Amen. The parable of the great supper, as already intimated, was given in response to a remark made by one who was sitting at the table or at the dinner along with Christ in the house of one of the chief Pharisees. In verse 15, as we've already read, he blurted out and interrupted the Lord and said, blessed or happy, happy is the man or the woman that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. In other words, happy is the one who shall sit down at the married supper of the Lamb. Happy would be the one who would be in heaven forevermore and would feast on the grace and mercy of God at the table of His so great salvation. Now, most commentators, and I agree with them, most commentators agree that the one who made this statement was of that class of people in our Lord's day and in our own day. who talk about heaven, and they love to hear about heaven, and they desire to be in heaven, but that's as far as they go, for they never actually enter into the kingdom of God. They remain outside it. And so this man was really a hypocrite. who wanted to impress those around him, to appear to be spiritual and godly and to desire heaven as a desire, but never enter in. Because if he had have entered in, the Lord would have says, you're right. And then he would address the multitude and those in the house. But he spoke to this man who really desired to be in heaven, who longed to hear about the kingdom of God. And he enjoyed what the Lord was saying about the kingdom of God. but he never entered in himself. He never took the step of faith and entered in and became a child of God. He believed that being a Jew, somehow he would be blessed and sit down in heaven in the kingdom of Christ and in his gospel. So the Lord takes the opportunity to remind him and those that are in that room and sitting around that table, and those that are outside the house who could literally hear what he was saying, that men will have the kingdom of God offered to them, and yet they may willfully neglect to enter in and be lost in hell forevermore. means the Lord used to convey that truth to those people and future generations was known as the parable of the great supper and therefore I want to take it in that context biblically preaching it in its context and then in its wider application to the nations the parable of the great supper In this parable, I want you to think, first of all, of the gracious provision there is here in the parable. And look at verse 16. A certain man made a great supper. Now, I want to tell you, our ladies on family nights have put on a fantastic spread. And we've often said, that's a great supper. But that is nothing to what this supper is going to be. There are times whenever we have had our seniors meeting and the meal has been provided, a three-course meal, and they have sat down and afterward they said, that was a great meal. Well, I want to tell you, it's nothing like this provision. in the gospel. And furthermore, there are individuals who at our church dinner coming up to Christmas, and the hall was packed with individuals, and the meal was beautiful, and many people says, that was a great meal, and I really enjoyed that food. I would say 99.9% said that. You'll always get the one probably. But that was nothing. The word great here is the Greek word megas. from which we get our English word mega. And you know what mega means. And if our young people don't know what mega means, I'll tell you what it means. You've heard of the megabyte, the gigabyte, but the megabyte, it's a unit of measure, or it's a unit of memory that a computer uses. It's equal to one million bytes, and it's called a megabyte. You've heard of a megastructure. It's vast. I saw a video recently of a place in China, a village that has cost, or a city that they've made, that has cost 73 billion pounds. 73 billion. And the streets are empty. There's hardly a soul lives in it. And it's called a megacity. You've heard of a mega horn or a megaphone. Well, you'd have to go back into the 50s. It's just to make a massive horn that really magnifies sound, and it puts it on a scale that you've really never heard. We have it today with speakers where you can say if someone's shouting, they're like a megaphone. You've heard what the word mega means. Well, that's where we get our English word mega from, this word great in the Greek, and it means megas, huge. Massive, it means abundant. You could not add to it. You couldn't bring anything. When this was being prepared, you don't bring anything. You bring it to the suppers in this house. You help out, you provide, but this has been provided and it's on a mega scale. A certain man made a great supper. There's not the like of it in all of God's creation. And the reference in the first place and the primary application is to the Jews. The Lord was speaking to the Jewish nation. to religious leaders that were sitting around the table, and to one of the chief Pharisees, and no doubt a doctor, and a lawyer, and a scribe was there. And there were other individuals of importance and influence among the Jews. And the Lord spoke the parable to them. A certain man made a great supper, just as this man has prepared the supper for all of us. And look at it. The poor outside don't get this. spread on the table. Look at what the spread on the table. It's the best and in a sense, we can say this has a has been a good spread on the table. but a certain man and they were focused. The eye was focused on the meal. They sat at meat. They sat at dinner. A certain man made a great supper, a huge supper, a mega even imagine. And he says he bade many. And then he says he sent his servants out to call them to the supper. That was the first time. And then he sent them out the second time. That's implied in the text here. He says, now