The lesson this morning is taken
from Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13, verses 1 through
9. As I studied this, I took the title
from what I believe the teaching is from these verses, which is
walking in the face of woe. That's what we do every day of
our life. We walk in the face of woe. Let's read these verses
together. Luke chapter 13 verse 1. There were present at that season
some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto
them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans,
because they suffered such things? I tell you nay, but except ye
repent, ye shall likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the
tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, Think ye that they were
sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay,
but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. He spake also this parable. A
certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came
and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he to the
dresser of the vineyard, behold, these three years I come seeking
fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down. Why cumbereth it the ground? And he, that is the dresser of
the vineyard, answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone
this year also. till I shall dig about it and
dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after
that, thou shalt cut it down. Now what's going on here is another
ploy by the scribes and Pharisees to entrap the Lord in His feet
so they could accuse Him to the Romans and see Him put away or
Get him out of the way so that they can go back to business
as usual. That's what religion wants. When
something controversial comes up concerning the truth, then
they want to get rid of whoever it is. Get him out of here. He's
causing trouble. We want to get back to the way
things were. And that's what's going on here.
If he condemned Pilate's judgment of those men and openly spoke
of it as a barbarous act, they might accuse him to Pilate and
say he's guilty of sedition. He's nothing but a rebel. And
if he approved of it, they might condemn him before the people.
These people were out offering a sacrifice. And he was OK that
Pilate come along and slayed them and mingled their blood
with the sacrificial blood. But this man to whom they were
speaking was wisdom incarnate. Isn't that what Paul's argument
was in Romans chapter 9? You will say unto me, why doth
he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will? And then Paul
said, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies, This is God
come into the flesh, and these men are trying to entrap him.
This is wisdom incarnate. He's their creator. And they're
going to trap him? They're going to match wits with
him? He was wisdom incarnate. This
is God come into the flesh. And he's to be heard and not
questioned. He's to be obeyed and not resisted,
bowed to and not cross-examined. This is condemnation, our Lord
said, that light has come into the world and men love darkness
rather than light. They hang on to it. They relish
it. They live in it. And our Lord
gives them, and hopefully us, three things to consider when
it comes to earthly tragedy and death. It's all around us. Sometimes
it comes close to home. But it's all around us, it's
an everyday fact. And that's the first thing he
gives us is the hidden reality of mankind in this world. All
mankind from the least to the greatest, rich or poor, male
or female, educated or ignorant, Jew or Gentile, all mankind fell
in their daddy Adam. They're fallen creatures, depraved
creatures. They're born in sin, raised in
a sinful world. Sin is all they've ever known. Surely grace and the gospel of
Christ is shocking to them. They've never known that. The
only thing they've ever known is sin. Ignorance, darkness,
blindness. They were raised in it. Turn
with me to Romans chapter 5. I know these are things you've
heard in the past, but I want us to read them. I want you to
see it's not my opinion. I'm not up here to give you my
opinion about anything. I want you to see that this is
a plain declaration of the Word of God. Scripture is so clear on this,
yet fallen men wander around in this mystical cloud of ignorance,
supposing themselves to be better than others. Listen to this,
Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world. That's talking about Adam. And
death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. How did they sin? They sinned in their father's
house. You take a single acre, and if
it doesn't rot in the ground, it will produce a tree. And through
that tree, it's going to produce more trees, and more trees, and
more trees, until finally you have a forest out there. And that's the way it is with
Adam. His seed. We're his seed. We're born after
his kind. We bear his nature. And his nature's
a fallen nature. Man's not in a vacuum. And spiritual death, which is
the reality of being by nature a child of wrath, even as others,
is walking according to the course of this world. See, here's the
thing men don't understand. They live in good lives. I'm
married. I don't hang out in the bar.
I live a good life. I take care of my kids. I provide
for their education. I do this. I do that. And you're
telling me I'm living in sin? Well, let me tell you what he
says. This is in Matthew 24. He talks about the end of time.
And he said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also
be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. What were
they doing? Oh, they were all in the bars.
