with me this morning, if you
will, to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. You know, I'll be down in Milton
Howard, down in Ball, Louisiana, Kitchen Creek Baptist Church
next weekend. And Bruce Crabtree is going to
be here preaching for you all. So you all are going to get a
great blessing. Brother Bruce coming down to take care of the
services. And then the 27th when I'm gone,
Paul Mahan's gonna come preach for you. So you're all gonna
have some wonderful services when I'm gone. All right, I wanna
start looking here at verse 28. Luke 19, 28. And when he had
thus spoken, he went before ascending up to Jerusalem. And it came
to pass when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany at the
mount called the Mount of Olives." Now he's up on the Mount of Olives.
He sent two of his disciples saying, "'Go ye into the village
over against you, in the which at your entering you shall find
a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat. Loose him, and bring
him hither.'" And if any man ask you, why do you loose him?
Thus shall you say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of
him. And they that were sent went
their way, and found even as he had said unto them. And as
they were loosing the coat, the owners thereof said unto them,
Why loose ye the coat? And they said, The Lord hath
need of him. And they brought him to Jesus,
and they cast their garments upon the coat, and they set Jesus
their own. And as he went, they spread their
clothes in the way. And when he was come nigh, even
now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude
of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice
for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed
be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from
among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered, said unto them,
I tell you that if thee should hold their peace, the stones
would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, 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, encompass thee round, and keep 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. And he went into the temple and
began to cast out them that sold therein and them that bought,
saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer,
but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily
in the temple, but the chief priest and the scribes and the
chief of the people sought to destroy him and could not find
what they might do. for all the people were very
attentive to hear him. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow our hearts here before you. Thankful that we're able to do
it and we have access to you through our Lord Jesus Christ
by the Spirit of God. That we can come even into the
holiest of holies because the Lord Jesus Christ is that veil
and he rent that veil where we can come. We can come and speak
to you and you'll hear us and you'll receive us. and you'll
do for us, and you'll meet our needs, and
you'll give us strength, and you'll give us comfort and consolation. And I know in it, according to
your good pleasure and blessed will, that you'll save your sheep,
that you'll send the word of God to their hearts, put that
seed in there, And that seed will bring forth fruit. It'll
bring forth the life of God in the soul of a man. And so, Lord,
we realize who you are and what we are, the great distance and
difference. But our Lord Jesus spanned that
mighty gulf, brought man and God together, reconciled us,
made us holy and acceptable and the blessed son of God, the Lord
Jesus. Father, meet with us today, strengthen
your people, save your people, meet the needs of those who are
greatly tried, greatly afflicted, burdened in their hearts and
minds. Lord, strengthen them, encourage them, and meet the
needs of their hearts and their homes. Remember our poor lost
families. Lord, you're the only one that
can save them. and we commit them to your care, knowing that
you'll judge of all the earth, you'll always do what's right.
Meet with us, for Christ's sake, amen. Now, back here in Luke 19, I want you to look in verse 41
with me. And when he was come near, 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
and come past thee round and keep thee in on every side and
shall lay thee even with the ground thy children within thee
and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because
thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. Our Lord Jesus He was coming down from Mount
Olive and he was riding that colt, that foal of an ass. They
was praising him for being the king over Israel, blessing him. And then as he drew nigh coming
down off of the Mount of Olives and he was descending down, he
stopped and he saw Jerusalem from off on top of that hill.
And he looked down and he could see the whole city. It had a
wall around it. And he was looking at that and he saw the whole
thing. And he had just entered and he
was coming down and some were rejoicing greatly in our Lord
Jesus Christ and then some rebuked them that were rejoicing. And
here's the thing about our Lord Jesus and our God, whether men
praise Him or not, This creation praises him. He said, if you
fellas stop praising me, these rocks will do it. He said, I'll
cause the rocks to cry out. He told him one time about Abraham.
