Now, in your Bibles there, in
Luke chapter 13, my brother Aaron just read, you have a parable.
It's called the parable of the barren fig tree. It starts in
verse 6. A certain man had a fig tree
planted in a vineyard. And then he goes on to show how
that fig tree bore no fruit. Now, that parable has an application
to the Jewish nation under the old covenant. And during the
time of our Lord's earthly ministry in Judea, where he went forth
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and where he performed many,
many miracles, but the nation, Jewish nation, as a nation, not
every individual in the nation, but as a nation, rejected the
Messiah. He came unto his own, his own
nation, and his own nation received him not. It was a barren fig
tree. So that's one of the applications, the major application here. But
there is also an application of this parable to each one of
us personally. For example, you are sitting
here this morning, and I am standing here this morning, and we are
hearing the gospel of God's grace in Christ, the message of salvation. Paul called it a saver of life
unto life, or a saver of death unto death. And what we need
to be concerned with is this, are we individually barren fig
trees or fruitful fig trees? In other words, does the message
of the gospel of Christ wherein his righteousness is revealed,
wherein his glory is revealed, is it the power of God unto salvation
to me, or is it just falling on deaf ears, spiritually deaf
ears? And that is what this parable
is about. So the title is the barren fig tree. But this is
part one. I want to do something here this morning. I'm dividing
this up into two parts and I'm really going to get to the meat
of the parable next week because I want to deal with these first
five verses here that led up to this parable. Christ spoke
this parable of the barren fig tree in response to some news
that men had brought at that time of a great terrible tragedy
that happened in Galilee. A tragedy that occurred and the
word of it began to spread just like when great tragedies happen,
great terrible disasters happen in our world and we hear it on
the evening news or read it in the newspaper. And we've all
experienced this. We've seen national tragedies.
It wasn't too long ago that a wave, they called it a tsunami I believe,
that hit and wiped out thousands of people over in Southeast Asia
somewhere. And then national tragedies such
as weather storms and tornadoes and floods. We've experienced
that, natural disasters we call them. Wiping out all kinds of
people, killing all kinds of people, plagues. They're plagues. We've been afraid of this new
strain of flu that's coming around. Is it going to be an epidemic
or a pandemic? I don't know what they call it
now, but it's something that everybody's concerned with. You
don't want to get that. That's a national tragedy, or
potentially. We read in the newspaper, here
on the news, about wars. Christ said in the last day there'll
be wars and rumors of wars. Listen, I'll tell you something
about that. That doesn't mean that things are going to change.
What he's saying there is that until the time that he comes
again, it's all going to just go on like it always has been.
Because in every generation, there's been wars and rumors
of wars. We have that today. We think about North Korea right
now and their nuclear capabilities. It's almost like they want war
to come. And there's no winner in a war like that. That would
be a world disaster. But we do know this. We have
the comfort to know that our God is in control. And he doeth
as he will, according to his plan and purpose. And I know
that whoever's running North Korea, he's not going to go one
way or the other except that the Lord purposed it to happen
for his glory and the good of his people. And I believe that. If I didn't believe that, we'd...
Listen, how in the world can we walk through this earth, this
world, believing in God, the God of the Bible, without knowing
that he's in control and works all things after the counsel
of his own will? It's amazing, isn't it? We read
about people who commit some of the most heinous crimes. Years
ago, there was two young boys who walked into a school in Colorado
and just started shooting up the place and killed all kinds
of people. We look at stuff like that and
how tragic it is. People, we say innocent people
or whatever, however we take it, we've all heard of and experienced
our own personal tragedies. Many of you have gone through
some personal tragedies in your families, friends who have been
cut down. You can read about things like
that in the Bible. The book of Job has a lot to
say about that. Job, who was a just man who lost
everything that he had, was taken away from him, his family, his
wealth, everything. Now, the question is this, how
do we react to those kinds of things? I can remember 9-11,
that infamous date that's in our minds, etched in our minds. How did you react in 9-11? Well, naturally, we ask this
question, why? That's a natural reaction to
it, isn't it? Why did this have to happen to
this nation or this city or this school or to this person? Or
why did it have to happen to me? The why always comes into
the equation, perhaps The victim was, in the eyes of the world,
a moral person, a religious person, maybe a kind and loving person,
maybe, maybe not. Meanwhile, we hear about some
of the world's most infamous scoundrels who live in relative
luxury, happiness, prosperity, and we ask why. We ask why. Well, and we even come to this
point. I mean, even believers do this now, if we're honest.
