Let's be turning to Luke chapter
13. Luke chapter 13. I want to begin by reading our
text, making a few comments as we go through. It's the first
five verses. There were present at that season
some that told our Lord of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate
had mingled with their sacrifices." Now, we're not told who was speaking
to our Lord, whether they were disciples or just passers-by
or even his enemies of the Pharisees and scribes. But it is possible
that maybe they were talking about this Judas of Galilee that
Gamaliel mentions later on. We don't know, though. If it
was him, reportedly he had started a rebellion during the taxation,
a rebellion against Rome, and so Pilate met him when his men
came to sacrifice at the temple and slew his men there and mixed
their blood with the sacrifice. Also, we're not told why they
brought this up to the Lord. We don't know what they were
thinking, but it seems that in saying that, they had an air
of condemnation. of these Galileans. They were
sitting in judgment of these Galileans based on their horrific
death. They took it as a sign of God's
judgment and condemnation of these men. And Jesus answering
said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? And this is a common way that
the natural man thinks. We judge according to the flesh. We think that we can sit in judgment
of others based on what we see and what we think is right, according
to the flesh. Even we that believe the Lord
Jesus Christ and profess to believe him, even we can get caught up
in looking at our circumstances through illnesses, through troubles,
through adversities, and we think the Lord is punishing us, that
the Lord is judging us. And nothing can be further from
the truth. We may be chastened at times,
but everything that the Lord does for his child is for our
good. It's for our good. He doesn't
deal with us in judgment and in condemnation. That was taken
on by our Lord for his people. He bore that judgment that God
may be gracious to us and deal with us as sons and daughters
in the Lord. And so people judge others to
be extra bad people when they see them going through any number
of difficulties in trials. And they say, well, they got
that coming to them because of this or that. Even in religious,
especially in religion, they do that, especially in religion. If you remember, there was a
viper that even leapt out from the branches when Paul was putting
them on the fire. And on the island of Melita,
there was a viper that jumped out and bit him. And the locals
there saw that and said, this man must be a murderer, who though
he has escaped the sea, vengeance has not permitted him to live. And that's, again, that's how
man judges, according to the flesh. Man loves or man hates
according to the flesh. We're creatures of flesh, corrupt,
vile, wretched sinners. But our Lord says this to all,
verse three, I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish. And what our Lord is saying there,
as we'll see as we go through this, is that except God be gracious
to you. and except the Lord give you
repentance, to turn you from your dead, wicked, corrupt ways,
your judgment, your death will be just as vile and heinous as
you believe their death to be, as you judge it to be. You think
that you're something, you got another thing coming. You got
another thing coming. So, then our Lord adds an example. which probably happened recently
that they would have remembered. He says in verse four, or those
18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye
that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem.
Now, where this Tower of Siloam is, we don't necessarily know.
But we do know there's a pool of Siloam where the Lord had
healed a man that was blind, putting mud on his eyes. And
he sent him to that pool to go wash. And he did that, and he
came forth seeing. The blind man could now see. And so perhaps this tower was
there. And if so, maybe these men were
there to purify themselves, dip themselves in the pool for some
religious reason. They're doing something religious,
as it were, and yet they were slain. They had a horrific death.
And he's saying, do you think that they were vile sinners more
than others in Jerusalem there? Again, he says, verse five, I
tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish. You will die in your sins if
you continue in this and judging yourselves to be righteous. and
other sinners, and judging things by the flesh, you will die in
your sins and stand before God naked in your wicked works. So what is our Lord teaching
us here? When it all comes down, to what our Lord is saying here,
what is he teaching us? Well, it isn't how you and I
judge. It isn't fleshly things. It's not a matter of what you
and I think is right or wrong, what we do for ourselves and
don't do for ourselves. What we'll see is that he's saying
what matters is a new creature. You must be born again. You must
be born again. There's a way that the natural
man hears what our Lord is saying when he says, except you repent,
you'll die in your sins. There's a way that the natural
man hears that, and then there's the way that the new man hears
that. And our Lord is saying that you must be born again.
You're judging according to the flesh. You're looking at things
according to the flesh. And except the Lord do a work
of grace for you, you will perish. Because that's what matters.
That's what makes the difference. Not what you and I do or don't
do, what we think or don't think. What matters is a new creature
created by the Lord Jesus Christ for his people, what he does
for us. And that's what we're going to
see. So the will worshipper All right, which is what we all are
by nature. We hear what Christ says and
we think, oh, he's telling me I need to fix myself. And that
is the exact opposite of what the Lord is saying. Those people
that were there talking to the Lord were self healers. They were will worshipers. They
were fixers of their own problems. And that's all that they heard.
