Luke chapter 13 you're able to stand this morning on a reading of God's Word I Won't read the first five verses starting with verse 1 there were present at the season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices and Jesus answering said unto them suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things and I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Are those 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay. But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. You may be seated. I appreciate you standing, honoring the reading of God's word. I want to preach on that word, except, this morning. It's in our Christ, we read it to you. In verse 3, Jesus said, I tell you, nay. But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. They said one time that they called a pastor to a church and said the first sermon he preached, excuse me, he took that title, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And so he came back next Sunday and he got up and preached, he took the same title, said I want to preach on the subject, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And the third Sunday he came back and guess what he preached on? except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. So after church, the deacons took him over to the side and talked to him and said, Preacher, don't you have any other messages? He said, yes, sir. I've got a whole bunch of them. He said, when are we going to hear one? He said, whenever you obey the first one there. I want to look at that word except, like I said, except you repent and you shall all likewise perish. Now, they had told Jesus the story of these Galileans who Pilate had mangled the blood with their sacrifices. Now, the Bible don't say much about that story, does it? Has anybody read anything else about it? But history teaches us that some of the Galileans, now Pilate, when he first came to Jerusalem to rule there, He was kind of an arrogant, proud general, and he wanted to build himself up a reputation, so he started bossing people around, and that don't happen. Those Galileans was kind of like heartbreakers, okay? West Virginians, I'll put it like that. And so, what happened was, some of the Galileans had come over there, and they revolted, and he would say, except you obey, your head will be taken off, and they would lay their head down and say, go ahead, cut our heads off. Now, this is history, okay? And what had happened, some of them had ran in, movie, Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I like that old story with Lachlan that played the part there. Sanctuary, okay, remember he'd take, what's that girl's name? the gypsy girl into the temple there and he would say sanctuary some of you looking at me like I should have studied that in school read that story in school listen these Galileans had went into the temple they thought they would get sanctuary from Pilate they thought they protected there but he went in slew those men and their blood was mingled right along now listen to the priest was performing religious ceremonies They're performing sacrifices there. But when they killed these Galileans, their blood, the Galileans' blood, mingled right along with the sacrificial animals there. Now Jesus is talking to a bunch of Jews in particular here. He's talking to the world in general, okay? And you know what happened? He's telling these Jews, He said, except ye repent, ye shall walk. Likewise perished. Your blood had been mingled right along with the animal sacrifices, just like these Galileans did. You would think that these were sinners above all Galileans. These are the worst sinners in the world. But I say unto you, Nay, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Hey, let me ask you a question. Have we ever repented this morning? That's the thing I want to get across about today. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And you know, this happened to the Jews. I said, this happened to the Jews. In 78 A.D., Titus the Roman general invaded Jerusalem. Don't you think a lot of the priests was taking some sacrificial animals out there to the sacrificial altar that day? Don't you think they had cut up those animals and the blood was laying there? And don't you think, now listen, the history teaches us, if you ever study the works of Josephus, the history teaches us that they slaughtered so many Jews there that the blood run down the street like a puddle there. It run down the street like a stream there. There was literally thousands of Jewish people slaughtered there that day in 70 A.D. when Titus, that Roman general, took over Jerusalem. And don't you think a lot of them sacrificial animals were being sacrificed? Don't you think their blood run right along with those people's blood down the street there? Jesus told them, He said, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. I'm asking the question again, have we ever repented this morning today? Somebody said, I belong to church. I said, have you ever repented? Somebody said, well, Homer, you Baptist. I said, have you ever repented today? Listen, without repentance, there's no salvation this morning. And Jesus said, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. You say, okay. What is repentance? It's a change of mind that produces a change of heart that in turn produces a change of action. Now let me ask you again, have you ever repented? Have you ever had a change of mind? Have you ever had a change of heart that produced a change of action in your life down here? Jesus said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish today. The first message Jesus preached was, repent ye, why? for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." That's when he came out of the wilderness there being tempted of the devil. The Bible teaches us, Jesus said, repent ye and believe the gospel that you might be saved. Now listen, repentance and faith are divine commands this morning. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent today. Have you ever repented this morning? He commanded all men everywhere. Somebody said, well, preacher, I'm a Baptist. I didn't ask you if you was a Baptist. Somebody said, I didn't ask you if you was a Catholic. I didn't ask you what you were this morning. I said, have you ever repented this morning? Have you ever had a change of mind that produced a change of heart that in other words, produced a change of action in your life down here? Listen, without repentance, there's no salvation. And except you repent, you shall what? All likewise perish today. Somebody said, this is a strange Christmas message. The message of Christmas is that Christ came to die for us and give us the right to repent, that we might get saved and go home to heaven one day after a while. And without repentance, there'll be no heaven today. He said, repent ye and believe the gospels, you might be saved. Now repentance and faith They're divine commands. God commandeth all being a word of pen. And God commands you and I to have faith this morning. Except you believe that I am He, you'll die in your sin. And whether I am, whether you cannot come this morning. You say, well, you've got to have faith. Well, we're saved by grace through what? Faith? Ephesians 2 and 8, 9, 4. By grace are you saved through faith? That not of yourselves? It is. In other words, faith itself is a gift of God this morning. Somebody said, where could I get faith at if I'm given a divine command to have faith today? Where could I get faith at? Could you get it down at Wal-Mart? Or Target? Could you buy faith this morning? No. But the Bible teaches us, so then faith cometh how? By hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. That's why God has men to preach the Gospel, that men may hear that, listen, the Word of God will, listen, administer impute faith into your heart and your life this morning. There's a doctrine called imputation this morning. And what we mean by that is God imputed Adam's sins upon us. We inherited that sin. But also God imputed Christ's righteous upon us when we believed and repented of our sins and got saved by God's amazing grace. And so what God does through grace and mercy, He gives man space to repent. And then He imputes faith. Is that not amazing that you might believe this morning? Even faith itself is a gift of God. Do you understand that? Let me put it like this. Have you ever been in trouble with the law? Don't hold up your hands. And sometimes you're sitting out in the, where you pointing to me before? Sometimes you're sitting out in the hallway on a bench and you're nervous as you can be. And what you're waiting for, you're waiting for the bailiff to come in and say, okay, he'll hear your case today. And you can't go in until the bell comes out. See, that's what the Holy Ghost of God does. He comes to us and invites us to a throne of grace that we may repent of our sin and find mercy and find grace for help in a time of need this one. Is that not amazing? That God would do something like that for a bunch of sinners? Except... They said in Scotland there was a tower, and they called it a Tower of Repentance. And said one day a skeptic came along, and kind of ridiculing a young man out there in the field working, and he said, did you tell me how to get to heaven, if you're so smart? And he pointed to that tower and said, through the Tower of Repentance. And let me say this this morning, through that Tower of Repentance, we can all obtain a road to heaven this morning. But except you repent, you shall what? All likewise perish today. Now, when I got saved, I had a change of mind. Like I said, it produced a change of heart that in turn produced a change of conduct. I had a change of mind about myself. I thought I was all right, but I found out I was all wrong. I told you before, and let me repeat this morning, when I was lost, I had a self-righteous spirit about me. My attitude was, if all of those hypocrites up there at church, all of them, in my eyes, none of them wasn't any good, they was all hypocrites, if all of those hypocrites up there at church go to heaven, I've got nothing to worry about. Don't that sound like a self-righteous person? But what God's Word is, God's Word, we know, is a looking-glass. And the Bible says, He that heareth the Word of God, and doeth it not, like a man beholdeth his face in a natural glass, or a looking-glass, and turneth away, and straightway forget what manner of person he is. What the Word of God does, God holds His looking-glass down at our feet, and lets us see ourselves the way God sees us this morning. And when God held His looking-glass down, you know what He showed me? He said, there's none good. And I saw myself. I said, not me, God. He said, no, not even you, Homer. You see, a lot of people a lot of times don't get saved because they say, well, there's too many hypocrites in the church. You ever heard that before? But, you know, if you're letting a hypocrite stand between you and the Lord, he's closer to the Lord than what you are this morning. Is that right? And what I tell folks is you ought to get saved and get right and show those folks how to live right. Is that right? How to live right this morning. He said, I had a change of mind. When I thought I was all right, I found out I was all wrong. He said, there's none good, there's none righteous, there's none that understandeth, and there's none that seeketh after God. And that was me. I didn't seek after God. God come looking for me. I was standing on a street corner, a juvenile delinquent. with a Swiss blade knife in my pocket and a leather jacket on, had a big belt wrapped around the outside like a buckler so we could just get off her and bust somebody's head if they mess with us, okay? But God come looking for me that night and God gave me a change of mind and showed me that I, hey, a fellow like that thought he was as good as all those folks in the church? Is it not God's grace that he'd open up my eyes and my heart and show me