Shall we turn in our Bibles now to
the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 14.
The 14th chapter involves an invitation for Jesus
to come to a supper on the Sabbath
day, and of the things that transpired at
that supper, and the subsequent exchange between Jesus
and the people as Jesus talked to them
concerning etiquette and concerning the demands of the
kingdom.
So it came to pass as he went
into the house of one of the chief
Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day
they watched him.
It is interesting to me that Jesus accepted
the invitation.
He knew that they were out to get
him, but it seems to me that Jesus
was always open to an invitation to eat.
Going so far as inviting himself to Zacchaeus'
house.
Come on down, Zacchaeus, I want to come
over to your house and eat.
And finally in Revelation, standing at the door
and knocking, waiting for anyone to open so
he can come in and eat.
And if you will open the door, I
will come in and I'll eat supper with
you.
As we, this morning, were talking about the
significance of eating in that culture.
Becoming one.
And how Jesus desires to be one with
us.
Now the Sabbath meal was different from other
meals, in that all of the food had
to be prepared before the Sabbath.
And you weren't to kindle any fire, and
so if you were to have anything that
was hot, it had to be hot before
the Sabbath.
And somehow there had to be ways to
maintain it being hot.
Now in those days they had definite rules
of things you could not do to keep
food hot, and things that you could do
to keep food hot.
But there was a kosher way of keeping
your food hot, even, that they had developed
for Sabbath day.
Today they plug in before the Sabbath begins.
Their hot plates and their water for their
coffee.
They'll use instant coffee on the Sabbath day,
but they have to plug it.
You can't fill the pot once the Sabbath
has come.
But as long as it's plugged in, you
can pour it out of the pot into
your cup and make your instant coffee.
That doesn't constitute work, but just don't pour
any water into the pot to heat it
on the Sabbath day.
You've got to have it that going before
the Sabbath day, and you can't turn the
switches on.
You just have to have it plugged in
and going before the Sabbath day comes.
And so they still have some interesting little
rules for the Sabbath day.
If you want to go out to eat,
you cannot pay with cash, but you can
pay with credit cards on the Sabbath day.
To pay with cash would violate the Sabbath,
but to pay with a credit card, they
have that unfortunate concept that so many people
have about credit cards.
You're really not paying.
That's a dangerous thing.
So the Sabbath day meal was different, and
they were watching Jesus.
Now it seems that they were watching him
because there was a setup.
Behold, there was a certain man before him
which had the dropsy, and Jesus answering, spake
the words of the lawyers.
Answering what?
It doesn't say they ask him any question,
but realizing no doubt that this whole thing
was a setup.
Invited to eat on the Sabbath day to
break bread with him, and here right before
him they have set this man with this
disease of dropsy.
And so Jesus answering them, realizing that it
was a setup, spake to the lawyers and
the Pharisees, and he said, is it lawful
to heal on the Sabbath day?
And they held their peace.
They didn't answer him.
And so he took and healed him and
let him go.
And he answered them saying, which of you
shall have an ass or an ox that
has fallen into a pit and will not
immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?
And they could not answer him again on
these things.
Now, under the law, they did have a
provision that if your ox or if your
donkey would fall into a pit and they
did have many open wells.
And so it wasn't at all uncommon for
a donkey or an ox to fall into
a pit, into one of these open wells.
And if it happened on the Sabbath day,
according to the law, they could pull it
out on, though it was the Sabbath day.
And so Jesus brought up their own law
to them and they could not answer him.
So then he dealt with them concerning etiquette.
He put forth a parable to those which
have been bidden to the feast when he
marked how they chose out the chief rooms.
Now, usually they had at these feasts
a table with three pillows around it.
They were called tricliniums.
And they would usually sit the people three
at a table and the middle pillow would
be the place of honor at that table.
And say you were going to invite nine
guests, you would have three tables set up
in this triclinium.
And at each of the tables, you'd have
the center pillow for your guests of honor.
And of course, they would sit and sort
of recline.
