One last time, but today, God's word, Luke 14, beginning in verse 15. When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. But he, that is Jesus, said to him, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for everything is now ready. But they all began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have purchased a field and I must go and see it. Please have me excused. And another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. Please have me excused. And another said, I have 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 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. And the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, in order that my house may be filled. For I tell you, None of those men who were invited and by implication refused, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. I have nothing this morning to say to you who are Christians, not one word, if you're a Christian. I'm speaking this morning to those who are not believers. The unbelieving. As the Bible puts it, the lost. Jesus said, I came to seek and to save that which was lost. To those who do not know nor have ever surrendered their heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are some of you here this morning Perhaps a number that this is true of you. Whether you're four or 40 years old, whether you're eight or 80 or anywhere in between, the unbelieving I'm speaking just to you this morning, specifically from those brief words that the host of the banquet said to his servants, compel them to come in. So this morning, I'm speaking to you, if you're not a Christian, and I'm going to compel you today to come in. I'm speaking to you specifically. And we have a parable here. It's a parable, and we know what a parable is. It's a picture story that teaches a spiritual truth. The parables were about the kingdom of God. This parable is an invitation to a great, amazing banquet. The host of the banquet is who? None other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The banquet is his kingdom. The invited guests are you and I and all who hear. The servants who invite many are gospel messengers, whether that's a pastor, a preacher, evangelist, or you as a Christian, you're a messenger. The servants who invite many are gospel messengers sent by the host to get as many in as possible. The invitation is the announcement of good news and the call to come to the banquet. Now as an unbeliever, you are outside the banquet looking in and you see others eating and smiling and feasting and enjoying the banquet, but you're on the outside. You're not in, you're outside observing. Those are feasting in the banquet while you're outside empty and hungry. When you could have come to the banquet already. So it's not the host's fault. It's not the messenger's fault. Who is it that you're not in the banquet? You. Your fault. So the kingdom of God is like a great banquet. But let's picture it another way. If the kingdom of God were a game, basketball, football, soccer, rugby, whatever, believers are the players in the game. But you've never played and you can never play till you're in the game. The only way to play is to get on the team and get in the game. So you're outside the banquet this morning. You're not a player in the game. You've never been a player in the game. So the language of the text is the kingdom of God is like a great banquet. The banquet is the eternal kingdom of Christ and it is an ongoing feast that never ends. The table is always spread and children of the kingdom are always feasting, always partaking of the delicacies and the delights and the desserts and the manna of the kingdom banquet. And as an unbeliever, you're invited right now to come. Why haven't you? Every believer that you know that's in your life somehow loves you, and they would save you this morning with all your heart. Please come to the banquet now. Do not wait. Don't delay any longer. Every Christian who knows you, they all want you in. And more than us, the Lord Jesus Christ, all your life, as you've heard the truth, has been inviting you. Jesus is calling. The great banquet invitation. The picture here is meant to point you As an unbeliever, one who doesn't know and love Jesus Christ, a non-Christian, it's meant to point you to certain truths about the good news invitation. The good news invitation. and it is the most special invitation one could ever receive, and it's an invitation sent to you personally, a handwritten invitation written with nail-scarred hands in the ink of the blood from those nail-scarred hands. This is a very great banquet. It's not a free meal at Waffle House. It is not a hot dog cookout or a picnic. This is an extremely expensive, extravagant banquet. It's the king's banquet. It's no expense spared kind of banquet. Very lavish, very notable. The banquet of all of history. I want you to notice in verse 16, The invitation. The man who gave this banquet invited many. Think of over history since the Lord Jesus Christ. and his prophets before him, and John Baptist before him. Think how many people over history until this morning, how many, many, many have been invited to this banquet. It's astounding. Billions upon billions. And all who hear are to view it that I am being invited right now by the king to sit at his table. And in fact, those invited, they are expected to come. Do you realize, if you're not a Christian this morning, every time you come to church, every time you hear the gospel, Christ Himself is inviting you all over again, again and again and again. He's inviting you, come to the table. Come to the banquet. Now, for some of you, for years, you have sat under gospel preaching and gospel pleas and gospel invitations and gospel exhortations. And you still continue to ignore, to brush it off, to switch your mind to something else that you like better. And you continue to resist and refuse the imitation. And you keep on saying to Christ in your heart, I will not come. Not yet. I'm not ready. I'm