Luke 13 33 this is him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood speaking he said nevertheless I must walk
today and tomorrow and the day following For it cannot be that
a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which
killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen
doth gather her brood under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your home is left unto
you desolate. And verily I say unto you, you
shall not see me until the time come when you shall say, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. In verse 33, our
Lord is referring to the Jewish law that false prophets were
to be judged by the Sanhedrin only in Jerusalem only. And the
significance of what he's saying, along with verse 32 of course,
is that when they threatened that Herod would kill him, what
he's saying is that's not going to happen. I'm going to die the
way according to scripture, according to the law, under the Sanhedrin,
in their decision, they're going to falsely accuse him and condemn
him to death. But the significance here is
this. He's saying, again, I'm going
to do what I'm doing today and tomorrow and the day after that. And then when I am killed, talking
about Herod is going to kill you. He said, when I am killed,
it's going to be when I'm ready, when I have ordained it, the
way I've ordained it. He's going to go willingly. when
he's ready to Jerusalem to be tried falsely, to be accused
falsely, to be condemned falsely. He's telling them how it's going
to happen before it happens. And so as always, he's the master. He speaks as one having authority
because he has all authority. That's why he talks that way.
He said, Herod's not going to kill me. My death is preordained.
You will condemn me as a false prophet And you will kill me,
but it will be when I say. Not today, not tomorrow, and
not the day after that. In the way that I determine,
at the time that I determine. And at the thought of what will
happen to him at Jerusalem, while he's on that subject, what's
gonna happen in Jerusalem, he says this in verse 34, oh Jerusalem. that is going to kill God's prophet. You see that? Here's how I'm
going to die. Not by Herod. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that
kill the prophets, and they're going to kill God's prophet,
the capital P. Religion uses that verse to say
you know see there the Lord's trying to save people You know
if they'll just let him how oft would I have gathered you as
a hen? Gathers her chicks, but you see how it's teaching just
the opposite of that This is the master saying I'm gonna die
when I say the way I say and you're gonna kill me Because
that's what sinners do They kill God's Son That's what all of
them do He's the master. He's not trying to save anybody.
This is a perfect example of how they twist, though, and pervert
the scriptures to their own destruction. They have a God who can't save. And their God is based on a perversion
of his word, as we said here. Christ did not say here, I've
tried to save you and you won't let me. Notice that particularly
that that's not what he said. He could have said that if that's
what he meant. He didn't say I've tried to gather you and
you wouldn't let me. He said I would have and you
would not. This is a hypothetical. This
is what would have happened and here's why it didn't. That's
pretty clear, isn't it? You see the difference, though?
Not, I've tried and you wouldn't let me. That's not what he said.
I would have. I am willing to save sinners. But sinners are not willing to
be saved. Not by Christ. And He's going to save those
who He wills. But look at what our Lord said.
Turn to John 6 with me. We really need to look at this
in order to expound this properly, I believe. John 6, 35. This is exactly what our Lord
said here. He said, I would have, but you
would not. The reason sinners are not saved
is because they don't come to Christ. He said, come to Me and
I'll save you. It's not complicated. It's not
complicated. And if you make it more complicated
than that, if you say, well, you know, my doctrine says this. Does it say contrary to what
our Lord said? He said, if you would have, I would have. What
do you say? I would have, and you would not. That's what he says. If your
doctrine is contrary to him, you might want to look into maybe
getting a new doctrine. That's what it says. It's not
unclear. But look at John 6. Here's what
he's saying. Same thing. John 6.35. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. They'll
never want, they'll never lack anything. But I said unto you
that you also have seen me and believe not. He tells them not
only what would happen, how sinners are saved, by his will. But he
tells them why some sinners are not saved. Because of their will. Salvation is God's will. Damnation is the will of man.
That's man's way. That you also have seen me and
believe not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. That's who's gonna come. He says
that straight up. Everybody that was given to the
son by the father in the eternal covenant of grace read John chapter
17 to see more about them Read the whole New Testament to see
more about them Read the whole Bible to see more about them
God's people God's elect God's chosen They all will come to
me and him that cometh to me. I will in no wise cast out For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me." If sinners are saved, it's according
to God's will. He willed their salvation before
there ever was a them. And He sent His Son to save them. And He saved them, all of them.