And that's why they're called tricliniums.
They would recline on these pillows and eat
in sort of a reclining position.
And so Jesus was watching how they were
jockeying for the best positions, for the places
of honor, for the places of note.
How that, you know, business of trying to
get into the place of prominence.
And so he said, when you are bidden
of any man to a wedding, don't sit
down in the highest room, lest a more
honorable man than you has been bidden to
the feast.
And those that bade thee and him will
come and say to you, give this man
your place.
And you with shame will have to go
to the lowest room.
Embarrassing situation.
You sat at the head table, but you
don't belong there.
And so they come up and say, we're
sorry, we don't have any place for you
at this table.
You better take a table in the back.
And everybody sees you leave the head table
and head for the table in the back.
But when you are bidden, go and sit
down in the lowest room.
And when he that bade thee comes, he
may say unto thee, friend, come on up
higher, and then you will have honor in
the presence of those that sit at meet
with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
I think that one of the characteristics of
greatness is humility.
Some of the greatest people have been very
humble people.
I think that one of the most humbling
thing is to have God use your life.
For you know it is not you and
you know you're not worthy.
But if you seek to exalt yourself, the
law of the Lord, you'll be abased.
But he that will humble himself, the Lord
will lift him up.
Then he said also to him that had
invited him, when you make a dinner or
a supper.
Now he's turning on the host.
When you make a dinner or a supper,
don't call your friends and your brothers and
your family or your rich neighbors in order
that they might bid you again and recompense
you for the invitation.
But when you make a feast, call the
poor and the maimed and the lame and
the blind, and you will be blessed.
For they cannot recompense thee, but you will
be recompensed in the resurrection of the just.
Interesting rules of the kingdom.
And when one of them that sat at
meat with him heard these things, he said
unto him, Oh, blessed is he that shall
eat bread in the kingdom of God.
I think that someone at the table got
the flash of light as Jesus began to
talk about how in the kingdom there's going
to be an equality.
There won't be the exalting of one man
above another.
There won't be important people and unimportant people,
but we are all one in Christ Jesus.
And we'll all share together in the glory
and in the honor in the kingdom.
And this man got a flash of light
of the kingdom.
And he said, Oh, blessed is the man
that shall eat bread in the kingdom of
God.
And then Jesus gave a parable unto them.
And you see, all of these have to
do with being invited to dinner, going to
dinner because they're sitting at this dinner or
at the Sabbath dinner with the Pharisee.
And then he said unto him, there was
a certain man which made a great supper
and he invited many and he sent his
servant at supper time to say to those
that were invited, come for dinner is ready.
And they all with one consent began to
make excuses.
The first said, Oh, I bought a piece
of ground and I better go see it.
I pray that you'll have me excused.
Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen
and I need to prove them.
And so I pray that you'll have me
excused.
And another said, I have married a wife
and therefore I cannot come.
So that servant came and showed his Lord
these things.
Then the master of the house being angry
said to his servant, go out quickly into
the streets and the lanes of the city
and bring in here the poor, the main,
the halt and the blind.
These are the ones that Jesus told the
fellow he should have invited anyhow.
And the servant said, Lord, it is done
as you have commanded.
And still we've got more room.
And so the Lord said unto his servant,
go out into the highways and the 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 bid and shall taste
of my supper.
In this parable, I believe that the one
who has made the invitation and inviting to
the supper is really none other than God.
And the reference is to the marriage supper
of the lamb and the excuses that people
give for not coming to Jesus Christ.
The first man's excuse was sort of a
commercial excuse.
I bought a house.
I need to go take a look at
it.
Pray tell what kind of a fool buys
a house without looking at it.
But I'm busy in commerce.
The second man, I'm busy in my labors.
It takes precedence over the kingdom.
I bought five yoke and I need to
prove them again.
What men would what man would buy five
yoke of oxen without first testing them?
Which of you would buy a car without
driving it around the block?
