Naked at a Feast — E.A. Johnston

The Gospel as a Message of Life and Death

The message you are about to hear, friends, may have great consequences for you. To some, it may be life, and to some, it may be death. In 2 Corinthians 2, 15, and 16, we read, For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish.

To the one, we are the saver of death, and to the other, the saver of life. I want to share a story with you that has always impacted me, ever since I heard it. It's told by William Schubert, who was a coal laborer with John Song in China, and who saw powerful revival there.

William Schubert’s Story of Gospel Rejection

This story happened before Schubert went to China as a missionary. He was still a young preacher boy who was sold out to God, and he had a burden through the souls of men. And he was laboring in western California in the rough cowboy towns around 1915.

Listen to his story now, friends. So God will use even a boy preacher, even a boy from Watts, if he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and prays, and is diligent, and he loves the people. Then God does it.

One time, I got to preach to the entire community at Shannon. A cowboy had died, and everybody came to the funeral, and that was my chance. I preached to the living the great necessity of salvation, and how to be saved.

They all had at least one opportunity to hear the way. Then we rode out, very sedately, to the cemetery, about two miles across the river, and up Cemetery Hill. And there we had the committal service of the deceased.

When I pronounced the benediction, and said, Amen, the cowboys whooped, and ran, and jumped on their horses, and shot their six-shooters up in the air, and raced back to town as fast as they could to the blind pig saloon to get drunk.

It turned out that I was the saver of life unto life, and of death unto death, because soon after that, this one and that one died suddenly, quite tragically. In some cases, the cowboys met sudden death when they were thrown off their horses, or the horse had fallen on them, and they had been killed.

Two had a fight, and the one shot the other. In another case, sudden death came when an automobile turned over, and the driver was crushed and killed. There was a large number, within a year or two, of that funeral crowd.

I played with that day, and that was their last chance. And they went straight into eternity, quite unexpectedly, and quite suddenly, the saver of death unto death. Well, every time I hear that story, friends, I feel bad for those cowboys who treated the gospel lightly that day, and thought getting drunk was more important than eternity.

False Assurance and Spiritual Declension

The message you are about to hear, friends, may have great eternal consequences for you, so it's not to be taken lightly. For some of you, it will be life. To some of you, it will be death. Some of you here, within the sound of my voice, may be listening to the last sermon you will ever hear before you are taken suddenly and unexpectedly out of this world, whenever the gospel is preached in its purity and proper order, under the anointing of the Spirit of God, it is death or life.

Because we live in a day of watered-down gospel from our pulpits, and the withdrawn presence of God in our churches, there's a great danger of false conversions, multitudes of church members, or yet unconverted sinners on their way to hell.

Satan will give some a false peace to keep them as subjects and in his kingdom. Some mistake church membership for salvation, and delusion is prevalent in our churches today, because we live in a sad state of spiritual declension, and even many pastors are yet unconverted men themselves.

Sin today is seldom mentioned. Hell is a taboo subject. But listen to me, friend, and listen to me closely. If you are saved, it's because God has given you saving faith. Salvation is in the hands of God and not men.

I'm going to preach to you right now the undiluted gospel, and like we say in the South, I'm going to give you the oil straight from the can. It's my prayer that you will see a bloodstained savior from sin today, and if you're a lost person, you will be saved.

The Wedding Feast and the Gospel Invitation

You can turn in your Bibles now, friends, to the gospel of Matthew in chapter 22. At the end of this message, some of you may be like those careless cowboys who right after attending a funeral jumped on their horses and shot their pistols on the way to get drunk in a saloon.

Well, that road leads to a devil's hell. Well, hopefully some poor sinner here will be saved today. The title of my message today, friends, is Naked at a Feast. And here now is the Word of God. And may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word.

And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come.

Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come unto the marriage. Let me pause here, friends, to say, Notice the expense and care and extravagance prepared for the wedding guests.

The king invites poor sinners to the marriage of his dear son, and you can come without money or price. The gospel call is given to all. Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat.

Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Well, a wedding is a happy occasion with free food and wonderful refreshments. It's an enjoyable time. But how did those respond to this invitation?

Indifference to the Gospel Call

We see how in verse 5. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. They treated with indifference. One's farm is more important to him than his soul. Another puts his business interests into priority over his place in eternity.

How foolish! Here is someone who's heard the gospel story time and time again during their life, given by faithful ministers, and still it's put off, it's delayed, or it's rejected, it's made light of, or having no urgency.

