All righty. Well, let's just jump right into this thing. Jesus was talking about people standing outside and knocking on the door saying, let us in, let us in. And he says, get away from me. I never even knew you. And I know a lot of people like that. They name the name of Jesus, but then the fruit of their life says something totally different. And I believe Titus had a phrase for that. He says, though you honor me, you say that you love God, but you're not.
your works deny him deny that you love God and so that's kind of what Jesus was talking about and then he
ends in chapter 30 and that's where we're going to start reading and we'll read to the end of the
chapter so we'll we'll just do 30 through 35 and it says indeed there are last who will be first
and there are first who will be last on that very day some Pharisees came saying to him
get out and depart from here Herod wants to kill you and he said to them go tell that fox
Behold I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day
I shall be perfected nevertheless I must journey today tomorrow and the day following
For it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem
Jerusalem the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are
were sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you. Desolate and assuredly I say to you,
you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord. Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you that you're willing to challenge us and to
to castize us and to even bring us to the point of death
that we might look to you,
there in the book of Revelation,
Strengthen that which remains and lift up your head for your redemption draws near.
Be what this morning we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. And so he says, indeed, there are last who will be first and there are first who will be last. What does this mean?
God definitely has a different economic system than you and I. And he, but we know he's a respecter of no person.
God is a respecter of no person.
He respects me no more than he respects my three-year-old grandson.
He doesn't respect us.
He loves us.
He has a plan for us.
And for us to demand God's respect, I think, is foolish.
Because he could kill you just as easy.
And be totally justified in doing it.
That's what's so wild.
And that's what humanity does not understand.
I was reading this morning in Romans where Paul says there, I believe it's in chapter 9 where he says,
he says, how can the thing that is made say to him that made it? Why have you made me thus?
You have no right to do that. He created you. He created you to be in relationship with him.
And if you don't want that, that's on you.
that's what sends you to separation from God for all eternity
is you don't want you don't want him
how can the clay say to the potter what are you doing
you realize how ridiculous it is right that thought
just saying if you don't if you aren't getting it you and i are the clay
we have no right to say anything to the potter
but oh Lord do with me what you will
that girl is going to be a preacher
but the first she'll be last and for the Jewish mind
this is kind of this is a bit of a dig because the Jews were the chosen people they were the
people who God God made covenant with those with with Abraham and and then he makes the the old
covenant the the legal covenant of the of the law with Moses and and the Levites and he made this
covenant and they should be first but one of the prophets tells us that he says a people who
were not your people will be your people that's talking about you and me as gentiles that have
received Christ we've received the gospel he says the the last we were last in line will be first
and the first who should have been in line will be last but god's salvation comes to all of us
it's not just a an ethnic group it's just not the jews though
he did say, right? Salvation is of the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews. If it weren't for them,
we would have nothing to be grafted into, right? We would be illegitimate. But because of them,
it gives us legitimacy. So, so he says, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
where are you at?
Because really the
the ones that don't want to walk with him
not only would
they won't even be last
they'll just be separated
we just need to come to him
even if it's a last hour
this might be your last hour
please come to Jesus
I promise you you won't regret it
I look back in my life and somebody asked me just a little bit ago, so how did you come to the Lord?
And I look back at that and I just kind of get giddy because I'm just thinking,
because it's just exciting to see what God's done in my life.
And I just have to praise and worship him.
And I remember throwing my hands in the air.
I was 23 years old.
And I said, Lord, I can't do this.
I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm just making a mess out of my life and other people's lives.
Do something with me.
And I surrendered.
I literally threw my hands in the air, sitting in my chair in my trailer house in central California.
I said, take my life, do something with it.
It's a mess.
You know, it's still a mess.
But I got somebody I can give my mess to every single morning, right?
And so I would rather be last than not at all.
Like David said, I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to spend
a thousand days elsewhere.
So they come to Jesus.
They're hearing this.
