Luke's Gospel chapter 13. I looked at this text last Monday
night at the nursing home, and I want to look at it again this
morning. I didn't look at it with you,
at least most of you, but with some dear old people. And I want
to share it with you this morning. Luke chapter 13, beginning verse
1 through verse 5. There were present at that season
some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Suppose you that these Galileans were sinners above
all the Galileans because they suffered such things, I tell
you nay. But except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. Are those eighteen upon whom
the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, thank ye that they
were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you
no. But except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. I have sometimes read this passage
and thought, what a dangerous world, an uncertain world that
you and I live in. From quarters that we may least
suspect, not only injuries can arise, but death can come. We
love our nation. We love rulers. Government is
essential to our well-being. God has established them. God
sets up a government. God pulls down governments. The
king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. But government rulers can be
so evil. We're told here of a situation
where Pilate, the governor, sent forth and slew a number
of Jews, Galileans, while they were in the midst of their religious
worship, offering sacrifices. We're not told why he did this.
We don't know if they had opposed some of his policies, if they
had spoken evil against him, if he just didn't like Galileans.
We're not told why. But they were in a worship service. Being Jews, they were offering
their sacrifices, and Pilate sent his soldiers and slew these
people, and their blood ran out and mingled with their sacrifices. Now, while government is a good
thing, God help us, brothers and sisters, if we put our trust
in it. Cursed be the man that trusteth
in man, and maketh flesh his arm. I'm going to vote in a few
days in this political race that's coming up. You probably will
too. And we should exercise that right and liberty. But we do
it with this thought, knowing that God is our protector. God is our help. God is our strength. If this nation falls or if it
stands, It's in the hands of our great eternal God. We do
not put our confidence in those who may say today, we love you
dearly, we're doing this for your good, and tomorrow may turn
and spill our blood. We don't trust in men, our governments,
our political parties. I don't know if these men here
fled for protection to the temple wherever this took place. Maybe
they knew that Pilate was angry with them, and so maybe they
fled to the temple. Surely this will be a place of
refuge. But brothers and sisters, listen
to me. Near religion is no place to hide. It won't hide us from
the face and wrath of men. How much more from the face and
wrath of God? I go to Tennessee sometimes,
and there is a church there on my way, and I've always noticed
the name of the church. It's a Camelot church. It's a
church of Christ. They believe in water baptism
for regeneration. But the name of the church is
the Refuge Church of Christ. And I often think to myself,
dear folks, that's no refuge. That's no refuge. There is but
one refuge, and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. If these men
were fleeing from Pilate and said, He'll never touch us here
while we're worshiping and in our religious activities, they
were sadly fooled, weren't they? Because he slew them. But there
was something else that happened here in verse 4. There was a
tower at Siloam. We're not told here about it,
and there's good reason for it. History doesn't say much about
it. But there was a tower here at Siloam, and while some men
were there bathing or in the shade or doing something associated
with this tower, Suddenly, probably we would call it an accident,
it fell on these 18 people and slew them. It killed them. I tell you, if one thing don't
take us from this world, something else is going to. Do you know
that? That's what I'm saying. When I read this, I realize this
is a dangerous world we live in. You flee from one enemy and
another one gets you. You flee from somebody who knows
he is going to persecute you and you run into an accident
and you kill that way. This is a dangerous world that
you and I live in. Something is going to take us. Violence, an accident, disease,
old age. Something will take us from this
world. But the Lord Jesus uses this
occasion of this pilot killing these people this incident. And he uses it to remind these
people of something exceedingly more serious than how we leave
this world. And that's our condition after
we leave this world. Notice what he says there in
verse 3. He says, I tell you nay, but
except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. He wasn't describing the death
itself. He wasn't saying, if you don't
repent, Pilate's going to kill you. He wasn't saying, if you
don't repent, the Tower of Salome is going to fall on you. But
what he was saying was, after you die, There is a world to come. There
is a life after this life. And if you don't repent, you
will perish. He used this word different places
in His messages. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, should not perish,
but have everlasting life. He uses this term in To describe
the condition, the sad and eternal condition of those who die without
hope. Those who die lost. What's their
condition? They are perishing. They are
continually perishing. Dying. But death will never come. Perishing. But as we think about
the Lord making a statement like this, and we look at Him, And
he's just a normal looking man. He doesn't have a halo over his
head. He is aging. His face is dark
with the sun. You can tell that he looks much
older than he really is. And here's a man that's talking
about the state of people after they die. He knows their condition. He knows what they're going through.
