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I. Our first point relates to THE CAUSES OR REASONS WHY MEN ARE NOT CHRISTIANS, OR IN OTHER WORDS, WHY THEY WISH TO BE EXCUSED FROM BEING CHRISTIANS — which is the form in which it is presented in the text. There is something remarkable in the aspect which the subject assumes on the first view of it. Men ask to be excused, as if it were a matter of favour. It is natural to ask, From what? From a rich banquet, says the parable from which my text is taken. From the hope of heaven through Jesus Christ. From loving God and keeping His commandments. From that which is fitted to make a man more useful, respected, and beloved in life, remembered with deeper affection when he is dead, honoured for ever in heaven. In searching for the causes or reasons why men wish to be excused from becoming Christians, I may be allowed to suggest that they are often under a strong temptation to conceal those which are real, and to suggest others which will better answer their immediate purpose. My idea is, that the real cause is not always avowed, and that men are strongly tempted to suggest others. The actual reason may be such as, on many accounts, a man would have strong reluctance to have known. The grand reason why men are not Christians, as I understand it, is the opposition of the heart to religion; that mysterious opposition that can be traced back through all hearts, and all generations, up to the great apostasy — the fall of Adam.

1. A feeling that you do not need salvation in the way proposed in the gospel; that you do not need to be born again, or pardoned through the merits of the Redeemer. The feeling is, that your heart is by nature rather inclined to virtue than to vice, to good than to evil; that the errors of your life have been comparatively few, your virtues many.

2. You suppose that in your case there is no danger of being lost — or not such danger as to make it a subject of serious alarm. The idea is this, that if the duties of this life be discharged with faithfulness, there can be no serious ground of apprehension in regard to the world to come.

3. A secret scepticism about the truth of Christianity. The mind is not settled. The belief is not firm that it is a revelation from heaven.

4. A fourth class are deterred by a feeling that the Divine government is unreasonable and severe. In one of His parables the Saviour has taught us expressly that this operated in preventing a man from doing his duty, and being prepared for His coming (Matthew 24:24, 25).

5. A fifth class are deterred from being Christians by hostility to some member or members of the Church.

6. A sixth reason which prevents men from becoming Christians is worldliness — the desire of this world's goods, or pleasures, or honours.

II. Our next point is, TO INQUIRE WHETHER THESE REASONS FOR NOT BEING A CHRISTIAN ARE SATISFACTORY. Satisfactory to whom? you may ask. I answer, To conscience and to God. Are they such as are sufficient reasons for not loving God?

1. You dare not yourselves urge them as the real cause why you do not attend to religion, and embrace the offers of mercy. They are so little satisfactory to your own minds, that when we come to you and urge you to become Christians, we are met with other reasons than these. You resort to some difficulty about the doctrine of ability, and the decrees of God, some metaphysical subtlety that you know may embarrass us, but which you think of on no other occasion. Who will dare to urge as a reason for not becoming a Christian the fact that he is sensual, or proud, or worldly-minded, or ambitious, or covetous, or self-righteous, or that he regards God as a tyrant?

2. These excuses will not stand when a man is convicted for sin. All, when the hour comes in which God designs to bring them into His kingdom, confess that they had no good reasons for not being His friends, and for their having so long refused to yield to the claims of God.

3. The same thing occurs on the bed of death. The mind then is often overwhelmed, and under the conviction that the excuses for not being a Christian were insufficient, the sinner in horror dies. But I will not dwell on that. I pass to one other consideration.

4. It is this. These excuses will not be admitted at the bar of God.

(A. Barnes, D. D.)

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KJV: Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

WEB: But he said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people.