Turn with me to Luke 19. Luke 19, our passage here is verse 41 through 44. And I want to begin by reading it, verse 41. And when our Lord was come near, he beheld the city and wept over." This is Jerusalem where he had just, we saw how he came in riding on a foal, the colt of an ass. And he comes now to the city of Jerusalem. He's entering into it and it says that he, or that as he drew near, he looked upon it and he wept. 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 compass 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." Now, as I was looking at this passage, I think this passage is written not so much for the lost. It's not written for the lost, but for you that are found. for sinners that are found.

And this morning what I want to do is look at two other passages and then we'll come back to this passage. There's three passages that speak of our Lord Jesus Christ weeping, of him shedding tears. And we're gonna look at those three passages here because what it does is it shows us the tenderness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows us the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it gives us that sense that what we are in Adam, our fall in Adam, our sin, our ruin, it's not lost on the Lord.

He's not cold and indifferent to it. He's not callous or cold toward your struggles, toward your sufferings, toward your sorrows. He's well acquainted with your weaknesses and your infirmities, with your fears and your doubts and your struggles. He knows it. He's not immune. He's not separate from it where that he's not touched by it and doesn't care. That's not at all what we see in the scriptures.

And so we see our Lord weeping and we see his tenderness, and that actually helps us. That ministers to us who minister the gospel. This is not a cold, dead, callous, hard thing. All right? you have struggles, you have weaknesses and infirmities and difficulties that mean something to you. And so we see here how that our suffering is not lost on the Lord.

And so seeing that, it informs me that I am to be tender, and I do care. I see what you brethren struggle with, and so I'm touched with it, just as my Lord is touched with that care. He gives you a pastor that you do have some sense of that, and a reminder that the Lord's not forgotten you. The Lord cares for you and remembers you and provides for you. So there's that sense in this passage that I draw from it as well. Now, I wanna begin, the first passage here will be John 11. So let's go to John chapter 11. John 11, and we're gonna be looking at verse 32 down through 38.

This is where Lazarus, the friend of our Lord, Lazarus in Bethany, has died. And his sisters, Mary and Martha, whom he lived with, are weeping. They're sad because their brother has died. Verse 32. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. He was touched with their sorrow and their weeping and said, where have you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see. And verse 35 says, Jesus wept. And it's the shortest verse in the Bible, and one of the most meaningful and packed verses, that the Son of God come in the flesh, he wept. Jesus wept.

Then said the Jews, seeing this, behold how he loved him. That is one of the things that we're reminded of here, is the love that Christ has for his people. And some of them said, could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man, Lazarus, should not have died? Jesus, therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it."

Now, one of the first things that we see here in our Lord in this passage is that He came in the flesh and as a man, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He's touched with our sorrows. He understands that we feel sorrow and pain and suffering, especially in a loss like this. And where it teaches us, our Lord's not cold. It's not like he doesn't care, he does care for you. As Peter wrote, cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you.

And so here's the God-man, the Son of God, eternal God, in the flesh, and he's weeping. He's weeping here with those that weep. I'm just gonna say, there's a lot about this I don't understand. There's a lot I don't, it boggles my mind that God comes in the flesh and he is touched. with the things that we are touched with, right?

And that he cares for us. He's very tender toward us. And the scriptures speak of him being very tender and compassionate and merciful and loving to his people. The scriptures say that. But I just confess, there's a lot that I don't know or understand the fullness of that mystery. that I'm still enjoying it and learning it just as you are touched by it as well. But as a man, our Lord feels and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And he's touched here with that suffering that results from death.

When a loved one, we love our parents, we love our spouses, We love our children. There's people that you meet in this life that you grow to love. And it is sad when we lose even a brother, even if we have a good hope for them that they knew the Lord, there's still a loss that we suffer. We know that they're in glory. and that they're happy, but that doesn't mean that we don't feel sorrow and sadness when we lose somebody that we love and care for. And our Lord shows us here that, yeah, it's good. It's okay to be sorrowful. That's not unbelief. That's not wrong to feel that.

There's a permanence. On this side of glory, there's a permanence to death. that when someone that we love dies, we don't have that fellowship. We can't just go to them and talk to them the way we could before they passed away. So there is a hurt in that. That's what I'm trying to say, and just admit that there's just a hurt in that. There's people that we love that we don't want to lose, that we don't want to not see anymore.

And so death is bitter for men in this life, and it's heavy. It's a heavy weight. Just looking at verse 38, the reason why I read it is when he came to the grave, it says it was a cave and that a stone lay on it. There's a permanence, there's a weight, there's a heaviness there when it comes to death.

