When here in Luke 13:1-5 Jesus solemnly calls attention to the bloody judgment on the Galilean traitors at the hand of Pilate and to the act of God in which the falling tower of Siloam killed eighteen men, and plainly marks both of these as the judgment of an angry God on sinners, the Lord Jesus is taking His place with the Jehovah of the Old Testament.

    Here in Christ is a God who, after longsuffering and tender pleading, condemned a whole world to death in the flood.

    Here is the God who brought the plagues of Egypt, then drowned Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea.

    Here is the God who killed the multiplied thousands of Israelites in plagues in the wilderness.

    Here is the God who brought Nebuchadnezzar to take Jerusalem, to destroy the temple, to rip up women with child, to knock out little babies' brains against stone walls, to put out the eyes of the king and kill his sons and take a remnant to Babylon.

    Here Jesus is the God who commanded Saul to slay the Amalekites wholly, women and children and beasts alike.  And here is the Christ represented by the Prophet Samuel when he hewed Agag, the mincing king of these Amalekites, in pieces with the sword.

    Here the Lord Jesus takes sides with the God who was with Elijah on Mount Carmel, and take sides with Elijah when he beheaded four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal by the brook.

    Here is the Lord Jesus authenticating all the stern warnings of the Old Testament.

    "But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord:  and be sure your sin will find you out." (Num. 32:23.

    "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. 18:4).

    "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." (Prov. 29:1).

    Jesus here is a God of the Bible who declares that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).

    There are good people who foolishly say that repentance was required in the Old Testament, but only faith in the New Testament.  Some of our Darbyite friends say that repentance was necessary for the Jews, so John the Baptist preached it, but it is not necessary for salvation now.  All these entirely miss the point.  God Himself hates sin, and the only wan any man can ever have peace with God is to come also to hate sin and turn in holy aversion from his sin.

    Here Jesus represents the God of the Bible who does not speak mildly of "alcoholism" as a disease, a sickness, a problem of modern society.  He calls it sin and plainly says through Paul the apostle that the drunkard shall not inherit the kingdom of Heaven (1 Cor. 6:10).

    Men say seemingly profound things about our courts, our prisons, our laws, and long, they say, to bring about the "rehabilitation" of prisoners.  Well and good, but we should not forget that God demands punishment for sin.  The purpose of the laws and the courts and the prisons is to make sin a hateful, disgusting, and awful thing which people shall avoid with holy horror.

    Here the dear Lord Jesus, with a stern flashing of Mount Sinai in His eye, speaks like His own John the Baptist who says that the axe is laid at the root of the tree and judgment is impending for all that do not repent.

III.  Jesus Here Backs the Government As the Agent of God in Punishing Crime

    At this time Israel was a province held in subjection by the Roman Empire.  And the Roman Empire was hated.  The Jews were a proud and independent-minded people.  They remembered the glories of the reign of David and Solomon and the subjection of people all about them to their own mighty kings.  They knew great promises for their nation in the future.  They hated the Roman tax gatherers.  The Jewish leaders more than once tried to arouse the populace against Jesus by trying to get Him on record as favoring the Roman government, or to get the government against Him as He might favor the Zealots, who demanded independence from Rome.  Yet it is this Roman government to which Jesus referred and which He approved, when God gave the death penalty through the governor Pilate to the rebellious Galilean conspirators.

    Pilate?  This same Pilate who will order Jesus scourged, then permit His crucifixion, knowing Him to be innocent?  The same Pilate!  The Roman governor of Judah, Pilate, who will give the Lord Jesus up to be crucified is the same one who dealt with the authority of God in executing the traitors and rebels, the Galileans whose blood He mingled with their sacrifices.  And the implication of the statement of Jesus is that in this matter they received their just deserts, that Pilate acted in the stead of God, as every government does in punishing crime, and that all who heard would likewise perish in their sins if they did not repent!

    "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God:  the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God:  and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.  Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?  do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:  For he is the minister of God to thee for good.  But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain:  for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.  For, for this cause pay ye tribute also:  for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing." (Rom. 13:1-6).

