Could a mariner sit idly by if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle that men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned? That's Leonard Ravenhill. We're in Luke 14 tonight. And due to the nature of our service, we will be considering the subject of evangelism. And I understand that I'm jumping in here to the middle of a parable. And we'll not take the time in this instance to explain and walk through the whole parable. I just want to offer some thoughts here from this one verse in Luke 14, 23, as we consider our duty to compel sinners to come in to God's house. Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you? I think Leonard Ravenhill had some zingers. One of the things he said before was, the problem with the church today is it really doesn't believe in hell. What he meant by that is, if we actually believed in hell, would we not be ever more zealous in evangelism? So many people we come into contact with on a daily, weekly, monthly, regular basis, We have so many other things to talk about. Trivial matters. Who's going to be the next head coach at Arkansas? What about the big buck you killed? How about this cold front coming in? We have so many things to talk about, but yet we are not desirous to tell of our Lord Jesus Christ. So in Luke 14, 23, in the midst of this parable, Jesus says this. And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. Again, I understand. I get it. This is part of a parable. And there is more that we can talk about here. There is the point of the Jews rejecting Jesus and Christ compelling His disciples to gather in the Gentiles and amen and all that is quite important. But I think there's enough here in verse 23 to encourage us, perhaps challenge us, convict us tonight. The first thing I want to talk about is the relationship. Number one, the relationship. So there are two subjects, well actually three if you will, if you want to consider the people that are being compelled to come in. But there are two main subjects here in verse 23. There is A, the master, and B, the servant. Number one, the master, And secondly, the servant. So we need to understand the relationship. The master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. We're trying to understand, first of all, the relationship. There is a master and there is a servant. The Master points us to Christ. The Servant is the Church. Understand the roles here. The Servant doesn't command the Master. The Master commands the Servant. And so if you want to think about one fundamental reason why we must do evangelism, There's lots of good reasons. We want to see our loved ones in heaven. We want our nation to be a better nation. We want our church to be full. We have pity and compassion on poor sinners. All of those are good motivations. They're not wrong. Amen. Wonderful. But you want to know the number one motivation is this. God commends us. Why must we evangelize? Because we're not the master, we're the servant. The master says to the servant, this is the relationship. We must go because we're told to go. We are commanded. In fact, I would say this, to not evangelize is to commit or is to have a sin of omission. not doing what God has told us to do. I didn't come up with this, but I think people have kind of had this trite, hopefully not irreverent saying, it's evangelize or fossilize, right? But even more significant and more important than that is we evangelize because we're told to evangelize. We'll talk a little bit later too about the doctrine of election and predestination and the sovereignty of God. And people all the time like to rail at Calvinists or those who believe in Reformed theology, Reformed Baptists like us, like to say, well, if God's already chosen who he's gonna save, then why tell anybody about Jesus? Well, there's lots of reasons I can give, lots of good, logical, biblical reasons I can give, but I could also just say this, I evangelize because I'm told to. This is what the master says. This is the relationship. master and servant. Christ is king and we are but lowly servants. Secondly, responsibility. First, relationship. Second, responsibility. There are two imperatives in the text. So the text says, and the master said to the servant, and now he's going to give two commands. Go, that's the first one, go out to the highways and hedges and, second command, compel people to come in. Two imperatives. This is the responsibility of the church. So he's the master, we're the servant, and this is what he has told us to do. Number one, go. Go where go to the out to the highways and the hedges go out Get out of the mentality to try to get people to come in again. We talked about this morning. It's okay To invite people to church. It's okay if unbelievers come in to this meeting. That's okay. But what we've got to move away from is that that is the be-all, end-all of our evangelism. It is not. Evangelism is not come and see. It is go and tell. It is an imperative here. Go! Go where? Go, the text says, out to the highways and hedges. That is, outside what is comfortable. Outside the city. Get out of the safety and familiarity of the city. The people in the city, they've been invited in this parable. Now it's time to go out. Leave no stone unturned. Leave no ditch unexplored. Proclaim to the brothels and to the bars. Knock on every door. Christ is King. Go! Go! What else do we have to do? But to obey and to listen and have compassion, we are to go. The second