Luke (Quality: Good)

[0:00] I would direct you to the 14th chapter of Luke, and verse 23. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

[0:25] The 14th of Luke, verse 23. The occasion of this parable you will find in the 15th verse.

[0:45] And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these sayings, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

[1:02] And whether there were any others of the company that were touched by what the Lord had spoken concerning the sufferer.

[1:21] but when thou makest a feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just and this evidently touched a one a particular person that was there it's a mercy to be the one that is touched you remember in the first chapter of John towards the end we read that when John announced the Lord Jesus behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world there were two disciples that heard him speak and it had this effect upon them they followed him and the Lord knew it and the Lord knew the heart of this one that sat at meat and those two disciples that followed him the Lord turned and saw them following he knew it without turning but he turned and it is a great thing and experience it the Lord as you read the scriptures at home or under the preaching of the gospel if he turns to you particularly turned and saw them following and said unto them what seekest thou they said

[3:03] Lord where dwellest thou he said unto them come and see these secret intimations of the Lord regarding a poor sinner and visiting them and resolving their hard questions and laying their fears is a great experience really blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God what evidently touched that one whoever he was was this for thou shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just he directed him to the resurrection he had a touch of the power of the resurrection upon his heart so that this parable is the response of the Lord to that that ejaculation really of that one who was touched by what the Lord said it is though the Lord said

[4:25] I'll tell you who that blessed one is that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God and therefore gave them this parable it brought to my mind this afternoon that saying of the Lord Jesus and I I do hope that he did soften my hard heart this is the spoken of Jesus and when the arrow was come he sat down and the twelve apostles with him and he said unto them with desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you therefore I suffer for I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God oh it is condescending love with desire by desire to eat this Passover with you before

[5:40] I suffer and just for a few minutes I believe in my little way and measure I felt in anticipating the ordinance this evening with desire I desire to eat this Passover with you oh it is sweet to feel a little of true fellowship with the saints in communion with the Lord and also it went on for there is a connection between the Lord's Supper and the marriage supper of the Lamb indeed you see the connection with the 15th verse and 19th chapter of the Revelation and when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things he said unto him blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God the 19th of

[6:50] Revelation blessed are they that are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb and therefore we have scriptural ground to to to assert that there is a connection between the Lord's supper here and the marriage supper of the Lamb last in heaven it's a very sacred consideration and if my friends we are rightly gathered by the spirit around the Lord's table here it is an intimation that we shall be called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven now I believe that there was conveyed to this particular person that a sweet prospect and when one of them that sat at meet with him heard these things he said unto him blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of

[8:03] God and so he yes and it would be well my friends if we were thus exercised in coming to the Lord's table it was a solemn inquiry that the Lord made concerning one how came thou in hither not having on a wedding garment well then let us look at this explanation of this inquiry in this supper and in the main this supper here on earth is the gospel table in the first place it is the preaching of the gospel and those who made excuses are those that are called many are called but few are chosen a certain man made a great supper and bade many and sent his servant as supper time to say to them that were bidden come for all things are now ready and you see that some made excuses not to come what was the matter with them but one thing was certain they were not seeking first the kingdom of

[9:52] God and his righteousness they were seeking everything else except that the things that they mentioned were lawful with respect to this life but they were out of place one great and vital reason for their excuses was that they had no place in their hearts for the Lord at all they did not hunger nor thirst after righteousness they found satisfaction in the material things of this poor world they were earth bound they were like the young man that came to the

[10:52] Lord Jesus asking what he must do to obtain eternal life he had done all that he could he kept the commandments from his youth up but the Lord put him to a test and however close we may come to the real thing there is a breaking point to every religion that is not of the Holy Ghost breaking point some break sooner some break later some break because of this temptation some break because of this covetousness but it'll break and the Lord broke it go settle what thou hast and come and follow me he went away sorrowful because he had great riches now these things are written for our learning so that servant came and showed his lord these things then the master of the house seemed angry said unto the servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the haught and the blind and now these of course it was not literal blindness and literal poverty and the whartness and the crippled state it was a sole experience the whole of this and you can add to it go the text go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house might be filled so that here the