He said, I'll raise up stones to Abraham's children. You think
you're something special, I'll raise up stones. I can raise
up rocks and make children out of them. If he took dust out
of the ground and made a man out of him, and breathed into
his nostrils, he became a man, a living soul. You know he could
take a rock and do what he wanted to with it. Look what he's done
with us. He does what he wants to with
us. Gave us life from the dead. And then when he come near that
city, and he stood and looked out over
Jerusalem, he began to cry, began to weep, began to weep. Now, he wasn't just tears coming
out of his eyes. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Holy One that inhabited eternity, the eternal Son of God. He began
to weep. You could hear his weeping. Tears
was falling off of his cheeks, falling to the ground. You could
hear him. You know, there's one thing to
cry. It's another thing to weep. When you're really weeping, your
body sobs, Your heart hurts. And that's what our Lord Jesus
done. He stopped and he began to weep. Weep. Just tears just falling. Coming out of those holy eyes.
Down that holy face. So our Lord Jesus Christ wept. And there's three times in the
scriptures that our Lord Jesus is mentioned crying. Now, you
keep Luke 19, and look in John 11 with me for a little bit,
and let's look at this and see what it says here in John 11,
35. Everybody knows, I believe, this
verse is scripture. The Lord wept three times. That's
mentioned our Lord weeping and crying three times in the scriptures.
It's mentioned three times. And this is the story of Lazarus
being raised from the dead and our Lord waiting until he died
before he even went over to where Lazarus was. And it says in verse
35 that Jesus wept. This said the Jews behold how
he loved him. Now I'm going to give you three
reasons why I believe our Lord Jesus Christ wept here at the
tomb of Lazarus. First of all he wept over the
unbelief of Mary and Martha. Look what Martha said down in
verse 21. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died. Now, she was upset with the Lord Jesus.
Lord, if you had just come on when I told you, we sent word
to you that he whom thou lovest is sick. If you'd have got on
over here, If you'd have got here when you should have, he
wouldn't have died. So our Lord wept over their unbelief
and their hardness of heart. And the second reason is because
he loved him. Because he loved him. And the
third reason is he's going to have to bring him back into this
old sinful world. Bring him back to life. Bring
him back into a world and he's gonna have to go through this
thing called death one more time Now that's a sad thing and that's
why our Lord stood there and wept. I got to bring him back. I Got to bring him back from
the dead to show people that I have power over death and that
I know my people and I call them by name and I got to bring him
back and He's gonna have to go through this one more time Just
one more time. Now, I'd weep over that, wouldn't
you? Don't bring me back. Don't bring
me back. And then in Hebrews 5, let me
show you the second time, the third time that he wept. This
is the second time, but in Hebrews 5, here's where our Lord Jesus
wept. It says in verse 7, I'll mention
three times, The first time was when he went to Lazarus' tomb. And the last time here is when
he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. And it says here in verse 7,
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers
and supplication with strong crying and tears, now he was
in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here he was weeping. And he prayed,
and his sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood. And he
went off three times and prayed, and he was weeping. And it says,
with strong crying and tears, he cried unto the Father, unto
Him that was able to save him from death. He said, Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but nevertheless
not my will be done. And look what it said, and it
was heard in that he feared. God heard him. No, God heard
him, and in that he feared, because of his piety God heard him. But
God left him to the hands of men, and left him to weep and
cry in the garden, until they come and got him and took him
away. And then back over in Luke 19, this is the third time, or
the last time that he wept. Excuse me, the second time that
he wept. And when he was come near, verse
41, he beheld the city and wept over it. Why did he weep over
Jerusalem? Why did he reap over this city? Why did he set and the tears
just fall? Why did he look at a city, a
city, and weep over it? Well, I'm going to give you two
places, and if you want to look, you can. If you don't, I'll read
them to you. But in Psalm 48 and verse 2, Jerusalem was a special place.
Jerusalem was the city of the king. Jerusalem was the place
that God called Zion. Jerusalem is the place that God
called His special place. That's where the temple was.