come, you've already been invited. The supper is now ready. So come. It's like sending the invitation out to the wedding. And saying, there's your invitation. A few months before the wedding. And then near the time, we need to make sure you've got your reply in, that you are coming. There are no excuses. There are no people going to let us down on the day. And the supper was the gospel that was first preached and presented during the earthly ministry of Christ to the Jewish nation. And the Bible says, one by one, they began to make excuse, and the excuses were ridiculous. And Christ then says in the parable, and the Jews understood, that's why they took up stones at times to stone him. And they wanted to put him to death because of what he said against them. And they perceived in their spirit that he spoke the word against them. And they carried it to the Sanhedrin. And it says, you know what he said when he was sitting at the table of the chief Pharisee? Let's say his name was Isaac. Let's say his name was Joshua. Do you know what he said sitting in Joshua's house? He says that there's a certain man, and he made a great supper, and he bade many, and they, one by one by one, they made excuse, and then he turned from them, and he went out into the hedges and highways to the unclean. He went out to the maimed and the halt, and those that we feel are cursed of God, and he brought them in, and they got the supper, and we were excluded, and he was talking about the nation of the Jews. the land of Israel, the chosen people, the so-called seed in the flesh of Abraham. And we are cast out. What sort of man is that? What sort of Messiah would reject his own people, would cast us out of the kingdom, that we would never be in heaven? And then he would turn to Gentile dogs, pagans, heathens, outcasts, that we would never sit at the table with. and he would invite them in, and not only would he invite them in, but when there was more room, he went out and got the worst of society, and he brought them in, and we were excluded. And the Lord reminds them that he is the sum and the substance of the gospel supper. That's why the word great is used. You see, the word great can never be really used of a human being. We often say he's a great man, but that's not true, that adjective. can never be used properly of a sinner. If you follow it in scripture, you will find that the reference properly is to Christ. Remember what Paul writing to Hebrew believers said, how shall we escape if we neglect so great? Salvation. You see, the adjective is only properly used when it's used against God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the work of redemption and salvation. And I know we can use it. I know that in a loose way. But I say to you, primarily it's used, the sum and substance, the great work of Christ is the gospel supper. That's what it is. It's to feed on him, feast on him. It's to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood spiritually, as the Lord reminded us in John chapter six. God's provision was made for sinners at Calvary. When Christ suffered, bled, died, and rose again for our sins and justification. Now all are bidden. All are bidden to the gospel supper. And those who refuse, those who reject, those who make excuses, they're cast out into outer darkness. And the Lord says, verse 24 of this reading, he says, none of them which were bidden shall taste of my supper. None of them, not one will taste of my supper. and so all that a hungry soul needs, all that a thirsty soul requires, all that is necessary to enter heaven and have eternal life and peace with God has been provided in the mega supper, in the great work of Christ, in the finished work. And for a man to come and take the crumb of baptism and to think that would get him to heaven and satisfy his soul for all eternity, I to take you to the sour and blue mold bread of confirmation and eat that to your soul. It's like taking poison into your soul and it will damn the soul in hell if you're trusting in the works of the church. You see, who can fully describe the dainties that the Lord has spread at the table? I don't know if you've ever dined with the rich. I haven't, I haven't. But even the cutlery, And the Delph, is that what you call it? Maybe you say, you definitely haven't. It's not Delph. It's definitely not. That's what you get in the charity shop. Well, that's what I grew up, that's what it was called. But the dinnerware, or whatever you call it, and the fancy napkins, wow, and the way they tie them and shape them different animals. You ever seen that? What for? To stop gravy getting on your shirt. And it doesn't matter to me whether it's a swan or whether it's meant to be a duck or a little dog with a tail, the napkin, it's wrapped out, stuck on the neck and tie, and it keeps the gravy from the shirt, and it keeps my wife from shouting at me. You have spilt gravy again. She did it the day at the table and says, that's you. I mean, it wasn't, but it was all around my plate, all around the area I was sitting, so I couldn't deny it, and it was. But you know something? If you have sat with the filthy rich and dined with them the way they do in the White House, The way they do in Buckingham Palace. The finest food, the best of chefs. But I tell you something, no matter how good that looks or even would appeal to your flesh, there's nothing like the gospel supper. What dainties there are at this table. And the Lord spread them for the Jewish nation. And the Lord bid them come and sit down and draw up the chair. How homely and sweet and beautiful is that? Draw up the chair. Take your seat at the gospel table. For all things are now ready. It's a free meal. It's on the table. And what deities there are there, this is what they rejected. This