[12:54] Lord shows the spiritual condition of those that hunger and thirst for the living God well my friend how do we stand with respect to this how do you come to the house of God from time to time has there been made in your heart an aching void that not all the world and all the riches of the world can ever fill has Christ been made indispensable to you the salvation of your soul and the all all consuming concern in your life can you find satisfaction without him

[13:55] I have thought sometimes that it is a very great pity that some people can find rest in a change where there is no services and nothing spiritual to be to be enjoyed oh I do feel that it would be no holiday to me to go where there's no gospel preached we don't want to rest from God we want to rest in him oh that I could closer cleave unto him in a closer walk with God go quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the haught and the blind you'll find these characters were standing by

[15:16] Bethesda's pool just the same characters and the Bethesda's pool represented the gospel of his grace and there were certain times when an angel came down and troubled the waters that is put virtue in the gospel there are times when the holy spirit for wise ends to accomplish some purpose of grace troubles the gospel puts virtue in it makes it to move effectual and when the waters were thus moved he that stepped in first were healed well it is a mercy and it is a profitable service when the holy ghost is so present that he puts virtue into the gospel so that it comes not in word only but in power and in the holy ghost and in much assurance but you'll notice too that these characters were in a suitable condition for the feast a full soul loathed the honeycomb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet and

[16:48] I do feel that it is a point to be noticed that the Lord in blessing his people in saving his people in recovering his people in supporting his people brings them into just that condition which needs his help so that these conditions represent a spiritual state of soul go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and that poor man might be a millionaire it's a spiritually poor man a man that is poor without Christ there's something to my mind very distinct about that in the Lord's

[17:50] Prayer it commences blessed are the poor in spirit naturally if we have a natural religion we want to be rich rich in religion rich in their own righteousness rich in their acquired knowledge to be able to split heirs in divinity but what use is it if we could attain to those things done not of God not by his spirit of what use would they be when we come to lie upon our dying bed about an experience the Lord makes his people poor Hannah knew it she said the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich so that it is a mercy to be poor enough for the riches of the gospel and the maimed we were trying to speak lately about

[19:06] Jacob the Lord put his thigh out of joint and maimed him he was suitable for Christ's power he would never have overcome that angel in his own strength but peculiarly the Lord maimed him and then conveyed strength as he wrestled with him and allowed Jacob to overcome omnipotence these are the people though they maimed they're strong though they're poor they're rich the horde if you read the hh psalm you'll see what this horde is I'm ready to horde but there's a promise I will make those that horde a remnant and when

[20:10] Heman horde he said I am shut up and cannot come forth now when a man is halting not halting between two opinions but sometimes halting because he knows not what way to take then it is that the Lord exercises in that man's heart his heavenly wisdom and enables him by establishing his goings to persevere no faith yet to pursue speaks in his heart this is the way walking in it when you turn to the right hand and to the left but you'll be brought to a hall to a standstill these are the people and they come to the services because they've got a case of need because they've got hard questions that the

[21:17] Lord alone can answer and the Lord said unto the servant go out into the highways and edges it doesn't mean that we are to go actually out into the highways and hedges those highways and hedges are inside the chapel that's another condition of soul highways and hedges are where the outcasts are where the weary solitary pilgrims are those that have no abiding city here those who have been made wanderers wandered in a solitary way and could find no city to dwell in this is a soul experience and an experience that is wrought in the heart by the holy spirit there's nothing there's none abiding and it is those too who cannot guide themselves go out into the highways and hedges where the tramps are barefooted ragged and exposed now says the lord go out into the highways and hedges i wonder where there are any highways and hedges here oh you'll be brought to feel that you're not fit for the world and you're not fit for the church you don't feel fit to live and you don't feel fit to die when you get there my friends you won't have an excuse and say i bought a piece of ground i bought a yoke of oxen i am married and therefore cannot come no these characters are brought to a sense of deep need give me christ or else i die nothing else can do there's no there's no substitute for christ the lord said unto the servant go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in this compulsion is not a carnal force a religious force but it is the compassion of love the constraint of love and not only so these people who are brought spiritually into these conditions are brought to realize that there is in christ a fullness which can meet their condition and that there is nothing lacking in that fullness and therefore whatsoever they ask they shall receive compel them to come in well what would these poor ragged bankrupt maimed poor people say when you go into the highways and hedges for them do things that they would make any excuse they would and they do and what excuses do they make you perhaps have made them one might say but look

