Luke chapter 13, we'll be looking
at verses 32 through 35 this morning. Actually, verse 31 through
verse 35. The title of the message is,
A Loving Call to Jerusalem. A Loving Call to Jerusalem. The scripture says, in the same
day there came certain Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out,
and depart hence, for Herod will kill you. And Jesus said unto
them, 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. Nevertheless, I must work today,
and tomorrow, and the day following. For it cannot be that a prophet
should 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 wing. and ye would not." Jerusalem,
the nation of Israel, was a nation blessed like no other nation
in the history of mankind. No other nation has been more
blessed of God than this small little group, this small race
of men that came from the man Abraham. No earthly nation has
ever been blessed like them. For thousands of years, they
alone That nation alone received the oracles of God. That nation was the only one
that God manifested His very presence in the midst of them. All other nations were lost. Think of the millions, billions
of people that had never heard. And yet this one little nation,
Now, there are exceptions. We know Naaman the Syrian was
healed of his leprosy and the Lord revealed his salvation to
him. The queen of Sheba saw the wisdom
of Solomon. We know that Nineveh, that great
city, we don't know how many in that city were saved, but
God saved that city, Nineveh. So there are exceptions concerning
the Gentiles. And there were Gentiles that
were brought in. under the sound of the gospel
for many centuries. But that was mainly the exception
and not the rule. The rule was that most of them
were of the Jews. Most of them were of the nation
of Israel. And yet we know that this nation was chosen above
all other kingdoms for one purpose. One purpose was that they were
to be a type a picture of God's chosen race, of God's saved people,
of God's elect people. Go ahead and go to Romans chapter
9, I want to show it to you. It's in Romans chapter 9. The Jews were always boasting
about their heritage because they thought that just because
they were Jews that everything was all right. They boasted in
their heritage. But Paul here, in love for his
nation, in love for his people, he said, yes, they did receive
the oracles of God. Yes, they were given the covenants
of God. Verse 5, it says, Who are the
fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is
over all God, blessed forever, amen, not as though the word
of God hath not taken none effect. For they are not all Israel. Which are of Israel. What he is saying is that not
all those who are of the spiritual Israel. are of the nation of
Israel. You see, the true nation of Israel
is spiritual. It's not physical. It's not tangible. That land in the Middle East
has no value. Those people need to be saved
by grace through faith in Christ, just like we do. Just like we
do. The promises of God were given
to the seed of Abraham, but the sum and substance of them was
Christ. Christ is the sum and substance
of the promises to Israel. In Galatians 3, the apostle says,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Not seeds
as many, but seed, singular. Does that not give you an idea
of how meticulous the Word of God is, how detailed God's Word
is, that it says seed, singular and not plural? Because it's
talking about the one seed, Christ, to Him and to Israel, the spiritual
Israel where the promise is given. Now, we know that the land of
Israel, that time where God promised them the land, We know that they
were promised a physical land, but we are promised a spiritual
land. We are not promised a land here on this earth. We are promised
a spiritual kingdom, the true Israel. We are not under a covenant
of law as Israel was, the nation of Israel. We are under grace.
We are at liberty. We have been set free from the
law of sin and death. This is a spiritual Israel. Therefore, Israel as a nation
was chosen of God. It was a land that God had given. But friends, it was only a type
of God's church. It was only a type of us who
are believers in Christ. We are Israel. We are Israel. Go back to Romans, look at Romans
9 there. It says, neither because they are of the seed of Abraham
are they all children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of
promise. At this time will I come, and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, For the children
being not yet born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated." What shall we say then? What
in the world are we going to say to that? God hated Esau before
he had done any good or evil. And God loved Jacob before he
had done any good or evil. What are we going to say? Is
there unrighteousness with God? Is God unholy? Is God unjust
for doing this? God forbid we should say anything
like that. God forbid. For he saith unto
Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is
not of him that willeth nor him that runneth, but God that showeth
mercy." This was according to the purpose
of God to show that salvation can never come by our descendants. How many Christian parents have allowed their children to
be deceived into thinking that they too are Christians because
of them? My children are not Christians
because I am. They'll have no right to stand
before God because I'm saved. They must believe. They must
trust Christ themselves. And God's salvation can never
be by descendants, and it can never come by the goodness of
man, because we have none. This is why election is so vitally
important, because had there been no election, there definitely
would not have been any salvation. But because there is an election
that is unto salvation, there's hope. There's hope. God has an elect people, an elect
Israel. And salvation never comes by
their will, but comes by the will of God to them. For he has
made us willing in the day of his power. Now, friends, I am
willing. I am willing to come to Christ.
