Let's be turning to Luke chapter
13. Luke chapter 13. Now last week
we looked at our Lord's response to the question, Lord, are there
few that be saved? And this morning I want to look
at our Lord's response to the Pharisees who were threatening
him with death. And so our text begins in verse
31, the same day there came certain of the Pharisees saying unto
him, get thee out and depart hence for Herod will kill thee. And so at this time it's believed
that our Lord was still in the jurisdiction of Galilee where
Herod was ruler. He was the king over that area
and our Lord was making his way down to Jerusalem at this time. He was heading down there and
preaching in the various cities and towns that he would go through. And we're told back in Luke 9,
verse 51, that when the time was come that he should be received
up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And so he's
been making his way down there now toward Jerusalem. And even
though he was doing that, he wasn't going fast enough, obviously,
for the Jews who hated him and wanted him put to death. They wanted him gone because
of the things which he did and the things which he said. were
a cut to their heart. Recently we had seen where our
Lord, in a synagogue on the Sabbath day, had healed a woman who had
an infirmity for 18 years. And when the ruler of that synagogue
tried to get up and shame Christ, Christ shamed him, pointing out
that all of them, if they have an ox or an ass, lead that ox
or ass out to water. They show mercy to that animal
on the Sabbath day. And shouldn't Lord, shouldn't
our Lord show mercy to a daughter of Abraham by releasing her from
her infirmity? Why should she wait another day? And that shamed the ruler of
the synagogue. And then before that, he was
calling out and pointing out their vain, self-righteous hypocrisy. And he was pointing that out
to the people, showing what vain hypocrites the Pharisees were,
warning them of their wicked works. People don't typically
think about the very religious as doing wicked works, and yet
what the Lord is showing is that all of their righteousnesses
were filthy rags. And that's what the Lord teaches
us. All of my righteousness, whereby I think to justify myself
with God and gain acceptance with God, are filthy rags in
his sight. And so what the Lord does in
exposing the Pharisees, that's good for me. Because by nature,
I'm a self-righteous Pharisee. And so the Lord breaks us down. He strips his people down of
vain confidences. But they didn't like that. They
didn't want to hear that. And so they were offended and
we know that at this time there was stirrings of how they might
put him to death. And they had to do that because
that is exactly the way that the Lord purposed that we should
be redeemed by the blood of Christ. That all things spoken of Christ
should be fulfilled and come to a complete fulfillment at
Jerusalem in the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross there.
And so the Pharisees, who were all over Israel, when he would
come to town, when he would come into their synagogue, they were
watching him. We read a number of times, and
they watched him to see what he would do. They watched him
to see if he would heal a sick person on the Sabbath day. They
were always watching him, watching, watching, watching. They're watchers.
They're just looking for a reason to slay that person in their
heart, to put them to death, to not hear them, to justify
their unbelief. And so at this time, they're
building a case against him. And so now when they come with
this warning, you have to question, what are they coming with this
warning for? They wanted him put to death. In verse 32, he
said unto them, go ye and tell that fox. And, well, let me finish
it. Go ye and tell that fox, behold,
I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third
day I shall be perfected. We don't know if Herod really
was thinking about and considering putting Christ to death. This
likely would be the same Herod whom John the Baptist called
out for his sin and his wickedness in being with his brother Philip's
wife. So this was his sister-in-law,
an incestuous relationship with an in-law. All right? And so it's possible that he
wanted Christ's death. But the Pharisees are coming
with this. And whether it's the Pharisees
cooked this up, and they're the fox, or Herod's the fox, the
sly, tricky one that's doing this, they came to Christ with
this news because they wanted to get rid of him. They wanted
to make him afraid of man. They thought that by bringing
up Herod, who did, you know, from a fleshly sense, from our
perspective, he had authority to put men to death. He had that
authority to do that. He beareth not the sword in vain.
And he had that authority. But, as we see in the scriptures,
no man's authority overcomes the authority of God. God is
the greatest authority, and he does as he wills. And so, whatever man may do,
in opposition to God's will, will fail. We've been seeing
that a lot in 2 Samuel with Abner, who wanted to set up his own
king while knowing that God had anointed David king. And whose
will prevail? The will of God. The will of
God, his will, prevails over man's will. And so we see this
even when our Lord will stand before Pilate And he told Pilate,
thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were
given thee from above. Do you fear man? Do you get afraid
and fear man? I do. I do at times. Just being
honest with you, there's times where I do something foolish.