In that sense, that we feel here. Again, when we're in glory ourselves, we won't feel that sorrow. That'll all be behind us and pass. But here on this side, we do. There's people we love and we suffer loss in that sense here. And so we feel the weight of that stone when someone sleeps in the grave.

I think that's one of the instructions to us here as we look at our Lord in that context of Him weeping. There's a sense here of an urgency to hear the gospel. There's an urgency for me to preach the gospel, to get to Christ for you. There's an urgency for you to hear it. Lord, there's a death coming. Lord, there's a day coming. when I shall lay down this flesh in the grave and stand before you, Lord. And whatever I have, my 70, 80 years, as it were, is gonna be nothing compared to all eternity. Lord, help me to hear this word. Help me to hear this gospel that is so precious to your people. Lord, make it precious to me.

It's precious to the sinner that we would draw near to Christ, that we would know him, to know why he came, who he is, why he came, what he accomplished for his people on the cross. And so the good news for us in this, the scriptures tell us that our Lord tasted death for every one of his people. right, to remove the sting and the bitterness of death, that when we die, that sting of, uh-oh, now I'm going to stand before God to answer for my sins. No, that sting is removed for those in Christ, for those whom he shed his blood for, because we'll stand righteous before God in the blood of Christ.

Turn over to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2 speaks of this. of what our Lord has done for us, for His people. Hebrews 2, and we'll pick up in verse 8. This is speaking of our Lord, and it says, thou has put all things in subjection under his feet. He is the last Adam. He's the one for whom all this world is made. He has all power and authority given to him by the Father. And the scriptures say here, thou has put all things in subjection under his feet. He's the king. He's Lord of all. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him."

In other words, we hear in the gospel that Christ has overcome and defeated all our enemies. He's accomplished salvation. All things are done. He's conquered our enemies and delivered us from our enemies. However, currently though, we do see, we endure and we experience and we go through difficulties and trials and hardships and losses and pain and suffering. But Christ has overcome our enemies, and here I am going through these difficulties, through these sicknesses, and these infirmities, and these sufferings, while we wait for the promise of His return, walking by faith in Him, trusting Him who said, that he cares for us, that he'll never leave us nor forsake us, and that he's coming again. We walk in that faith of that hope. But, verse 9 says, but we see Jesus. So that here in this life, in faith, we see Christ.

We see Christ who suffered for us. who loved me and gave himself for me. Each one of us who hope in him says that very thing, he loved me, he gave himself for me. We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man, every man and woman given to him of the Father. before the foundation of the world, he tasted that death for them, to satisfy the judgment of God which was against them, to propitiate God's wrath and to give them life and inheritance in him. For it became him. It became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Our Lord suffered for us. He tasted even the suffering of death. He died in the flesh. He experienced the forsaking of the Father for his people. He felt the wrath of God against him. poured out upon him, and he did that for his people.

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. And so in this, in our Lord's suffering, the Lord is making us to know there's a oneness between Christ and his bride. There's a fellowship between Christ and his bride. And as I cry and weep and I feel sorrow and I feel pain and I feel hurt and I feel various bitternesses and rejections and sorrows and infirmities and failures, my Lord didn't fail, but he experienced death and he bore the sins and infirmities of his people. He bore them so that he knows what we feel and he knows our sorrows and he He put it away.

He satisfied God for us. And then the second part to this good news is that our Lord died and he rose from the dead. There is a resurrection. This is not it. When we die and these bodies are laid in the grave, there's a resurrection. And what he's dealing with Lazarus, when he raises Lazarus up from the dead, Lazarus is gonna die again. There's gonna come a day when Lazarus dies again.

But it's a picture there of our being raised from our first death. And by first death, I mean what we're born into. We are born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. If you're Christ's, there's a first resurrection when you are raised from the dead, from spiritual death and given spiritual life to hear Christ, to believe on him. That's the first resurrection.

And then the Lord gives you that hope and promise of the second resurrection, that when I die and lie in the grave, I shall be raised again. This body shall be raised anew. And with these eyes, I shall behold my Savior. I shall see him stand upon the earth. We shall see him in that day, as Job said. I shall see him again with these very eyes. might be raised again. And that's the hope here, that he's communicating to us in this.

And all because our Lord did rise on the third day, never to die again. When Lazarus was raised from the dead by our Lord, we're not gonna look at it today, but when he raised Lazarus from the dead, it pictured our first resurrection. When our Lord raised from the dead, he didn't die again. And that picture is our eternal resurrection. in him, and that we don't need to fear.

We'll live forever in him. He's seated on the right hand of the throne of God, reigning and ruling, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. Now, let's go to the next passage, the second one, Hebrews chapter 5. Flip over to Hebrews chapter 5.