is what they turned their backs on. This is what they made excuses to do other things for. The table was fully laden with Christ, the sinner's substitute, the one who suffered, bled, and died for the punishment of our sins. His blood was on the table. that would give us peace with God and cleanse away a lifetime of sin. The payment for sin and the sorrows and sufferings, the agony and anguish, the penalty and pain for our sin that Christ endured was on the table. That's what we feed on for salvation. That's the gospel supper, the finished work, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, his resurrection from the dead, his love for sinners, his mercy, his grace, his peace, his pardon. Oh, we could literally lay this table with all the gospel deities. and the chair of faith can be drawn by the sinner, and you can sit at the table without making an excuse, and you can enjoy God's eternal supper. You can feast on Christ and all that he has done. It's spread in love, and mercy, and grace, and what a provision there is. We thought of it, there's a gracious provision, and the Jews rejected it. And the Lord said to the Jewish nation, None of them that were bidden shall taste of my supper. It's a terrible thing to reject the Lord. There's not only a gracious provision in the parable, but there's a glorious invitation. Notice what it says in verse 17. It says, come for all things are now ready. As I said to you, the invitation was given twice, twice the number of witness in scripture. Christ is witnessing now to generations to come the rejection of the Jews of his salvation. You notice in verse 16, it says that he made a great supper and he bade many. He sent out the invitation and told them what he was doing. and what he would do, what he would provide. Christ did that in the Old Testament, right through the seed of Abraham, right from the patriarchs, right from Adam, right through the godly messianic line. And Christ opened up the scriptures and he showed them from the Old Testament where the invitation has been given out and succeeding generations rejected the Lord and turned their backs on Jehovah, God of Israel. And when the Messiah came, this is the second time, when God himself came in the person of his son, and he bade many in Israel to turn from their sin, to repent, and to believe on him, they rejected him. And the Lord says, come. So in verse 16, he says, he bade many. The invitation went out in the Old Testament. And then when the Lord was on earth, in the days of his flesh, personally, God himself came and made an invitation to the children of Israel for three and a half years. Think of it, three and a half years. And when he says, come, all things are now ready. He was about to go to the cross. Come quickly. All things are now ready. The table spread. You see, one of God's favorite words in the Bible is this word, come. You have it here in verse 17 of Luke 14. for all things are now ready. This word is used with great frequency in the Bible. The first mention of that invitation word, come, is in Genesis 7 and 1, where God said to Noah, he says, come thy and all thy house into the ark. Come now, come thy, and all thy house into the ark. The last time it's ever used is in Revelation chapter 22 and the verse 17, where we read the final invitation, the final use of the word come in invitation, when he says, and the spirit and the bride, that's this church, so I could read it like this, the spirit and the church say come. And let him that heareth say come. And let him that heareth say come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. This was the same word. that was used over 600 times in your Bible, from the Old to the New Testament, from Genesis to Revelation, 600 times and over, this word of invitation is used. I tell you, it's one of God's favorite words. Aren't you glad tonight that the favorite word of God is not depart? Leave me. Depart from me, ye cursed. His favorite word is come. What a God of love and mercy. I've made provision in the gospel supper. Now come, all things are now ready. It's not only used with great frequency, but it's used with great clemency. The Lord speaks the word with mercy, love, and grace, and compassion. and benevolence. It was the same word that the Lord used to call Peter onto himself. You remember what he said to Peter when he saw him and his brother who were fishermen, they left their nets and they followed him. He used the word come, he says, come, follow me. It was the same word that he used to call Zacchaeus to himself when he was up that tree looking to see Christ. And he says to Zacchaeus, come down. Make haste, come down, for today I must abide at thy house. It was the same word the Lord used in Matthew 11, when he had multitudes before him, and he says, come unto me, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. You remember the last day of the feast, the Jews added a lot of tradition into the feasts of Israel, and one of them, one of them at the Feast of Tabernacles, one of them was literally to go to the pool of Siloam and to gather water. and to take the basin of water, and then to bring it to the temple. And on the last day of the feast, just as they were pouring out the water, it was just a tradition, just a tradition, remembering their goodness of God and supplying water in the wilderness, and remembering that God is the water of life. Just at that precise moment, at the last day of the feast, at the last hour, the last moment, when the last act of Jewish tradition, it wasn't required in law, They lifted the basin from the pool of Siloam, and they emptied the water out in the temple. At that precise moment, the Lord used this word of invitation, and he says, if any man thirst, and they quickly diverted their attention from the