We're in Luke chapter 13, this
will be our last lesson in this chapter. Been here quite a time. Today our lesson is focused on
the last five verses. They're verse 31 through 35 as
the Lord cries out, Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. But we kind of ran out of time
last time on the straight gate and I had a few more things I
wanted to conclude with there that are kind of segues into
our lesson today. I'd like to read from verse 22
on through the end of the chapter here in verse 35. So we'll do
that to start with. Luke 13, 22. he's getting close to the final
time that he would go there. And he was journeying there for
the redemption of his people. In verse 23, then said one unto
him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them,
strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you,
will seek to enter in and shall not be able, when once the master
of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door, and you
begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord,
Lord, open to us. And he shall answer and say unto
you, I know you not whence you are. And then shall ye begin
to say, Well, we've eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou
hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you,
I know not whence you are. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. And there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust
out And they shall come from the east, and from the west,
and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down
in the kingdom of God. And behold, there are last which
shall be first, and there are first which shall be last. I
think that has direct bearing on the nation of Israel. They
started out kind of in the number one position, and now they've
kind of moved to the hindy part, and the Gentiles are moving up
to the front part that weren't even really considered before
to any degree. So 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 he 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 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 ye would not! Behold, your house 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." You know, practically every word
of all this is taken just from the Old Testament. He's not telling them anything
new. He's just telling them the same thing that those prophets
that they killed in stone told them from the beginning of time. And one of the things that just strikes
me more and more as we go through the text that we've been studying
is, and here in the next From the next chapter on, there's
like eight or nine more parables that the Lord utters. And He's
always telling them things about what's the kingdom and salvation. And a lot of the things He tells
them has a direct practical bearing on what's going on. If you recall
back to our lesson launch out in the deep where he told them
to launch out into the deep and cast your nets and get ready
for a haul. Well, in a physical sense, they
did get a big haul. They got a great big haul of
fish. But the spiritual aspect of that was launch out into the
deep of Christ and explore the deeper things of Him, and there's
a bounty there beyond measure that you can't even begin to
comprehend. And as we go through the Scriptures
and see the words that He says, we find that application is almost
always true. in every case where he tells
them something that has a direct physical bearing and application
at the time that he's speaking, but it has so much more. It has
so much more spiritual message there that's deeper and such
a comfort to the Lord's people. And to some it's not much of
a comfort as it turns out, but not believing they don't hear
it. So as we go through here, some
things that we should kind of note in context of this block
that we're in that, again, he was always moving toward Jerusalem,
even though he kind of came in and went out. He was getting closer and closer
to the actual last time that he would go and finally complete
the sacrifice for the Lord's people, where he would die for
the sins of those people and be buried again and rise again
the third day. Quite a bit of this section is
focused on those who were not believers. He just tells them
plain out. And he's fairly blunt about that
through all the scriptures. He would tell them, well, you
believe not because you're not of my sheep. That's pretty blunt. And my sheep hear my voice. You
don't hear my voice because you're not my sheep. Not the other way
around, as sometimes is formulated. Again, we're focused on those
who are not believers, and part of this has to do with the nation
of Israel as a whole, not individuals, because we know that there were
individuals that He redeemed out of this very time block. We have Saul of Tarsus, we have
Nicodemus, and we'll run into another name today that's familiar
with all of you. By and large, the nation of Israel
just rejected him wholesale. They were those who trusted to
themselves, they trusted to their own righteousness, they trusted
to their parental lineage, the keeping of the law, And maybe
it would be good for us just to pay attention to the reply
of the Lord to those folks here that we read there in chapter
13, verse 22 through 30. Each one here made appeals to
the Lord for entrance that were not based on entering in by the
straight gate. by the righteousness of Christ
alone. To those that were knocking at the door after it was shut,
He said, I know not, I know you not. That's a personal knowing. You know, the Bible
speaks quite a bit about the Lord foreknowing and knowing
his people, and it's an intimate knowledge. It's a knowledge that's
just not, well, I knew some of the people that were here yesterday
for that service. But an intimate knowledge is
the Lord knows you. He knows how many hairs are on
your head. He knows he's had an eternal love from you from
before the foundation of the world. It's an intimate knowledge
based in eternal electing love, not just a physical. Well, I
know that person by sight, or I know their name, but I don't
know much about them. So it's really a comprehensive word there
that we talk about knowing. And he says, I know you not whence
you are. And whence you are kind of gives
us a sense of where you're coming from, who you are, what you are. It's not just where you're at
right now, Your whole position of where you're coming from is
not based on the righteousness of Christ. Your whole position
is based on your self and your self-righteousness. I know not
whence you are. That's from verse 25 there. And
to those who claimed a sort of loose association with Him because,
you know, we ate and drank with you. We were part of that 5,000
that you fed there. You know, maybe in now in modern
terms, well, I had communion. We've eaten and drunk with you.
