We welcome you to our services
today. It looks like we just have home folks, and that's good.
We like home folks. Glad to see everybody out. You
can see the title of this message is Accept, You Repent. We'll
be looking in Luke's Gospel, Chapter 13, the first five verses. We're going to look at an emphatic
statement made by Christ to his heroes here. In fact, we're going
to look at three emphatic statements. Two of them will be found in
other places. But these are vital commands. These are commands
involving life and death issues. They're imperatives. To continue
on in disobedience to any one of these three commands is to
continue in a way that seems right, but it's a way that ends
in death. Look at Luke 13 verse 1 now.
Verses 1 and 2. It says, there were present at
that season some that told him, that told 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,
sinners above all, the worst of sinners. Look on it, verse
three. Christ said, I tell you, nay,
but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Now this
is that first emphatic statement. It's a life and death issue.
Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Look on
it, verses four and five in our text. This is another group. Or those 18 upon whom the tower
of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners
above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay, except you repent. Repent of such thinking. You
shall all likewise perish. Now Christ is using two different
instances here where sinners died some horrible, horrendous
deaths. The one was where Pilate where
some Galileans were sacrificing to God and Pilate slaughtered
them and took their blood and mingled it with the sacrifices
they were offered. Horrendous death. And the other
was where 18 died when a tower fell on them. A tower of Siloam. Siloam was a part of Solomon's
Temple. It was a place where sinners
infirm sinners mostly came to bathe. Some of them had to be
brought, but they thought the waters had some kind of medicinal
or healing powers. And a tower fell on them. And
both parties mentioned, like I said, they were horrible deaths. Christ asked these that he's
addressing here what he knew they were thinking. He said,
do you suppose that these were the worst possible sinners? Sinners
above all, because they suffered such horrible terrific, gruesome
deaths. Do you think that their tragic
deaths must, of necessity, be an indication of the greatness
of their sinnerhood? Do you think these sinners died
the way they did because they must, they must have deserved
such a death? They must have deserved this
horrible death because of the kind of sinners they were. Christ
is addressing a foundational error here. in the thinking of
all of us by nature. It's foundational. What is that
era? That there are degrees of centerhood. There's some lesser sinners,
some greater sinners. That there are degrees of deservingness. Some more deserving, some less
deserving. This is foundational. It's fundamental
because this is the way we all think by nature. This is the
way we all judge by nature. By nature, we all believe that
we can do something to become less deserving of God's wrath.
We believe that we can do something to become more deserving of God's
favor. Think about the Philippian jailer.
He asked Paul and Silas, after hymns were sung and they preached
the gospel, he said, Sirs, what must I do? What can I do? Get out from under the wrath
of God. What must I do to be saved? And also you'll recall
a story in the scriptures concerning a rich young ruler who came to
Christ and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? And you remember the story. I'm
not going, we're not going to read it here, but Christ told
him, you know what the law says. Do no murder. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness to your
neighbor and on. And the rich young ruler says,
I've kept all these things from my youth up. And Christ said,
you lack one thing then. Go sell all that you have, give
it to the poor, and come and follow me. And the young man
went away sorrowful because he had much possessions, the scripture
says. But here's what I want you to
see about this story. Listen to the response of the
disciples to this story about the rich young ruler. Look at
Mark chapter 10 and verses 26 and 27. And they, the disciples,
were astonished out of measure, Christ's answer here, saying
among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon
them said, with men it is impossible, salvation is impossible, but
not with God, for with God all things are possible. The disciples
were astonished that Christ said of this wealthy man, this ruler
of men, this zealous religionist, the one zealous to keep the law,
they were astonished that Christ said that these things gave no
indication that he was saved. And why were they astonished?
They were astonished because at that time, these things that
this man mentioned made up a major part, if not all, of their judgment
of saved and lost. So the disciples were lacking. They had an error in this area.
