The Gospel of Luke (59) 03/24/2024

First Baptist Church Leominster

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saw nothing so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank.

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Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias and the Lord said to him in a vision

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Ananias and he said here I am Lord and the Lord said to him rise and go to the street called straight and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named

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Saul for behold he is praying and he has seen in a vision a man named

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Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight but Ananias answered

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Lord I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name but the

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Lord said to him go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the

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Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name so Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him he said brother

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Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the

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Holy Spirit and immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight then he arose and was baptized and taking food he was strengthened for some days he was with the disciples of Damascus and immediately he proclaimed

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Jesus in the synagogue saying he is the Son of God and all who heard him were amazed and said is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name and has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the

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Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ when many days had passed the

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Jews plotted to kill him but their plot became known to Saul they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall lowering him in a basket and when he had come to Jerusalem he attempted to join the disciples and they were all afraid of him for they did not believe that he was a disciple but Barnabas took him and brought him to the

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Apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus so he went in and out among them at Jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the

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Lord and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists but they were seeking to kill him and when the brothers learned this they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus so the church throughout all

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Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the

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Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it multiplied now as Peter went here and there among them all he came down also to the

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Saints who lived at Lydda there he found a man Aeneas bedridden for eight years who was paralyzed and Peter said to him

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Aeneas Jesus Christ heals you rise and make your bed and immediately he rose and all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and they turned to the

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Lord now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha which translated means

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Dorcas she was full of good works and acts of charity in those days she became ill and died and when they had washed her they laid her in an upper room since Lydda was near Joppa the disciples hearing that Peter was there sent two men to him urging him please come to us without delay so Peter rose and went with them and when he arrived they took him to the upper room all the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them but Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed and turning to the body he said

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Tabitha arise and she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up and he gave her his hand and raised her up then calling the

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Saints and widows he presented her alive and it became known throughout all

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Joppa and many believed in the Lord and he stayed in Joppa for many days with one salmon

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Simon a tanner let's pray Lord God it's so amazing to read about what you accomplished at that time through Saul through his conversion and through the mighty acts of the

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Apostles and disciples Lord we just thank you that you have been so faithful faithful to them and you are faithful to us and Lord the power that ran through them also runs through us and so Lord we pray that we would tap into your power in order to fight sin and in order to put sin to death in our lives and to proclaim your message and Lord we thank you for this great blessing this great grace that is bestowed to us in Christ Jesus and Lord we pray that you would help us as we continue our worship through the sermon we pray for Lars that you would give him clarity of thought and clarity of voice we pray that the words that are spoken that we would hear them and that the

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Spirit would teach us how to apply them we pray Lord that we would leave here as changed people desire us for your glory and to please you thank you

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Lord in Jesus name Amen well let's turn to Luke 13 we'll begin our consideration this chapter today don't let the number of pages bother you we're gonna have to skip over some portions of it but I felt like it

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I needed to include the notes for the benefit of those who receive notes elsewhere and here in Luke 13 verses 1 through 9 we deal with the the subject the matter time for repentance now oftentimes when when

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Christians attempt to witness for Christ they're dismissed by the argument of the unbeliever if there is a

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God and he's the God which you Christians claim to be all -powerful and all -loving how do you explain evil in the world imagine we've all encountered that challenge or the objection might be expressed like this how can a good

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God allow evil men to afflict others or how do you explain terrible accidents that occur to people which have done nothing to bring it upon themselves well it's of some consolation to see that our

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Lord Jesus himself was confronted with these same questions and that's what we have before us here in Luke 13 1 and following we might be instructed on how we can respond to people who would challenge us but I think that the passage also serves to illuminate us help us for ourselves answering such and so here's

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Luke 13 1 through 9 they were present at that season some who told him about the

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Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices and Jesus answered and said to them do you suppose that these

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Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things

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I tell you no but unless you repent you will all likewise perish were those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them do you think they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you no but unless you repent you will all likewise perish he also spoke this parable a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard he came seeking fruit on it and found none and he said to the keeper of his vineyard look for three years

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I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none cut it down why does it use up the ground but he answered and said to him sir let alone this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it and if it bears fruit well but if not after that you can cut it down we read of some who brought news to Jesus of an evil act of injustice perpetrated upon Jewish worker worshippers of Galilee it was an egregious act of injustice well after our