And you taught in our streets. We listened to you teach, but
we didn't pay much attention to it because we didn't have
ears to hear or eyes to see. But we listened, and we were
there. And he says, I tell you, I know
you not, whence you are. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. So he not only tells them to,
I know you not, but he adds a further a further sentence to it that
says, depart from me you workers of iniquity. He piles it on. What an awful thing to have to
hear after the door is shut too. He said, many, there will be
many who seek to enter And we looked at that word that meant
it had a kind of a religious affiliation to it. It was a Hebraism
about worship services. And so there will be many that
try to enter in based on some religious ceremonial formalism
or services that they attend or things they've done in ordinances
or whatnot. But the Lord says, you know,
And you worship me with your lips, but your hearts are just
far from me. It doesn't count. And to those that try to come
in by family lineage, he says, you know what? You're going to
be there, and you're going to see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom, and you yourself thrust out.
That word means ejected. Ejected. It's a pretty strong
term. And it's just not in it for them
to have additional opportunities there, because the door has been
shut too, he said. So I just wanted to kind of go
through that because he calls them workers of iniquity.
He says, I know you not from which you are. And that same
day, we go into verse 31 here, the next block of Scripture that
we're looking at, verse 31 through 35, that same day there came
certain of the Pharisees. And you can fill in the blanks
there of all the things above that applied to them. Certain of the Pharisees came
saying unto him, Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will
kill thee. You know, we have a record of
a couple of Pharisees that came to him and that were redeemed. Nicodemus. We have Saul of Tarsus. Those are a couple that we have
a record of. But by and large, the Pharisees were not his pals. They were not sympathetic or
friendly to Christ. You know, back in verse 28, it
says, "...there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you
shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets
in the kingdom of God, and you yourself thrust out." So these
Pharisees that counted on their lineage through Abraham, they
counted on keeping the law, and he says, you're probably going
to be thrust out. And he said, there'll be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. Well, gnashing of teeth is like
an outflow of anger. It's just a picture of anger. They're angry with it. When they're
in that position, they're not going to say, we're sorry. We're sorry we messed up. We're
sorry we rejected you. We're sorry we didn't believe
you. We're sorry. We're sorry. We're sorry. We're
sorry. I hate you. I hated you then. I hate you
worse now. Isn't that an awful picture?
You know, in Acts, the seventh chapter, when Stephen was preaching
to them in Acts 7, if you want to turn to your Bible there to
Acts 7.51, we'll read several verses there from Acts. He said, and uncircumcised in heart and
ears," in verse 751. They had that fleshly covering
over their eyes and ears that depended on flesh and depended
on their own selves, and they couldn't hear or see because
they were so tied up in their own selves. He says, you do always
resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you.
And he reflected back about the whole history of the nation of
Israel back to square one. And without grace, that's where
they were. You're stiff-necked and resisting. And they always did that. You
don't have to read very many pages of the Old Testament. Anywhere
you put your finger, and you'll find that very fact. Aside from
Grace, they rejected him every single time. And even the ones
that had Grace were in that boat before Abraham. He was from an
idolatrous nation before the Lord came to him and took him
out of there. So we find it all the way back.
