you Luke 23, 27. Now the Lord
has been condemned. Pilate has gave sentence that
he might be taken out and be crucified. And so they are taking
the Lord out to Calvary, or the place of the skull. And in verse
27, there followed Him a great company of people and of women,
which also bewailed and lamented Him. But Jesus turning unto them
said, now watch this please. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep
not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold,
the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed the barren,
and the wombs that never bear, and the paps that never gave
suck. Then shall they begin to say
to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in
a green tree, what shall be done in a dry?" And there's our beginning
text this morning. There are several other passages
of Scripture that deal with this same subject and deal with it
more extensively, and we'll bring them in and make them a part
of our study this morning. And we admit that some of them
give a much fuller and even a clearer account of the testimony of that
which was to come upon them in due time. But I wanted to begin
with this passage of Scripture, and there are at least two reasons
why. Number one, have you ever considered? Think about this. These probably
are the very last recorded words of Jesus spoken before He was
put on the cross. They were spoken after He had
been condemned and when He was being taken away under the cross. And if it is His last recorded
words, then it does behoove us to very closely consider them. to hear what the blessed Savior
says as He goes to face the death of the cross. His last public
words are these. And so we ask ourselves, what
then is the subject? And we'll deal with that later.
Now the second reason is this. The words that are found in verse
31, the metaphor spoken by Our Lord, in verse 31, concerning
a green tree and a dry tree, here we have a contrast, we have
a comparison, something between what was to be done soon to Jesus,
the green tree, and what was to be done years later to the
dead and the dry tree are the Jewish nation and people. So let our mind's eye, if we
might this morning, try to imagine the scene that is in our text. There are three here that are
being taken out from the judgment hall unto the cross to be crucified. The innocent Lord and two criminals
are brought along with him. Of course, there is with them,
and overseeing it all, a detachment of Roman soldiers. And in verse
27, there's a large crowd of people that followed, even as
we might expect. Maybe some were supporters, maybe
some were sympathizers with our Lord. Maybe some were just curious. to see another execution. Maybe some opposed Him and were
His enemy and would follow Him even under the cross. You see,
an execution in this manner was a public spectacle for any that
passed by to see. And a crucifixion excited high
emotions on both sides or in both directions. We read down
in verse 48, of the people that came together to witness or to
view the sight of these crucified. But in verse 27 and following,
the focus, first of all, is upon some of the women in the company. Notice that they are said to
lament, they are said to bewail, or to mourn concerning our Lord. Evidently, their laments were
audible and were manifest to those that were in the company. The Lord was aware of them. They fell upon His ear. And in verse 28 we read, the
daughters of Jerusalem, that is, you Jerusalem women, citizens,
residents of the city of Jerusalem, And notice what He does not say,
first of all, as He speaks to that company, particularly of
women. He says nothing to them in the
way of comfort or assurance. He says nothing of His coming
resurrection and victory over death. He says nothing to them
that might encourage them in their sorrow. He does not bid
them go forth and bear witness of Him who was to be crucified. But let's notice what He does
say unto that group of women. He says to them, your weeping
is misplaced. Do not weep for Me. Shed no tears on behalf of Me. Let your tears be for yourself
and let your tears be for your children. And then notice, He
warns them of a coming calamity, which would be worse on those
that were with child or those that had young child at the time. Look at verse 29 again. For behold,
the days are coming. He says to them, a time will
arrive. Days will come. They will pass
on and come. Then it would be said in that
day, blessed are the barren wombs that never gave birth and the
breasts that never were nursed. And in verse 30, so awful would
be the days, so deep would be the danger, that people would
actually be heard imploring the mountains and the hills and the
caves to fall upon them. for them to be covered as a shield
from the great calamity that would be visited upon them. Remember how Job wished that
he could hide in the grave until the storm of God's wrath had
passed over? Job 14 and verse 13. Then let us notice how here,
in this passage from Luke 23, verse 27 through verse 31, that the admonition is particularly
and firstly suited unto the women. For it was women that lamented
him, verse 27, and oh how faithful were some of the women. during
the ministry of our Lord, first at the tomb and first at the
resurrection and such like. And then he said in verse 29
that an extra burden with which women might be encumbered, being