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Lord responded to the news he brought up another incident in which a tower in Jerusalem had fallen and crushed a number of Jewish people and Jesus responded to this incident in a similar way pressing upon us here is the urgency of their responsibility to repent in order to avert disaster upon themselves we then read of our

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Lord giving a parable which clearly sets forth the limited time that God was giving Israel to repent of sin and to bring forth fruit before they were uprooted and ruined as a nation so let's work through these verses consider their implications first Jesus responded to news of Pilate's egregious act of injustice verses 1 through 5 and we have the first portion of Pilate as our

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Lord stood before the crowds of people while journeying to Jerusalem where he would be betrayed suffered died but then raised from the dead there were some before him who told him of an event that had occurred in Jerusalem and we can assume had occurred recently in Jerusalem that's an assumption but I think a right one so verse one reads they were present at that season some who told him about the

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Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices that Pilate had inflicted this great injustice on some

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Jews in Jerusalem is apparent for all Jews including those from Galilee offered their sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem it had to have been in Jerusalem now the expression that Pilate had mingled the blood of the

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Galileans with their sacrifices need not be taken literally it may have been a way to present the inhumanity and cruelty of Pontius Pilate the

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Roman governor and that he would perpetrate this violence against devout

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Jews who were attempting to worship their God in Jerusalem and so the commentator on the

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Greek text of Luke IH Marshall commented on this the impression is that the messengers have arrived from Jerusalem bringing news of the latest incident there and then he makes reference to the

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Greek word the Greek verb upon gallo which means reported up on gallo has a sense to bring news of something fresh the verb itself suggests that the situation reported concern certain

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Galileans the number unspecified need have been no more than a couple who had been offering sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem the occasion could have been

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Passover the only time when the laity slaughtered their own animals and the incident involved the killing of the men while they were sacrificing thus

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Pilate could be said to mix their blood with that of their sacrifices the expression need not be taken literally but could simply be a gruesome metaphor for the two events taking place simultaneously and although this specific incident is not testified in other sources of history outside of the

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Bible it's certainly consistent with the cruel nature and behavior of the Roman governor

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Pontius Pilate from the context it's not possible to clearly discern the motivation of these people to who reported this event to Jesus perhaps they were sympathetic and supportive of Jesus and were concerned about what might happen to him if he continued his intentional journey to Jerusalem maybe they were warning him or perhaps these ones reported this event to Jesus because they were attempting to instill fear in Jesus so that he would play the coward and change his plans but the intention of the reporters of this cruel act of Pilate was not

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Luke's concerned there's really no way to determine why they told him this

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Luke had other matters to set forth matters that Jesus were teaching his disciples in the crowds that were following him and by the way interestingly

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Matthew Henry proposed five possibilities as to why these people gave this news to Jesus he was quite creative in that but we just do not have enough information that was not the

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Holy Spirit's intention in this passage to reveal why they told these things to Jesus and so we read our

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Lord's response to their news in verses two and three and Jesus answered said to them do you suppose that these

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Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you no but unless you repent you all likewise you will all likewise perish our

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Lord's answer discredited and dispelled a common Jewish assumption about incidents like this that occurred to people in general the

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Pharisees believed that calamity was a punishment for sin this belief is reflected in several biblical passages

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Eliphaz the Temanite made a statement asserting his belief when confronting Job regarding his calamity remember now

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Job you whoever perish being innocent or where were the upright ever cut off even as I have seen those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same of course this man was in terrible error in making this accusation regarding Job and later in the book of Job Eliphaz levels the same accusation of Job it is it because of your fear of him that he corrects you and enters into judgment with you is not your wickedness great and your iniquity without end and oftentimes people assume when something really bad happens it must be

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God punishing them they've sinned or they're sinning and God is judging them but this errant view of why evil things happen to people is also asserted in the

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New Testament this was believed by our Lord's own disciples as reflected in their question of Jesus in John 9 verse 1 and following now as Jesus passed by he saw a man who was blind from birth and his disciples asked him saying rabbi who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind

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Jesus answered neither this man nor his parents sinned but that the works of God should be revealed in him so Jesus corrected their misunderstanding of why things happen to people and here in Luke 13 our