    The state acts for God in the punishing of crime.  "The powers that be ordained of God."  The governor or ruler "is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."  For this reason we pay taxes, for rulers "are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing."  Even an imperfect and opportunist Pilate acts for God when he as governor punishes crime.  Even wicked Nero, when he executed a criminal, acted for God in that matter.  'The powers that be are ordained of God," the Scripture says.  And so Jesus intended, when He referred approvingly to Pilate's execution of certain Galilean traitors and rebels.  In that he acted for God.

    Note that Jesus also here endorsed the death penalty for certain crimes.  In this He followed the clear teaching of the Old Testament, which was the divinely inspired law of God.

    In Exodus we find soon after the Ten Commandments very clear instructions that the death penalty should be inflicted for certain crimes.  Exodus 21:12-16 says:  "He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.  And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.  But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.  And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.  And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death."

    Here we find the death penalty is required for first-degree murder, for smiting or cursing one's father or mother, and for kidnapping.  The distinction which our English common law makes between first-degree murder and second-degree murder did not originate with men.  It originated in the Mosaic Law in God's divine command.

    The "Lindbergh Law" requiring the death penalty for kidnapping is based not only on a very real need, but on divine instruction.

    Elsewhere, Leviticus 20:10 commands:  "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that commiteth adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."

    So we may say plainly that the death  penalty is God's own requirement for certain sins, particularly for murder.  All the talk that the death penalty does not do any good, does not deter crime, that it is inhuman, that is does not seek the rehabilitation of the criminal, is foolish.  Sin ought to be punished.  And there is no way to put down crime but by punishing crime.  And the death penalty itself is God's own punishment for certain drastic sins.

    Not only in the Mosaic Law, but long before that, when Noah came out of the ark and started the civilization after the flood, the plain command was given in Genesis 9:5,6:  "And surely your blood of your lives will require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.  Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:  for in the image of God made he man."

    The law of sowing and reaping, of sin and punishment, as expressed in Exodus 21:24 ,25, is God's own law.  The sinner should make restitution "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, food for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe," according to his sin.

    Dr. Georgia Harkness and other modern unbelievers would interpret Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as disavowing this command of the law.  In Matthew 5:38-41 Jesus said:  "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for and eye, and a tooth for a tooth:  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil:  but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain."

    But they pervert what Jesus said.  Jesus is simply saying that the law ought to be enforced, but if it is over-severely enforced, the Christian is not to resist the min-application of the law, but to give an extra cloak along with his coat with which he must make restitution, or to go two miles instead on the required one.  It is the law of God that sin must be punished and the punishment is to fit the crime.  The death penalty is God's proper way to punish murder, and the government acts for God in such matters when it executes a criminal.

    To the individual the command of God is, "Thou shalt not kill."  And the word there means murder.  No individual now has a right to take on himself the responsibility of taking another's life.  But the state, acting for God, makes laws and enforces them.  "The powers that be are ordained of God."  And when Pilate killed those Galilean rebels, he acted for God, and Jesus approved it and said that those who heard Him might likewise die if they did not repent.

    There is not room here for detailed discussion, but the implication of God's teaching and of the teaching of Christ here is the same:  the government which has the right to execute a criminal for his crime has a right to take up arms and punish a whole group of criminals, rebels against the government, or some great enemy of their own country or of mankind.  The officer of the law acts for God and the soldier acts for God when, in obedience to the government he serves, each one puts to death certain people who ought to be put to death, according to the instructions of the government which acts for God.

    Those who speak of the electrocution or hanging of a criminal as "legalized murder" talk in wicked rebellion against the plain instruction of Jesus Christ.  He said nothing like that against Pilate, who put to death men for their crimes and represented God in so doing.

IV.  Jesus Taught That God Deals Directly Through Nature and Events in Punishing Sin

    "Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?  I tell you, Nay:  but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:4, 5).

    Here Jesus is saying that those eighteen men who died by a seeming accident were really executed by the wrath of God for their sins.  And Jesus warned His hearers that many of them surely deserved death as much as those hapless men upon whom stone walls fell!  God uses all the devices of nature in His judgment of sin.  What we call "accidents" are often literally "acts of God," as they are called by law and custom.

