Luke chapter 13. Let's begin with version 1. There were present at that season,
some that told him, our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus
answering said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the
tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were
sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay,
but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." For my
subject this morning, I'd like to take that phrase the Lord
Jesus used here when he said, except ye repent. Ye shall all
likewise perish. Now, the Lord gave them the gospel. When they said, well what about
these guys that were killed at the sacrifice and their blood
was mingled with the sacrifice? Our Lord said, do you think they
were sinners above all? I tell you, no. They weren't.
But except you, you repent. Ye shall all likewise perish.
That was his message to them. And then he brings up the tower
at the Pool of Siloam that fell on 18 people and they died. Do
you think they were sinners above all? Of all the people that were
around there? He said, no. But except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. That's the gospel message. That's
the truth. That's our Lord telling these
people. Hey, if he were here today, the
shootings in the schools, the shootings in the bars, the catastrophes
all around the world, the earthquake, and all kinds of things, what
would he say? I would venture that he would
say, except you repent. ye shall all likewise perish. For that's the truth. That's
the gospel truth. Go with me in your mind's eye
for just a few moments. Let's go back a few years. and
the judge is sitting at his bench. Before him is a criminal, at
least classified as a criminal, and they listen to all the testimony
back and forth about this criminal. And finally, the judge, after
hearing all the evidence, looks at the criminal and says, deserve to die. I'm going to pass sentence on
you. You deserve to die. You're guilty. You're condemned. And come February the ninth, six o'clock
in the morning, you'll be hanged by your neck until you're dead. Do you realize that that is a
picture of every sinner before God? We stand before the righteous
judge who cannot do anything but right,
holy, just and pure. And his condemnation on mankind
is that all have sinned and all have come short of the glory
of God. There's none good There's none
righteous. There's none that seeketh after
God. There's none that seeketh the knowledge of God. There's
none righteous. No, not one. That's the judgment of the righteous
judge upon mankind. Let me start with the second
part of this phrase. Ye shall all likewise perish. The sentence of death is upon
all men, for that all have sinned. Death has, there's three ways
that we see death in the scripture. There's physical death, this
body. This body has to die. As in Adam, all die. The Bible
says, thank the Lord, but in Christ shall all be made alive.
It's appointed unto men once to die. And after this, the judgment. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. But I like the second part of
that verse. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. We're already condemned, did
you know it? Already condemned. Turn with me to John, just a
few pages over. John chapter 3. John chapter
3. Go down to verse 18, John chapter
3 verse 18. He that believeth on him, that
is Jesus Christ, is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. We're condemned. We're guilty. We're condemned. And we're just awaiting execution. And it's coming. It's coming. This body will have to die. And while we're awaiting execution,
the criminal has no rights. Oh, we give them a lot of rights
these days. I'm talking about in the past.
The criminal has no rights. None whatsoever. We have no rights before God. We have no free will that we
can choose God on our own. We're awaiting execution. And
God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But the
wicked shall die. They shall die. Look at Adam. He sinned in the garden. From Adam we are ruined. He,
our federal head, he fell. He sinned. And God said that
they would surely die. 930 years some, about that time
afterwards, the Bible says Adam died. You read Genesis chapter
5 and all except for one of those that are mentioned there, it
says, and he died. Any was translated, he was not,
for he pleased God and he walked with God. But all the rest of
them, they died. They died. In the sight of God,
we have no life. We're just waiting execution. In the sight of God, we just
have a mere existence. Why, look at Noah's day. A hundred
and twenty years, Noah preached righteousness and that they should
repent. For a hundred and twenty years,
repentance was talked about. Only eight souls were saved.