And then the third said, well, I've just
married a wife and I can't come.
Why didn't he bring his wife?
Notice they all began to make excuse.
And there's a difference between excuses and reasons.
Sometimes you can make an excuse when you
don't have any real reason for it.
But I would warn you, as Benjamin Franklin
said, the man who is good at making
excuses is seldom good for anything else.
They began to make excuses, different reasons.
And so the Lord said, go out in
the highways or go out and bring in
the poor, the main, the halt.
And remember to Jesus, he fulfilled the prophecy
to the poor.
The gospel is being preached and still there
was room.
And so go out in the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in and
the gospel being preached, compelling men to come
into the kingdom of God.
Now, at this point, he probably left the
supper where we read and there went great
multitudes with him.
And he turned and said to them, having
left the house, the people were outside waiting
for him.
And at this point, great multitudes of people
were attracted to him and were following him
and listening to him.
And he is on his way towards Jerusalem,
but they think that he is on his
way towards Jerusalem in order to overthrow the
Roman government and to establish and set up
his kingdom.
And that's why they're being attracted.
That's why the multitude is coming.
They think that the kingdom is going to
come now immediately.
And James and John are saying, Lord, can
I sit on the right hand, the left
hand, you know, and, and all of this
jockeying for position, but they don't understand.
He's not going to Jerusalem to overthrow the
Roman government.
He's going to Jerusalem to be put on
a cross.
And you cannot follow Christ just because it's
a popular movement.
There is a shallowness and a danger to
popular spiritual movements.
The Jesus movement was sadly weakened by the
endeavors to commercialize the thing and to popularize
the thing.
And the Jesus movement parades and banners and
fad aspects.
In following Christ, you just don't get on
the bandwagon.
It's not just joining because everybody's doing it.
It's the thing, the in thing to do.
And there was just, this was at that
time, the in thing.
Multitudes were following him.
And because there is a danger in this,
he turns to the multitudes and he becomes
extremely severe in his words, really more severe
than I would like him to be.
For he said, if any man come to
me and hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters,
yes, his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple.
I'm not going to a popular being acclaimed
as King.
I'm going to be crucified.
There's a real cost.
If you're going to come after me, you
better count the cost.
You better measure it.
Now, don't misunderstand Jesus and think that I've
got to hate my father and hate my
mother because that's just the opposite of what
the gospel teaches.
The fruit of the Spirit is love.
And if I say I love God and
hate my brother, I'm a liar.
The truth isn't in me.
How can I love God whom I haven't
seen and hate my brother who I have
seen?
Then what does Jesus mean unless you hate
your father, mother, brothers and so forth?
That is in the language a comparative.
Your love for Jesus Christ must be supreme.
It must be greater than your love for
your family, your home or yourself, because it
may cost you all of these things to
follow Jesus Christ.
And for many of those people, it did
cost all those things.
To follow Christ did cost some of them
their families, their family relationships, for they were
ostracized by their families when they made their
commitment to Jesus Christ.
And the same is true today.
Many people have found it quite costly to
follow Jesus Christ.
It cost them their family relationships.
But Jesus said, if you're not willing to
give up these family relationships, you can't really
be my disciple.
You've got to love me more than you
love any other relationship that you have.
Your love for me must be supreme and
every other love must be subservient to your
love for me.
And then he went on to say, and
whosoever doth not bear his cross and come
after me cannot be my disciple.
I'm not going to be crowned as king
of the world.
I'm going to bear a cross.
I'm going to be crucified.
And if you're not willing to take up
your cross, you can't really be my disciple.
You want to follow me?
You want to be my disciple?
It can involve a cross and you better
consider that.
And Jesus is deliberately laying out the terms
for discipleship, and they are not soft, easy,
comfortable terms.
They are harsh.
They are severe.
And it's important that you count the cost,
the cost of discipleship.
And then Jesus gives a couple of parables
in which there is that emphasis of counting
the cost.