We even question God's goodness. We question God's justice. Was
that just? Sometimes people even question
his existence. It's the classic, philosophic
problem question that people ask. What about evil? The problem
of evil. How can an all-powerful and an
all-good God allow good people, as we say, that's the way people
think, good people to suffer and wicked people to prosper?
Well, the Bible gives us the answer. Now, only the Holy Spirit
can make us like and love and believe and live by that answer. But the Bible does give us the
answer. And it lays this groundwork first in two things. Now, here's
the groundwork for the answer to this all-important question
about this issue of tragedy. Number one, God is always in
control, and He's always just, and He always does what's right.
That's number one. There's not anything that happens
to anybody at any time by which we can rightly accuse God of
being unfair or unjust or unloving or unmerciful in the sense of
His nature and His character. He doesn't always show mercy.
I'm not saying He always shows mercy. I'm going to tell you
something. If you want God to show mercy,
there's only one way, and that's at the mercy seat, Christ and
Him crucified. There's where mercy is in Christ.
You know, we sang that song, it is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. And I thought about when we were
singing that, is Jesus really enough? What he is. That he died, is his death enough?
Most people who claim to be Christian really don't believe he's enough.
They believe that salvation is what he did plus what they did. His is not enough. But it is
enough. I read an article by a man that
shocked me one time, and the title of the article was, The
Blood is Not Enough. Well, it's enough for me. How
about you? It's the blood that's sprinkled
over the mercy seat, and it is enough. That's where mercy is.
But that's the first truth. that the Bible lays the groundwork
for us to understand these things in any way that we can. God is
in control. He always does that which is
right, which is good, and just in His eyes. Now it may not be
in man's eyes, but in God's eyes it is. And He's the one that
counts. But now here's the second thing the Bible teaches us. And this is the one that self-righteous
religionists will not accept. Well, I won't accept the other
one either. But this is one that won't... There are no good people
in God's sight. There's none good, no not one,
Romans 3, verse 11 and 12. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. We've all sinned and done what? Come short of
the glory of God. We quote that. Even people who
talk about all the good people who deserve better on this earth
will quote that verse, Romans 6, 23. We've all, Romans 3.20,
we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the
wages of sin, what does that mean? That's what you earn. Is
what? Death. Now salvation is not something
you earn. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. You can't earn salvation. Now
we can earn death. We've earned that. We deserve
that. And that's the two foundations
upon which this This great question about tragedies and the whys
and the problem of evil, as they say, is answered in the scripture. There are none good in God's
sight now. Christ told the rich young man
that. He said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal
life? He said, what do you call me good? There's none good but
God. And what he was saying there to the man is, if you don't believe
I'm God, if you just believe I'm just a good rabbi, a good
teacher, then why are you calling me good? There's none good but
God. Well, here in the context of
this parable, the Lord has just been rebuking the multitude to
whom he's preaching because they were unable to discern the signs
of the times. Now, here's what he said to them.
He says, you're better weathermen than you are theologians. You
look in the sky and you can predict what's going to happen. The gray
clouds, you know, we say red sky at night, sailors delight,
red sky at morning, sailors. We can look around in our atmosphere
and we can pretty much, not always perfectly, predict the weather.
We can see what's going to happen. But we cannot discern the signs
of the time. And what he's talking about there
specifically is that the Messiah was standing right before them
and they couldn't even recognize it. Their scriptures described
him and identified him. The times that the Old Testament
prophesied of were here, and you can't even see it. He was
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, how God saves sinners by grace
and mercy and not by works. how He had come into the world
as God-man. He had come born of the Virgin
Mary, and He was walking this earth in perfect obedience to
the law of God, and He was fulfilling all righteousness on behalf of
His people. And according to the prophecy of the Old Testament,
He was on His way to obedience unto death, even the death of
the cross, to stand in the place of His people as their substitute
and representative and surety, and pay their debt to God's law
and justice in full. And they couldn't even see it.