imperative, though, is with our going, that's quite a strong word, compel. Go, the text says, out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in. The strong word, it actually, actually commentators when they're commenting on this, they actually work to soften the word because the word in and of itself could have the idea of forceful compulsion, right? Like you could read this maybe and you could think, Well, let's go out with our guns and our clubs and our swords and our knives. You want to get people to come in? I know how to do that. I can force them. But we understand from the totality of Scripture, that's not what Jesus is saying. But He is using a strong word on purpose, I would add, because we sincerely, truly, really are to compel sinners to come in to God's house, to come to Christ. The weapons of our warfare are law and gospel. It is the preaching of the Word of God by the Holy Spirit. But understand here, it's not a cold, dispassionate preaching. It's not a cold, unfeeling, unconcerned, I'm standing out on the corner, I'm passing out tracts, yeah, you may want to read this, yeah, Merry Christmas, you might want to know what the true meaning of Christmas, hey, you know, no. It's actual Compassion towards sinners. A true surrender to the glory. the majesty of Christ, and it is proclaiming His word, what I said earlier, both law and gospel. Law, that is, God has commanded the world to do this, and you have left it undone, and you've done the opposite, you've broken His law, and you deserve His judgment. Man was created upright and good, very good, says at the end of Genesis 1. And you had man and woman, you had Adam and Eve, And yet Adam fell, Eve fell with him, all mankind fell with him, and we have been held guilty of Adam's sin, and then as soon as we are able, we sin in and of ourselves, and we are held condemned. The law stands over us and condemns all humanity. And if nothing changes, then we understand that we will meet God in righteous wrath and judgment. But we don't just proclaim the law, we proclaim the gospel. And this time of year is a beautiful time. All year is a beautiful time to proclaim Christ. This time of year particularly we say, you know what? It's not just about a baby in a manger. This ties together the whole scriptures. He is the promised one. from of old. He is the promised one from Genesis chapter 3. He is the one that the prophets and the law and all the writings, He's the one that they're all pointing to. It's Christ, truly God and truly man, fulfilling all righteousness, born of the Virgin Mary, doing what God's law says to do and refraining from what God's law says not to do. He never sinned, fulfilling all righteousness. And then He dies the death that we deserve. dying under the wrath of God, as a substitute for His people, bearing our sins in His body on the tree, 1 Peter 2.24, dying, being laid in the tomb, heart stops beating, breath, lungs stop breathing, mind stops thinking. He dies in His humanity. And on the third day, He rises again from the dead. But the text says that we are to go and we are to compel. We are to warn sinners of the coming judgment, but we don't just preach law. We also plead with them to partake of the offer of the gospel that is what Christ has done. How could we be so cold, not only to the glory of God, but also cold to our family and our friends and our neighbors, knowing that they are bound for an eternity under the wrath of God and suffering and terrible misery and plight? And we have the answer. You've heard these analogies before. What would you say today if it came out that for the last 20 years, some company had the cure to diabetes, the cure, save little children, could have done it for 20 years, and they sat on that information in order to make money? What would you say of that company? You would rightly be incensed, outraged, Furious, you wicked company. How could you do this to people? Friends, as wicked as that is, how wicked is it for a church to sit on the gospel? We are to go and we are to compel. And tonight you have a very easy, an easy win, I think, for the church. And that is, we're just gonna write letters. We're gonna write a Christmas card. We're gonna write a little note and just say, it might be to your next door neighbor. It might be to your hairdresser. It might be to your aunt. It might be to your brother. It might be to the man that bags your groceries. I don't even know if they have those people to do that anymore. That's a bit antiquated. But you understand, it might be someone you know in town, it might be someone you met last week, it might be someone you know for 20 years, but you're just going to lay it out there and say, you know what? It's Christmas time, I've written you a letter, and I want to tell you about what God has done for your sins in Christ. What an easy win that is tonight for us. To be partially, at least, obedient to this command. To go and to compel. And then there's a third point here. the relationship, the responsibility. Thirdly, the reason. The text just says it this way. And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that, that my house may be filled. What is the reason? That my house may be filled. Look at verse 22. Actually, I'll start back in verse 21. So 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. And the servant said, Sir, what you have commanded has been done, and still there is room. Still there is room. So the master says