Luke 14. 19: And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20: And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
Now, then, here is the truth. God has spread the feast, but the fact is that nobody wants to come to the feast, and everybody makes an excuse to keep away from the feast, and when they are bidden to come they say. “No, we do not want to,” or “We are not ready yet.” Now God knew that from the beginning, and if God had done nothing more than spread the feast, every seat at His table would have been vacant for all eternity.
21: 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.
What do you read in that parable in Luke 14? Because the feast was not furnished with guests, God sent forth His “servants.” Oh, put your glasses on. It does not say “servants,” it says God sent forth His “servant” and told Him to “compel” them to come in that His feast might be furnished with guests. And there is not a man …that would ever sit down at the marriage-supper of the Lamb unless you had been compelled to come in, and compelled by God.
Luke 14. 22: And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. 23: 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.
Well, you say, what do you mean by ‘compelled?’ I mean this, that God had to overcome the resistance of your WILL, God had to overcome the reluctance of your heart, God had to overcome your loving of pleasure more than loving of God, your love of the things of this world more than Christ. I mean that God had to put forth His power and draw you. And if any of you know anything of the Greek or have a Strong’s Concordance, look up that Greek verb for “draw” in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” It means “use violence.” It means to drag by force. It is the same Greek word that is used in John 21 when they drew the net to the land full of fishes. They had to pull with all their might, for it was full of fishes. They had to DRAG it. Yes, my friend, and that is how you were brought to Christ. You may not have been conscious of it, you may not have known inside yourself what was taking place, but every last one of us was a rebel against God, fighting against Christ, resisting His Holy Spirit, and God had to put forth almighty power and overcome that resistance and bring us to our knees; and if any of you object to that strong language, then I am here to tell you, you do not believe in the teaching of this Book.