For which of you who intends to build
a tower, and this is probably one of
those towers that they built out in the
middle of their vineyards, which are so common
even to the present day in that country.
The people generally lived in the cities, but
they had their farms in the countries.
And during the spring, summer and fall seasons,
they would move out of the cities and
into these towers that were built in the
middle of their orchards or vineyards.
And these towers have the living quarters in
the first level, but then you can go
up into the upper level and from the
tower, you can look over and watch the
vineyard to make sure that no one's coming
in and ripping you off.
And they're just towers for protections for the
vineyards.
And so he's probably referring to one of
these vineyard towers.
And which man of you who intends to
build a tower doesn't sit down first and
counts the cost, whether or not you'll have
sufficient to finish it.
Lest, happily, after he has laid the foundation,
he's not able to finish it and all
those that see it begin to mock him,
saying, this man began to build, but he
wasn't able to finish.
Count the cost.
It's important.
Don't just jump in.
He's not really seeking to create a popular
movement.
He's really seeking to thin the crowds of
those that were following.
Count the cost.
What king going to make war against another
king doesn't sit down first and consults whether
he is able with 10,000 to meet
him who was coming against him with 20
,000, or else while the other is still
a great way off, he sends his ambassadors
and desires conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he has cannot be
my disciple.
Now you count the cost.
Unless you're willing to forsake everything, you can't
really be my disciple.
Unless you're willing to take up your cross,
you can't be my disciple.
Unless you love me supremely, you cannot be
my disciple.
The terms of discipleship are harsh.
They are severe, and it is wrong when
people tell you just accept Jesus and you're
not going to have any more problems.
My all your problems will be over.
All your problems stems because you don't know
Jesus.
Listen, many times when you accept Jesus, your
problems are just beginning.
It's not easy.
It's not going to be easy.
The Lord doesn't say it's going to be
easy.
He said it's going to be tough and
you better sit down first and count the
cost.
Better not that you get started in it
if you can't finish it, if you're not
willing to finish it.
You make an accounting here and determine whether
or not you're really willing to pay the
price to go all the way through.
Because unless you're willing to forsake everything, really
you can't be my disciple.
Heavy, hard words.
And then he said salt is good, but
if the salt has lost its tang, who
will use it for seasoning?
It is neither fit for the land nor
for the dunghill, but men will cast it
out.
He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear.
In those days, salt was used for three
basic things.
Salt was used, number one, as a preservative.
When they would butcher, they would roast the
meat right away, that meat that they didn't
roast, they would salt because they did not
have refrigeration.
And the salt has an antiseptic type of
an effect.
It kills the bacteria on the surface of
the meat and preserves the meat.
Salt was used as a seasoning to flavor
the food like we use salt today, to
add a little zing to the food, to
the taste.
Oats without salt are flat.
Just a little salt really makes a difference.
Every once in a while when we were
kids, mom would forget to put the salt
in.
Oh man, was that flat.
Potatoes without salt, mashed potatoes, flat.
Amazing what a little salt will do for
mashed potatoes.
You're the salt.
Salt is good, but if it's lost its
savor, it's not good.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount talked
about salt in an earlier part of his
ministry.
You're the salt of the earth.
Again, talking about if the salt is lost
its savor, wherewith will it be salted?
Sends forth good for nothing but to be
cast out and trodden under the foot of
man.
Salt is good if it's tangy.
If it isn't, it's worthless.
The third purpose for salt was to put
it on the paths to kill the vegetation
so that they would keep the paths cleared
from vegetation by just putting salt on it
and the salt destroys the vegetation from growing
on the pathway.
So it's a weed killer.
You as a child of God should have
a preserving effect in the society in which
you live.
Our rotten society testifies against the church, bears
witness against the church.
But you should have sort of a, what
should you say, a zingy effect wherever you
go.
You should add zest and flavor because of
your walk with Jesus Christ.
Salt has another capacity of making people thirsty
and you should be creating a thirst in
people.
Then drew near to him all of the
publicans and sinners to hear him.