Oh, I've got to be better than those people. That's not what
he's saying. What he's showing us is that
we are no better than the other people. We're just as vile, as
wretched as they are. We need salvation. We need a
savior, brethren. We need the Lord to do a work
for us. Paul teaches us that they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. He says
that to be carnally minded is death. And that's what we are
by nature. That's the problem that we have
in Adam. We're all dead. We're all carnally-minded,
fleshly people. We do the works. Naturally, we
do the works of the flesh. We get angry. We strike out. We divide. We separate. We say
things. That's the flesh. But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering,
gentleness with our brethren, faithfulness. That's of the work
that the Lord does in us. Paul goes on in Romans 8 saying
that the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so that we that are in
the flesh, of this flesh, by this flesh, we cannot keep the
law of Moses for righteousness, nor do we know and understand
the God of free, sovereign grace, who saves his people according
to his own will and pleasure. The carnal man does not hear
this, he doesn't see this, he doesn't know this. He thinks
that his works, that the Lord is speaking to him about his
works, and his will, and his way, and that by what he does,
he either makes a good end for himself or a bad end. He's just
looking at everything according to the flesh. He's believing
that he makes himself acceptable to holy God, although while he's
thinking that everyone around him is dying in their sins and
unable to save themselves and to provide for themselves. And
he doesn't take it to heart. He doesn't see it or understand
it or understand what the Lord is showing him in this. So the
will worshiper will not come to Christ that he might have
life. All he hears in this is a fleshly
command to repent, to make himself better. And that's not what the
Lord is telling his people. That's not what he's saying to
his child. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Therefore, we must be born again. We must be made new creatures.
Paul said it this way, and I call this a conceptual truth, and
I'll explain why. He said in Galatians 6.15 that
in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creature. We get caught up in saying, well,
I sit in this pew. I go to this church. Or no, I
go to that church, and I sit over there in that pew. Or I
do things this way, and you do things that way. And that's what
makes the difference. That's the natural man. And I
call it a conceptual truth because we can put any work in there.
any thought in there, any deed, any word, anything that we think
that we do that makes the difference. And Paul's saying, that isn't
what makes the difference. That's not what saves you. What
is made evident that God has saved you is a new creature,
a new creature. God evidences, he manifests those
whom he has redeemed. whom he has turned and delivered
from this flesh. All that matters is whether Christ
redeemed you. And when he's redeemed you, he
testifies of it by the giving of his Holy Spirit that turns
us from trusting dead works that cannot save, that turns us from
trusting this flesh and having a confidence in what I'm doing
or what I'm, the doctrine I hold or what I'm saying. And we put
all our confidence there rather than in him. And he turns us
from that vain, dead, fleshly confidence that cannot save you. Christ Jesus alone is the one
who saves his people from beginning to end. From first to last, he
does the whole work of salvation in his people. When the Lord
saves a person, he gives repentance. He works repentance in us. And
again, the natural man thinks, well, that's just putting down
certain things and picking up new things, right? Changing from
this thing to that thing. What he changes us from is having
a confidence in what we did to save ourselves, because we don't
save ourselves. He shows us that all my salvation,
everything I need, Christ has undertaken and provided everything
for me. so that even my repentance, I
have nothing to boast in of that. It's what he has given to me,
what he works in me. So our Lord said, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. And so the natural man thinks
that by my free will, that I can turn from this sin, I can turn
from that sin, and I've got to do better. If God's gonna be
gracious to me, if God's gonna show me favor, then I've got
to turn from this thing and start doing this thing. But that's
not grace. If we have to do something for
God to be gracious, then it's not grace. It's a payment for
our works. It's a payment for our works
there. And so that is not the spirit of God. That is the spirit
of Antichrist. Whether we think it's by me being
good, by my will, and that saves me, or if I think that it's my
cooperation in part with what the Lord has done, that is Antichrist. It despises Christ. It despises
that confession that the Lord works in us that Christ has come
in the flesh. which confesses who he is, why
he came, what he accomplished in his coming, showing us that
I'm the sinner in need of the Savior, and God has provided
him for me and delivered me entirely by his grace and mercy. It denies that ye must be born
again. And if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are put away. Behold,
all things are become new. Our Lord works this. He accomplishes
this in his people. He does the entire work. After
the new birth is where true repentance is wrought in a man. Not by his
flesh, but by the spirit and life of the Lord Jesus Christ
in us. Now that man is turned from his
fleshly ways. That man who is turned from his
fleshly ways by thinking he's a good guy, that he can do this,
doing his best to please God and doing good works, religious
works, picking up the Bible, reading the Bible, praying more,
going to church, thinking that that's his salvation, that's
death. That's death, having a confidence
in those things. And the Lord turns his people
from that vain fleshly confidence to see that it is entirely by
the grace of God alone and what he works in his people. So repentance
is not the condition. for our salvation. Repentance
is not the condition for God to be gracious to me, the sinner. Repentance is the evidence that
God has delivered me, that God has saved me, that God has been
gracious to me, that he has provided all things for me. It's not the
cause, it's the effect. That's true of your repentance.
