I did choose thee, Lord, for,
Lord, that Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibbert. I've entitled this message, Weep
Not for Me. We read in Luke chapter 23, beginning
in verse 27, And there followed Him a great company of people,
and of women which also bewailed and lamented Him. But Jesus turning
unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, Weep not for me, but
weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days
are coming in the which they shall say, blessed are the barren
and the wombs that never bear and the paps which 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, And the Lord is calling himself a green tree,
a living tree. What shall be done in the dry? How will the fire burn up the
lifeless dry branches? Weep not for me. Now I believe that these women
that we read of who were bewailing and lamenting the Lord Jesus
Christ were struck with a true sympathy for Christ, a true empathy. They were not of the number who
called for his crucifixion. They saw he was treated unjustly. Not understanding that he was
the God-man Perhaps they believed him to be a good man. Perhaps
some of them had even experienced some of his miracles of healing
and they knew he was being treated horribly. They knew that soon
he would suffer being crucified and they were moved to sympathy. Women are much more sympathetic
and empathetic than men are, and when they saw the unjust
treatment of the Lord Jesus Christ, they were weeping and lamenting
Him. Now, these women were distressed. I kind of liken this weeping
to the weeping that went on when Mel Gibson made that movie, The
Passion of Christ. I've heard that when it was over,
all you would hear was sobbing in the audience, people so moved
by the physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I
don't believe that it's right for a human being to try to portray
Christ. That's idolatry, is what that
is. And a human being should not
try to portray Christ. And what that is, it's an appeal
to the emotions. And I'm not, human emotions,
not spiritual emotions, but human emotions, where you feel bad
that something is happening to somebody, and you think perhaps
he did this for you, and you're just moved by it, and so on.
You can shed a tear, but that's not a spiritual tear. That's
where these women were at. They were very upset at seeing
what was happening to Christ, and they were weeping and lamenting. Let me show you another example
of this in Matthew chapter 16. I think that we get an idea as
to what is taking place. They didn't understand what Christ
was doing. Therefore, they felt sorry for
Him, and Christ doesn't need the pity of anyone. He's the
Son of God. His will is being done, and He
doesn't need the pity of anyone, even when He is going to the
cross. In Matthew 16, verse 21, He was
speaking to Peter. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem
and he must suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests
and scribes. He must be killed and he must
be raised again the third day. He told the disciples of this
before it took place. And Peter loved Christ, and he
didn't really understand why the Lord had to do all this,
so look what he says. Now look at the way the Lord
responded to him. When Peter said, don't do this, The Lord turned and said unto
Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. For thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those that be of men. You see, Peter's natural
affection for Christ wanted him to not go to the cross. But going
to the cross was the very will of God for Christ. You see, it
was His purpose for coming to die, to be crucified as the sinner's
substitute. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, and He's coming in time to do what
He was purposed to do. So when these women are crying
and lamenting about the Lord, He turns around. I can't imagine
how he felt at this time, he was so weak, going to Golgotha's
Hill, but as he hears these women, and in some respects this seems
commendable, it's better than saying crucify him and put him
to death and all the fun people made of him, mocking his kingship
and so on, they were genuinely concerned. And they were crying
and he turned around and said, daughters of Jerusalem, don't
weep for me. but weep for yourselves." Now,
if we have any spiritual understanding of who He is, we will not see Him in any way
as an object of pity. He's the Son of God. This is
His will being done. This is the will of God being
done. Don't weep for me, but weep for
yourselves. Now, in Hebrews chapter 12, we
read a passage of scripture that I think will shed a lot of light
on why he said, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves. We read in Hebrews chapter 12
verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
majesty on high. Now when the Lord was going to
the cross, this is beyond our comprehension, I realize that,
but when the Lord was going to the cross, He had a joy that
was set before Him. And that caused Him to endure
the cross and despise the shame, the shame of being made sin,
the shame of being forsaken by His Father. He counted that as
nothing because of the joy that was set before Him, a reward
He had awaiting Him that caused Him to endure the cross. Now, we get some little insight
into what was going on when the Lord was going to the cross and
nailed to the cross when it says, looking unto Jesus who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the shame. Shame of what? The shame of being
made sin before His Father. The humiliation, all the sins
of all of God's elect became His sins, so that He actually
became guilty of them, and He felt all of the shame of them
before His Father. And He had a capacity for shame
that you and I don't know anything about. We're used to sin. It
doesn't really bother us. But when He was made sin, He
felt all the shame and the guilt of that sin before his father,
and yet he counted that as nothing. He dismissed that because of
the joy that was set before him. Now, in verse 1 of Hebrews chapter
12, Wherefore, seeing we also are encompassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, and he's talking about these Old
Testament witnesses, beginning with Abel. Abel understood that
the only way he could approach God was through the coming sacrifice
of Christ. He wouldn't dare come in his
own works. He came with the blood of that Lamb, knowing that that
Lamb wouldn't put away his sin, but what it represented, the
coming Lamb, the Lamb of God. He wouldn't dare approach God
on the footing of his own works in any way to any degree. And
his belief cost him his life. His brother slew him because
his brother believed in salvation by works. And he got angry with
Abel when Abel said, your works are no good. The only way God
can be approached is through the sacrifice of the coming lamb,
the promised seed that'll crush Satan's head. Now, on and on
through this chapter, he mentioned so many different people, this
great cloud of witnesses, beginning with Abel, and he spoke of Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Sarah, David, Jacob, Moses, on and on. He mentions
many of these Old Testament figures. And he says, seeing that we're
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight. And the sin which doth so easily
beset us And let us run with patience the race that is set
before us. Now what valuable instruction.