I say something foolish. I do something rashly, and it
strikes me. What are you doing? You're just
inviting trouble on yourself. And I start, I'm humbled by that. The Lord, I believe, shows me
that because I am shamed and humbled by that and think, what
are you doing? You don't have any business doing
those things or saying those things that could bring that
trouble upon you. So yeah, I get humbled for my
pride like that. But what our Lord says here should
provide great comfort to us that that the Lord's will shall be
done in the earth, and that you that love the Lord and hope in
the Lord, and walk by faith in the Lord, the Lord says nothing's
going to defeat God's will and purpose in you. Not in the earth, not in heaven,
not in earth, and nothing's gonna defeat it even for what he's
purposed for you, and what he's ordained for you to walk in. Those works that he's given to
you in Christ, ordain them by him in you to walk in those very
things. And we see this especially here
in the accomplished redemption of the Lord's people. And the
Lord Jesus Christ knew that nothing's going to stop him from accomplishing
his redemption of his people in the manner in which the Father
purposed Him to do it, in the way it was spoken of in the Scriptures. Nothing's going to stop that. And so His words, our Lord's
words, and our Lord's behaviors, His actions, afford us great
confidence in the purpose of God. You may be confident that
what God wills shall be brought to pass. Only the ignorant and
the spiritually dead think that God is not sovereign over all
things. That's a foolish, vain thought. But to trust Him who calls us
by His Spirit, grace, and power, you may rest wholly in Him. You shall not come short of that
which He has begun in you. trust him. First, Christ knew
that his time was not yet finished on earth, and so with boldness
he asserted that, hey, I'm going to be casting out devils and
doing cures of diseases and sicknesses until it's my time to depart. I'm going to be doing these things
which the Father sent me to do. And they hated that because they
had no power to stop him from doing that. They hated it because
it testified to them of who he is, that he is the son of God
and that the Father hath sent him. Nicodemus said, Rabbi, we
know that thou art sent from God because no man can do the
miracles which you do except God be with him. And so they
hated, the Pharisees hated that our Lord would do these things
and said this to them. And then secondly, our Lord speaks
of his perfection here in Luke 13, in verse 32, he speaks of
his perfection. On the third day, I shall be
perfected. And so from this subject, we
draw great comfort in what our Lord is saying here, great comfort
in what he's saying here, because his perfection is our perfection
who believe him. Because he is perfect, so are
you perfect that believe him and look to him for all your
righteousness. You are perfect as he is perfect. And he says, behold, I cast out
devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow. And the third day,
I shall be perfected. Now I don't believe that the
time that he's mentioning here is a specific time from that
day and three days from now. I don't think that's what his
purpose was in saying that. What the Lord is speaking of
here, this is a spiritual word. that comes to the heart of God's
children. This is a spiritual word that
speaks of the redemption that he would accomplish at Jerusalem. This speaks to his salvation
for you, sinner, for what he would work in you in fulfilling
his purpose of God at Jerusalem. By his redemption, our Lord will
accomplish the casting out of the devil. He'll cast out that
dominion of which all in Adam are born under, that dominion
of sin, under the law of sin and death, that influence and
power of the prince of the power of the air over the people born
of Adam's seed. Our Savior would cast out the
devil and destroy all his works. That's what the Apostle John
tells us in 1 John 3.8, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested
that he should destroy the works of the devil. That's what he's
saying. I'm going to destroy that hold
over my people. The cures that he would accomplish
today and tomorrow, well, what are his cures? He obtained the
forgiveness of our sins. He washed us of our sins with
his own blood. He reconciled us who were rebels
and sinners against the true and living God. He reconciled
us to holy God. Rather than running with Adam
away from the voice of God, we're now drawn to him. We're reconciled
to the Father. Another cure that he did was
to raise us up from spiritual death, giving us spiritual and
eternal life, which we experience in this life and in the life
to come. These are the cures that our
Savior accomplishes for us. He destroyed the works of the
devil, and he brings all these blessings to pass for you, you,
child of God, to you who believe on Christ, whom the Father hath
sent. Our Lord glorified his heavenly
Father as the servant of God by faithfully making known unto
you the mystery of God. by revealing the mystery of God,
how that God may be gracious to justify sinners by grace,
apart from works, all by his grace. He would do that for us,
brethren, by the sacrifice of himself as the substitute of
his people, taking the place of his people, bearing their
punishment to satisfy the justice of God and so deliver us from
that wrath and punishment. Unto you it is given to know
the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables. And so, even the wicked
would be used by God to accomplish his purposes. so that they would
take him and crucify him in order to bring to pass the blessings
and mercies of God to you, whom he loves and chose for this salvation. And so, our Lord would lay down
his life as the Lamb of God for the salvation of his people through
sufferings by a perfect righteousness, a perfect righteousness. And
as he is perfect, so are you perfect in him, by grace and
power, by his spirit, accomplishing this redemption in you, cleansing
you of your sins, casting out the devil and his influence from
you, and curing you. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
2. Let's see a few of these things. Hebrews chapter 2. And let's
pick up in verse 9, 9 and 10. Paul writes, but we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace
of God, should taste death for every man. For it became him
for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. Now turn over to Hebrews 10.