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Lord responded to these people by dismissing the common belief he asked you think that because God did not spare them from this evil because they were more wicked than others and he was judging them how easy it is to claim we know why people are experiencing calamity stay away from that the fact is one cannot always link a specific cause to a specific effect regarding incidents in life the works of God's providence are mysterious now we can say that one cannot always link cause and effect for sometimes it is possible the

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Lord may say loud and clear through his acts of providence this has happened as a punishment for what you have done and when it happens you know it the case in point occurred to King Adonai Bezek after he was defeated by Judah the first thing they did was cut off his thumbs and his big toes that would cause him to have to kind of grovel as it were to eat why did

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God allow them to do that well Adonai Bezek knew he said 70 kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table and now

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God has paid me back for what I did to them and so this pagan king knew that he had reaped presently what he had sowed in the past in another place the

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Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica in which he likened their suffering to the suffering inflicted upon Christians upon the

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Christians of Judea by the Jews Paul declared that the wrath of God had come upon them at last and this has reference to the

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Palestinian Jews non -christian Jews or rather Palestinian Jews who were suffering at the hands of Romans because the

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Jews had afflicted the Christians of that region it's true therefore that there are consequences for one's behavior that may be encountered in this life you will reap what you sow there is a law of cause and effect with respect to what one does and what one received in God's work of Providence the book of Proverbs would be unreliable if that were not the case there's a spiritual law of cause and effect

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I can remember my dad who is not a Christian until he professed to become one on his deathbed yet he knew all his life this was the worldview in America in the early 20th century he knew he should always deal honestly in his business dealings because if he didn't it would come back on him he knew there was a cause and effect spiritual law in effect and he ordered his life accordingly there is law of cause and effect and so even the world recognizes cause and effect spiritual laws at work in history

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Christians of course credit events to God's purposes in God's Providence but multitudes of non -christians also see cause and effect happening about them but instead of recognizing and acknowledging the

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Providence of God they attribute the events to a spiritual force or principle that exists in the world and so they speak of karma karma is the belief in fate or destiny that results from one's previous actions it's a superstitious explanation of why things happen that seem to be associated with good or bad actions in one's life and YouTube has hundreds of videos that show incidents occurring due to what they call instant karma do a search you'll see it as Christians we should never use that term we speak of God's Providence not some mysterious spiritual force of cause and effect that has no real design or purpose we understand everything that transpires is the outworking of God's Providence the realizing of his eternal decree within history what is

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God's Providence well Providence speaks of the activity of God in which he works behind the scenes controlling all events to accomplish his purposes

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Providence is defined in our Baptist confession of faith 1689 in our men's group

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Saturday morning we're just beginning this article God the good creator of all things and his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold direct dispose and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy

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Providence to the end for the which they were created according to his unto his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will to the praise of the glory of his wisdom power justice infinite goodness and mercy everything that happens is due to what

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God decreed would happen before creation Spurgeon in his rhetorical way you know said

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I believe that the dust unsettled on a leaf of a rose by the feet of an aphid was as much ordained of God as the marching of armies to vanquish the world that was his way of saying from the least to the greatest everything is in the decree of God playing out of God's purposes except he's not the chargeable author of sin of course well one conclusion that may be drawn from our

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Lord's response to the report of these cruel acts of pilot is it people are too finite too ignorant too incapable of discerning

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God's acts of Providence in other words why God does what he does

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Moses addressed this in the book of Deuteronomy when we have him rehearsing

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God's laws his covenant with the people of Israel who are about ready to enter the promised land he spoke of God's Providence Moses of course did not know all that would befall the people once they enter the promised land he did not know fully what kind of circumstances they would encounter he could not know precisely what

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God's purposes would be in individual circumstances that the nation or that individual

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Israelites would encounter in their walk with God Moses exhorted the

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Israelites to order their lives according to the revealed Word of God the revealed will of God set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures in the law and they were not to attempt a second guess

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God's works of Providence and so we read in Deuteronomy 29 29 the secret things belong to the

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Lord our God the secret things are God's works of Providence but those things which are revealed belong to us it is the things revealed in God's Word the

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Scriptures and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law and so Moses did not claim to know the mysteries of God's Providence these were secret things that belong to the

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Lord his workings of Providence are secret that is only God knows them and we're incapable of seeing the end from the beginning as can

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God we're incapable of assessing infallibly God's purposes in individual happenings in our lives why in the world did this happen well

