[0:00] And so we look here at Luke chapter number 13 together. And I've already read it for you. It kind of reminds you of what we just read just a little bit ago.
[0:10] But I ask you, have you heard this week about a shooting in Buffalo, cases of monkeypox in Pennsylvania, or the latest news in the Ukraine?
[0:22] I wouldn't typically ask you questions about current events. Some of you realize that it's quite odd that I would do that. There's other ways you can learn about current events. I am not a news commentary here for you.
[0:33] I have a different source of information that I am given to share with you. But all these questions that we can always talk about, this inundated with information, the question that might be asked is, have you heard?
[0:46] And there's no shortage of bad news or entertaining news or anything in this world to stay right there in front of us. Like what Sam Paxson says about reading the newspaper. He says he doesn't do it because it makes his hand and his mind dirty.
[1:00] And it's true. When you handle a newspaper, it makes your hands dirty, right? And it can also do the same to your heart and your mind if you obsess over the news. But as believers, we want to understand all of our life in the same way that the Lord would look at it, have the same biblical view that Jesus would.
[1:18] And so why we want to discuss what happened to them, Jesus wants us to ask us, what am I to learn? We may say, why did this happen? And Jesus would say, I want you to ask, what are you to learn from it?
[1:32] So this first one, this temple atrocity, it said that a pilot came in and they killed Galileans. He sent a group of people to send the Galileans and their blood was mingled with the sacrifices.
[1:45] In the Bible, we don't have much information about the story. But in this verse, we have enough to draw a pretty vivid picture of what was happening. It's a time where people were coming there in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices.
[1:58] And you know, when this is happening, up to words of a half a million animals could be sacrificed. And some Galileans had come and they're offering their sacrifice. And a pilot had sent a group of people and they were killed at the same time.
[2:12] So that as they were killed, their blood would run with the blood of the sacrifices that were there. So a little bit of information, but we know it's horrific. It's possible that the people asking the question were trying to trap Jesus.
[2:25] They're always trying to put him in that situation. Where if he condemns the Galileans, he would be condoning the bloodshed by Pilate. Or if he defended the Galileans, then he would be going against Pilate, which would be treason.
[2:38] Which they were always trying to put him in that. But Jesus, as he so often does, answers in a way in which nobody expects him to do. Where he doesn't speak about the Galileans and the bloodshed.
[2:49] But he brings it personal to them. They were asking, I wonder what they did for that to happen to them. That happens then. It happens with Job and his friends.
[3:00] It happens all throughout the Bible. It happens when the disciples walk upon a young man who is blind. And they say, whose sin is it? I was in the hospital as a teenager. And one of my classmates said, what has Trent done?
[3:11] Because it seems like he's always in the hospital. What sin has he done that is so bad? And I don't remember what my friend Justin said to respond. But I remember he got suspension for three days. So apparently his response wasn't too gracious to it.
[3:24] But it's just a natural thing. This guy has it so bad in life. What did he do? And so I could never be in that situation. I can't picture that. You would believe that they're at a tower.
[3:35] Maybe that is there. Maybe a guard will be at the top of it. Maybe there's a part of a water system that was going on. And when it fell and 18 of them died, do you believe that those people that were just like you, that these Jewish men and women that were killed, do you think they were worse sinners because that happened to them?
[3:55] So there's two stories here. One caused by an evil person, Pilate. Another one caused by a horrible accident or a natural disaster, if you will. But then Jesus takes them to a third story, the worst tragedy, the final judgment, the one in which we will perish.
[4:11] That doesn't just include physical death, but a spiritual death. And so he doesn't go into their trap. He always takes the question really at the heart of people. He makes it personal.
[4:21] I'm going to read it to you again. These are the words of Jesus in verse 3 and verse 5, identical. He says, Jesus answered, he says, I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
[4:35] Verse 5, I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. So have you heard? Have you heard about this? Have you heard about this?
[4:46] Did you hear about the Tire of Siloam? Did you hear about what Pilate did? And Jesus is saying, have you heard that you will also one day die? And if you have not repented and put your faith in me, you will perish.
[4:59] The question is, have you heard? He made it personal. When I was in college, I went home with a friend on the weekend, and his dad was part of a Christian ministry that was renting out a school building to do training for police officers.