That's where the place where people came to worship three
times a year, a special place, a religious city, lots of religion,
a special place. It was the city where David set
up his throne. It was the city where Solomon
set up his throne. It was the city that Hezekiah
set up his throne, where God's king set up the throne. And look
what it says in verse 2 of Psalm 48. Beautiful for situation. What a beautiful situation. You
look at it, beautiful for such a situation. The joy of the whole
earth is Mount Zion, and on the sides of the north, the city
of the great king. Talking about Jerusalem. Look
down in verse 12. Walk about Zion. walk round about
her, and tell the towers thereof, tell all them towers that's on
the walls, and they're where they keep watch at. Marquee her
bulwarks, consider her palaces, that you may tell it to the generations
following." What a beautiful city, what a glorious place that
Jerusalem is. Now look in Psalm 137 in verse
6, talking about why did he weep over Jerusalem. 137 in verse
6, It's the city of the kings. Look what, here's David now.
Look what he says in verse 5. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy. So this is a special place. Special place. And he stood and
wept over this place, this city where all the kings set their
thrones and where they ruled at. And why did he weep over
Jerusalem? Because he saw it as it was,
as it really is, not the way everybody else saw, but he saw
as it really is and saw what it was going to be, saw what
it was going to be. And I tell you what he saw when
he looked out over Jerusalem and began to weep over it. He
saw the hardness, the hardness of men. He saw the guilt of men. As they went in and out of the
temple, as they went up to the temple to pray, as they went
up to offer their sacrifice, he saw their hardness, he saw
their guilt. It was in the temple, it was
in the city of Jerusalem in the temple where they came and told
the Lord Jesus when he was talking, that woman was taken in adultery.
Take her and stone her, that's what Moses said to do with her.
So that's how hard these people were. They had lots of religion,
but they were so hard. They said, let's just take this
woman stoner. They cast a blind man that our
Lord opened his eyes, cast him out of the synagogue. Why? Because
they would not give God the glory. Would not give Christ the glory.
Their hardness and their guilt. And they didn't know their guilt
and the character of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Oh, what an awful
character so many had in there. Awful characters. Their cruelty,
how cruel they were. They were cruel to everybody
that wasn't like them. They were cruel to sinners. They
were cruel to publicans. They were cruel to our Lord Jesus
Christ. They were cruel to his disciples. And they had self-righteousness.
They loved to stand making long prayers on the street corners. Loved to tell everybody about
their tithe paying. Loved to tell everybody about
their men and eyes and coming. They liked to tell everybody
how religious they were and how often they prayed and how they
had scriptures stuck on their arms and stuck on the top of
their heads. And they could take them out and read them as they
carried them around with them through the day. And their stubbornness.
Oh, was there anybody more stubborn? than the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and they had great, great prejudice against the truth. They were
so prejudiced against the truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, if
I tell not the truth, why don't you believe me? John came unto
you and you received his testimony, and I'm greater than John, why
don't you believe what I say? If you would know the truth,
you know what the truth would do for you, it would set you
free. We've never been in bondage.
What are you talking about? We don't need to be made free.
Who you talking about needs freedom? We've never been in bondage to
anybody. And our Lord Jesus said, if you
knew the truth, but oh, you don't want the truth. You don't desire
the truth. You don't care about the truth. You despise the truth. You carry
the Bible around with you, and you use it, but you despise the
truth when I tell you about the truth. He told them about God's
sovereign election, when he saved Nahum and the leper, and led
all the lepers in Israel, never done nothing for any of them,
when he saved that widow of Sarepta through Elisha. And they rejoiced
in what he said, and then they wanted to kill him, took him
to a mountain, wanted to throw him over. So our Lord Jesus Christ
knew the people that was in there. Their prejudice against the truth.
Their pride of heart. Oh, we not been in bondage. We're
Abraham's seed. We're Abraham's children. And
he saw beforehand what would happen to him in this city in
just a few, what happened to him in this city in a few days.
He knew that these same people in that city was plotting his
death, was finding a way to figure out how to get him, how to destroy
him, how to kill him, how to be done with him. So he knew
that I'm going to go in there and in a few days they're going
to take me and they're going to try me in this city and they're
going to take me from one place to another place. And they're
going to try me and they're going to offer a fellow some money
for me. And he's going to accept that money and he's going to
come out and he's going to kiss me and he's going to betray me.