Go to Hebrews 10. And here we're told why the children
of God need a perfect Savior to suffer for them. Why do we
need Christ to come and suffer for us? Verse 1, for the law
having a shadow of good things to come. and not the very image
of the things can never, with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. You cannot be perfected by the
law. It's just not going to happen.
God has purposed that his son should be glorified in our hearts
because he is our perfection. He is our righteousness and acceptance
with the Father, not by works, which we have done, but by His
own self, by His darling Son. He has purged us of our sins
and made us acceptable unto the Father by His righteousness.
And He draws you with grace and blesses you with grace. and teaches
you these things to rejoice your heart, not as a servant being
beaten with the law, but in joyfulness and thankfulness that God should
be merciful to me, a sinner saved by his grace and righteousness. So what did our Lord do? Because
the law couldn't make us perfect, we read down in verse 9, Hebrews
10, 9, Hebrews 10, 9, Then said he, our Lord Jesus
Christ, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He take it the way
of the first, that first covenant, that first law of commandments
there, that he may establish the second. By the which will? Which will? By the will of God
the Father in sending Christ. By that will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. once for all. He accomplished
it. And every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins. Never take away sins. That form
of religion he's speaking of, which was under the first covenant,
it cannot take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, set apart by the Spirit unto
the hearing of this gospel, being washed in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ forever. And what God has started, what
God has begun in you, He will perfect it. He will bring it
to an end in perfect righteousness to the praise, glory, and honor
of His name, brethren. He is perfect and so are we in
Him. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man the Lord Jesus Christ has preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. And Paul added, by him all that
believe are justified from all things from which ye could not
be justified by the law of Moses. The law comes short because of
the weakness of this flesh, and this flesh doesn't improve or
get any better until Christ comes and raises us up anew, again,
with a new body, a heavenly body. That's why you feel the weaknesses,
the lusts, the infirmities in your flesh, because they're yet
present. But we have a hope, a good hope,
a sure hope, a perfect hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, that as
he is righteous, so are we in him. And so our Lord came and
trusted the Father wholly, completely, so that he accomplished the purpose
for which he was sent by the Father. And nothing is going
to prevent or alter that in any way. That's the confidence with
which he speaks. And so the lesson for us there
is that our times are in the hands of the Lord, sovereign
God. The hairs of your head are all
numbered. Whether you have many or few,
your hairs are all numbered. So looking wholly, completely
to our God, we may have complete confidence in him for whom all
things are possible. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly find
Him wholly true." Yes, that is true. So what unshaking confidence
we may have in Him so that even evil tidings, even things hard
in the flesh and difficulties, I don't want to minimize them
to how we're made to feel when we suffer loss. and suffer pain
and hardships and difficulties, but we have an anchor of the
soul in the Lord Jesus Christ that we are His and He is mine
and He knows exactly what He's doing in perfect goodness and
righteousness for your eternal good. You may rest right there
in Him. trust him in that as Paul said
in all these things in Romans 8 37 through 39 in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for
I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so let that be your attitude,
trusting the Lord, believing him in it. Cry out to him by
all means continually in prayer. but trust him. You may trust
him wholly and stay upon him entirely, because he only gives
that which is for our eternal good. Though we suffer loss in
the flesh, though we are stripped and brought low in ourselves,
it is for our eternal good to depend upon him, to not have
a vain self-confidence in ourselves that comes to nothing, but to
find our all in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's why he does
it. And so, we can trust that, that
we'll walk in those things ordained for us, proving what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. All right, Romans
12, two. Now, continuing verse 33, nevertheless,
I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following, for it
cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. And so he's
telling the Pharisees, my time has not yet come until I reach
Jerusalem. Why does he have to go to Jerusalem?