[5:14] And what they were doing the training for was they were going to walk through a school shooting, and they needed a few guys that would help. So me and my friend and one other guy, we did some training, and we came into that school.
[5:28] And with Hollywood rounds, we shoot inside of the building. And the police officers were called, and they come to the building. They have to find out where we were at. And when I heard about this, I thought, oh, man, this will be great.
[5:41] It will help the law enforcement. This will be a great, fun thing to do over the weekend. But you know, when I'm standing in that classroom after this mock shooting, and I'm standing looking out of the window, and I'm seeing the SWAT team come in and taking those little steps together, and here I am with a gun in my hand, having went through all of that, it wasn't fun.
[6:02] All right? Let me just say, my heart is about to beat out of my chest because my mind is going back and forth between Trent. This is just an exercise. Nothing has really happened to what just happened.
[6:13] And so I couldn't hardly handle that. And there I was. They came in. They kicked down the door. They handcuffed me. They picked me up by the handcuffs, which I don't know why that was necessary.
[6:24] But they were doing that, and they picked me up, and they're walking me out of the school building. And right when I get to the door, they took my hoodie, and they put it over my head. And I put my head down, and there was a camera cruise there.
[6:37] And it just felt so real and so personal to me. And Jesus wants to bring the story of both of those. He wants to bring it very real and personal.
[6:50] Because we have so much information about news all the time, that news isn't about informing you. It's about entertaining you, right? It's just one thing after another. The news doesn't want you to turn it off and meditate on what you just heard.
[7:02] They want you to stay tuned and watch the next hour and hear what's going on. And they'll give you a little teaser. Hey, the car seat that your kid's in may be really dangerous. Join us at 6.
[7:12] Like, that isn't nice. Tell me right now. Tell me about the child seat. Do I have one of those child seats? But no, join us at 6, and we'll tell you about it. And then they just want to give you one thing after another. But it wouldn't be profitable for them that if you ever took the remote or took the radio and turned it off and said, based on that one story, I want to pause and meditate and reflect on my own life and what this means for me.
[7:37] Tragedies should teach us that since death and judgment are imminent, it could happen at any time. We need to be ready through true repentance. You and I want to discuss current events.
[7:49] I'm very much guilty of that. It's so difficult these days to stay current with what's going on. It's just nearly impossible. Two people can stay very informed, and they may not even know what the other one knows about because news is so curated for each of us and our own interest here.
[8:06] But Jesus says, you want to discuss current events, but I want you to consider your life in regard to eternity. And where we would say, surely not us. I don't even go to that part of town where that tower fell down.
[8:18] I would never be with the Galileans making my sacrifice. That is so far removed from us, and we want to do that. In Job 4, 7 and 8, it says, Remember, I pray thee, whoever perished, being innocent, or were the righteous, cut off.
[8:34] And so it's like, a person dies. I mean, God doesn't, bad things don't happen to good people. Have you ever seen the righteous perish? And that's what we want to think about ourselves.
[8:44] I hear about people that get shot in the middle of the land, and I think, well, I would never have been at that part of town at that time of day. But have you ever heard of righteous people dying? I certainly have.
[8:55] Have you ever sat with godly people, and as they read Psalm 23 on their deathbed? I have. Because death is coming to all of us, to those that are saved, the righteous, and those that are not.
[9:06] And so the deduction being made is the tower of Siloam had fallen upon them, and so they were great sinners. But since the tower of Siloam has not fallen on me, then I'm not a great sinner.
[9:17] But sin is the common denominator among all men. Acts 10, 34. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Of truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. We have several men in here that work in insurance.
[9:32] It's quite interesting how they all came to church about the same time. And I talked to them. I learned more about the insurance industry. And they could probably give us some kind of math formula to let us know, What are the odds of a tower falling on you when you're going beside it?
[9:46] What would be the cost of that? We recently, for insurance purposes, as we're going off to a camp, they want to know everything you're going to do. And I tell them about the zip line, and I tell them about this and that.
[9:56] And they want to know, What is everything that these kids are going to do so they can evaluate it? So somebody could decide, What are the odds of you dying in a tower? Or what are the odds of somebody from the government coming in during a religious ceremony and taking your life?
[10:11] But every one of us in here with no background in that could tell you, There's a 100% chance that we're not getting out of this thing alive, right? There's a 100% chance that one day we will stand before God.