And he's going to take me and deliver me into the hands of
these men. And these men are going to mock me. They're going
to scourge me. They're going to slap me. They're
going to pull my beard out. with their hands, they're gonna
spit in my face, and then they're gonna make me carry my own cross
on the way out of town, and then they're gonna take me out there
and nail me to it, and just stand there and mock and gamble over
my garments at the foot of my cross. It's a wonder the Lord ain't
weeping over us. I saw what he beheld, he beheld
this city and all the people in it, all the things that's
wrong with it and he wept over it, he pitied, he pitied Jerusalem,
he pitied the people in it. And he wept over them because
of their willful ignorance. Look what he says there in verse
42, saying, if thou hast known If thou hadst known, even thou,
at least, if you had just known it at least in this thy day,
he wept over their willful ignorance. If you had known, if you had
just known, even you, just at least in this thy day. I was talking to a fellow yesterday.
And he asked me, he said, what about people that never hear
the gospel? And what do you think about people that's not God's
elect? And I said, there's a billion people on this planet. There's
billions in China alone. They'll never hear a Bible, never
see a Bible, never call on God, never hear the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know why? because they'd rather have their
gods than to have the true and living God. And they had not known. And these people were willfully
ignorant. Willfully ignorant. Other places
could have known. Other places could have known.
Other places couldn't have known. How many places did our Lord
Jesus, how many places on this planet that do not know and couldn't
have known? There's going to be a lot of
people that'll never know and never be interested in knowing
and could care less if they ever know. In India, they take somebody
when he dies, put him out on a bunch of stuff and set it on
fire and send him out in the Ganges River. They've got God's, you know,
and so listen, there's places that could not have known. God
will never let them know. How many people are in the city
of Chicago, millions of them up there, shooting one another,
killing one another, and you go and mention God to them, and
they'll mock you. They don't want God. And I'll tell you something else,
you and I didn't want God. We didn't want God. But he didn't,
bless his holy name, he didn't leave us in ignorance. He didn't
leave us in darkness. He didn't leave us with them
hard hearts. He didn't leave us with them old cruel hearts.
And he didn't leave us with the things, beloved, that made us
despise. He could have left us like that. And one of these days, oh, listen,
other places couldn't have known. He came to them. He came to them. And there's lots of places he
never came to. There's lots of people he'll
never ever reveal himself to. What if he never reveals himself
to my children? What if he never does? Will he
cease to be God? What if he does not reveal himself
to my grandchildren? Will he still be God? What if
he doesn't reveal himself to you? Will he still be God? Will
he still be the same God that we worship and adore and bow
ourselves before? Oh, listen, he wept over them
because of their willful ignorance. Oh, if you would have known,
at least this thy day, today, today, they lived in this. Here's why they're willful. They
lived in the place where the temple was. They had this glorious
temple in there, this beautiful temple, glorious temple. And they've lived in the place
where worship was, where the tabernacle was, where the offerings
were, where the high priests were. And they should have known when
they offered those mourning lambs, they should have known that there's
a lamb coming that's going to take away the sin of God's people. They should have known. They
should have known what was theirs. But look what he says about it.
Look in Luke 11. Look what he said. They lived
in the place where worship was real to them. They lived in the
place where the high priests were. They lived in the place
where David reigned, and Hezekiah reigned, and Solomon reigned,
and that beautiful temple that Solomon had built. And oh, look
what he says here in Luke 11, 47. And he's talking about Jerusalem
now and the people in Jerusalem. He says in verse 47, woe unto
you. Do you build the sepulchres of
the prophets? You go out here. You know, and
like you can go to England and stuff like that. You can go places
over there and they'll say, this is where John Bradford's buried.
Got a big statue there. This is where Spurgeon's at.
Got a big statue there. They build all these statues
and put up all these places where these people died. And they'd
put up a big statue here. This is where Elijah's buried. This is where Jeremiah's buried.