1.  God Rules Even in Smallest Detail:  No Happening Without His Knowledge and Permission

     Wicked or thoughtless men may sometimes think that God does not care, that God does not know, that God would not take notice and have control of the millions of detailed incidents that affect men.  But they are wrong.  By divine inspiration David wrote:  "For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.  Thou has beset my behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.  Whither shall I go from thy spirit?  or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:  if I make my bed in hell behold, thou are there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me; even the night shall be light about me.  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day:  the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.  For thou hast possessed my reins:  thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.  (Ps. 139:4-13).

   The marvel of God's greatness can be seen as well through the microscope as through the telescope.  The starry galaxies of the heavens, millions of light-years away, are no more wonderful than the world of infinite detail and precision, the unspeakable wonders of life, too small in detail to be seen by the naked eye.

   The Lord clothes every lily of the field.  Not a sparrow falls without His knowledge.  The hairs on every man's head are literally counted and recorded.  We are even told that the beasts of the field are fed by God's loving care.  It is no surprising, then, that all of nature abut us is used by God for His own purposes.

   God used a flood of waters, a combination of the elements about us, to destroy the whole race excepting Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives.  God did miracles with water turning the blood, with plagues of frogs, of lice, of flies, with midnight darkness, with hail, with murrain of cattle, and with the miraculous death of the firstborn in Egypt.  God controlled the waters of the Jordan for the crossing of the multitude as He did for Elijah and Elisha later alone.  The Lord caused the storm that tossed Johan's vessel on the sea, and Jesus stopped on one stormy Galilee by a word.

   All the animal kingdom God uses.  He caused a donkey to talk to Balaam; He used a fish to bring Peter a coin that had been dropped in the sea; He used a rooster to remind Peter of his failure; and a great draught of fishes to bring Peter back to his senses and to the ministry.

   God had the sun stand still at Joshua's command.  He turned the sun back on the dial three degrees for King Hezekiah.  He had the ground open to swallow rebels and drop them into the pit of Hell at the gainsaying and rebellion of Korah.  He caused the water of the sea of Galilee to support Simon Peter as if he were on solid ground.

   No man who believes the Bible can marvel when Jesus says that tower of Siloam fell and killed eighteen men as the act of God punishing their sins.  God had caused the walls of Jericho to fall down that the city might be destroyed by Israel under Joshua.  It is not surprising that God had the walls of the tower of Siloam to fall and kill eighteen men during the personal ministry of the Lord Jesus.  Such catastrophes of nature are acts of God.

   God reigns in this world.  He does not make men do wrong.  He makes men responsible for decisions on right and wrong.  But He controls events, and no event, no disaster, can happen without His permission.

2.  When Lost Men Die, It Is the Judgment of God on Sin

    Often men die in immediate punishment for some great sin.  Sometimes one who is spiritually minded and knows the facts can trace the hand of God and can sense the spiritual reason for sudden death of a sinner.

    In Waxahachie, Texas, in the midst of a great revival campaign in which I was the preacher, several remarkable incidents came which seemed clearly to be immediate punishment of God for sin.

    Two young men drove about in a car one afternoon drinking, breaking the speed laws, endangering the lives of others.  One at least was active in a church young people's society.  I do not suppose he claimed to have been converted.

    They drove into a filling station to fill their gas tank again.  The kindly operator pleaded with them, "Go home and sleep off you drunk.  You will kill yourselves or somebody else.  If you will promise to go home at once without any more racing through the streets, I will take the hose and wash out the vomit in the front of the car, fill the gas tank and charge it to your dad.  But promise me, will you?"

    They promised, so he filled the gas tank.  The two young men under the influence of liquor started home.  "But let us have just one more run down East Marvin Street before we go in," one of them said.  The other agreed.  They raced down East Marvin Street at seventy miles an hour, according to the one boy who lived to tell the story.  At a thirty-degree turn in the street the car skidded to the left side of the street, hit the curbing, turned on its side, skidded into a telephone pole, breaking it off at the base.  The young men were rushed to the hospital.  One of them died at four o'clock the next morning after saying over and over again in delirium, "O God have mercy!"  and never, as far as we know, coming to clear consciousness.