And the question is asked, how could He possibly know what state
they're in? We can guess at men's condition
when they're living by the fruits that they produce. But how could
anybody know the state and condition of any person after he leaves
this world? The Son of God does. How could
he know that? He's no ordinary man, is he?
He's no mere man. He's the eternal Son of God. Even our humanity, he had men
to come around him, was thinking evil against him. Who is that that forgives sin?
That's what they thought. And he read their minds. Our
minds, our thoughts, our motives are naked and open in the eyes
of this man. But not only our minds and this
world is open, you know eternity is open to him. There is no limit
to his knowledge. The man, Christ Jesus, The Scripture
says that all things are naked and open in the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do. Job said this about Him. Hell
is naked before Him. He knows what's going on there.
He knows who goes there. And He knows what they suffer
there. He told us about a rich man who died and went to hell. And in hell he lift up his eyes
and he was in torment. And he said, have mercy upon
me. The Lord heard him when he said that. The Lord saw him.
Though he offered him and gave him no help, he knows the condition
of all men. He says, if you don't repent,
you will perish just like they are perishing. But you know something?
He not only knows the condition of those who are gone and the
state they're in, but he knows the state of those who are here
right now. He knows, He knows, except you repent, you shall
perish. How did He know their condition?
Because He knew their heart. He knew their minds. He knew
their thoughts. The Lord Jesus doesn't confront
us with these things like this to torment us simply. But He
confronts us with these things that we may know that He's not
playing games with us. He confronts us with eternal
things, even with the eternal damnation. And why does He do
that to these people? To prepare them for death and
for eternity. Now this may sound very harsh,
but this is not my words. It may sound harsh to look at
a group of people and say, there are some people that Pilate just
killed. And they died an awful death.
And they were religious people. But they're in hell. That may
sound harsh. And those 18 people, God have
mercy upon those 18 people who died this awful death. They were
crushed. And maybe there was a cousin
of one of these people in the crowd. Maybe there were some
relatives that said, I really miss that person. that died in
that awful accident. And it may have seemed harsh
of Jesus Christ to say, you know what's happening to them right
now? They're perishing. But you know why He does that?
He's honest. He is honest. He's not going
to withhold the truth from us about anything. It may break
our hearts. It may shock us. But He's going
to confront us with the reality of what takes place after a lost
person dies. I don't care if it's my mother.
I don't care if it's my children. I don't care if it's my wife.
I don't care if it's me. The Son of God is good. He's
gentle. He's meek and He's lowly. A bruised
reed will He not break, and smoking flax will He not quench. But
I tell you what, He'll confront us with the truth. He'll do it. And aren't you thankful for that?
When you were deceiving yourself and you would not confront the
truth, He made you confront it. Aren't you thankful for that? So He says to these people here,
repentance, repentance. except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish." What is repentance? What is repentance? Now, this is a very important
subject, and we can't get into all of what repentance means.
But I want to look at it just for a second, what it means here.
And He tells them the only way you can secure your souls is
by repentance. If you don't repent, you will
perish. So that makes us ask the question,
it's crucial to know what He meant by repentance. What is
repentance? You know, the Bible tells us
that plainly in a very simple statement. I want you to hold
Luke chapter 13, and I want you to look over right quickly, just
to get a definition of repentance. In 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Look in verse 24. 2 Timothy 2,
verse 24. The servant of the Lord must
not strive, but he must be gentle unto all men, apt to teach patiently,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God
preadventure will give them repentance. What is repentance? The acknowledging
of the truth. Repentance is coming to the knowledge
of the truth. And repentance is confessing. It's acknowledging that truth. To whom? To yourself and to God. Repentance towards God. So when the Lord Jesus is telling
these people here in our text, except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish." Why did they need repentance concerned?
