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I. THE FEAST. This is the gospel which God has provided for mankind and sinners. Great preparations had to be made before it was available for men. The law which we had broken had to be satisfied; the penalty which we had incurred had to be endured; the obedience in which we had failed had to be rendered. None of these things, however, could be done by man for himself. Christ therefore took human nature, etc.

1. A feast in respect of the excellence of the provision which it sets before us. Pardon of sin, favour with God, peace of conscience, renewal of the heart, access to the throne of grace, the comforts of the Holy Spirit, the exceeding great and precious promises of the Scriptures, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life.

2. A feast in respect, of abundance, for the supply is inexhaustible.

3. A feast in respect of fellowship. The blessings of the gospel are for social, and not simply for private, life; and what circle of earthly friends can be put into comparison with that into which we enter when we seat ourselves at the gospel table? Communion, not only with best and wisest of earth, but with redeemed before throne; yea, fellowship with Father, and His Son Jesus Christ.

4. A feast in respect of joy. The Giver of it and the guests at it rejoice together.

II. THE INVITED GUESTS. The invitation to this feast is given to every one in whose hearing the gospel is proclaimed. A great privilege, also a great peril. God's invitation is not to be trifled with or despised. In the court language of Great Britain, when a subject receives an invitation to the royal table, it is said that her Majesty "commands" his presence there. So the invitations of the King of kings to His gospel banquet are commands, the ignoring of which constitutes the most aggravated form of disobedience.

III. THE RECEPTION GIVEN BY THOSE FIRST INVITED, TO THE CALL, WHICH HAD BEEN ADDRESSED TO THEM. Animated by one spirit, moved by one impulse, under the influence of the same disposition, they all began to make excuse. Each of them considered some worldly thing as of more importance to him than the enjoyment of the feast; and that is just saying, in another way, that they all treated the invitation as a matter of no moment. Their excuses were all pretexts. If the heart is set on anything else, it cannot be given up to Christ; and every excuse that is offered for withholding it, whether the excuse itself be true or not, does not give the real reason for His rejection. That must be sought in the fact that the heart is set on something else which it is not willing to part with, even for Him. It is the old story. "One thing thou lackest:" but that one thing is everything, for it is the love of the heart.

IV. THOSE WHO PERSISTENTLY DECLINE TO COME TO THE FEAST SHALL BE FOR EVER EXCLUDED FROM ITS ENJOYMENT.

V. NOTWITHSTANDING THE REJECTION OF THIS INVITATION BY MULTITUDES, GOD'S HOUSE SHALL BE FILLED AT LAST.

(W. M. Taylor, 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.