[10:23] If Jesus doesn't return, and we pray and we look for His coming, but if He doesn't return, then every one of us are going to die. And that's what He wants to remind us of, is that every one of you will also perish.
[10:36] This isn't the first time that Jesus angers the religious leaders by making them know that this is true for all of us equally and the same. He mentioned the Gentiles rather than the Jews had God's blessings.
[10:48] Luke 4, 27, He says, Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elasius the prophet, and none of them were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And then the next verse He said, And all they were in the synagogue when they heard this were filled with wrath.
[11:02] They wanted to be different. They wanted things to be different for them. They didn't want this application to them. And that's in Matthew 3, 7 through 10. He says, You think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our fathers.
[11:15] They wanted to see themselves as special, as indestructible. And that's just not something that's common to Jewish men in that time. But is that not true of us as well? You don't say I have Abraham as my father, but, you know, we're American.
[11:30] We have good health care. I'm a good person. I'm faithful to my church. The thing that happened to that group of people, it just doesn't happen to me. Because in some way, I live according to a different set of rules.
[11:43] I'm indestructible. The tower fell on them because they were bad, but I'm good so the towers will not fall on me. And that's the way Christians think. There was an accident that happened on a train in England on a Sunday.
[11:56] And that evening, Charles Spurgeon brought a message to his congregation. And you're going to see that they kind of wrestle with some of the same problem that was found in Matthew, that's found in the book of Job, maybe found in our lives today.
[12:09] This is what he says. It has been most absurdly stated that those who travel on the first day of the week and meet with an accident ought to regard that accident as being a judgment from God upon them on an account of their violating the Christian's day of worship.
[12:25] It has been stated even by godly ministers that the late deplorable collision should be looked upon as an exceedingly wonderful and remarkable visitation of the wrath of God against those unhappy persons who happened to be in the Clayton Tunnel, which is where the accident took place.
[12:43] Now I enter my solemn protest against such an interference as that, not in my own name, but in the name of him who is the Christian's master and the Christian's teachers.
[12:56] I say of those who were crushed in that tunnel, thank ye that they were sinners above all sinners. I tell you all, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
[13:08] It's been common for believers all through the years to think that this comes to people because they are greater sinners than you are and that because of that you live in such a way where nothing will ever come to you.
[13:20] Or not as believers, but just in this world. The moral man says, well, my life is different. I will not die. I will never have to face this because I'm such a good person. And Jesus wants to bring it personal.
[13:32] He wants to take a line from the tragedy and take it directly to your sin. Not a line from the tragedy to the sin of the people that were in it, but a line from the tragedy directly to your sin.
[13:45] In commenting on the fall of the Tyre of Siloam, Jesus takes away and negates four assumptions. One, suffering is proportionate to sinfulness, that only sinful people will suffer. Secondly, that tragedy is a sure sign of God's judgment.
[13:58] And we find time and time again, that's not always the case. That bad things happen only to bad people. And then last, that you have a right to make those types of judgment. And he says, I tell you, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.
[14:13] Perish here means more than just physical death. First of all, it says all. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But I have Abraham as my father, all of you.
[14:25] I have this, he says, all of you. This is true for all people, that they could likewise perish unless they repent. This likewise. The horror in the story here is how it came upon them with no surprise.
[14:39] It was a horrible end that they did not expect. And unless you repent, your ending will be the same as well. Nobody is ever properly prepared for their death that has never repented and put their faith in Jesus Christ.
[14:53] Because death will find them unprepared. The people going that day, walking by the tower, they were probably on their way to do something. They probably had life to live that was going on.
[15:04] The people that were, that day that were worshiping, the Galileans, they probably had plans later on that day. They weren't yet prepared for their life to end. If you have not repented, if you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you're not yet prepared.
[15:18] And you will likewise, in the same manner, also find that your death is untimely because you have not prepared. So all, all of us, likewise, by surprise, unprepared, will perish.
[15:31] To see this as a physical death would be misleading since everybody is going to die one way or another. Those of you that have repented will die physically, and those that have not repented would die physically as well.
[15:41] But Jesus has challenged the audience here to something that is of a deeper issue. He is referring to something that is beyond a physical death, to a judgment that we have been talking about for the last few verses.
[15:54] Was it four or five weeks ago? And I walked you through a timeline, and we know what is going to happen in the far future, but we don't know the day that Jesus Christ will come back, and that He will come for the believing people.