And all of them are going to come to Him. Hell and damnation and condemnation
is due to the will of man. You see, man paints the answer
as the free will. You've got a free will. That's
your hope. No, that's your problem, is your will. And it's not free. Your will is not the answer to
the problem. Your will is the problem. That's
clear here. You will not come to me. You
would not. That's true of every sinner.
You would not. Until God. Changes all that. This is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Every
sinner chosen in electing grace from before the foundation of
the world, Christ died to redeem them. And he's pursued them throughout
eternity and will bring them home. I will not lose one of
them. I'm going to raise every one
of them up at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. Well, wait a minute. Didn't you just tell us the will
of Him that sent you? Yes. That's God's perspective. God knows every one of them.
He saved every one of them. He redeemed every one of them.
Now here's from man's perspective. This is the will of Him. Everyone
would see if the Son. Who's that? Those that the Father
gave Him. I don't know who they are. But
have you seen the Son? You don't know if you're one
that the Father gave, unless you've seen the Son. If you've
seen Christ and believed on Him, you're one of the ones that the
Father gave His Son. I can't think of another way
to know that, can you? So you see how it's important
that He gives it, that He teaches it from our perspective too,
because that's where we are. You want life? You want salvation? You want forgiveness of sin?
Come to Him. Some people's hope of salvation
is that they're the elect. How do you know that? Your hope
of salvation is Christ. And if He's not, you don't have
any hope. Do you see the difference? If you know Him, if you have
Him, if you believe on Him, you're one of His elect. But don't come
at it backwards. Don't trust anything or anybody
but the person of God's Son for salvation. That everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on Him People say foolish things like well
you know all the elect are going to be saved whether they believe
or not. That's just foolish. The Lord said those whom he's
chosen and given to his son are going to believe on him. So why
would you say something like that? He that believeth on him may
have everlasting life. And I will raise him up. That's
what our Lord is saying in our text. You would not. You're not going
to blame your eternal condemnation and damnation on God. You're
not going to blame it on Him. It's going to be your fault.
It is now and it always will be. Our text in Luke 13 can never
be turned around on our Lord. Now you think about this. This
may be the most important thing about this that I say all morning.
This can never be turned around on Him. He says, I would have,
but you would not. You can't turn it around on Him
and say, I would have come to Him, but He wouldn't have me.
You can't do that. Not true. You can't turn it around
on Him. He said it the right way. Your will is the problem, not
his. That's the teaching in this passage
now. Your will. And the freer it is,
the worse off you are. You think about that. You say
you want to boast of a free will? The more free your will is from
his constraints, the worse off you are. You don't
want a free will, you just may think you do, but you don't. You want his will to be done. His will is salvation. Now this
is, all God's preachers have always taught this because the
word of God teaches it. If you're saved, it's not because
of your will, it's because of God's will. Is that clear to
you in the gospel? Paul, speaking of salvation in
the context of Romans 9, 16, he said, so then it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. You would not. but of God that showeth mercy. He delights to have mercy. You
just don't delight to have it. You don't want it. You don't
need it in your opinion by nature until He shows you your need
of Him. The difference between Jacob and Esau is not of him
that willeth. God loved one and hated the other
before they were ever born or had done any good or evil. God
willed and salvation is by his will. He said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. And he also said, if you come
to me, I'll have mercy on you. You say, well Chris, how do you
reconcile that? I don't. I just preach it. You don't have
to reconcile friends, do you? It's the word of God. Where it gets complicated, and
it's not complicated, is it? Is that complicated to you? You
come to Christ, he'll save you. And he chose the people from
the foundation of the world, and every one of them's gonna
be saved, and nobody else. Is that complicated? You may
not like it, but did it blow your mind? No. A lot of people
don't like it much, though. Both are true. You know when
it gets complicated? When you start trying to figure out what
God didn't say. Believe what he did say. How
about that? Is that alright? Believe what
he did say. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. With his gospel. of his own will. Our will is we're not coming.
You're not ever going to come. A lost sheep ain't never going
to find its way home. That's why he leaves the 99 and
goes out and picks it up and puts it on his shoulder and carries
it home rejoicing because it ain't coming home on its own. So of his own will we are born
again. by his precious word. Paul said
in Ephesians 111 that we are predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. Nothing could be clearer in the
scripture now and it's clear in our verse. Salvation is by
his will, not yours. God's sheep do willingly follow
him, but not until the Father draw him. You're not coming,
he said, until the Father which has sent me draw him. We are willing because of his
will. We are willing in the day of
his power. We love him because he first
loved us. We know him because he first knew us. And we come
to him because he first came to us. Very clear in the word of God.