Over here's Isaiah's place. And they built these glorious
statues and glorious sepulchers to all these prophets. And then
he says, when you're here, you build sepulchers. But you know
what your fathers did to them? They killed them. They killed
them. And then look what he goes on
to say. Truly, you bear witness that you allow the deeds of your
fathers. For they indeed kill them, and
you build their sepulchers. Therefore also said the wisdom
of God, I'll send them prophets and I'll send them apostles and
some of them they shall slay and persecute. And this is the
reason that the blood of the prophets, which was shared from
the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation,
may be required of the Jewish people, may be required of these
people who did this. From the blood of Abel, blood
of Abel, all the way back in the garden, under the blood of
Zacharias, which perish between the altar and the temple, verily
I say unto you, that blood I'm going to require this generation.
You're going to pay for this. You're going to pay for this.
Look what he said in Luke 13, in verse 33. And oh, listen, if you'd have
just known, if you'd have just known, if you'd have known At
least in this day, if you'd have just known. But look what he
said in verse 13. Nevertheless, I must walk today
and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet
perish out of Jerusalem. He said, they're going to take
me outside Jerusalem, you know, and that's where they're going
to do me, kill me. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which
killeth the prophets, stones them that are sent unto thee.
How often. Often would I have gathered thy
children together, just like a hen doth gather her brood under
her wings, and you would not. You just wouldn't do it. Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate. And verily I say unto you, you
shall not see me until the time when you shall say, blessed is
he that cometh in the name of the Lord. So he wept over them
because of their willful ignorance, I'll tell you another reason
when he says behold the peace that could have been yours. He
says behold in verse 42 back over in Luke 19 if you had known
even thou and at least in this that the things which belong
unto thy peace. When he's talking about the peace
that he's talking could have been your peace. What he's talking
about is temporal peace. He wasn't talking about the peace
of God. He wasn't talking about that. He's talking about you
know you could have dwelt in peace. You could have dwelt in
great peace. Your whole, this generation could
have dwelt in peace. All your children would have
dealt in peace and that would have been, everything could have
been. You all could have sat in here and enjoyed the great
blessings of God and enjoyed the peace of God. No enemies
would ever do anything to you. You could have enjoyed it for
centuries. You could have enjoyed happiness. But look what he says,
but now, but now they're hid from your eyes. What could have
been yours, what could have been yours, now I'm going to hide
them from you. I'm going to hide them from you.
Oh boy, God, whatever you do, don't hide your eyes from me.
Please don't do that. Don't do that. Here it was, Christ,
the Prince of Peace, walked among them. What did it say down there
in verse Verse 37 here of Luke 19, And when he has come nigh,
even now, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, that the whole
multitude of the disciples began to rejoice, and praised God with
a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen. And he said, if you'd have known
that, if you'd have seen that, if you'd have had any understanding
at all, all the peace that you could have enjoyed, that had
no enemies, But now I've blinded you, now I've hid it from your
eyes. You'll never know what peace is going to be. You'll
never know what it is ever again to enjoy peace as a nation. And
even now, look how, even now, I mean it's just war, war, war,
war, war. Everybody's against Israel. And
oh my, Christ the Prince of Peace walked among them, had been in
their midst and he came unto his own and his own didn't receive
him. They bought him for 30 pieces of silver, had him betrayed,
and delivered him up to death. And he said, oh, listen, I hid
these things from you. But on this day, many did recognize
him as the Messiah. When he came riding on down off
of the Mount of Olives on that coat, that full of an ass, and
they put their clothes on it, and they lifted our Lord Jesus
up and set him on it. And he started down that hill
and started down that mountain. And they were just praising and
blessing God and saying, oh, blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven. Glory to the
highest. Glory to the highest. Oh, they
recognized him as the Messiah. But that's not the kind of messiah
they wanted. They wanted a messiah of the
earth. They wanted a political deliverer. They wanted somebody
to be their king to reign over them and destroy all of their