He said, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before the coming of the just one. The ones all through
time that came and preached the gospel that brought someone's
coming They've slain Him which showed
before, the coming of the just One of whom you have been now
the betrayers and the murderers of." You're the very ones that
arrested Him and took Him over. "...who have received the law
by the dispossession of angels and have not kept it." Even though
they said, whatever thou sayest, we will do. Then they turned
around and not did it. And when they heard these things,
They were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. And you all know what happened to him. Then they got
done gnashing on him, they took him out and stoned him. And when
they say stoned him, they were talking about rocks big enough
to do damage. My brother and me, when we were
kids, we stoned each other all the time. little non-injurious type stones,
but these were, I'm talking rocks big enough to kill and break
bones and cause fatality, and that's what they did with him.
They took him out and stoned him, and that was their prescribed
execution method was stoning in biblical times there in the
Jews. And that's what they did with
the prophets that they arrested. My commentary said that if there
were any prophets that were arrested, they were brought before the
Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Every little town that had a
synagogue had a little Sanhedrin of elders, and there were like
12 or 20 in them. And then in Jerusalem, they had
the big Sanhedrin. It was like 70 or 71, I think
it was. And they would bring them for trial before them. And
if they found them guilty of something, they would execute
them by stoning there. And so they heard these things. They heard these truths about
themselves. And they were not sorry. Not
sorry for rejecting Christ and not sorry for being party to
his execution. angry to the end that they really
couldn't enter in some other way, angry at Christ for not
respecting their works. Isn't that what we find? You
know, in Genesis, we mentioned this in our last lesson, I think,
Genesis chapter 4, Cain brought an offering of the
cursed ground. I just hadn't really paid much
attention to that facet of it before. He brought an offering
of the ground, and it was not a lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world. But you go back and see when
the Lord said, cursed is the ground for thy sake, and then
you bring Him an offering of that that seemed to say, look
what I brought out of the curse. I've been able to overcome the
curse and bring you all these nice melons and leeks and potatoes
and whatever else he brought. I don't know what all he brought,
but he brought an offering out of the ground. It could have
been some grain or something too. But the Lord had not respect
for that. And He had not respect for the
offering that these ones that worshiped Him with their mouths
but not their hearts. And He said, Why art thou wroth? That means angry to the gnashing
of teeth. And He was so angry that He took
it out on His brethren and killed Him. That's the level of anger
that people have. over this situation. So when
the Pharisees, they come to Jesus that same day after He said these
things, and they come to Him with Some commentators said,
well, maybe it was some of those Pharisees like Nicodemus or somebody
that was sympathetic to him. But overall, if you read 99%
of the time it mentions Pharisees, it's woe to you Pharisees. So
we're just going to go with the odds here and say that these
were not his friends. And they come to him saying,
we have secret information. Herod's going to try and kill
you. And really what they wanted was him to go away. They want
him to go away and be somebody else's problem. Because every
time we read about him, there's multitudes that are going after
him. And it's just destroying their base. And they said, Herod seeks to
kill you. And you know, he's not fooled. People are funny about that.
They always think, well, I can fool God. I can fool the Lord.
I could pull the wool over his eyes. But he's not ever fooled. He answers and he directs it
to Herod. He says, go you and tell that
old fox. So he knew that they came from
Herod. He knew that Herod said, hey, why don't you go talk to
that Jesus guy and tell him that I'm going to kill him if he hangs
around here very much longer. maybe he'll go back to some other
place. You know, Herod was a Tetrarch. When his father died, that province
was divided into four. That's what the Tetra part means. He was a ruler over a fourth
part of that province. Galilee and that area that extended
over that way. If you recall back in when Jesus brought before Pilate,
he found out he was a Galilean. He says, oh, I'll have him go
talk to Herod because he's from his jurisdiction. But Herod didn't really have
any power in the area of Jerusalem, so that comes into play here. He didn't say to these Pharisees,
well, thanks for the warning. I'll keep that in mind. I'll
be extra careful, or maybe I'll go down to some other place and
preach. You go tell Herod, I'm just going
to continue on with my work. I must be about my father's business.