Something that is just as clear in God's word is that if you're
lost, you can't blame God. They try, men try. Paul teaches
in Romans chapter 9, the very doctrine we're talking about,
the doctrine of his electing grace. Nobody's going to be saved
unless God says, I'm going to have mercy on somebody. Otherwise,
nobody's saved. Nobody's coming. God looked down
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand. And you know what he saw? All
gone their own way. Every one. There's not one that
doeth good. No, not one. So how are sinners
going to be saved? By the will of God, who goes
after his lost ones, finds them, takes hold of them, and brings
them home. That's how. But you're not going
to blame God. The problem is our will. You
would not. He said to the Pharisees in John
5 40, you will not come to me, though you've searched the scriptures.
You think you have life in the scriptures, but they are they
which testify of me. And you won't come to me that
you might have life. Those who at least had a zeal
of God, but not according to us. The most religious people,
the most advantaged people in the world. If anybody's going
to be saved, it's going to be them. Guess what? You will not
come to me. That you might have life. You would have life. That's what
our text says. I would have gathered you. If
you'd come to me, I would not have cast you out. That's what
he said. Clear as a bell. But you would
not. False preachers all around this
country are preaching that your will is the solution that God
says your will is the problem Because you would not your house
is left desolate That's what he said to these Pharisees Our Lord expresses here in this
hypothetical statement the tragedy Clearly there's tragedy Oh Jerusalem
Jerusalem How oft would I have gathered thee? The tragedy of man's rebellion. Why will man starve when there
is food for the taking? Why will man starve when there's
a water of life that sinners are called upon to take of it
freely? You have no one to blame but
yourself. And that's clear throughout all
the Word of God. In Romans 9 there where Paul clearly teaches the
electing love and grace of God and choosing sinners by his own
prerogative, supposes that some sinners are going to object to
that by saying, well who hath resisted his will then? If everything
is according to the will of God then how can he blame me for
not coming to him? Well I'll tell you this, he does blame
you. You need to let that sink in. He does blame you. Paul said, who are you to reply
against God? And you are going to be the one
to blame for you not coming to Him, not Him. We have no one to blame but ourselves. A man in his godless rebellion
refuses the counsel of God. We hate God's law. That's established
in the Old Covenant. We said, didn't we, the Israelites
said, oh yeah, let God give us all of his word, we'll obey it,
we'll keep it. And they didn't. And we didn't. Nobody has. But you know what men hate worse
than they hate God's law? His grace. They don't just hate the law,
they hate the gospel even worse. The free, distinguishing, sovereign,
electing grace of God. People hate His grace even more.
We hate Him. And He is the God of all grace.
We tried to kill Him from His birth until His hour came, and
then we did, when His hour came. Our Lord said, you would not.
But also He said this, you kill You kill everybody that comes
along saying come to Christ. Not only will you not come to
me, you kill everybody that tells you to. Isn't that what he's
saying? To Him give all the prophets
witness. Those prophets that they were killing, what were
they saying? Why were they killing them? Because they were saying
Christ is your only hope. Your law keeping is not going
to save you. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Christ is all your righteousness. Christ is all your sin offering
or you don't have any. And they killed him for saying
it. So not only would you not come to me, but you killed everybody
that insisted that you do. Everybody that shut you up to
the Son of God, you killed them. The carnal mind is not just disinterested. The carnal mind is enmity. Absolute
fearsome hatred against God. That's where we are by nature.
And you're not going to decide your way out of that You're not
going to choose your way out of that. You're not going to
will your way out of that. If you're going to be saved from
your sin, it's going to be God's will, God's choice, God's decision,
God's grace in Christ Jesus. The marvelous grace of God is
that he chose a people out of this entire God-hating mess of
rebels And when he does, when he saves
them, he turns them into loving, submissive sons of God. And here he expresses the tragedy,
though, of our natural rebellion and hatred. James said, you have
not because you ask not. It's your fault. Christ said,
ask and you shall receive. Why don't men ask? Because they
hate him. And they love themselves. They
don't think they need him. Sinners aren't going to admit that they
need the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll do something for God
to earn salvation for themselves, but they're not going to submit
to God's righteousness. Sinners are perfectly willing
to go about establishing their own righteousness. I've done
this. I go to church. I read my Bible. I say my prayers.
I give my 10%. I do this. I do that. Look at
all the wonderful works I've done for you, Lord. Here I come.