That's true of your faith. Faith is not the cause of your
salvation. Faith is the evidence that God
has saved you. The hope that you have is not
the cause of your salvation. The hope you have is the evidence
that Christ has redeemed you. The love you have for God is
not the cause for God's love for you. It's the evidence that
God loved you first and called you by his son. And so these
graces, these fruits all arise in the new man, born again by
the Spirit of God. We need a new birth, and the
Lord does. He says this, not because we
can accomplish it, but it shakes us, it moves us, it shows us
how that we cannot save ourselves. It takes salvation out of the
hand of man and causes us to look to God alone. Lord, I don't
know what you're saying. Lord, I don't understand what
you're revealing here. Help me, Lord. Teach me. He does
that because he shakes us from our carnal ways, our carnal hopes,
to see that we need the grace of God to reveal this in us.
to manifest His grace in me. He says it this way, Paul wrote
in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13 and 14, that we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord. How do you know that these are
beloved of the Lord? Because God has evidenced it.
He's manifested it by the giving of his spirit. He says, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. How? How do
you know that? Through sanctification of the
spirit. Meaning the spirit of God comes
seeking out that which is lost and separates us unto this salvation. to hear this salvation, to believe
this word of salvation in Christ, through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so these verses here reveal
that our Lord saves by free, sovereign grace. Apart from our
works, apart from what we do or don't do, he is able, brethren,
to come upon us, to separate us from that death, and to give
us life in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's of his work, it's of his
grace, and he makes this gospel to be heard by us effectually
in the heart by his spirit. by his word and work, to know
that Jesus Christ is my Savior. He's not just the Savior, he's
my Savior. That he died for my sins and
that he obtained salvation for me and delivered me from death. He does that, he works that.
He died for my sins and he rose for my justification. We know
Him as my Savior. Each of His people knows Him
as their personal Savior, that He did this for them, and that
apart from Him, we cannot be saved, and that I am saved entirely
by His grace. by His will, by His power, for
His glory, to the praise and honor of His name. And it's not
my boast. Now, let's hear some scripture. Let's listen to the language
of scripture that reveals that salvation is all by God's grace. All right, let's look at a few
verses here that show that it's God who must save the sinner,
that it's the Lord who must do this work in us. So first, we
see both the will and the promise of God in the salvation of his
people, in giving his people a new heart and a new spirit. So turn over to Ezekiel, Ezekiel
36. And down in Ezekiel 36, we'll
look at verse 24 through 27. Verse 24 there, for I, this is
the Lord speaking to His child. This is His will and His promise
to accomplish salvation in His people. He said, I will take
you. from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land." And that land is a
picture of the body of Christ, where the Lord takes us out of
that body of Adam, that body of death in Adam, delivers us
from that condemnation, which Adam's seed is under by nature. And he delivers us from that
body and brings us into the body of Christ, whereby we stand in
the grace, in the hope of God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in
that land. receiving his promises, which
he's obtained for us, that our inheritance is not what we've
earned for ourselves, but what he has earned and obtained for
his people. That's our land, that's our body
we're brought into. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. There we see the miracle
of God's grace. taking his word, whereby he cleanses
us and removes the vain idols that we've been trusting him.
Well, I did this, and that's why God was merciful to me. Or
I did it that way, and that's why God was merciful to me. Nonsense. That's not true at all. In spite
of us, in spite of who we are, God is gracious and merciful
to whom he will be gracious and merciful as it pleases him. All right, and this is what the
Lord's saying here. A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
All right, meaning a heart that is conformed to the image of
Christ, that is delivered from that hardness and that coldness
and deadness that we are in Adam. and establishes us in Christ. And I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep
my judgments and do them. We walk by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ because God has caused us to walk by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has done this work. You notice
that nowhere is any boast given to man in that word. It's all
the Lord doing that word. It's all the Lord accomplishing
this for his people. Not because we took the first
step, not because I first repented, No, but because God would be
gracious to me. That's why I came to the Lord
in faith, because God has done this. God gave repentance. God
gives faith. God gives his spirit. God delivers
us from death. God gives life and light through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he causes us to hear that
gospel. and believe the word by faith,
which is the gift of God. Not of yourselves, it's of his
gift. And so Psalm 110 verse three
says, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, because
God caused it to be so. He caused it. Then we're told
in Acts 5 31 of our Lord's work in giving us repentance, right? So this repentance that Christ
is speaking of It's the repentance that he gives. Except ye repent,
except ye be born again, you too shall perish as these have
perished. And the way you think that their
judgment is, that'll be your judgment. Except you repent.