And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured saying,
this man receives sinners and he eats with
them.
Notice the four groups that had gathered divided
into two categories.
First of all, the publicans and sinners, publicans
were the tax collectors, the outcast of that
society.
One of the most hated persons in the
community.
They were considered by the Jews to be
traitors and quislings.
And they were always classified with sinners.
And so the publicans and the sinners had
gathered to hear Jesus.
It's amazing that many of the publicans were
attracted to Jesus.
Matthew was a publican called to be a
disciple.
He left his receipt of customs and he
followed Jesus.
Zacchaeus was a publican.
And after his encounter with Jesus, he said,
hold, I'll take half of my goods.
They were always wealthy people.
I'll take half of my goods and give
it to the poor.
And if I have taken fraudulently from many
men, I'll restore to him twofold.
Jesus said, ah, today salvation has come to
this house.
Obviously, the publicans were attracted to Jesus as
were the sinners because he had a message
of hope for them.
They gathered to hear.
But the others, the Pharisees and the scribes,
they gathered to find fault.
They were looking for things by which they
might accuse Jesus, waiting for a slip up,
waiting for some mistake so that they could
pounce upon it and accuse him.
And so they began to say, murmuring, he
receives sinners and eats with them.
They thought that they were saying something horrible
in condemning him.
But in reality, they were proclaiming a glorious
gospel.
Jesus receives sinners.
And you can become one with him.
John wrote and said that which we have
seen and heard declare we unto you that
you might have fellowship with us.
And truly, our fellowship is with the Father
and his Son, Jesus Christ.
He receives sinners and he eats with them.
He becomes one with them.
He dips in the same sop with them.
He eats the same bread with them.
He's identifying with them.
Yes, he does.
Thank God he does.
And because he does, there's hope for every
one of us.
And so there were those that were hearing
him, desiring to hear him.
And there were those who were seeking to
find fault with him, looking for something to
condemn.
Now, what should have been if they were
truly righteous men, the Pharisees and the Gentiles?
If they were truly righteous men, what should
be their attitude when sinners were responding to
the gospel?
What should be the reaction if we see
sinners saved?
I oftentimes hear people criticize Billy Graham and
his campaigns.
And you see hundreds of people flowing forward
to accept Jesus Christ.
And they say, yes, but a lot of
them don't stick.
You know, and it's sour apples.
Rather than saying, oh, bless God, you know,
look at that.
Praise the Lord, you know, and rejoicing that
all these people are accepting the Lord.
There's just, you know, they're looking for something
to find fault.
Oh, you know, he preaches a cheap gospel
or something.
And when the hippies were coming to Jesus
by the hundreds, as I was going across
the country, I'd have pastors come up to
me and say, I saw pictures of your
baptism at Corona del Mar, but when are
they going to cut their hair?
You know, rather than saying, I saw the
pictures in my a thousand young people being
baptized.
How glorious.
Oh, bless God.
That's glorious.
That's thrilling.
You know, they've got to pick on something
and can't really rejoice that the Lord receives
sinners, but there's sour apples over it.
Jealous or whatever.
And so Jesus spoke this parable unto them,
unto who?
Unto the Pharisees, the scribes, because of their
sour apple remark.
And he said, what man of you, if
you have a hundred sheep and you lose
one of them, will you not leave the
99 in the wilderness and go after that
which is lost until you find it?
And when you have found it, you laid
upon your shoulders rejoicing.
And when he comes home, he calls together
his friends and his neighbors.
And he says unto them, rejoice with me
for I have found my lost sheep, my
sheep that was lost.
So when you find the lost sheep, there
is the rejoicing.
There's the rejoicing in the neighborhood.
Rejoice, I've found the lost sheep.
And then Jesus said unto you, I say
unto you that likewise joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repents.
More than 99 just persons who don't need
to repent.
So while the guys down here are saying
when they're going to cut their hair, the
angels are up having a whoopee time rejoicing
that the lost has been found.