No, you don't. Sinners will not come empty.
They will not come hopeless. They will not come helpless.
Asking God to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
Accept the Father. Draw them. And I want to always
stress when I say that, where is he drawing them to in that
word from our Lord in John chapter 6? You won't come to me unless
he draws you. If the Father takes you from
where you are and brings you Where's he bringing you to? His
son. Salvation's a person. The woman with the issue of blood
spent all she had and was worse. That's when you say, oh, if I
can just touch him. If I can just touch him, I'll
be made whole. That's a picture of man's problem
right there. He's still got a little money to spend. He's still got
a little good works. He's still got a little bit of
this and a little bit of that. When you run out, and you're
shut up to the Son of God, and he draws you to himself,
the whole have no need of a physician. That's why they will not. Only
the sick. Men are not spiritually sick
enough. They haven't run out of other options. The whole have no need this is
contrasted in the leper in Matthew chapter 8 that we've talked about
so much He came to the Lord as he came down out of that mountain
And he knew he was a goner. He knew he didn't have any other
hope, but he said Lord if you will If you will You can make
me clean Why didn't the Pharisees come
to Christ that way for spiritual healing If you asked them, you
know what they'd have said? We don't need healing. They were
already whole. The whole who our Lord said have
no need of the physician, the Pharisees represent them. That's
who they were. And they're still Pharisees to
this day who think their own works are enough to make them
whole before God. Their decisions or their religious
whatever. This is exactly what Paul dealt
with there in Romans 10 where I've already quoted from some
this morning. Listen to it. Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And here's the
specific thing that they are ignorant about. They being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own
righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. They have not bowed to God's
son because they've established a righteousness of their own
that they think is quite good enough in which to stand before
God. And Paul didn't say, he said,
well I wish they'd come around on some of their doctrine. He
said, I pray that God would save them. If only God would save
them. Coming to Christ is a submission.
It's a bowing to His Word and His will and His way. His way
of righteousness. His way of acceptance with God.
It's not accepting Jesus as your personal Savior. It's not you
accepting anything. It's Him accepting you. And you
understanding that there's one way that that happens. It's through
the righteousness and shed blood of His Son. It's an admission, like Paul
made. He said, I'm ready. I confess, Philippians chapter
3, everything that I trusted in and hoped in before, it's
done. That which I thought was gained to me before God, I thought
that went to my credit. It's all to my loss. It was all
sin. It was all wretchedness. I put
it all behind me and I pressed toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God. Where's that, Paul? In Christ
Jesus. I'm running after Him now. But that didn't happen until
God shut him up and put him in the dust and shined his light
upon him. And then he said, Lord, what
would you have me do? All that the Father giveth me
are coming to me now. Why did Paul submit to Christ? How did Paul end up preaching
the gospel of Christ? Because the Father gave Paul
to His Son before the foundation of the world. That's why. Oh may God give us grace to believe
Him about our sin, about our need, about our problem, about
our will. To believe Him about Christ,
His Son, as the only sin offering that He will accept. for our
sins as the fulfillment of every need we have, as the only righteousness
in which we can stand before God. There's room under his wings
for every sinner that will come to him. You ever think about
that ark? How many people would have fit
in that ark? Scripture says Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Everybody that wanted to come
came and hid in that ark. How many was that? Nobody. Except
those who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It was big
enough for everybody that wanted to be in there, wasn't it? So
are his wings. You need him, you come. And I
guarantee you on the authority of this book, he won't send you
away. Listen, this is perhaps the most
informative thing. On our text, you see the truths.
God has elected, all that the Father has given me shall come
to me. That's settled in heaven. There's not going to be one sinner,
some preach like they're afraid somebody's going to go to heaven
that doesn't belong or something. The Lord said, come free, come
take of the water of life freely. I'm not afraid of that, are you?
It doesn't bother me a bit. Listen to what is taught in Matthew.
Turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. Just a couple more passages
of scripture and we'll be through. Matthew 11, 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto babes. Let me stop there for just a
second. The disciples asked our Lord one day, why do you speak
to everybody in parables? And the Lord answered them this
way, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God, but to them It is not given. That's what he's talking about
right here. And the Lord Jesus was thankful for that. That salvation
by the will of God. Are you thankful for that? I
tell you this, if salvation is not by his will, then nobody
is going to be saved. If it's left up to you, religion
loves to say, now it's up to you, now it's up to you, now
it's up to you. Thank God it's not up to you. We're all going to see one another
in hell if it's up to us. I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth. Only the Lord of heaven and earth
can hide and reveal as He pleases. It's no accident he addresses
him that way. Oh, may we always address him
that way in our hearts. Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has
revealed them unto people that are never going to know them
unless you reveal them. No man knoweth the Father, save
the Son. No man knoweth the Son, save
the Father. And no man knoweth the Father, save the Son. And
he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. A baby is utterly
dependent upon Him and His will. A baby is completely dependent
upon the will of others. If that mama wants to throw that
baby in the trash can, that baby's fixing to be in the trash can. If she loves that baby and she
wants to give it everything she can give it, then it'll have
everything she can give it. Even so father for so it seemed
good in that sight There's a whole lot of people in whose sight
that doesn't seem good But it seemed good to him And i'm thankful
by his grace by his grace And listen now he didn't stop
there Sometimes we do, but he didn't. All things are delivered
unto me of my father. Now the Father, it's all according
to the Father's will, but the Father has delegated this also
to the Son. Because look at it. All things
are delivered to me of my Father. What are you talking about? What
do you mean what's delivered to you? No man knoweth the Son,
but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son. And here's what's been delivered
unto Him. He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. You need
Christ. You need His righteousness. You
need His blood. You need His revealing power. you need him and then look what he said come
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest in the same in the same statement Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my burden is light. You'll never find anything to
be easier than being yoked to the Son of God, because He does
it all. Listen to Revelation 22 16 in
closing. I've sent my angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches God has sent a lot of
angels Messengers, that's what that word is. I send my messenger
unto you Through the years through the centuries he sent a lot of
messengers to testify to you these things in the churches
what things this whole book This is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
and that's what this whole book is. Paul said in Romans 1-1,
all of the Old Testament was the gospel concerning his son,
which was spoken of four times by the holy prophets. And he
said, we're preaching the same gospel. We preach Christ. It's the revelation of him from
start to finish now. I Jesus have sent my angel to
testify and to use these things in the churches. Here we are. And what do we say? What's our
message? I am who he is. I am the root and
the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star, and
the spirit, the spirit that sins, the spirit that reveals, the
spirit that takes the things of Christ and shows them to sinners.
You know what he says? Come. Come to who? Well, who he just
said, the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning
star, the Son of God. The Lamb of God that takes away
sin. The Spirit and the Bride. Who's the Bride? Well, that's
me. That's you, if you know Him.
You know what we say? Same thing the Spirit does. I
don't want to say anything He didn't say, do you? If He's taking
the things of Christ and showing them to sinners, I want in on
that. I can't do that without Him,
but I won't in on it if He's going to use me for anything.
I won't in on that. I want to take the things of
Christ and make them plain. Of course His Spirit has to do
that. But He uses these earthen vessels
too. And sends His Spirit by these
means. To take the things of Christ
and reveal them to sinners. And we're saying the same thing.
Come to Him. Come to Him. we're saying to those that will
not come and let him that heareth if you
ever hear him say come here's the thing the one that
says come is the one that said let there be light and there
was light if he says come to you in power you fix him to come
to the Lord Jesus. He said to Thomas, reach hither
thy finger and behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand and thrust
it into my side and be not faithless. That's the word of power right
there. That's not just a general call. All you that labor come,
that's a general call. It's powerful to his sheep. But
when he speaks individually to his sheep and says, you come
and be not faithless, you know what they do? They bow and they
say, my Lord and my God. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. They don't think about it. They
follow. They don't say, I'm glad God
gave me a chance. They follow him. Let him that heareth. Once you
hear him say, come, you know what you're going to start saying
from then on? Come. Come to him. Didn't Paul say,
I would to God that you were all together such as I am, except
these bonds? If you've come, what are you
going to want? Everybody you know, come. and let him that's thirsty come
and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely it
sounds to me like that if you that he what our text says I
would have and you would not let him that's thirsty come I don't know when the Lord saved
me exactly, but if I had to guess, I don't
have to. But if I did, the first time I ever heard Jack
Shanks preach the gospel, it was on that text right there.
The title of his message was this, Are You Thirsty? Are You
Thirsty? If you're not thirsty, then it's
not talking to you, is it? Let everyone that's thirsty come
and take the water of life freely. Freely. And when he preached
that, I was. By the grace of God, I was. Let's
pray together.