Provision in the house (The Great Supper)

Luke 13 and verse number 34. Verse 34 chapter 13, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate, and verily I say unto you, ye shall not see me until the time come, when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Chapter 14. It came to pass as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.

And Jesus answering, Speak unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go, and answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him again unto these things. And he put forth a parable to those that were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms, or the chief seat, saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, or the highest seat, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him.

And 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. And when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest place, or the lowest room, that when he bid thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher. Then thou shalt have worship in the presence of them that sit and meet with thee.

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, or made low, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Then said he also to him that, Madam, 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 recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor and maimed and lame and blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

And one of them that sat and meet with him heard these things and said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bad many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse.

The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them.

I pray thee, 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 lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servants, Go out into the highways and 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 bidden shall taste of my supper. Now we know that God will bless the reading of his precious word. For those who weren't here on Lord's Day, we spoke a little bit about a house in chapter 7. And I would call that poverty in the house.

And the reason for that is, remember, there were two debtors in that house, and the Lord told of two debtors when he was in the house. He said, one owed five hundred pence, and one owed fifty pence, and when he had nothing to pay, he freely forgave them both. So they had nothing to pay.

There was poverty. But you know, the Lord Jesus, he paid the great price of redemption. There's nothing that we really can't pay.

But some think because they're better than others, that they aren't such big sinners. But the woman that anointed his feet there in the house, she anointed his feet because he was the one that brought the gospel. The one that came from the glories of heaven, and those feet would take him eventually to the cross.

Now we read of more than one house here tonight. We read in chapter 20, chapter 13 rather, we read of a house left unto you desolate. That's speaking of the nation of Israel.

It rejected the Lord Jesus, so he said, now your house is left unto you desolate. And then it says in verse 1 of chapter 14, he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees, and we see in that house something of the condition of the nation of Israel, because again of the condition of those men that were in it. But we read at the end of the chapter of another house.

He said, my house shall be filled. The first house in this chapter was a house that really had no room for the Lord. But the house at the end of the chapter, it had room for everybody.

So that's what we're going to speak a little bit about tonight. Tomorrow night we'll go into chapter 15, and we'll see a prodigal in the house. Here, chapter 7, poverty in the house.

Chapter 14, pride and provision in the house. Then we have a prodigal in the house. And then in chapter 22, Lord willing on Wednesday, we're going to speak about people partaking in the house.

There's two things that were took off in that house, and one was a Passover, and the other one was the remembrance of the Lord, the breaking of bread. So that's what we have in our mind. Now this is a very interesting chapter.

There's a lot in it. We'll not maybe be able to cover it all, but we'll cover what we can. And as I said, the Lord, really another scripture tells us he wept over Jerusalem.

The Lord was a compassionate. And in this chapter that we're coming into tonight, we find that he's not only compassionate, but he's very gracious. But his compassion on Jerusalem, he loved Jerusalem.

He said, I would have gathered thee as a hen doth gather her brood or her chicks under her wings, but you would not. He said, I would. That was God's desire that the nation would be saved.

But they said, I would not. They didn't want Christ. They didn't acknowledge him as a Messiah that had come into the world.

Now we come to chapter 14, he comes into another house, one of the chief Pharisees. Now I'm sure you know who the Pharisees were. They were a sect in Jerusalem who thought they were better than everybody else.

That's a very dangerous position to be in. They think you're better than everyone else. Of course, you don't know everyone else, but still there's a lot of people have that idea.

Even in Christian circles think they're better than everyone else. So Pharisees, the thought is they were separated, separatists. They thought we're better than everyone else.

They looked down on everyone else. And then the Lord went into that house to eat bread on the Sabbath day and they watched him. You know, the nation of Israel should have been waiting for the Lord to come.

And of course, we should be waiting for the Lord to come as well. Maybe not too much better than they are, but they had an awful attitude toward the Lord. I thought, you know, when the Lord's body was in the tomb, the disciples should have been all waiting outside for the stone to be rolled away and for the Lord to come out.

But they weren't. Kind of sad. And the Lord came out, no one saw him coming, no one saw him dying, no one saw him being raised from the dead, no mortal being anyhow.

And they weren't waiting. Well, the same with these people. It says they watched him.

They weren't looking for blessing from the Lord. They didn't acknowledge again that he was a Messiah, but they were so interested. What will he do on the Sabbath? And they watched him critically, wondering, will he make a mistake? They were trying to find if the Lord would make mistakes.

