Compel Them To Come In

So this morning, we're coming to the third sermon on this time that Jesus has in the Pharisees' house. He's been in there, and when he first got there, he healed a man with a dropsy on the Sabbath. And there was some level of discomfort or tension in the house. And Jesus asks them ahead of time, should I do this? Is it lawful or not? And they keep silent, so he goes ahead and does it. Then he goes on and... begins to talk to the crowds about who they should invite to the, if they're having a party or a reception, who should they invite? And he tells them, well, don't invite your friends and don't invite the rich people, but invite the poor and the lame and those who can't pay you back. And if you do that, then your reward will be great in heaven and you'll be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. And then we come to our text this morning where Jesus is done teaching, the parable's over.

And someone else has something to say. And Jesus replies with another parable. And so he continues on in teaching. And it's very similar to, there are a lot of similar elements between his previous parable and this one in terms of meals and who to invite. But this time he goes into people who don't come and why they don't come and who should come. And that's what we're going to be looking into this morning. I want you to know that as we go into this that... The people who are supposed to come, the guests, the invited guests to this wedding feast, are the Jews of the time. And what's going on in history right now is Jesus has come to earth. There's a big transition happening away from the Jews being an exclusive people, the only ones who were the people of God. It's being opened up, as we read about in Romans, to all of the world. And so God is turning away from...

The disobedient and the rebellious, the Israelites, the Jews. And their pride during this process, and ultimately what leads them to putting Jesus to death, is that they think, we have Abraham as our father. We don't have anything to worry about. Who are you to come in here and tell us what to do and to upset the system? And yet that's exactly what Jesus does. And we need to hear the caution to us that Paul gave to the Gentiles in Rome, which is, Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to. Don't think that because you're grafted in, because you're a Christian, because you're one of the people of God now, that you have no concern. Because that was the error of the Jews. They thought there was no concern. That what they had was theirs and that nothing, they couldn't be taken away. And yet what Paul says to the Gentiles and Romans was, you stand by your faith. Continue to do so. And so I want you to come to this text this morning.

with a spirit of humility, not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to and saying, oh, well, here is Jesus. He's going after the Jews and telling them how wicked they are, but that doesn't have anything to do with me. Because the direct correlation is the people of God at that time thought more highly of themselves than they ought to. And it was to their eternal destruction that they... believe this way about themselves. And so we need to submit ourselves to what God has to say, what Jesus actually said to his people and realize it wasn't just for them, but it was said for our benefit, for all scripture is profitable for our souls. So would you please stand now for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 14, verses 15 through 24. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. When one of those who were reclining at the table with him heard this, He said to him, But he said to him, The first one said to him, Please consider me excused. Another said,

I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please consider me excused. Another one said, I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come. And the slave came back and reported this to his master. Then the head of the household became angry and said to his slave, Go out at once into the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame. And the slave said, Master, what you commanded has been done. And still there is room. And the master said to the slave, Go out into the highways and along the hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So this whole text, everything Jesus has to say in this passage, is in response to this man at the table who's reclining with him.

who says, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. There's nothing objectionable about what he said. It's true. Everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of heaven will be blessed. It was unanswerable. There was nothing wrong with it. Not even Jesus could say, you're wrong about that. And yet, Jesus does have a response. And what he addresses is not the question of whether those who eat bread in heaven will be blessed, but he addresses the question of who will eat the bread. Who will be there? And so what he does is, this man is sitting there. You remember the context. He's in a Pharisee's house. All of his friends, all of the high and mighty people are there with them. He's just told them, when you throw a party, don't invite your friends. Don't invite the wealthy, but invite the poor. And he's saying to them, don't invite the people that you've invited. Not these people, but those other people who you didn't want to invite because you thought you were better than them, that they weren't worthy to be here.

Invite them. And so one of those men says, blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus addresses, okay, who's going to be in the kingdom of heaven? Who's going to eat that bread? You presume that it will be you. But I want to tell you who it will be. There's a parallel account of this discourse in Matthew 22. And at the end of it, in verse 14, Jesus says, many are called, but few are chosen. And so we're going to spend our time this morning working through who's going to eat bread in the kingdom of God. So we're going to start with Jesus, with his parable. A man was giving a big dinner and he invited many people. Now, in the Matthew account, it says that the king is preparing a feast for his son, the wedding feast of his son. And so just think of a wedding and think of who you'd invite to come to a wedding. Well, you invite people you know, you invite people you like.