Well, there was a time I couldn't see it. There was a time you
couldn't see it, isn't that right? Until the Spirit opened our eyes
and showed us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's what it takes. It takes the power of God to
bring a sinner to faith in Christ and to repentance, which is what
this parable is about. What is repentance? It's turning
away from something because you've turned to someone. You see, you
can't repent without turning to something. In the Old Testament,
it was a change of direction. You're going north, you turn
around and you go south. It wasn't veering off to one
direction or another. It was going the opposite way.
In the New Testament, it's a complete change of mind. Whereas I thought,
I thought I was saved, now I know I wasn't. And I've turned to
Christ, who is my salvation. Whereas I thought that my works
and efforts recommended me unto God in some way, now I've turned
from that. I've repented of that. I know
they cannot. I know that's death. I know Christ
is my only righteousness before God. That's faith and repentance. Here he uses an illustration.
Look at verse 57 of the prior chapter, chapter 12. He says in verse 57, Yea, and
why even of yourselves judge you not what is right? The problem
is that man's judgment by nature is wrong. It's a self-righteous
judgment. So look at verse 58. He said,
When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, to the court,
to the judge, And thou art in the way, give diligence, and
thou art on your way to court. That's what he means. Here you
are on your way to court, and you've got an adversary who's
suing you or who's coming against you, and he says, give diligence
that thou mayest be delivered from him. In other words, you're
trying to be free from this person who's accusing you or suing you,
lest he hail thee to the judge, he force you to go before the
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the
officer cast thee into prison." Now, the situation here is this.
Somebody is suing you, or somebody has accused you, and they're
right. That's the situation. And you're on your way to court.
And here's what he's saying in verse 59. He says, "...I tell
thee thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very
last month." He says, while you're on your way, it would be better
for you to go ahead and make it right now and settle it with
your adversary than when you go before the judge. And he said,
pay everything you owe. Settle the debt. Whatever you
did, it would be better for you if you would do this on your
way to court than when you stand before the judge. Now, you know
what the picture is there? He's saying, get right with God
now, on your way, before you get to judgment. Because then
it's going to be too late. Somebody said, well, how do I
get right with God? I'll tell you exactly how. You run to Christ.
You say, how do I get right with God? I better stop this, or quit
this, or I better join a church, or get back. No! You run to Christ. That's how you get right with
God, because He's the right way. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. That's
the only way that things can be right between me and God. is that I have a mediator, a
surety, a high priest, and I'm washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness. There's no other way. So that's
how he sets this up. And then he says here, as he
goes along, the point is that we all, in Adam, we have a debt
of sin toward God. If we're aware of our situation,
we'll be quick to get right. with God before we come to judgment,
trust Christ. And look at verse 1 of chapter
13. He says, there were present at
that season, which is literally on the same occasion. So he's
talking to the same group here now. So at that season or on
the same occasion, he says, there were some that told him of the
Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Now these people had been told
some news about an incident in Galilee where there were some
Jews in Galilee, and apparently, we don't know anything about
this situation than what is told right here. But apparently what
happened, Pilate, you know who Pilate was, Pontius Pilate, the
Roman governor in front of whom Christ was brought to be judged,
apparently, He saw a group of Jews in Galilee who were seeking
to worship by sacrifice, and for some reason, we don't know
why, he saw them as being rebels to Rome, insurrectionists, a
threat, and he sent his armies down there to kill them. And
they slaughtered them, and they were sacrificing, and their blood
was mingled with the sacrifices there. And so they slaughtered
them. So the issue is, that's a great
tragedy. Those people were worshipping,
and Pilate went down there and slaughtered them, and their blood
was mingled with the sacrifices. Now look at verse 2. And Jesus
answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?
Now here's the natural way of thinking here. What did those
people do to earn what they got. They must have been the greatest
of sinners to suffer such tragedy. That's the natural way of thinking,
isn't it? They must have written, you know, God judged that nation.
