He has:
- Healed a man against the approval of the religious leaders.
- Dealt with the guest who had a manner problem.
- Corrected the host.
This passage of Scripture shows us a situation that the old farmers used to have a saying for. They would have said, “The Lord had ‘cleaned their plow,’ three times.” In that very tense moment, they were afraid to protest.
Finally, in the midst of that tense moment (Imagine the setting!), out of almost complete silence, one fellow decided to speak out. Look at verse 15. We read, “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.”
That is one of the most pious clichés that you will ever hear. In that very tense moment, when the Lord had nailed them three times, the man says, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” That did not even make sense, but it sounded good so he broke the silence with that pious platitude.
You can check commentary after commentary and no one has any idea what that man meant when he stated, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” He probably said it because he thought it sounded good, and for no other reason. Some have speculated and said the man said that because the Lord had mentioned the resurrection in verse 14, so out of joy and excitement he said it in reference to the Messianic feast that God will give His people when He sets up His kingdom on earth.
Illus: Probably most of us would have done what the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee said he would have done had he been there. He stated that he would have said to the man, “What do you mean by that?” Dr. McGee said, “I doubt that he could have told me what he really meant...His statement was nothing but a pious cliché."
You hear many people these days say things because they sound good and sound religious, but they have no idea what they mean. It just sounds good.
Illus: For example. We hear folks say, “Praise the Lord!” To many, this has become a cliché. They do not really mean to direct praise to the Lord. It is just a very pious sounding phrase. It sounds good. It makes the speaker appear to be religious. It is good when men PRAISE THE LORD from the heart, but God is NOT IMPRESSED WITH LIP SERVICE!
God is impressed when men and women will worship Him from the heart, and speak forth sincere and meaningful praises.
The Lord was not going to let that man get away with using a meaningless cliché. He told them a parable. Look at verses 16-17. We read, “Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.”
Notice two things in verses 16-17.
(1) THE GREAT SUPPER. (Verse 16) “...A certain man made a great supper, and bade many.”
God is using all kinds of ways today to get the invitation out. He uses the Church, pastors, evangelists, missionaries, the witness of lay Christians, radio, television, the printed page, and even man’s conscience. No one in America can say, “No one has ever tried to invite me to this great Feast.”
God has a great feast and He is inviting all to come.
(2) THE GREAT SURPRISE.
(Verse 17) “And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now READY.” The time had come. Those who had been invited, and had accepted the invitation were told that it was time. The Bible says, verse 18, “And they all with one consent began to make excuse...”
God has issued an invitation to ALL MANKIND to accept His salvation. What people do with that invitation is their decision. This is a “feast” that God Himself has prepared and the only way you can be saved is to accept the invitation that has been extended to you. You can not:
- Force your entrance into Heaven.
- Buy your way into Heaven.
- Work your way into Heaven.
Certainly you can not hide behind some trumped up excuse, thinking He would be foolish enough to believe it.
You simply must receive the invitation that He extends to you, or just admit that you refuse it.
The ungodly person will hide behind excuses like a child who has been bad will hide behind a bush and think no one, not even God Himself, knows he was bad.
Illus: The excuses of the ungodly are as ridiculous as those of the lad that the farmer caught crouching in the branches of his apple tree. The farmer asked, “What are you doing up there?” The lad said, “Er--uh, I saw one of your apples fall from this branch and I am trying to put it back.” Do you think any farmer would be foolish enough to believe a story like that? Yet some think God is foolish enough to believe excuses they come up with that are just as ridiculous.
The Lord gave this parable in response to the very pious words of the man that said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.”
God now shows us all the pious words people use when He gives the invitation for men to come to His “great feast” of salvation.
Notice again in our text that the Lord shows us three men who had no intention of obeying Him, but tried to cleverly circumvent His command with pious sounding words. These three men did not say they WOULD NOT COME. They simply stated excuses to try to cover up the fact they did not plan to attend.
I. THE FIRST MAN WAS A “FIBBER.” (Verse 18)
“...The first man said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.”
Any time you talk to a FIBBER, what he is saying with his lips he is not thinking. When the invitation was given to this man, who was a FIBBER, he did not say what he really felt--that he did not want to go. He said just the opposite. He may have expressed the fact that he would like to go, but then he gave an excuse for why he could not go.
He not only lied about his TRUE FEELINGS, by not being forthright about his wishes, but he also made up a ridiculous FIB to hide behind. We can not imagine someone giving the idiotic excuse he gave. He said, “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs to and see it: I pray thee have me excused.”
When people do not want to do what is right, one ridiculous excuse is as good as another one. This is exactly why the Lord is giving this parable. In that very tense moment, that man had used the foolish, pious words. Likewise, the examples Jesus gave were also ridiculous.
The Bible tells us clearly that the natural (unsaved) man has no desire for the things of God. The privilege of God’s having reserved him a place at the “great feast” of salvation means nothing to him.
Illus: The unsaved people of the world have many differences. We have heard them fuss about their preferences as far as cars, as far as sports, or even in politics, but there is one thing they all have in common. They would rather make up FIBS than accept Christ and submit to Him their life.
The first man was a FIBBER. No one would buy a piece of land and say, “I am sorry, I can not accept your invitation to a feast because I bought a piece of land that I have never seen and I must go, right now, at look at it.” Think about it. He says he already bought the land. It was his. That land was not going anywhere. He could go to a feast and the land would be there when he got back!