What truth was it that they must come to the knowledge of? Well, it comes right down, brothers
and sisters, to this. They had too high an opinion
of themselves. That was their whole problem.
They were looking down their nose at everybody else. They were always comparing themselves
to someone else and they said this, at least I'm not as bad
as that person. That was their attitude that
they had. They heard of Pilate killing
these people, and here's what they thought within their hearts.
These must have been some bad people. These must have been
evil people for such an awful thing to happen to them. They
heard about this tower falling on these 18 people. They said,
I can't imagine how bad those people were to suffer like they've
suffered. I thank God that I'm not that
bad. They came to the Lord Jesus and
they said, you heard about Pilate killing those people? You heard
about that bad thing happening to them? Boy, they must have
been bad people. The Lord Jesus said, do you suppose
that they were sinners more than you? Do you think those Galileans
were sinners? Those upon whom the tower fell,
do you think they were sinners worse than you? I tell you now,
just because they died such a violent, unexpected death, just because
they suffered like they suffered, yes, they're perishing, but so
will you if you don't repent of your high attitude that you
have of yourself. The Lord told us about a Pharisee
here in the 18th chapter. Look at this, in the 18th chapter
of this same book. Luke deals a lot with this whole
attitude of holier than thou. I'm better than you are. I'm
morally better. I'm theologically better. I tell
you, self-righteousness comes in a lot of different forms,
brothers and sisters. You have to be extremely aware
of it. There's some people brag that they're not like everybody
else because they wear their long dresses and they wear their
long sleeves and they keep their hair cut short and they're awfully
clean looking and religious looking. Other people brag about their
systems of theology. Boy, look how straight I am in
my theology. I believe the truth. I'm not
like those other people. Self-righteousness comes in a
lot of forms, doesn't it? But in the end, it's simply having
a higher opinion of yourself than you should. And what kind
of opinion should we have of ourselves? Here's what the Bible
says, if a man thinks himself to be something when he's nothing,
if a man thinks more highly of himself to think, I'm something
rather than nothing, he must repent. He must repent. Look here what the Lord Jesus
tells us. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 18, in verse 10, he speaks this
parable in verse 9. Look at this. Unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and they despised
others. And he tells us this parable.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and
the other a publican. And the Pharisees stood, and
he prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, that I am
not like other men are, I am not an extortioner, I am not
unjust, I am not an adulterer, or even as this publica. That's the very attitude the
Lord Jesus told these people, if you don't come to a knowledge
of this truth. If you don't come to the knowledge
of the truth, that you're no better than anybody else. And
you're just as worthy to perish, and you will perish, except repentance
prevented. If you don't come to the knowledge
of this truth, you're going to perish. You're going to perish. I want you to look in another
place with me. First, before we turn from that, look what
the publicans said in verse 13. The publicans stand in a for
all. would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but he
smote upon his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I'm the sinner. The Pharisees
said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men are. I'm better. I'm a better person than that.
And the publicans said, oh God, I'm not like other men are. I'm
worse. I'm worse. If anybody should
go to hell, if anybody should perish, it's me. Why hasn't Pilate
killed me? Why hasn't some tower fell on
me and crushed the life from me? Of all men, I'm the worst. I'm the worst. I tell you, it
takes grace to bring us to a place like that. You know that? It's easy to look down upon other
people and judge them and see the wrong and the sin that's
in them. But let me turn my eye inside. It takes grace to do that. Look
here at Isaiah chapter 5. The book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet that began
his ministry, and he was always saying, woe, woe, woe to everybody
else. He preached against everybody.
He preached against everything they did, everything that moved. Boy, he said, that's sin. God's
going, damn it. Woe be to you, buddy. Woe be
to you. It was always, woe to you. Look
here at some of the places. You can read these first five
chapters, I forget how many times, I think eight or ten times. It's
woe unto them. Look what he said in verse 11
of chapter 5. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning,
that they may follow strong drink that can continue unto night,
till wine inflame them. He says down in verse 18, woe
unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin
as it were with a cart road. Verse 20, Woe unto them that
call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and
light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for
bitter. Verse 21, Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,
and prudent in their own sight. Woe unto them that are mighty
to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. He just
keeps on. Woe unto everybody else. But
this man experienced something. that seemingly he had never experienced
before. And it changed his whole opinion.