In verse seven through nine, this passage here speaks of when our Lord was here in the flesh ministering salvation for his people. Verse seven says, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, right, with weeping there, unto him, unto his father that was able to save him from death, and he was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. That ministers to us who suffer, because I guess carnal reasoning, if you will, would say, well, if you're a child of God, why do you suffer?

Why are you having trouble? Why are you experiencing difficulties? Why aren't you just rich beyond your wildest dreams and have everything going well for you. And you're never sick and everybody's happy around you, right? If you're a child of God, well, our Lord suffered. And so no wonder if we suffer and learn obedience, because it is in suffering that we draw near to the Lord. When everything's going well, we can be forgetful of our Lord, and we can just go on doing our own thing. But when we're made low, made to feel our weakness and our infirmity, that's when we realize, what am I doing? Where am I? Here I am over here, and I need the Lord. Lord, save me.

So he uses those infirmities and that suffering to draw us near to him, and we're made happy in Christ. Not happy in the world, we're made happy and our Savior who is tender and has struck me in such a way, chastened me in such a way so as to bring me to himself. And that's a good place for any child of God to be. And being made perfect, Hebrews 5, 9, being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

And so this passage appears to be a reference to the agony that our Lord suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and up to the cross there, but it appears to be a reference to his agony which he felt and bore for his people from the garden and going up to the cross as the Lamb of God slain for the sins of his people.

Mark 14, verse 34 through 36 describes it in this way, saying, our Lord said, when he was in Gethsemane, he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death, carry ye here, wait here, he said to his disciples, and watch, meaning pray, pray. And he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

And so The scriptures show us the suffering of our Lord and they reveal to us that there is not another way of salvation. If there was another way of salvation, if we could be saved by our works or by some law given to us or some religion, we would have been saved by it. but it shows us that Christ had to come, that Christ had to lay down his life, Christ had to sacrifice himself to save his people, to give us life and forgiveness of sins in him, by him, by the shedding of his blood. And so we see that here, and we see the very real suffering of our Lord. that he suffered.

He felt the pain of it. He felt the pain of it, and he bore that for his people when he was made sin for them. I don't think he was afraid of dying. I don't think he was afraid of feeling the pain, but rather he knew that he would be forsaken of the Father, that he would be bearing the wrath of God his Father in the room instead of his people, meaning as their substitute, in their place. He took their place on the tree, bearing the punishment and wrath of God in their place so that you and I who believe in him would not suffer in eternity in hell apart from God.

He bore that. It's substitution. He took our place. And the scriptures say he was made a curse for his people. The scriptures say that in Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us, purchased us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And so our Lord suffered in the place of his people, as their substitute, as their shorty, meaning he paid the debt we owed.

We were never going to pay it, not even a cent, nothing off it. He paid the whole thing in full for his people. There's not a drop left in the cup of wrath for his people to drink. He drank the whole thing dry for his people that we should only know the blessings of God. and the mercies of God, and experience his love and tenderness toward us, and to receive this life by faith in him.

All right, because you might say, well, why do we still suffer? Because it's by faith. It pleases God that we would walk and know him by faith, trusting him, believing his word there for us. And so he satisfied the debt that we owe. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God to beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. Be ye reconciled to God. For God hath made Christ, the Son of God, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

We would hear this word, this is salvation by substitution which Christ satisfied, where our Lord satisfied holy God for his people and obtained life and liberty for us. And so all this is to say to us sinners, us sinners who need his mercy and grace, that God is saying here, now you need to do better.

You need to fix this and straighten that up and stop doing this and start doing that. That's not what he's saying. You need to get religious now. You need to start working on your form and look pretty and do things right. That's not what God is saying to us now. What he's saying is, look to my son whom I have sent. believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father hath sent.

You and I are not going to, we can't, we can't shed enough tears. We can't do enough works to save ourselves and to make ourselves clean before God. We can't do it. We're not going to do it. And that's not what God is telling us to do. He's telling us these things that we will look to Christ the Savior and believe him whom he hath sent. and cry out to him for grace and mercy. Lord, save me. Don't pass me by, Lord. Have mercy on me. Take this blindness away. Take this death away from me. Give me that first resurrection. Make me a partaker of that first resurrection. Give me your spirit, Lord, that I may know you with understanding and knowledge and follow you and believe you.

And so our Lord is telling us that he has sent the Son and that The Father looks to Him for all that you need. The Father is looking to the Son to give everything, full provision for everything we need to stand before the throne of God in that day faultless and clean, that you would have peace with the Father in Jesus Christ, the Son. Paul said to those he preached to, be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man, the Lord Jesus Christ has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Christ has done it all. He's paid the price in full.

