Noel leading the meeting tonight and her sister there and the
fellows who are their pieces in song, particularly that last
piece, I think is very fitting without refereeing on Prepared
to Meet Thy God. Luke, chapter 14, please.
I want to turn to that portion of God's Word, Luke's Gospel
chapter 14. Good to be back with you again
tonight. Encourage with you turning out
night after night, coming along and supporting the meetings.
It means a lot, of course, to everybody one another and
especially to the preachers. Luke chapter 14.
We're going to read from the verse 15, and we're going to
read down to the verse 25 or 24, Luke chapter 14, verses 15 to
24. Hear the word of the Lord, it
says, and when one of them that sat at meet with him, that is of
course with the Saviour, heard these things, he said unto him,
Blessed is he, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the
Kingdom of God. Then said He the Saviour unto
him, a certain man made a great supper, and be it many, and sent
his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden
come, for all things are now ready.
And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I
must need to go and see it. I pray they have me excused and
an hour said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove
them. I pray they have me excused and
an hour said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot
come. So that servant came and showed
his Lord the things. And the master of the house
being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the
streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hit her the poor,
and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
And the servant said, Lord, it has done us, thou hast
commanded, and yet there is room.
And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out under the
highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house
may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of
those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
Amen. May God bless the public reading
of His word. Just for a moment.
Again, let's seek His face in prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the meeting that Lord we
are in at this moment in time and all that is gone before the
singing Lord of these lovely gospel hymns that always warm
and throw our hearts, although Lord we have sang them hundreds
of times, Lord have come home with fresh power.
Lord, even tonight and for the pieces that were rendered in
song, we thank your Father for a family whose heart is towards
thee. We think of Joshua who said As
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And those pieces, Lord, were rendered in Gospel's song with
that single aim, Lord, of your glory.
We thank you, too, for the reading of Scripture.
We have a book in front of us, Lord, from which we can read
freely tonight. And now the hour has come.
Blessed are for the preaching of a Word of God.
The need of the hour is for the preacher to know that powerful,
gracious infilling of a Holy Ghost.
Let Your Word Lord have free course and be glorified, and use
it, Lord, in the salvation of a lost soul, the restoration of a
backslider, the reviving and the edifying of the people of God.
For we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
It's parable that the Saviour
told came on the back of an observation which was well
worded in verse 15. When one of them that sat at
meet with him heard the things, that is, the things that had
gone before, he said unto him, blessed that word blessed means
happy, powerfully happy, madely happy is he that shall eat bread
in the Kingdom of God. And then their Lord told this
parable to them and he talked about a great occasion, a great
supper to which many were invaded.
We would call it a big feed, wouldn't we?
That'd be the maybe our colloquial way of putting it.
There was a big feed and many were invited to go.
All things were were ready and all the guests had to do was
just to turn up, find a seat and they eat the good things.
But they are surprised if we were reading this for the first
time, they are surprised We would find that this gracious
and gentleness invite was turned down on block on block because
it says they're in the verse 18 there.
And that's what we're taking as our text tonight.
The verse 18. It says they're they all with
one consent, with one agreement, they all began to make excuse.
I am sorry I cannot be there. I will not be coming because and
the excuses were all different excuses.
But you'll also notice that they were all silly excuses.
They didn't stand up to reason. If you look there at the first
excuse that was made, the first said onto him I have bought a
piece of ground and I must needs go and see it.
Now you would imagine, wouldn't you that he would have looked at
the ground before he bought it. And even if he hadn't the whip
to do that, surely he had the whip to know that the ground was
still going to be there in the morning time or whenever the
feast was over. So here's an excuse that just
didn't add up. And in the second fellow he says
there verse 19 and or said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I
go to prove them. And once again you would imagine
that all the proving had been done beforehand.
You don't buy oxen and then go and see if you have got your
money's worth out of them. You do your homework beforehand.
You go and you watch them in action.
And then if you think they're worth the money, well, then you
give the money. Or once again, if the deal has
already been done, then go after the feast.