Well, who gives repentance? Acts 5.31, him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. He gives that repentance
to the Israel of God, to those whom he's called out of their
death and given to Christ. We see this also in Zechariah
12. Zechariah 12, verse 10, the Lord says, and I will pour upon
the house of David, that house is the house which Christ is
the builder of. He builds the house as a son
over his own house. Christ builds the house of David.
And upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, not the inhabitants of that Jerusalem
over there in the political state there of Israel, which is in
bondage with her children as Hagar and her children, but Jerusalem
which is above, which is free, of which we are citizens by the
grace and power of God. And he says, I will pour upon
them the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall
look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. It's by the
spirit of God's grace being poured out upon you that we are turned
unto the Lord. It's by his spirit of supplications
that we cry out, Abba, Father, have mercy on me. Save me, Lord. It's all by the Lord's gifts.
It's all by His giving, all by His grace in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's first by God, then we are
turned from our dead ways. Then we repent. And that's what
I want you to see is that this repentance is given to the Lord's
people. and those whom he loves, he turns
us from dead works that cannot save to the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be shaken by that word. I don't know how to repent. I don't know how to save myself.
Lord, have mercy upon me. That is the spirit of grace.
That is the spirit of supplication, which he gives to his child.
He's already worked the repentance in turning you from the flesh
to see, Lord, help me, save me, Lord. I'm sinking, I'm dying.
I can't save myself. He does that, brethren. So the
glory of salvation, from beginning to end, is all the work of God. He makes us to see that I can't
repent, but that he's done it. And he does that in mercy and
compassion. As he said to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion upon whom
I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, It's not of the will-worshipper's works and repentance, nor of
him that runneth doing works to save himself, but of God that
showeth mercy. God must do this work, and he
does do this work willingly, gladly, freely, sovereignly,
omnipotently through the Lord Jesus Christ. And fullness, brethren. So when we hear that word and
we shake and tremble, it's for our good. to turn us from thinking
that we can save ourselves. Because that's the spirit that
they came in. Did you hear what happened to those people over
there? They must be bad people. And that's the spirit of the
flesh. That's the spirit of Antichrist.
That's the spirit of death. But to turn us from that by his
repentance worked in our hearts to cry out, Lord, deliver me
from that. Because otherwise, I'm not delivered
at all. I can't do it. I can't save myself. That's just, to think that we
can is just bondage. Now, let me just say, in closing,
a few things regarding this death, regarding death, I should say,
in general. That's always on the mind of the Lord's people. We go through storms, and we
go through difficulties, and we see our mortality. We get
sick, we have troubles, we have adversities and hardships, and
we're made to see and know our weaknesses. But remember, brethren,
that there's not a single person taken out of this life except
God take our lives. He removes us when it pleases
Him. And it's not because you're being
particularly more wicked at that time than in other times. This
flesh is wicked all the time. This flesh is corrupt and vile.
Not that we walk in that and want to continue in our sins
or give excuses for it or justify ourselves, but this flesh is
weak and it is corrupt. And so the Lord takes His people
when it pleases Him, how it pleases Him, often suddenly and unexpectedly,
and we can't judge whether that person's a believer or not, based
on how they were removed. The Lord's able to do it sovereignly
as it pleases Him. Isaiah 57, 1, 2 says, the righteous
perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and merciful men
are taken away. none considering that the righteous
is taken away from the evil to come. Sometimes the Lord's just
sparing his child from something worse or more grievous in doing
what he's doing. He shall enter into peace. They
shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness. And brethren, our uprightness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep looking to him. Keep crying
out to him. He puts that cry in the heart
because of the spirit of supplication which is given to you. He makes
us to see our frailty, our weaknesses. He makes us to tremble and shake
when we're looking at the flesh, that we would look to Him who
is the rock and our stability, our salvation, and all. So don't
get into looking at how a person or a believer dies. That's the
flesh's mind doing that, and it's a trouble. It's a trouble
to us. All that matters is whether we
die in the Lord. whether the Lord has done this
and worked this in us, this repentance in us. He does it to care, not
what others are doing. When I'm troubled by my own sin,
the last thing I'm looking at is other people's sins or worrying
about them, because I see what I am, and I see the grace of
God that I need. And that I'm crying out to him,
and by God's grace, also crying out to the Lord for my brethren,
who also are troubled, and weak, and weary, and need the grace
of the Lord just as much as I do. So just to sum that up, brethren,
what matters is that we die in the Lord. And what matters is
that new creation which he works. And he turns our hearts from
worrying about what others are doing to see our need of his
grace and mercy. And that's where he keeps us.
And that'll give you a gracious and kind spirit to others, make
you more tender in how you carry yourselves and how you speak
to others and minister that spirit of grace to them as the Lord
has ministered that spirit of grace to you. That's what we
need is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the repentance that He
gives, brethren. So look to Christ by His grace
and power and trust Him to save you to the uttermost, brethren.