And it's not just the thinking of the disciples. It's the thinking
of all of us by nature. Haven't you heard or said of
yourself, of someone who survived a terrible tragedy, they must
have been doing something right. They dodged a bullet there, didn't
they? Or there was a saying that was going around when I was a
young man. I grew up on a farm. I grew up in a farming community,
and this farmer over here would get abundant rainfall, and this
one over here maybe lacked rainfall. And so what did we say? We said,
he must be paying the preacher. He must be doing right. These,
they must not be doing right. Or maybe you've said of a city
like so many did of New Orleans devastated by the Hurricane Katrina,
they finally got what they deserved. Or of a sinner who's died, they
must have gone to heaven. because they sure suffered tremendously
on this earth, a sinner maybe who had a sickness for a long
time. These are all statements that
we make before God teaches us about his standard of judgment.
Are some sinners more deserving of God's temporal judgment in
this world than others? Were these deserving to be killed
by a tower falling on them or a pilot mingling their blood
with their sacrifice? If they are more deserving, then
that of necessity means that some are less deserving than
others. If there's a more, there's got to be a less. Back in our
context, in Luke, the issue is degrees of sinnerhood, it's degrees
of deservedness. Because these Galileans and these
18 died such horrible deaths, the reasoning of those Christ
was talking to, they must have been the greatest, they must
have been the worst of sinners. And what about God's eternal
wrath against sin? Are there degrees of deservedness
here as well? Is one sinner more deserving
of God's eternal wrath than another? If so, then some must be less
deserving than others. Truth is, all are equally deserving
of God's eternal wrath. The bottom line on the problem
that Christ is addressing here, it's an error in judgment. It's
an error in our standard of judgment. It's especially an error in our
standard of judging saved and lost. When it comes to judgment,
especially judging saved and lost. All of us, by nature, have
the same hang-up. We have the same problem. We
share the same error in judgment. We insist on judging by what
we see. We insist on judging by appearance.
We insist on comparing ourselves with others, which the Apostle
Paul said to the Corinthians, that's not a wise thing to do.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 12. Paul says, for we dare not make
ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend
themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and
comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Now Paul in this
context is addressing preachers comparing themselves with other
preachers, but it applies to believers as well. We like to
compare ourselves with others. That's what we do by nature.
Let me show you how this mindset, one sinner comparing himself
with other sinners, let me show you how that plays out in the
scriptures. We can see it in the Pharisee. Now, who's the
Pharisee? The Pharisee is a religious person. In fact, he's a zealously
religious person. He's a keeper of the law. He's
probably among, if not one of the most zealous religious people
of his day. He's a student of the Word. He
knows what the Word says. But ultimately, the Pharisee
is one who looked at himself and saw righteousness within. He saw that he was doing pretty
good compared to other men. He was measuring up pretty well.
Look at Luke 18 and verse 9. And he, Christ, spoke this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous
and despised others. You see, This is the parable
of the Pharisee and the publican. And the Pharisee trusted in himself
that he was righteous. Or that could be that he trusted
that he had a righteousness within. What I want you to see is the
attitude that the Pharisee's thinking caused him to have toward
this publican and toward others that he lived in this world with.
Look at that last phrase. And because he was self-righteous,
he despised others. Because he saw himself righteous
within. Because he thought he was doing
something that made up his righteousness. This zealous, dedicated, religious
man despised others. And that's really all that self-righteousness
can lead to. Despising those who aren't measuring
up. to our standard. They aren't
measuring up to us or someone else we put up on a pedestal.
That's what this mindset causes in life. And then look where
this mindset causes sinners to end up. Look at Matthew chapter
7, verse 21 through 23. Christ said, Not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, he's talking about the day of
judgment here, the day of final judgment. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in
thy name have cast out devils and then in thy name done many
wonderful works. In other words, they think, compared
to other people, they've done all that was required of them.
They've done enough for God to let them into heaven because
of these things that they've done. But look at verse 23, and
Christ said, Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you,
depart from me, you that work iniquity. Like I said, this is
final judgment. Those Christ is speaking to here
are religious people. They preached in his name. They
did many wonderful things, good works in his name. They cast
out demons in his name. They're religious. They're careful
to give God the credit for the things that they mentioned. We
did it in your name, they said. But therein, you see, was eternal
misery. Not only is comparing ourselves
with others not wise, it can only cause us to despise others.
