Luke 14:16-24 Then said he to him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:… Do you know why more men do not come to Christ? It is because men are not invited that they do not come. You get a general invitation from your friend: "Come around some time to my house and dine with me." You do not go. But he says, "Come around to-day at four o'clock and bring your family, and we'll dine together." And you say: "I don't know that I have any engagement; I will come." "I expect you at four o'clock." And you go. The world feels it is a general invitation to come around some time and sit at the gospel feast, and men do not come because they are not specially invited. It is because you do not take hold of them and say, "My brother, come to Christ; come now! come now!" How was it that in the days of Daniel Baker, and Truman Osborn, and Nettleton, so many thousands came to Jesus? Because those men did nothing else but invite them to come. They spent their lifetime uttering invitations, and they did not mince matters either. Where did Bunyan's pilgrim start from? Did he start from some easy, quiet, cosy place? No; if you have read John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" you will know where he started from, and that was from the City of Destruction, where every sinner starts from. Do you know what Livingstone, the Scotch minister, was preaching about in Scotland when three hundred souls under one sermon came to Christ? He was preaching about the human heart as unclean, and bard, and stony, Do you know what George Whitefield was preaching about in his first sermon, when fifteen souls saw the salvation of God? It was this: "Ye must be born again." Do you know what is the last subject he ever preached upon? "Flee from the wrath to come." Oh! that the Lord God would come into our pulpits and prayer-meetings, and Christian circles, and bring us from our fine rhetoric, and profound metaphysics, and our elegant hair-splitting, to the old-fashioned well of gospel invitation. (Dr. Talmage.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:WEB: But he said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people. |
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