But in the gospel of Luke, especially, the Lord Jesus is looked at as a perfect man. But they're watching him. And there was a man came before him and he had the dropsy.

Now, I don't know if you ever saw anyone with dropsy. When I was a little boy in Ireland, my mother used to take us, me and my two sisters, to visit a lady. Her name was Martha Officer.

I'll never forget. It was just in a little row house. And we went to visit her and went into a little bedroom downstairs.

Usually people slept upstairs, but this woman was huge. I thought actually she couldn't get through the door. That's why she had to stay in bed all day.

But it was a dropsy. It was retention of fluid. So she was a tremendous size.

And this person that came in here had the dropsy. And I think you can see that what the story here is telling us that that's what these Pharisees were. They were puffed up.

They thought they were greater and bigger than everyone else. And the Lord's going to show them just what they exactly were. And the Lord knew what was in their minds.

The Lord knows what's in our minds as well. Sometimes that would maybe searches out a little bit. And he said, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? You know, on the Sabbath, they wouldn't hardly lift a hand.

There's a preacher of ours, Philip, Phil Harding. He's not too well at present. He used to live in a Jewish neighborhood.

He almost looked like a little Jew. But you know, people would come, Jews, and they would say, we want you on Saturday, the Sabbath. And they would say, our furnace has gone out.

Could you come in and light it? They wouldn't even light their furnace. The pilot light was going, but they wouldn't light it because it was the Sabbath day. It shows just a hypocrisy.

And the Lord's saying, well, you're so puffed up. And you think you're so better than everyone else. And they're watching him.

And he said, is it lawful? But they held their peace. They knew that they couldn't catch the Lord in his words or in his actions and what he did. And he took the man.

He didn't ask the man. The man didn't ask to be healed either. But it said he took him and he healed him and he let him go.

And here's the Lord with all this humility. So different from these men. The Lord had compassion.

They had no compassion in anyone. They thought you shouldn't be healing anyone on the Sabbath day. That's a sin.

And other places the Lord said, you know, the priests worked on the Sabbath day. They officiated at the altars and so on. But these people, they were so puffed up.

It's a picture of the nation of Israel. Really, they didn't see just how little they were in God's sight. And the Lord answered them before they even ask a question.

And what did he say? Well, in verse number five, he said, if you have an ass or an ox fall into a pit or a well, will you not go and pull them out on the Sabbath day? But they wouldn't answer him again. Of course they would. They had more compassion for animals than they did for the Lord, you know, than they did for people.

Somewhere like that. I remember years ago when my son was in London for a month, just for a month as an exchange student or something or what he was. I think they lived in a dorm.

But anyhow, while he was there, somebody exploded bombs when the household cavalry band was marching. These were men that played musical instruments while they were riding on horses. And I tell you, it was one of these bombs with all the nails and all flew all over.

And some of the horses were killed. Some of the men were too. But the people, they were more incensed because of the horses than they were of the people.

No, no compassion on people. Well, they held their peace and couldn't answer him again. And then he said, I've got a story to tell you.

And he talks about people that were bidden to a marriage. And apparently at their marriages, the different places they could sit, some were more prominent than others. And they said, you know, when people are invited, what do they do? He said, well, some of them, they choose the chief seat.

They want to be number one. And that's a bad position to be in. They always want to be first.

A lot of times they'll have to be brought down. You know, when we lost our house in a tornado, there was a photographer took a picture of Linda, my wife, coming up out of the basement. And it ended up in the newspapers in Los Angeles and Chicago and Boston and the USA Today.

Never even mentioned that I existed. I was away at the post office trying to get a box number so I could get mail. No house, no mailbox.

And you know, you wouldn't hardly believe it, but you know what box number I got? Number one. So I was number one at the post office, but I wasn't number one at home. Not yet anyhow.

But number one at the post office. But they all wanted to be number one. And he said, when somebody invites you to a wedding, don't sit in the high place.

Somebody more honorable than you, somebody more important than you. You're not the important one. They'll come and then they'll tell you, take a lower place.

Far better to take the low place. These people are all puffed up with their own good. But you need to take the low place.

You know, the Lord Jesus took the lowest place of all. And he's our role model. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be in God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, found in fashion as a man, humbled himself.

Think of the apostle Paul. He said, I'm the least of all saints. What a tremendous person he was.

You know, far better just to, all we need to do is examine ourselves. Who among us is great? We're all just here to help one another. And that's what the Lord is saying.

Choose a chief place. Somebody will come and then you have to go down. And then he says, give this man place.