I must be about preaching the gospel, healing the sick, all
those things. Remember from Luke 4? Go tell
John that the deaf are made to hear, the blind are given sight,
the lame walk, lepers are healed, the gospel is preached to the
poor. All this is fulfilled in your ear this day. He says, I'm not going to quit
doing what I'm doing just because you threatened. He knew Herod could have no power
over him at all unless it were given to him, and it was not
given to him. And you go tell Herod that old fox, that old
scoundrel, that old sly devil, he didn't have friendly thoughts
toward Herod. his prophet killed, John the
Baptist, because he didn't like what he said about sin and his
part of it. these Pharisees and from where
their seeming errand came and their pretended concern for his
safety. And they really just were trying
to get him out of the country. And you know, if they were really
concerned and it was legitimate what they were doing, they would
probably be a little worried about leaking. Well, if Herod's planning
to kill you and we tell you about it ahead of time and you leave
and he doesn't get to do it, then we're probably if he finds
out. So that's not likely. Not likely
they would do that. The answer of Christ is always
deeper than could be comprehended by these Pharisees. He says,
Go tell that old fox, behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures
today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. You
know, it's recorded in another place in the Gospels that Herod,
he was anxious to kind of see some of these miracles that Jesus
did. But he didn't really want to
look at it from a, I should believe that. But he wanted to see the
magic part of it. But he was violently opposed
to hearing the gospel. He was like those people that
got fed at the lake, the 5,000. And when he uttered a truth about
sovereignty to them, they left. They said, that's a hard saying. Who can hear it? And they walked
no more with him. So he didn't want to really hear
anything regarding the need to enter the straight gate by the
righteousness of Christ. And he had treated John harshly. the similar thing. He says, I do cures today and
tomorrow and the third day I should be perfected. It doesn't really
seem to be a chronology of he's only got three days left to live
because There's more going on here that's recorded in loop
that involves more than three days. So I think it's more of
a picture of what he's up to and the fact that no man is going
to thwart him. No Herod or not any man is going
to thwart him from his accomplished mission. Perfected means the fact of complete,
accomplished, finished, consecrated, fulfilled. And yet we find there
are many things that he must do here before his entrance into
Jerusalem as king. In Luke 19, if you want to turn
over to Luke chapter 19, we'll just read a few verses there
about someone with whom you're all familiar, I'm sure. In Luke
19, 1, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus, who was chief among the publicans,
and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who
he was. And he could not for the press,
because he was little in stature. And he ran before and climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that
way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him
and said unto him, Zacchaeus, he knew his name, make haste. Come down, for today I must abide
at thy house. You know, our pastors the other
day was mentioning the Samaritan at the well. I must need to go
through Samaria. I have a sheep over there that
I have an appointment with. Remember with Matthew, Levi,
he went out of his way to go over to that little tax booth
and call him Levi. Follow me. And we find that again
and again and again in the Scriptures. I must. I must. In fact, we had a series of those
in one lesson that we had on the Son of Man must. All the
things He must do before He finished the redemption of His people
and including the redemption of His people. He said, I must
abide, Zacchaeus, I must abide at thy house. Another key point
here is that Jesus knew where He would die and how, and no
threat of Herod was valid because Herod didn't have any jurisdiction
in Jerusalem. It was foreordained that Christ
would die there and suffer the wrath of God and lay down His
life for the sheep there. And you can find all those references
in the Old Testament. Sometimes it's called Zion. Sometimes
it's called the City of David. Sometimes it's called Jerusalem.
It all points to where He would go and save His people from their
sins. So, he said, nevertheless, verse
33, I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following. So, it's
just kind of a picture of more of a, I'm going to keep doing
what I have to do until my appointed time. How many times did he say,
they tried to arrest him or kill him, and he said, but his time
was not yet, and he passed through their midst. He looks at Jerusalem and says,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them
that are sent to 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 often had he extended his
arm to them, and yet they refused. And you don't have to go very
far in the Old Testament to find Reference after reference after
reference. I have a couple, three written down here. He talks about Jerusalem that
stoneth the prophets and killeth them that are sent unto you.
Well, in their minds, in their hearts, that's what they wanted
to do with him. In John 10, verse 31, I just
love that chapter because he talks about his sheep and how
they know him, and he knows them, and he leads them in the part
about the door that we covered in the straight gate last time.