They were all in the houses of ill repute. No! They were marrying
and giving in marriage. They were just living out their
lives. They were just living out their lives in this world. Trying to have a nice home, just
like you are. Trying to have decent children,
just like you are. Trying to have a good wife, just
like you are. They were marrying, giving in
marriage. They were just going about life until the flood came. And what happened? What happened
to all these good folks? It took them all away. Now that's
what our Lord is trying to show us in me. He's not trying, He
is. He's declaring to us, except you repent. Who's you? Well, that's the good folks.
These were the religious folks, the good folks. The ones who
went to church, raised their children, paid their bills. This
is the good folks. And they're telling him about
the Galileans and what a tragedy it was. And he said, you think
they're sinners above the rest of the Galileans? The ones he
was talking to were Galileans. You think them people were worse
than you? You think that's why God killed them, because they
were worse than you? You think the reason you're still alive
is because you're better than them? He said, no. And except you repent,
you're going to perish the same way. Does that mean a tower is
going to fall on them, or a pilot's going to... It means that death's
coming, and it's coming unexpectedly, and it's coming sudden, and it's
over for eternity. Except you repent, you'll all
likewise perish. And here's these people, they're
over at the Pool of Siloam. You know what that was. The angel
came down, troubled the waters. And the first man in, the angel
of the Lord troubled those waters. They were healed. And they were
there, and they were at that pool, and they were trying to
cleanse themselves from whatever diseases they had. They were
there trying to take advantage of what God had provided. And
they were at that pool, and suddenly a tower fell on them and killed
every one of them, all 12 of them. Or 18, or whatever. He
said, do you think they were worse sinners than the rest of
them? No. We're all sinners. That's what
he's telling us. We're all sinners. Man's not in a vacuum. He's not
in some kind of spiritual purgatory where somebody can still redeem
him. Man is dead spiritually and every
thought or the imagination of his heart is only evil continually. He thinks about himself. He thinks
God is someone just like him. That's his opinion of God. A
man told me one time, he said, even Christ sinned. I said, really? I said, Scripture
said he didn't. Well, he got angry. I said, well,
he has a righteous anger. God does. God's angry with the
wicked every day. Does that make him a sinner?
No, his anger is righteous. It's righteous anger. He said,
you thought I was altogether such one as yourself, but he
said, I'm going to reprove you. I'm going to show you different.
A man's dead spiritually, not dead physically. He still moves
around, he still talks and says and reasons. He's not dead physically,
he's dead spiritually. The natural man. Who's that? It could be anybody. It could
be the man down in the bar, the drunk. It could be the man in
the house of ill repute. It could be the robber, the murderer.
But it could also be the pastor of the First Baptist Church or
the pastor of this church. Man's dead spiritually in every
thought. All his thoughts are evil because
his thoughts are not God's thoughts. He lives out his days, the Scripture
said, in the lust of his flesh. What does that mean? Well, whatever
his flesh wants. That's what that means. Whatever
it is. That's not necessarily a sexual
statement. That statement has to do with
just every day. I had a neighbor, and he bought
the land that connected with ours, and then he bought another
parcel of land on the other side of us. And I said, you're buying
a lot of land. Oh, he said, I'm not greedy.
He said, I just want the land next to mine. That's man. That's living according to the
lust of your flesh. All you want is everything. And
if you had everything, you still wouldn't be satisfied. That's
man. He lives out his days in the
lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of his mind. Of his mind, his evil mind. And he cannot and will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God until God does the work in him. And God restrained men to keep
them from being as evil as they could be. And that restraint
is sometimes looked upon as self-righteousness. And that's where these Jews were.
Paul said, it's touching the law. I was blameless. Blameless. Until he saw the law in its real
reality. Then he said, sin was revived
and I died. The reality is that man at his
best stage is altogether vanity, Psalm 39.5. He drinks iniquity like water,
Job says, Job 15.16. There is none righteous, none
that understandeth, none that seeketh after God, Romans 3.10-12. The reality of man is that he's
bound in a prison of his nature, awaiting eternal damnation. In
Adam, all die. How many? All of them. All of them. And it might be now or 80 years
from now, but the reality is the same. And then the second
thing, that's the first thing. God wants us to know that we're
all sinners. We're all sinners. Man don't
know that. Talk to your average person.
