Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Tears of The King - Luke 19:41-48

Welcome to the Roots where it's all about Jesus. We

love God, we love people, We reach the lost, and

we make disciples. That's what we do. That's what the

mission of the Roots Community Church is. And we also

love God's Word. Amen. Yes, we love God's words. So

I want you to grab your bibles because today we're

going to be finishing the chapter nineteen of Luke. And

if you need a Bible, we have a bunch of

them at the resource desk in the lobby, So please

grab one, take it, keep it. We want you to

have it. We're going to be in Luke chapter nineteen,

verses forty one through forty eight. And while you're turning there,

we've been in a series called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth. Luke the Orderly Account of Truth. We've been

learning all about Jesus' life and ministry while he walked

the earth. Luke did a great job carefully investigating everything,

doing interviews and everything to get all the information for us.

And because of his hard work, we can have certainty

or we can know the truth about who Jesus is,

and that's a massive blessing for us. Last week we

talked about the triumphal entry of Jesus as he makes

his way into Jerusalem, writing on a cult it is

the righteous King who brings salvation, and he's finally come,

the Righteous King who brings salvation. And we also learned

that he will receive praise. Right, he will receive praise.

And we ended or the text ended with if the

people don't cry out, then the very stones will cry out.

The very stones will cry, which is awesome. That's one

of those mic drop moments from Jesus, which I love.

So this crowd is praising and celebrating Jesus as he's

writing into the city. But in today's text, what we're

going to see is we're going to see a major

shift in tone or a major shift in mood in

the text. It's not going to be about celebration or

praise anymore. But it's going to shift to a very

somber or sobering mood that's full of sadness. It's actually

full of grief. So we're going to see today great

Mother's Day message right, just the way the cookie crumbles, right,

this is the text we were in. This is Jesus'

last week on earth. His I'm gonna put quotes, air

quotes around it. His end is drawing near. Because we

know it's not the end of Jesus, he's eternal, but

it's the end of his time on earth in the

way he's been walking it. And while this whole crowd

is around him, praising and cheering around him, Jesus is weeping.

He's weeping. He's not praising, he's not joyously shouting, but

he's not weeping for himself. He's weeping for the people.

He's weeping for the city of Jerusalem. So let's read

through our text. I think you have plenty of time

to turn there. So let's read our text, and then

we'll pray. Luke nineteen forty one through forty eight, And

when he drew near and saw the city, he wept

over it, saying, would that you even you had known

on this day the things that make for peace, But

now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days

will come upon you when your enemies will set up

a barricade around you and surround you, and hem you

in on every side, and tear you down to the ground,

you and your children within you, and they will not

leave one stone upon another in you, Because you did

not know the time of your visitation. And he entered

the temple and began to drive out those who sold,

saying to them, it is written, my house shall be

a house of prayer, but you have made it a

den of robbers. And he was teaching daily in the temple.

The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men

of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they

did not find anything they could do, for the people

were hanging on his words. Let's pray. God, we thank

you for your word, and we thank you for this

moment to understand and look at more into your heart. God,

we pray that this text, as we're going through it,

and this message that you have for your people, would

be clear in our hearts and clear in our minds. God,

give us eyes to see it and ears to hear. God,

let us learn what you want us to learn, and

let us apply it to our lives. God, we thank

you that you've given us your word, and we want

to hang on every single word of it. So God,

we just thank you for this moment together and give

all glory to you in Jesus name. Everybody said Amen.

So I want to start by painting a picture for you.

Let's imagine there's a kid who's misbehaved. It's not really

hard to imagine, right, a misbehaved kid. For the sake

of this argument, let's says a little boy, because little

boy's getting a lot of trouble. Right, So you have

a little boy who's up to no good, misbehaving, is

in trouble, and the mom says, just you wait until

your father gets home. Who's heard that before. It's a scary,

terrifying phrase to hear, especially as a little boy who

got in trouble. Sometimes, just you wait until your father

gets home. We're not looking forward to the moment he

walks through the door. We're not. So he finally gets home,

he goes and talks to the wife. The mom says, hey,

how is your day? You need to hear what your

son did, right, And then Dad gets the full story

and report from mom and finds out all the horrible

things that you. I'm sorry this little boy in the story,

not you. Little boy did the trouble that he got in.