to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. Now here's the reality that happens when you talk about Calvinism and predestination and reformed theology and reformed Baptists and all these things. And people say, well, you people, you can't really be evangelistic because God's already has it already worked out. He's already predestined it, so it's no point in you even doing any of these things. Well, first of all, I would say this. A, historically, that's verifiably false. You can go back and you can look at the history of the church, and you can find the most evangelistic men and women of history of the church have held to Reformed soteriology. But secondarily, These realities do not conflict at all. Total depravity, unmerited favor, limited atonement, irresistible grace, the perseverance of the saints, the classic five points, as it were, of Reformed soteriology, these things do not contradict what I believe the Bible teaches as the well-meant offer of the gospel. You are not to look at any person and say to them, well, I don't know if God really would save you. The answer is, God would save any sinner who would come to Christ. Our Baptist forefather, Benjamin Keech, put it this way, let as many as will come unto Christ, yet there is still room for more in God's heart. Sorry, there's still room for more. In God's heart is room enough for millions of souls, and in God's house, there is not only bread enough and to spare, but room enough also. You say to sinners, you say to those you're writing to, you say to this December as you share the gospel and maybe pass out tracts and be intentional about having a conversation with a coworker or with a neighbor or with a family member, you say into your mind and maybe into your heart, is there room for this person? Can this person come in? And you may be tempted to use Reformed theology as a way to counteract your evangelism. Say, well, if God is going to do it, well, He's just going to do it, and that's just how it is. But if that's what you think, you don't understand Reformed theology. You do not understand it rightly. Because Reformed theology says this, yes, before the foundation of the world, God has elected a people in Christ to save out of the mass of fallen humanity. That number is fixed. It's not going to change. Of course, amen. That's just what the Bible teaches. But it also teaches this, that God works through means. He hasn't only predestined the end, but also the means for how to get there. And we can go to every single soul with a sincere, well-meant offer of the gospel and say, you, sir, the house still has room. It still has room. There's room for you. There's room for you. But you must believe. You must believe. And we're writing this evening after the preaching. We'll be writing. We'll be writing a letter to our friends, our family, our neighbors, our people in town. We'll be writing letters. And what you need to know is as we write these letters, there's room for them in the house. But they must be born again. They must repent and believe the gospel. They must trust Christ. This is the reason that we are to go. This is the reason that we are to compel that the house of the Lord may be filled. And we know that this is a parable, but let's point to the church. We know that ultimately the church of God is the house of God. And we ought to have a great desire, do you not? If Calvinism or Reformed theology makes you complacent, you don't understand it. Aren't we, of all people, most zealous to see the fruition of God's plan come to be? Aren't we, of all people, the most desirous to see The church built up to all that it's supposed to be. Don't we desire to see our friends and our neighbors and every person in Perry County saved? And you say, yeah, but if God hasn't worked it out that way, then it's not going to happen. Well, that is true. Certainly, obviously, that's true. But I want to tell you something. God hasn't revealed that to us for a reason. Because those things belong to God and not to us. And I wanna tell you something, we have no biblical warrant not to desire the salvation of every single soul in Perry County. At last time I checked, there was like 10,182 souls or something in Perry County, small county. We have no reason, we have no biblical warrant to say that not all 10,183 of them may be saved. How do I know that? Because the Bible says that I'm to go out and I'm to compel them to come in. Might all of them be saved? They might. I can tell you how, by the grace of God, through the preaching of the gospel, and by His grace in their life, and their repentance of sin, and turning to Christ, they will be saved. There's never been a sinner that's come to Christ that hasn't been saved, that's truly put their faith in Christ, that God has cast out. We take the gospel to every single one of them. Now, I know, I understand, I get it. Maybe all 10,183 or whatever would reject Christ. That's certainly a possibility. But I've said this many times in preaching. I've said it to you. I've said it out there. I've said it to people. I'm just going to believe until God shows me otherwise that God loves Perry County, Arkansas. Why would I say that? Why would God, of all the places in the world, put a Reformed Baptist church with an evangelistic heart and a desire to see the nation saved? Why would he drop that church right here in Perry County, Arkansas, if God did not have a plan for the peoples of this county? I'm just gonna believe that. I'm gonna believe that