And then we get this fella in verse 20.
And another said, I have married a wife.
And therefore people are smiling.
Is it the way I'm pronouncing this here?
Do you hear the little bit of mockery in my voice?
I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.
You know, sometimes when young fellas are getting married, I
say to them, and this isn't marriage counselling.
And by the way, on my part of the little bit in in in jest to
them, I say to them, you start as you mean to go on and never
worry about the tears. And I'm thinking about your
tears. You start as you mean to go on,
and here's a hen packed husband if ever there was one.
I have married a wife. I assume he had only married her
and therefore I cannot come. Could he not bring her with him?
I'm sure everybody would have been delighted to see the new
bride if that's what she was. And if she was that odd, then he
could leave her at home and calmly.
I'd be glad to get away from her maybe for a night out.
But this was his excuse. He looks the servant in the eye
and he says I have married a wife and therefore I cannot
come. And they're they're all silly,
aren't excuses. And you can see that in verse 21
when word came back to the master of the house, it says he
was angry. He was angry because he was
snubbed. And then of course, he sent out
and and he invaded ours to come. And it's not hard tonight to see
the gospel here. If you have any knowledge of the
gospel. The Kingdom of God, verse 15 is
at the very heart of the gospel. It's the message of the new
birth. Except the man be born again, he
will not see the Kingdom of God. I look at the parable here.
I see this certain man, bearing in mind that it is a parable,
This certain man is God the Father.
I see him sending forth his servant.
It's always in the singular I I feel that that is Christ
himself. Behold my servant, mine elect.
And nowadays, nowadays it's the Christians.
It's the Christians who go out with the invite to the great
feast. It's the Christians that give
out the tracks and knock the doors and invading sinners to
come to the great Gospel feast because the Great Supper.
It's all the spiritually nourishing truths of the Gospel.
When we preach the gospel, we preach forgiveness of sins.
That's a tremendous blessing to have all your sins forgiven.
We preach cleansing by the blood, the pollution of sin all
taken away. The blood cleanseth us from all
sin. We we preach the the the message
of liberty deliverance whom the sun sets free is free indeed a
home in heaven when we die, not tremendous, all heading to the
grave. Or maybe we're heading to the
sky. The Lord might come first, but
whatever the child of God has a place reserved in heaven for him
who are the invaded ones, the gospel invitation, the free
offer of the gospel, whosoever will let him come, take freely
of the water of life. All things are now ready.
Because our Saviour on the cross cried.
It is finished. The glorious cry of the cross.
It is finished was His cry. And then later on you have the
mansion there. Special mention of the poor, the
hope, the Liam, and that's a picture of the Sinner.
But we have somebody else here we want to look at and
concentrate on tonight. We have the excuse makers.
That's where we're going to focus tonight.
The teaching is very obvious. It says there at the end, those
men who made excuse would not make it to the Kingdom of God.
We come round a full circle. Blessed is he that eats the
bread and the Kingdom of God here.
Our people, they will not eat the bread, they will not be
there, they will be absent elsewhere.
The Saviour said to such Ye will not come to me that ye might
have life. We're going to think just for a
few moments that are left to us hear about some of these excuses
or one excuse in particular that may quote old Billy Sunday
again, I quote him regularly. He said a reason is not an
excuse. He said an excuse is just the
skin of a reason, but it's stuffed with a lie.
And sinners have the knack for its well honed now over a
thousands of years of inventing excuses as to why they will not
come to Christ. And tonight I want to take one
of these excuses. Always what we hear for a while,
but we're just going to take the one and we're going to refute an
excuse. Sometimes it is vocally
articulated. There are those who would dare
to say this thing, and then there's others who maybe
wouldn't articulate it, but this is what they're trusting and
they get them to heaven. This is why they will not come
to faith in Jesus Christ. What does this excuse men make?
Some say I have done my own deal with God, I have done my own
deal with God. And they believe that they will
get a specially negotiated pass into God's heaven.