God judged that group of people. God brought His judgment down
on them. Now, you see, the audience here that Christ is preaching
to is made up of Jewish religionists who were quick to judge others
as sinners, as lost, but who refused to judge themselves by
the same standard. And that's man by nature. You
know, that's what he's talking about in Matthew chapter 7 when
he says, judge not that you be not judged. You know, I've heard
a lot of preachers talk about, well, we're not to judge at any
time in any way. That's not what that's teaching
at all. That's forbidding self-righteous judgment. You've heard me say
it before, we judge all the time. You can't help but judge. If
you've got a conscience, you cannot help but judge things.
You want to know the difference between right and wrong. Right
now, you're judging whether or not I'm telling you is truth
or lie. And somebody said, well, what
if I don't care what you say? I said, well, you've judged that
I'm not worth hearing. You've made a judgment, though. That's
natural. That's the way it is. But the
problem is, man by nature always judges self-righteously. And he will not judge himself
by the same standard. We always expect more out of
others than we do ourselves. Now that's nature. That's the
flesh. That's fallen human nature. Many
people apply, as I said, they apply this parable of the barren
fig tree to the Jews, but they won't apply it to themselves.
It is to be applied to the Jews, but it should be applied to me
too. The same judgment that was brought down upon the unbelieving
Jews could be brought down upon any nation of unbelievers. Don't
just pick on that group, you see, and say, well, those dirty
rotten people look at what they, no sir. We, us dirty rotten people,
that's what the issue is. And like all of us by nature,
these religionists, they thought that those who suffered such
tragedies like these Galileans, they were deserving of God's
judgment, whereas the fact that they had been spared such tragedies
meant that they didn't deserve it. It meant that they were righteous. Their theology was like Job's.
Three friends. You remember the story of Job?
He had three friends. Three friends who came by to
help him. Job, we've got to figure this out. Why are you suffering? It has to be, Job, because you've
sinned. It has to be because you've done
something that is just terrible in the sight of God. Well, why
weren't they suffering? Why weren't these three friends
suffering? They did all right, you know. God's smiling upon
them. You've heard that. Somebody has something real good. They get a raise. They get a
promotion. They win the lottery. Well, he must be doing something
right. And it's all taken away. What
did he do? That's human nature. That's theology for you. Human
theology. Well, look at it. Christ says
in verse 3, He said, I tell you, nay. That means no. No. But, except you, not the
Galileans who were slaughtered, you repent. You shall all likewise
perish in the same way. Wait a minute. Me? Yes, you. He goes on. He talks about another
natural disaster. Now, the Galilean tragedy was
brought on by Pilate, an evil, unbelieving man. Well, look at
verse 4. Now here's a natural disaster
that comes along. "...or those eighteen upon whom
the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, Now he's talking about
another, there was a tower in the town of Siloam, and it must
have fallen, I don't know, it was bad architecture or whatever,
or it might have been weather, but 18 people were killed in
this. You could just see that in the
headlines, couldn't you? 18 people killed by a building
falling on them. And so that was a recent event,
apparently. But he says in verse 4, he says,
That they were sinners, now the word sinners here is a different
word than the one used in verse 2. The word sinners in verse
2 is the common word that means missing the mark, falling short
of the glory of God. But the word sinners here, you
might read in your concordance there, is debtors. Do you think
they owe more to God than what you do? Do you think that they
were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? that these
fellas had more to answer for than me or than you. And he drives home this application.
Were those who suffered greater sinners? And he says, I tell
you no. Verse 5, I tell you no, but except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. And then he tells the parable
of the barren fig tree. And as I said, I'll get to that
next week. But it underscores the point. Here's what it's saying.
If you don't repent, if I don't repent, we're going to suffer
God's judgment. That's what he's saying. And
notice here that Christ, He didn't enter into a philosophical discussion
on the problem of evil, the justice and the fairness of God, and
the sinfulness of a man like Pilate. He just simply used these
tragedies to drive home on the consciences of those who were
looking at Him, their necessity, the necessity of repenting. And
that's the basic lesson. Here's what he's saying. All
human tragedy. Here's what it should teach us.
