UK 14:15-24{IN Luke 14:7-127And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, 8When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him; 9And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. 10But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 12Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. (Luke 14:7‑12) of this chapter the Lord exposes man; whether it was the invited guest, or the inviting host, they were alike marked by a feature common to both, namely, self-seeking. This has been the character of man from the very first, and it will characterize man as such to the very end. Is it not a comfort to your soul to turn away from such a picture to the blessed contrast which these words afford! "when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:" is not that a short and simple statement of what the blessed God has done in the gospel of His Son, the Lord Jesus? The gospel or good news of God always makes God prominent; those two words in Luke 14:1313But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: (Luke 14:13) "make" and "call," declare to us what He, and He alone could do-they also drew forth from some one present the expression, "blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," which words gave an opportunity to the Lord, in a parable, to set forth what was in the heart of God.
First-The supper which God made was an expression of His heart-of Himself; in all the freeness of His love He makes it, and in all the largeness of His heart it is a great supper. If I think of what it cost the blessed God to spread this feast, who can say how vast it was? If I think of the supper itself, who can measure its greatness? Have you, my reader, ever thought of this? the blessed God purposed in
His heart, and in righteousness performed it-unasked, unsought, He Himself would spread the feast; and that He may do it in a way worthy of Himself, He gives up His only begotten Son to come down and here to taste death and judgment, the whole righteous indignation of God against sin, in order that God might have His way of love. The barriers which man's sin had set up between himself and God, God undertakes to remove at cost to Himself, in order that He may bring poor lost man (in a new condition and in a new life) into the full circle of His favor, of His love. Can anything be more wonderful, can anything equal it? His Son, the Lord Jesus, thus given and sent forth, comes, and in this world where God had shown His interest in man, but where man displayed his disregard of God and dishonored Him,. He, that blessed One, glorified God, as I have said, goes in grace under the waves of death and judgment, and establishes God's righteousness in order that He may declare God's love.
Secondly-We have the estimate which man forms of all this-the manner in which he treats this unmatched grace of God. Man has no heart for it; the things of earth are chosen in preference to the supper of God. What a picture of man is it a picture of you, my reader? All that is here has its place and interest, but what the blessed God has provided, and at cost, man has no desire for it. And here do you not see how that things here have the tendency to turn the heart away from Christ? It is not that things are wrong in themselves; all that are here pleaded as laving a prior claim on man are not unlawful but lawful things- but their tendency is to make man refuse God's supper. (See Dent. 8:7-20.)
Lastly-The love which spread the feast will also bring in the guests, will compel them to come in; many and varied are the ways by which this is effected, but what the heart of God purposes, the hand of God accomplishes, His right hand of power is the servant of His love. It may be an earthquake, as with the jailer at Philippi; or light from heaven above the brightness of the sun flashed into the heart, as with the persecutor on his mission of death; yet they both come from the same blessed source, from Him who awakens fear in the heart, and then takes it out of it; from Him who gives the sense of need, in order that He may bring the soul into a region where need is unknown; from Him who will have His house filled with a company who shall be eternally debtors to the grace which not only provided such a feast for them, the full circle of the joys of God, the fatted calf, but which also sought them out in the highways and hedges, poor and maimed, and halt and blind. Oh, blessed grace that would take no refusal, but compelled them to come in.
Not half His love can I express,
Yet Lord with joy my lips confess-
This blessed portion I possess,
O Lamb of God, in Thee.
Thy precious name it is I bear,
In Thee I am to God brought near,
And all the Father's love I share,
O Lamb of God, in Thee. W. T. T.