Well, down in verse 31, the Jews took up stones again to stone
him. So again, kind of intimates that
that was not the first time. They took up stones again to
stone Him. So the history of the Jews as
a nation, and not particular individuals, but as a nation
of people, their history was rejection of the Lord. We read about that in Isaiah
53. He was rejected. came unto His own, and His own
received Him not, the Scriptures say. Rejection of the righteousness
that came only by Him and not of works or of lineage or keeping
the law or any of those things that represent all the things
that we do. For Adam it was sowing fig leaves
and hiding and denying and lying, all those things that he did. I put down a couple of Old Testament
examples here that are just kind of representative, but we'll
read three of them. I'm just going to read one verse
from each place there. Nehemiah 9, verse 29. said, and testifies against them
that thou might bring them again to thy law. Yet they dealt proudly
and hearken not unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments,
which if a man do, he shall live with them. Remember, if a man
tries to live by keeping the law, he has to keep all of them
from day one, from the minute he enters the world till the
time he dies, he has to keep all the law. If a man do, he
shall live in them. But they withdrew the shoulder
and hardened their neck. and would not hear. It's like
they just shrugged away from the Gospel. They just shrugged
away from anything but their own righteousness. They just
shrugged away and they pulled the shoulder back and hardened
their neck like something was going to be hard against them,
and so they're tensing up and bracing for it, and would not
hear. We don't want to hear that. They stopped up their ears, and
one scripture says they didn't want to hear. Sometimes I do
that. Somebody starts telling me something I don't want to
hear, and I just go, la, la, la. I don't want to hear that. Psalm 81, 11. My people would not hearken to
my voice, and Israel would none of me. In spite of everything
He did for them, in spite of all the evidence they had and
all the things, they would none of me. Isaiah 30, 15, For thus
saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and
rest shall ye be saved. How oft would I have gathered
you, and ye would not. In returning and rest shall ye
be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength,
and ye would not. You would not. So we come to the conclusion
of that for the nation of Israel as a whole. Behold, your house 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. That's a quote from
Jeremiah 22.5 and Psalm 118.26. Again, I mentioned at the beginning
of the lesson that this whole lesson virtually comes all from,
every word comes from the Old Testament. So the result of the national
rejection of Christ is, behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
I looked up that word desolate in my concordance in my Bible
program. It's just astounding the number
of times that it's prophesied that they would be desolate because
of their rejection of God. Desolate, desolate, desolate.
And many times it resulted in their being captured by this
nation or that nation or maltreated in various ways. And yet the
answer was never, we're sorry. We're sorry, forgive us. It was
always, you would not. Except for grace, a few found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. Jeremiah chapter 22, we'll read
that one because that was a good example of your house is left
to you desolate. Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 1,
Thus saith the Lord, Go down to the house of the king of Judah
and speak there this word. Go down there and give him the
gospel. And say, Hear the word of the
Lord, O king of Judah, that sitteth on the throne of David. Thou
and thy servants and thy people that enter in by these gates,
thus saith the Lord, execute you judgment and righteousness."
Judgment in judging that righteousness comes by Christ only, not by
your works and all your idol worship and all the things that
you've fallen into. execute judgment and righteousness,
and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. And
do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless,
nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if you
do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of
this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in
chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. But if you will not hearken to
these words, verse 5, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that
this house shall become a desolation. That's a harsh word, that desolation. It just means a waste, a ruin,
a useless thing. In Psalm 118, interested in this very verse
our pastor used here just the other day. He used a different
part of it, but in Psalm 118, verse 22 through 26, the stone
which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord
hath made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now,
I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord." So those two verses from Jeremiah and
Psalm 118 that the Lord quotes to them and tells them, you know,
your house is just, the nation is going to be a desolation.
And he elaborates that in the coming
chapters. We see him elaborating on that,
and he starts giving specific details about what's going to
happen. The Jerusalem is going to be sacked, and the people
are going to be besieged, and the temple's going to be torn
down. He says, there is not going to
be one stone left upon another. And we find that all came to
pass there in 70 A.D. when the Romans besieged Jerusalem,
and there was like three million Jews in there for Passover, and
carnage was just rife, so it was awful. awful. Grace is the only answer. Grace
is the only thing that gets you past that self-business. So, that's the end of our lesson,
end of Chapter 13. I'll be gone next week, so when
we come back, Lord willing, we'll pick up in Chapter 14. In the
meantime, my friends, be free. How are you doing?