And when this next verse, in verse 31, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
can't really see the motive because you don't really know which Pharisees is talking about
because there were some Pharisees that actually kind of thought Jesus was all right. We have Joseph
of Veramathia and Nicodemus. You know, they're at the crucifixion. They were faithful. They were
kind of closet believers. And it says, and on the very, on that very day, some Pharisees came to him,
Get out and depart from here for Herod wants to kill you now were they just
Wanting to get rid of him or do they were they wanting to push him using the Galilee at this time
Were they wanting to push him back to Geith back to Jerusalem where they knew they could arrest him and and do away with him?
I don't know what the motive was we don't know if Herod really wanted to kill him we knew that Herod was a little
nervous when he heard about the things that Jesus was doing because he thought it was John the
Baptist raised back from the dead, who he had killed because he had got kind of a little aroused at
the dancing of his stepdaughter and vowed to give her up to half his kingdom. You guys remember
the story, right? What do you want? I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Now to give that,
cut that girl a little bit of slack. It was her mother who prompted her to do that. Sure
enough, took John the Baptist's head, put it on a platter, here you go, 33 years old.
But he knew, he knew that his time was up. I kind of envy people that know their time's up.
because it gives you an opportunity to get right with God.
No doubt, John, the Baptist was having some doubts in his jail cell when he said,
you go ask that Jesus character.
Are you the one or do we look for another?
He wanted to make sure because he knew it was coming.
So they said, Herod wants to kill you.
This is Herod Antipus.
he was a son of Herod the Great
who tried to kill Jesus
when he killed all the little boys in Bethlehem
like father like son
and Jesus answers in verse 32
and he says and he said to them
listen go tell that fox
behold I cast out demons
and perform cures today and tomorrow
and the third day, I shall be perfected.
He says, you go talk to that boy.
And it's interesting what this means,
because it's not quite as nice as it just sounds.
You go tell that fox.
We know a fox is supposedly cunning.
Though you talk to people who trap,
foxes are easy to trap because they're much more stupid
than a coyote, right?
So they're not quite as cunning as you think,
but they're sly and they're slithery and they're sneaky.
And the actual word he uses here is Apollipax,
which means vixen.
And this is the fox that I remember growing up
hearing about a seductive woman
that would kind of strut her stuff.
Hey, she's a fox.
Oh, I guess that wasn't.
that good. Because it's used in the feminine here. Jesus uses the feminine word. And a vixen
is primarily a female fox as a noun. It also refers to a hot-tempered, quarrelsome, ill-tempered
woman. Now, I don't know if Herod was a little effeminate, right? He had a little stuff
going on or what we know he was perverse obviously swiped his brother's wife and and uh and all that
it also says it they can be described as sexually attractive alluring or or charming frequently
used in media to describe female characters common synonyms include shrewd hussy hellcat
So that's what Jesus calls this,
this Herod, like, you hell cat, you go tell that hell cat, right?
It really serves as a vivid emblem of earthly cunning
and transient security set against.
It's the steadfast purpose of God in Christ Jesus.
And so he told him, you go tell him.
You go tell him.
Because Herod, we know that he wanted to see Jesus.
He was intrigued by Jesus.
He was that curious cat.
Right?
You remember it, the crucifixion,
And when Pilate, he sends him over, he goes, oh, he's from Galilee.
He's from Herod's jurisdiction.
You go to Herod, you go.
And you remember what happened.
Jesus didn't say, didn't make a sound.
He did not make a sound with Herod prompting him.
Come on, do a miracle for me.
I want to see all these here.
I hear all these miracles you do.
Do a miracle for me.
The Lord wasn't going to give him that.
It fascinates me that people, people, us humans, try to impose our will on our God.
Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Shouldn't we be yielded to the will of God?
Shouldn't we seek out the will of God?
It's the will of God that we would love Him with all.
all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength,
and love our neighbor as ourself.
That's the will of God.
Your will, my will, Jesus was willing to have his will,
I'll go bye-bye,
where he said, not my will, but thine be done.