this. I'm that. I'm too embarrassed. What if? And you're saying to Him, I refuse your invitation. Why? And here He is again this morning, inviting you again. Why do you linger when mercy is calling? Why do you halt and you will not move toward Him? When He says, come home, come, come to Me. And then this parable says something very, very specific. If you read down on in the parable, the host sends a servant to say to all who were invited, come for everything is now ready. Things aren't cooking in the oven and they'll be ready two hours from now. Things aren't on the back burner simmering for another 30 minutes. No. When you get a call to a meal at the table, you remember the house, the guests will usually jump up and come. Kids will keep doing what they're doing, and mom or dad will say, y'all were called, come on, it's time to eat. Come, for all things are ready. Everything is prepared. Right now is the only time. Everything that's on the banquet table is now to be received. So come, come now and take your place at the table. Get out of your seat, rise up out of your heart and come at the call. Answer the call of Jesus Christ and enjoy the feast right now. The invitation to the banquet is never, ever for tomorrow. Never for tomorrow, ever. Would to God by His grace today, you would say, I've heard the gospel thousands of times and I have put it off and I am still lost. And I'm presuming on the future, I've got to wake up and come to my senses and humble myself and be honest and say, today, I will come to Christ. Today, I will be saved. Not tomorrow, not tonight. Today, I am going to rise up and go to Jesus Christ because He has said, come and He will receive me. Today. is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation. This means it is immediate and urgent. It's not a light thing to trifle with your soul. It is a slap in the face of the king to do anything else except come to Christ's mercy and grace and sit down at the table and receive his forgiveness. But here's the remarkable thing about this parable. Even though the host is a very, very gracious man, and generous, inviting many to this wondrous banquet." There's only one response given. What was it? Well, you know what it was. The text just clearly says. Jesus tells us what it is. Excuses. Every one of them began to make an excuse. One, first one, he's an investor with business interests. I've purchased some land. and I have to go see it. Well, I guess he bought it online blind and now he has to go look at it. What kind of lame excuse is that? In those days, nobody would have purchased land without seeing it first. Just an excuse that could have waited. He just didn't want to come to the banquet. That's ready now. Another one, a farmer, I bought some oxen and I must go see them. Again, just an excuse that could have waited. Third, a newlywed couple. I've taken a wife and I just got back from my honeymoon. I ain't coming. Newlyweds, love is in the air and so are excuses. The new wife would have loved probably to go to a fancy banquet with her arm through her new husband's arm. How do we know this was all only excuses? Because Jesus said they were all excuses. Even newlyweds do not have an excuse about coming to the banquet. Now, dear ones, my longing this morning for you, if you're not a Christian, is that you would see the reason you are not a Christian yet is because all you have done is excuse yourself from coming. All you've done in your heart or your mind is make excuses. Right now, the Lord is exposing you not being a Christian yet as just an excuse. You have no reason, you have no valid One time a guy was driving on a long trip and a state trooper pulled him over and said, sir, what's your rush? And the guy said, well, I really need to go to the bathroom. And the trooper said, you passed three exits already. The guy was embarrassed. Everything's an excuse if you don't like the news. How many excuses, if you're not a Christian this morning, you know the gospel, you know the truth, how many excuses will you keep making and refuse to come? You're not making them to men. You're not making them to your parents, you're making them in the face of Jesus Christ. Don't blame it on God and have the arrogance to say, He just hadn't saved me yet. He's told you to repent. He's told you to believe the gospel. He's told you to come. Everything's ready. It's on the table. You know the gospel. You know He went to the cross and bore your sins. You know that He died for sinners, and you know you're a sinner. Why are you lingering? Why will you not come? Don't make any more excuses. Your excuses ultimately will put you in hell, and then In hell, the Bible says there's weeping and wailing. And in hell, men will be angry at God forever for putting them there. But hear me this day, you will have no excuse for being angry with God if you go to hell because of your own excuses. Stop. making excuses. Now Jesus said, he told the Jews in John's gospel, he said, you search the scriptures and in them you think you have eternal life, but they point you to me and you won't come to me that you might have life. As a non-Christian this morning, you came here this morning and you know a lot of truth. You know Bible verses. You know a lot of truth. You know the gospel, but you still refuse to come. Why? What good is the truth to you? What good is your Bible to you? What good is the gospel to you if you will not come to Him? We have no valid reasons but only excuses. And if you remain an unbeliever in Providence Chapel for days and weeks and months, like some of you have now longer than that, you will have no excuse before God for being lost. He will justly condemn you. But now, today, God's will and Jesus' desire is that you're saved today. Today, he said it more than once, today's the day of salvation. This very day, you can be saved. This very moment while I'm speaking, you can be saved if you'll bow the knee of your heart and call upon the Lord out of a sincere heart. You can be saved while I'm