A whole world was condemned. A whole world was executed because
the thoughts and intents of their heart was only evil continually. But something more happened when
Adam fell. Death also means not only physical
death, the body must die, but death means a separation. And man has been separated from
God. Your sins have separated between
you and your God, Isaiah said, that He will not heal you. The separation that's caused
by sin and by death. When Adam fell, he broke, he
failed, he transgressed God's commandment, and he was found
hiding. Something was wrong. And the
Lord said, Adam, where are you? Well, I'm hiding over here because
I'm naked. Who told you he was naked? Have
you eaten of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil that
I told you not to eat of? God knew the answers to every
one of his questions. What he was doing was getting
Adam to see what he really was. And what Adam was, was a sinner,
guilty, sentenced, and awaiting execution. He had no place to
hide. We have no place to hide from
Him with whom we have to do. You know, he was cast out of
the garden, he and Eve were cast out of the garden because God
said, I don't want them to eat of the tree of life and be like
this forever. The great covenant of grace,
that's grace right there. In the great covenant of grace,
God had already, this was already in the purpose and plan of God. And that one day, God will say,
you're out of here. You're out of the garden. If
you eat of that tree of life, you're going to be like you are
for eternity. But I have a tree of life. I
have a tree of life for you. And when you partake of Him and
His fruit, you'll live forever with Him and with me. You see, ye shall likewise perish. The inability of man to do anything
for himself, that's spiritual death. I can't do anything for
myself. I can't lift myself up with my
own bootstraps. I'm imprisoned. I'm incarcerated
by sin. And God sees men as dead. Dead in trespasses and sins. He's angry with the wicked every
day. While we were shapen in iniquity
and in sin did our mothers conceive us. Timothy talks about it like,
Paul told Timothy about it like this. Their conscience is seared
with a hot iron. Every imagination of the heart
is only continual, evil continually. They're unholy, ungodly, ruined
from the sole of their feet to the top of their head. God sees
them as sinners with putrefying sores. All of our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. Oh, they say the will is present, but how
am I able to perform that, Paul said? I don't know. I can't do
it. When I want to do something,
I end up not doing it. When I don't want to do something,
I end up Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from
this body of death? We were right here in John chapter
3. Look down just a few more verses. John chapter 3. Go down to verse
35. John chapter 3 verse 35. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath, that's present tense, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. That's spiritual death. To many, sin is just getting
caught. Our society has worked around
that and there's just so much going on. You catch somebody
doing something, you catch a little child doing something, the only
remorse they have is they got caught at it. But to the Lord, sin is who you
are. Sin is who I am. You know, man can be somewhat
morally good, but God doesn't take into account moral respectability. Man is dead in trespasses and
sins. Man can do a lot of social good
for mankind, but the Lord doesn't account for humanitarianism.
Man is dead. trespasses and sins. Man can
be pleased with himself even better than others like the Pharisee
and the Publican we read about. But God doesn't take into account
self-righteousness. Men are dead in trespasses and
sins. Man can be very religious and so he is. But God doesn't
take into account religious zeal. Men are dead in trespasses and
sins. These that are spiritually dead,
they have no joy in the things of God. They have no love for
the things of God. The blood sacrifice is repugnant
to them. Talk about sovereign free grace
and you can really turn them off and turn them away. They
don't care about the worship of God. They don't care about
the house of God. They don't care about the people
of God. And even our Lord said, they will hate you because they
hate me. No wonder Isaiah said, all we
like sheep have gone astray. Every one of us have turned to
his own way. And the Lord had laid on him,
our Lord Jesus Christ, the iniquity of us all. Unless you repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. There's another kind of death
in scripture. This is a little harder, heavier kind of thing
to talk about, but let me just say a few words about it. It's
called eternal death. It's called the second death. And if you'll turn to Revelation
chapter 20, Revelation chapter 20, I want to get through this section
because I've got some good news to tell you. Some great and wonderful
news to tell you. But here in Revelation chapter
20 and go down to verse 14. Actually, let's begin with verse
12. John says, and I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened,
and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the
books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell were delivered up, delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. Death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. One who is spiritually dead,
whose body dies, has no hope. It's impossible to pay the sin
debt. For all eternity, there'll be
no remedy, no relief, no reprieve, no escape. All hope is gone. Someone said a third of all that
was said about this place, the Lord Jesus said it while he was
here on earth. I say the whole scripture is
the Lord Jesus speaking, so everything that's said about this place,
he said. In Luke chapter 16, the rich
man lift up his eyes, being in hell. and said, I am tormented
in this land. Our Lord Jesus said three times
in Mark chapter 9, this is a place where the worm dieth not. Twice in Matthew chapter 13,
our Lord said this is a place of weeping, wailing, and gnashing
of teeth. Mark chapter 8, our Lord said
this is a place of darkness. It's the place of eternal wrath of
God. Hear the cry of the damned for
all eternity. Their shrieks, their moans, their
groans, their misery, their sickness, their sorrows, their shame, their
sin continues. Never stops. They're still sinners. And they're with sinners. There
are those who I've heard say, well, I'll be there with all
my friends. You know what? You won't have
a friend in the world there. Not one. All are sinners and
all are only seeking one thing like the rich man. Just a touch
of water on my tongue. They're only interested in themselves
for all eternity. Satan will be there. The beast
of the false prophet will be there. The fallen angels, the
demons will be there. All sinners, if you look just
across the page there in Revelation chapter 21, Look at verse 27. Here's what will not enter into
the kingdom of God. And there shall a no wise enter
in to anything that defile it, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. And chapter 22, look at verse
11. Our Lord says, he that is unjust,
let him be unjust still. He which is filthy, Let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. Verse 15. For without are dogs,
and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh the lie. Whosoever was not found written
there. Pharaoh will be there. Esau will be there. Cain will
be there. The Amalekites will be there. Every unsaved person
from the beginning all the way to the end of the age will be
there. That's the second death. Now go with me again in your
imagination. Let's go to another place, another
courtroom. In this courtroom is the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And he's standing, sitting at
his throne. His name is Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Sitting there. I'm sitting there.