[16:06] And we live prepared for that. But there will be a time for those that are believing, that we give an account for the works in which they have done, but they will not be condemned for their sins. That condemnation went on Jesus.
[16:16] But there's a judgment at the end where unbelieving people will stand before God, and that's the judgment that He wants them to be aware of, the one that we can avoid. In the verse that I believe most of you would know in here, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[16:39] We're talking about something that's weightier than death. We live in a world where death seems to be the ultimate. It seems to be the most catastrophic thing that could happen. But understanding that Jesus would give us would say that that is not the weightiest thing that could happen.
[16:53] Think about it as a teenager. I can't think of the song, but I remember it referring to life as just like a waiting room. And when we consider eternity, we realize how short life really is in making a decision.
[17:04] And the book called The Weight of His Glory says something that I read this week that just really caused me to have to pause and reflect. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.
[17:18] Nations, culture, arts, civilization, these are mortal. Their life is to ours is a life as a gnat. But it is in mortals whom we joke with, that we work with, that we marry, that we do business with.
[17:34] In mortal monsters or everlasting splendors. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal for all eternity.
[17:46] Jacob, would you mind coming up here today? So Jacob, we praise the Lord. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. But Jacob, mast, is going to be, exist for all eternity.
[17:56] If I was to see Jacob 500 years from now, 100 years from now, how old are you? 22. 22, 70 years from now, okay. Okay, 80 years from now, okay.
[18:07] You're not getting to 100, Jacob. I just decided for you, okay. Few of us do, all right. And if I see Jacob in 200 years from now, being that he is a believer, the splendor of him in heaven will be so amazing that from my earthly perspective, I would almost want to worship.
[18:24] I would just say, this is so holy and divine. All right, you can imagine that, right? All right. And he would be just an incredible splendor, the glory that would be there within heaven. But if Jacob was not a believer, then what I would see in 2,000 years would be so very horrifying.
[18:40] But what is true is that he will live, he has an everlasting life. Either one that will be an everlasting punishment or one that will be in heaven, worshiping the God of heaven.
[18:52] Now, thank you, Jacob. And that's heavy, isn't it? And that's where Jesus wants to get us to. When you hear about tragedy, he wants to get us to that, realizing that we are mortals and that everybody around.
[19:03] We move on so quickly because these are just people that died in a story. Do you believe that maybe the world would even want us to get to that? Maybe we get to the place where we hear so much. Do you think there might be a widespread plan to not only get you here about death so often on the news, that we watch it so much on entertainment, and then you can have video games where people will die, so that in your lifetime, instead of hearing about your aunt that died and a few family members and attending a few funerals, but in your lifetime now, you hear about and you see 100,000 people die to the point that you're just desensitized to it?
[19:38] There's people that have been through the military and they saw this and they have that affected them on their heart and they could become callous toward death because they saw so much death. But now we live where every one of you could have that same thing going on in your life because it isn't real.
[19:54] It isn't a story. But I want to remind you that everybody who's ever lived is going to live for all eternity, and we should be mindful of that.
[20:05] Speaking about eternity and people perishing is not unloving. It is Christ-like. It is the definition, and He is the definition of love. When people are saying, have you heard about this and have you heard about that, and for Jesus to say, have you heard that one day you will also perish and you will die and if you have not repented.
[20:26] And you can't say that's not unloving because Jesus Christ is the definition of love. He is love, and that's exactly what He does here. In light of all of this, Jesus calls us to repentance.
[20:38] I asked Selah to take, I had a poster board, and I was going to show you what a large number looked like. You know, as a kid, you make up fake numbers. A million, a bazillion, a bazillion, a bazillion.
[20:48] You know, they just make up numbers, right? But we have some pretty large numbers. I think it was a centillion. It was a one with 303 zeros behind it. I don't know how they needed 303 zeros, but that's what I saw looking it up.
[21:02] And Selah got a little carried away, and we got around 350 zeros behind the number one. But even that picture doesn't do it enough for us because that one slot where she's the number seven is not equal to a zero later on, right, on the chart.
[21:18] It would be so small. Maybe you've seen examples before. If we were to take a rope from this side and go over there and it represented 1,000 years, how your portion on it would just represent such a small element.