what I was this morning and show me that I was lost and going to hell today? It produced a change of mind about myself. I thought I was alright. And let me say this this morning. You know the Bible teaches us that the devil is a liar. And the father of it, in other words, he hatched or begot the first lie. And when I was lost, you know what he kept telling me? I think you're alright. And as soon as I got saved, you know what he started telling me? I don't think you are. See I had a lot of problems when I first got saved because the night I got saved, see I was taught, now this is my religion. It wasn't right but I was taught that. I was taught you didn't realize or didn't know for sure if you were saved until you died. Wouldn't that be an awful tragedy to get up there and die and realize that you found out too late? What a religion that was. I'm glad that the Bible teaches you to know the truth. The truth will make you free. The truth not only sets us free from sin, but truth sets us free from superstition. Truth sets us free from our indoctrination a lot of times, which is wrong a lot of times. The night I got saved, I didn't know a thing about being saved. They didn't even use that word around where I came from. It was just joining the church. I've told you before, getting religion. And when the preacher... I thought you're supposed to walk up, shake the preacher's hand, tell him you want to become a Christian, he'd baptize you and make you a Christian. That's what I thought. But I was wrong. And that preacher pointed me to an altar. And we got down and prayed. And God saved me. When I got up, he said, are you saved? You know what I said? Yes. And you know what the devil said to me right then in the church? Now you know you're not saved till you die. Boy. I mean, that's the way I was taught. So one night the preacher preached on, you can be saved and know that you're saved. You know what I did? I got up and I went back to the altar and I said, God, we got to get something settled here. I've been taught this and the preacher says this. And if I'm not saved, then you save me now. He didn't save me again, but he gave me assurance that everything was alright. A change of mind about myself. A change of mind about sin. I took it lightly. I remember Paul, when he got under conviction, the Lord told him, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. In other words, it got hard for Paul to persecute the church. Kick against the pricks. Pricks was rods that they used to use to gourd cattle with to get them to go into the stall or on the loading truck or whatever. Sometimes they'd just mount them like that, and if they moved one side or the other, they'd run into that thing and stab themselves or something like that. He said, Paul, you're persecuting the church. It's like an old cow or an old bull. You're butting against the pricks. and they're tearing you up. Hey, it got a hold of Paul's heart there. Conviction did. Listen, he said it's got hard for you to persecute. It's got hard for you to sin. I know from experience, when I got under conviction, it got hard for me to sin, even before I ever got saved. See, before, when I was lost, if I stole something or done... Yeah, guilty. If I stole something or done something wrong, even got into a fight and hurt somebody, I laughed at it and rejoiced at it. But boy, when I got under conviction, it got hard for me to sin. I had to change a mind about myself. I had to change a mind about sin. And then I had to change a character. Conduct. I can't explain salvation this morning. All the way I can say it is, did you ever not like to eat something and all of a sudden you got an appetite for it? I'm by that way like with macaroni and cheese. When I was young, I didn't care anything at all for it and all of a sudden I got to liking it and now I don't care that much for it anymore. Did you ever have something you really liked and then all of a sudden, somewhere in life, you just lost your appetite for it? Well, listen, that's the best way I can explain this Christianity. The things I used to love, the sin that I used to love, the sin that I used to enjoy, I lost my appetite for. That's the only way I can explain it. I just didn't like doing it no more. When I did something wrong, it bothered me and it troubled me. Listen, that's one reason I know I'm saved. I'm not always good, okay? I don't always do the right thing. Is that all right for a preacher to say stuff like that? But one reason I know I'm saved is God gave me a repenting heart. I've been repenting ever since the day I repented of my sins. I've been turning and turning and turning. See, what repentance is, is taking God's side against yourself, saying, God, you're right, I'm wrong this morning. And even as a preacher, I find myself having to say that a lot of times. You're right, God, I'm wrong. I've been repenting ever since the day I repented. I had a change of mind about myself, about sin, about my conduct. Now listen. Sin, we've said over the years, will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you can afford to pay. Have any of you ever read the story, I've preached it here several times, I know or I thought I had, about Leonardo da Vinci and the painting of the Lord's Supper? You remember me preaching on it? Okay. I thought maybe I'd lost my mind there for a minute. I thought I'd done something I didn't do. They said, Leonardo da Vinci, and back then, you couldn't paint a religious painting without getting the king's permission. And he wouldn't have got the permission to paint the Lord's Supper, the one we see. And what they would do, they would paint in the main character first, and then get all the other twelve disciples. So, he sought out a man that he thought would fit the characteristics of the Lord. He got someone that was young yet intelligent looking. Someone that looked like he was mature enough for he could tell men and teach men and lead men. And so he found this individual and he sat down and he painted him in the painting. Seven years went by. He hunted out those twelve, eleven disciples. He painted in Peter, John, whoever. And the last one that he painted in was Judas Iscariot. He looked for somebody that looked like they could be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Someone who looked like they could look innocent, but yet betray the Lord. He found someone in prison. He got the king's permission, had the guards to bring him to his studio every day and paint him in as Judas. When he finished the painting up, he told the guards to take him away and I won't need him no more, no need to bring him back, I'm finished. Said the man pulled loose from the guard and run up and said, Mr. Da Vinci, would you look at me closely, don't you know who I am? He said, no, I've never saw you before until a few months ago when I started painting you into this painting here. He said he pleaded two or three times and finally when the guards are away, he run back and fell down at his feet and said, Mr. Da Vinci said, please look at me, don't you know who I am? And he said, I've never saw you until a few months ago. He said, my God, my God, have I fallen so low? He said, I'm the man you painted for Christ only seven years ago. Listen, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay. It will cost you more than you can afford to pay today. Except you repent. Have you ever repented today? You shall all likewise perish. I'm not asking you if you're Sunday school superintendent or if you're a deacon or if your name's, if Homer Hensley baptized you. I'm asking have you ever turned, took God's side against yourself today? I had a change of mind about myself, about sin. I had a change of mind about God. I take his name in vain. One time I've got, I call him a hippie friend when I call him still. Now he's saved in church. I've worked with him, but I first met him as a long-haired hippie boy on drugs. And I've told some of you this story. I went to his Catholic wedding. They wanted me to come to reception, but I thought I'd better pass on that. It may get too wild for a Baptist preacher. And I'd had him and his wife over to the house for dinner. And they'd had a baby girl there, and we'd go out and eat with them. When I still called him, I'll call him, and I'll say, Hippie, and he'll say, yeah, Hillbilly. I had a change of mind about God. We went to a funeral one day. One of the men at work died, and I preached his funeral, and him and his wife rode over with us. She was in a backseat with my wife. And as we left the cemetery, she said to my wife, said, JC. That was a hippie expression for Jesus Christ. By the way, it's degrading, okay? He's our Lord. She said, JC ought to have his butt kicked for killing Terry. That was the boy's name. My wife looked at her and said, don't you know he's the Lord and he can do with us what he wants to? He made us. And the next day at work, he'd come into work and he'd kind of quietly come over to where I was at and stood there a few minutes and didn't say much. I said, you alright? And he said, I thought you'd be mad at me. I said, what am I mad at you for? What have you done to me? What are you going to do to me? He said, didn't you hear what my wife Sharon said yesterday in the car? That JC ought to have his butt kicked. He said, didn't that offend you? I said, well, no, I've called him a lot worse names than that. He looked at me kind of astonished. I said, I've cursed his name and called him a lot of bad names. I said, I'm glad he forgives me. Hey, I had a change of mind about God. I found out that He loved me, but I also found out He's going to judge me one day. It's like the man that they said fell in the river and said the man came along and threw him a vine and pulled him out of the river. Years later, so that man that was in the river had committed a crime. He went to court. And said, before the judge, the judge that I sentenced you to life, he said, wait a minute, judge? He said, don't you know me? He said, I'm the man you pulled out of the creek just a few years ago. He said, yes, that day I was your savior, but today I'm your judge. And listen, that's the way it's going to be with the Lord today. Accept and repent, you shall all like Christ. Today he's our savior, but tomorrow he's going to be our judge. A change of mind about God. He not only loves me, but he will judge me. Then, like I said, I had a change of heart. My appetite changed. The things I used to love, I just don't love them no more. The things I used to hate, I found myself wanting to go to church with all those hypocrites. Ain't that strange? And the amazing thing is that God would save someone with an attitude like that and then call them to preach the gospel. That's amazing grace. And listen, I had a change of conduct, a change of actions. And like I said, where there's no change, there's no repentance. And without repentance, we'll all likewise perish. Somebody said, what produces repentance? The Bible said, know ye not that the goodness of God leadeth men to repentance. It's not God's wrath. It's not God's anger. A lot of times folks say, I would go to church but I'm afraid the roof would fall in. If God wanted to get you, He'd get you on the job. If God wanted to get you, He'd get you in the car driving down the road. God's not out to get you. God is out to save individuals today. Saying this coming to a close, there's four kinds of repentance. There's a worldly repentance. The Bible teaches that godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, but the sorrows of this world worketh what? Anybody know? Death. Worldly repentance is people sorry that they got caught. If you go up to jail this morning, all of those are repentant. They're all sorry. My dad, he used to drink and he'd do things and sometimes mom would call the law on him, they'd put him in jail and we'd go down to jail to visit him and get him out and he looks so pitiful, he'd make you feel like you did something wrong. They're sorry they got caught. They're not sorry for what they've done because turn them loose next weekend and they'll go back and do the same thing. Are you getting this? I said, it's a worldly repentance this morning, and worldly sorrow leadeth to death today. Then there's reformation repentance. Do you ever hear people say, oh, I'm going to do better? I'm going to turn over a new leaf? Used to be years ago, some of my family, they was going to go before the judge, you could fire off or take some kind of oath, you were never going to drink again. If they caught you drinking, they could put you in jail over it, okay? And that lasted about until about Friday night. And soon as their buddies come around, that repentance went out the window. Then there's desperation repentance today. About everybody repents when they think they're going to die. Go to the hospital. Now, do not misunderstand me. Some of it's real. Thank God. That thief on the cross, he had desperation repentance and it worked. But let me say this, you may be sitting here and young, say, well, when I get old and I've lived my life and sowed all my wild oats and when I'm ready to die, I'll go, that's the devil's idea of when you ought to get religion, by the way. I would be afraid to swander God's mercies and God's grace for 40 years or 60 years or 50 years. Now, do not misunderstand me. God is gracious. Look at that thief on the cross. That thief couldn't say, I'll go join the church, and I'll gain my tithes, and I'll be a deacon, or I'll be a Sunday school teacher, or I'll take care of the service, or whatever. He couldn't promise anything like that. But God, out of grace and mercy, went ahead and said, is that? That ought to make us all this morning shout and say, praise God that God still saves sinners today. But there's a desperation repentance. Remember the man on Jonah's ship? When the storm comes and they thought they were going to sink, you know what they've done? The Bible said they threw their wares overboard. In other words, they threw their cargo overboard. Isn't that amazing sometimes when we are facing sickness and think we're going to die a lot of times, how we lay aside our sin? But sadly, sadly, sadly, so many of them when they get out of the hospital and things are well, they pick it back up again. Is that not true? His desperation, repentance. But then there is a godly sorrow. The Bible said he's not those that be of a broken heart. Let me ask you this question, this one. Has God ever broke your heart and made you sorrowful for what you are and what you do? Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation. I said, God gave me a repenting heart. I've been repenting ever since the day I got saved. But I've never had repent of that repentance. Had to come back and check up on it. Come back and make sure it's real. You know, sometimes the devil will say to me, Preacher shouldn't do that. And he's probably right, I shouldn't. And a Christian shouldn't do that. He's probably right, we shouldn't. And he'll say, you claim to be a Christian? Then he'll, if we aren't careful, make us doubt that we've ever been saved. You know what I do? I take him back to the altar. And I take him back to 1962 when I repented. And he goes off and leaves me for a while, but he usually comes back. But he goes off and leaves me because that repentance was real. I didn't have the right words to say. I didn't say this. I probably promised the Lord a lot of things that night I got saved. But you know, I broke all those promises. If I'd have listened to them, I'd probably look back over and say, I broke every one of them. But you know what? God has not broke His promise, and that's why I'm still saved for 52 years because God got saved according to His promise and not according to mine this morning. I've had to repent over and over and over again. I've had to come back and say, God, I faltered again. I failed again. You know what He does? If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us for our sin. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all risen. He just picks us up, dusts us off. I say, go do better. Go thy way and sin no more, lest a worse thing happen to you. The goodness of God leadeth men to repentance. J. Dwight Pentecost, one of our older ministers, years gone by, he said he struggled with getting saved. He said he'd go to church and seek the Lord. It seemed like he couldn't understand or couldn't believe or couldn't grasp hold of this religion. He said one day he was sitting in his pew and he said the Holy Ghost spoke to his heart and said, God is satisfied with what Christ has done to redeem you. He said, hey, wait a minute. God is satisfied with what Christ has done to redeem me? He said, I ought to be too. Now, I am satisfied, and I'm saved because of it. I'm satisfied with what God did redeem me this morning. I've told you over the years, when you look at me, you're looking at one of the most vile, mean... Oh, you say, well, you're our pastor. Yeah, but you don't know what I think about doing to people sometimes. I'm kind of like John. You want me to pray fire down on him? My son, most of them, I fix him breakfast on Saturday morning and he's talking to me yesterday and we was talking about having power with God and I said, well, God can't trust us with the kind of power like Elijah. I said, we'd be burning a whole bunch of people's houses down. Does that not go through our minds sometimes? My wife used to be, she'd send Sherry and her oldest son to the store, and she'd give them the smallest bill. I'm talking about when they were four or five. It used to be you could trust kids, go down the street to the store and come back, but now you can't. And she'd give them the smallest bill. You know why? Because she couldn't trust them. She's afraid they might lose if you give them a $20 bill or a $50 bill, might lose the chance. I think sometimes that's the way the Lord is with us. He does not give us a whole lot because He just can't trust us with it. Get us a song, please.