until I die. And when I die and God says, you got it wrong, or if God were to say that to me, I would say, so be it, blessed be your name. The judge of all the earth will do right. But I'm going to believe that God is going to fill his house with many people from Perryville and this county, but we cannot be fainthearted. We cannot grow weary in well-doing. We must do what we are commanded to do. The master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. I want you to think about You're December. It's amazing to think about tomorrow's December 1st. I want you to think about the people you come into contact with. I want you to think about those that you see in your place of business or in your work or your family members or the people you just see out and about. And I want you to think, and maybe even the person you're gonna write the letter to, I want you to have this thought in your mind. If you don't tell them the gospel, You see that person at work tomorrow, you know they had a rough weekend, probably a weekend of drugs, or maybe it was a weekend of they had to take the kids to their, the other parent's house or whatever. Or maybe it's a weekend of melancholy and depression. Or maybe they're really wrapped up in the sports and the way that their team performed this weekend caused them to just get drunk and have a terrible time. I just want you to think for just a moment and understand, when you see them tomorrow, I hope that God would encourage you with this, but if necessary, convict you with this. I hope that when you see them tomorrow, that this thought would come into your mind. If I don't tell them the gospel, Who's going to do it? Here you are. And I don't believe that we're the healthiest church that we can be. We've talked about things. We need to grow. We do need to have deacons and we need to grow and mature. I get all that. But I do believe that we are a healthy church. And God's put you in a healthy church with healthy pastors and healthy teaching and healthy doctrine and sound preaching and all of these things. But God hasn't done this idly. This is not just only for you, but it's so that You, whatever it is at your place, can tell others about Christ. If you don't tell them, who will? That the house of the Lord may be filled. You'll talk to them about so many trivial things. But will you talk to them about their soul? The purpose of this message tonight is to exhort us to not sit at ease in Zion with the world around us damned. Maybe even tonight there's a phone call you need to have. Maybe you need to be resolved tomorrow to have that conversation, even if it's a difficult conversation, to compel them to come in, to go out to the highways and hedges and plead with sinners to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Now tonight, tonight is not a be all, end all. It's not, well, I did my one letter a year and I fulfilled the Great Commission. At the same time, I want you to be encouraged. Tonight is not nothing. It's not nothing. We're going to write letters. We're going to send those letters. I mean, there'll be stamps. You can mail them if you need to, or you can deliver them yourself. But I don't want you to think that it's nothing. The gospel is never preached in vain. You're not sharing the gospel in vain. You have to understand tonight that as you write that letter, as you think about the person that you're gonna share the gospel with, you need to understand that God very well may use this very effort through the gospel to bring sinners to Christ. So you need to be careful in your letter to actually share the gospel. Share what the law of God says about us, that we are sinners. Share the hope of what Christ has done. Born of the Virgin Mary, keeping the law of God, perfect righteousness, dying on the cross as our sin-bearer to substitute, bearing God's wrath, making atonement, making propitiation, rising again from the dead. And then be sure, and you have to share what it is they must do. We're not just sharing facts. But this is also compelling. You, sir, you, ma'am, you must put your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. You must turn from your sins and rest in Christ as your only suitable and all sufficient Savior. Church, may we heed the text. The master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. This is the relationship, master and servant, the responsibility to imperatives go and compel and the reason that my house may be filled. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness and mercy to us. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to sit under the preaching of your word, but may we not take it for granted. May we understand, O God, that to whom much is given, much is required, and you've given us much, you require much of us, but it's all a joy for the believer. Lord, help us tonight as we write the letters, Lord, we pray you'd bless them and you'd bless the people that they go to. They open hearts, oh God. But may this be more than just some sort of event. We're not just writing letters and checking it off a box, but we want to be evangelistically minded. We don't want to sit idly by while the world around us is under your condemnation. Oh God, I wish there were more people here tonight. But would you work through those who are? May this not be just gimmicks or empty exhortations. Please, oh God, help Providence Baptist Church to be ever more evangelistic for the right reasons. We pray it all in Jesus' name, amen.