And as a gospel preacher tonight, I must challenge that,
I must reject that, and I must expose that.
And here's why #1 I say to you, if that's your possession
tonight, you are in no position to negotiate with God.
You're in no position to negotiate with God.
You do not come to the table. He has not invited you to come
to the negotiating table. He has invited you to come to
the gospel table. And when you come to that table,
you do not come as an equal. Apart from the fact that God is
your Creator. He is the Almighty God, apart
from the fact that you are totally dependent on Him for all
things, including the very breath that you draw and your
ability to draw it. The issue goes much deeper than
that because God is the one against whom you have wilfully
and deeply sinned all your life. He is the holy God of heaven and
earth. You are the Sinner who has
sinned against God, and you stand before him and all your
you stand before him. He is the target of all your
crimes. And my little rough notes that I
had and I had the word victim, and I wondered about that
because God is still the Almighty God.
I hesitated to cast him into the role of a victim, but he is the
target. I thought that might be a better
word. He is the target of all your
crimes. And not only that, he is also
the judge, but he's the judge of all the earth.
He is also the jury and he is also, as it stands, your
executioner. The reality is this, You have no
negotiating power at all. You have nothing in your hand
that you can bring but your past guilt, your present corruption,
and your future fantasy. That God, when you come, that I
is going to roll out the red carpet and bring you in because
of your imagination, because of the vanity of your imagination,
you think he's going to open the door and he's going to invite
you in because you have struck a deal with him and as alone you
should stand down. Your claim it is but an excuse.
It's a fig leaf. It's an unreliable argument.
In this most serious matter. You're in no position to
negotiate, and you never were #2 God has already done a deal.
He has. The language that we would use
is that He has covenanted to save His people from their sins.
It's not that God is not interested in saving sinners.
We know, we know that He is. But the gospel may be summarised
in these great words of John 316 and 17.
For God so loved the world, this world of sinners lost, ruined by
the fall. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through him may perceived.
And the theologians tell us, based of course, on the
Scriptures of truth in the great past, eternity before time
began, before the world was created, we have God.
In the glorious Trinity of His Persons, we have God the Fower.
God the Fower planned to save his people from their sins, and
he planned to do that by sending his Son into the world, as we
have already quoted, to bear their sins and to provide their
righteousness. That's the work of God the
Father. And then in that great eternity
there was God the Son. And then this great covenant
that was made, He willingly undertook to come.
He was not forced to come. He wanted to come.
He was willing to come. His delight, he said, as to do
thy will, O God my Father. And he would come and die on the
cross for his people, burying their sins on his own body to
the tree. And then there's God, the Holy
Ghost, the Holy Spirit. He undertook to apply this work
of Christ, bring it to the hearts of those whom God had
determined to see. If they call this the covenant
of redemption, and it must be emphasised very, very strongly,
there's no other package, there's no other way and there's
no other deal. Peter when he preached of
Christ, he said of him, neither is there salvation in any other,
no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. Jesus himself in John chapter 10
said in the verse 9 he said, I am the door.
Notice a singular I am the door by me.
There's a singular again, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
John 14 verse 6 Jesus said aye, there's a singular I am the way,
the truth and the life. No man cometh under the flower
but by me, and that blows tonight if there's one goer with
this thought, I have my own deal with God.
I am putting to you before your eyes.
Your deal is blown out of the water.
It has always been this way. That there's only one God and
one mediator between God and men.
It has always been this way from the very beginning of time, and
it will be to the very end of time.
Matthew 2414 says the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in
all the world for a witness, a witness to all, to all the
kingdoms. Then shall the end come, but
what you're saying, and in fact you're challenging that and
you're telling us here as it's going to surprise, as it's going
to shock us that you should think that this you're telling
us that God has changed his mind and this is not so because of
Malachi 3 verse six. He says I am the Lord who
changes not. Therefore you, sons of Jacob,
are not consumed, James says in the New Testament.