great with child or having a young child in their arms or perhaps
even a nursing infant in their arms and trying to escape and
save their life and their children's life in the ravaging that was
to come. That which was ordinarily a curse
for a Jewish woman, barrenness, would be a blessing unto her
when this day did arrive. when the dead tree is consumed,
trying to flee for herself and also for her child. And Luke
21 and verse 23 speaks of these coming days and says again, Woe
unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, meaning,
of course, nursing mothers, in those days, for there shall be
great distress in the land and wrath upon the people. So the question comes to our
mind immediately. What day, what time, what calamity
is meant by our Lord? What is this great calamity that
was to come? And when would this come, this
great distress and this wrath upon this people, as our Lord
emphasizes it, and which would fall the heaviest upon the women
who were with children and the women who were with child. And
I submit to you, as do some of the most ablest expositors that
I have read concerning the Word of the Lord, that He is referring
here to those events that came to pass in 70 A.D., when the
Romans actually besieged the city of Jerusalem, and they burned,
and they ravaged, and they pillaged the temple and the Jews, and
the entire city was laid waste and flat by that destruction. They slaughtered the priests
of Israel who did not escape, as Roman armies encompassed about
the city and shut them in." Now we have more about that later,
but now let's put a lot of Scripture to this matter. First of all,
I'm going to turn to Luke chapter 19, if you care to turn and follow,
or take it down, or remember whatever suits you. But in Luke
chapter 19, verse 41, through verse 44, we have also
a great account of this. Verse 41, When he was come near
the city, that is, Jesus, he beheld the city and wept over
it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy
day, the things which belong unto thy peace, But now they
are hid from thine eyes, for the day shall come upon thee,
that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, compass
thee about, keeping thee in on every side, and shall lay thee
even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation." Now flip to Luke chapter 21,
and this time verse 20 through verse 24 for our reading. Luke chapter 20, I'm sorry, 21 and verse 24. They shall fall by the edge of
the sword, shall be led away captive into all nations, and
Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times
be fulfilled. There shall be signs in the moon
and in the stars. And let's see, I began reading
too far down. Let's go back to verse 20. I jumped too far. When you shall
see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation
thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea
flee to the mountain. Let them which are in the midst
of it depart out. Let them that are in the countries
Enter thereto, for these be the days of vengeance, that all things
which are written may be fulfilled. Woe unto them that are with child,
to them that give suck in those days, for there shall be great
distress in the land and wrath upon the people, and they shall
fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led captive into
all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles
until the time of the Gentiles be come in." Next, Matthew chapter
24, for a passage of Scripture along this same line. Matthew
24, first of all we read verse 1 and verse 2. Jesus went out
and departed from the temple. His disciples came unto Him for
to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto
them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down. Now jump down to verse 15 through
verse 22. When you therefore shall see
the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place, whosoever readeth let him understand, then
let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which
is on the housetop not come down to take away anything out of
his house. Neither let him which is in the
field return back to take his clothes again. Woe unto them
that are with child, to them that give suck in those days.
Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the
Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world unto this present
time, nor ever shall be. And except those days should
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's
sake, those days shall be shortened. Now we put all of these texts
together concerning this matter. And here are some points to ponder,
as some commentators such as Gill, Spurgeon, Calvin, Matthew
Henry, J.C. Ryle, just to name a few that
I have read, believe that this was the last time that our Lord
was ever in the Jewish temple. In Matthew 24, when He left out
of them, said to them, Your house is left unto you desolate. He never went there again. He never entered into that temple
again before He died upon the cross. Now did the disciples,
as it were, here in Matthew 24, make sort of a hinted intercession
for the temple. Did they hint for the temple
because of its glory and intercede by what the Lord was saying unto
them? It was the pride of Jewry. This temple was the centerpiece
of their worship. For Matthew 24-1, they show Him. They call His attention to the
stones and the design. of the temple and the building.