You know, you could preach that, just those words on their own. The Lord Jesus, he's the one that needs a place, but he never took the highest place. He took the lowest place.

Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him. He humbled himself. I've often thought that men tried to humble the Lord, blindfolded him and so on, and spat in his face.

They did everything. But the word of God says he humbled himself, became obedient to the Father to the extent of death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him.

God can do that. We should never try to take a place higher than the place God has given us. If we take it, there'll be a disaster.

One of our old preachers, Mr. William Wark, he said, don't let anybody put you on a pedestal because after you're up, there's only one way to go and that's down. And sometimes the people that put you up are the ones that can pull you down. So, give this man place.

God is the one that would give us place. Sometimes the brethren could give someone place and exalt someone. That's not any better than a person exalting themselves.

But if God can do it, we don't have to do it. We can get through life as quietly as we can. Maybe it won't work that way, but we shouldn't be trying to make ripples or trying to be seen or known.

Just work quietly. Do whatever. It doesn't matter whether anyone sees us or not.

And when we get home to heaven, we might be surprised to see some of them that will get bigger rewards that we didn't know much about. And then he said, when you're bidding, go and sit down in the lowest room. And when he comes, he said to the friend, go up higher.

Then you'll have worship or honor. And that's by taking the lowest place. Now, we need to keep going.

And then it says, verse 12, to him, when I make us a dinner or a supper, now he said, he's talking about going to a dinner or a supper. But he said, when you're making and you're inviting people, who do you invite? You invite, well, some of the big banquets, you know, all the people invited are the influential people and the people that maybe will be able to invite you back again. And it's good to take heed.

It says, don't ask just your family. Don't just ask your friend, your kinsmen, or your rich neighbors. Because he said, you know, they're going to return a compliment.

And we do this ourselves, but I hope we do it with a different motive. But he says, call the poor and the lame and the blind. Good to have a heart for others.

We have always tried to do that. I know when we were living in Michigan, there were quite a few people. There was an assembly there at over 70 and fellowship.

But there were some of them had no family. So we always tried to invite them, the ones that had nobody to invite them. And there was no way they were going to invite us back.

And maybe we wouldn't have been all that anxious to go back with some of them. But anyhow, that's good to think of others. This chapter really, one word that you could write over most of it is grace, God's grace.

The Lord was acting in grace. And he was acting in grace to the nation. And we're going to see that in a moment.

And he said, you take these poor people. There must have been quite a few that were maimed. They weren't.

Well, I think the thought of maimed, it means disabled in a limb. Could have been an arm or something. And they likely wouldn't have been able to put on a meal.

Maybe they didn't even have a job. And then he said, there's some are blind. Well, it'd be difficult for them, although blind people, some of them amazes at what they can do in a kitchen.

And then you have the lame, can't walk properly. And I thought in a spiritual way, you could have Christians that maybe they're not too bright, not too smart, but you invite them and you try to help them. And you might find some that are are lame.

They can't walk right. They can't walk. They don't walk uprightly.

They don't have a good testimony. Well, you know, you can help them. It's good to take them to a meal.

And it's the same with the blind. Maybe they can't see things in the Bible. Well, what do you do? You take them and you try to teach them in a nice way.

There's always nice ways to do it. You don't have to put them down. But bring out the little words that will be a help.

And he said, you'll be blessed if you do this. Have a heart for others. It's not all about me.

And, you know, even in our assemblies, I thought sometimes when it comes to worship, sometimes you'd think it was all about us. But it's all about the Lord. It's telling the Father the things concerning him.

That's what we need to do when we gather together to remember the Lord. Our hearts swell up in worship, but it's for the Lord. We were thinking maybe mostly what the Lord did for us or what he did for me.

He saved me. But do you ever think what he did for the Father? What glory did the Father get? That's what really worship would be. It's not all about you.

It's all about the Lord. And, you know, when it comes to blessings from the cross, one of the great blessings is that you and I were part of the bride of Christ. That's because of Calvary.

It's going to be a great blessing. And then, you know, when the Lord reigns with his bride, the nation of Israel is going to be blessed. How could they be blessed? Because of the cross.

And then the nations all around, all the nations will come in for blessing during the millennial reign of the Lord. And we're thinking it's all about me. And then eventually there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

And that's all because of Calvary. Tremendous the work that was accomplished there. And I'm glad that I'm included in it.

And we can all take it the whole work for ourselves. I know that. But when it comes to worship, we think of what he did for God.