Pharisees and the scribes to Christ. What has this man got to say? He's going to have the final word on the last day of the great feast of Tabernacles. If any man thirst, Let him come unto me and drink. It's the last invitation of the Bible. The spirit and the bride, that's the church, say, come. And sinner, I have the authority from scripture to invite you to Christ. Hyper-Calvinists who attack my ministry from day one and still will attack it and do online. I don't engage with them. They send me emails. They comment on the hymns we sing. The words we preach and especially in the gospel, I say this if they're listening, they mustn't have anything else to do. If you spend your life searching for men like me to find fault, you'll find it. But I want to follow the master, the spirit and the bride. I'm looking at you, say come. The spirit and the church carries the voice of Christ to the people. And I have every right to invite a sinner to Christ. The Lord says the spirit and the bride say, come, come sinner, come to Christ tonight. I make no apology for saying that. Come sinner. And if you come to Christ, he'll not cast you out. There's not only a gracious provision and a glorious invitation, but notice there is a great rejection. In verses 18 to 20, I read those excuses. In verse 18, one man said, didn't he? He says, I bought a piece of ground and I need to go and see it. Look, anybody who's in business, and I'm a tiny through and through, I don't own property. I've never bought property. I tell a lie. I own a plot of ground, six feet by two up in the graveyard here. It's mine. It's the only bit of ground I own. And someday my body will be in there Who knows, the Lord may return before that. I don't own anything, so I've never bought anything like that. But I guarantee you, there's no one goes and buys a piece of ground without first looking at it, inspecting it, knowing is it profitable to build on? Would there be a foundation under there? Is it full of bulrushes? Is it damp, wet ground? Would I need extra work? You would never just buy it for the going rate. In this day and age, are you allowed to build on it? Is it agricultural ground? You're only allowed to graze cattle or grow crops. And so you'd never do it. You'd never buy a piece of ground. Well, that's the excuse they're made. It says, I bought a piece of ground. Another says, I bought five yoke of oxen. Would you ever buy cattle? I know people and their farmers here, and they buy cattle online, but at least they get a look at them. I don't think there are too many farmers would say, I'd like to buy a hundred chickens. Just send whatever you have. I don't think for a moment that would be the case. I don't think they would buy livestock without having a look at it to see if it's in good health. And yet I bought five yoke of oxen and I need to go and prove them. Ridiculous. And then the worst of all. Now you mightn't think it, because you're married too long, that's why. I have married a wife that implies I've just got married. Lydia's not here tonight. And I cannot come. I know what commentators say. Here's what they say. Well, why don't you bring your wife? You're only married. Would you not bring her with you? And that's how ridiculous these excuses were. Now, I know people would laugh at those excuses, but I want to tell you, it really summarizes the Jewish nation. Their excuses for not accepting Christ as Messiah when they knew who he was. You know what the Bible says? For envy. They delivered him. It wasn't necessarily for unbelief, although unbelief was present in the hearts of many. It said of the Jewish leaders, who I believe knew who he was, and they just didn't want to change the status quo with Rome and the power they had over the people, for them to be exposed as blind leaders of the blind, damning the souls of God's ancient people. and their excuses were ridiculous for rejecting the Lord. And I want to tell you, the primary application is to the Jewish nation today. And the Lord says of that nation, because of your great rejection, none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper. But you know, in a greater measure, the Lord has the invitation to the nations, to the Jews and to the Gentiles, mainly the Gentiles are being saved today. It's not that Jews aren't, they are a small remnant, but the Gentiles are being saved. Those who are non-Jews, they're turning in their thousands, in their millions over the centuries to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel has now gone out into the world. And if the Jews had read their Bible in the Old Testament, the Torah, they would have realized the Pentateuch, the writings of Moses, They realized that in Abraham, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. That was the promise. It was never to be the national boundaries of Israel. It was never, and the Lord gave little mirror images, and when he quoted those images, Rahab, a Moabites, Rahab, and Ruth, a Moabites, all saved by God's grace. In the days of Elisha and Elijah, it was individuals from outside the nation that provided, remember the widow woman that provided the barrel of meal and the cruise of oil for Elijah. What was she? She was a Gentile and God used her. What was the captain that was healed of leprosy? Naaman and no other person in Israel. And when the Lord brought the election out in preaching and says, God will bring the gospel to the Jews and he mentioned Rahab. and he mentioned the widow in the days of Elijah, and he mentioned Ruth, and he mentioned all of those unnaming. The Jews took up stones to stone him and to put him to death because he preached election, the election of God that would bring in the Gentiles. The Jews rejected, and the Bible says, none will taste of my supper. But I tell you, what