You invite people who you're familiar with. And inevitably, when people plan weddings, there's always a line like, where do we stop inviting? There's some crazy family, there's some moral failing, or they're just acquaintances. There's always some line somewhere where if people fall beneath it, they don't get an invitation. But you understand that if you were invited to the king's son, the prince's wedding, you'd be an important person. You wouldn't just be one of the rabble, one of the commoners. But you'd be someone important. And you probably ought to go, right? It would be an important thing to go if the king invited you to his son's wedding. And so this man, this king, this head of the household was giving a big dinner, a wedding feast, and he invited many people. Now, think of it this way. If you were invited to the president's, you know, if the president invited you to the White House, would you go?

Well, I don't like him. Well, that doesn't matter. Would you go? You'd go. Most of us would go. You're strange if you wouldn't go. And what if he said, well, it's in two weeks. You can come in two weeks. And you say, well, I'm busy in two weeks. This is the only chance you get to go. Are you going to go? I'm going to go. I'm going to reorganize the busyness. Sorry, we're going to have to work things out. Something came up. We would make a priority of going to the important thing. And that's what's going on here. This king, this man is invited. his guests to his son's wedding feast. The guests were not strangers. They knew the king and the importance of their attendance. And when the dinner hour had come, the master sent his slave to all who had been invited and said, come for everything is ready now. Now I want to notice, I want you to note that how many times would the president have to remind you of when he invited you to come? He'd just say, hey, come. And you'd say, got it. And you put it on your calendar.

Notice the kindness of the king that when the hour actually came, he sent a slave to remind them to come. It was not obligatory. He didn't have to do that. They knew it should have been in their mind, oh, there's this wedding I've got to go to. And he sends them a messenger to remind them. And then we come to the guests' responses. Now, before we get into the particulars, there's this statement. But they all alike began to make excuses. Now, what is an excuse? You say it's generally not valid, but what's an excuse meant to do? Justify an action, yeah. I think an excuse is a lie most of the time. Or it's some way of you trying to mediate the tension between what you really think and what the person you're talking to is willing to hear. What?

Yeah, a way to not comply. An excuse is an effort to make some sort of middle path between compliance, obedience, in this case, attendance, and just the honest truth, which is, I don't want to come to your wedding. Even when you get wedding invitations, there's never a box to check that says, I've got better things to do. I regrettably decline your invitation. That's sort of how they'll be worded. If you can't come on the RSVP, you're sorry. But what happens when you just don't want to go? You make an excuse. Oh, I've got this thing. You know, the old excuse about the guy who's pursuing the girl and every time he calls, what's she doing? Washing my hair, washing my hair. And we all laugh and we're like, yeah, ha ha. Well, what's that mean? Go away.

That's what, oh, she's washing her hair. Oh, I was busy. Oh, sorry, I forgot. It means I don't like you. Go away. So we make excuses when we don't want to tell the truth. These men, they didn't want to come because they had something else that they preferred to do. It was that simple. And so they made an excuse to try to sweeten it up and make it sound like it wasn't so straightforward. Like, I just don't care about your son's wedding. I don't want to come. So the first one says, I've bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it. Please consider me excused. Now, there's nothing inherently sinful about buying a piece of land and going and inspecting it, is there? No. So the man's not necessarily sinning by going out to see his land. If any one of us bought something, we'd want to go inspect it, wouldn't we? If you were to buy a new house,

And you went to the closing and you got the keys. Where do most people go after closing? They go to the house. Right? They go to the house. Because they want to see their new piece of land. You buy a car from the dealership and it's new and they say, oh, it will be here on this day. And you sort of look forward to that day when you get to see your new car. You look forward to these things. We want to see them. And that's what this man says. I bought a piece of land. I need to go out and see it. Please consider me excused. The point's not that what he wants to do is sinful. The point's that his priorities are wrong. Think of it this way. What would happen between this day and the next day on that piece of land? Is there something he has to go see right now? Nope. Nope. He could go tomorrow. And the land would still be there. And whatever condition it was in the night before,