It should teach us that we are all sinners. And we deserve nothing but death
and condemnation and judgment. That's what we deserve. That
we are at God's mercy and we must repent. And when we see
these tragedies, let's apply it to ourselves and see our urgent
need to seek God's mercy. Lord, don't give me what I deserve. That's right. Get right with
God. How? By coming to Christ in faith
and repentance. We can sorrow over these tragedies,
and we should. And we can have theological debates
and discussions about them, on the justice of God and the sinfulness
of man and the problem of evil, but the greatest tragedy of all
is a sinner coming before God at judgment without Christ. That's
the greatest tragedy of all. Standing before God without repentance. Perish. The Bible says there
is coming a day when God will judge the world in righteousness
and justice by that man whom he hath ordained, and that he
hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. You know what he said right before
that verse in Acts 17, verse 31? He said God commands all
men everywhere to repent. Repent! What is that repentance? It's turning from your ways and
your works to Christ and submitting to Him and His righteousness.
Pleading, begging for mercy like that old publican. Lord, I don't
deserve anything more than that publican deserves. God be merciful
to me, the sinner. Let me give you these things
about tragedies, what we should learn from them. Number one,
tragedies stem from God's curse because of the sin of the human
race. We fell in Adam. We were ruined
in Adam by the fall. We fell when Adam fell. He was
our representative. And we're born in sin. And you
know what? The whole creation fell. In fact,
you can read about it in Genesis chapter 3, how this whole earth
is cursed because of man's sin. Man is not the glory of the earth.
He's the bane of the earth. Many times in the Old Testament,
it's compared this way or contrasted this way, even the dumb animals,
the dumb jackass knows his master's crib. But he said we are just rebellious
children who declare war on God in Adam and in ourselves. All
of us are by nature sinners who deserve God's judgment. And our
sense of justice and fairness is twisted by our sin, by our
self-love, and by our self-righteousness. That's right. When tragedy strikes,
here's what we should think. Do I deserve any better? And
the answer is no. It's no. Lamentations 3.22, one
of my favorite verses in the Bible. Let me read it to you.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Did you know that? Because His
compassions fail not. And the book of Job, as I mentioned
before, teaches us that even justified sinners, even those
saved by grace, have no case against God, who has a perfect
right to afflict that man with terrible suffering without answering
to anyone about what he does, who are thou. to reply against
God. The only reason that Job or any
of us will not perish eternally is God's grace and mercy in Christ. And that's it. You see, it's
not because you chose God, because you wouldn't choose God on your
own. It's because God chose his people. It's not because we're
good enough for God. We're not. We're sinners. But
it's because of God's goodness in Christ. It's not because we
deserve better than the rest who perish, because we don't.
The only reason we don't is of His mercies and His compassion.
Christ said, it seemed good in thy sight, Father. The Bible
teaches that man's sin was the cause of God's curse on creation.
The whole creation, Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8, groaneth,
waiting for that coming day of glory and redemption. And all
natural disasters, I know people don't like to hear this, but
it's Scripture. It's the Word of God. All natural
disasters are created by God. Let me read you Isaiah 45 and
verse 7. You mark this verse down. Here
God says through the prophet, He says, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil. That's God. What evil does He
create? He's not the author of sin. Well,
the evil he creates is these natural disasters that are his
judgments upon man's sin. You say, well, you're saying
that they did sin and deserve it. Listen, we all deserve it. That's what I'm saying. And if
we don't get it, it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not
consumed. That's what I'm saying. Floods,
earthquakes, hurricanes. Tornadoes, droughts, epidemics,
diseases, what we call accidents, what the Bible calls providence,
they stem from man's rebellion against God. And it will only
be in the new heavens and the new earth that God will wipe
away every tear and all death from his redeemed and there will
not be any curse. The Bible teaches that there
are often no direct correlations between particular sins and temporal
judgments. That's what Christ is teaching
here. Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans
because they suffered such things? In other words, was there a direct
correlation between a particular sin or amount of sins that they
were doing that God brought Pilate down there and just wiped them
out? And he says, I tell you, no. Don't think like that. We all deserve it because we're
sinners. Look at Psalm 37 with me. Let
me read you a couple of Psalms here. You know, the Bible tells us that some
people have the self-righteous view that people suffer in this
life in direct proportion to their sinfulness. Well, that's
all men by nature. Some tragedy hit somebody, and
he must have done something to deserve it. The disciples thought
that way. You remember when Christ, in
John chapter 9, they came upon the blind man, and they asked
him, Lord, what sin did he or his parents commit to put him
in that condition? And he told them, your thinking
is all wrong here. Somebody says, well, they paid
for their sins. Now, let me tell you something
right now. Get that out of your mind. There's only one payment
for sin, and that's the blood of Christ on the cross. There'll be no other payment
for sin. Eternal perishing is not payment for sin. That's an
eternal thing. It'll never be exhausted. Only
Christ can exhaust in full the payment of God's justice against
my sin. That's why we sing Rock of Ages.
Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flow be
of sin to double cure, save from wrath, and make me pure." Only
the blood of Christ is a payment for sin. Even our repentance
can't pay for our sins. Our tears can't pay for our sins.
Our works cannot pay for our sins. It takes the blood of Christ
and Him alone to pay for my sins. And He paid the debt in full.
But don't some people suffer here for sins they commit? Yes.
Yes, some people do for indirect correlation. I'll give you an
example. If you go out on 13th Street and go 100 miles an hour,
you're probably going to see a light behind you pretty soon.
And you're probably going to have to pay a fine or go to jail
or lose your license. But here's the point. Some people
don't. Some guy may run 100 miles up and down the road and never
get caught. Now, you may blame the police. You say, well, they
didn't make their quota this month. That's crazy. That's not
what that's about. I'm going to tell you something.
Some don't. Think about this. Abel, Abel was cut down in his
youth. John the Baptist was beheaded
by the wicked King Herod. Methuselah lived 969 years and
he died. That's it. The godly suffer, the wicked
prosper. What's the answer? Look at Psalm
37, look at verse 34. It says, wait on the Lord and keep
his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the
wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen the wicked
in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yea, I saw him, but
he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, the perfect
man there is the sinner saved by grace, the just man. And behold
the upright, for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors
shall be destroyed, the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
Now they may spread like a green bay tree today, but what's their
end? That's what he's saying. Look
over at Psalm 73. Let me read you this one. This
is good. Psalm 73, look at verse 12. It says, Behold, these are the
ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. Verily
I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency.
In other words, the question that he's struggling with here
is, if the wicked are prospering and growing rich, why am I going
through all this trying to be right with God? Is it in vain? And he says in verse 14, for
all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning,
suffering. If I say I will speak thus, behold,
I should offend against the generation of thy children. And when I thought
to know this, it was too painful for me. Notice, when I thought
to figure all this out now, you know, I'm seeing all this happening,
here's a fellow, he's trying to do right, trusting in the
Lord, worshiping God, and he's suffering. And then here's another
fellow who doesn't care about God, who doesn't trust God, who
doesn't care about the gospel, and he's just getting richer
and richer, spreading like a green bay tree. And he says here in
verse 16, when I thought to know this, when I thought to figure
this one out, It was too hard for me. I can't do it. That's
what he's saying. Too painful. Makes my head hurt.
Trying to figure that one out. Verse 17. Look. Until. I couldn't figure this out. Until. I went into the sanctuary of
God. Then understood I their end. The only way I can figure it
out is just go worship God. That's what that's talking about.
Trust in the Lord. Run to Christ. Look to Him. Stay in Him. And I'll tell you
how it's all going to end up, God says. The wicked are going
to perish. The righteous are going to live
eternally in Christ. That's it. Look back at Luke
13. What's he saying? What's tragedy
teach us? It teaches us, I need God's mercy. I need His grace. I need to be saved from sin.
I need a righteousness I cannot produce. I need Christ. Here's another thing. Tragedies
prove life is short and fragile. We have to seek the Lord and
repent before we die and face judgment. You see a great tragedy
and you talk about it. It's ever before us on the news
and then after a while we go our own ways if it never happened.