enemies. That's what they wanted. That's what they wanted. And
fella called me the other day and we was talking and he called
me to ask me this. I'd mentioned five or six things
that premillennialism shows you it's not scriptural. And you
know, first thing is that premillennialism, dispensation, teaches Christ
for a thousand years he's going to leave heaven and come down
and sit on a throne over in Jerusalem. And he's going to institute the
tabernacle worship again and the offerings again. And to think that the Lord of
Glory would get off of His throne and come back, sit on an earthly
throne, and that He would establish temple worship again and sacrifices
again when He says that He put an end to sin once and for all
by the sacrifice of Himself, and because the remission of
sins are, there's no more need for offerings? Secondly, the reason is, is that
it teaches that salvation is by works. Because in that thousand
years, you got to, and during the tribulation, you got to endure,
and without the, the Lord's going to come in here and sneak his
people out in a rapture, and leave everybody else here that
didn't, you know, didn't make Christ the Lord. They would save
people, they just wasn't, didn't live for the Lord. So you see,
they got to endure. the tribulation to be saved. That makes salvation in their
endurance instead of what Christ did. And that's what these folks
wanted. They wanted a messiah like the
king, like the millenniast. They want one like they're looking
for. They want somebody to take David's throne, sit on David's
throne and rule with an iron rod and defeat all their enemies.
But our Lord Jesus Christ was, their king was meek and lowly.
meek and lowly. He doesn't reign over men in
the flesh. He reigns over men in the heart.
He sits on the thrones of men's hearts. He ascends a man's will. He takes over a man's mind. And he rules from a throne, but
he rules with great love and power and grace and mercy and
patience and kindness. He sits on the, does he sit on
the throne of your heart? Oh yes. Oh, take it Lord. Take
it. Take the understanding. Take
the wheel. Take the mind. Take my affections. Take me, take me, take everything
there is about me and make it yours. They wanted somebody set
on earthly throne and our Lord Jesus gonna sit on the throne
of men's hearts. That's the difference. That's
the difference. And oh, listen, look what he
said again here. And in the last part of verse
44, he said, because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation, He said, that's why the enemy
is going to come and surround you and your children with you,
your children too. They're going to suffer because
of your hard heart and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon
another because you did not know the time of your visitation.
Well, who visited him? God did in his blessed son. God,
every time a prophet went in Jerusalem and preached, God visited
him. And here's the greatest visitation of all. The Lord Jesus
Christ himself came into Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
walked the streets of Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
preached in Jerusalem. And God's always, always visited
his people and made his visitation upon people by his son. By his
son. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and he visited him in the ark. It was the Lord Jesus
Christ that God visited Moses in the burning bush. It was the
Lord Jesus Christ who made Abraham to come out of the air of the
Chaldees. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that grabbed ahold of
Jacob one night and wrestled with him all night. It was the
Lord Jesus Christ who put Saul down on the road to Damascus.
And he asked him, who are you? He said, I'm Jesus whom thou
persecutest. That's who I am. And all the
mightiest miracles that ever, ever been done were done in and
around Jerusalem. That impotent man that lay at
the pool of Bethesda, our Lord Jesus Christ just walked up to
him and says, do you will to be made whole? He said, there
ain't nobody to take me and put me down in the water when there's
trouble. He said, I say unto thee, rise up, take your bed,
and go to your house. That's a miracle. I mean, a man
who had never walked, had no power, no ability. And
our Lord Jesus said, just take up your bed and walk. And he
got up and did it. And what about the man that was
born blind? They said, we never heard of
a man born blind that he had his eyesight restored to him.
And our Lord Jesus, and they asked him, they said, who do
you see in this man or his parents? He says, neither one, but that
the glory of God may be seen. And the glory of God was seen
when God opened that man's blinded eye, and they could not, they
couldn't stand it. And not only was the greatest
miracles performed in there, but the wondrous, most wondrous
salvation was done in Zion. Inside Jerusalem. Zacchaeus,
come down out of that tree. Woman, were those thine accusers?