And not only is comparing ourselves with others deadly, it leaves
us on the way which seems right, but ends in eternal misery. But
such judgment is clearly forbidden by the scriptures. Look at John
7 and verse 24. Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Judge, the scripture says. It
never forbids judgment. To forbid judgment would be a
judgment. You can't not judge. That's an
impossibility. The scriptures never command
no judgment. But they do command that we judge
not by appearance. the very way the disciples judged,
the very way that the Pharisee judged, the very way that those
in Matthew 7 judged, the way that all of us judge by nature,
it's the very way that the Scriptures forbid us to judge. The two-fold
command is don't judge by appearance. That's how we judge by nature,
by appearance, and the Scripture forbids that judgment. But it
does say do judge, do judge righteous judgment. Now, righteous judgment
is something not one of us knows by nature. It's something we
have to be taught. It's something we have to hear
from the gospel. It's something we're all ignorant
of until God teaches us. What is righteous judgment? Well,
righteous judgment is judging the way God judges. It's judging
by God's standard of judgment. And what is God's standard of
judgment? Look at Psalm chapter 9, verses 7 and 8. It said, but the Lord shall endure
forever. He hath prepared his throne for
judgment, and he shall judge the world in righteousness. He
shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. He will judge the world in righteousness,
not one we think we've measured up to. but the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel, the righteousness Christ Himself
worked out by His obedience unto death. And look on at Acts 17,
verse 30 and 31 to see that more clearly. This is Paul addressing
those on Mars Hill, and he said, in the times of this ignorance,
where God just winked at, overlooked the Gentiles in the way they
worship, or attempted to worship God, The times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Why? Because he's appointed a day
into which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men, and that he has raised him from the dead. See, he gives
assurance to all men that he's going to judge the world by that
man whom he raised from the dead. That's what that's talking about.
Now that's why Christ is so emphatic in his command in our passage
in Luke chapter 13. That's why he's so insistent
that our thinking be changed on this issue. For any sinner
to continue on in wrong thinking, in a wrong standard of judgment,
is beheaded for eternal death. Look back at Luke chapter 13
and verses 3 through 5. Christ said, I tell you, nay,
but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And then
he repeats that in verse five. I tell you, no. That is, your
thinking is wrong here. Your standard of judgment is
wrong here. except unless you repent of such
judgment, unless you change your mind, unless you undergo a radical
change in your thinking, unless your standard of judgment is
changed, you shall all likewise perish. You are headed for eternal
misery. The truth on this matter is there
are no degrees of deservedness, whether of God's temporal or
eternal judgments, or of his temporal or eternal blessings. We're all sinners by nature and
by practice. And as sinners, we're all equally
deserving of God's judgments, both temporal and eternal. All
are equally undeserving of God's blessings, both temporal and
eternal. Temporally speaking, I don't
and you don't deserve the next breath we take. We don't deserve
it. I don't and you don't deserve
to live in a country like America and the freedoms and opportunities
that we have here. Neither of us deserves a healthy
and prosperous life. We have these things for one
reason, because God has determined to show us temporal mercy in
this life. And that's the only reason we
haven't done anything to deserve it. What have I done to deserve
to be healthy this morning? I mean, I haven't done anything
special any more than the person who's laying on a bed sick somewhere.
