current question whether I have a thirst for what these bondmen have to say when they bring the tidings that the time is ripe for God to glorify Christ; and that I am expected to be there. The bondmen go on with their work and they bring in evil and good. We do not read that about the Spirit’s service, there is no question about the people that the Spirit brings, but this passage is a bit like the net in Matthew 13, it brought up good and worthless (v.47). There is a variety of people and in a sense it is not for us to judge who might respond to the invitation.
Then there is this person who did not have a wedding garment. We often assume that this man is a beggar who came in rags, but it does not say so. We know how much consideration is given to the way people dress for weddings; whether it is always appropriate to the house of God, I leave. But people are very occupied, when they get an invitation to a wedding, with the way that they are going to present themselves, and the way that they present themselves expresses what they are and what they are thinking in relation to that wedding. I am saying that just as an observation on human nature. So this man might be thought to be someone who had made his own choices about the way he was going to come. That raises a question about those who minister and those who preach. Is it made clear that what the wedding garment suggests will be supplied, or is it implied that the advantages and free offer of grace that the King is making may be taken up on my own terms and in a way that allows me to express what I am and what I think and what my rights are? Is that the way that the invitation might be received by a man like this? Are the bondmen careful to ensure that that is not what is intended and will not be accepted? I am not blaming the preacher or the bondman for the way this man came; he was responsible for it, but it raises an exercise that I leave with the brethren about the way in which the gospel is preached among us. Are we clear that it is not a free gift that anyone can help themselves to on their own terms? Are we clear that the death of Christ is judgment to the old man, and that God is not accepting anything that Christ died to remove? It has no place at this feast.
Would that we had the power and the clarity and the positivity to be able to present God’s Man in this exclusive way, to make Him such an attractive object for the soul that, however proud I might be of what I am and what I have done and where I have been, I am prepared to discard it all. Paul says, “that I may gain Christ” (Phil.3:8), that I might have Him for my gain, “that I may be found in him, not having my righteousness”. Would that ministry led us to that end. Perhaps we should read this parable as if these things were perfectly clearly explained to this man, and yet he made light, when he got the invitation, of the terms on which it was offered and thought he could come on his own terms and in his own way. He drew attention to himself, whether he meant to or not; that was the effect of the way he came and it was quite foreign to the whole thought of God.
So that when we speak about the house of God, it is a house that God wishes to be filled, but He wishes it to be filled on His own terms, bearing in mind that the object of giving us a place in boundless grace in that wonderful place is to honour and glorify Christ.
May He bless the word.
Address at Birmingham
9 January 2016
D.A. Burr