No man condemned you. Go on, I don't either. The Syrophoenician woman that
came to him said, oh my daughter, my daughter, my daughter, it's
not fit that I take the children's bread and feed it to dogs. Oh
Lord, I know I'm a dog. I know I'm a dog. But at least
the dogs get to come from the master's table. Go thy way, go
thy way, thy way. Oh, listen. Can you imagine the preaching
that was done in Jerusalem? The most wonderful preaching
ever heard on the earth ever was heard in Jerusalem. Our Lord Jesus would go sit in
the temple Altitude gather around him he'd sit down and he'd just
teach him and he'd just preach to him and He would go around
through Jerusalem, and he would preach preach in the temple preach
in the marketplaces Preached in people's homes He preached in Simon the Pharisees
home oh Can you imagine preaching
that went on in Jerusalem Oh, what preaching went on in Jerusalem.
And I tell you what, he says, if you didn't do your visitation,
the God to visit a place, any place, any time, is an act of
His free grace. If God ever visits anybody, any
time, any place, it's an act of free grace. And he visited
these people, and they didn't care, wasn't a bit interested. Few of them were, but not many.
Look what, look in Job 10 with me. That's what Peter says, you
know, he said, he says, you, you walk with your conversation.
You have your conversation among the Gentiles and, and you watch
it so that they may glorify God in the day of their visitation.
Look in Job 10 in verse 12. Oh, his visitation is an act
of grace. But if the visitation is despised,
then judgment waits. It'll be hid from you. It'll be hid from you. Look what
Job said, verse 12, chapter 10. Thou hast granted me life and
favor, granted me life and grace. And listen to this, in thy visitation,
hath preserved my spirit. You know, I could say that exactly
the same thing about me. Thou hast granted me life. He gave me life and he gave me
grace and he visited me and hath preserved my spirit. Can you say that? I believe there's
lots, I believe most of you can say that. And then he's back
over here in Luke 19, he says, oh, listen, if you would have
knew your visitation, and since you don't, since you didn't know
thy visitation, and this act of grace, me coming among you,
if you had known, if you had known. But he says in the last
part of verse 44, because thou knewest not, you didn't know.
You didn't know the time of your visitation. You just didn't know.
You didn't know. And I tell you, if you had known,
and you know I'll tell you something here, it's not what they didn't
know, but what they could have known and didn't care to know. It's not what you didn't know,
it's what you wouldn't know. And that's why our Lord Jesus
Christ says, you know, judgment's coming. Ignorance is no excuse. And you know it says there, for
the day shall come, verse 33, shall come upon thee. The day, it's not just a day,
the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemy shall cast a
trench about thee, and compel thee around, and keep thee in
on every side. And 70 years later, and you can look this in history,
Seventy years later, there was a Roman king named Titus. They
came into Jerusalem. They came and surrounded Jerusalem.
Seventy years later, they surrounded Jerusalem. This Roman army did. And they dug a trench around
it. And they wouldn't let nobody in, wouldn't let nobody out.
And they stayed there and then when they got those folks where
they want them, they attacked them and they come in on them.
And you can read this in history and said, there shall lay thee
even to the ground. They took the walls down stone
by stone by stone. They tore that place down, didn't
they, Gary? I mean, they tore it down. They took the walls
down. You remember what it was like
when they went into Babylonian captivity? They came back themselves
and said, look at Jerusalem, it's laying in ruins. God, 70 years later, this great
army surrounded Jerusalem and tore the walls down. And then
set it on fire and burned everything that would burn. And killed everybody in it. Slew them. You know why? Because God visited
them. by prophet after prophet after
prophet. And he said in one of his parables,
he said, perhaps I'll send my son now. And they'll listen to
my son. They'll pay attention to my son.
And they said, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him. And he says, you know, you didn't
know it. You should have known, but you
didn't. Now I'm going to hide it from your eyes. In 70 years,
there are going to be days and days and days, you and your children
are going to suffer. You're going to suffer greatly.