Multitudes, bearish by carelessness and indifference to the things of eternal worth, like those cowboys in the story, who were facing death in the face at the very funeral of a young friend. And they heard a preacher tell of a blood-stained savior for sin, given eternal life, and they treated it with indifference.

They were more concerned about how fast they could ride into town to get drunk, as opposed to how fast many of them would soon be plunged into an eternity they were quite unprepared for. This represents the world at large, indifferent to God, and careless about the destiny of their soul.

The Deceived Church Member and the Missing Wedding Garment

Well, how about the deceived church member? Someone who mistook church membership for salvation. What about that person? Well, we see this in the rest of the parable, picking it up in verse 10. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both good and bad, and the wedding was furnished with guests.

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding garment, and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Let me pause here to say, friends, that the whole thing comes down to this man being speechless because he was found out to be guilty as charged. Romans 3 .19 declares,. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Notice, friends, the king calls him friend, but he is a pretended friend. He is an imposter. He has no wedding garment. He's just a hypocrite sitting there naked without the robe of righteousness in salvation at the church of Laodicea in Revelation.

He's called out for their unconverted church members. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. These hypocrites were under the delusion that because they were part of a church that their condition was well.

What a difference there was between the thoughts they had of themselves and the thoughts that Christ had of them. He saw them, his poor, guilty, undone sinners, naked without his robe of righteousness.

They mistook a decision for grace. There are many in hell right now, right now, who got the shock of their life when they died and opened their eyes, not in heaven, but in a devil's hell, because they could not see their lost estate.

They could not see their danger. These Laodiceans were naked in God's sight. A lost sinner must put off his filthy rags of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, and repent and put on the white garment of faith which Christ has purchased and provided for them, his own imputed righteousness and justification.

Judgment, Hell, and the Need for Christ’s Righteousness

What happens to this hypocrite? We read in verse 13,. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Weeping speaks of great grief and loss. Gnashing of teeth signifies great anger and regret. The damned in hell cry night and day endlessly in their agonies and sufferings. Believe me, friend, when I say to you, you don't want to go to hell.

Hell is your worst nightmare come true. It's a prison from which you can never escape. Once you shut up in that region of darkness, you'll never get out. There's constant screaming all around you. Misery night and day.

If I could take you by the hand right now and walk you over to the bottomless pit and lift that lid and let you hear the screeching of the damned, it'd keep you awake tonight. A lost church member who's never been truly born again will be the embodiment of Isaiah 33, 14.

The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings. Listen to me, friend. There is a future judgment that awaits all mankind, and you better be wearing Christ's robe of righteousness when you stand there before that judge, for if you stand there in your own merits, you will fail the test and be found guilty as you're held up against the strictness and severity of the unbending law of God, for the sentencing of the law must be carried out.

Listen to me. You must stand there in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. I know I am a sinner, and I need a substitute for sin, and so do you, friend. So do you. Jesus is the only way to heaven, but there's 10 ,000 ways to hell.

You don't want to be like those cowboys in the story who heard the gospel and went on a drunken spree anyhow. Don't be indifferent to God's message today, friends. It could be the saving of your soul.

Christ’s Cross and Saving Work

I want you to hear about Jesus. Jesus came into the world doing good. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus gave sight to the blind. Jesus fed the hungry. Jesus brought rest to the weary, and he even raised the dead to life.

Yet what happened? Wicked men cried, Away with him, and nailed him to a cross. Look at that blessed man on a cross, friend. Look, look, look, friend. See him there. Look at that bloodstained Savior for sin, with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him.

Look at that man on the cross. See him writhing and wiggling beneath the weight of sin. Hear him. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

The duty of the gospel call is to come, and all who come, he will never turn away. Listen. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. The cross is the place where men sought to get rid of him, but by his death it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own him as their Savior and Lord.

The Final Call to Repentance and Faith

The invitation of the gospel is offered to the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you weary and sick and tired of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ?

Then come and surrender all you are to all he is, and he is Lord. Throw down your shotgun rebellion before it's too late. Come to the sovereign and make him your king. Jesus is the pearl of great price worth selling all for so he may be gained.

Listen, friend. Jesus is not only worthy, he is worth it. Take it from an old preacher who's loved Jesus for the last fifty years. Jesus is worth giving your life to in utter surrender. He will never let you down and he will never let you go.

Don't be like those stubborn, hard-hearted cowboys who met untimely deaths. This may be your last gospel call. Do something about it, friend. I pray you take this gospel invitation seriously and that you just don't hear my shaky voice, but that you somehow will hear His voice as it comes to you in power, authority, and majesty.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.