[25:31] I'm not fit to go in look at my rags compare them to come in and say there's a change of raiment there and there is a the robe of righteousness there and the king's daughter is all glorious within she shall be brought unto the king in raiment of righteousness oh I do remember that many years ago just before I came here I think it was I baptized a dear old soul of skittle name but you knew her those of the older ones I baptized her when she was 80 and I went to the hospital to see her she was dying of cancer a dear godly soul and she was put up into a ward and it looked as though she was just cast out in her pain we tried to speak to her but as

[26:44] I left her I just turned to say farewell to her and that word came into my heart concerning that dear soul she she shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle work and she was the next day oh my friends there's not only an end but there's a banquet above there's an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that faith is not away faith believes it hope expects it that it overwhelms them all but how solemn it is to refuse the gospel and to be so taken up with the perishing things of this poor crazy world that you've got no hunger nor thirst nor desire nor room for

[27:45] Christ or the gospel of his grace it would be a mercy if such would be given to consider their latter end Parliament O and not only so but if we have a particular things that we're in doubt about as a tool their importance or as to how our attitude should be toward them if you refer those things to your dying day and see how they will stand then it will show a light and help you to handle matters wisely and the servant said lord as they have commanded and yet there is room dialed into the highways and edges and compel them my house may be filled now this compulsion is the influence of the holy spirit oh his compelling power and uh among other things he brings those whom he intends to save he brings them into institution in themselves you can never accomplish that by nature naturally and we are as the church of laodicea and say i am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing that was what the matter with these people that made excuses but the lord speak the truth to them they know not that you are poor and miserable and wretched and blind and naked you don't know it oh what a mercy it is then my friends to be taught of god and to be taught experimentally what we are without christ without him have you ever been shown that really have you ever been shown that really uh nominal professors and uh modern religionists know nothing about that rich when they're universally destitute of life and grace and grace universally ignorant of god and of themselves a solemn place to be in but oh when the lord comes and meets these cases by the very opposite that is in him how precious it makes them and to you therefore which believe he is precious he's precious in his person he's precious in his condescending love he's precious in his sufferings he's precious in his grace he's precious in his sin-atoning blood he's precious as the fountain of living waters but this preciousness is to those who have been brought to declare from their very experience with paul oh wretched man that i am who shall deliver me from the body of this dead so that you see the way the lord works and it will be a mercy my friends if we are among these poor and maimed and haunt and blind and for the lord he regards such compel them to come in and the holy ghost will compel them by his inward workings he'll compel them to come in as that woman with an issue of blood was compelled after visiting physicians of no value and her faith was such that nothing less than touching him could be of any use to her she was compelled under necessity and that expression in her hymn so often repeated does embrace almost every desire of a poor a weak and worthy a soul give me christ or else i die for i say unto you that none of those men which were bidden bidden shall taste of my supper when you come to consider what salvation is and that their salvation is of the lord and not only what his people are saved from but what they are saved to an eternal inheritance how solemn is the alternative you must reverse it all and therefore say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him for he shall receive the fruit of his doings woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him but how good it is to be gathered together my dear friends we've got the ordinance there for us us and i do trust that we may find that blessed restraint of the love of a suffering saviour and hear his voice and feel his presence as he said with desire have i desired to eat this the passover with you before i suffer is well i here come no if no my leader of the and