With God, there is no shadow cast by turning.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
And even if we were to downplay the Bible in this matter and do
so for the sake of argument, just to, just to boost the word
of God, I can go down this road. But even if we were to downplay
the Bible in this matter here, here, here's a question for you.
I, I hope your little deal can just take a little prodding
here. And I hope I can bear up to this
here. Here's a test for it.
If God did not keep his deal with his Son, whom He sent to
the suffering, and the anguish, and the abandonment of the
Cross, at the Cross where He poured all the fury of the
Divine wrath upon him. For it says, God spared not His
only Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
If God has abandoned His deal with His Son, what makes you
think they and they are not tow you along, and then leave you at
the last with your supposed deal?
Think of a young woman, nice young girl, marriage,
marriageable age. She falls in love.
She plans to marry a man. Not just any man, a man who
assures her that he loves her so much that he is willing to leave
his wife and his children, divorce her or just walk out and
marry this beautiful young woman.
What council would you give to a young woman like that?
Would you encourage your daughter to marry someone?
He went up the Isle of a church. He vowed he would love his wife
till death to part. But now he has cast his eyes
upon another and his first wife in the little family is blew out
because he says he wants to marry your daughter.
What? What counsel would you give to
your daughter like that? You would say this man, for all
his haunted words, he's a fraud, he's a liar, he's a cheat, he's
a perjurer. Don't marry him.
Don't go down that road. That must cast a dark shadow
across your so-called deal. Thirdly, we say that your
so-called deal falls under the severe judgement of several
verses of Scripture. We're back on the Scripture
ground again. The first verse that come to my
mind was Proverbs chapter 28 and the verse 26.
We quoted it earlier on in the week 1 must quote it again.
It says there he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.
And that's what they're doing. It wasn't God who negotiated
this deal with you. This deal sprung up out of your
own wicket and deceitful heart. And other words.
You're bluffing yourself. Or as it is worded in my second
verse, Isaiah 44, verse 20, it was said of one that He feedeth
on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him
aside. To what end?
That he cannot deliver his soul. The failure and the cause of it
is LED bare here. It is a delusion.
Defeat in ISIS is is to be deluded and I cannot despite its
claim, despite how attractive it might look to you.
It has obviously appealed to you.
You're telling us this is my deal that I have done with God.
It cannot and it will not deliver your soul.
Third verse that it falls under any one of these is a fatal
bullet that will kill it. Proverbs 14 verse 12 There is a
way. There is a way that seemeth
right onto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.
It does not deliver the soul, the everlasting life in heaven.
It doesn't book you a seat in the Kingdom of God where you'll
sit down and you'll eat the bread there with the Saviour.
It leads a man at the last the everlasting death and an
everlasting hell. There's another verse.
There are a couple of verses together.
I think they're very fearful verses.
Second Thessalonians and the chapter 2 and the verse 11, it
talks about those who received not the love of the truth that
they may perceive. Listen to what it says for this
'cause this is judicial. That's how it's reasoning behind
it. Here is justice in action for
this, 'cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they all may be damned who believe not the
truth, but had pleasure in on righteousness.
And if you want the slander God's character, which you are
effectively doing, do not be surprised if God leaves you to
your delusion. If you refuse the love of the
truth, do not be surprised if you are given over reprobate it
to your chosen delusion. It's the same as Proverbs 14
verse 12. They end their off as the ways
of death. It says here that they may be
damned who believe not the truth.
How many people will stand on the left hand side of God and
that great day of judgement? And they will think to
themselves, I have done this great deal with God.
I told people about it. My heart told me that this will
get me into heaven. And yes, there were evangelical
type preachers. I sought maybe one night in a
gospel mission and he tried to make me doubt, but I held on.
I was so sure, I was so sincere in this matter.
What a shock, what an irrecoverable loss to hear God
say to you and your useless little deal.
Depart from me. He cursed.
