The lesson this morning is found
in Luke chapter 13, the last five verses of the chapter, verse
33-35. I titled the lesson this morning,
Old Jerusalem. He says to them, Old Jerusalem,
Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the center of all
Jewish worship. It was the home of the temple,
the priesthood. And sometimes it's used to describe
the city of God, the central point of worship. And sometimes
he uses it to describe all the chosen of God. And sometimes
he uses it when he's talking about the Jewish nation and that
economy. Let's read these verses together,
Luke chapter 13 beginning with verse 30. And behold there, that is at
the last day, the last time when Christ shall appear, there are
last which shall be first, and there are first that shall be
last. The same day, there came certain
of the Pharisees. Whenever he says certain of the
Pharisees, he's talking about those in the Sanhedrin. He's
talking about the high council, the uppity up in the Jewish religion,
as high as you could get. These were specific men. These
were men who were trained to talk and trained in the things
that they thought concerned God. There came certain of the Pharisees,
saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence, for Herod will
kill thee. See, they loved the crowds. They
were jealous of him because of the crowds. And what they wanted
to do was get rid of him. And they knew that Herod had
killed John the Baptist. They knew that. They knew that
Christ said he was his forerunner. and all of these things, so they're
telling him now, just get out, get away. Here it's gonna kill
you. And he said unto them, verse
32, go ye and tell that fox. Have you ever seen a fox? You
know a fox, little old thing, looks like a little poodle or
something. Scared of their own shadow. but nosy, always into stuff,
ready to steal, ready to grab a chicken and run, you know,
or whatever it is. You go tell that fox. I don't
know of any time when the Lord used much humor, but to me, he
was being humorous here when he told him that. You go tell
that fox. Behold, I cast out devils and
I do cures today. You want me? Here I am. I do
cures today and tomorrow. Can't get here today, come tomorrow.
I'll be right here. Be right here doing what I came
to do. I'll be here today and tomorrow,
now listen, and the third day, I shall be perfected. I'll be
perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk today
and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet
perish out of Jerusalem." And then he says to them, who's he talking to? He's talking
to that Pharisee. He's talking to the whole Jewish
nation. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I think I'd been angry or hurt
when they come to me, and I saw through their little scheme and
saw what they were doing, and all through this chapter he'd
been dealing with them, sharply rebuking them, telling the people
about them, exposing their fraudulent claims. And now he looks at them
with compassion, and those that have sat under their ministry
with compassion, and he says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which
killeth 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. Our Lord had been
dealing with the upper echelon of Israel, the Pharisees, scribes,
doctors of the law, and he now uses a proverb to describe them
and their future. If we keep this proverb in its
proper context, we'll have a clearer understanding of its meaning.
We're being urged to strive to enter in at the straight gate.
That's the context. That's what he's telling us.
They were so cocksure of their salvation. They were so certain
that they were saved and knew the Lord and that the Lord loved
them. Talk to your average church member. They're absolutely convinced
that they're saved. Absolutely convinced that God
loves them. And here he's telling them, he's
urging them to strive to enter in at the straight gate into
the right door, the right way, the kingdom of God. And we're to strive now, today,
not tomorrow, today. You know, we don't know that
we have a tomorrow. But we get up every day, work
every day, and plan every day like we've got 30 years. All
you have is today. That's all you have. Today, he
said, is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Well, when I get my house in
order, you never will. When I get ready. You never will. Today is the day of salvation. He said strive to enter in. Today,
this very hour. For the time is coming when the
door of mercy is going to be shut. And divine justice, unmitigated
justice and judgment shall be manifested. Somebody told me
one time, I was talking to them about the doctrines of grace. Talking to them about salvation
in Christ, and they said, all I want is what I got coming. No you don't. You don't want
that. You don't want that. And as I
studied these verses, I become overwhelmed with a sense of soberness. Reality, finality concerning
the ministry given to me of God. The scripture said, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall
be damned. And it's a sobering thing to
look into the face of a dying sinner knowing his end and consequences
of his hearing and not hearing the gospel we preach. Do you
know that this morning these might be the last words you hear
before you enter into eternity? There's a last message. I preached
to Brother Scott Richardson. He was in bad shape. I wanted
to see him before he died. And I went up and preached to
him. Nine or ten days later, he died. But I'll never forget
what he told me that evening when I got done preaching. He
took my hand. He said, I really like that.