    A few days later a young man who had been to the revival the night before and had been deeply concerned as friends pleaded with him to be saved, stayed to keep the garage.  When he went out with the wrecker to pull a car out of the ditch, a bus hit the wrecker, knocked it over on him, and crushed him instantly.

    In the same twelve weeks of revival, another man who had heard me preach and had been solemnly warned was found shot through the heart at the town waterworks.  Many believed, as did I, that all this was the hand of God.  He does sometimes bring people to sudden judgment and death because of some immediate sin.

    Near Decatur, Texas, a few minutes after a young man attended many services.  His father, mother, brother, and sister had been saved, but he still resisted God's call.  At noon his mother pleaded with him in tears to be saved.  He refused, and thirty minutes later was cut in two by a train.  I know that God sometimes brings sudden death as an immediate punishment for sin.

    But is not death always, for the sinner, the closing of the gate of mercy?  Is it not always leaving a man to his eternal retribution for sin?  When a lost man dies, he dies as the result of sin.  It may be that death comes like a creeping beast of prey, little by little, or it may be in one sudden unexpected pounce.  But death trails ever lost sinner, is the judgment of God on every lost sinner, and means eternal retribution forever away from God for every sinner who dies unsaved.

    So the Lord Jesus surely meant it when He said, "I tell you, Nay:  but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."  He did not mean that every person would have a tottering wall fall and kill him instantly.  He did not mean that every sinner would be executed by the government for treason or rebellion.  But He meant that when a lost sinner dies, death in every case is the beginning of eternal judgment on the sinner's sin.  Death, for the lost man, is the heavy hand of God calling him to judgment and punishment.

    No man, then, who does not repent, can escape the judgment of God.  And a man goes to just as terrible Hell if he dies at a ripe old age, after a lingering illness, as if he went out suddenly in the prime of youth in some bloody and horrible disaster.  There is no real difference in the kind of death if a man is unconverted and if death means Hell and the eternal wrath of God, eternal separation from God.  No, to every sinner Jesus warns, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

3.  Even Christians Sometimes Die in Punishment for Sin

    It is true that every Christian is passed out of death into life and does not come to judgment in the sense of John 5:24.  It is true that for the Christian the Bible uses that sweep term "sleep" for death.  "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him"  (1 Thess. 4:14).  Death for the Christian is: Asleep in Jesus!  Blessed sleep, From which none ever wake to weep!

    That is, Christians cannot dread death as lost people do.  Yet there is the judgment seat of Christ, and giving account for wasted life and lost opportunities and sins committed, according to 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 and 1 Thessalonians 3:10-15.

    It is clear, I think, that here in Luke 13:1-5, the Lord Jesus is warning of death to lost people.  But it is only fair to say that sometimes even a child of God is cut down suddenly so his influence cannot do more harm, and so God cannot be charged with being partaker of his sin.

    First Corinthians 11:30-32 says:  "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

   The Corinthian Christians and divisions, strife and drunkenness at the Lord's table.  They had condoned one man living in sin with his stepmother.  And for this cause many among them are and sickly, "and many sleep."  Even the word "death" is not used, because death does not mean the same for a saved man as for a lost one.  But at least death may come prematurely to the Christian, as it did to these in Corinth.  If Christians do not judge themselves, God will judge them.  God cannot and will not send one of His own children to Hell, so He must judge them now for sin.

    Many people suppose that Ananias and Sapphira, who lied to the Holy Ghost in pretending to give all the money they had received for property they had sold, in Acts 5, were lost people, but I do not think so.  It may well be that we will meet Ananias and Sapphira in Heaven, both greatly ashamed and both having been publicly judged by God Almighty for their sin.  Christians do sin and sometimes die for their sins.

    Simon the sorcerer in Acts, chapter 8, claimed Christ and then wanted to buy the power to give the Holy Spirit to those on whom he would lay his hands, as did James and John acting for the Lord.  Many suppose that Simon was not saved.  I think he was.  "Simon himself believed also" (Acts 8:13).  Peter said to him, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.  Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter:  for thy heart is not right in the sight of God" (Acts 8:20,21).