Not about them. Nothing was the matter with his
opinion about them. Everything he said was so. Everything
he said was right and true. But he was looking at everybody
else. But look what happened to him in chapter 6. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, and He was sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the
temple. And above it stood the seraphims,
each one having six wings. With two wings He covered His
face, with two He covered His feet, and with two He did fly. And one cried unto another, Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The earth is filled with His
glory. And the post of the doors moved
at the voice of him that cried. And the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me." What happened to this man? He
turned his eyes away from himself. His eyes was turned away from
himself. And his goodness that he supposed
he had, and his self-righteousness that he trusted in, while pronouncing
judgment upon everybody else, he got a glimpse of the Lord
of glory, the object of the angelic worship, And that he was holy,
holy, holy. Now his eyes are turned within. And what does he see? And what
does he say? He sees corruption. He sees sin
in himself. And he says, now woe is me. For I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. And I'm just like everybody else.
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Why did he say
this? For my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of glory." Repentance is coming to the knowledge of
the truth about ourselves, that there is no difference in us
and everybody else. But the only thing that will
bring us to repentance is getting a glimpse in our mind's eye of
somebody outside of ourselves who is high and holy and lifted
up, even the Lord of glory. Job says almost the same thing. You can read it sometime at your
leisure in Job chapter 42. Job reached the place where he
said, I'm not going to let go of my integrity. I've not done
anything wrong. I've fed the widows. I've helped
the poor. I've set in the gate to give
counsel. I'm not going to let go of my integrity." And the
Lord God spake to him and revealed Hisself to him. And Job said,
I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see
you. And what was his response? I
bore myself. And I repent in dust and ashes. What is repentance? It's coming
to the knowledge of ourselves that there is no difference between
dust and the most ungodly, vile, wretch that ever lived upon this
earth. There is no difference. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. I think I told
you sometime back about Brother Todd Nyberg taking me by the
American Avenue Baptist Church where they started when he first
left 13th Street. And he took me downtown and it
was an awful place where they were. You'd tell it was the red
light district. winos and prostitutes. And I asked Todd, why in the
world would you set up a place here? Why would you come to a
place like this? He said, we wanted to reach sinners.
We wanted to reach sinners. Well, that's good motives. But
what he said, we found out that the people down here were just
as self-righteous as they were out in the suburbs. People who
lay drunk all night on wine and the prostitutes who sell their
body for money are just as self-righteous as those church-going Pharisees. He said one wino is just not
as bad as the next wino. One prostitute just don't sleep
around quite as much as the next prostitute. You see, brothers
and sisters, what afflicts this world? It's this attitude of
thinking too highly of itself. And the Lord Jesus said, if you
don't repent, if you're not brought to the knowledge of the truth
about this, you're going to perish. You will perish. When you and I are ready to pass
judgment upon others and think they deserve just what they're
getting, that may be so, but we need to inquire about our
own selves. Have I sinned? What's my character
before God? What about my guilt and my condition
before God? Am I any better? Am I getting
what I deserve? I've heard people say this. Someone
in the congregation gets terribly ill or afflicted with some disease,
and I've heard people say, I wonder what they did. I wonder what they did. Did you
ever think that? There was a man that was blind,
and the Lord Jesus was with His disciples, were with Him, and
His disciples saw this blind man. And they said, Lord, what
sin did He commit when He was blind? See how we think? This is why this matter of repentance
is not just a one-time coming to the knowledge of the truth,
but it's a lifelong thing. Because we're always repenting
of this attitude that we have about ourselves. We're nothing. We're better than nobody. We
can't look down our noses at anybody. Don't judge those who have come
into calamities and diseases and sicknesses. But judge ourselves
by saying this, if they suffer this awful in this lifetime,
what will I suffer in the life to come if I die without repentance? If I die without repentance. Repentance brings us to this
conclusion. And this, I think, is the theme
of the Lord's message here in my text. If I am to be saved,
I must be saved the same way that the most vulgar and most
open and profane sinner in this world would be saved. That's how bad we are. Let me read you two scriptures
in closing. Look over in Acts 4 and verse
10. Look in Acts 4 and verse 10. Here was the great apostle, Peter. And here's the statement that
he made, and I want you to notice how he made it. He just healed
this man through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the
name of Jesus Christ. Rise up and walk. They began
to wonder at him and this man that was healed. In verse 10
he said, Be it known unto you and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand
before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at Naudevue village, which is become the headstone of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men." Notice this. whereby
you must be saved." Is that what he said? He said, we, didn't he? Here's
a man who had just got through preaching one of the greatest
gospel messages that had ever been preached. Two thousand souls
were converted under his message. Five thousand a few days later.
