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Bishop Ogles’
Sermon
Second
Sunday after Trinity.
The
Collect.
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O
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LORD, who never failest to help and govern those whom thou dost bring
up in thy stedfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the
protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and
love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
7 Let us be
glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they
which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me,
These are the true sayings of God. (Rev
19:7-9)
16 Then
said he unto him, A certain man made a great
supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were
bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 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.
19 And another said, I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot
come. 21 So that servant came, and
shewed 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. 22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded,
and yet there is room. 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. 24 For I say unto you, That none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. (Luke
14:16-24)
Point 1: A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
Only a man of means, a great man, can provide such a
supper. That Supper is the Lord’s Supper
which Christ instituted the night before His death and crucifixion.
The Feast
This is the Gospel which God has provided for
mankind, sinners. It is a feast (1) in respect of the excellence of the
provision which it sets before us; (2) in respect of abundance, for the supply
is inexhaustible; (3) in respect of fellowship; (4) in respect of joy. (try
to visualize the great hurt caused to the Great Benefactor who has gone to the
greatest extreme of offering up His own life for us to provide the Communion
Supper that we may all freely enjoy with Him – my thoughts.)
The Invited Guests
We have received the invitation. This, therefore, is
not a mere matter of antiquarian interest, or of curious exegetical importance.
It concerns our own spiritual and immortal welfare; for, though the invitation
is given through the instrumentality of a servant,—the preacher,—it comes from
the great God Himself, and on that account it is not to be trifled with or
despised.
The Excuses Given
Look at the
reaction of those first invited to the call which had been addressed to them:
"They all with one consent began to make excuse." These excuses were
all pretexts. Perhaps they deluded themselves into the belief that they were
acting in good faith; but if they had gone deeper down into their hearts, they
would have found that they were deceiving themselves, and putting forth as
excuses things which, if they had been earnestly determined to go to the feast,
would not have kept them for a moment.
18 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.
19 And another said, I have bought
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot
come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed
his lord these things.
The Persistence In Declining
Those who persistently refuse to come to the feast
shall be forever excluded from its enjoyment. The rejecters of Christ are
themselves eternally rejected of Christ.
Lastly, finally, this parable reveals to us the fact,
that, notwithstanding the rejection of this invitation by multitudes, God's
house shall be filled at last. Heaven shall be fully occupied with God's
redeemed people, and the saved shall not be few.
22 And the
servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
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. 24 For I say unto you, That none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
(One of the primary duties of a preacher is to
offer up the invitation – to deliver it to all who will listen – to those who
will gratefully respond to their salvation, and to those who reject the Master
of the Feast to their eternal damnation – my thoughts.)
Men have changed in no respect from the moment of
this parable of Christ. It may be that we are even more callous and ungrateful
of the courtesies offered by those who wish to lift us up.
The Seal of God and the Mark of anti-Christ:
The Seal
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the
four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind
should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. 2 And I saw
another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and
he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the
earth and the sea, 3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the
trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. (Rev 7)
“This mark is the witness of the Holy Ghost,
printed in the hearts of believers. And the Lord would not suffer his people to
be afflicted before they were marked, that they might be prepared against all
conflicts. And, observe, of those who are thus sealed by the Spirit, the seal
must be on the forehead, plainly to be seen alike by friends and foes, but not
by the believer himself, except as he looks stedfastly in the glass of God's
word.”— Matthew Henry Concise
This is one of the rare moments I disagree with
Matthew Henry – a Bible scholar whose life and testimony place him far above my
own understanding and witness, however, MH was writing during a different
period during which the Gospel was advancing on every front.
There is a difference in a Seal and a Mark
A seal denotes acceptance and approval. A seal of
approval is an official acknowledgement on a certificate to certify that the
document is officially sanctioned by an authority. The Seal of God is His stamp
of approval upon the imputed righteousness we have received by our Redemption
in Christ.
A mark may be used as a verb to mean to consider an
issue, but, when used as a noun, is a representation of disapproval and a
set-aside for rejection. Timbers are marked by the woodsmen for being cut from
the living stand. Academic papers are marked down for errors. Cain received a
mark to designate his sin of murder of his own brother – Genesis 4:15 And
the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be
taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him
should kill him.
The Mark
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor,
free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man
might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. (Rev 13)
Christ has a chosen remnant, redeemed by his blood,
recorded in his book, sealed by his Spirit; and though the devil and antichrist
may overcome the body, and take away the natural life, they cannot conquer the
soul, nor prevail with true believers to forsake their Saviour, and join his
enemies. Perseverance in the faith of the gospel and true worship of God, in
this great hour of trial and temptation, which would deceive all but the elect,
is the character of those registered in the book of life.— Matthew Henry
Concise
Now note the subtle wording of the references of
Scripture to the Mark and the Seal:
Most all modern and erroneous versions of the Bible
change the wording to mean ‘on the forehead and not ‘in’ the forehead. This
slight change of meaning has resulted in a peculiar blindness of God’s elect.
No mark imposed upon our foreheads by force of arms
or threat of death can cause us to lose our identity in Christ. No external
symbol can cause us to lose our security in Christ. The new versions would have
you believe otherwise.
The source of all judgment and reason resides in our
brain – but specifically the frontal lobe of our brain. It is in this part of
the brain that we make value judgments, the part of the organ in which we
decide our friendships, our loves, our important choices in life, the kind of
music we prefer, the kind of speech we will abide, etc.
It is in our foreheads – not on our
foreheads that these decisions are made. It is here that we make our decisions
to accept the supper invitation of the Lamb, or to reject it. It is this
organic section of our brain that we make choices to follow Christ, to love Him,
and to reject evil.
Our decisions, made in our foreheads,
will either seal our future security with God, or Mark us among those who will
suffer damnation in the company that we keep, and the actions and values that
we produce in our persons.
Which do you have today – a mark of rejection, or a
Seal of approval of the Lord our God?
Will you accept the invitation without excuse?