So then what happens next is Dad calls the little

boy in, bends him over his knee, but before he

does anything else, looks him in the face, and says, what,

this is gonna hurt me a whole lot more than

it's gonna hurt you. Sound familiar? Does anybody heard that before?

This is gonna hurt me a whole lot more than

it's gonna hurt you. But why would a father say

those words? Why would a father who's disciplining, in the

middle of disciplining his son or child, why would he

say those words? It's because discipline isn't fun. Discipline's not

a fun thing. It's a painful thing for a father

to have to discipline as child. Punishment is not a

joyous thing. And as a side note, if you do

feel joy when you punish your kids, on a more

serious note, repent because you should not feel joy when

you're punishing your children. That's our flesh flaring up. But

it's not a joyous thing to discipline our children. Everything

would have been so much better if they just would

have listened, and if they just would have behaved right.

All the I wrote this, all the pain, the suffering,

the heartache, and the sorrow, all of it could have

been avoided if they just would have listened. Right. You

don't have to be mad at dad for the discipline

Mom's still happy, your backside doesn't hurt. All of that

pain could have been avoided. But I think that this

is an attribute that we actually get to share with God.

This is something we get to share with him. It's

a feeling that He lets us experience so that we

can get a small glimpse into how he feels. We

get a little picture of it. And I think God

does a does this with a lot of things that

oftentimes He lets us experience things in order that we

would have better understanding. You know, sometimes the I won't

pick up on things as quickly as I probably should,

so God to let me walk through a situations so

that I can understand more about how He feels about

the situation or how the situation is designed to be

to work. So our experience oftentimes will equal understanding and

what I think, not what I think. What I want

us to see in the text today is how God

feels about our rebellion is people. I want us to

see how He actually feels about that, so we can

actually get a look into God's heart. I want us

to see that although judgment is inevitable, it is an

impending reality for those in rebellion against God. That he

doesn't take joy in it, that God doesn't take joy

in that impending reality and judgment. That God is grieved

by the rebellion and sins of people and he's broken

hearted at their judgment. I'm going to say that again

because I think that's the main argument today, that God

is grieved by the rebellion and sins of people, and

he's broken hearted at their judgment. And I called today's

message tears of the King, Tears of the King. If

you're raised in church at all, or grew up in church,

I think it's easy for us to understand and recognize

God's anger over sin because we see examples of that

all throughout scripture. So you read a lot of that.

I mean, if you were at all raised kind of

like me, you'd view Old Testament God as angry at sin,

big judgment and mean God. And then you look at

New test me say Jesus full of love, grace and mercy.

But I don't think that's an accurate picture of God.

Because God is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Right

yesterday's day and tomorrow. He's the same forever. It's the

same God. And so when we're going through this text. Today,

we're going to see some of these things. It is

easy to recognize God's anger over sin, but he ever

stopped and pictured him in tears over it. He ever

pictured him in tears over it, having a broken heart,

that people would rebel against him. He knows that judgment

and destruction are in their future. Well, that's what we're

going to look at today, is God how he feels

about this future. So let's see this dramatic shift in

mood as Jesus is writing into Jerusalem. Look back at

verse forty one, and when he drew near and saw

the city, he wept over it. I figured Jesus would

be like excited, He's reaching his destination right now. Right,

You figure everyone around him is praising and lifting up

a celebration around him into him. So you figure he'd

be writing in excited and happy and joyous to meet

and make his destination. But he wasn't. Instead of being

in celebration, he was weeping. He wept. And this specific

word that's used for weep doesn't mean that he quired

quietly to himself. I said that right quietly cried to himself.

It wasn't a quiet thing. Now it means literally to

sob or wail loudly. You, guys, imagine that Jesus writing

on this cult. Everyone's celebrating and praising, and he is

sobbing and wailing loudly. This word means to mourn, to weep,

and lament as a sign of pain and grief. This

is what Jesus is feeling as he's writing into the city.

He's grieving so deeply he begins to sob. And I

just asked, well, how often do I think about Jesus

being sad. It's not very often that I think of

Jesus being sad. I mostly think of his triumphant moments. Right,

he's the king who's here, and the awesome things he

does in the miraculous moments that he had, miraculous signs

that he does, and the awesome things he does while

walking the earth, or when he's dropping the hammer on

his haters. Right, that's a fun thing to think about.