Joy in heaven.
And either what woman who has 10 pieces
of silver, if she loses one piece, does
not light a candle and sweep the house
and seek diligently until she find it.
And when she had found it, she called
her friends and her neighbors together saying, rejoice
with me for I have found the piece
that was lost.
Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy
in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner that repents again.
The natural response to finding that which is
lost is rejoicing.
And the Lord said there's joy in heaven
over just one sinner who repents.
And then he said a certain man had
two sons and the younger of them said
to his father, father, give me the portion
of goods that falleth to me.
And so he divided unto him his living.
Now, under the law, when there were two
sons, the older son received two thirds of
the inheritance and the younger son received one
third of the inheritance.
That was just the law.
And many times if a father wanted to
retire, he would divide the inheritance to the
sons before his death.
It would automatically belong to the son after
the death of the father.
But this boy had the audacity to come
to his dad and say, dad, I'd like
my inheritance now.
And so the father divided the inheritance and
not many days after the younger son had
gathered everything together, he took his journey into
a far country and there he wasted his
substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent everything, there arose
a mighty famine in that land and he
began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a
citizen of that country and he sent him
into the fields to feed the swine, which
was, of course, a job that was forbidden
to the Jews.
Cursed is the man that feeds the swine.
And he fain would have filled his belly
with the husk that the swine did eat.
And no man would give to him.
And so when he came to himself, he
said, how many hired servants of my father's
have enough bread that they can spare?
And yet I'm dying with hunger.
I will arise and go to my father
and will say to him, father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee.
I'm no more worthy to be called your
son, but make me as one of your
hired servants.
And he arose and he came to his
father.
But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him and had compassion
and ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him.
And the son said unto him, father, I
have sinned against heaven and in thy sight,
I'm no more worthy to be called thy
son.
But the father said to his servants, bring
forth the best robe, put it on him,
put a ring on him, family signet ring
and put shoes on his feet.
Shoes on the feet were significant because the
slaves were never given shoes, only the family
members, only the son.
The slaves were never given shoes by their
masters.
That's why in that old Negro spiritual that
came out of the slave days.
You got a shoes, I got a shoes,
all God's children got shoes when we get
to heaven, going to put on a shoes,
not going to be a slave anymore.
I'm a son, I'm a child of God.
And and that that him look forward to
that day when they would have shoes, they
would be acclaimed the sons of God in
that heavenly kingdom.
Because that was just one thing about slavery.
You never gave your slave a pair of
shoes.
So the son said, hey, I'm not worthy
to be, you know, called your son just
a servant.
The dad didn't even let him finish his
speech.
He said, put the shoes on him and
bring hither the fatted calf and kill it
and let us eat and let's be merry
for this.
My son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found.
And they began to be merry.
Now, his elder son was in the field.
And as he came and drew night to
the house, he heard the music.
He saw the dancing and he called one
of the servants and he said, what's going
on?
And he said to him, your brothers come
home and your father has killed the fatted
calf because he has received him safe and
sound.
And he was angry and would not go
in.
And therefore, his father came out and entreated
him.
And he answering said to his father, lo,
these many years I have served thee and
I didn't transgress at any time your commandment.
And yet you never gave me a kid
that I might have a party with my
friends.
But as soon as this, your son was
come who has devoured your living with prostitutes.
You've killed for him the fatted calf.
Now, here is really the real point of
the parable, though it may teach many things.
The parable was intended against the Pharisees.
All three were actually, but he's building up
in the parables.
In each of them, there is something lost
that was found.
And the result of finding that which was
lost was rejoicing, happiness.
Jesus receives sinners that shouldn't be said in
a derogatory sense that should be set said
in a rejoicing sentence.
Jesus received sinners.
There's hope friend rejoice.
Jesus received sinners.
And yet they were not saying it with
that inflection, but they were saying it in
a derogatory sense.
He receives sinners and eats with them.
And so where the natural reaction to finding
something that is lost should be rejoicing.