excuse do you make tonight for not being saved? They're not repenting and believing. What excuse do you make? Maybe you say you're too busy. Ridiculous. A ridiculous excuse. I'm too busy. I just haven't time to think about those things. You've all eternity to think about those things. You're too busy. You're not too busy. You shouldn't be too busy. That means other things take priority. Some people might say I'm too good. That's what an excuse, a lame excuse that is, too good. You don't need to be saved. You're good enough. I don't need your Christ. I don't need his blood. I don't need his salvation. I'm a good person. I believe I'm going to heaven. Just like the man that sat at meat at the table and said, blessed is he that eateth bread. I desire to be there. I intend to be there. But here's the irony. In hell, there are many who intended to be in heaven. What's your excuse for not being saved? Coming to Christ tonight, young person, older person. Maybe you say you're too bad. The things I've done, what a nonsense that is. I could tell you of individuals I counseled during gospel campaigning, and they said they were too bad. What a nonsense. That's a lame excuse. There's no one too bad the Lord cannot save. No one too hard the Lord cannot save. No one too far away that the Lord in grace can't reach them. Maybe you say, well, I've plenty of time. That's a lame excuse, isn't it? Because you're not in charge of your life. You're not in control of the circumstances of others who are driving cars or the wind that blows a tree down. You're not in charge of the viruses that circle the earth. You're not in charge of your breath that takes in the air that's maybe polluted and corrupt. You're not in charge of your body when the cell goes mad becomes cancerous and eats every other cell, although it is already cancerous and it just begins to eat. We don't know the reason, that's why we're not breaking any real ground with cancer. We don't know why this cancerous cell in the body, and cancerous cells in the body, some of them are healthy and good, they're needful, but one turns rogue, begins to eat all the rest and builds itself up. We don't understand why it does that. If we could discover, we would cure cancer and stop that happening. and certain cancers, that is. Maybe you say to yourself plenty of time, what's your excuse? So not only is there a gracious provision, a glorious invitation, a great rejection, finally, there is a grave declaration. Verse 24 says, none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. Now, this is a faithful and solemn judgment. This is what follows upon final rejection of the offer of mercy in the gospel. None shall taste of my supper. They're excluded from heaven. This is the end result of all who refuse to come in repentance and faith to Christ for salvation. None shall be in heaven. And that nails the lie to the mast of those ecumenical apostate ministers who stand today in their pulpits and tell their congregation, you're okay, you're going to heaven. That bury every person that ever died and tell us that they're all in heaven. They're all in heaven. They can die, drug addicts, they can die in and adultery, they can die as fornicators, they can die as those who are alcoholics, they can die as those who never attended church and never once read the Bible, never once of faith, but God loves them and they're all in heaven. Well, I tell you, this parable nails that lie to the mast. And it says, none of them that were bitten, that have heard the gospel and didn't respond positively, repent and believe, will taste of my supper. It's a nonsense to say there's universal salvation. There's not. There's salvation for those who repent and believe and receive Christ as their savior. Those who exclude themselves by unbelief and rejection from the Lord will never taste of a supper, a grave declaration. He wouldn't want that to be said, that you died in your sin where Jesus is, you'll never be. There will be no reversal of this judgment. Those that were bidden shall never Never taste of my supper. That's what it really means, never. That's when never means never, when God says it. To spurn the invitation, to come to Christ, be saved, your sins forgiven, have eternal life, will exclude you eventually. Because remember this, there came a time in the Jewish nation when they rejected for the final time. You'll find it in Luke chapter 13, the chapter of opportunities. It was there that the Lord Jesus Christ wept over the city of Jerusalem, and he says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you, and ye would not. And now your house is left unto you desolate. None of those that were bidden shall taste of my supper. But tonight the table's spread, the door is open, Christ is present. And he uses one of his favorite words, come, come unto me. And him that cometh to me, Jesus said, I will in no wise cast out, come and welcome. It's a lovely wee phrase I'll end with. It says, yet there was room. And there's room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, praise the Lord, there's still room for one. There's room. at the cross for you. Let's bow in prayer. Father, we thank you for thy word tonight. Bless the gospel as it goes forth across our land, and as meetings are drawing to a close, and those that have started early, and those that have finished, we pray, Lord, you will speak on, and grant, Lord, those that will be starting across the globe, and those who will be commencing later on, we pray, Lord, you will bless the preaching of the everlasting gospel. Send forth the invitation, Lord, Bid many to come, and we pray, Lord, you will speak the word. Come, for all things are now ready. Lord, hear our prayer. Save, we pray, in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. th th