He'll talk to you about his rights before God. He'll talk to you
about his free will. He'll talk to you about all these
other things. Man's a sinner. And the second
thing I see here is that our Lord brings to light is His sovereign
rule in Providence. In Ephesians 1.11, Paul writes
of our salvation. saying, in whom, talking about
Christ, in whom all things were trusted. He's even the steward
of time, time itself, and all the events of time. He's the
Lord. And Paul says our salvation in
Him, in whom also, Him also, in whom also we have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated, according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will." Is that what religion is preaching? It's all up to
you. All up to you. God's providence
is arranged for the redemption and reconciliation of his elect. Everything in it is arranged
for that end. And when all is said and done,
he'll say exactly what he said about the crucifixion of Christ
over in Acts 4.28. They did what God's hand and
God's counsel determined before would be done. That's what's
going to happen. The Lord killeth. Now what the
scripture says, who killeth? The Lord does. Yeah, but that
was an accident, was it? He's Lord of the dead and the
living. And God's providence, how mysterious it is, even for
mature believers. Didn't His providence shock you
when He took your sister? It shocked us all. You were no
more expecting that than the man in me. And it shocks us,
even the most mature believers. Years ago, I was up at 13th Street
Baptist Church. And there was a man there, he
and his wife Carla. His name was Jim Spence. And
he'd been, I think he was up in Huntington eating. He and
his wife had been having some trouble, and divorce was in the
air, and all of this kind of stuff was going on. And I think
Jim had either been up there talking to somebody about that,
or he'd been up there eating. But at any rate, he was driving
back home. And the way the Ohio River is,
if you take the Kentucky and West Virginia side, it's a lot
longer than if you just cross over and take the shortcut down
the Ohio side. So he was coming down the Ohio
side on Route 52. This is a believer, he's having
some problems, he's on his way home. He's driving down this
road, he's doing 60 miles an hour. Real nice road, poor lane
highway. He's passing through a place
called Hanging Rock. And they called it Hanging Rock
because for centuries these huge rocks about the size of this
church hung out over the cliffs. And he's driving down Route 52. That rock breaks loose. Monster
boulder. He's driving down, he don't see
nothing, he's just driving down the road. Here comes this rock
and he's doing like this, right on top of that car. Put that
car clear into the pavement. Took his life. Accident or God's
providence? The Lord killed him. And his
providence will shock us sometimes. Even the most mature of believers
is shocked by God's providence. And that's what he's telling
him. The stone, the tower at Siloa, Salted Tower, been there
for years and years and years. Fell down and killed those men. Accident or Providence. God does things on purpose. Don't
ever forget that. God does things on purpose and
just because you don't understand what's going on don't mean that
you need to turn a blind eye to it. And thank God for divine
providence. Thank God he will not let all
of Adam's race perish. He's going to save some. And
he's arranged his providence to that end. The spirit of Antichrist,
he works in this world with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish. giving them assurance and false
peace and ungodly rest by these wonders and signs and things
that they do. And for this cause, God's going
to send them strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned
for believing it. Reprobates. Turned over to themselves. Leave them alone, Christ said.
Leave them alone. But, Paul said, we're bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and the belief of the truth, whereunto he calls you by our
gospel. Our gospel calling was providential. Isn't that what Paul was telling
them, Thessalonians? It's providential. And we give
thanks to God for it. Salvation is by sovereign grace,
not by chance and free will. And when the Gentiles heard Paul's
gospel at Antioch and they saw the rebellion of the Jews and
all the events of the day, it says, as many as were ordained
unto eternal life believed. Was that providence that sent
Paul there? Sure it was. God does things
on purpose. And in His purpose, He has means
appointed. And we better not ignore Him.