    No, Simon's  heart was not right with God but neither was Peter's when he cursed and swore and denied the Saviour.  Neither was Samson when he lay with his head in the lap of Delilah.  Neither was Lot when he put money first and called the wicked people his brethren and lived down in Sodom.  But I think that here Peter threatened Simon with death because he publicly dishonored God, and perhaps if Simon had not repented, he would have been killed.  God does not strike down some of His own when they do not judge their sins and when the cause of Christ would be bettered by their Homecoming.

    I knew a group of men who conspired against the pastor to seize control of the church.  One man died suddenly of a heart attack.  Another was taken to the hospital and died the second day with no one ever knowing what was wrong with him.  Another was killed soon thereafter in an airplane accident.  I have evidence that it was the hand of God, in answer to prayer, protecting His preacher and His work.  Christians sometimes die prematurely at the hand of God for their sins.

    However, it is clear that in Luke 13:1-5, Jesus is giving solemn warning primarily to lost persons when He says, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

V.  But Jesus Warned Also of the Eternal Retribution for the Wicked in Hell

    It is true that Jesus here spoke of death, the death of those Galileans killed by Pilate, whose blood was mingled with their sacrifices, and the sudden death of those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell.  It is true that Jesus spoke of men departing from this life in death.

    But it seems also certain that Jesus had in mind eternal death.  For the lost person, unconverted, death always means eternal death.  Hell is not the grave, but every unconverted person whose body goes to the grave finds his soul awaking where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies!  We are told that "the sting of death is sin" (1 Cor. 15:56).  And as long as sin is unforgiven and as long as a man's heart is not changed, death means eternal death and Hell.  So Jesus here surely warned solemnly of Hell for all who did not repent.

    I remember a pioneer officer of the law in New Mexico in wild frontier times.  He had risked his life again and again.  He had gone out to track down and arrest and bring in many a murderer, many an outlaw.  And he said to a preacher, "I am not afraid to die!  You know I am not afraid to die.  I have risked my life many and many a time.  I am not afraid to die -- but O God, what comes after death!  That is what I am afraid of!"  So Jesus connected the two together when He said, "The rich man also died, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments" (Luke 16:22, 23).

    Here Jesus is saying again what He said in John 3:18, "He that believeth not is condemned already."  Here He is saying again what is said in John 3:36, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth in him."

    Here Jesus is saying what he said in Matthew 10:28, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:  but rather fear him which is able to destroy  both soul and body in hell."

    Here Jesus is giving the same kind of warning as He gave in Matthew 5:29, 30:  "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:  for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.  And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast of from thee:  for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

    This warning burned in the dear loving heart of the Saviour so strongly that later He said it again in different words:  "Wherefore if thy hand or thy food offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee:  it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands of two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.  And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:  it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." (Matt. 18:8, 9).

    Oh, we are told, "It is appointed unto man once to die," but men do not have to die the second death!  They can repent of their sins and find peace with God, forgiveness, salvation and eternal life!

VI.  Repentance -- the Only Way of Escape for a Sinner

    Jesus said it twice; first about those Galileans who died for their crimes, "I tell you, Nay:  but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3).  Again Jesus said in reference to the eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell, "I tell you, Nay:  but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:5).  It is simply turn of burn!  There is no other alternative.  There is no other answer to sin but repentance or eternal death!

1.  It is True That Jesus Died for Sinners but Even the Lord Jesus Cannot Save the Impenitent

    The dear Lord Jesus is God's Way to Heaven.  Jesus is the Light of the World.  "There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).  It is true, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not  the Son of God hath not life" (John 5:12).  Jesus is God's answer for sin.  Jesus has paid the whole terrible cost of sin.  God "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21).  So it is true that "by him all that believe are justified from all thinks, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:39).

    Yes, Jesus is the answer.  But there is no way of coming to Jesus without a heart being tired of sin and turning from sin.  The man who will not confess that he is sick will not call a doctor.  The man who does not admit that he is a sinner will not ask for forgiveness.  The man who will not face in his own heart the fact that he is lost will not be saved.  The man who loves the ways of sin will not love the ways of God, will not want the Lord Jesus, will not come in loving surrender and faith to Jesus!  Jesus is the answer, but no man can ever find this answer except with a heart that turns from sin.  So it is turn or burn.  It is repent or perish!