I love to come to Christ, because He has given me a spirit that
is willing. That's something I couldn't do
myself, but something I couldn't make myself do. It's something
He must give. Salvation has been given unto
man only according to God's election, the mercy of God. has and will
always be extended only to those who God will show mercy. Is that
not majestic? It is. Our God is majestic and
he does with his mercy as he pleases. The scriptures do not say, I
will have mercy upon whomsoever wills me to have mercy. Is that
what it says? Absolutely not. He says, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And the scripture also
says, Whom he will, he hearteneth. What does that mean? Does he
put sin into the man? No, he just lets man do what
he wants to do. He lets man do exactly what he
wants to do. That's what happened at the cross.
That's exactly what happened at the cross. When God let men
do exactly what they wanted to do, they crucified the Lord of
glory. And so would we. So would we. Mercy. Mercy then would be given based
on the condition of the will of man and not the will of God
if it is decided by man. Friends, it does not matter how
men strive to be sovereign over this matter of salvation. Nor
does it matter how they accuse God of unrighteousness for His
election. The truth of God still stands,
no matter what men think. And soon, very soon, every eye
will see it. Every eye will see it and know
it's the truth. The Word of God stands that he
has chosen a people, Israel, to be his people, to be heirs
of his kingdom and join heirs with Christ. Why? Was it because
we were better? Because we deserved better? Because
we did better? No! God told Israel the type
of the church. He said, I have loved you not
because you were the best, not because you were good. Matter
of fact, you were the most stiff legged people in all the world.
And yet I still would love you. That's exactly what it was. We
weren't the best. We were the worst. See, Jesus Christ came to this
world to save sinners. Friends, if you're self-righteous,
if you have any works that you can present to God, you don't
need to be here, because this place is for sinners. This gospel
is for sinners, for those unworthy of grace and mercy. We were saved
according to a grace, and we are the true seed of Abraham. We are Israel. Go back to your
text there. Friends, it was for Israel, for
this Jerusalem that he cries, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that Christ came. He came as
a prophet, a prophet of God, and nothing was going to stop
him from accomplishing his work as a prophet. In verse 31 and
31, we see that the Pharisees desire to have him thrown out. They said, hey you, get out of
here. We don't want you. And if you
don't get out of here, we're going to tell Herod on you. Herod's
going to kill you. We'll get him after you. As though that would scare him
off. How foolish. How foolish is a man to think
he could scare God You see, the offense of the gospel
of Jesus Christ is that a man must be lost. Is that not what
the Pharisees were offended about? When He told them the truth,
when He told them they were blind, when He told them they were dead
in their sins, when He told them that they were not of His sheep,
they were offended. Is that not the offense of the
gospel? That a man must first be lost before he's found? That
he must forsake all his religion and all of his work in order
to bow down before Jesus Christ and believe on him? Is that not
the offense? It is! It's offensive! It's offensive. And only by the mercy of God
can we ever forget our vain religion. Only by the mercy of God can
a man forsake what he's been trained under. How many times have you heard,
well, that's not what I heard when I was young. Who cares what
you heard when you were young? It doesn't matter what we've
heard when we're young. I forsake it all. It's done to
me that I may win Christ, that I may be found in Him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but having the
righteousness of Christ. I want to be found in Him. I
don't want my own. I want His. And no man could do that but
by the grace of God, to believe in Christ alone. These Pharisees,
they were offended. They said, you get out of town
before we tell Herod. And Jesus said, you tell that
fox. Now that's not a compliment. I know over time people say,
oh, that lady's a fox. Well, that may be a compliment,
but he didn't mean it that way. Old Herod, he was the king of
Israel at that time, but he was not a rightful king. He was not
of the line of David. He was not a rightful heir to
that throne. He was a puppet king. He said,
you go tell that little old fox, that fox who's afraid of his
own shadow. He said, you scared little fox?