In Mark 13 and 1, Master, see what manner of stones and buildings
are here. Luke 21 and verse 5, And some
spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and
with gifts. Now granted, it was a magnificent
structure as pertains to that day and time. And now, even as
it was then, religion is dazzled by their magnificent temples
which they have erected to their religion. They are admiring their
ornate houses of worship. Their costly sanctuaries are
a source of pride unto them. Their altars of gold covered
over with pure gold. But now, as it was then, most
of such are desolate of any of the truth of God or of the gospel. Now, the Lord dashes the disciples'
admiration for the temple, telling them, See all these things here? See these stones? See these buildings? See these things that are here?
There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down." Both the temple and the city, according to the
Lord, would be leveled under the ground. Jerusalem would be
destroyed, that holy city where God had put His worship, where
the temple, where the Jews came to congregate and to worship. Now at this point, let's pause
and ask ourselves the question, should we expect to find something
or anything about all of this in the Old Testament prophecy?
Should we expect that so great an event might have been mentioned
in the Old Testament prophecy? Hear what the Lord said. In Matthew
24 and 15, as part of the question concerning the destruction of
the city and the end of the world, or literally age, he said, when
you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet
stand in the holy place. Then they knew that desolation
was even at the door, and they were to flee the city as quickly
as possible. Now some references, Daniel chapter
9, verse 26 and 27. Daniel 11 and verse 31. Daniel 12 and verse 11 can be
brought to bear upon this. Spurgeon and Guild, I know two
that I read, take this abomination that makes desolate to be the
Roman army and the Roman soldier. In fact, Luke's Gospel chapter
21 and verse 20. When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed
about with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is
nigh. The armies so hated and despised
by the Jew would at time encircle their city. And consider Malachi
chapter 3 verse 1 through 3. And consider what John the Baptist
told some that came to his baptism in Matthew chapter 3 verses 10
through verse 12 about the axe being laid already to the root
of the tree. Thus it is that the prophets
foretold the end of this disobedient and gainsaying people John warned
them, that is, John the Baptist. And so did the Lord Himself speak
frequently and fully about this warning. Now it does not seem
to be a stretch to say that the Jews lived in fear that the Romans
would come and take away their country and their nation. Or as they put it in John 11
and 48, and take away both our place and our nation. Following the resurrection of
Lazarus, the Jewish leaders feared that the Lord Jesus might be
the catalyst for such action on the part of the Roman soldiers
against them. For consider, this man Jesus
was doing mighty things. His fame and his following was
growing. More and more Jews were believing
and following him. What if this provokes the Romans
to jealousy or to fear an insurrection? And they come and squash the
Jewish people because it has come through them. And so, and
by the way, John 11 will break your heart if you look at it
and see there. In John chapter 11, they make
a pragmatic decision. They meet together and one says
unto them, if Jesus die, if this man is put to death, it probably
will be the cause of saving our nation and our place. The old priest said, it is expedient
that one die for the people and that the whole nation perish
not. John 11 and verse 50. So they said, Jesus is the cause
of this. He may be the one that will bring
the wrath of the Romans down upon our heads. So let's let
him go ahead and be put to death. Better he die, even if he's innocent,
than our nation be lost and destroyed. I thought how ironic that which
they designed to be a means to save their place and to save
their nation, actually became the occasion and the reason it
was destroyed. And that is because they murdered
the Prince of Life. I like what Calvin said of them,
that they disguised their wicked plot as being for public good. Have you ever heard that before?