    Someone has foolishly said about salvation, "it is not the sin question; it is the Son question."  But it is actually a matter of choice between sin and the Son.  A man who never sinned will not need a Saviour.  No one can trust Christ for forgiveness without thus acknowledging his sinfulness and turning his heart from sin.  There can be no faith without repentance.  There can be no consideration of Heaven without facing Hell.  There is no right if there is no wrong.  So no one can trust Christ for salvation who does not repent.  It is turn or burn.  It is repent or perish for every lost person in the world.

2.  God Demands All Through the Bible That Sinners Repent

    There are not two plans of salvation in the Bible -- only one.  In Old Testament times people were not saved by keeping the law but rather "the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Gal. 3:24).  The law was given to bring the knowledge of sin and the need for a Saviour.

    Acts 10:43 plainly says about Jesus, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."  I say that every prophet in the Old Testament and New Testament alike preached salvation by faith in Christ.

    So we find that repentance is taught in the Old Testament and in the New, and that no one can be saved without his heart being turned away from sin.

    In the Old Testament the term more often used for repentance of a sinner is to "turn."

    Repentance and faith are spoken of in the Old Testament as being different sides of this same thing or different ways of speaking of a sinner's conversion, just as is true in the New Testament.  IN 2 Kings 17, God tells about the sins of Israel for which the nation was delivered into captivity.  In verses 13 and 14 we read:  "Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.  Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God."

    God sent word by all the prophets and seers to Israel, "Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes . . . ."  They would not hear but did like their fathers "that did not believe in the Lord their God."  There repentance and faith are spoken of as referring to the same heart attitude.  One who does not repent does not trust Christ for forgiveness.

    We are told, with the Lord's glad approval, of King Josiah, that he "turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might . . . ." (2 Kings 23:25).  That is repentance and that too is turning to Christ.

    Israel was solemnly promised in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that if they should go away from God and sin so that God's punishment should come on the land, then "if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."  Is not that a promise of forgiveness, upon genuine repentance?

    In Ezekiel 18:300-32, God's tender warning and plea for each Israelite is:  "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel.  every  one according to his ways.  saith the Lord God.  Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit:  for why will ye die, O house of Israel?  For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God:  wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye."

    The Israelite was commanded to "repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions"  and  "make you a new heart and a new spirit:  for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"  You see, honest repentance here means a new heart.  That is literally what the Greek word for repentance in the New Testament means -- a change of heart or attitude.  No one takes the right attitude toward Christ who does not take the right attitude against sin.

    When John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, his theme was "Repent ye:  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2).  But that is exactly the same Gospel that Jesus preached in Matthew 4:17, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent"  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  Thus in Luke 13, verses 3 and 5 say it twice over, "I tell you, Nay"  but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."

    That was the very theme Jesus preached all the time, for He said in Matthew 9:13, "For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

    In Acts 2:38 and Acts 3:19 Peter preached boldly that men should repent.

    In Acts 17:30 Paul the apostle, preaching at Athens, said, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at:  but now commandeth all men every where to repent."

    In speaking before King Agrippa, Paul summed up his ministry in these word:  "Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and  throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance."  (Acts 26:19, 20).

    Everywhere Paul preached that men "should repent and turn to God."  He was preaching the same Gospel then as when he told the jailer in Acts 16:31, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

    The rich man in Hell, as Jesus told the story, pleaded for someone to go and preach to his five lost brothers back on earth.  He knew why he had gone to Hell and why his brothers were likely to go, so he said, hopefully but mistakenly, "But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent."  (Luke 16:30).

    So every lost person in the world is lost because he will not repent.

    In 2 Peter 3:9 we are told that "the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

    Oh, dear friend, it is repent or perish!  It is turn or burn!

3.  God Shows What Is Wrong With the Unconverted Human Heart

    Christ's demand is repentance!  The alternative is to perish, eternally away from God.  Why?  What is so bad about the human heart that it must have atonement and regeneration or spend eternity in Hell?

    The answer is as old as the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and fell.  By sin they became lost sinners, dying and under the curse of death.

