“They paid no attention and went off – one to his field, another to his
business.” [Matthew 22:5]
Man is not much changed since the days of Adam. In his bodily frame he
appears to be exactly similar, for skeletons many hundred years’ old are the
exact counterparts of ours; and sure enough that which was recorded in
history as having been done by man centuries ago, might be written again, for
“there is nothing new under the sun.” The same class of men is still to be
discovered (although, perhaps, differently dressed) as that which existed
ages long gone by. There are still men today who have the same disposition as
men in the Savior’s day. “They paid no attention and went off – one to his
field, another to his business,” making light of the glorious things of the
gospel.
I am certain I have many such characters here tonight, and I pray the Lord
that I may be enabled to discourse to them very solemnly and very clearly.
And I must ask all of you who understand the heavenly art of prayer, to pray
that God would be pleased to send home every thought into the breast where he
intends it to lodge, that it may bring forth the soft fruit of righteousness
in the salvation of many souls. “They paid no attention;” so do too many in
this day; and so will a large portion of my hearers tonight. I believe that
to pay no attention to Christ is a sin; and at all risks of being falsely
called legalist, or “free-willer,” by those who consider themselves wiser
than what I have written, I will instruct you as such, for I hope I will
never belong to that class of Calvinists who do the devil’s work by excusing
sinners in their sins.
In the first place, we shall have a few words with you, concerning “what it
is that the sinner pays no attention to; secondly, how it is that he pays no
attention; and thirdly, why it is that he pays no attention to it. Then a
general observation or two, and we will not weary you.
In the first place, WHAT IS IT THAT THE SINNER PAYS NO ATTENTION TO?
According to the parable, the person alluded to paid no attention to a
marriage banquet which a king had provided, with all kinds of delicacies, to
which they were freely invited, and from which they willfully stayed away
from. The spiritual meaning of this is easy to discover. Sinners who pay no
attention to Christ express their contempt of a glorious banquet which God
has provided at the marriage of His Son. This is solemn ground to tread upon.
Oh! for the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
Taking this parable as the basis of our remarks, we may observe, first, that
the sinner pays no attention to “the messenger who brings him the news that
the marriage supper is prepared.” These men refused to come; they went-”One
to his field, another to his business,” and so paid no attention to the
messenger; and every sinner who neglects the great salvation of Jesus Christ,
pays no attention to the gospel minister, which is a big insult in God’s
estimation. It is never considered a small offense by our great nation, if
our ambassador is treated with indifference; and take it for a truth, it is
no light thing with God if you despise the ambassadors he sends to you. But
this is comparatively little; the ambassadors are men like yourselves, who
can well afford to be condemned, if that were all. In fact, we would be glad
to forgive you if it were in our power to do so, and if this were all your
guilt.
But these people “despised the feast.” Some of them fancied that the fattened
cattle, and other provisions that would be on the table, would be no better
than what they had at home. They thought that the royal banquet would be no
big thing for which to give up their business for a day, or to renounce their
farming even for an hour. Oh! sinner, when you neglect the great salvation,
think about what you are despising; when you pay no attention to God’s
gospel, you pay no attention to justification by faith; you pay no attention
to washing in the blood of Jesus; you pay no attention to the Holy Spirit;
you pay no attention to the road to heaven; and then you pay no attention to
faith, and hope, and love; you pay no attention to all the promises of the
eternal covenant, of all the glorious things that God has laid up for them
that love him, and of everything which he has revealed in his Word as being
the promised gift to those who come to him. It is a serious thing to pay no
attention to the gospel, for in that Word, God’s gospel-good news, is summed
up in all that human nature can require, and all that even the saints in
bliss can receive. Oh! to despise the gospel of the blessed God, how mad! how
worse than folly! Despise the stars, and you are a fool; despise God’s earth,
with its glorious mountains, with its flowing rivers, and its fair meadows,
and you art a maniac; but despise God’s gospel, and you are ten thousand
maniacs in one. Pay no attention to that, and you are far more foolish than
he who sees no light in the sun, who beholds no fairness in the moon, and no
brilliancy in the starry sky. Trample, if you please, his lower works; but
oh! remember, when you pay no attention to the gospel, you are paying no
attention to the masterpiece of your great Creator-that which cost him more
than to create a myriad of worlds-the bloody purchase of our Savior’s
agonies.
And, again, these people “paid no attention to the King’s Son.” In was his
marriage, and inasmuch as they stayed away, they dishonored the glorious One
in whose honor the supper was prepared. They slighted him whom his Father
loved. Oh! sinner, when you pay no attention to the gospel, you pay no
attention to Christ-that Christ before whom glorious celestial spirits bow
themselves-that Christ at whose feet the exalted archangel thinks it is
happiness to cast his crown; you pay no attention to him with whose praise
all of heaven rings; you pay no attention to him whom God makes much of, for
he has called him, “God over all, forever praised!” [Romans 9:5] Yes, it is a
solemn thing to pay no attention to Christ. Despise a prince, and you will
have little honor at the king’s hand for it; but despise the Son of God, and
the Father will have vengeance on you for his slighted Son. Oh! my dear
friends, it seems to me to be a sin, not unpardonable, I know, but still most
heinous, that men should ever despise my blessed Lord Jesus Christ and treat
him with cruel scorn. Pay no attention to You, sweet Jesus! Oh! when I see
You with Your shirt of blood, wrestling in Gethsemane, I bow myself before
You, and I say, “O, Redeemer, bleeding for sin, can any sinner ever ignore
You?” When I behold him with a river of blood rolling down his shoulder,
beneath the cursed flogging of Pilate’s whip, I ask, “Can a sinner refuse to
pay attention to such a Saviour as this?” And when I see him later, covered
with his blood, nailed to a cross, expiring in torture, shrieking, “Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani,” I ask myself, “Can anyone refuse to pay attention to
this?” Oh, if they do, then, indeed, it is a sin enough to damn them, if they
have no other sin-that they have lightly esteemed the Prince of Peace, who is
glorious and altogether lovely. Oh! my friend, if you pay no attention to
Christ, you have insulted the only one who can save you-the only one who can
carry you across the Jordan-the only one who can unbolt the gates of heaven,
and welcome you. Let no smooth talking preacher persuade you that this is not
a crime. O, sinner, think of your sin, if you pay no attention to him, then
you are paying no attention to the King’s only Son.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