And here he says, we all must be saved by this one man. Jesus of Nazareth. He puts himself
in the same boat. And look what he says over in
the 15th chapter. The same man. And you would think
by now, after all of these years, Peter, this great apostle, would
have grown that he had been so sanctified and so holy and so
separated, he wouldn't see his need to be saved just like everybody
else. But he never gets over this.
He's a man in whose heart God had begun a work of repentance. And it was just carried on. It
just carried on. Peter was a man who never got
out of the dust of repentance. The Lord put him there. And I'm
telling you, once the Lord puts you there, He's apt to keep you
there. He's apt to keep you there. I think it was William Jay, there
in London, the great preacher. A friend of John Newton was on
his deathbed. And a friend went to him and
got down close to his ear and said, Dear brother, you're going
to receive your reward. You're going to receive your
reward. Brother Jay opened his eyes and looked up at him and
said, Brother, I'm going to receive mercy. I'm going to receive mercy. I
was talking with John Mitchell just the other day, dying with
Parkinson's disease. He's shaking so bad, his wife
has to hold the phone to his ear now. And I was talking with
him last week, a week before last, and he said, I don't want
you to think I'm complaining about my suffering. And I don't
want you to think in any way, shape, or form that I'm not worthy
of this suffering. I'm worthy of much more than
this. He says, I'm not seeking mercy for a preacher. I'm not
seeking mercy for a husband. I'm not seeking mercy for a dad. But I'm seeking mercy for a sinner. That's what repentance is. Lord,
if you don't save me like you would save Hitler, if you saved
him. If you don't save me like you
would have saved Pilate, if you would have saved him. Then I
can't be saved because I'm no better than those people. That's what Peter said here in
Acts chapter 15. Look what he says in Acts chapter
15. Look in verse 7. When there had been much disputing,
how the Gentiles and the Jews were going to be saved, if they
were going to be saved alike or differently. Peter rose up
and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God did make choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of his gospel and be saved. And God which knoweth
the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even
as he did unto us. and put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore,
why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples,
which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear?" But Peter
said, before you go, I want to give you my profession of faith.
I want to give you what I believe and what I've experienced in
my own soul. We believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they." He didn't say
they must be saved like we are. He said we must be saved like
they're saved. Those dead dog Gentiles who were
led away into dumb idols, open and profane, dead in sins, God-haters,
we must be saved just like God saves them through grace, free
and sovereign, unearned and unmerited favor. And the Lord Jesus, the Lord
of glory, who is full of grace and truth. He looks at us this
morning, and he says this, if you don't come to this knowledge,
then you're going to perish. This is not optional. Repentance
is not optional. Coming to the knowledge of yourself
before God is not optional. It's absolutely necessary. Accept. You repent. I'm not trying to
get people to make a decision for Jesus. That's not what I'm
about. I ain't trying to get somebody
to walk the aisle. I ain't trying to get somebody to become religious.
I'm not trying to get somebody to join the church and be baptized
and start paying their tithes. My aim under God is this, to
bring people to the knowledge of the truth about themselves. before God, that they may repent and be converted. May God bless His Word. Let's
pray.