    It is not only true that "all have sinned , and come short of the glory of God"  (Rom. 3:23).  It is not only true that "if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us"  (1 John 1:10).  The horrible thing that is wrong with every person ever born into the world is not only that he has sinned, but that he is by nature alienated from God, tainted with a disposition to sin.  God in loving mercy keeps little ones sager until they become knowingly accountable sinners, but little ones are tainted with sin from birth, as are all of us.

    Oh sinner friend, what is wrong with you is not only your actions and your life, but your heart, your nature, your disposition.  Even when you would like to do right, you do not know how,  but basically on the great moral question of serving God, your wicked heart wants its own way.

    So there is no way we can make some small payment and cover our sins.  There is no fine we can pay the Judge and go free.  Our attitude toward God is not that of a petty lawbreaker, but of a traitor, of an enemy, an alien, estranged from God, fighting God, running from God!

    All that a poor sinner can do to have peace with God is to turn his heart from sin and let God fix what the sinner cannot fix.  He can hate his sins, but only God can take them away.  The sinner can confess and turn his heart from his sin, but only God can make him good.

    Thank God, Jesus does that.  First, He gives to our credit all the righteousness of Christ.  Second, He imparts in us a new heart, makes us a new creature, makes us into children of God.  And at last He will perfect what He has begun and we will be forever freed from sin.

    Does someone say he feels no need for repentance?  Ah, that is all the more proof of your wicked bias, your stubborn willfulness, your enmity toward God, your love for sin.

    Remember that Jesus said:  "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved."  (John 3:18-20).

    The fact that men do not repent shows all the more the wickedness of their hearts and their need for repentance.  Jesus was sad when He said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life"  (John 5:40).

    My message is done.  My heart is concerned lest I may have spoken too much about the doctrine and not given enough holy exhortation that men flee from the wrath to come, that men turn from their sins in holy penitence and com to Christ for mercy!

    Dear sinner friend, I beg you, do not turn away from this message.  It is the message of God.  It is based on the solemn statement of Jesus Christ that "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."  I beg you, dear sinner, turn from sin today.

    I do not say that you can, unaided, change your life.  But you can call on God to help you and to fix what you cannot fix.  You can at least be tired of sin and confess your sins and turn your heart away from it.  And God will help you trust His Son.  Jesus will do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  Honest repentance means turning from sin, but it also means turning to the dear Lord Jesus, our Saviour, who died on the cross to pay what otherwise you would need to pay for yourself.

    And not will you repent?  Or will you go on in sin and perish?  Now will you thoroughly, honestly, with all your heart turn to Jesus and trust Him, or will you burn in eternal torment?  That you must decide!

    As my friend Tim Spencer has so beautifully written,

IT'S YOUR LIFE

                                                                                           It's your life, and you can kill it!
                                                                                           It's your heart, and you can still it!
                                                                                           It's your grave, and you can fill it!
                                                                                           But remember it's God's love
                                                                                           You're throwing away!

                                                                                            It's your live for you to kill,
                                                                                            It's your heart for you to still,
                                                                                            It's your grave for you to fill,
                                                                                            But remember it's God's love
                                                                                            You're throwing away!

                                                                                            It's your life, you can abuse it!
                                                                                            It's your soul, and you can lost it!
                                                                                            Heaven or Hell, just as you choose it!
                                                                                            But remember it's God's love
                                                                                            You're throwing away!    

                                                                                            It's your life that you abuse,
                                                                                            It's your soul for you to lose,
                                                                                            It's your Hell for you to choose,
                                                                                            But remember it's God's love
                                                                                            You're throwing away!

    If you will admit to God you are a sinner, and the best you know how repent of your sin, that is, turn your heart from your sin, confess it and beg God cleanse it away, then will you first tell God just that in your heart today?  Tell Him that you are tired of sin, that you honestly want Him to cleanse your heart and forgive you.  Tell God that you believe what the Bible says, that Jesus died for your sins, and that here and now you will trust Jesus Christ to be your own personal Saviour.  ------------- Will you do it? Decide!  Say yes to God now!  I beg you to turn for mercy and do not burn in torment.