If God gave us what we deserve, if he gave us what we earned,
he would give us death. We're sinners and the ultimate
result of sin is physical death. Life itself and the temporal
blessings we enjoy in this life are ours only because God has
determined to give them to us. Now this is equally true of God's
eternal blessings. If God gave us what we deserve,
He'd send us all to eternal misery. The scripture is clear, the wages
of sin, all that sin can earn is death, eternal death. That's
it, nothing less. If you or I go to heaven, that
is, if we're saved, it's not because we did something to earn
it or did something to deserve it, but it's only because God
has determined it, because He put us in Christ, because He
sent Christ into this world to do what we couldn't do, to obey
the law perfectly and to lay down a perfect sacrifice before
God, one that would bring in everlasting righteousness. If
we're saved, That's the only reason, because God has charged
us with the righteousness Christ worked out. What makes you think,
what makes me think that we will escape the wrath of God? If your
answer right here is anything but the mercy and grace of God
in Christ, then you're still judging by a different standard
than God is. If your answer is anything but
to have the righteousness Christ worked out, charged, imputed
to my account, then you're still in need of that repentance that
Christ is talking about here in Luke 13. Now Christ addressed
a similar issue in a different setting and with different words,
but with the same conclusion. Look at Matthew chapter 18 in
verse 1. At the same time came the disciples
unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The disciples are voicing the
same idea as Jesus addressed with them in Luke 13. The issue
is degrees. There, it was degrees of deservedness. Here, it's degrees of greatness.
Who's the greatest? Who's the least? Where do I fit
in? I've got to fit in somewhere.
Am I the greatest? Am I the least? Where do I fit in? Ultimately,
it's the same error in judgment, and I remind you of Christ's
command from Luke 13, except you repent, you shall all likewise
perish. Godly repentance requires sinners
to do something totally out of character for the natural man.
It requires us to lose our independence. It requires us to become totally
dependent. Look on in this context here
in Luke 18 verses 2 and 3. In response to the disciples
wanting to know who's the greatest, Jesus called a little child unto
him and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily I say
unto you, except you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then one
verse, Mark 10 and verse 15. Verily I say unto you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he
shall not enter therein." What does it mean to become as little
children? What does it mean to receive
the kingdom of God as little children? Well, it means to lose
your independence and to become totally dependent. That's what
a little child is. They're totally dependent upon someone else to
take care of them. Someone else has to fill their
needs. Someone else has to feed them, clothe them, bathe them,
make sure they're safe. They're totally dependent upon
others. And you know, independence is
what we're working for from day one. Even a toddler, even a young
person, they're working to be independent. They want to do
it. Let me do it. Independence has
taught to us from day one, and we began it early on. We don't
want to be dependent. We want to be independent. Losing
our independence, becoming totally dependent, It's not a position
any of us will ever choose by nature in any area of life, in
salvation either, not by choice. Becoming totally dependent requires
a work of grace in the heart. It requires a radical change
in our thinking. It requires a conversion. Christ
said, except you be converted and become as little children,
you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. Then who and what must
we become dependent on? Sinners are totally dependent
on God, on His mercy, on His grace. As sinners, we're totally
dependent on God to give us what we can earn and what we don't
deserve. As sinners, we're totally dependent
on Christ who has done everything a just and holy God demands in
the salvation of ungodly sinners. Seeing and acknowledging our
total dependence on Christ is the evidence that we're saved. that we're certain for final
glory. Look at John 6, and we'll start in verse 30, but this is
a long discourse right here, and I took some verses. I'm not
going to be taking these out of context, but this is too long
a discourse for us to read. I'll just be reading several
verses from here. Look at John 6, 30 through 33. Those Christ's addressing said
therefore unto him, what sign showest thou that we may see
and believe? They wanted a sign. They wanted
him to show him something that would prove that he's the Christ,
that he's the son of God. What does thou work? Our fathers
did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. And then look on in this same
context of verses 48 through 51. Christ said, I am the bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, and they're dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." And
look on at verses 53 and 54. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. We see here another
of those emphatic statements. I've got it underlined there.
that Christ made to his hearers. Now obviously Christ is not talking
about cannibalism here or anything like that, literally eating his
flesh or literally drinking his blood. He's talking about becoming
totally dependent upon him, totally dependent upon Christ, upon what
he did to glorify his father in the salvation of ungodly sinners. Christ alone met and satisfied
God's standard. He alone made perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice. He alone established the one
righteousness by which God is just to justify ungodly sinners. Christ is the bread of life.