talking. What excuses apply to you? To every one of them, Jesus says, come to me. I'm too sinful, then come to me. I think I still am not all that bad of a person. Well, you are, so come to me. I don't fit in with anyone. Well, come to me, you'll fit in with me. I feel like I have no real friends. Well, I'm the greatest friend of all, so come to me. I'm lonely and I feel far from everybody. Well, I'll never leave you or forsake you, so come to me. I don't feel loved or valued. I love you perfectly and I've shown you that, so come to me. I'm guilty and worthless. That's who I came to die for. Come to me. No matter what your thoughts are, they're only excuses if they keep you from coming to him. And you need to abandon them all. Abandon every one of them. And without delay, come and welcome to Jesus Christ. Now here's Spurgeon in a sermon about excuses. Spurgeon begins, now, as a sinner under the gospel, now is the acceptable time. Most of my unconverted hearers do not believe this. I know what you're saying, Spurgeon says, you say, I have many thoughts about the Bible and about Christ. So why do you not believe in Christ now, right now? Well, I need to think more about it. What will the result of your thinking be after you've thought a lot? Can you think yourself into salvation? Does the gospel say think and be saved or does it say believe and you will be saved? If the gospel command was think a while and be saved, then I'd give you a month to think about it. But the command is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is accepted time. Spurgeon continues. But I don't feel ready. Will disobeying Christ make you more ready? My heart feels so hard I can't come. So do you think by waiting you can soften your own heart by not coming? Even if your heart is hard, now still is the time to come. I'm gonna wait till later, I'm not convinced enough. Then all you're doing is arguing with Jesus Christ. That's all you're doing. In Ezekiel, two times in a row, I read this week, where God says, enough! Enough! Stop! Israel, stop your rebellion. Stop your idolatry. Stop your unbelief. Have done with it. No more. Stop your excuses. Stop waiting. Stop putting it off for another time. Trust Christ now, and you will be received and accepted by Him today. You have no other day to be saved. You have no other opportunity except the day in which you're living when Christ is speaking to you now. Come to me now. Just as you are. Come to me now. Trust Christ now. And you will be saved. Now we see something else in the parable. With the rejection of the invitation, see verses 21 through 23. With the rejection and the excuses about the invitation comes a new urgency. Verse 21, go out quickly. So there's the urgency. to the servants. Guys, we got to ramp this up. The banquet is ready. It's time. You go out quickly into the streets and you bring them in. It says, bring them in. Don't just invite them, bring them in. Bring in the poor people, the crippled people, the blind people, and those who can't even walk. Carry them in, bring them in quickly. There's a new urgency in this hurry because I want my house filled. Think of it, beloved. If you're not a Christian today, Jesus wants you in his house. He wants you to be among the numbers. Why do you want to be outside looking in when you can be in the banquet, feasting with those who have partaken already? Why would you tarry and linger outside when he wants you to be in the numbers of those who are true Christians? So the host says, find some, find any who will come now and make sure some get in. That's what missions is about, that more will get in. That's what church planning is about, that more will get in. That's what nursing home ministry is about, that more will get in. Some of those people are lingering and they're gonna die soon. Phillip remembers, Linda remembers the story when I would speak to those senior adults and those in the nursing home side, and I would be honest with them. You're at the end of the journey. Some of you are going to die very soon, and you are not ready. The Lord says, hurry and go out, I want my house filled. I'm speaking this message this morning, and I'm speaking this way this morning, because I want to make sure you get in. I may have never met you personally, but I truly, deeply want you to get in. Why would you be left out when your mom or dad are in? Why would you be left out, mom or dad, if your children are in and you're on the outside? None of those who were invited will get in because they wouldn't come. So, speaking to you as an unbeliever, what's your response today going to be? Will this be the day you say, I will not put this off anymore in my life? Not tomorrow, not next week, today. Do you truly need to come to Him? Just answer that question to yourself in your heart. Do you presume you have come to Him? But it's possible that you have never. You've grown up in a Christian home. You've been baptized. You presume you're saved. But there's, in the heart of hearts, in the privacy of your life, there's no passion for Christ. There's no freedom to love and worship Him. You're all bound up with religious behavior. And you have no true assurance of salvation. Why would you let your pride rob you of facing your lostness? And to be able to say to someone, at least to Jesus, I've only been a hypocrite. Lord, I'm not real. Have mercy on me, a sinner. Stop your delay and come. Spurgeon again one morning, he said to his congregation, In the presence of God, I would that some of you decide this very morning, right where you're sitting, that you will come to Jesus Christ and trust Him immediately. No one this morning should leave this room unsaved. Some of you know you're lost. Some of you presume you're saved and you're lost. Don't go to sleep tonight unconverted. I am compelling you, pleading with you. Stop your delay and come. Christ is speaking through me now to you to come. So go to Him. Get to Him. Run to Him. Trust in Him, bow the knee to Him, cry out to Him. Is