The Pharisees are angry.
They're condemning.
They're sitting back and judging.
And so the story was given.
And in the third story, Jesus adds the
older brother and his attitude towards the rejoicing
because the father receives sinners.
And here he is out there sulking, angry,
upset.
I'm not going to join in.
You've never done anything like this for me.
And his sulking attitude because the father received
the sinner.
He went out and spent everything he had
on prostitutes.
He's a sinner.
Yet you have a big party because he
comes home.
The same attitude that the Pharisees were expressed
expressing to me.
It is interesting that the father said, son,
you are ever with me.
And all that I have is yours.
You see, the younger son had taken his
inheritance.
So everything that was left belonged to the
older son.
All that I have is yours.
And it was necessary that we should have
this party and be glad for this.
Your brother was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found because the
Lord receives sinners and eats with them.
The lost is found.
Jesus said, I've come to seek and to
save that which was lost.
And so we so often hear marvelous sermons
preached from the parable of the prodigal son.
But rarely do we ever hear a message
that really gives the true meaning of the
parable or the real reason for the parable.
The reason wasn't just to show the father
receiving with joy a son that was lost.
But the parable was used to show the
Pharisees how wrong was their condemnation of him
when they said he receives sinners and eats
with them.
They should have been rejoicing over it rather
than griping over it.
May God help us that we will not
have a pharisaical attitude towards the work of
God in receiving sinners.
Because maybe he is receiving them at some
other church in the county rather than here.
It doesn't matter where he receives them.
Let's rejoice he is receiving them.
Let's pray that God will send a great
spiritual awakening throughout the county in every church.
Let's not be so short-sighted or narrow
-minded that we're only praying for God's blessing
upon Calvary Chapel because God knows we can't
house them all.
But let us begin to really pray that
God will revive his church throughout this entire
county.
And that sinners will be brought to Christ.
That the Lord might receive sinners anywhere, everywhere.
That there'll be revival in the Baptist church,
in the Methodist church, in the Lutheran churches,
in the Presbyterian churches.
Oh, let's just pray that God might be
able to receive sinners in all of these
churches.
That there will be a real move of
God's Spirit throughout the whole area.
And if we hear of revival somewhere, let's
not go and try and find the faults
that may exist in their doctrines or their
doctrinal positions.
Well, they, Lord, didn't follow us and so
we told them not to do it.
And Jesus said, you shouldn't have done that.
You know, if they're out there doing it
in my name, they can't very well be
against us.
Don't stop them.
God delivers from narrow sectarianism, from an attitude
of the Pharisee, but to the same heart
of Jesus and rejoice that the Lord receives
sinners and eats with them.
So, we pray.
Father, we thank you that you have received
us and we've had that glorious joy of
eating with you, sitting down, Lord, and partaking
of thee, the bread of life.
Lord, we pray that today our hearts will
be united with yours.
Our visions will be united with yours.
And that we, Lord, might come to that
place of rejoicing in thy work wherever it
is being done and by whomever it is
being done.
Lord, keep us from that narrowness that would
seek to restrict your work only in our
midst, that would seek to restrict your blessings
only to our fellowship.
And Lord, may we seek and pray for
your blessings upon all who call upon your
name in truth.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Next week, chapters 16 and 17.
Next week in chapter 16, tremendously interesting discussion
by Jesus on the subject of Hades.
That place that is in the center of
the earth.
And so, we'll be looking at this subject
of Hades next Sunday evening and what Jesus
has to say about it in contrast to
what the Jehovah Witnesses have to say about
it.
And you'll have to determine whether or not
you want to believe Jesus or the Jehovah
Witnesses.
I've already made my mind up.
May the Lord be with you now and
go before you this week and bless you
with his blessings and with his love.
May he keep his hand upon you and
may he guide you in each of the
decisions that you'll have to make.
That you might be led of the Lord
in all things.
May the good hand of our Lord be
upon you.
In Jesus' name.