I'll read that passage where Pilate and Herod kind of came together
in Luke chapter 23.
coming off of resurrection week.
It says when Pilate heard this,
he asked whether the man was a Galilean.
And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction,
he sent him over to Herod,
who was himself in Jerusalem at the time.
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad,
for he had long desired to see him
because he had heard about him
and was hoping to see some sign done by him.
So he questioned him,
at some length, but he made no answer.
The chief priests and the scribes stood by vehemently accusing him,
and Herod with his soldiers, treated him with contempt, and mocked him.
Then arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilot.
And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day,
for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
Ah, we got a common enemy, Jesus.
We got a common enemy.
So Jesus tells the people that Pharisees that come to him, he says, you go and you tell him,
you tell him what you see, right?
That I cast out demons perform cures today and tomorrow.
Jesus is saying, I don't care what that guy says.
I'm on a mission.
I got a job to do.
I'm able to cast out these demons.
I'm able to heal the sick, to raise the dead.
And he says, today and tomorrow.
In other words, Herod knows where he's at.
There was nothing he could do to stop Jesus from completing what he was going to do.
Nobody could.
Satan couldn't.
Pilate couldn't.
Herod couldn't.
The Sanhedron couldn't.
nobody could stop him from doing what he was going to do.
And the third day,
and the third day I will be perfected.
He's speaking of resurrection here.
Not only am I,
I have the power to do these things,
but I have the power to overcome death.
And he declares that here.
He declares it again in John chapter 4, verse 34.
I have glorified you on earth
by accomplishing me the work you gave me to do.
That was John 174, sorry.
He did the work.
Jesus tells him in John 6th,
that this is the work of God that you believe in the one that the father has sent.
It's like Jesus is telling those who are in authority,
I'm going to do this,
and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it
because of his mission to rescue you and me
and nothing would deter him from that listen
a fox is no match for a shepherd right all the shepherds i knew packed firearms
and they were dropping foxes left and right
no match at all for a shepherd now what's interesting about
about Herod is he goes into exile when Emperor Kligula, that's how I think it's pronounced,
right, exiles him and he lives like eight or ten years. He has this opportunity. I'm wondering if his mind ever went back thinking,
oh, that Messiah, that Jewish Messiah, we know that other people,
people from the Roman Empire were saved when they saw what Jesus did, I wonder if he got saved.
Because nobody is beyond God's reach. He's willing that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So he doubles down in verse 33. He says, nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following.
for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.
Jesus said, I'm on the way.
I'm headed south.
I'm going to Jerusalem.
And I must go down there.
Nobody's going to kill me.
Nobody's going to interrupt this.
We know that nobody's going to kill him because John 1018 says,
no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my father.
That's a powerful verse.
Who has that power?
I don't.
You got that power?
You have the power to lay your life down and take it up again?
We don't have that power.
But praise God.
Jesus came as a substitute sacrifice for you and me.
And he offers us eternal life.
The only way we could even come close to that,
having that power is putting our faith in trust in the one who did have that power.
And he's saying, I must go to Jerusalem.
Because that's the place where prophets go to die.
Jerusalem.
City of peace.
That's what Jerusalem is called.
City of Peace.
It's still on the map today.
You can Google it.
It says Jerusalem.
Jerusalem means, literally means,
city of peace.
And it's anything but
it's the most contested
piece of real estate
on the face of the planet.
Why is that?
and until the prince of peace comes and sets up his throne in the city of peace
it will cease to be the city of peace
wild stuff
he goes oh jerusalem jerusalem twice
when the lord says something twice
you should pay attention right as we look through the the the the the Bible the men that he called
when he he doubled up on their name Abraham Abraham Moses Moses Jacob Jacob
Simon Simon Martha Martha you got to throw a girl in there right
Saul Saul here he says Jerusalem Jerusalem Jerusalem
Why is that?
Jesus loved this place.
He desired it to be the city of peace.