[21:31] We're 10,000 years or 100,000 years out that we're just so finite, such a small amount of time in which we are going to live, and we need to think about it. So there was Selah drawing the circles on it and Thatcher Carson saying, why do you have her do that?
[21:46] Because I want her to realize how big eternity and how small her life is. And I'm like, well, that's a little bit heavy. Selah's seven. All right, I'm like, yeah, good point. All right, maybe she is. She's pretty young.
[21:57] Well, you're not seven in here today, and so I want to remind you in here that you have such a short life here on this earth, and on this life you're given an opportunity to make a decision, and that decision will affect all of eternity, that you're going to look back for all eternity, and it's going to be based upon the decision that you were given to make, the decision that you're allowed to even make right now.
[22:16] Today is the day of salvation. We want to look at the sin of others, and Jesus calls us to repentance and to look at our own sins. Everyone is called to repentance.
[22:28] Jesus deflects the questions away from the degree of sin, and he wants to talk about the presence of sin. Do you think these people are worse sinners because this happened to them? Because they want to measure it, but Jesus says, let's not worry about measuring sin.
[22:41] Let's just talk about every one of you are sinners, that all of you that are unrepentant sinners will die and be separated from God, and the degree of sin here doesn't matter. Let's just talk about the presence of sin, and he continues preaching a message, one that John the Baptist preached, that he says, repent and believe the gospel, and Mark 1 15, Simon Peter, and he says in Acts 2 38, then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
[23:09] And now Jesus says, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. This word repentance is very important to a Christian faith. It's very important to understanding what faith and believing in Jesus Christ is, because there is no salvation apart from repentance.
[23:28] You cannot be saved unless you first have repented of your sins. With repentance comes a change of mind that affects our change of direction, since our lives are oriented around our faith in God.
[23:41] Our whole life is centered around this understanding of God. So what is repentance? First, we'd have to ask ourselves, what is he saving us from? You ever spoke to somebody who didn't grow up as a Christian and understanding, and you'd say, as we would speak here in this church, we'd say, has God saved you?
[23:56] And they may say, save me from what? What am I to be saved from? I was one time in a car accident. I didn't die. I was saved in that way. And you would say, no, so much more than that. I remember being a nine-year-old boy at New Testament Baptist Church in the back foyer crying and telling the pastor that I wanted to be baptized.
[24:13] And he said, I was so emotional. And he said, I told him I was saved. And I remember telling him like this. I said, Brother Larry, I said, I felt like I realized that I was standing in the middle of a highway and a semi-truck was going to hit me.
[24:29] But now it's not. And in my nine-year-old words, I was expressing that the wrath of God would have been upon my life. But because of Jesus Christ, I have been removed. And so saved is a very good word for that.
[24:41] It is ultimately we are being saved, being pulled from a fire. But it only makes sense if you understand what it is that you're being saved from. So I was being saved from the penalty of my sins.
[24:52] It was my sins. It's universal. The whole world lives in sin and has been sinned. And I need to be saved from it. And sin is simply disobedience to God, what God has told us to do.
[25:02] He has written it in our consciences. We know what it is. A person knows that they have done right or they've wronged. We can go with big things about murder, but even with the smaller things, there's an awareness of sin that is built into us that gives us, as Romans 2 says, people that are without excuse.
[25:18] But then the penalty is that we will perish. We will do more than just physically die, but we will perish. And there's only one that can save us from our sins. Romans 10, 9 and 10.
[25:29] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth in the righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
[25:43] This turning to God is the word in which describes repentance. So that's why faith is impossible without repentance. You cannot receive Christ unless you repent, confess your sins, and ask God for forgiveness.
[25:59] Matthew 21, 32. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and you believed him not. But the publicans and the harlots believed him, and yea, when they had seen it, they repented not afterwards that they might believe him.
[26:13] Repentance and belief are connected together. In recognizing that the harlot here and the publican in here, they're recognizing that they were sinners, and that they needed to turn from their sin, and turn to God, and put their faith in him.
[26:27] And these other people could not recognize, these religious people here, they would not recognize that they were sinners in need of a savior. And in not being able to recognize that, not being willing to recognize that, there was no turning, which was faith.
[26:40] So Jesus gives a clear illustration from the Old Testament. John 3, one of the best stories of hearing Jesus explain to one of these religious leaders. He sits down with Nicodemus. A good title for this is Nick at Night.