Because it didn't happen to me. Well, Christ is showing us that
we need to continually think this way. What if it happened
to me? The point is that life is fragile, folks. You may be
healthy and wealthy and wise today and then tomorrow be in
your coffin. Maybe tonight. I'll guarantee
you. that those students who got up
and went to the Columbine school that morning had no inkling of
an idea in their minds that they weren't going to be coming home
that day. And you see, because we're sinners,
we have one pressing need, and that's to be saved from our sins,
to run to Christ, to get to Him before we perish. Without Christ,
we're debtors to the law. That's why he said there in verse
4, do you suppose they were debtors above all men? Without Christ,
I'm a debtor. I owe God everything. And I don't have anything to
pay. Don't have anything to pay. And that's why I need Christ
to pay my debt for me. And then lastly, let me give
you this. I want you to turn to Romans 2. I've got two more
scriptures I want you to see, and then I'm going to quit. But
look at Romans 2. Tragedies. Tragedies should drive
us to repentance. But I want to tell you something.
This may sound strange to you. Tragedies should drive us to
repentance, but they won't. They won't. Now the problem's
not with God, the problem was with us. Now tragedies, they'll
bring about outward reform. They'll make a person think about
it for a little while and turn in legal repentance. Like for
example, somebody has a great tragedy in their life and they
start coming to church. And usually after a while, what
happens? Never see them again. Or they start praying. Or they
lay in their bed sick and say, God, if you get me out of this
one, I'll never do it again. I said that a bunch from college. I mean, that's the way it is.
Tragedy will do that. But it will not bring a sinner
to repentance. And what it brings is only temporary.
Now why? Well, look at Romans chapter
2. He says in verse 1, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,
whosoever thou art that judges. Now, he's talking about the same
kind of judgment that he's talking about in Luke 13 there. For thou
condemnest thyself, for thou that judges doest the same thing.
You say, well, they got wiped off the face of the map because
they're sinners. Well, let me let you in on something. We're
sinners too. Somebody says, well, I'm not
as big a sinner as they are. You don't know that. In fact, you don't know anybody's
heart but your own, and you don't even know that but by the Spirit
of God. Because the heart's deceitful and desperately wicked above
all things. Who can know what the Scripture says? Jeremiah
chapter 17. But he says in verse 2, But we are sure that the judgment
of God is according to truth. Now, whatever happens under God's
judgment, it's according to truth against them which commit such
things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and doest the same?" And you say, well, I didn't
do what they did. What he's talking about is they're
sinners and you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. You say, well,
I didn't do that specific thing. Yes, we did. In our hearts, in
our minds. And you see, James said, to offend
in one point of the law is to be guilty of all. And the reason
is that the law of God is not like a pile of sticks that you
can pick one up and break it and leave the rest of them intact.
The law of God is like a pane of glass. You put a crack in
it and see what happens. The whole thing shatters. So
he says, do you think you're going to escape the judgment
of God? Verse 4, "...or despises thou the riches of his goodness
and forbearance and longsuffering." That's the fact that he hasn't
wiped me out of this world up to this point. God's been forbearing
and longsuffering. "...and not knowing that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." It's not tragedy
that's going to bring a sinner, it's the goodness of God. Now
where do we find the goodness of God? In Christ. in the gospel. One more, turn to Philippians
3. Philippians 3. The reason tragedies
won't bring you to repentance is that repentance is born of
faith in Christ. Let me show you that. Philippians
chapter 3, Paul says this, as he's talking about his own conversion,
look down at verse 7. He says, But what things were
gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but done. That's repentance, you
see, that I may win Christ. When I see the glory of Christ
and the power of His blood and His righteousness, I realize
that nothing I am or do is worth anything before God. I'm a sinner
and I need mercy. That's repentance, you see. The
only way I'm going to see that is not by looking at a natural
disaster. The only way I'm going to see that is by looking to
the glory of God in Christ. He had to die on that cross for
my sins. You want to talk about disaster?
Look at Christ on the cross. We're within the purpose of God,
and He says in verse 9, "...and be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." There's
our hope, right there. Repent, you say. How do you repent? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Run to Him. Run away from yourself. Realize
that we don't deserve anything good. All we deserve is the judgment
of God, and if we're not wiped off the face of the earth today,
it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Run to Christ. That's within that context he
gives the parable of the barren fig tree, and I'll get to that
next week.