It would be in in the morning. It's not urgent. It can wait. And aren't these the kind of excuses that we make? Oh, I got something to do. I can't come. I can't stay. I can't that. I got something more important to do. And the unspoken part of that statement is, and I got to do it right now. And so we should learn to sniff out those kinds of excuses and say, does it have to be done right now? Because this is what you're neglecting. The land will be there tomorrow, but the wedding, it's only this block of time. It's not going to be there tomorrow. You should make the sacrifice to go to the wedding. And so this man's choice reveals what's really important to him. Matthew Henry on this text says, Those who have their hearts full of the world and are fond of laying house to house and field to field have their ears deaf to the gospel invitation. But what a frivolous excuse was this.

he might have deferred going to see his piece of ground until the next day and have found it in the same place and plight it was now in if he had so pleased. He had no excuse to do what he did. And so it's reasonable for us to conclude that he didn't want to come to the wedding. That's why he went out to see the land. That was his excuse. It was not a legitimate reason. Now, sometimes you get invited to weddings and you have a legitimate reason and you can't go. That's not what we're talking about here. Going out to see a piece of land that you could go see tomorrow, it's not a legitimate reason.

And so we can conclude that going to the wedding wasn't something this guy wanted to do. It's a refusal. And another one said, I've bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going to try them out. Please consider me excused. And again, a similar thing is going on. Did he sin by buying them? Nope. Is it sinful for him to want to go out and see how they work? No. What do you want to do when you get a new tool? You want to go, yeah, I want to see how it works. I want to get a new toy. I want to go play with it.

And again, he could have waited, but instead he reveals his concern for his earthly possessions. I need to make sure that my ground is tilled. I need to make sure I've made a good investment. I need to attend to my affairs. Both of these men want to see the good things that they've purchased. They won't wait. Neither one of them is bound to do what they're intending to do. It's simply more important to them. Then we come to the third one. Another one said, I've married a wife, and for this reason I cannot come. Now, if there's a good excuse of the three, If you had to rank which one was, you know, one, two, three, best, medium, worst, who has the best excuse? The guy who just got married, right? I just got married. Surely, surely you can be excused from a wedding because you just got married. Who would fault a newly married man from excusing himself from a wedding? Jesus did. You follow, right? You want to go, let's go. It's untouchable.

But Jesus, he could have chosen any example he wanted. Anything. And he chose a man who just got married. In the Old Testament, newly married men were excused from some things, like war. In the Old Testament, when men got married, they didn't have to go to war for a whole year so that they could attend to the needs of their wife. But they weren't excused from going up to the festivals, to the sacrifices, to worship. They weren't excused from that because they got married. They had to go. So what do these things teach us? What do we learn about excuses? Are we supposed to learn, well, if I buy land or if I buy a toy or if I just get married, that shouldn't cause me to ignore the gospel? Well, yes. But each one of those things is a placeholder for a category of things. So there's not just three things. There's three categories of things that will tempt us to refuse the gospel.

The first two are related. They have to do with worldly desires and ambitions. You've just got things that are going on in your finances, in your life, in your school, at your work. They're important. They're really important. Super important. So important that you can't make it to church. Or you can't make it to small group. Or you can't make it to... Wherever the gospel's at, whatever you should be doing, whatever you've been invited to. You've got something more important. Busy, busy, busy. What about marriage? Well, here's the thing about marriage. It's really a sweet blessing. And it's also going to be one of the primary places you face temptation to turn away from the gospel. Newly married, you know, is one thing. Been married a long time, it's the same. But does Jesus say...