[26:52] All right? Some of you are familiar with that, right? So we have Nick here at night with Jesus, and he's sitting down with him. And Jesus tells him a story from the Old Testament. He tells him a story from Exodus. In verses 14, chapter 3, it says, And so the people here in the wilderness, they were being bitten by snakes and by serpents.
[27:20] And what Moses was told to do was to take this serpent and put him upon a staff and hold it up. And you see this today, right? At hospitals and medical places, you see a staff with a snake that's going around it, which it's amazing that we still, so many Christian teachings are still in our society because maybe they've overlooked it or they forgot about it or they don't understand the meaning of it.
[27:41] And so there's that picture, and it's being held up. And he's telling them in the next verse, he says, verse 6, he says, And the Lord sent fiery sermons among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died.
[27:55] Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord. And again, pray unto the Lord that you take away the serpents from us. And so there's the recognizing that they had sinned against God, that they had disobeyed God.
[28:08] And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and thou shalt come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looked upon it, shall live.
[28:19] And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Bitten, realizing they were going to die, recognizing they had sinned against God, they would turn, and they would look, and they would live.
[28:38] Less could not have been required of those people, but more could not have been offered. Less could not have been required, but more could not have been offered. Just look and live.
[28:49] Just turn from your sin, turn from your recognizing that you have sinned, and now look, and you shall live. And there was life that was given there. Repentance will produce life inside of you.
[29:02] And that's what Jesus gives in this last story. He spake this parable, and a certain man had a fig tree planted in a vineyard, and it came and sucked fruit therein, and found none. Then he set into the dresser of his vineyard, which means that this fig tree is inside of a wall.
[29:18] It's a farm. It's not just a wild fig tree that's growing. And so it's been planted there. And behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on the fig tree, and find none, and I cut it down, and why cumberth it to the ground?
[29:31] Three years I come out here, and I look at this fig tree, and I don't have any figs on it. Every year I come out here, and it's not there. And he answered, and he said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I come and dig it up, and don't get it, and bear fruit well.
[29:44] And if not, then after that, shall cut it down. Patience. Can I have another year? It's been three years, and this hasn't produced any fruit. Would you give me another year? It's amazing how much Jesus accomplishes with so few words.
[29:58] Being that he is a creator of language and communication, we shouldn't be surprised they can do so much with it. But you ever be, I said yelling at your kids. None of us do that, okay? All right. And you're ever speaking in a loud voice to your kids, all right?
[30:10] And you're getting on to one of them, and while you're doing it, another walks up and says, are you talking to me or to him? And I'm like, yes. All right? Everybody. All right? Open the door. I'll tell the neighbor's kids. Everybody needs to have what I'm saying.
[30:22] So here Jesus is talking to the nation of Israel, and he's three years. He's been with them three years. He's giving them opportunity. Three years I've been going and giving parables. Three years I've been preaching all everywhere, going city to city.
[30:33] I've been bringing healing. Three years, and there's been no change. You haven't accepted me as the Messiah. And so he's teaching that for the nation of Israel. But is it also for you in here today? The answer is yes.
[30:44] The answer of learning about repentance is true for everybody that is listening and that will hear it if you'll have ears to hear. And so it's primarily for them, but if you today will reject the Messiah, you'll come under the same judgment.
[30:59] There have been sufficient time for the nation to bear fruits of repentance, to show signs of life. And if they don't bear fruit soon, they will be cut down. And we continue in this chapter, as I've told you last week, and then soon we will see Jesus pivot from speaking here to the nation and speaking directly to his disciples for the majority of the book.
[31:19] So the fig tree wasn't a wild one, as I said, but it had been planted. The owner had planted it, put a wall around it, had cared for it. Thus, the fruitfulness of Christ's likeness in our character and in our conduct, the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5.22, it's a list of ways that we would have that would be shown in our lives.
[31:38] The fact that the Holy Spirit now indwells us, it creates a fruit. Today, in Colossians chapter number one, in our life group, we're looking at walking in the fullness that God had given us.
[31:49] And it says, if you can preach the gospel, preach it. If a child is in need, feed it. If your neighbor can use some help, help him. If you can do something kind for somebody, do it.
[32:00] And there's many different ways in which the fruit will be coming out in our lives. I cannot go around judging the fruit in somebody's life, which you are supposed to. Just like I can't tell you about the people that died in the Tire of Siloam, but I can tell you in my own life if the fruit of the Holy Spirit has been living and working.