They disguise their wicked plot for the good of the public. I thought, my God, my God, my
God, how many laws of liberty, how much governmental tyranny,
how many unnecessary laws and restrictions have been imposed
upon citizens, using the ruse that it is for public safety. So in this case, one of the council,
being Caiaphas, the high priest that year, tells them, he said,
look, the choice is clear. There is no other alternative. It is necessary that this controversial
man be put to death so that the nation can be spared. even if he was doing much good
unto many, even if many or some held him in high esteem, and
even if he were an innocent man. That is, John Gill wrote, quote,
common prudence and the public safety of the nation required
him to fall a sacrifice rather than exasperate the Romans to
such a degree as to threaten the utter ruin and destruction
of the whole nation, unquote. Also, The implication is this,
this is to be factored in as well, that the ecclesiastical
leaders would be put out of their place. They would lose their
places and positions as well. Now, of course, in John 11, in
the last part, Caiaphas made an unwitting but true prophecy
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that, he much resembled
Balaam's donkey who spoke a prophecy as well. Now we see in John 11,
53, they receive this counsel of Caiaphas. From that day forward,
they begin to connive how to put the Lord to death. They,
being the Sanhedrin, the high priests, the chief priests, the
scribes, the Pharisees, the muckety-mucks of their religion. Again, what
we call the ecclesiastics, that is, the religious leaders of
that day who cared more for their party and for their tradition
than they cared for the truth of the Scripture and the Son
of God. Let's go back to consider some
things that were said by John the Baptist, who was the forerunner
of our Lord in Matthew 3. And verse 10, he warns of judgment
at the appearance of the Christ under the figure or metaphor
of a woodman. The axe is now, even now, laid
to the root of the tree, not to lop off a few dead or unfruitful
branches, but to strike at the very root, the very root of the
tree. Gil said, to strike at all their
privileges, civil and ecclesiastical, because the judgment of God was
drawing nigh upon them, as Malachi had predicted. Rather than being
in time judgments, what we've read about this morning, on the
whole world, What if they be judgment upon Israel and that
city and that nation and that people? For example, consider
the parable of the vineyard. It covers this story perfectly. The parable of the vineyard in
Matthew chapter 21, 33 through verse 46. This is a prophetical
parable dealing with a case of the Jew from their high estate
to their being cut off in judgment and the kingdom given to another
nation. Now Israel was God's vineyard,
fully furnished, let out to husbandmen, that is to the ecclesiastic,
Not for rent, but for fruit, that when the season of fruit
was come, the servants would come and get it. At harvest time,
the landowner sent servants together in the fruit that he might expect,
and the wicked husbandmen did not receive them, but stoned
and beat and killed the servants of the landowner. He sent more
servants unto them, and likewise they did the same again and again. Finally, He said, I will send
My only Son. They will reverence Him. What did they do? The Son they
cast out of the vineyard, and they killed the Son as well. The image is clear. Wave after
wave after wave of prophets came unto Israel. And then they killed
them and beat them and finally did the same to the Son of God. And this culminated their sin
as they being the children of those who killed the prophet
were fulfilling the measure of their father's sin. Matthew 23,
31 and 32. And it brought down judgment
upon them as a nation. We read in Matthew 21 and verse
40, the question in the parable, what will the Lord of the vineyard
do to these husbandmen? Well, they say He will make a
horrible end of them, He will miserably destroy them, and He
will find other husbandmen who will render unto Him the fruit
in due season. And our Lord said in Matthew
21 and 43, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, that
is from the Jews, and given to a nation, bringing forth the
fruit thereof. The stone the builders rejected
will grind them to powder and utterly destroy them." Consider
further from Luke, chapter 11, verse 50 and verse 51. The Lord said the blood of all
the prophets from Abel would be required of that generation
that killed Jesus and of their children. All that bloodshed,
all that innocent blood of the martyr and the prophet would
be required of the generation that killed Jesus. They who pushed
for Christ to be put to death. They who said crucify Him. They
cried out these awful words. Let His blood be upon us and
upon our children." Pilate washed his hands and said, I want you
to know that I'm innocent of the blood of this just man, and
they answered back, let His blood be upon us and upon our children. Consider this irony, that as
all the sins of the elect from the beginning were made to light
upon Christ and were required of Him, even so all the righteous
blood Matthew 23, 25, "...shed upon the earth will be required
of those that kill Jesus." Listen, "...that upon you may come all
the righteous blood it would be required of that generation."