You think I'm afraid of him? You go tell him I said he's a
fox. That he spills the vines. Because I will work. I will do
the work that God has sent me to do. He said, I will. I will cast out devils. I will do cures. Today, tomorrow, and the third
day I'll be perfect. Now, is that not wonderful that
the Lord Jesus Christ uses three days? What is this? Is it not His work
that was accomplished in those three days? His work on the cross,
His work in the tomb, and the work of His resurrection? That's
our salvation. And friends, nothing could ever
stop this prophet of Israel from doing exactly what God sent him
to do. What did God send him to do?
What did this prophet of Israel, this prophet of God's elect,
what did God send him to do? He said, I will cast out devils. Friends, the old nature of man
is nothing better than a devil. Our sin nature is nothing better
than a devil. The only difference is a devil
is condemned forever and maybe God will have mercy on you. You see, the old man must be
cast out. The old man must be done away
with. The old man who rules and reigns,
who fulfills only sin and lust, he must be put down by us, no,
by God. God must come in the power of
his might and conquer our souls. Do you see the difference between
religion and the true gospel? Religion says salvation is just
something you decide, and we know that salvation takes the
power of Almighty God to come in and conquer the soul. And
when he does, he is always victorious. He always wins! My son likes to play games that
he always wins, right? Yes, and I know that's our nature,
but God does it for his own glory and he's worthy of glory. He's
worthy of it. And as God, the Son, called out
Lazarus, Was there anything Lazarus could do but come out? Was there
anything that he could do? Well, I just want to stay in
here a little while longer. I'll come out when I want to.
No. He came out. Bound. Now, let me ask you this. They were wrapped tight as a
mummy. How in the world could he walk out? I don't know, but he couldn't
do anything else. He came out. And how can a dead sinner come?
I don't know, but by the power of God to give him life. That's
it. And Christ came to do that work.
He came to provide the righteousness of God for us. He came to die
in our place, to suffer for our sins so that we might go free. That's what he came to do. And
he said, you go tell that fox I'm going to do it. And there's
nothing he can do about it. Though the world and hell itself
stood against the Lord Jesus Christ, there was nothing to
stop him from saving his people from their sins. Nothing. And when he comes in, death is
swallowed up with life. Victory. Victory has been accomplished. How? By his death. by his death. This was the work
of Christ to provide our atonement, to make an atonement, to be made
a curse for us. I don't know how that is. I just know it is. He who was and is the sinless
Son of God was always and will always be the sinless Son of
God. And yet God charged our sins
to Him. And He paid it all. He paid every
last drop of God's justice for our sins. For all the sins of
all of Israel. All spiritual Israel was redeemed. Second day was the burial. He
must be buried. What is this? What is this burial?
He was buried according to the Scriptures. As Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall
the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. Why? Because he would manifest to
us that he actually died. You see, this was a heresy in
the church that he was not actually dead. Because God cannot die. But yet they failed to see the
humanity of Christ, that he was also man as much as he was God. And he did die. He was buried. They don't bury a live person. There was no way for him to escape
the detection of the Romans who knew a lot about crucifixion. Now, they were surprised he was
dead, but they knew he was dead. And when he went into that tomb,
so did our sins. Our sins were being put away
in that he was offering his blood before the presence of God for
us as our high priest. And now the third day, he said,
I will be perfected. What is this? His resurrection.
He has risen from the dead. This is the message of the gospel.
Our king is alive. No other religion says that.