It was him coming to this place, presenting the good news, but it was rejected.
He came to his own and his own received him not.
Have you received Jesus?
Because I remember those times that he came along in my life before that I turned 23.
and there was a knock at the door of my heart.
I remember it happened when I was nine years old,
happened when I was 14 years old,
and then it kind of got louder and louder
the closer I got to turn in 23.
And that's what he tells.
The church,
they're in Revelation 3.
behold I stand at the door and I knock
if anyone will open unto me I will come in to him
and be his God
and so
this is more I think of a
this is a morning
the Messiah is mourning
oh Jerusalem Jerusalem
the one who
kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your
children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing.
Are you willing? Sometimes that's a scary thought. You ask yourself that thought. I still
ask myself that question, am I willing? I don't know if I'm willing. I'm willing.
I'm kind of weakly.
Lord, I don't know if I'm willing.
I don't know if I can do what you call me to do.
And I've learned that it's just, just walk by faith.
Right?
You don't have to have all the answers.
This week we had none.
What are you guys going to do?
We don't know.
All right.
So the statement holds true.
You can worship with us if you can find us.
It's, you know, we're just, we're all over the place.
And when we first got the call, we were having a prayer meeting.
So I told everybody that, you know, that was in the prayer room there, there were 10 or 12 of us.
Some clapped.
Some went, eh-ha.
Easy for you to say.
No, but just excited.
That's the attitude of faith.
you're excited what are you going to do now Lord we're at the red sea and the waters ain't parted yet
but he can't do it with or without us he's going to do what he's going to do why not just jump on
board it's like that old song this get on this train it's the last train it's leaving town
but it's really heartbreaking as the Lord oh Jerusalem Jerusalem I
city of peace city of peace you're anything but you kill the prophets i sent messengers to you and you
would not hear he says i would have gathered you up like a hen i love this illustration
because i i checked for my wife's eggs every morning every morning we're getting about 25 eggs a day
three of them are duck eggs but there's this one hen and i think my wife calls her
twinkle toes or something like that. But she's broody. She's broody. And so every time I lift the,
I lift the little nest box where she's his and she goes, I mean, she swells up and puffs up and
puts her wings out. And there's always about two or three eggs under her that I swipe from her.
But she had chicks sometime back a couple years ago. And I think she hatched 16, 16 chicks. And what night,
I went in there and I looked and there were chicks that had crawled up under her wings
and their little heads were sticking out all across her chest on both sides.
It was the wildest thing.
And Jesus says that's a kind of compassion.
That's a kind of protection I want to give you.
But you weren't willing.
You wouldn't come.
When he spread out his wings, you wouldn't come under him.
You want to go it alone.
Fool.
that's foolish
years ago I heard a story
it was in a sermon
a pastor had heard about a barn fire
in his neighborhood
and so he went to the family and
prayed with them and they had lost some livestock
and he was walking through the barnyard
where some of the ash heap was and he kicked this pile of ashes
and about 15 little chicks ran out from underneath
who was a hen who had put her
wings out over the babies and was burned up in the fire but they survived but that's the heart
that's the heart of our Savior it says but you were not willing so here's a big question this thing
is so controversial election or free will but you were not willing so that would be election you
didn't elect to embrace the Savior. But some believe, well, they could not. Why? Why could they not?
Because no one can come to Jesus except the Father draw him. Doesn't he say that? He does say that.
So they would not, so they could not. Or is it the other round? They could not because they would not.
I'll leave that for you guys to figure it out. You figure that out. You let me know how that goes.
goes. But I know this. I know this. Anyone who will sincerely and honestly humble their self
before the Lord and say, oh, Lord, save my soul. He's ready. He's at the ready because he loves
humility. But it's almost like there's some that can't. There's some that can't. There's some that
that can't do that.
Jerusalem, folks, is a eternal city, right?
That's why we still see it on the map today.
It is an eternal city.
It's never going to go anywhere.
It started clear back in Genesis, chapter 14,
when Abraham had this encounter with his character called Melchizedat.