Again, that's Luke 11, 50 and verse 51. There's a very touching
passage in Luke chapter 19, 41 through verse 44, when the Lord beheld Jerusalem
after His entry, and He wept over it. You have an account
also in Matthew 23, 37, and verse 38. And He says that you, the
people, the nation, were unaware of the great visitation from
God in the person of the Messiah. My, a great visitation they had
been favored with. The very Son of God put on flesh,
tabernacled among them. and came into their city. In
Luke 1, 68 and 69, Zechariah said of the Lord, He has visited
and has redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of David. But the poor blind leaders of
the blind, he came to his own and his own received him not. The Jerusalem leaders opposed
the Lord and lobbied for His dead. They would not even let
the children of Jerusalem be gathered together to hear Him. In Matthew 23, 37 and verse 38,
the Jews' wickedness, the Jews' rebellion reached the climax
when they said, Crucify Him, crucify Him, that His blood be
upon our head. And this fully ripened them for
judgment, as that act filled up the measure of their fathers. And judgment came and fell upon
them in what we know as 70 A.D. God used the Romans as His instrument
to bring this judgment upon them. He did not rain down fire and
brimstone or send a flood to destroy them. or a plague among
them. He sent the abomination of desolation,
the Roman army, and that great destruction which Josephus wrote
about in his history of it, telling chilling details of the carnage. The Jews rebelled in about 66
A.D. by a revolt, and by 70 A.D. the
Romans had come and had taken control of the city. They smashed the rebellion of
the Jews that had been there. The city was burned. The Jewish
temple was completely desecrated and destroyed and leveled with
the ground. Even so, some say, Titus had
given order that the temple not be destroyed. In the providence
of God, it was. And many were slaughtered. during this great onslaught. Let's just use some phrases from
the Lord's prediction, like in Luke chapter 21, verse 20 through
24. These were days of vengeance
and fulfilling what was written. Verse 23, there shall be great
distress in the land and wrath upon the people. Verse 24, they
shall fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive and
Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles. Such texts unequivocally
refer to the destruction of Jerusalem that came in 70 A.D. and basically hardly do these
texts and words fit a rapture or the end time coming of the
Lord in these particular places, such as being with child or it
being in the winter, that wouldn't matter if the Lord was coming
to claim His own. Whether you're in the field or
the housetop would make no difference then, but it would in the awful,
awful season. Pray that it be not winter, pray
that it not be on the Sabbath day, because they must flee the
carnage that would come upon that city when they saw it began. When they saw the city surrounded,
great tribulation, Great calamity, great destruction was at hand,
as Daniel said, as Malachi predicted, John the Baptist said, and the
Lord Himself said many times. We'll ask again, what then was
their sin? What sin could merit such a judgment
so severe? The answer, Acts 3, 14 and 15,
you denied the Holy One and the just, killed the Prince of life,
then you set aside the chief cornerstone, and then it crushed
them, it ground them onto powder. Now, one final thing. Consider,
if you will, the exhortation of Simon Peter on the day of
Pentecost. I wonder if you've ever put it
in this light or thought about it from this standpoint. Consider
the exhortation that Peter gives to the Jews whose hearts were
pricked at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and look at verse 40. He warned them. He exhorted them
saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Untoward meaning twisted, crooked,
and perverse, corrupt. They were wicked. They were under
the judgment of God. They were ripening for judgment. And who dare follow them to their
ruin? So Peter says to them, when they
ask, what shall we do? Take those words. Save yourself
from this untoward generation. And what's the way to do that?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Take the Savior, believe on Him,
trust in Him, and follow after Him. Save yourself from this
untoward generation. I think we could say that to
people alive right now. that this generation worldwide
is as wicked as it's ever been and will meet the destruction
at the hand of God only in Christ is there a refuge. Only in Christ
is the soul safe from the wrath of God that is to come. I close
by saying this. The greatest sin deserved the
greatest punishment, and it was meted out. The greatest sin deserved
the greatest judgment. The greatest sin being the killing
of the innocent, holy, divine, incarnate Son of God. And judgment came, and blood
came upon their heads. The scriptures are true.