Subject Eighty-eight

MEN’S EXCUSES FOR REFUSING SALVATION

Scripture: Luke 14:15-24

1. God’s preparation of salvation
   1. God prepares salvation like a man preparing a feast.
   2. God’s salvation feast is prepared by the Lord Jesus, and all things are ready.
   3. Provided in God’s salvation are: firstly, the redemption of the Lord Jesus; secondly, Christ’s resurrection life. The redeeming blood and the resurrection life are the food at the salvation feast. Every time we come to the Lord’s table, we are coming to God’s salvation feast, and what we eat and drink is the Lord’s blood and the Lord’s life.
2. God’s invitation to salvation
   1. God not only has prepared the feast of salvation through Christ, but also has extended the invitation for salvation through the Holy Spirit.
   2. The invitation of the Holy Spirit is through those who preach the gospel and the gospel messages. Today you are here listening to the gospel. You have been invited to the gospel feast.
3. Men’s excuses
   1. Men made excuses because of their own riches and their own capability. Give the examples the Lord used: some bought a piece of land, some bought some oxen, and some are getting married. All these excuses illustrate men’s riches and capability. Speak seriously according to these principles. As long as men are rich and capable, they will excuse themselves from the invitation of the gospel.
   2. Riches and capability can be related either to material things or to morality. Land, houses, and buying and selling are the material riches; doing good is the moral riches.
4. The ones who accepted the invitation
   1. All the ones who accepted the invitation were the maimed, the blind, the lame, the poor and the weak ones.
   2. To respond to God’s invitation to salvation, you must become a poor and weak one. Friends, if you think that you are rich and capable, you cannot respond to God’s invitation.
5. God’s constraining
   1. The ones who are naturally poor and the ones who are willing to be poor are few in number. They cannot fill up the seats of salvation. The naturally poor ones are the ones who were poor originally; the ones willing to be poor are the ones who were rich but are willing to become poor.
   2. Therefore God has to constrain people to accept His invitation.
   3. God’s constraining is to strip men and to wound them. To strip men is to turn their riches to poverty; to wound men is to turn their capability to incapability. Give some examples, such as many who were unwilling to receive God’s salvation until the family was broken, or there was a death of someone close to them, or they were critically ill with pneumonia. Such constraining is the great care and mercy of God for you.
6. How to respond to the invitation
   1. Be humble and confess that you are poor and incapable.
   2. Repent and turn to God.
   3. Receive Christ and His redemption.