I really like that. And I stopped to shake hands
with some others were coming up front, and he pulled me back
like only Scott would do, and he pulled me right up to his
face, and he said, no, he said, I really like that. As far as I know, that's the
last message he ever heard. Went out into eternity. It's a sobering thing for me
to look at your faces this morning. It's just sobering. It's a sobering
thing for me to sit in that pew and hear another man preach,
knowing this might be the last words I hear from God. Will the Lord grant him mercy
and grace, or will He leave you to yourself? Will He take what He's given
me and use it as a medicine? for a sin-sick soul? Would he use what I said to feed
the fire of his rebellion? It's a sobering thing. You know,
we were talking to a friend yesterday on the phone, and she was struggling
with this thing of what God told Moses. He said, when you go down
there, he said, I'll make you as a God before Father. But he does that with his preachers,
too. You never thought about it that way, did you? If you're
ever going to hear from God, you're going to hear from here.
You're going to hear from a preacher somewhere. God's not going to
speak to you out in a ditch, or out in a river, or out in
the woods. He'll speak to you through his preacher. And we
stand before men. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
5. Wherefore, we beseech you as though We are, give me just
a second, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us. Isn't that what he said? That's
what he said. That's what he said. Do we listen
that way? Do I prepare that way? I tell
you that scares the life out of me. I represent God before
this group of people. Your judgment will be based on
the words that I say. And somebody said, well, you
tell a preacher that and he'll get all puffed up. Oh, my soul,
no. It has the very opposite reaction.
The very opposite reaction. We watch for your souls, the
Scripture said, as those who must give account. Not way off
in the future somewhere. Right now. Right now. It's a sobering thing. What will
God do with what I have to say? These people were talking about
everything under the sun. They were quibbling over this
and that and the other. Using all sorts of trickery trying
to get rid of Christ. Alright, well let's begin with
the explanation of the Proverbs. The first application is to natural
Israel, the Gentiles, the heathen idolaters, the people furthest
from God are called first. They're first. First in the New
Testament. First to hear and receive and
rejoice in the gospel of God's sovereign grace. They shall by the grace of God
sit in the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And
there are first which shall be last. The Jews were the first
visible people, the first to be known as the elect of God,
to believe and profess faith in the word. To them he gave
the oracles of God, the prophets, the priesthood. Even Christ was
born a Jew. The gospel was first preached
to them. They shall, because of their
own belief, be last, and if I'm reading this right, rejected
of God. And there's another sense. He
said, you're going to watch these people, these Gentiles, you're
going to watch them come in and they're going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
But you're going to be without. You're not going to be there.
You're going to be without. You're going to be rejected.
You're going to be on the outside looking in. But there's another sense in
which this proverb can be taken. In Matthew 20, our Lord gives
the parable of the householder who hired some workers for a
penny a day. You remember the proverb. They
came in early in the morning, 5 o'clock in the morning. He said, I'll give you a penny.
I said, OK. Sounds good. Got their shovel
and hoe and went out and went to work. About noon, here comes
some more. We heard you was hiring. Yep.
How much you pay? A penny. Sounds good. Got their hoe and shovel, went
out and went to work. Got down about an hour before
quitting time. Here comes some folks. Hey, we
heard you're hiring. I know we're late, but do you
think you could use us? Yeah. Well, how much do we get? A penny. All right, get out there
and go to work. Six o'clock come, come time to
settle up. Here comes these guys been working
all day, out in the hot sun all day long. Here comes these women,
they just started at noon, and these others ain't been out there
an hour. They ain't broke a sweat yet. And here they are sitting
there, and he gives them each one a penny. And they said, whoa,
wait a minute, wait a minute. How come they get a penny and
we've been out there all day? He said, what'd you agree to?