Where did he say his disciples' enemies would come from? Your enemies will be from your own household. Think of Job's wife. She despised his faithfulness. She did not want him to continue his course. She wanted him to curse God and die. Yes, our spouses have needs. Yes, we should attend to them. Paul is clear in saying that he's free. He doesn't have a spouse, and he's free to do gospel ministry in a way that married men aren't because they have to attend to the needs of their wife. And so I'm not trying to discredit that work. It does have to happen. It should happen. It's unfaithful if it doesn't happen. But your commitment, even as a husband or a wife, must first be to Jesus Christ, not to your spouse. Just let that sink in. Your commitment has to be to Jesus first before it is to your spouse. And you say, well, why does it have to be that way? And I say, well, it'll only be that way if you're trying to be faithful and your spouse is trying to lead you into sin.

Your commitment at that point has to be to God's truth. And you say, that's going to make a mess. And I say, it wouldn't be the first time. Jesus told us that our enemies would come from with our own household. He who doesn't hate his father or mother or brother or sister or even, yes, his own life. And in a different passage, he talks about your wife. We don't have areas of our life that are cordoned off and say, oh, well, these are more important than... submitting ourselves to Jesus Christ. We don't have them. Even our marriages, even our children. The people that God's graciously brought into our life are sinners. And they may tempt us to sin. We may be the one tempting our spouse to sin, to turn away from God, to refuse the invitation. You've got more important things to do at home. We have to be aware of the temptations to misprioritize, to turn away from the gospel.

to turn away from its invitation. There's nothing in this world that's worth having in place of it, not even your marriage. You say, are you telling us that we should divorce our spouses if they're not? No, no, Paul dealt with that in 1 Corinthians. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is our commitment as Christians must be to the Lord and to his word first. And we can't make excuse like these men. for why we refused their call, the call of the gospel. Now, consider what these men would have done if they had known the consequence of their decision. Was there a consequence for their decision to refuse to come to the wedding feast? There was. Later on at the very end, go to the last slide, Miles. This is what he has to say. This is their consequence. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my dinner.

Never again will they be welcomed into my house. They're cast out. What these men presume in making their excuse is that the offer will remain. And so they make an excuse. And they say, well, we'll get to it. I'll come. You know that old country song? They're not old. A few years old. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now. You think it's true of unbelievers. They don't have an interest in heaven anyway, but what about us? Do we want to go to heaven? Just not right now? We got more important things to do, better things to do than prepare? Too often we do. And yet there are consequences for these men's refusal. The master becomes angry and says, they'll never be welcome in my house. And then the head of the household turns to his slave. And rather than have an empty house, he sends out his slave. And he tells him to gather the poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame from the town.

And when the slave comes back and says, everything that you've commanded has been done and there's still room, the master's still not satisfied. He says, go further out and bring more people. And so what's the desire of the master? He wants his house full. He wants his house full. And those who refuse to come won't have a seat saved for him. You ever try to register for something and you think, I'll get to it. I'm going to get the early bird registration. I'm going to get to it. I'm going to do it. And then you miss that and the price goes up. And you go, yep, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And eventually it's full. And they didn't hold the seat for you. But I told them I was going to come. If you make reservations, you have to go. They don't hold the table if you don't show up. And so this master was intent on having his house full for his son's wedding feast. And anyone who would come was welcome. And those who would not come.

were not welcome. Now, interestingly, Matthew adds a section about what happens at the wedding. Listen to this. He says, those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good. And the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, now isn't that strange? The king comes in to inspect the dinner guests. He saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes. And he said to him, Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes? And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. And so the laissez-faire attitude of these men who have excuses, I have land, I have oxen, I have a wife, is just the beginning of exclusion.

in the kingdom of God. The beginning in Matthew, he says, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? Well, it's like this. And then he goes in and tells this story. And someone who came, who wanted to come, wasn't allowed in. Wasn't allowed to stay anyway. He was sent out. And you think, man, are there going to be people who want to get into the kingdom of heaven who are going to be refused at the door? And I say, yeah, there are. For many are called, but few are chosen. And you say, that's serious business. That's scary. I don't think I like that. And I say, well, be careful you don't refuse or you won't have to worry about it. This text should evoke fear in our hearts. Not only do you have to come to the wedding, you have to come in the right attire. How many of you guys have read Pilgrim's Progress? Or if you're in my small group, I know you've read it because I've read it to you at least twice. In that story, as Christian's going along, do you remember the guys who jumped the fence or the wall?