Illus: A pastor moved from up North down to the South. He was surprised to find the southern lifestyle was not as fast as what he had been used to. He was also surprised at how friendly the southern people were. He got out and began to knock on doors. He was inviting people to his church. The following Sunday he was sure his church would be full because many had said they would be there. If only half as many would have come as had said they would, his church would have been filled. However, he experienced another surprise. The people who had led him to believe they would be at church were not there. A native southern pastor explained to the pastor from up North the difference between the people of the two areas. He explained, “You may ask a northerner to church and he will bluntly tell you he is not going to attend. You may not like it, but he lives more in a fast lane of life and does not beat around the bush. Many southerners are not in that ‘fast lane.’ If you invite one to church, he will probably tell you what he thinks you want to hear, but have no intention of attending.”
While this may be true of southerners, you can find people in the four corners of America who will use pious sounding words to hide behind, rather than tell the truth. They have no intention of serving God. When that happens, they are as much “fibbers” as the man in our text. THE FIRST MAN WAS A ‘FIBBER.’
II. THE SECOND MAN WAS A FOOL. (Verse 19)
“And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.”
Again, this is a trivial excuse for the same reason the preceding excuse was. He stated that he had already bought the oxen. If he wanted to see how they would perform, he could have done that at another time.
Illus: Isn’t it amazing what people claim they have to do on Sundays? God gives people six days to do all they need to do, still they have to do something on Sunday, and during the two hours during Wednesday evening Bible study. To hear them talk, those are the only two times they can do those things.
The man who had bought the oxen might have used more wisdom had he tried the oxen before he bought them. Anyway, he could have adjusted his schedule so he could try them at another time. When men do not want to please God, they will make sure there are certain things they have to do whenever it is time to serve God. They are trying to fool themselves and fool God, Who has extended the invitation.
Notice, it was a PURCHASE that kept the man from accepting the invitation to the great supper. The world we live in has one thing in mind. We hear it all the time, “As soon as I get paid, I am going to buy this, or buy that.” They have to wait to get paid because they have already spent all of the last week’s salary, and probably more than that! Many are so deep in debt they will never be able to crawl out from under the financial load they made for themselves.
Illus: Young couples want to get married and have a new home, new car, new clothes, house full of new furniture, and a nest egg in the bank all in the first couple of years. All this without having saved back for it.
This present hour could go down in history as being the time of the “I want” society. People are willing to forsake family and God to have what the world has to offer.
We need to keep before us those words that we find in I John 2:15-16. We read, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
When men who profess to be saved have time for all the things they have purchased and no time for God, it is because they serve the gods of this world.
We must not forget the reason the Lord gave this parable. Remember, at the very tense moment, a man made this ridiculous statement, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” Those were foolish words as much as the words, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them...”
III. THE THIRD MAN WAS A FAKE. (Verse 20)
“And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.”
This man had no intention of accepting the invitation. He was a FAKE. Of all things. Using a God-ordained act as an excuse! God does not disrupt marriage. He makes a marriage. God, Who made marriage, wants to see every marriage be a success. When a couple puts God as head of their marriage, it then becomes the best marriage it could be. The man said, “I would come, but I just got married.” That was no excuse. Why did he not just take his wife with him?
God does not give us a family to come between us and Himself. In verse 26, the Lord said a very startling thing. “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
Now that may sound completely contradictory to other passages in the Bible that tell us we are to love our family. DOES GOD WANT US TO HATE OUR FAMILY? Of course not! This verse is a hyperbole. A hyperbole is an over exaggeration used to teach a lesson. For example, if I say, “He passed me so fast it was like I was standing still,” was I standing still? No. The emphasis is on how fast he passed me.
In verse 26, the meaning is clear. Our love for God should be so great that it would make our love for our family be as hate in comparison.
God never gave us jobs, family, health, etc., as things to come between us and God. However, we often find people who use their family as an excuse not to obey God.
Illus: Parents who did not want to obey the Lord and attend church would use a helpless infant as an excuse not to attend.
Illus: Some will say, “I can not go to church because Sunday is the only day I can be with my family.” They could bring the family to hear the Word of God preached. That would be better than sitting home and letting the entertainment world fill the ears of those boys and girls with garbage.
Remember that the Lord gave this parable in response to the man’s effort to make impressive words to make him sound good, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.” The Lord was not going to let him get by. As a result Jesus told of three men who also used words to do whatever they wanted to do by hiding behind excuses. There was a: (1) Fibber, (2) Fool and (3) Fake.
Conclusion/Summary:
I hope no one here is like any of the people Jesus described. Notice, He was NOT FOOLED by any of the excuses.
Men are SAVED BY RESPONDING TO THE INVITATION TO COME TO CHRIST, they are lost BECAUSE they make silly excuses for not responding. Verse 21 states that when the Lord heard the excuses he was “angry.” The Bible says that “God is angry with the wicked every day.” It is because God has invited people to His “great feast” and they show contempt for the invitation. Why would that make Him so angry? BECAUSE OF THE GREAT COST!
Salvation cost Jesus Christ His life. Millions living today treat that as if it were nothing. That is no concern of theirs. They have rejected God’s beloved Son, and God is angry! Notice in verse 24 that not a single person who gave an excuse, rejecting the invitation, was allowed to taste of the supper. They chose to LEAVE HIM OUT OF THEIR LIVES SO HE LEFT THEM OUT OF HIS! There is something remarkable about this passage of Scripture. Men ask to be excused from privileges God offers as if He were doing them a favor to excuse them. One day they will see what their flimsy excuses brought them--eternal separation from God.
I. THE FIRST MAN WAS A FIBBER.
II. THE SECOND MAN WAS A FOOL.
III. THE THIRD MAN WAS A FAKE.
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach many of his sermons on Youtube. Go to You tube and type Youtube Lykesland