The honor and glory that he brought to the very throne of heaven that was offended because of sin. So I think we should be occupied maybe a little bit more with things like that. And then there was someone that was sitting there and they said it'd be a great thing to eat bread in the kingdom of God.

My, it'd be great to be in heaven. Most people will tell us, unless they're really atheists, they'll tell you, well I hope to be in heaven someday. One day I hope I'm going to be in heaven.

Nothing greater than being part of the kingdom in that day. The Lord said there's something better you can be in it now. See, we're all, we can all be a part of the kingdom.

We all are. But we need to appreciate that. But he says, you know, there's a man that made a great supper.

And that man, of course, he typifies God himself. And God had a heart for others. He had a provision for others.

He's inviting them. Sometimes we call this a gospel supper. I think that would be okay.

But you know, the gospel is a gospel of the grace of God. And when you think of this house being filled, what do you think of first of all? You think of, well, it's going to be good. I'm going to, I'm there.

Or do you think of God? God wanting his house to be filled. My house shall be filled. That God, think of what he gets from it.

He wants to see people saved. He wants to see people gathered into the kingdom. And he said a certain man had a great supper and he invited many.

And he sent his servant at supper time. It says, verse 17, to them that were bidden, come for all things are now ready. Now he sent his servant.

Now, who do you think the servant would typify? Well, I'll tell you, when you read your Bible, once in a while, you'll find a nameless servant. No name. We'll see one in a couple of nights who followed a man to a house.

A nameless servant. There's a nameless servant, a way back in Genesis, looking for a bride for Isaac. There was a nameless servant that went for David and put him in the midst.

And wherever you find a nameless servant, I think I'm right in this, that it's always a picture of the Holy Spirit. And God sent his spirit to convince people. And even before Pentecost, the Spirit of God was still dealing with individuals.

And God sent a spirit. But here, we're looking at this in our own light today. Because all things are now ready.

All the provision has been made. When we preach this in the gospel, we can preach it is finished. All the work is finished.

We are invited to supper. I know sometimes when we're invited, your wife likes to bring a few cookies with her or something. But here, you don't bring anything.

It's all provided. Everything is provided. And it's all free.

So, first of all, he says, go to them which were bidden. Now, I think this would be typical of the nation of Israel. The Lord came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And after they rejected him, then the Gentiles were brought in. But you have the servant and he goes to them that are bidden. And what happened? Well, they were like those Pharisees at the beginning of the chapter.

They were all puffed up with their own importance. They were occupied with self. That was the main thing.

And they all with one consent began to make excuse. And one said, I bought a piece of ground and I have to go and see it. So, you have to have me excused.

And, you know, a person would be silly buying ground without seeing it. Some did that down in Florida and ended up with a swamp or something. And some did it in New Mexico and end up somewhere way out in the desert where there's no amenities or anything.

So, it would only be normal to go and see it. And then another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I have to prove them. Well, you wouldn't buy oxen without proving it.

You wouldn't buy a car today without driving it. Surely, you'd want to take it for a drive, see if it's okay. And then another one, his more worse excuse said, I've married a wife.

She wouldn't expect me to come. Three of them all said, I have. But, you know, we'll see tomorrow night.

You know what the prodigal said he had? I have sinned. He's the one that got the blessing. These people thought they're more interested in material things than in the things of God.

And, you know, while we look at this as a nation of Israel rejecting the Lord, we can be too interested in material things too and put too high a value on things that, what are they worth in the light of eternity? You know, in a nation of Israel, you know, they were always looking forward to the year of Jubilee. And if you bought a house, it came every 50 years, you know. If you bought a house when it was 49 years to go, it would go back to the owner, mostly, Jubilee.

So, it'd be worth quite a bit. If you bought it at 25 years, you'd get it for half price because it's getting less value. If you, the closer it gets to the year of Jubilee, the less value it has.

Now, what does that do with us? Well, we're not looking for the year of Jubilee. We're waiting for the Lord to come. And the closer we're getting to it, and it might be very near, what we have should take less value because we're all going to leave it all behind.

We'll not mind that, though. We'll be with the Lord. And, you know, I've thought way back in the Old Testament, when Israel was going into the land, there were two and a half tribes that stayed on this side of Jordan.

All of a sudden, the men said, we're going in to fight for you. And, well, it might be okay in some ways. I kind of wonder, you know, because they went over Jordan.

Jordan's a river of death. It reminds us of our baptism when we died with Christ. But they came back again.

But what was it that brought them back? Their land. I bought a piece of ground. Their animals.