[32:16] And he's telling you, from this tragedy, draw a line directly to yourself and ask yourself, has there been repentance in your life that has brought fruit? I'll end with this quote, which points to the special privilege of those of us who sit in church and hear the Word of God.
[32:33] If such people do not respond to the message of God's grace by repenting of their sins and seeking to be fruitful in God's kingdom, they are not just neutral. They are destructive to the owner's purpose in that they are just using ground that otherwise could be fruitful.
[32:48] They are endangering their own souls and harming others as well. That's such a strong statement. And by no means am I asking you in here to give up the seat that you have.
[33:00] But just like that tree was planted inside of that garden and it was given all that it would need to bear fruit and it is not going to. Some of you might have grown up in church.
[33:11] You may have heard this message your whole life and there's never been any fruits that have been borne from the repentance in your life. You have never put your faith and trust in Him. You have never recognized that you're a sinner and turned and looked and lived.
[33:23] And today you need to realize you can't be neutral in this area. Jesus wants you to draw a line from tragedy to your personal sin. It's a beautiful picture here of God's patience and longsuffering.
[33:34] He answered and said unto them in verse 8 Lord let it alone this year also. And so 2 Peter 3 9 says the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some may encounter slackens but as longsuffering towards us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
[33:49] He was giving time for the nation of Israel. He's giving time for you. He's giving time for your friends and his family but there's going to come a time that it will be eternally too late.
[34:01] This week on Tuesday this is going to be a polling location and people have been coming in early to vote and we don't have early voting here at the church and when people come in the foyer and they say we want to vote early I say we don't have that if you'll tell me who you want to vote for I'll make sure they know.
[34:17] Some people find that funny some people don't find it funny alright. I think I need to stop but I just can't stop okay. And like just because the ones who do find it funny find it really funny and if I have to tell four or five people that joke that gets that one person it's worth it for me.
[34:31] I'm not committed to my joke. And so they've been coming in and I'll tell them I take them to a piece of paper and I'll say well you can't vote here but there's four locations on this day you can vote and you can decide which one here that you need to make and I'm really glad to get to do that to help them say you can make that decision where you want to vote.
[34:52] I bring you to this point before I pray in here upon this passage I really would like to help you consider four different ways you could respond to God's word because that's the reason you came for God's word today. It wasn't for knowledge it was so that he would change our lives.
[35:05] None of you in here you've been a believer for 50 years now you don't get to say well I just hope that was for somebody else I really want somebody to have that. Yes this message is for somebody else it's for all somebody else's but it's also for you as well.
[35:19] So maybe like this I give you three. First of all stop being consumed by looking at the sins of the nation or other people and ask God to search your heart for areas in which you need to repent.
[35:34] There's plenty of stories out there that will cause you to think about other people's sins but God told us when we hear these two stories we're supposed to stop and reflect and say I will also one day die I will also stand before God and you need to say I know that you're a believer but also as a believer you should still take inventory and say am I living in a way if Jesus would return the day that I would not be doing something that was displeasing to him.
[36:00] Don't just be so consumed about talking about other people's sins stop and look at your own life take inventory just like I was standing in that room the day and my heart was beating out of my chest the stories of school shootings weren't just stories anymore to me it became very real and personal as I was standing there let the knowledge of your own sin be very real and personal second recognize every human in life is living on borrowed time and let your understanding of an eternity influence your life and discussions this week can I have another year with this can I have a little bit more time because the time is going to come where that fig tree that bears no fruit was going to be brought up you're living all of us in here on borrowed time you have no promise of tomorrow you have today is the day of salvation and you should live accordingly to it unbeliever today is the day of salvation but as believer we need to know we do not know how much time we have those things that he has laid upon our hearts to do the stories that you're supposed to tell your grandkids the person you're supposed to witness to the things that you're supposed to do realize that we are living on borrowed time and then third come to an understanding that we will all likewise perish pray that every one of you know that that unless you repent we will all likewise perish have you ever looked and lived have you ever looked at your sin recognized that you're a sinner and that you're in need of a savior and turn to Jesus
[37:25] Christ in faith and realize that he is the savior for you and if you haven't I would love the opportunity others in here would love the opportunity to show you how to look and live let's pray together for