And he said in verse 54, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, Hath eternal life. Whoever becomes totally dependent
upon Christ for all their salvation and loses their dependence upon
what they've done in any way to any degree, totally dependent
upon Christ, hath eternal life. The repentance Christ is commanding
in Luke 13 then is a radical change of mind concerning our
standard of saved and lost. Repentance is losing our independence
and becoming totally dependent. Repentance is looking to and
resting in Christ alone for all of salvation. Christ said, except
you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Except you be converted
and become as little children, you shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. These
are emphatic statements. They're imperative. They are
commands. Unless you do these things, You
don't have life. Unless you obey these commands,
you're headed for eternal death. So let me cover an issue here
just prior to my closing. Since these are emphatic statements,
since they are commands, since they are things that have to
be done, unless you do them, you have no life. Does that mean
that these are conditions for salvation? In other words, does
that mean that if you obey these commands, God will save you?
If you'll just do this, if you'll just repent, God will save you.
Does that mean that our response to God will cause Him to accept
us? That it'll be the cause of God
accepting us in any way whatsoever? The answer to these questions
is no, no, emphatically no. There are no conditions sinners
must meet in order to be saved. If there were conditions, if
there was one condition, even a little condition, all of us
would be bound for eternal misery. Why? Because all are born into
this world spiritually dead. For you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin. All are born into this world
totally unable, with absolutely no ability to respond to God
in a spiritual way. We're spiritually dead. You see,
we have to be given life on some basis not found in us, not found
in us in any way, shape, or form, but found entirely on the righteousness
Christ worked out and that charged our account. Spiritually dead sinners have
no ability to respond to God. It would be as impossible for
a spiritually dead sinner to respond to God as it would have
been for Lazarus to come out of that tomb on his own. You
remember the story of Lazarus? He died. He was dead four days
and Christ came and Martha said, I think it was Martha said, Lord,
you know by now he stinketh. He was truly dead. He was in
the tomb, and he would have remained in that tomb with no ability
to deliver himself, except Christ said, Lazarus, come forth. Now,
that's a picture. That's not God giving Lazarus
spiritual life there. It's a picture of spiritual life,
though. It's a picture of what God does in regeneration based
on Christ's work alone and under the sound of the gospel. The
Spirit of God comes to a sinner and gives him life, and on that
basis, as a fruiting result of what Christ has done, he's enabled
by the Spirit of God to respond to the Gospel, to believe it,
and to repent, as we've been talking about in the Scriptures. Changing your standard of saved
and lost. beginning to judge saved and
lost by Christ's imputed righteousness alone, becoming totally dependent
upon Christ for all of salvation, these are not conditions sinners
meet in order for God to save them. They are rather evidences
that God has already saved them. They are evidences that the Spirit
of God has done His work in the heart. They are evidences that
can only be the fruit and result of Christ's righteousness imputed.
If you find yourself having no hope of salvation but in Christ's
imputed righteousness alone, if you find yourself there today,
rejoice. That's an evidence that you've
found grace in the sight of God. It's evidence that God has been
merciful to you, the sinner. In Luke 13, Christ is addressing
sinners who are judging by appearance. He's speaking to those who are
comparing themselves with others. He's confronting those who are
not judging by God's standard of righteousness. Well, what
about you? What about me? Has God changed
our thinking on this issue? Have we understood that God's
standard is not how we compare with other sinners in this world?
but how we compare with Christ, the only perfect one that's ever
walked among us, among men? How does our righteousness compare
to the righteousness He worked out by His obedience unto death? He is God's standard of judgment. God will judge the world by His
righteousness and no other way. God is not willing that any of
His elect should perish. but that all, every one of them,
should come to repentance. We all, every one of us, start
out judging saved and lost by a standard that robs God of his
glory. We judge by appearance. We compare
ourselves with others. It's the standard that fails
to give Christ the preeminence he deserves. It's the standard
that causes us to boast of our own self-righteousness and despise
others. Clearly, the end of that road
judging by appearance, comparing ourselves with others, clearly
the end of that road is eternal death. But just like those in
Luke 13, that's where all of us are headed, except we repent.