Yeah? Penny. What you got? Penny. He said, but now I'm evil
because I'm good to you. You gonna tell me how evil I
am because I'm good? You gonna tell God how evil he
is because he saves all men the same way? I do you no harm, no wrong. You were in full agreement with
what I promised you. Is it not lawful for me to do
with my own what I will? Is thine eye evil because I am
good? Grace has no bearing on what
you do and how long you do it. No bearing whatsoever. Grace
is grace. If it be of works, the scripture
said, then is it no more grace. There's no bearing. If salvation
be of grace, then it's no more works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. And nobody, not a Jew or a Gentile,
not religious or heathen, is deserving of grace. Grace is
the gift of God. And in Matthew 20, having explained
this parable, he said in verse 16, So the last shall be first,
and the first shall be last. Now there is a true Israel of
God, a spiritual Israel, God's chosen people, loved of God,
made provision for of God, redeemed by the blood, made righteous
in their representative, and they shall be called and they
shall be saved to the uttermost and all the rest left to themselves. That's just so. That's just so. He said in Romans chapter 11,
talking about that election of grace, here's what he said when
he got through saying it. So then, so then, Israel didn't
seek what it obtained for, but election, election obtained it,
and the rest were blinded. That's what Scripture said. And this is the Proverbs definition
according to the scriptures. And then secondly, we have here
another failed attempt by the Jews to get Christ out of the
equation. Same day there came certain of
the Pharisees saying unto him, get thee out and depart hence,
for Herod will kill thee. Luke 13 verse 31. It's possible
that Herod may have desired to kill the Savior. He may have.
He killed John the Baptist. But I think he was sorrowful
at the death of John the Baptist. He didn't want to kill John the
Baptist, he did it for other reasons. And I don't think he
designed to kill the Savior. You remember when he and Pilate
came together at the crucifixion of Christ, he longed to see the
Savior. He hoped to see one of his miracles. He hoped to see some things better.
I don't think he sat around and secretly desired to kill Christ.
I don't believe that at all. But whether he did or not, it's
not relevant here because these men wanted him to live. Now the
one thing all false religions have in common is their intolerance
of Christ. Their intolerance of Christ. They'll tolerate just about anything
else except a steady diet of Christ. They won't tolerate it. Soon as he's gone, they can do
whatever they want to. They can go back to business
as usual. They can find a hundred issues
to bring it to pass, but the bottom line is Christ. They wanted
rid of Christ. After the Gadarene demoniac was
set free, think about that, a legion of demons in this man. They couldn't
bind him with chains. He'd bust the chains. He was
uncontrollable. lived in the tombs, demon-possessed to the hilt. Society couldn't stand him. They
couldn't do anything with him. Christ come along, cast the demons
out. Next time they saw him, he was
sitting clothed in his right mind. Well, you'd have thought that
whole community had been thankful, wouldn't you? No? But what did they want after
that? They wanted Christ to depart. Isn't that what it says? Depart
out of our country. We don't want you here. The same way with us preachers.
After being confirmed by God in the healing of the lame man
laid at the gate called beautiful, the Jews said to Peter that they
were grieved that he taught the people and preached through Jesus
the resurrection of the dead. They were grieved at that. And
they said, what shall we do? For that a notable miracle's
been done. He healed this lame man. They
knew him. He'd been lame from birth. And now this man's not
lame anymore. You can't deny the work of God
that he did in him. And they said, what are we going
to do? A notable miracle's been done. And it was manifested before
all Jerusalem. We can't hide it. But that it spread no further
among the people, it straightly threatened them that they speak
no more to any man in Jesus' name. Get that gospel out of
here. Get it out of here. It causes
trouble. Billy Graham was asked on national TV, he said, you
were once a Calvinist, weren't you? He said, yes, I was. Yes,
I was. Well, he said, you don't preach
a Calvinistic doctrine now. He said, no, I don't. And he
said, well, what caused you to change? He said, it was ruining
my ministry. It will. If you have one, it'll
ruin it. It'll ruin it. After that glorious work of God
through Paul at Antioch, The Jews stirred up the devout and
honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution
against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coast.