it clear to you that He desires you to come? So why would you not? Has He made it clear that He wants you to come? So why would you not? What will He do if you come? He will embrace you in His arms. What do you stand to gain if you come? Everything. What do you stand to lose if you don't? Everything. Your soul. If you're lost this morning, there is no place to go. There's no hiding place. There's no refuge in this world. There's no escape. Except one hiding place. and one refuge, and you know where, and you know to who, and you know how. And he says, come. With tender heart and truthful words, he says, just come to me. just as you are, come and hide in me today, now, not tomorrow, this very hour. All can come. Well, what if I'm excuse? All can come. All who can come are to come. Well, what if, excuse, just come. At Daniel and Rachel's wedding yesterday, we sang to God be the glory by Fanny Crosby. The second stanza is so wonderful. Oh, perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer, the promise of God, the vilest offender, the most religious person, the sweetest little child, the nice sinner, the mean sinner, the homeschooling mother sinner, the hardworking dad sinner, the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. What are you doing with his invitation? What is the invitation? Just come. No works, no changing yourself, no hesitating, no figuring it out, no logic, just come. God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son says it several times. They say it throughout the Bible. Isaiah said, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the water and drink. He who has no money, come and eat. Jesus, all through his ministry, was calling out, crying out, coming to me, all ye who, let the children come to me. Children can come. You children today, you've never come and you fear, you struggle with it, you're timid, you're afraid, you're looking to your mom and dad. Don't look to them, they can't save you. Jesus said, let the little children come to me. So just go to him, tell him, tell him you want him. Tell Him you believe He died for your sins, that He died for you as a sinner, and you're trusting only in what He did for you. Tell Him. Whoever comes to me, Jesus says, will not be turned away, will not be rejected. From the 1960s to the 1980s, at least, maybe into the 90s, in Clarendon, Texas, there was a restaurant, Mrs. Bromley's Fine Dining. An old big house, you go in the door, two big dining rooms on your left and on your right, with the legendary Ma Brumley welcoming everyone in. Her son Pete was my middle school football coach and Linda and my history teacher. He was about as wide as he was tall. And he could put the fear of God in you just by looking at you. But then he would smile because you knew he cared about you. His mother, Ma Bromley, owned and ran Mrs. Bromley's Fine Dining for decades. Now there was no menu, no menu, just a buffet, one buffet line. And the food was always the same thing. The finest fried chicken that never tasted greasy, but it was amazing. And the roast beef was the tenderest, in the most succulent. Of course, when you're younger, you know, things tasted better, right? I remember the days when I was a teenager that a Big Mac actually tasted good. No more. But Mrs. Bromley's, the homemade rolls, the mashed potatoes and green beans were so quality. And the cinnamon rolls and peach cobbler, it was all really unbelievably good. People would fly in from the Metroplex to Clarendon, or from Lubbock to Clarendon. There was actually a little airstrip. They'd fly in on Sunday to eat there and go home. It was good. And two young boys lived in Clarendon, friends of Mack and Linda. Their names were John and Kent. John was the son of the local doctor and he lived right across the street from Mrs. Bromley's fine dining room. And John and Kent started going over there for dinner. And Mrs. Bromley would see them and then she would say, hello boys, dinner's on me, y'all eat. And they kept coming. even though they had no money. They had no money. Were they presuming? Yeah, probably. I mean, what if Mrs. Brumley isn't here tonight, and what if she doesn't come by and say dinner's on me? A little risky. They kept coming. They came without money to Ma Brumley's. You know why? because they knew and believed that her very gracious continuing invitation was true and sincere. So loving and giving was her heart. The invitation was always coming to them. And because of that one reason, they came and they dined often and they never regretted it. Well, today John Moore lives south of Fort Worth and John and I stay in touch. He's a Christian. Whenever I remind him of Ma Brumley, he smiles and he remembers. Listen, a greater than Ma Brumley is here this morning. And what he offers to you today for the taking is so far exceedingly better than any food she ever cooked. And He tells you today, come to My fine dining. Get in the game. Come to the banquet. Jesus is tenderly calling you home. Calling today. Calling today. Today is the only time for salvation. What will you do today? This is more important than what you have for lunch, or who you're with this afternoon, or what you read tonight, or what you do tonight. Do not, do not put this off anymore. Cry out to Jesus, and He will receive you and have mercy on you, forgive you, and then you're in the banquet, you're in the game. Come and welcome to the lover of your soul, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come now. Come without delay to him. Let's bow in prayer. We're just going to wait before the Lord in prayer here. And you are to come to Jesus Christ right now as we're before him. You are in his presence. He's speaking to you. Turn your heart to him and go to him. Tell him, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Save me by your grace. Lord Jesus, save the lost in this room today. Honor your word, honor the gospel, honor your name, and save today. Thank you, Father. Amen. We're going to stand and sing again.