They stayed on this side of Jordan because it was good for the animals. So they came back. And they came back because that's where their families were.

And I've often thought that those men fought for something they never enjoyed. You know, sometimes people are like that, even Christians. They're so strict and so hard on people, and they've never enjoyed the things of God themselves.

Are you really enjoying the inheritance that God has brought us into? We would enjoy it through our Bible. But anyhow, these people, they rejected the Lord. And the servant came and showed his Lord these things.

I've invited them in. They refused. So what does he say now? Well, he says, then go out again.

Master was angry, and he said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city. So he gave Israel another opportunity. I think maybe this would relate to the day of Pentecost, when he gave the nation another chance to repent.

When Peter stood up, thank God there were about 3,000 soldiers saved, but the majority still rejected. And then he said, well, you know, go out again and bring in the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. And here are these people that had nothing.

See, the other ones weren't hungry for the things of God. If you're not hungry, you're not all that fussy about going to the feast. But if you're hungry, and here's the people that were hungry, the poor people, and I think this would represent the Gentiles.

Because after Pentecost, they were invited in to the feast. And he said, you bring the poor. The poor couldn't buy a piece of land like the others.

And the maimed, probably, and the halt, they couldn't maybe walk after an oxen and a plow. And maybe if you're blind or if you're poor, maybe it'd be difficult for you to get a wife. They weren't interested in those things.

And it takes money, you know, to get married, doesn't it? The license doesn't cost much, but you pay after that. I tell people, I got down on my knees and proposed to Linda about 10 years ago, and I've been trying to get back on my feet ever since. It's not really that bad.

I've been married twice, so it can't be bad. Anyhow, these were people that knew, like ourselves. Too bad, you know, after God saves us, we begin to think we are really somebody.

And while God makes big improvement, there was a man in Ireland, a man called Robert McClurkin, and he told me, when he was a young man just saved in Belfast, a man, older brother, he got about eight or nine of these men that were just newly saved, and he got them out in open air. He said, now I want you to preach or shout out a verse, do something. But he got up and he said, look at these men.

If you had seen them a few months ago, you wouldn't recognize them. He said, no, they're all clothed and nice and so on. And, you know, that's what God does.

I'm not saying that we are going to be paupers or anything like that. God's been good to us, but we need to remember where we came from. I used to go to, when I went back to Ireland, go to the house where I was born, a little row house.

I can't do that now because it's not there. They made way for urban renewal, never even put a plaque to say I was born there, and it's gone. But, you know, it's good, it humbles you.

And I appreciate what I have now. So different from when you're in the old days. It was the same here in the old days too.

And now we have far more almost than we need. So the servant Lord has done as I commanded, yet there is room. Go into the highways and the hedges.

He said, my house is going to be filled. And God's house will be filled. Sometimes we sing a hymn, the house is fast filling, there's still room for others, but yet there's room for millions more.

We don't know that really. Might have been when the song was, when the hymn was written, but there may only be room for one or two more. We need to realize that the Lord's coming and we need to get out.

Now the Spirit of God uses us to invite others in and we need to make sure they realize they're coming to a feast. It's not coming to a famine. Before I was saved, and as you know, I was 33 years of age, I wondered what am I going to do with all my time? How am I going to occupy? You know, I could use more time than 24 hours a day.

God keeps you busy and he feeds you and this, while we relate this to salvation, God still feeds his people. How does he do it? From his word, do we really get into the word of God? You say, I don't understand very much of it. Well, you know, I was told when I was first saved, you keep on reading, keep on praying.

God expects two things they told me from every believer, obedience and dependence. Obedience, well, I would be reading the word of God to be obedient to it, to see if my life is right and to keep it right. Dependence would be prayer.

And recently I've added another one to it. It's be patient. We need to be patient.

Things don't work just like we want right away. And we wonder if they're ever going to work. We need to be patient.

In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. I think that's a wonderful verse. It's a verse I have in my little study room at home.

And it's good to just depend on God. But we need to feed on the things of God. All things are now ready.

There's everything in this book that we need. And we'll never exhaust it. And I don't think we're going to exhaust it in eternity.

We'll never exhaust the truth concerning the Lord Jesus in eternity. But, you know, we can still have a desire. When you're raising your children and your grandchildren or great-grandchildren, you know, there's one thing they always used to say, when you're hungry, you're healthy.

When you don't want to eat, there's something wrong. I don't know if I ever was like that, but something wrong if you don't want to eat. But, you know, it's the same in a Christian life.