It's a cursed deal. You have made a covenant with
hell. It's it's a lie and you have
believed that lie because there's no love in your heart
for the truth. Fourthly and lastly, Howard,
here's an exhortation. I exhort you in the name of the
Lord Jesus, the only Saviour, if you want to have peace with God,
if you want to have all your sins forgiven, you want that
seat at the table in heaven where all the redeemed of God
will be unhappy. You've got to come God's way.
I quote those verses again John 14 verse 6.
Jesus said I on the way the truth and the life I am the door
by me of any man enter in, he shall be saved.
And you come simply as a loss centre, not as a negotiator, not
as someone who can sit down and coach God and do a little deal,
meet you halfway or whatever. You come as a loss centre, a
loss centre to the cross of Calvary.
You come as the beggar on the dunghill.
There's no preached last night. You come bankrupt, you come
naked, as it were, spiritually naked.
All your righteousnesses, you, you, you repudiate them as
filthy rags. You come as a Sinner to the
cross of Calvary. You know Calvary puts the nails
into the coffin lid of yourself concocted and yourself delusory
level. Deal.
I just point you to the cross. I point you to the Son of God as
he hangs in Yonder tree, and I say that puts your deal not only
into the shade had ought to put your little deal into the grave.
The Sadducees grave never mention it again, never
resurrected it again. The Bible says while we were yet
without strength, no negotiating power while we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
See yourself as ungodly, see yourself as the Sinner.
Jesus came to see of common repentance.
You know what repentance means that it's root a change of mind.
If you've embraced this notion that you've done a wee deal with
God or any of its many variations I can see of myself
or whatever, then then then cast it aside that there be a change
of mind, a casting off a leaving it behind common faith.
Put in all your trust in the Saviour.
Come now, all things are ready. All things are ready.
It is time now to seek the Lord while he is to be found.
Come and enjoy and know so salvation and that's worth
having. You see, the child of God is not
only saved, but he knows that he's saved.
He said I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that they. That's not based on our her
brain scheme, void of Scripture, void of reason and logic.
What you have is just an excuse and it's not going to stand.
Excuses don't work, they don't work.
They let you down when you need them most, but you come and base
your salvation on the written word of the unchanging God, God
who cannot lie, God who says he that believeth in me hath
everlasting life and shall not be ashamed.
He owned yet the day of judgement we talked about those
on the left hand side of God, the deal makers, the liars, the
murderers, the atheists, they're all there.
The religious people are there if that's all they have.
But there's a crowd on the right hand side that's the redeemed of
earth. The sea of diverse shall go over
on the our shore under them. He says, Come, come, ye blessed
of my Father, you have an abundant entrance into
everlasting Kingdom of our God and Saviour.
Two ways this night before you lie, and you the choice must
make. The one leads upward to the sky,
the hour, the hour to the lake. The house is fast filling.
There is yet room to spare that a seat will be empty.
Will you be there? That's by our heads in prayer.
The meeting will soon be over. We're just going to sing a
couple of verses of a hymn. And I want you to think in your
heart, just for a moment or two as we're praying.
How do I stand with God? But am I leaning on tonight, say
with a hymn writer, I dare not trust the sweetest fame, but
holy lean in Jesus name. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower into which the righteous run and is safe.
And just as you're sitting in your seat, you lift up your
heart to God. Say Lord, that's man's right.
That's man's right because he preached your word and he's just
taken the rug from under me. And I'm confused about this
matter. Tell the Lord that in your heart
ask him to save you. That clinches the deal.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Or if you want to speak with us afterwards, well then we're
willing to speak with you. But don't leave the meeting on
converted. Let's get this matter sorted for
all eternity. Heavenly Fowler, thank you for
your word tonight. Thank you Fowler that the things
that need to be said, it's not always a pleasure to preach
things like this. We understand the even the the
way we wound people with what we say.
We can offend people with these things, but then we remember
that the Lord wounds and then he heals.
He cuts out all that is bad and all that needs to get out the
deadly stuff and he heals the wounded, broken hearts.
Lest I were to each and every heart, we would pray in Jesus
name, Amen.