No more excuses

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. 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 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. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 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. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. (Luke 14:16-24)

Let us first note that this parable, the Parable of the Great Supper differs from the Parable of the Royal Marriage Feast (Matthew 22:2).  The differences are here: the former parable was spoken early in the ministry of Yeshua, the latter during His Passion week.  In the former the messengers were treated badly, the latter they were given excuses. In the former the invited were destroyed and their cities burned, in the latter those who rejected the invitation were excluded. Clearly according to the scripture salvation is to the Jew first, the cross and the blood of Ha Mashiach opened the door for the rest of the world.  All have fallen short of the glory of YHWH.  “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:23-24)”, all have sinned but YHWH has given an invitation to all, given an opportunity to enter in to the Kingdom of YHWH through his son Yeshua Ha Mashiach. Throughout the Old Testament YHWH called his people from the darkness of sin to the light of his Love through His patriarchs and the prophets. His messengers were met with rejection and disbelief because the people did not have a heart for YHWH.  Many would rather serve their flesh or serve idols even though YHWH delivered them and proved his power and Love for them.  They could not see the work, presence and will of YHWH because of spiritual blindness.  Clearly the Parable of the Wedding Feast points to the Jews.  This Parable points tot he Jews and the gentiles.  The  Old Testament showed  the mercy of Yahweh through the Law but through Yeshua we find grace, for we are saved through grace.  We are in a time when people are still losing out, not finding the riches of grace because of excuses just like those depicted in the Parable of the Great Supper.  We are invited to a great supper, to sit at the table with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, he even gives us a down payment on that promise by first sitting down at the table of our hearts, our thrones, the center of our beings when we accept the great invitation that YHWH has given!  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: (Hebrews 3:7-8) and again ! For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. (Hebrews 3:14-15)

This invitation  from Yeshua is given by the preaching and the hearing of the Gospel. Unfortunately  there are many who don’t accept this call  by carrying excuses.  Notice how the scripture says “And they all with one consent began to make excuse.”  They all had an unwilling mind to attend the feast. The Lord smiles on those who are willing and obedient.  In the context of the time one who gave a feast of this magnitude would send out invitations prior to the feast. They all  received the invitation in time to put this event on their calendar.  It would have been a sign of disrespect to decline.  Each one offered a flimsy excuse for declining the invitation.  Who buys land before they look at it and who surveys land at night when the feast would have taken place.  The second individual could have proven his animals at any time or had servants do it. The third could have brought his wife with him, the nobleman would have know that he was married and what would one extra plate hurt?   The bottom line is that these were blatantly ungrateful excuses.  They were also easy to see through and that makes it more injurious.  A modern idiom for this action is “folk will do what they wanna do anyway”, and you can add what disrespect they tend to it.  The bottom line is instead of being honest open and true they would rather choose deceit.

The Lord has made a great call to mankind to come to the kingdom of heaven and to His Holy service  until we get there.  Many have made excuses why they have not accepted the invitation, they may blame it on the preacher, they may blame it on a hypocritical so called believer.  They may blame it on a believer who has backslid  or believer who is not walking in the knowledge of the truth.  The Lord has called us to come to the feast and sit down at the table meaning that we must engage ourselves worthy of being there. In the Parable of the Great Wedding Feast there was a man who came in but was not dressed proper although proper clothes were provided for him, he was cast out because of the violation.   Yeshua demonstrates that many are called but few are chosen.  They are not chosen because they are not clothed meaning they are not prepared, not carrying the proper qualities of one who is called a Christian or Christ-Like.  There is no excuse for unchristian like behavior in a Saint.  Many do it and don’t realize it, if they did they would not act in such ways.  It is easy to see the excuses of those who are not saved or haven’t repented,  turned from their sin and have not received the Holy Spirit.  What appears to be difficult is seeing our own selves making excuses for not being spiritually mature.  The scripture tells us “first natural then spiritual”.  As a baby naturally grows he hits milestone indicating development, physically and mentally.  It is the same Spiritually.  A Saint should hit milestones in their christian development.  From milk to meat until we reach a certain stature in him. It is  spiritual prosperity and not  natural prosperity only.

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? (Hebrews 2:1-4)

Instead of being complacent having a dim or unenlightened view of the call, instead of lowering the standard and saying anything is acceptable we should be giving more heed to the word and have more humility in our status rejecting pride of knowledge and position  like the church of Sardis spoken of in the the book of Revelation. “ And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. (Revelation of John 3:1)”.    This congregation thought they were rich in Him because they had a reputation but they were wrong, they were poor and weak. YHWH is not interested in lofty cathedrals, a physical tabernacle of brick and mortar.  Many have failed to understand that gain is not godliness.  The city of Sardis was a wealthy city and the congregants of the fellowship at Sardis had been recognized by the Greek historian Herodotus to have acquired a lack of morals.  In modern terms that maybe recognized as snooty or bougie and respect of persons. Thinking they were better than others because of their collective wealth and status in their congregation. They have respect for those in their financial and social arena but they shun and disrespect those who are on a lower income scale and those who don’t share the same social ideals.  James warns of this this of behavior, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: (James 2:1-3)”.  Remember YHWH is not a respecter of persons.  “For there is no respect of persons with God. (Romans 2:11) “.

There is no excuse for saying, I didn’t know.  We are ministered to by Paul when he says,  “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (II Corinthians 13:5)”   When you see yourself in the light of the word and of the work and suffering of Yeshua you will find that excuses are shallow.   Too many Saints Your “I”s are in the way of your spiritual eyesight. I don’t see it this way,  I don’t feel its necessary, I think it’s this way.  I can’t do what they did.  Many have thrived despite their handicap, others had excuses but overcame by the word YHWH showing them that excuses carry no weight when you trust in him. Carrying excuses means you don’t trust in YHWH.  Moshe had the excuse that he could not speak well but YHWH used him mightily when he trusted.  Gideon said that he was the least in his father’s house but YHWH made him a mighty man of valor when he trusted.  When we trust and lean on YHWH  all the excuses get washed away and we find out how insignificant and fragile they were then we can say like Paul  “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)”.