Muhammad is dead. Moses is dead. Buddha is dead. But Christ, Jesus, is alive. And He has risen to sit at the
right hand of God, ever living to make intercession for our
sins. the incarnate Word of God risen,
and this prophet was sent. He was sent of God to declare
this to us. He was sent of God to declare
God's mercy. Otherwise, we would have never
known God's mercy had he not been sent to us. The means by which God saves
his elect people is always by spokesman. Is that not true? I cannot find
in Scripture anywhere that God has saved anyone apart from sending
his word. No man all of a sudden had an
epiphany himself. No man ever walked around, read
the scriptures, and all of a sudden, poof, there was. He did it all
by himself. His great knowledge had led him
to great discoveries. No. It's by the foolishness of preaching
that God chose to save his people from their sins. I don't save. And neither does
any other preacher, but no man saved apart from hearing this
message that we preach. No, man, this is the means God
has chosen a prophet. He said there shall no profit. Therefore, there cannot be a
prophet perish out of Jerusalem. And there has not ever perished
a prophet out of Jerusalem. You know that. What is a prophet? Last week
we saw this. A prophet is just a mouthpiece,
isn't it? That's all I am, is a mouthpiece. That's all I am. It's just a voice. I'm nothing. I'm nobody. But the message is
everything. The gospel that I preach is the
gospel of God's grace. I'm just a mouthpiece. To who?
Who am I speaking to? Jerusalem. I'm speaking to Jerusalem,
to God's people, just like the prophet of God did. Oh, Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Thou that killest the prophets. Who hears the loving call of
Jesus Christ? Only one class of people will
ever hear the call of Jesus Christ, sinners. Thou hast killed the prophet. We have killed the prophet. of God. Was it not our sin that nailed
him there? I like this song, it says, My
Conscience Fell. It says, sure, I have to turn
it this way. Sure, never till my latest breath
could I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience fell and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sin. His blood was spilt and helped
to nail Him there. Have you ever heard of your sin? Not your sin against somebody
else, your sin against Christ. Friends, I confess it was my
sin that nailed Him there. So when Christ calls to me, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the king and prophet, it's me. That's me. the prophets, and stonish them
that are sent unto thee? How oft would I have gathered
thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her
wings, and you would not?" How oft have I heard the word
of the loving God who sent His word by the mouth of His preachers,
and yet I would not. How oft I refused to yield. How oft I went in unbelief and
sin. And yet there he was still calling,
O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, I would gather you as a hen doth
her chicks. And you would not. That's me. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. And verily I say unto you, you
shall not see me." We know that in A.D. 70, the
house of Jerusalem, that city was destroyed according to the
prophecies of God. But I know this. Because of my
sin, because of my guilt, my house was left desolate. We are all born into sin. Sin
is not just by what we do, it is who we are. And we are desolate to help ourselves. You cannot save yourself. That's me. I'm helpless. I'm hopeless. I can't do it. The more I strive to do it, the
further I became guilty. And I could not see him. I could not see him. But praise God for this. You
shall not see me until. Jerusalem, you killed the prophet. Jerusalem, you sinners. I would
have gathered you. I loved you. And I would gather
you. But you would not. Your house
is desolate. You can't come to me. You will
not come to me that you might have life. You cannot see me
until. Until the time. Until the time come when you
shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. That's me. That's me. I hear his loving call to me,
Jerusalem. And friends, he will gather all
his children under his wings. Everyone whom the Lord loves,
he saved. And they hear this call. Have you heard His loving call? Come and welcome. Behold, Christ is the only hope
of forgiveness and pardon of sin. and everyone in him, Jerusalem,
all Israel shall be saved. All Israel. Will there be one? Absolutely not. God says, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. An everlasting love. Well, how
long is that? How broad is that? How deep is
that? How wide is that? It's as broad and deep and wide
as God's own being. And I've not yet begun to understand
the love of God in Christ Jesus for me. I hope God will be gracious this
morning to call His people by His Spirit that you might believe and be saved. Let's stand and
we'll be dismissed in prayer.