We're thinking about that, But I don't often think about

his broken heartedness or when he's sad and there are

things that bring him sorrow. He wept at the death

of Lazarus. You remember that he also felt compassion on

the crowds when he saw them, he said they were

like sheep without a shepherd, and he had compassion on them.

Hebrews five tells us that Jesus prayed with loud cries

and tears. One of the things that Jesus called is

a man of many sorrows. We don't have a god

that lacks feelings and emotions. We don't. He feels things,

and that's an attribute that we get to share with

him as well, that we get to experience, feel things,

have emotions. It's just that our emotions and our feelings

are perverted by sin, and his are perfect. Every aspect

that God has is perfect, and anything that we share

with him we just do imperfectly. But he is a

God that feels things and he has emotions. And Jesus,

knowing the future that is coming for Jerusalem and its

rebellious peoples. He's riding in and sees the city, he weeps,

He sobs and wails, and then he says, would that

you even you had known on this day the things

that make for peace, but now they are hidden from

your eyes. For the days will come upon you when

your enemies will set up a barricade around you and

surround you and hem you in on every side and

tear you down to the ground, you and your children

within you, and they will not leave one stone upon

another in you. Because you did not know the time

of your visitation. The things that make for peace, the

things that make for peace. Did you know that Jerusalem

is called the city of peace. It's another name that

they would call Jerusalem the city of peace if the

city of peace had only known that the Prince of

peace had arrived. They'd only known that the Prince of

peace had arrived. But they can't see it. They're blinded.

They can't see that Jesus, the one who brings peace

and salvation, is that we talked about last week, the

one who brings peace and salvation. He's right in front

of them. The king has arrived. And because they didn't

know the time of their visitation from their own king,

their destruction was coming. So Jesus is saying here that

their enemies would surround them and they couldn't leave the city.

It would barricade them inside the city, that the walls

that they thought and trusted in to be their protection

would become the walls of their own prison, until the

enemies would finally come in and lay waste to everything

and everyone. Not one stone will be left upon another.

This is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in seventy eighty.

That's what Jesus is talking about here, and he's actually

going to foretell it again in a couple chapters, so

we're going to talk more about it later. But this

is when Rome surrounds the city, sieges it, and levels it.

But the point here is that Jesus is filled with

sorrow and grief, is weeping right. He's filled with sorrow

and grief because of the coming judgment of the people

of Jerusalem, because they didn't know the time of their visitation,

because they rejected their king, because they continually rejected God's

commands for them. Their judgment and their destruction is coming.

So Jesus weeps and sobs aloud, causes him to grieve

and lament. We're looking at the heart of God in this.

How does God feel about this? To see his heartache

over sin and the judgment of rebellious people, and we

see this all throughout scripture. I'm going to go through

just a bunch of scripture because I can't say it

any better. And the way God said it in Genesis six,

the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great

in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts

of his heart was only evil continually, and the Lord

regretted that he had made man on the earth, and

it grieved him to his heart. He grieves over wickedness

and evil. We understand that he's angry at it, too, right,

he's angry at sin. We have lots of verses he's

for that, or to understand that. But do we read

right over that he's grieved over it as well? In

Hoseiah eleven, they shall not return to the land of Egypt,

but Assyria shall be their king. Because they refused to

return to me, the sword shall rage against their cities,

consuming the bars of their gates and devouring them because

of their own counsels. My people are bent on turning

away from me, And though they call out to the

most High, he shall not rise raise them up at all.

How can I give you up, o Ephraim? How can

I hand you over, o Israel? How can I make

you like Adma? How can I treat you like Ziboem?

My heart recoils within me, My compassion grows warm and

tender you guys, read your old Testament like that. The

people rebel, the sword rages against them, which makes perfect sense.

And what does the Lord feel? Compassion? His heart recoils

within him. I love that verbiage. You've seen a snake

recoil or someone rec coil at pain. The Lord's heart

recoils as he feels compassion and Jeremia eight. My joy

is gone, grief is upon me. My heart is sick

within me. Behold the cry of the daughter of my

people from the length and breadth of the land. Is

the Lord not in Zion? Is her king not in her?

Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved

images and with their foreign idols. The harvest is past,

the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For

the wound of the daughter of my people? Is my

heart wounded? I mourn, and dismay has taken hold in me.