I visited you. I preached to you. I done mighty
works among you. I raised you dead. Gave sight
to you blind. I gave mercy to you sinful publicans
and sinners. And instead of receiving me and
rejoicing in me, you hated me and despised me, and you thought
I was only worth 30 pieces of silver. That's all you thought
I was worth. Uh-huh. And that's why David said in
Psalm 84, he said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house
of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. That's
how he thought about this. And these folks thought to God
came back, and oh my. And then, And he wept over Jerusalem
because of the way they worshiped in the temple. And let me show
you this quickly and I'll be done. And then after that time
when he said all these things about them and about their judgment
coming, it's not what you didn't know but what you wouldn't know.
You just refused to know it. You will not come to me that
you might have life. And he went into the temple.
He come on down into Jerusalem. He went into the temple. and
began to cast out them that sold therein and bought. What was
they buying and selling? Anything they could sell and
buy. It's like going to a flea market. They're selling trinkets. It's like going into a religious
store. You go up here to these religious
stores in town, you can buy anything religious you want. You can buy
any kind of cross you want, any color cross you want, gold, silver,
wood, stone, you know, don't make no difference. You can buy
religious cards, you can buy religious books, you can buy,
oh, you can buy anything you want to make you look religious. And that's what our Lord said.
They're buying and selling. And he began to cast them out.
Get out of here. Leave this place. sent unto them
it is written. And you can look in the margin,
it'll tell you it's in Isaiah 56. You can look at it yourself.
My house is the house of prayer. That's what God called it. And
he says, you know what you did? You turned around and made it
a bunch of, a den of thieves. You're thieves. You're a den
of thieves. You're stealing off of God's people. You're stealing
off of one another. You sell things for more than
they're worth. You lie about what you're selling. You lie
about what it's worth. And you're giving this to that one, that
one to another one. And oh, listen. And he just kept
on going about his business, just kept on going about his
business. This is the second time he scores the temple. But
he taught daily in the temple. He stayed in Jerusalem. But the
chief priests and scribes and the chief of the people sought
to destroy him. They sought to destroy our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, listen. And I'll tell
you something, my Lord Jesus abhors false, fraudulent religion. Making merchandise of men's souls. Religion's a commodity to be
sold and bought. That's all we are, that's what
a lot of people are. I need a new jet, send me the
money. Just merchandise. A fella asked me the other day,
how many's in your congregation? I said, I don't know, and I don't. David got cursed for numbering
the Lord's people. I ain't fixed on numbering. I
may count somebody that's not in the Lord's church. But I know everybody's there,
supposed to be there. Ain't that right? But anyway,
look what he went on to say. He, our Lord, he abhors false
religion, fraudulent. He cast them out. He demanded
wholeness and reverence. And it made some of them mad.
because they lost their money, they lost their way of making
any money, and they sought to destroy him, the people, the
chief people and the chief priest. And oh, what upset him, what
he destroys, and I'll tell you something, you better hope he
does this for you, and hope he does it, and I know he did it
for me. He destroys our way of worship, our religion and our
living, and our way of running the temple, and our control over
the people. They said, we'll destroy him.
And they couldn't for the people, And I tell you, bless His name,
if our worship's wrong, destroy it. If our religion's wrong,
destroy it. If the way we live, destroy it. And oh, they want to destroy
Him. And our Lord just went about His daily ministry undisturbed
by them. And then look what it says, they couldn't do anything
because of the people. And oh, listen to this, for all
the people were very attentive to hear Him. They listened with
great attention. They hanged on to his words,
attentive to hear him. I'm attentive to listen to what
he has to say. Lord, speak to me. Speak to me. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your word. Thank
you for your gospel. Thank you for not hiding the
grace and truth of God from our eyes. And I pray those who don't
see it and don't receive it and don't understand it, that you'd
be pleased to open their eyes to know what it is to be visited
in the grace of God, by the grace of God, to be visited by the
spirit of God. for the Spirit of God and the
grace of God to visit and come among the Lord's people. What
a blessed privilege it is to hear the gospel, to hear the
truth, to hear Christ preached. Oh, Lord, you can, if it pleases
you to do that, and we ask that you would. Lord, we need you, we want you. Bless us to this evening as we
gather again to worship. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen.