Welcome to An Orderly Account with Pastor John Stoos as he continues a journey through Luke's orderly account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Church of the King strives for biblical worship, which views the Lord's Day as the time when God meets His people to renew His covenant with them. Covenant renewal is characterized by God's calling us to worship, a time for the confession of our sins, the hearing of God's forgiveness based on the finished work of Christ on the cross, the new life and His resurrection, presenting our offerings, approaching the throne of grace and prayer, and His teaching us from the Word of God. Now, here's Pastor Stews. Well, we're going to continue on this morning in our journey through the Gospel of Luke. And I'm sure that you have no problem seeing from the text that was read why we're going to discuss repentance this morning. But it may not be as clear to our modern ears that Jesus is here in this portion of the text presenting the gospel. But that is exactly what he does. And there is much that we can learn from his example. You see, Luke first tells us that Jesus has shifted from addressing His disciples to those in the crowds who have been following Him. You see, over the previous weeks, we've looked and studied at how Jesus has given instructions for His disciples. He's been telling them not to be anxious. He's been telling them that life is more than food. Last week, we saw Jesus teaching that He had not come to bring peace on earth, but division. division in the world where we would begin to see more clearly the sheep and the goats. So in verse 54, Jesus says that He now turns to the multitudes and addresses them. Jesus reaches out to the lost, to the lost sheep of Israel, as we are commanded to do for the entire world in the Great Commission. Jesus is unafraid as we should be, to call people to repentance. To repent with a real repentance that will result in real fruit being seen in their lives. So we're looking this morning to see how Jesus turns to the multitude and how He challenges them to believe the gospel. And Lord willing, from His example, we will see three important lessons to help us share the Good News with those who God brings into our lives. We should challenge people to think about the claims of Christ. I think we all understand that part. We should use everyday events to help us share the Gospel. We are to be long-suffering and to have compassion for the lost. You see, these folks that Jesus is now addressing did not just show up. They've been following Him and listening to Him and seeing the miracles. They've understood some, but not much, of what Jesus has taught. We think about the modern example, we should have people that God brings into our lives. But you see, these should be people who see your faith and my faith lived out day by day in our lives. They should have a proper curiosity about us. William Wilberforce had this challenge in his book Real Christianity. He said, if somebody put you on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? And see, if there's evidence in our lives then people will be observing it. And we will have the kind of opportunities that Jesus had with these followers, these crowds that were now around Him. Jesus challenges them to think about life's big questions. And He did so by comparing them to very common everyday things they were doing. Jesus starts by saying that they can read obvious weather signs around them. and then turn around and ignore the teachings and warnings that are just as clear from the Law and the Prophets. He says, whenever you see a cloud rising out of the West, immediately you say a shower is coming, and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say there will be hot weather, and there is. You see, there in the Middle East where Jesus was teaching, the rain only came from the Mediterranean Sea. So when you saw clouds coming from the west, it was a clear sign that rain was coming. They only had deserts to the south, so if there was a south wind blowing, they knew that it was going to be hot. But you see, obviously Jesus was not primarily interested in their ability and skill to predict the weather. But He wants to use this as an example to spark a real discussion. In verse 656, He says, hypocrites, you discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that you do not discern this time? You see, He's bringing them right in to think about what it is He's doing. They're following Him. That's why the multitudes are there for Him to address. Jesus is headed for Jerusalem at His appointed time to be the sacrifice for sin. And He simply says, why don't you see what's going on? Jesus has turned to the crowds and to those who mostly have followed Him to see the show. They're listening, but not really grasping much of what Jesus is saying. They're not taking it seriously. Or they're acting as if they do not understand what He is doing. And Jesus now wants them to focus on the seriousness of why and how they should respond. In verse 57, He says, Yes, and why even of yourselves do you not judge what is right? The Gospel always becomes personal. We have to take the person and say, Have you thought about what this means for you? Jesus has challenged them by saying that they can read the signs about the weather, but not these signs about the Messiah that are right in front of them. Let's consider, if you will, a couple of modern examples of where people are being hypocritical in this way that we might be able to use to nudge folks into thinking more seriously about the claims of Christ and where they will spend eternity. In today's modern world, if someone sees a young person smoking, it is absolutely horrifying. I mean, even if somebody smokes in the presence of a young person, they're condemned. In fact, some here in California want to make that illegal. That's how concerned we are for the welfare of the children. But at the same time, The nation's number one provider of abortions, Planned Parenthood, is invited into the schools to teach these very same children that having so-called safe sex can be a good thing. We can scratch our heads at the hypocrisy, but we should approach this as Jesus did and say, OK, I can get somebody to think about whether there's a conflict there. And part of how I'm going to do that is using the wisdom of Proverbs. We've been reading that through. Lord willing, we've all been reading that through this week in our morning readings. And if you've read those first five or six chapters of Proverbs, you know that it makes it pretty clear which has graver consequences, illicit sex or smoking. How many times do you think smoking is mentioned in the first seven chapters of Proverbs? Zero is the right answer. But when Proverbs is addressing young men and how they should be responsible with their lives and the gifts that God wants to give them in marriage, it's over and over and over again that it talks about the wisdom they should follow. This gives us an opportunity to open discussions with people. And of course, because Jesus is presented as wisdom personified, it is in His person that we see what wisdom means, it will obviously lead to Jesus and the Good News. I think another place that we can certainly cry hypocrite today is in the priority of life itself. You know, if you went out and put a Save the Whales bumper sticker on your car this afternoon, you would probably be hailed throughout this week as a compassionate hero, the Savior of the planet. Put abortion kills children on a sign, and stand out on the street as we do a couple of times a year, and people will lecture you about how you are upsetting their young children. That's a conflict. That's something that we can get people to talk about. And if we do, it means that we're going to have to bring up the fact that man is made in the image of God. That's why it's more important to save children in the womb than to save baby seals. Not that we shouldn't care about baby seals, but it's a matter of priorities. And once we have that discussion, we've got people looking at the Book of Beginnings. We're right back at the Book of Genesis. And guess what's presented in the Book of Genesis over and over and over again? The Gospel. That's how we want to get people engaged. And these are just a few of the examples that we should learn to use, just as Jesus did the weather on this day, to challenge people to consider the claims of Jesus and His Word. Now, Jesus goes on to show how serious what He is presenting is by using another familiar example. Something that they would have understood and something that people even today can still understand. Someone going to court with a case that is not very strong. In verse 58 it says, When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there until you have paid the very last mite. If you don't have a good case and you get thrown into prison and you're expected to pay, how are you going to pay when you're in prison? You can't work, you can't earn money. It's a bad, bad dilemma. Jesus is making his final journey to Jerusalem. He's going to die for the sins of His people. The day of decision is coming for the city of Jerusalem and for all of God's people. Jesus uses this example of going before a human judge with a poor case to try to get them to think about whether they want to face the judge of the universe with the load of sin they're carrying on their backs. You see, Jesus is bringing the gospel, the good news. If they can discern the times and see that He is the Messiah, the Lamb of God that has come to take away the sin of the world, they can be forgiven and stand before the judgment seat of God, being seen as fully righteous in Christ. If they refuse this offer of grace, and go before the judge pleading their own case, they will be cast into hell for all eternity. That's the choice that Jesus wants them to see. As Jesus is in the midst of challenging these folks, He is once again interrupted as we've seen several times in previous weeks. And here Jesus gives us our second lesson about taking opportunities to share the good news. It says in verse 1, There were present at that season some who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. This was something that had happened. Pilate either slaughtering people in the midst of their sacrifices or slaughtering them because they weren't sacrificing right. We don't know. But a number of Galileans had been killed very publicly at the temple. What should Jesus do now that they're bringing this up? What he does is what we often need to do in our conversations in modern. They're trying to shift the discussion. Somebody brings this up, not because they want to turn and talk about those Galileans, but because Jesus is starting to make them feel uncomfortable. It's like, you might be talking about me, we better start to change the subject. So He says, what about those Galileans? Remember those guys? They were just killed in the temple last week. They were the really bad guys, weren't they? They're the ones that don't really want to stand before the judge. They're trying to shift the discussion to the death of others rather than thinking about their own deaths as Jesus is suggesting. I can give you probably the best example I can out of my own conversion. You know, I came from a very agnostic background. I had some very wise man that came alongside and gave me things that got me thinking about my arrogance and my worldview. And I started to read a good book. I started to read the Scriptures. And it all culminated with a night that I went for a walk, really at kind of a high point in my life. I wasn't one of these crisis conversions kind of things. But God was working on it. And suddenly I was out in my little suburban neighborhood, taking a walk, arguing with the God who I had always said didn't exist. I probably should have thought that was strange, but there I was. And as I argued with him, I walked down the street. I don't remember their names, but I can almost picture the houses where I knew the neighbors in our neighborhood. And I said, well, what about her? The woman that had mental problems was in and out of institutions. What about this family where there was a broken family? What about? I had all of the excuses as to why, if God really wanted to deal with somebody's problems, There were a whole lot of other people that needed a lot more help than I did. That's just typical human nature. And I thank God for 33 years now that I lost that argument that night because of His sovereign grace. But you see, that's what Jesus does with the Gospel each and every time. He makes it very personal. And that's what He does here. These people want to shift to, well, what about those Galileans? They're a mess. Jesus answered and said to them, knowing what they were thinking, do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will likewise perish. We need to do what Jesus did and make it personal. To say, you know, it's hard to think about those people dying, but we're all going to die. And just to make sure they understand the point, Jesus actually adds another current event. There was also a tower that had fallen and killed some men in Jerusalem. And He says, or those 18 whom the Tower of Siloam fell and killed, do you think that these were worse sinners than all the other men in Jerusalem? Did God wait for the right moment that the right 18 bad guys were sitting under that tower and then it fell? Jesus says no. And He says, and if you don't repent, you will likewise perish. Jesus clearly demonstrates Preaching the gospel requires a call for repentance. And as we're going to see in the parable, he's talking about real repentance that will bear and result in real fruit. And that brings us to the third important lesson that Jesus has to teach us. We must be long-suffering and show compassion for the lost. Evangelizing is not about winning arguments. Obviously, Jesus has done this. Who could out-argue the Lord of the Universe? He's even overcoming interruptions that could have taken Him off message. He's done a good job here this morning of presenting the Gospel. Some could say that here Jesus has called them to repentance, and if they don't respond, then He can just walk away. Jesus had really made the case, and now they were without excuse if they refuse to believe. But you see, it is at this point that Jesus tells one of His parables of the fig tree. Verse 6, it says, Jesus also spoke this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And then he said to the keeper of the vineyard, Look, for three years I've come seeking fruit from this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground? But the gardener answered and said to him, Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it, and if it bears fruit, well. And if not, after that, you can cut it down. Now, we need to see two very important things here in this simple parable, and they are reflected in the title of today's sermon. Jesus does not compromise the truth of the gospel. He wasn't what we would call in the modern vernacular, seeker-friendly. True repentance, which He has called these people to, will bring real fruit. Being in the garden, Remember, this was a fig tree that was planted in the garden. And being a pretty tree was not enough. Being baptized or having a decision card and sitting in church week after week will not gain you the eternal life which Jesus offers. The master of the vineyard is looking for fruit. And this is an important lesson for us today. As James so aptly put it in his epistle, faith without works is dead. Now, we must remember that we can never earn God's favor by doing good works. That's what the folks who are going to spend eternity in hell trying to pay for their sins were thinking. But, when we repent and put our faith in Jesus, That same faith will produce fruit in our lives. Those good works that Paul in Ephesians 2 says that we are created in Christ Jesus to perform in this life. Or as we see here, the fruit that the Master was looking for on that fig tree. The Gospel demands repentance. Real repentance. A turning away from sin and a turning to righteousness. However, the second point in this parable is the third lesson that we're talking about this morning. And I really believe it is why Jesus shared this parable at this particular point. We must learn. that we are to show great compassion for the lost. The gardener in this parable is the evangelist who is seeking one of the lost sheep. He has cared for this tree for three years, and still there is no fruit. And yet the gardener has asked for yet another year. and shows a willingness to dig around this tree yet again and to give it yet more fertilizer in the hope that it will begin to bear fruit. To dig it and dung it, as the King James Version so aptly puts. This gardener is willing to do the hard work of gardening for yet another year. Jesus has been teaching them for almost three years, and still, He is not ready to cut them off. Over the next year, these skeptics, many of them in the crowd that he's addressing this morning, will see Jesus go to the cross. They'll see the power of His resurrection. They're going to see His Holy Spirit poured out on His followers in the church. And they're going to witness thousands being converted just in the city of Jerusalem. And yet, there will come a time when the tree must be cut down. With Jerusalem, that time came in A.D. 70. So the lessons we should learn this morning are three. Jesus wants us to challenge people with the truth of the Gospel, calling them to repentance and to salvation. That's the Great Commission. That's why we're commissioned and sent out each week. Secondly, Jesus wants us to learn to take the opportunities which life presents for us to do this each and every day. If we begin to think biblically, we'll see more and more opportunities to discuss important things with people. And finally, Jesus wants us to be very patient with the lost, willing to take that extra year of digging and dunging, sharing and praying that they might come to Jesus. Yes, Jesus reminded the disciples that he was not bringing peace, but a division to the earth. But this does not remove our responsibility to evangelize, nor does it remove the joy of sharing God's good news. You're listening to Pastor John Stewes of Church of the King. Join us next week at the same time as the journey through Luke's orderly account of the gospel of Jesus Christ continues. You're invited to join us for Sunday worship at 11 o'clock, where biblical worship is characterized by the active and vigorous participation of the entire congregation. Church of the King is a pro-life, pro-family church where all baptized children participate in worship, including the Lord's Table, on a weekly basis. To learn more or to hear this message in its entirety, visit orderlyaccount.com or call 916-451-5660. Still let fancy more and more, till all people,