I'm a criminal. I'm guilty. I've done all these
trespasses. I am the sinner. And beside me
stands an advocate, and he's the Lord Jesus Christ. And my
advocate speaks up for me. And my advocate tells the judge,
for all those sins I died, my blood covers every one of them. As a matter of fact, if you'll
take a good look at him, you'll see me. And when you see me,
you'll see that there's not a sin, not a spot, not anything to blame
him for. How did that happen? Except you repent. Except you repent. God has a
blessed gift and a wonderful future for the repentant ones. It is of the Lord that repentance
is granted. It's a gift of God. You can't
work up repentance. It's a gift of God. You can't
work up faith. It's a gift of God. The Lord said He came not to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance. To repentance. Paul was talking to the Ephesians
at Ephesus before he left and part of the message that he gave
them was that they would have, and he would pray for, and it
would be given by God, repentance toward God. Repentance is something
that has to do with God. The goodness of God leads you
to repentance. It's the grace of God, that's
what it means, the goodness, the grace of God that leads to
repentance. We go back in the Old Testament,
we find Esau, he'd squandered everything for a mess of beans. I don't know what lentils are.
I think they're that kind of thing. But for a mess of beans,
he squandered everything. Sold his birthright. And when
it came time for Isaac to do the blessing, Jacob, the trickster,
got in there before him. Esau was so mad he was going
to kill his brother. His mother got him out of there. And the Bible says he sought
with tears repentance. But he didn't have any. He didn't
get any. Tears, remorse, I won't get it. You know what repentance is?
It's seeing things as God sees them. That's repentance. And only God can give you that
revelation. Only God can give you that sight.
Seeing things as God sees them. Here's the leper coming to Jesus.
And he says, Lord, if thou wilt, thou can make me whole. That's repentance. If you will. Lord, only if you will, I'll
be made whole. Only if you will. And thank the
Lord, he looked at him and said, I will. Be thou whole. Be thou made clean. I claim, when I see things as
God sees them, I claim myself to be the sinner. The sinner. God sees me as the sinner. I claim that God has every right
to execute judgment on me. He is right and holy and just.
I claim that He has every right to execute judgment on me. And
then I claim only a sovereign God, Lord Jesus Christ, could
do something for me. outside myself. Only He can do
it. There are times I sit in my porch
in the morning, drinking my coffee, and I think how awful, how wicked
I am. Lord, how in the world could
you love somebody like me? And Lord, the things that I did
yesterday, and even thought about this morning, and then the Lord
reminds me, my redemption is sitting on the throne. My advocate
is there, interceding for me. He is praying for me. Oh, stars and gardens, can you
realize how wonderful that is that God would pray for His people? That our faith fail not. I know
that's one of His prayers. How does Jesus Christ say? According
to His will. According to His purpose. That's good news. That's good
news. The eternal Lamb of God, the
covenant of grace, all the way, whichever way you want to go,
if there's any ending or beginning of it, in eternity there is none,
but from eternity past. That's the only way I can say
it. The only way I can think of it. All the way back, forever
and ever, there was the covenant of grace. There was the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. Somebody asked me the other day,
he said, when were you saved? I said, well, I really don't
know the date, but I know it was in eternity. I was one of his chosen by him
in the great covenant of grace before the world ever came about.
So when was I saved? Well, I couldn't tell you a date.
I really don't care about dates. All I care about is my Lord.
He's the one that did it. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. He redeemed us with His own blood
and forgave us. He died for our sins according
to the scripture. And according to Romans chapter
8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. We shall not come into condemnation,
John said, for we have passed from death unto life. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Turn with me to Titus chapter
2. Titus chapter 2. We're talking about repentance
here. In Titus chapter 2 you'll find
first 2nd Timothy and then Titus. Titus chapter 2. Verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness, that's me, and worldly lust, that's me, we should live
soberly, that's him, righteously, that's him, godly, that's him,
in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of our great God, even our Savior. Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These
things speak and exhort and review with all authority. Let no man
despise thee. Do you know if a man goes to
hell, he has no excuse. He has no excuse. If a man goes to hell, it's his
own responsibility. You will not come to me that
you might have life, Jesus said to those Pharisees. The only
way to have life is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Turn with me. I'm getting off
my subject a little bit, but I just thought of something.