They reject God, stir up his anger, But his own

heart is wounded by their wounds. Jeremiah nine, Oh that

my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears,

that I might weep day and night for the slain

of the Daughter of my people. Heartache and tears for

the slain children of God, says God, speaking through his prophets,

his mouthpieces. Let's go New Testament. What about in Luke thirteen?

So when Jesus went to Jerusalem before he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

the city that kills the prophets and stones those who

are sent to it, how often would I have gathered

your children together as a hen gathers her brood under

her wings. And you were not willing Behold, your house

is forsaken. And I tell you you will not see

me until you say, blessed is he who comes in

the name of the Lord. Jerusalem, the city who kills

its prophets, rejects its own king. But can you hear

Jesus's words the heart that he feels, or what he

feels in his heart, and he tells him they won't

see him again until when until this triumphal entry where

he's actually walking into the city. Right now, what were

they shouting? They were shouting blessed as he who comes

in the name of the Lord when he sees this city,

And even when he's hearing all the shouting and praising

around him, he begins to weep. Do you see a

pattern in this pattern of people are sinful, wicked and rebellious.

Judgment comes upon them, and the Lord is broken hearted

over it. He's broken hearted over it. And even though

he's the one who's exacting the justice as the judge,

he's the one who is responsible for doing this. He's

the one who brings judgment on the wicked. Like the

father disciplining is disciplining his child. It brings him pain,

not joy. So Jesus is the king who weeps, but

he's also the judge who cleanses. And that's what we're

gonna see next. He's going to start the discipline process

in the temple, so let's keep reading. In verse forty five,

and he entered the temple and began to drive out

those who sold, saying to them, it is written, my

house shall be a house of prayer, but you have

made it a den of robbers. And there's one thing

I want to mention before we kind of talk about

what he said, is that if you've read the other

gospel accounts, you'll see that Jesus actually goes back and

forth between Jerusalem and the Temple and Bethany. Each morning

he would travel into the city and in the evening

he would leave and go back to Bethany where they

were staying. And so you can see that account in

Mark eleven. Luke kind of just goes right through it

and gives you a little hint later. But Mark eleven

you can see that he goes in and out of

the city each day, and this is during Passover, so

the city is just filled to the brim with Jews

from all over the place. They've all traveled here to Jerusalem.

So after Jesus rode into the city, he's weeping it's night.

He leaves and actually goes back to Bethany before he

comes back in the next morning and does the what

verse forty five says. So he shows up, goes to

the temple and sets things right. He drives out those

who are selling. And during Passover is one of the

times where lots of the people would come, lots of

the Jews would come to the temple because they're going

to offer sacrifices to God. So there were some people

who thought, like, maybe what we should just do is

start selling sacrificial animals in the temple so that people

don't have to bring him with them. Sounds kind of helpful,

you know, like a nice, pleasant thing to do. However,

what that actually meant is people had figured out a

way to turn the worship of God into a way

of gaining wealth. They turned it into a way of

getting rid. And that wasn't the only problem, because they

also had to pay their taxes and tithes. But the

taxes and tithes had to be collected in a particular currency.

So if you came from another region who used different

types of money, they're like, you know what will do

is we'll set up tables to exchange your money into

the proper currency, but they would set their own exchange rates.

So again the wickedness of the human heart would show

up that even in walking in the obedience of what

God has called to do via taxes and tithes, they

found a way to try to get rich off of that,

a way to gain wealth. What they're doing is they're

profaning the temple of God. They're profaning it. A place

that's meant for worship, the worship of God and prayer

has been turned into a marketplace. So Jesus, what does

he do? He drives them out. He drives them out,

He overturns the tables of the money changers, and he

drives out all the animals, and he wouldn't let anyone

carry anything through the temple. This is awesome, Jesus cleansing

the temple. He's like, this is not right. And for

Jesus to walk in and set things right, we're seeing

the judge who cleanses. He was setting things right, cleansing

the temple of its impurities and making it pure. And

this wasn't the first time he did this. You could

read back in John two another passover where Jesus was injurious.

Let me do the same thing. That's where you get

the whip that he made, and then he drove the

animals out with a whip. Jesus' hardcore. He's serious about

his mission, he's serious about the worship of God. But

as Jesus drives out the corrupt people, he gets too.