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I don't know you may not know God knows thankfully we cannot look to any given circumstance that occurs to us and think that we can determine with certainty the will of God by reading it as a sign from God to give us direction that's superstition that's paganism we're to be governed by the

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Word of God the revealed written Word of God the Bible but we do have and know the written

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Word of God it continues to direct our lives although we live in an ever -changing world regardless of what kinds of changeable circumstances come into our lives we can say as a psalmist forever

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O Lord thy Word is settled in the heaven Moses asserted the sufficiency of the written

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Word through which God leads and directs his people in his will well how did our

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Lord respond to the news of Pilate's act of injustice again Jesus said do you suppose that these

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Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you no but unless you repent you will all likewise perish and so Jesus was declaring that these

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Galileans who were murdered by the Roman governor were no worse sinners than anyone standing before him therefore what happened to them might happen to you also is what

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Jesus was saying unless you repent you will all likewise perish

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Jesus said and so Jesus was really reaffirming what he had already taught his disciples and the multitudes before him back in the previous chapter

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Luke 12 40 therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect the fact is you do not know the day in which the

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Lord is going to say your life is ending today and so you're to be ready regardless of when that day comes now there's an important theological issue or problem that's suggested by the verses before us and this has been historically referred to as the problem of theodicy we've already spoken of God's providence his wise and intentional governance of history to accomplish his purpose to glorify himself through history we've already expressed that we must recognize and appreciate the presence and degree of mystery in this doctrine we have to limit it a perspective and we're too finite in our understanding so that we can discern exactly what

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God is doing through the details of our life you and I don't have that ability and so we asserted that in assessing

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God's works in Providence there is an element of mystery that cannot be discerned but there's another aspect of this mystery of Providence that we need to consider theodicy how can

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God be sovereign in governing his world according to his eternal degree decree which involved

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God's purpose for every event in history to unfold in the way intended and yet he remained a good

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God who in no way is the cause or promoter of the evil in his creation the problem of evil and so the question looms how can a good

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God be in sovereign control of all of history the odyssey is the theological effort to explain the problem of a good loving sovereign

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God who reigns over the world which he created but a world is characterized by great evil evil happens how can

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God be omnipotent and benevolent that is all -powerful and all -loving and have brought evil to exist in his world he's not the chargeable author of sin but he decreed that sin would occur in history theodicy from a reformed perspective is the effort to vindicate our sovereign

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God of wrongdoing the word itself theodicy is from the

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Greek words theos and dike theos of course being the Greek word for God and dike is is from the category of words meaning right or righteous and so theodicy literally means justify

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God and that's what we attempt to do how can we justify God as a root as a truly good gracious infinite powerful loving

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God in the light of all that unfolds in history and so theodicy involves understanding the manner that our good

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God and his decree worked out in history through at Providence relate to the evil that's present in history when

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I attended seminary in the 1980s we were required to research and write on this matter of theodicy two books were assigned us required reading one was written by a

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Jewish rabbi Harold Kushner who he was a

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Jewish rabbi who served in a synagogue in Natick for about 25 years and he just died last year

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April of 2023 by the way the book was entitled when bad things happen to good people some of you might remember it because it was first published in 1981 and it became a national bestseller art link letter sang its praises on the back cover of my copy

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Kushner had a three -year -old son who developed leukemia and as a father he he prayed and watched his son deteriorated suffered and died and so Kushner reasoned and concluded that God was intervene and bring healing to his son for if God could have done so he would have done so so Kushner concluded that God was indeed all loving very concerned and compassionate but God was incapable of intervening

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God was loved but he was not sovereign according to Kushner really rather than the unbiblical title why bad things happen to good people a better and biblical title would be why bad things happen to God's people that's the problem or indeed they do as written in Job for affliction does not come from the dust nor does trouble sprout from the ground but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward that's life in a fallen world whether you're

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Christian or not in other words affliction and trouble do not just come forth here and there but rather man will have trouble of some form throughout his life even from birth trouble and trials are our lot

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Paul was concerned about new converts that they might abandon

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Christ after they saw him stoned for the faith left for dead perhaps they might think to themselves if this man were truly of God this would not have happened to him and so Paul purposely returned to be among these people to teach them we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God this is the course that God has for us as Christians and he said something similar to the church at Thessalonica therefore when we could no longer endure it we thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent

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Timothy our brother and minister of God our fellow labor in the gospel of Christ to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith that no one should be shaken by these afflictions for you yourselves know that we're appointed to this for in fact we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation just as it happened and you know at the heart of the problem of theodicy is the effort to describe and define the nature of God the problem that has commonly been asserted is a challenge that God cannot be all loving all good while at the same time being all -powerful in sovereign rule and control of history and so it's argued he's either all -powerful and therefore is responsible for all the evil that takes place in history or he's all loving and is unable to prevent the evil that is evident everywhere in the history of our world and interesting in the study of systematic theologies that have been written since World War two because of the

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Holocaust in Nazi Germany an event perceived as such magnitude of evil almost no systematic theologian would affirm after World War two that God was sovereign over history he's all loving but they would be as Kushner he's not all -powerful they would argue if God were absolutely good and all -powerful he would not have allowed the events of the

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Holocaust to have occurred and so the common assertion was that God is indeed all -loving he is a good

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God but he cannot possibly be the sovereign God of history so Kushner wrote of his reaction in response to the news of his son's illness how does one handle news like this

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I was a young inexperienced rabbi not as familiar with the process of grief as I would later come to be and what

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I mostly felt that day would deep aching sense of unfairness it didn't make sense

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I'd been a good person he didn't know himself did he I had tried to do what was right in the sight of God more than that I was living a more religiously committed life than most people

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I knew people who had large and healthy families he sounds like Paul before Paul's conversion doesn't he

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I believe that I was following God's ways and doing his work how could this be happening to my family if God existed if he was minimally fair let alone loving and forgiving how could he do this to me and even if I could persuade myself that I deserve this punishment for some sin of neglect or pride that I was not aware of on what grounds did

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Aaron that's his son have to suffer he was an innocent child a happy outgoing three -year -old why should he have to suffer physical and psychological pain every day of his life and that's where you end up if you try and develop your understanding of God by what you see and what you experience you and I don't have the wisdom to assess why

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God is doing what he's doing in his work of providence in our lives we're to trust him regardless of what happens the other book we were required to read was entitled the problem of pain written by CS Lewis the subtitle was how human suffering raises almost intolerable intellectual problems and he dealt with this

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Lewis's one time was an atheist he was in the trenches in World War one he was converted and of course he became a professor of literature

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English literature at Oxford and a very well known Christian writer and apologist and my copy of the book

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I have it was really produced in 1962 my copy was the 21st printing in 1978 and basically

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CS Lewis presented God as sovereign over all his creation and he's our infinitely loving

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God he's both all -powerful and all -loving in other words CS Lewis argued the biblical view worldview and the historic reformed understanding of God and his ways

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I included the chapter titles just for your perusal so this former atheist who became an

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Oxford scholar wrote an able setting forth the biblical view of God as the sovereign all -loving just God who redeemed sinners through pain suffering and death of his son

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Jesus Christ God entered into the world of suffering through Jesus Christ to redeem us as we look at Luke 13 one some might attempt to defend

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God by saying well these these helpless Galileans are devoting themselves to God were murdered alongside their slaughtered sacrificial animals solely due to the evil of the

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Roman governor Pontius Pilate and those reasons can be set all on the shoulders of Pontius Pilate so some might argue

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God was not in sovereign control over what happened rather Pilate of his own free will governed by his evil heart brought this great great act of injustice upon these people and in this line of argument they're attempting to strip

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God of his sovereign control over the evil that exists in the world but our

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Lord brought up the second incident didn't he the second example and it was something that you could pin couldn't pin or blame on an evil dictator like Pontius Pilate and so we have an accidental incident in which people were killed and our

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Lord introduced this our Lord responded to the news of Pilate's act of injustice by declaring to the people

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I tell you no but unless you repent you all likewise perish but then verse 4 introduces different situation one might describe this solely as an act of God insurance companies would

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Jesus said or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them do you think that they were were sinners and all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you no but unless you repent you all likewise perish it's interesting that the

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Lord was not answering a challenge to the sovereign acts of God with what may be referred to as accidents and really in the kingdom of God there's no such thing as a true accident is there we speak in those terms and we have to from our limited perspective but everything's according to the unfolding of the decrees of God we might be able to deflect the criticism of others who challenge our understanding of the nature ways of God by attributing bad things to evil men but what are the things that God alone controls things like earthquakes and buildings falling resulting in injury suffering and death how can a good