Get out. Get away from us. Christ is the
stumbling block of religion. His presence, his power, his
doctrine, it's a fly anointment to religion. It ruins everything. It flies up in their face, it's
contrary to free will. There's only one free will, that's
the free will of God. And to the unbelieving religionist,
he's a stone of stumbling, 1 Peter 2.8, and a rock of offense, even
to them that stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. And then thirdly, the tender
mercy and compassion of Christ is declared. Luke 13, 34. Can you imagine all the times
that these people flew up in his face, tempted him, tried
to trick him, lambasted him behind his back? He knew their thoughts,
Winston. God knows the thoughts and intents
of the heart. He don't wait for you to utter
something. He knows it before you say it. And He knows your
motives. And then He turns to this people
and He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, all these that I've ministered
to, all these that I've performed miracles before, all of those
who came here to hear me, see me, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
which killeth the prophets. You murderers. It goes back in your family history.
They were murderers. You do always. Huh? Isn't that what he said? You
do always. What do you do? You resist the
Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do you.
You kill the prophets, which killest the prophets, and
stonest them that are sent unto thee. How often, how often would
I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather
her brood under her wings, and ye would not. The gospel is not a tease to
unbelieving men and women. If that's how you think about
it, you need to think again. God's not teasing the unbelieving
by giving them something that they can't believe. The gospel's
not a tease to unbelieving men and women. It's not a holding
forth of the cure and saying, I'll let you see it, but you
can't have it. Our Lord is a tender, compassionate,
willing Savior. He delights to show mercy. The
problem here is not our Lord's unwillingness to save, but man's
unwillingness to be saved. That's where it's at. When he
said, come unto me all you that are weary and heavy laden, he
meant all you that are weary and heavy laden. Come on! You think that wasn't a sincere
call? In Proverbs he said, I stretched
out my hand and nobody regarded. Was the problem that he wouldn't
stretch out his hand? No. The problem was they wouldn't
regard it. It's not our Lord's unwillingness
to save, it's man's unwillingness to be saved. And oh, how these
words inspire me to preach. How they run. They're just dripping
with mercy and grace. They in no wise violate the character
of God. It simply reveals the inward
sin of man. Their souls were never a consideration
to them, but they were to Him. They were to Him. Judgment and hell were never
a consideration with them, but they were with Him. The inability of man was never
a consideration to them, but it was to Him. He preached to
them. God's not the cold, hard separation
that men make Him out to be. His gospel is sent out to every
creature, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl. In the
last verses of the book of Revelation, He said, Let him that heareth
say, Come. Come on! I'm not afraid to say
it. Come on! Come to Christ! And let him that is athirst come. Are you thirsty? Come on! What's holding you back? Why
won't you come to it? Let him that is athirst come,
and whosoever will. Are you willing? His people shall be willing in
the day of his power. He's not going to save one unwilling
soul. Every one of them be willing. Are you thirsty? Are you willing?
Are you looking? Look to Christ, all ye ends of
the earth, and be ye saved. Who? All ye ends of the earth. and be ye saved. Oh, it's a sincere
cause. And he didn't turn his back and
sharply walk away. He said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And then lastly, all those who
will not come to Christ, he says in verse 35, behold, 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. John Gill made this statement. He said this statement was not
directed to a handful of rebels, but to the Jewish nation in general. And Paul tells us in Romans 11
that even then, there were a remnant according to the election of
grace, and God shall save some. And in that great and awful day,
there'll be some by the grace of God who shall say to him,
and when he comes in the glory of his father's house, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. But there's another sense. Every
knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess Jesus
to be Lord. Now listen to the glory of God
the Father. Without violating one thing in
the character of God, He was Lord. Lord of what? He was Lord
in the beginning. He's God. He's Lord. But they're
talking about Lord in a different sense here. They're talking about
the Savior being Lord. giving Him all power over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father
had given Him. And in that day, they're all
going to say, they're going to bow to Him as Lord. He was Lord
of salvation, Lord of redemption, Lord of God's purpose, and everything
He did glorified God. They're all going to say it.
Blessed is He. Comes in the name of the Lord.
Everything He did was right. Hymn writer said, you sinners
seek his grace, whose wrath you cannot bear. Fly to the shelter
of his cross and find salvation there. Oh, my soul, may the Lord
be pleased to open our minds and hearts and move us to come
to Christ. Come to Christ. All right, thank
you.