Seems it sounds like one quote that he's doing. And

when he says as it is written, he's actually quoting

two different places in the Bible. He says, as it

is written, my house shall be a house of prayer,

and that's from Isaiah fifty six, which says these in

these being everyone who keeps a sabbath and does not

profane it and holds fast to my covenant. If you

read it text, you'll get that. But these I will

bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in

my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

will be accepted on my altar. For my house shall

be called a house of prayer for all peoples. That's

what the house the Lord is supposed to be. That's

what God intends for his house, the house of prayer

that brings joy, that brings peace between God and man

because he accepts their sacrifices. You read throughout some of

the psalms, and you hear God saying like, I don't

I hate all your sacrifices because of the heart that

they're offered in. You worship me with your lips, but

your hearts are far from me. But God's intention for

his house is that he would accept the sacrifices, and

there would be peace between God and man, and there

would be joy in this house of prayer for all peoples.

That's a big amen for all peoples. But they've turned

it into something else. What do they turn it into?

What does he call it? Den of robbers exactly? And

that's from Jeremiah seven, which says, behold you trust in

deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery,

swear falsely, make offerings to bail, and go after other

gods that you have that you have not known. And

then come and stand before me in this house which

is called by my name, and say we are delivered,

only to go on and go on doing all these abominations.

Has this house which is called by my name become

a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself

have seen it, declares the Lord. You're saying, I've seen

you do this. Go now to my place that was

in Shiloh where I made my name. Dwell at first,

and see what I did to it because of the

evil of my people Israel. And now because you have

done all these things, declares the Lord. And when I

spoke to you persistently, you did not listen. And when

I called to you, you did not answer. Therefore I

will do to that house, or excuse me, I will

do to the house that is called by my name

and in which you trust, and to the place that

I gave to you, and to your father's as I

did in Shiloh. What is God saying here through the

prophet Jeremiah. The people are doing the same things now

that they were doing back then. They are profaning the

house of the Lord. They have done and continue to

do evil within it. They're profaning his house. And Jeremiah

is actually prophesying about the first time the temple was destroyed. Yes,

the Temple was destroyed more than once. This is a

prophecy about the first time that Babylon came in and

destroyed it because of the sins of the people. He says,

look at the destruction of Shiloh, that's what's coming. Shiloh

is where the tabernacle rested before, where the Lord met

with his people. They profaned it. Back then, he destroyed Shiloh.

It's like, go look at Shiloh. This is what's coming.

And now we see Jesus quoting Jeremiah when he's talking

about the coming destruction of the temple in their time,

and it's all for the very same reason. So Jesus

is setting things right in the temple, setting things right

in the House of God. The Prince of Peace rode

into the city of Peace and set right the house

of peace. There's peace all the way through this thing,

and they're missing it. Had you known the things that

make for peace. And over the course of this week,

every day Jesus comes back to teach in the temple.

Every morning he comes back and begins to teach in

the temple. And as you can imagine, as someone who

probably made most of their money for the year in

one week during Passover, they might have been a little

mad at Jesus for what he was doing in the temple,

so mad in fact, that they wanted to kill him

Verse forty seven Sis. And he was teaching daily in

the temple, the chief priests and the scribes. So the

chief priests, the chief among all the other priests, the scribes,

the one who were like the law keepers and understanders

and lawyers, and the principal men of the people. So

leaders were seeking to destroy him. But they did not

find anything they could do, for all the people were

hanging on his words. All these leaders, they all wanted

to destroy Jesus. Jesus was messing with their flow, and

they didn't like it. But they couldn't do anything. Why

couldn't they do anything because the people were hanging on

his words. All the people were hanging on his words.

They were locked in. They wanted to hear what Jesus

had to say. They were listening intently. And I have

a little side note here, is that how we listen

to the Lord? Is that how we listen to him?

Are we hanging on every single word that he said?

I like to think of it this way. You may

have heard me use this example before. If all of

a sudden, the roof on this building ripped off and

the clouds opened up, and God spoke to you from

the clouds, you would listen, wouldn't you. You would hang

on every single word he said. That's terrifying. That's what

God did, and somebody wrote it down for us. That's

why we have the Bible. What else would we call

the Bible? The Word of God? God's word. It's what

he said to his people, and someone wrote it down

for us. At some point, the roof ripped off of something,

the clouds came down on the mountain, and the Lord

with this thunderous voic he spoke from the cloud to

the people, and somebody wrote that down for us. That's

how we need to view God's word. Hanging on every

single word that he has spoken. Just like these people here,

This is how we should treat God's word. That has

nothing to do with the point of today's text, but

I think it's something very good for us to consider. Amen.