And they're like, oh, well, why would we go way over there to that gate when our city's right on the other side of the wall? We just jumped the wall and we're in here and we're on the same path as you are. And what's Christian's response? But you don't have the right clothes and you don't have the note. I don't think you're going to get in. Oh, no, you worry too much. It's going to be fine. We're on the same path you are. But they don't get in. And so the way that people come to Jesus Christ, the way that they come into the kingdom is not set by them. They don't get to determine. We don't get to determine our terms of surrender with Jesus Christ. We don't get to say, well, I'll do this, but you're going to do that. Well, I'm going to come, but I'm going to hold on to this part of my life. I'm going to do this thing. If we're to find a place at the wedding feast of the Lamb, which is what all of this is an analogy pointing towards,

We must be dressed appropriately. Another way of saying this is Jesus does not accept us as we are and leave us that way. He doesn't. We can't lie to people and say, well, Jesus loves you just as you are and not say anything more. It's true. If Jesus is to love anyone, he has to love them just as they are because they can't change themselves. But when he loves them and when he calls them, he changes them. And they don't remain what they've been. Their old heart's taken out. They're given a new heart. Their inclinations and their desires and their actions and their thoughts and their whole lives change. They begin the process of coming into conformity with the Word of God. And so we have to accept this reality for ourselves and we have to be willing to speak to others in the same way. No, Jesus doesn't accept you just as you are and allow you to stay the same.

Becoming a Christian means change. It means the things that are wrong with you, and there are lots, you have to kill them. You have to do away with them. And there's this whole other bunch of stuff that you have to endeavor to do now by faith because Jesus gave you life. That's what it means to become a Christian. That's what it means to be a Christian is to change, to be getting dressed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and bearing the fruit of it in your life. There's one final point that I want to make from our text. And it's the manner in which the slaves are told to bring people. What does he tell them to do? Right there in verse 23. Compel them to come in. Compel them to come in. Now, compel is not a word that we use a lot in our normal daily lives. What does compel mean? Get in your mind for a second what you think compel means. And then let me ask you, do you enjoy being compelled?

Generally speaking, I don't think it's something we look forward to or we enjoy. We understand that compel has some sort of force attached to it, some sort of requirement, some sort of demand. It means to oblige someone to do something, to pressure them, to push them, to urge them, to browbeat them, if you were to look up the definition of it. It doesn't mean to manipulate, but it means to forcefully bring someone along. When I think of compelling my children, for instance, I want to compel them to do something. It's not me sitting here and saying, son, go clean your room. It may start that way, but if he doesn't respond and I need to go compel him, what do I do? I walk over and I touch him and I stand him up.

And I put my hand on his back and I walk him to where he's going to be. And I point at the thing and I say, now we're going to pick this up. Now. So is this how the gospel should be presented? Should people be compelled to believe? Should they be reasoned with? Now, compelled doesn't just mean physical pressure. It means make a, you know, have you heard of a compelling argument? Oh, well, that's true. It calls me to action. It calls me to do something. It calls me to believe something. Should we compel people to believe in Jesus Christ? Do you want to be compelled to do things in your life? Believe in Jesus? Yeah, I'll be compelled to do that. Do you want to be compelled to repent? Do you want to be threatened with consequences if you don't listen? Because that's a part of compelling someone. Is this what we want for ourselves? Do we want to be compelled?

And I'll tell you, if you aren't willing to be compelled yourself, you will never do it with other people. You will share. You will suggest. You will have a conversation. You will open up a dialogue. But none of those things are compelling. There were many guests who would not have a place at the wedding feast. They wouldn't be addressed appropriately. They were thrown out because they would not be compelled. You remember at the beginning I said God is turning away from the Jews. in a manner? Had they been compelled before then? Had they been called, required? Yeah, just read the Old Testament and read what was said to them, what was said about them, how God destroyed their lives and carried them off into some other far-off land and put them into slavery. Were they compelled to obey God? Yes, they were. Yes, they were. And they refused. So will you be compelled?