Well, there the Sanhedrin, the ruler of the Jews, would sit
to judge him as a prophet. And when they find him guilty
for being a false prophet, all that sin and guilt will rest
with them. It'll be on their hands, on their
heads. They'll be guilty of that horrific
sin in condemning the just and holy one whom the Father sent,
testifying of their hatred for Christ, the Christ of God, and
the Father who sent him. And that brings us to what our
Lord says in verse 34 and 35. Oh, 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 ye would not. Behold, your house is left
unto you desolate, Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me
until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord. So the first thing that we see
here is the willing Savior. This word reveals that Christ
is willing to save all that come to Him for salvation. Listen to these calls from scripture
to the sinner, saying, look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends
of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. And there's
not even a condition put on there. He just says, to the ends of
the earth, you look to me. And that goes with where he says,
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Here's another one, ho, everyone
that thirsteth. You that are thirsting, you that
are sinners and thirsting for righteousness, he says, ho, everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye, buy and eat. You that have nothing gained
from your labors under the law, you haven't accrued anything
to work down your debt, he says, you come to me, I'll quench your
thirst. I'll give you righteousness that
you need. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David, which were not given on condition. If you,
then I will." No, that was given by him fulfilling the covenant
all by himself, that covenant of grace in Christ. I come unto
me, Christ said, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Jesus said, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. And the Spirit and the bride
say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the waters of life freely, freely. Salvation is by free,
sovereign grace, grace. Now let it be known that the
scriptures reveal that salvation is entirely of the Lord. Jonah
said that in Jonah 2.9, salvation is of the Lord. God chose a people,
the Father chose a people for Christ to be his bride, his body
before the foundation of the world. And all of them shall
be saved, Christ shall lose none, none. For them he died and no
one else. he laid down his life for the
sheep, and his sheep hear his voice and follow him. And so they shall be called effectually
by this word." This word goes forth. This free, sovereign word
of grace to come to Christ goes forth, and that word is heard,
made effectual in the hearts of God's people unto salvation,
and those who believe, those who are called by that word shall
endure to the end, being preserved by Christ. But the willingness
of our Savior here shows us how utterly ruined and condemned
man is. It shows us just how awful our
fall is and how foolish it is to think that by the works of
the law we can just fix a few things, make a few adjustments,
and improve ourselves with God. It shows us just how undone we
are, and that if God does not interpose the blood of Christ
to wash us, to redeem us, to take us out of that, we'll continue
on willfully in our ignorance and death. We won't hear. We won't hear. And that's proven
in the scriptures. And our Lord said to the Jews,
you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life, but they are they which testify of me. And you will not
come unto me that you might have life. You won't do it. Man left
to himself will not come to Christ. He just won't. And he says these
things that you would beg him for mercy. Lord, save me, don't
leave me to myself. Draw me near to you. Draw near
to me, Lord, have mercy on me. Again, he said, no man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him. And I
will raise him up at the last day. And so what the Lord is
showing is that if you die in your sins without Christ, if
you refuse to hear him, and continue to do things your way under the
law and in religion, in the world, whatever it is that you're doing,
if you refuse Christ and will not come to him and die in your
sins, it'll be your fault. You'll die not because God didn't
do something for you. You'll die because of your sins.
And he makes that very clear. You need the grace of God. And
he lays it out like that. Because he has sheep that are
so hard. All of us are so hard, and so
dense, and in such darkness, and in the bondage of sin, that
he stirs us up to draw us out of complacency, and indifference,
and it'll all work out. No, he makes us to feel our need
of him, and to go begging him for mercy. The word of our God
says in Isaiah 59, 1 and 2, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened
that it cannot save, neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear,
but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear." And
so, if we suffer, if we die, if we perish in hell, it's because
of our own fault. We won't be able to blame God.
We're the sinners. We're the sinners condemned.
So this is an indictment against sinful man who hates God and
hates his Christ. Our Lord's just laying it out
there. Read these words again in verse 35, Luke 13, 35. Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate, and verily I say unto you, ye
shall not see me until the time come when ye shall say, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Christ is vindicated
when He first enters Jerusalem and when He comes a second time
in power. First, they literally said these
words when He came into Jerusalem. Flip over to Luke 19. Luke 19
and verse 37 and 38. And when He was come nigh, Even now, at the descent of the
Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice,
and praised God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that
they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the
name of the Lord, peace in heaven, glory in the highest." And so
the Pharisees and the people that were there heard this prophecy
of our Lord fulfilled. They heard it with their own
ears, and yet they refused to believe the Lord Jesus Christ.
They refused to believe Him, even though He was anointed with
the Holy Ghost and went about doing much good and healing the
people. in demonstrating those works
which he was there to accomplish for his people through his redemption. Every devil cast out, every cure
he did is a picture of what he does in us in delivering, casting
out the devil and delivering us from the dominion of the prince
of the power of the air and taking us out of that way of the course
of this world and fixing us in the body of Christ. and healing
us and washing us of our sins. He did that through his redemption
for us, brethren. And then the next time he comes,
it will be in power. And all believers and unbelievers
will say, blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
For the scriptures declare that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue confess should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, if you hear Him today
while it is called today, cry out to Him for mercy. Beg Him
for mercy. He is a willing, gracious Savior
to all who cry out to Him, to all who need Him, to all who
have no righteousness of their own and have nothing that they
deserve. any mercy from God. He says,
come to me, and I'll show you. I'll make the covenant with you
of the sure mercies of David. And so, Revelation 1-7, I close
with this, behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall
see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds
of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. And so, cry out to the Lord.
He's a merciful, gracious Savior who accomplished the redemption
of his people. Amen.