So just to summarize kind of what's happened right now,

as Jesus is riding into the city, it's on the cult.

People are cheering, being joyous, celebrating him all around him,

but Jesus isn't celebrating. Jesus sees the city and he

begins to sob, to weep aloud. He's grieving over the

people's sin. He's lamenting over their coming destruction. He's broken

heart at that judgment is coming for them. So he

comes back the next day and he sets things right

in the town. He begins to be the judge that cleanses,

and as all the leaders and the people want to

kill him for it, they're continuing in their rejection of

him as their king. We see him weep at their state.

We see Jesus as the judge, but also we see

him as the king who weeps. Have the band come up, please,

So that's kind of the summary. My hope is that

you've seen sufficient evidence today that yes, God hates sin.

We know that, but anger isn't the only thing feels

toward him. It's not the only thing he feels towards sin.

He's also grieved by it. He's grieved by the rebelliousness

and the sinfulness of people. And although judgment is a

necessary thing in the response to rebellion, in response to sin,

this is a necessary thing judgment that God doesn't take

joy in it. In fact, it breaks his heart. Two

Peter three tells us that the Lord is not slow

to fulfill his promises at some count slowness, but is

patient toward you. You who you people. He's patient toward you,

not wishing that any should perish, but that all should

reach repentance. It doesn't bring him joy when people perish.

He would rather that people come to repentance. That's why

he hasn't returned yet. That's why he's slow in returning.

He wants more to people to return or come to repentance.

It's not taking his sweet time, even though it kind

of feels like that sometimes I'm like, any day, Jesus,

I'm cool, come back. He's slow in returning because he

wants more people to reach repentance. And I think we

really see the heart of God in verses like that.

But what I really want to look at as the

prophet Ezekiel, We're gonna go Old Testament again because I

think it's a bigger text. But I think he gives

us a good glimpse into how God feels. And this

is in Ezekiel eighteen, verses twenty one through thirty two.

But if a wicked person turns away from all his

sins that he has committed, and keeps all my statutes

and does what is just and right, he shall surely live.

He shall not die. None of the transgressions that he

has committed shall be remembered against him. For the righteous

that he has done, he shall live. Verse twenty three.

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,

declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should

turn from his way and live. But when a righteous

person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and

does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall

he live. None of the righteous deeds that he has

done shall be remembered. For the treachery of which he

is guilty, and the sin he has committed for them,

he shall die. Yet you say the way of the

Lord is not just. Here now, O House of Israel,

is my way not just? Is it not your ways

that are not just? And now he's going to repeat himself.

And anytime God repeats himself, we should really pay attention

Verse twenty six. When a righteous person turns away from

his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it.

For the injustice that he has done, he shall die again.

When a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he

has committed and does what is just and right, he

shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away

from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall

surely live. He shall not die. Yet, the House of

Israel says, the way of the Lord is not just,

O House of Israel? Are my ways not just? Is

it not your the ways that are not just? Therefore

I will judge you, O House of Israel, everyone according

to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn

from all your transgressions. Let's iniquity be your ruin. Cast

away from you all the transgressions that you have committed,

and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

Why will you die, O House of Israel. For I

have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the

Lord God. So turn and live. God doesn't take pleasure

in the death of the wicked or in the death

of anyone. What does he want. He wants people to

turn from their wicked ways, to repent and live. To

repent and live. The whole message from God is that

his heart is broken for those who would rebel against

him and be judged for him. He is pleading with

the people to repent and turn to righteousness. When God says,

all day long, I have held out my hand to

a disobedient and contrary people, how is he saying that?

And I'm starting to consider that it might be saying

with a heartful sorrow, not with a scowl on his

face all day long, I've held out my hands to

a disobedient and contrary people. God is standing before us saying,

I have the way to life. Please choose it. Please

turn from evil and do what is good. And as

we read before, he persistently says that, but people don't listen.

He's saying, follow the righteous or the right and correct path.

That's what righteous means. It's the right and correct path.

So this is how God feels. The conclusion we're coming

to here is that this is how God feels. Then

what should we do? What should we do? If God

is pleading with us to repent because He's grieved by

sin and broken hearted over the judgment of rebellious people,

what should we do? Should repent? We should repent? Sounds

like a fire and brimstone teaching. Right, it's not wrong

to repent. That's what we should do. Choose life and repent.