You're hungry for the things of God. When God saved us, maybe we were more hungry. We should still hunger for the things of God.

And I hope that I'll always be able to study the Word of God right up to the Lord comes. I'm not looking for death, but even if it comes, I'd like to get into the Word of God. It's so important.

And, you know, there was one of our brethren. He was a Scotsman. I didn't know him.

It was before my time slightly. W. W. Faraday, his name was. And he was a giant in the scriptures.

And, you know, every night he said, before I go to bed, I read a chapter in the Gospels. Somebody said, why do you do that? They said, you know, I could pass away during the night or the Lord could come. And I'd like it.

The last thing that I ever did would be to read about the Lord Jesus. See, we need to be occupied with him. We'd like to have the answers for any question that someone has, but that's not why we're reading the Bible, really.

We shouldn't be. Sure, we can help others, but we need to read it, first of all, for self. What do I get out of it? What am I enjoying? And I enjoy what I've been trying to do tonight, to look down and see how things just all fit together.

The whole thing fits together. Those are puffed up with their own importance. They're not going to respond.

They're not hungry. They're satisfied with their old traditions and everything else. They're not interested in God and God's word and what God has done through his son.

They're still not interested. But we should be very interested. You know, if you fall in love with someone, one of the things you do, you try to find out about them.

What are they like? You don't want to go too quickly. I shouldn't say this, but I told my children, I have four children, I said, don't grab the first person that comes along when you're looking for a partner. Be fussy like your mother was.

And I don't know how fussy she was, but it's good advice. We need to go slow with things. We're so impetuous.

But anyhow, the feast has been provided. And it's not all potatoes and it's not all meat. It's a variety.

If you have a heart problem, go to a specialist. If you have another problem, you're diabetic or whatever, go to the person that knows what the illness is all about. But we shouldn't be specialists when it comes to the Bible.

Some people we know, they're all prophetic truth. That's all that matters. Some even could be all assembly truth.

They forget about the truths concerning the body of Christ and so on. And there's so many different, it's a safeguard to get into. Don't neglect any of the word of God.

Now, we're not going to understand the whole scriptures, but still, what did the Lord preach? The two in the weight of a mess. He preached from all the scriptures, the things concerning himself, from Moses and the prophets, the Psalms, all the scriptures. We shouldn't be specialists, so we might just be occupied all with one little part of truth and neglect the others.

But the whole thing is a safeguard. So may the Lord help us to realize that we've been brought to a feast. What a wonderful thing it is.

It's not our ideas. All things are now ready. We don't need to bring some of the grave clothes from some that we were associated with in the past.

Just come with a hunger. And he said, the Lord said, you'll be filled. And he said, my house is going to be full.

It was a forsaken house in the last chapter. The nation forsook, which is going to be filled. Later on, of course, the nation is going to be brought into, you know, and they're going to be brought into blessing.

And God willing, we're going to see that tomorrow night. Another house, the Father's house. But you say, I thought the Father's house was in the future.

I go to prepare a place for you. If I go, I will come again. Well, there is a future aspect to the Father's house that takes place at the rapture, but there's a present enjoyment of the Father's house.

And that's right now. And that's what we have in chapter 15, the present enjoyment of the Father's house. We have a right to be where he is because we have robes of garments of salvation, robes of righteousness.

We're fitted to be there. We have a standing there, shoes in our feet. We're here to represent God.

We have a ring in our hand as well. Got the authority of God behind us. What a tremendous thing it is to enjoy the blessings that God has brought us into.

We'll enjoy them in the full in the future. But the streams on earth I've tasted more deep I'll drink above. So may the Lord help us to go in for the feast.

And the way to learn is to realize we don't know very much. Not like, don't have dropsy. Think we know it all or know so much.

We know very little. And the more we study, the more we see there is that we can learn. We're students.

We're not in a university. I don't think we're in high school even. Maybe not even in grade school.

I think we're in kindergarten, but still God wants to feed his people. And may the Lord help us to enjoy the things that we find in the book. And especially of course, the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Now shall we pray? Our father, we ask a blessing upon thy word. We thank thee for these verses we have considered and for the parables in them explaining the word of God. Help us to be humble believers going on quietly for God and growing in grace and the knowledge of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Bless each one here. Bless all our loved ones. If there are some that aren't saved, we pray that we might be able to rejoice soon over hearing of their conversion.

And we ask through God to work in this neighborhood and granted souls might be brought in that would have a hunger and a thirst for the things of God. And we ask these things now and look for journey mercies in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.