And then the third thing our Lord brings to light here is
the gracious age of the Gospel. We're living in the Gospel age.
Now I know the Lord set forth types and symbols and prophets
actually spoke the Gospel to men. I know that. We have local
churches around and that church's business is the preaching of
the gospel. And if gospel light goes out,
it's going to radiate out from those churches. That's how it's
going to be. Our Lord added to his message
a parable. He said a certain man had a vineyard
and he planted in that vineyard a fig tree. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about people with professions of faith. They were
planted. They're saying I'm in the master's
venue. But the master come to partake
of the fruit and it wasn't there. It just bared. You remember how
the Lord cursed that fig tree for that very reason. And here he's talking about such
a tree, and he's talking about men who make professions of faith,
but they don't produce any fruit. Master said, cut it down. It's
just taking up space. It's cumbering the ground. Cut
it down. But somebody said, would you
give me one more year? Would you give me one more message? Would you give me time? Let me
dig around it a little bit. Let me put the fertilizer on
it. Would you give me one more year? He made intercession for the
people. That's what Christ was doing. That's what Christ was
doing and that's what all his preachers are doing. That's what
his church is doing in this world. Let me work with it just a little
bit. Give me just a little more time. And if nothing happens,
cut it down. Cut it down. But please give
me that I know. You hired me to do this work.
You appointed me to do this work. Let me do it. One more here. Preaching's doing what God's
given us to do to save sinners. And I tell you, the reality is,
where there is no fruit, it doesn't belong in God's garden. That's
what Christ is telling them. Christ is the vine, we're the
branches. Being grafted into Him, we cannot
help but bear fruit. But even a godly fig tree needs
help, don't it? It needs help. And the dresser
of that vineyard said to his Lord, let it alone one more year. Oh, for heart that longs to see sinners saved
by grace. Oh, don't let this preacher's
heart be hardened. Long to see the fruit of righteousness. Want to see what the Lord has
called him to do flourish. God help this man who stands
before you today to never lose sight of why he's here. Nor the value of chosen sinners
to the Lord. It was the Lord's tree. It was
the Lord's tree. If that man saved it or it died,
either one was nothing to him. God help us not to lose sight
of the reality of our lives and the lives of them around me.
I tell you, the reality of judgment's all around us. We see it every
day, every day. And like them, we're wont to
emphasize daily tragedy, ignore the grace of God. Jim Jones. Took up every news channel on
the TV when that happened, didn't it? The bombing of the federal
building in Oklahoma City. Tragedy. Every news channel on
the TV took it up. Talked about it for months. The
terrorist attack in Washington, DC. Floods in Houston. Hurricanes
in New Orleans. They're all around us. It happens
every day. And we talk about these things
and memorialize these tragedies. and totally ignore the intervention
of God to save sinners. Russell, I shouldn't be shocked
that God killed 100,000. Why would that shock me? We're
all sinners. I'll tell you what ought to shock
you is when He saved somebody. It shocked me. The Lord turned that light on and
gave me a heart to believe. It shocked me. It shouldn't shock
us to see death and tragedy. It shouldn't shock us when a
doctor comes in and says, that's it. That's it for you. That shouldn't
shock us. What ought to shock us is when
God saves somebody and teaches them the truth. Oh, my soul. Hymn writer wrote, change and
decay in all around I see. O thou that changest not, abide
with me. Death and darkness and guilt
and condemnation are all realities of the day, and we ought to be
shocked that anybody was spared, not that some died. And that's
what the Lord is telling us. You sitting here condemning those
Galileans, and you think they were sinners above you? saved men. But whether they were
or not, we're sinners. We ain't better than anybody.
Paul said this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus come into this world
to save sinners. Now listen, of whom I'm chief.
Now wait a minute, he said he had He was blameless according
to the law. He was a good man. He was a religious
man. Went to church, read the Bible.
Huh? Now, he's the chief of sinners.
The chief of sinners, and so are we. So are we. But by the grace of God, we are
what we are.