If you have never put faith in Jesus before, flee

the coming wrath, I'm literally warning you right now, not

like I'm warning you like. I'm giving you a heads

up that wrath is coming on sin, and I'm pleading

with you now to flee the coming wrath, escape the

judgment that falls on every non believer. Repent of your

unbelief and turn to Jesus and believe in him, because

everyone who looks at the sun and believes will be

forgiven of all their sins and will receive everlasting life. Now,

if you've been walking with the Lord, well, what are

we supposed to do? I would say, stop grieving God

over your sin. Stop grieving God with your sin. Ephesians

four gives us an awesome short list of very righteous

things that the people of God should do, and in

verse thirty Paul says, and do not grieve the Holy

Spirit of God. We should repent and put our sin

to death. Put that sin to death. Don't add to

God's grief over sin. We need to take our fight

with sin seriously. I love that verses says, have you

resisted temptation to the state of bleeding? How's that? It's

a terrible paraphrase. Have we shedding blood? That's what the

word is. Have we resisted temptation to the point of

shedding blood? I don't. I mean, I don't see anbody

bleeding here right now. But is that how serious we

take our fight and battle with sin? Do we hang

on every word that God has said to hang on

every single word that he has said? Do we take

it to heart? Do we put it into practice? We

don't just hear it and not do it. There's a

pastor who gave this example that I heard a long

time ago, and I heard another pastor quote it and

didn't give the first guy credit. I'm gonna give you

the credits. I heard Francis Chance say it, but he

said imagine this. Your parents come to you and they say, hey,

I need you to clean your room, and then you

come back to your parents say mom, and I thought

about what you said. In fact, I took what you

said clean your room, and I learned it in six

different languages. In fact, I got a group of my

friends together. We all came together, sat in a circle,

and we talked about what it means to clean our room.

I thought about the implications of what cleaning my room

would do for me, and what does the parents say,

did you clean your room? Well? No, What does God

actually want from us for us to study his Bible?

Or do it? Just do it? Literally, do what he said.

I had someone come up to me at the coffee

shop and I had my Bible sitting and open on

the thing. He walked and he's holding a Bible in

his hand, throws his Bible up on the counter next

to me. He's like, you a pastor. I was like yeah.

He's like, give me some council, give me some wisdom.

And I was like, do what Jesus told you to do?

Could we be more specific? But I thought about it. It

was like, actually, that's the wisdom. I would still give anybody,

just do what Jesus told you to do. Remember the bracelets.

What would Jesus do? We need to make new ones?

What did Jesus do? Let's just do that. He told

us what to do. We need to do it. Take

our battle and fight with sin serious. Hang on every

single word that he said. If he said this is

how my people should be, be that that's who we

should be. To obey his words, follow us his commands

because in them is life not death. Life not death.

And we're not just talking life eternal that's the best

part about it, but also life on this earth. You

want the best possible life to have on this earth.

Do what he said. And the last thing I think

we should apply from this text before we end here

is I think that we should have the same heart

that God has toward rebellious people. We should have the

same heart that God has toward rebellious people. There have

been times where I've been guilty of looking at rebellious

people and saying good serves him. Right. That's not the

heart that God has towards rebellious people. We don't look

at people to say sweet, they're getting what they deserve.

It's not the heart that God has towards rebellious people. No,

we should be grieved by the rebellion and grieved by

their sin and brokenhearted over the coming judgment that's on

the way. And then we should let that compassion drive

us to tell them gospel truth, to tell them the

truth of the gospel. It's the same compassion that Jesus

showed us when we were in rebellion and sin, when

he called us out a darkness into light. He had

compassion on us and showed us the truth. And it

might have been through a friend who just said, hey,

I need to tell you about Jesus, or a family member.

He had compassion on us and showed us the truth.

And we should go and do the same thing as

people who have been chosen to be on mission with Him.

We've been called and we've been chosen and given a

job on mission with Christ. So we should go and

do that. There are people who are dying in their

sins every single day. Every day, people are dying in

their sins. So let's join in pleading with them to repent.

Let's join God in pleading with them to repent, to

repent and live, to implore them on Christ's behalf to

be reconciled to God. Amen. Can you guys please stand

to your feet