I was going to say this and I probably will again. Psalm 71. Psalm 71. Psalm 71 verse 1, In thee, O
Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness,
and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me, and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Now notice these words. Thou
hast given commandment to save me. For thou art my rock and
my fortress." He gave the commandment and I was saved. It's of God. It's not of me or anybody else.
It's of God. It's all His doing. If you're
saved, if you are one who is saved, it's entirely God's doing. Nothing of you. Now the sentence, except you repent, ye shall all
likewise perish. The sentence of death for the
body remains the same. I've got to put off this body.
Put on a glorious body, likened to his body. This body's got to die. Or I
may be one of those that when the Lord comes back, be caught
up in the air with Him. And then they which are dead
will be caught up with Him and forever they will be with the
Lord. I must pass through the veil,
appointed unto men once to die. But thank the Lord, according
to Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, everything is going to be
changed. Everything is going to be changed
for those that belong to Him. This mortality will put on immortality. This corruptible will put on
incorruption. And then we'll look back and
say, death, where is thy sting? Where is your victory? Sting
of death and sin. But thanks be unto God. Through
our Lord Jesus Christ, everything is going to be made new for us.
Right now, He gives us spiritual life. Remember, it was spiritual
death. But the Lord Jesus gives us spiritual
life. The criminal has been fully pardoned.
He's been acquitted by what the Lord has done. He will never have to suffer the
punishment of eternal death and second death. He has been united
as one with Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
us, died in our place. He was made to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. He lived the perfect, sinless
life that Adam did not. And then He says, I'll give that
righteousness, my righteousness, to you. Not only do you need
to have your sins forgiven, but you need to have my righteousness.
And I've provided both. That's what the Lord has done
for us. They received the blessing that God has chosen. They received the blessing. The
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. My sheep
hear my voice and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life. You hath he quickened, Paul said. No man comes to the Father, but
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and He gives forgiveness, righteousness,
life, everything you need. Now we're able to worship Him.
That's spiritual life. Oh, I may not worship Him like
I ought to, but He told me to worship Him in spirit and truth.
Now I can worship Him. Now I'm able to serve Him in
whatever capacity He would want. I may not serve Him well, but
I have the blessed privilege of serving my King, my Lord. Now we pray in Jesus' name. Now
we have a new song. Even praise unto our God. Now
we have new desires for the things of God. Now we believe the gospel
of sovereign free grace. First time I heard that, I wondered
what in the world these people were talking about. Now I'm glad I know. I'm glad
the Lord revealed it to me. Because now I know what they're
talking about. Listen to this. Except you repent, you shall
likewise perish. John 10, 28. I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. We will not go through
that second death. Not only does He give us spiritual
life, but let me just close with this. He gives us eternal life. Eternal life. How do you describe eternal life? Here's how you do it. Jesus Christ
our Lord. He is eternal life. We'll be forever in Christ. We'll
be forever with Christ. As a matter of fact, Revelation
chapter 21 verse 3 says, He tabernacles with us. He pitches His tent
right with us. I go to prepare a place for you.
If I go prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you
unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also. We'll see the King and His beauty. Many of our loved ones are already
there. And they're seeing the King and
all His beauty. We have the descriptions in the
Word of God. Oh, what it will be like when
we stand before Him. We'll see Him as He is. We'll
be like Him. We will have a resurrected body,
a new body. There will be no more a body
that is dying. No pain, no sorrow, no suffering,
no fear. Because our names were reserved
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now how do I know I'm one of
those who have received sovereign pre-grace? Turn with me, and
this is where I'll close, to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, let's begin
with verse 6. How may I know that I'm one of
the elect? Verse 6. And hope maketh not shame, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,
which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength, there's repentance. I see myself with absolutely
no ability. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. I see myself
before God as an ungodly person. For scarcely for a righteous
man would one die, yet for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner, justified by the
blood of Jesus Christ, saved from the wrath through Him, reconciled
to God by the death of His Son, and saved by His life. That's what you'll read in the
next three verses. except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Heavenly Father, thank you for
the time we've had together to worship, praise, and honor the
name of Jesus Christ, who commanded our salvation. We confess to you that we are
but sinners, but we have a great and wonderful Savior. I pray,
Father, that you'll take the words, your words, and speak
to hearts. Save such as should be saved.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand in closing and sing
number 249, Just As I Am.