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God allow this and how do you as a Christian answer this challenge when someone confronts you with this objection we can say that we should not try to defend

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God rather let's do as our Lord did he went on the offensive didn't he yes that was a terrible thing that happened but realize that a tower might fall on you too so you better be ready repent get right with God you better repent today for tomorrow you might be standing before God and that's what

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Jesus did now again we might say several things about incidents like the one our

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Lord sites here first people may suffer calamities which cannot be attributed directly to their own behavior we read earlier of Job's friend

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Eliphaz he erred in this way Bildad also another so -called friend of Job he basically said to Job if you are truly godly your suffering in this life will come to an end and you'll have physical health and prosperity that was

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Bildad's answer to Job and the same error is being perpetrated through the word of faith movement today the health and wealth advocates the name it and claim it crowd if you stop sinning you start doing right you're going to be healthy wise and everything every kind of blessing is going to be experienced by you in this world don't go tell that to Job there are sincere godly

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Christian people who suffer through a hard existence in this life whose difficulty in suffering are aggravated by Christian friends who tell them they have only themselves to blame that if they had but a little faith and were a little more righteous they would see an end of their sufferings and that's how the friends dealt with Job the fact is there are

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Christians who suffer terribly who seem to never hear from God who may never in this life receive the promises never in this life encounter relief from suffering who nevertheless have a troop and deep love and faith in God and his son and the scriptures say of these kinds of people the world is not worthy of them

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Hebrews 11 and we would say if you can find one of these patient suffering believers ask him or her to pray for you for their prayers touch the heart of God remember

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Job you know God tells the friends at the end of the book of Job only

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Job has spoken rightly you better go to him and have him pray for you or I'm gonna kill you basically is what

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God told the three friends but again we read in Luke 13 4 and 5

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Lord reiterating what he declared in verses 2 and 3 Jesus declared that the duration of this life is uncertain so one must always be ready for its end the judgment of God is certain so again one must always be ready to stand before God readiness for the coming judgment is performed by repentance

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I tell you unless you repent you'll all likewise perish and so how then are we to respond to someone who confronts or challenges your faith in God who says to you if there's a good if there's a

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God and he's the God you Christians claim to be all -powerful all -loving how do you explain evil in the world well if he's humble and sincere and truly asking you that question you can attempt to explain to him the ways of God from the scriptures however if he's just trying to justify this unbelief and to discredit you for your believing in the true

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God then speak to him forthrightly Jesus declared the failure of these people to repent would result in them perishing

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Jesus said unless you repent you'll also likewise perish and sometimes that's the appropriate response of a hardened defiant unbelieving infidel well the truths that our

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Lord was pressing upon these people are lessons that we're to take to heart today first the duration of this life is uncertain so one must always be ready for its end the

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Lord has determined the day of your death and nothing's going to change that Oh granted you know through health care and whatnot life may be extended from our perspective but it's only going to be extended to the day that God determined it's finite we're not guaranteed a life of 70 years of health and happiness which is free from encountering the evil of others about us in fact there are some verses which indicate that if you're living for God you will be singled out for abuse at the hands of others

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Paul could write for your sake we face death all day long we're considered a sheep to be slaughtered that is some saw their duty to kill

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Christians and every one of the Apostles suffered a violent death except maybe for John tradition says they tried to boil him in oil in Ephesus and he wasn't burned and so they put him out on the island of Patmos in exile who knows if that's true or not but he did end up on Patmos we know that but another idea is present not only is the duration of this life uncertain so one must always be ready for its end but secondly the judgment of God is certain so again one must always be ready to stand before God there will be a day when each of us are summoned by God that's a certainty to give an account with respect things done in this life and so we ought to live now with view to this and if one does he will not perish and thirdly we're to ready ourselves for the day of God's judgment through our repentance good question might be how is repentance to be understood in this context or the larger context of Luke X the biblical meaning of repentance is commonly defined as fully turning oneself from serving sin to submitting to God and doing his will and that's a good definition response repentance is a response of faith in which one turns from living for self and said repentance isn't just stopping sinning but it's stopping living for self and rather you live with Jesus Christ as your