And so, to you that believe, the scriptures assure us, you whose hope rests entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. not the spirit of this world, but after the spirit of Christ, which is given to you, that opened your ear, and made you to hear Christ, and made you know He's the Savior, He's the salvation of God, and you followed Him. That's the spirit, and that's how we walk, is in that spirit of God.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. What's the law of sin and death? What we were born into. dead in trespasses and sins, and then trying to make use of religion, trying to do good over here, trying to do better over there, trying to make use of the law and religion to improve myself, and all the while we failed. That's the law of sin and death.

And we felt the guilt and the shame and the condemnation of it and beat ourselves up, trying to do better, trying to do better, trying to do better, saying, I'll never do that again, and then you do it again within minutes. You're right back to it all. That's what we're delivered from. That's not salvation. We can't save ourselves by doing it that way.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from that law of sin and death. for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. This flesh right here, this guy right here can't do it. I can't keep myself pure and sinless and spotless because I'm weak in the flesh. So God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, just like me, in the flesh. and for sin condemns sin in the flesh.

He put it away. He ended it. He fulfilled the law perfectly. He did everything. He honored the Father and glorified the Father in all things. What I can't do, the only way I glorify the Father now is believe in Christ. Confessing him saying I'm a sinner and he's the Savior and I need him and he gave himself for me And that's my hope that's my hope and that's how the father's glorified That's what the Lord has has done that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh Trying to fix ourselves and do it by the law and religion But after the spirit that is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and hoping in him to the end Following him and trusting him All right, now this brings us back to our text.

It's the last of the three that we're looking at here. In Luke 19, let's read it again, 41 through 44. And when our Lord 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." And that's the question.

Are you still blind to Christ? Do you not hear that Christ is all, that He's salvation, that He's everything? Are you still blind to that? Is that hid from your eyes? Or do you feel and know your need of Him? Are you a sinner? Is He the Savior? Do you hear that? Do you hear what God is testifying? Believe on Him.

For the days, He says, shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. Now, I do believe this has a reference to what occurs in 70 AD when Rome surrounded the city of Jerusalem and destroyed it.

But this also speaks of the grave, doesn't it? Isn't this a definition of the grave? When thine enemies, sin, the devil, death, the grave that you can't defeat, shall cast a trench about thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. That's a picture of the grave.

If there's no hope in Christ, the grave has got you. You're surrounded on every side. You can't get out of it. and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, all your hopes and your dreams, will perish with thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. All your triumphs in the world, all that you think you did that meant something, all those stones and pillars that were a testament to your glory and your greatness, won't be left standing. It'll all perish and die with you in the grave. That's what he's saying. If that's your hope, is this life, all your good works and all your wonderful works will die with you. And it is going to go in the grave and be surrounded by your enemies.

The only one who overcame the enemy of death and sin in the grave is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one that triumphed over all our enemies. The devil silenced him, shut him up, right? And all who believe Christ, all who trust him and believe him, they too in Christ triumph over all these enemies.

The grave has nothing on you. Sin has nothing on you. The devil has nothing on you. Death and sin in the grave and Satan, it's all done. They're destroyed. They're defeated. Christ has risen and triumphed over the grave. He's triumphed over all our enemies.

And he reigns gloriously so that we who believe him reign in him forevermore. I don't neglect him. Don't shut your ears to this word. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Follow him. He's very tender. He's very gracious. He said, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. You that are trying to get yourselves right with the Lord, come to me, he says. Believe me. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of Christ, hear Christ.

For I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. And I know religion has wrecked things. Religion has made it so that it's impossible to come to God. They take your eyes off of Christ and have you look everywhere else but him. Christ says, no, you look to me. I'm meek and lowly. You shall find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Believe on the Lord.

He gives life and light and salvation and understanding in Him. Our Lord. came into Jerusalem knowing what they would do to him there, knowing the suffering that he would suffer, but he loved his church. And so he willingly entered that city and he gave his life. He laid down his life for the life of his bride. And he's very patient with his people. It teaches us to be patient because we see in these things The bondage that men are in by nature, the blindness, the veil over the heart, the inability to see and hear God is there.

But God, our God, is full of compassion. He forgave the iniquity of his people. He destroyed them not. Many a time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. Instead, he remembered that we are but flesh. a wind that passeth away and cometh not again.

And so it's very instructive to see the tenderness of Christ. And it reminds me, as one who preaches the gospel here, to patiently minister these things, knowing that just like it took the power and grace of God to save me, that's what it takes for his people, and the Lord is able to deliver us from that thick and severe, heavy darkness.

And he promises to all that for whom he died, to all that hear him and believe him, he promises life everlasting, eternal in him. And so we know, we know the Lord saved by his grace and mercy. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved in thy body. Everything that the Lord has given, it's His, it's a mercy. So I pray you bless that word.