And in verse 18, it says,
then Melchazadegh, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine,
and he was the priest of the Most High God.
And he blessed and said,
Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
possessor of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God most high,
who has delivered your enemy into your hand.
This Melchizedek,
we just read about him through the book of Hebrews.
He's mentioned also in the Psalms.
But he was the king, listen.
He was the king of Salem.
That's Jerusalem.
him. But Melchizedek's kingship and his, he was a king, a prophet, and a priest. He was all three.
And he, and he was eternal. Most believe it was a Christophony, something, we don't know who this
guy is, but he is one unique individual because he didn't have mother, father, beginning of
days, end of life, unique individual. Most believe it was just a picture of Jesus in the Old
that he was in a position that Jesus would assume in the future as the eternal king seated in the eternal city
Jerusalem the city of peace now people say well Israel has nothing to do with the church today
the church is replaced is it what that's just backwards that it doesn't work
because the reason God chose Jerusalem, not we was because, it wasn't because of Jacob, right?
No, it was because that's who he chose.
And God can choose to give it to anybody he wants to.
God can give his land to anybody he wants to.
He just happened to keep his promise to Abraham, and he gave it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
That's who God promised it to.
Does that make them righteous?
No, they're evil.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was just as evil as you and I are.
You and I are evil.
Do you understand that?
That's what he told his disciples.
You remember when he's talking to his disciples?
He calls him evil.
I think this just really gets stuck in people's craw.
Pastor, you're calling us evil.
We're not evil.
We're good people.
There's no such thing as good people.
Because all goodness comes from God.
God makes us good.
You don't have any goodness of your own.
In fact, the Bible condemns that.
It calls it self-righteousness, right?
And it's a stench in the nostrils of the righteous one,
the only righteous one.
But listen, Jerusalem is significant and is legitimate
because it's where God chose to put his name.
name right it's not about the people because all people are alike it's about the god who put
his name there second chronicles chapter six I think this is verses three and four I got
it messed up on my nose but it says yet I have chosen Jerusalem that my name may be there
and that I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.
He chose his name to be there.
He chose David.
David was a murderer and adulterer
that should have been stoned to death.
But God made promises.
He promised that the son of David would come.
Second Chronicles 33 tells us this.
It says,
He also built altars in the house of the Lord
for which the Lord had said in Jerusalem shall my name be, listen, forever, forever.
But when Jesus came, he wasn't received by his own, right? We just read that. In fact, in Romans 11, 8, it says, a stupor was upon Israel.
It's like a, it's synonymous with a spiritual numbness that they just don't get it.
Until some of them read Isaiah 53 and they go, oh, that sounds like that carpenter dude.
God tells us in Leviticus chapter 25, verse 23, hey, listen, the land is mine.
It's mine.
You can't sell it.
No one can take it from you unless I allow it.
And God did allow that.
Because of their hardness, because of their idolatry, because of their adultery,
God allowed them to be in captivity.
But he never, ever, went back on his promise, ever.
Second Chronicle 716,
For now I have chosen and sanctified this house
that my name may be there forever.
And my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.
That's why when they get attacked,
for some reason, the rockets
rarely hit their target.
That one Hamas soldier that was launching rockets.
In 2014, I remember this.
I remember this.
A journalist was there, and he went to and interviewed one of the Hamas soldiers.
He says, you guys, you guys are just sending an arsenal into Israel.
1,100 rockets you sent into Israel.
And none of them hit their targets.
What's up with that?
That's just because the God of the Jews keeps blurring them out into the ocean.
And you're still shooting?
Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
But it's almost like he's preparing it now.
Because he's coming again.
The Lord's coming again soon and very soon.
First King's 1421.
I've kind of been camping on this, this thing where God chose it, but people overlook it.
The fact that God chose this, and he's going to keep his promise to, to Jacob, to Jerusalem,
and Rehoboam, the son of Solomon reigned in Judah.
And Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem,
the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there.
that's why it's legitimate is because God did it and nobody's going to wipe that away
not the not the sin of the Jewish people not the sin of the church which is just as bad
and so this is when the wheels really begin to start falling off for Israel is when the separation of
the kingdom, there was Jeroboam in the north and Rehoboam in the south, and God started ripping
in them apart because of idol worship and sexual perversion and baby sacrifice. And then here
comes the Gentiles. And they're going to rule and reign. And then that most wicked king
I think that Israel ever had was Manasseh. And in 2nd King's 217, it says,
even, this is what Manassah did, he even set his, he put his little babies, his own babies,
on the fiery hot hands of Molek and killed them, sacrificed them. Manassah did.
Killed his own children as a sacrifice to an idol.
And he even set a carved image of Assyra, which is sexual perversion, that he had made in the house
which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon, his son,
in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name
forever. And we know that Manassah did all that wickedness, and at the end of his life, he repented.
I think he is a picture. He's a picture of Israel. He's a picture of you and me.
How long did it take you to throw your hands in the air? I mean, at 23, I, I, I, I, I,
I'd had enough.
I'd tried it all, man, sex, drugs, rock and roll, you name it.
I'd tried it all.
But when God puts his name on you,
and he makes a promise to you, he keeps it.
You may not keep it.
You know, the Bible says, when we are not faithful, he is faithful.
God is faithful.
God is faithful to reel us in.
I know people that's been flopping out there in the world for years,
knowing that they need to get right with God.
It's by his kindness that he leads us to repentance.
Now, Jesus predicted this.
In Luke 21, he said, listen, you guys are going to get a whooping.
You guys are going to get a whooping for 2,000 years.
because I was here and you were not willing.
Is the Lord knocking on the door of your heart this morning?
If he's knocking on the door of your heart, man, can I just encourage you?
Surrender.
Say yes.
Say yes, Lord.
I just heard a testimony of a young kid.
He was 23 years old and he died of withdrawals from alcohol.
He was coming off alcohol and he died.
And he had a vision, a vision of health.
this kid did. And he said, and, and he said, there was all of a sudden there was this figure in front of him.
It was like a grandma like figure. And one side of her face was beautiful and lit up and the other side was
dark. And she, he thought she was there to help him. And, and she turned her face where all he could
see was the vileness and the wickedness. And he realized, no, she's going to kill me.
He says, and I looked up and there was this light and, and he said, everything within me wanted to say this.
So I said it. I said yes.
And boom, he was back in his body.
And he says, I was in my bed laying there.
And he says, I looked up and he says, I looked over.
And on the wall of this hospital room was John 316, the address.
And he said, I remembered that verse from when I was in VBS when I was a little kid.
And he said, oh, praise God.
That's what I said yes to.
I hear to do say yes.
Because Jesus says, he says, listen, Luke 21, 24, and they will fall by the edge of the sword.
This is what's going to come to Israel when the Romans come in and sock it in 70 AD.
He says, and they will, and be led away captive into all nations in Jerusalem will be trampled by the
Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
The time of the Gentiles fulfilled.
What is that?
Well, they've been, they were under control of the Gentiles.
Until the last century.
May 14th, 1948.
Some think it was 67, some 73.
I don't know.
It was in the last millennia, or last century, I guess.
Many believe that's when the time of the Gentiles were fulfilled, that Israel wasn't under the control of non-Jewish peoples.
I don't know. Maybe.
Some commentators think we've been in spiritual overtime since 1967.
The time of the Gentiles have been fulfilled. Jesus is coming back.
There's nothing that has to happen for that to not happen.
Isaiah tells us that Israel is going to be reborn.
And they were.
They became a nation in a day.
Isaiah 66, verses 8 and 9.
Who has heard such a thing?
Check this out.
Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day?
Or shall a nation be born at once?
For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.
Shall I bring the time of birth and not cause delivery?
says the Lord, shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?
Labor pains.
They were having labor pains for 2,000 years.
People that say that God is done with Israel should look in the mirror.
Because if God is done with Israel, then he is done with you.
and me.
Right?
It's his kindness
that leads us to repentance.
Because
the sad, sad truth about most people
and especially those
who maybe even believe
is they do not
understand the gravity
of their own sin.
people don't understand that
so then we pass judgment
whether it be a person or a nation
we pass judgment
and we have no right to do that
Paul said judge yourselves
if you're to judge some sin
judge your own
believe me
you have a bucket full enough
to keep you busy till Jesus comes, right, of your own.
We don't need to be pointing fingers.
Let things play out.
History is going to play out.
The will of the Lord is going to be done.
With you or without you, with me or without me,
it doesn't really matter what my opinion is.
I know I need to stay humble before the Lord.
Really, because Israel's done no greater sin than any of us.
And it's definitely done no greater sin than what the church has done.
Right?
And why is God's grace okay for us, but not for them?
Answer me that.
Why would God's grace be okay for us as the church, who many think have replaced Israel?
and not for them.
That's hypocrisy.
Last verse, and I'll wrap this up.
See, your house is left to you, desolate,
and assuredly I say to you, you shall not see me
till the time comes when you say,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Now, some think this is a fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecy,
where he talks about the donkey and Jesus riding in,
and they did say that at that time.
But now many believe that it's when he comes again.
And it says in Zechariah 12, they'll recognize him.
God's been merciful and long-suffering,
and that Israel will not recognize him.
and all of Israel that is left from all the persecution will be saved, is what Paul tells us.
Zek 1210 says,
And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
the spirit of grace and supplication.
Then they will look on me whom they pierced.
Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son,
and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn.
That's what it's going to be like at the end of the age.
I hope we're not those ones that are stuck outside knocking.
Let me in, let me in.
It's getting hot out here.
Jesus started this chapter by telling the people, listen,
no one's worse sinner than any other sinner, right?
Remember when the Tower of Siloom and the people who would,
who Pilate had mingled their blood with the sacrifices of their pagan worship?
And he just, no.
The issue is just be right with God.
Just turn from your sin, turn to me, and you're good to go.
The remedy for everyone is to repent and be right with God.
It's a like I said before, it's a lifestyle.
You're saying, oh, Lord, forgive me today.
For those, those things I'm going to do.
and help me not do them right because you know when james when james lays down that law saying
he who knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin it's like that happens to me every day
i should have picked up that piece of paper out in the parking lot and i didn't do it right
we're all people of like passion like the prophet said we're just people esteemed it like like
Elijah way up here. He was a man just like you and me. Paul, Peter, there were people just like us who had totally fallen short of God's glory. He's going, come on, golly, dust you off. Keep going. Don't weaken now, right? Please don't weaken because I see a lot of gray hair in here. You don't want to weaken now. We're getting close, really close.
Let's all stand, shall we?
And we'll pray.
Father, we just, we worship you today.
Your word is truly a lamp into our feet and a light into our path.
Lord, the work that you're doing in us and in your body around the world,
the work that you're doing in Israel and in the Arab world, Lord,
you're drawn all men to yourself.
People are having visions of seeing the Christ.
Lord, I pray that they would say yes to you.
just a simple yes.
Yes, Lord, yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord, yes.
We love you today, Lord.
Would you turn our hearts?
Turn our hearts to those things that, Lord, that are good for us.
Lord, seeking you and reading your word, Lord, I just pray for that passion to be in all
of our hearts, Lord, that we would read your word and write it up on the pages and the
tablets that is in the very depths of our soul, Lord, that it truly touches our
conscience, Lord, and it discerns the thoughts and intents of what we are and who we are.
And may we become more and more like our king.
Lord, we know you're coming soon.
So help us keep looking up and proclaiming you until then.
And we pray it in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus.
Amen.
God bless you guys.
Have a great week in Jesus.
If you need prayer, there'll be some prayer folks over here to the right.