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Lord you're no longer Lord Jesus is Lord we might clarify just a little bit in just a couple minutes on this a further meaning of the idea of biblical repentance for it's misunderstood greatly let us affirm that biblical repentance is not penance the biblical teaching of repentance should not be understood as doing penance repentance is taught everywhere in the scriptures pen penance is taught nowhere in the scriptures those who prescribe penance teach that penance is something a person must do to appease

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God penance is a man -made doctrine developed by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition penance is a teaching which says that a person must confess his sins to a priest and perform some self -abasing action confess so many

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Hail Marys or whatever in order to compensate for one's sin he's committed in order to receive absolution conferred by a priest that in it is that is in order to receive his pronouncement of forgiveness of sins

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Bible nowhere promotes or teaches penance penance is viewed as making satisfaction to God for one's own sin through things that he does that notion is foreign to the gospel it denies the full satisfaction that Jesus Christ provided God when he died upon the cross for the sins of his people

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Jesus called out from his cross it is finished it is not finished is the belief of those who say there's something more you must do to satisfy

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God's justice with respect to your sin they say that penance means a more complete payment of the debt which the sinner owes to God the

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Bible teaches the gospel announces that Jesus Christ paid all that was required for all the sins of all his people penance is not repentance

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Paul could say to the elders at Ephesus I shrank not from declaring onto you anything that was profitable teaching you publicly from house to house testifying both the

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Jews and the Greeks repentance toward God turning to God faith toward our

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Lord Jesus Christ and we'll do no less here than make that same pronouncement and so we're commanded in the scriptures to repentant to repent of sin to turn from self to Jesus Christ as Lord we're never commanded in the scriptures to do penance and so repentance is simply turning oneself from serving sin submitting to God doing his will we're going to pass over that long list

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I have for the next two pages on what repentance is like we did that not long ago but again

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I put this in for the benefit of many who receive our notes elsewhere and so if you have notes before you when you want to follow right on page 9 we might drop down a little over halfway before we continue further we should say a quick word about the destiny of those who fail or refuse to repent the

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Lord Jesus declared that the unrepentant one will perish that stated in both verse 3 and verse 5 to perish is to be cut off from God and whom alone is life even eternal life to perish is to be damned to everlasting hell

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Jesus declared I tell you no but unless you repent you will all likewise perish he said to everyone listening to him and there were multitudes thronged you recall you will all likewise perish unless you repent and so what is veiled here in our

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Lord's words is the impending judgment of God upon the people of Israel that would fall upon them by the

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Roman armies in AD 70 the only ones who would escape perishing under that judgment of God would be disciples of Jesus Christ of course he warned them later that when you see the city of Jerusalem surrounded by the

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Roman armies flee to the mountains and they did the ones who stayed there perished or were captured the only way to escape death and damnation was to embrace

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Jesus Christ as the promised king of Israel to become one of his disciples committed to following him and obeyed him through life and unless that characterizes your life you're going to perish mark it down that's the sentence of God upon you upon anyone outside of Jesus Christ the

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Lord Jesus was pressing upon this Jewish people because the time was short the urgency was was pressing upon them they must act they must repent of their self -willed existence and submit to King Jesus in order to live and then the parable that immediately follows we're just gonna rush through this quickly reinforces what we just said he gives the parable of the fig tree he also spoke this parable this illustrates what he had just been telling them a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard he came seeking fruit on it found none he said to the keeper of his vineyard look for three years

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I've come seeking fruit on this fig tree find none cut it down why does it use up the ground but he answered said to him sir let it alone this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it if it bears fruit well if not after that cut it down and of course that apparel parable speaks to the three -year ministry of our

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Lord Jesus among the Jews and we're in the final weeks of our Lord's earthly life they were you know the judgment of God was upon them the fruit of righteousness were not seen in their lives they failed to exhibit faith and repentance toward God they had not yet suffered his judgment but they should not think that they're going to escape it only due to God's mercy had they not been destroyed already but the time was short and finite they must turn from their sin immediately well this giving of this parable

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Jesus gave a warning to his hearers and it's a warning to us today too isn't it it's a warning against complacency with respect to God's judgment to those who think it's not all that serious a matter

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I can put it off it's a warning against procrastination with respect to responding to God I should respond

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I know I should but not now it's a warning against presumption with respect to his mercy it won't happen to me what can we say regarding God and why these words we're