The way that I described speaking or dealing with one of my sons, will you be dealt with that way? Or will you stiffen your neck and say, you're not going to tell me what to do. You can't say that to me. You can't say that about me. That's not very nice. If you will be compelled, then you should be compelled. The point of each week when I stand up to preach is to compel you to do something. It's sort of like the theme of it all. To get you to repent. It's to get you to think at some point during the sermon, I think he might be telling me to do something. You're right. If you have weeks where that's not happening, either I'm failing or you're hard. Or some combination of the two. That's the goal every week. It's for me to compel you to repentance, to faith, to obedience, to joy, to Christian living. And everything that comes before it.

That's what I want to do every week. That's uncomfortable, Dave. Yeah, I know it is. It's also uncomfortable for me. You're not the only one who's uncomfortable with the way things are. And yet we must be compelled to do something. And so if you're willing to be compelled, and I know many of you are, the question then becomes, will you compel other people? Will you speak to them the way that you've been spoken to? Will you love them as you've been loved? Or will you trim all the edges off? Think of your children. I described earlier me compelling my son to obey. Some of you are uncomfortable with it. I don't know if you should treat your son that way. Neither do I. Sometimes I do it and it's inappropriate and it's sinful for some reason or another on my behalf. But the principle stands, they should be compelled. And not only do I compel my children to obey, to do what I've told them to do, I compel them to believe the gospel. I actually expect them to. Does that seem strange? That I expect my children to obey? Don't they have to figure this all out on their own?

Well, yes, they have to own it. Absolutely. But I'm the primary person, my wife and I, Vanessa, who have been given the task of bringing them into the kingdom. They're our responsibility. So I say things to my children like, we're a Christian family and that's not how we speak. We're Christians. We don't behave that way because it's offensive to God and our actions have consequences. And I don't want you to endure the consequences that our scripture is filled with. for those who won't be compelled. This is how we ought to parent. We ought to compel our children. We shouldn't just compel them to get good grades, to behave appropriately. We shouldn't just compel them about choosing a proper mate. They should be compelled to put their faith in Jesus Christ and submit their will to his word for the rest of their lives. Don't lie to them. It's a big, big job. God helps us with it. It's a lot of work. It's a big thing. And parts of it are scary.

One of the things I want to tell you about being compelled is that it's actually attractive to people. They actually like it. They like to be motivated. There's people who make their living being motivational speakers, and what are they doing? They're just trying to get you to do something. Whatever it is you decided you needed to do, well, you go to a conference to have somebody tell you that you should do the thing you already know you should do. They're supposed to compel you. People have an appetite for this. So it's not crazy to do it. People go, oh, I get that. Yeah. So what does it mean to compel someone to believe? Well, John the Baptist is a good example. And this is where we'll end. A few chapters earlier than this, in Luke, Jesus is describing John the Baptist after John's disciples come and talk to him. And here's what Jesus says to the crowds about John. He says, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who are...

Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet. Yes, and more than a prophet. Now, John the Baptist was a sight to behold. Eating locusts and honey, dressed in camel's hair, crying out in the wilderness. And what did he cry out? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But when he saw many of the Pharisees, this is later on in this same sermon of John's out in the wilderness that everyone went out to see. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees.

Therefore, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and he will gather his weed into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Is that a compelling way to speak? My point in reading that to you is not to say every one of you is supposed to be a preacher like John the Baptist.

It's not to overburden you with responsibility or unattainable goals. I simply want to get into your head that compelling people to come into the kingdom of God is the manner that God calls us to employ. We're to compel people. We're to make arguments. We're not to hide in the corner and be timid and apologize for God and his word and what he says. We're also not to be nasty about it. John was not nasty. He was compelling. People want to be compelled. They want to know what it's all about. Why do you do what you do? Why don't you do what you don't do? And you don't have to be ashamed about giving them an answer. And you can even go as far as to say when they're doing something they ought not to do, that you'd proactively go to them and say, you ought not do that. Compel them to come into the kingdom. Be compelled yourself, and God's kingdom will be built, and he'll be glorified. This is our work. If we refuse this, then we have Jesus' words at the end.

Those who were invited and refused shall never taste of my dinner. If you want a taste of his dinner, if you want to spend eternity with him, then this is the work that we're called to as Christian men and women. We need to be about it. Let's pray.