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God's property and we owe him our love and obedience he has resolved to destroy all those who fail to render him faith and obedience he has been watching and waiting as this owner of the vineyard washing that fig tree is thrilled looking for fruit but there was none and there will be the time when he says to the barren soul no longer

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I want to conclude reading Spurgeon's words that he gave a sermon long ago on this parable in Luke 13 verse six through nine to all unprofitable unfruitful sinners we utter this hard but needful sentence to cut you down would be most reasonable it is right and reasonable to fell barren trees and it's just as right and reasonable that you should be cut down this will appear the first place if we reflect that this is the shortest and surest way to deal with you it will cost the least trouble and be most certainly effectual and removing you from the place in which you are an injury rather than a benefit when the owner of the vineyard says to the gardener concerning the tree cut it down the remedy is very sharp but it's very simple the felling is soon done the clearance is thorough and when another tree is planted the benefit is evident to dig about the tree to trench it to dung it to prune it and water it all this is a long affair required care and labor and attention while after all the process may fail and loves labor may be lost to spare it difficult to spare is difficult and involves trouble to cut down is easy and effectual unconverted hearer to preach the gospel to you to call you to repentance to entreat exhorting instruct and warn you is a laborious process and will probably be unsuccessful after all the work will require much thought providential agencies must be directed with wisdom saints must pray with earnestness ministers must plead with tears the scriptures must be written those scriptures must be expounded and explained all this is more than thou has any natural right to expect that God should do to thee when he has in his hands a far simpler remedy by which he may at once ease himself of his adversary and prevent thy being any further offense he has but to take away thy breath and permit thy body to descend into the grave and thy soul into hell and the vineyard is clear and there's room for another tree this sharp short simple process is one which commands itself to men in the case of trees and it's one which it is a thousand wonders the

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Lord is not used with thee there will be no more blaspheming God sinner when the axe has laid thee low there will be no more rejecting the promise of his mercy no more violating of Sabbath days no more despising scripture when the day of doom arrives death shall end all these abominations forever we shall no more have to agonize for you in vain no more shall we weep bitterly because of your hardness of heart no longer study to meet with your objections and sigh at your constant oppositions the flames of hell will end all this to your sad and awful cost no longer will a long -suffering

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God be wearied with your sins press down under the load of your iniquities he will make short work and righteousness and a clean work too he'll sweep you away with the bosom of destruction besom of destruction and you rebellious will will have an end your iniquities a reward most sure and terrible barren fig tree you'll draw the fatness from the ground no longer and overshadow with evil influence your fellow trees no more you will become a mere waste and worse than a waste sinner

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I ask you is not the readiest plan to be rid of you suggested by the text cut it down you yourself would do this with a tree what reason is there why the

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Lord should not deal with you well those are harsh words but I think it gives a sense of the urgency to respond to God's overtures of peace and that's what the

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Lord Jesus was saying to these people the set he was on his way to Jerusalem and it was not going to be long and he would arrive the time of opportunity for Israel for the

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Jews of that generation was coming to an end it was finite it was close to the end and he was pressing upon them it was really his last overture as he's passing through those villages and towns warning the

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Jewish people to repent of their sin and embrace him as the promised King of Israel if they refused or failed or even procrastinated they'd perish and so he was pressing upon them the urgency and we are living in a world we don't know that what the providence of God entails but it doesn't look too you know too wonderful in the in the future for us at this time and none of us know the day that God is gonna bring an end to our lives may we all be ready we can't you know we can't emphasize the importance of this matter not to put it off but yield yourself to God through Jesus Christ turn from sin that is a self directed life and embrace

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Jesus Christ Jesus you're my Lord and my Savior I'm trusting you for the forgiveness of my sins and I'm looking you and I purpose to do your will as you guide me and help me all the days of my life

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I becoming your disciple only disciples have salvation don't put it off do it it's urgent amen let's pray father thank you for your word and we pray our

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God that we would not allow ourselves to dismiss or discredit what the

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Lord Jesus himself indicated to these people that that there is great danger upon them our

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God because they were in a lost condition and the only way to avoid perishing was to repent to turn and embrace you

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Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior our God don't allow any of us in any way to procrastinate in purposing to serve you and to live for you each day of our lives

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Lord give us the desire and give us the grace to turn from our sin and to embrace

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Jesus Christ wholly and fully as Savior and Lord and we thank you our God for the promises of your love and your mercy that you'll forgive every sinner our