Lay aside any weight and every weight that would hinder us in
running this race. And the sin which doth so easily
beset us. Now most people think that that's
talking about the sin we're most liable to. Everybody's got a
different besetting sin that they find more pleasurable and
can easily be tripped up in. And that may be true, but that's
not what the writer's talking about. The sin that does so easily
beset us is the sin of unbelief. That's what he's saying to lay
aside. That's the sin that easily besets everybody, this thing
of unbelief, not believing what God said. Let us lay aside every
weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us Looking unto
Jesus. Now, interestingly, this word,
looking, is the only time this word is found in the New Testament. It means to turn your eyes away
from other things and fix your eyes on something else. You see,
you can't look to Christ and look to your own works at the
same time. You can't look to Christ and yourself. You can't look to Christ and
your baptism. You can't look to Christ and
your experience. You can't look to Christ and
your repentance. You look to Christ alone. You don't look at anything else.
You don't look at Christ and your feelings. You don't look
to Christ and your intentions. You look to Christ alone. You don't look anywhere. You
don't look to yourself. You don't look to somebody else. You don't look
to some past experience. You don't look to something that
you're going to do in the future. You look to Christ right now
alone. You don't look at anything else. Now, when I was first saved, it was when I first looked to
Christ. I look to Him only as everything
in my salvation. God looked only to Christ to
save me. He didn't look for me to do anything.
He looked to Christ to do everything for me, and I look to Christ
the same way. I look to Christ to do everything
for me. I don't have anything to bring
to the table. to Him alone. Now you know how my salvation
is maintained? My salvation is maintained by
looking to Christ alone. I never graduate past that. I
look to Christ alone. I never have the liberty to look
to Christ and somewhere else. It always throws me off. You
look to Christ alone. And when I enter heaven, it will
be looking to Christ alone. I never get past that. This is
the glorious thing about being a believer. You start at the
finish line. The finish line is looking to
Christ alone. And that's where you start, at
the finish line. You never graduate past this,
looking to Christ alone. Looking unto Jesus, the writer
to the Hebrews says, as the author and the finisher of our faith. Now, I look to him as the author
of my faith in this sense. If I have faith, he gave it to
me. It's not the product of my will.
It's not the product of my decision. It's not because I'm better than
somebody else and I came up with faith when somebody else didn't.
By grace are you saved, the writer to Ephesians said, Paul said
in Ephesians 2, 8, 9. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that, not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. not of
works, lest any man should boast. He's the author of my faith,
and he's the finisher of my faith. The reason I'm going to continue
believing is because he's going to cause me to. Faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it. He's begun this good work
in me, and he will complete it. He's the author and the finisher
of my faith. It could mean that, and it does
mean that. But more than anything else, it means he's the author
of the faith. The faith is the gospel. Justification
by faith and not by works. Now that doesn't mean your faith
causes you to be justified. Christ causes you to be justified
and faith believes that. That's the gospel. Christ Jesus,
on Calvary's tree, accomplished the justification of His people. You know what it means? Everybody
He died for is without sin. He put away their sin. He gave
them His perfect righteousness, thus they are justified. And
faith believes that. We're relying wholly on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the author of this, and
He's the end of this. It's for His glory. The gospel
is about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's reason
for all He does. Now, how do you fit into that?
His glory. He's the end of this. This is
for His glory and for His honor. Does your salvation give Him
all the glory and all the honor? If it doesn't, you've never been
saved. Christ, we look to Him, only to Him, so as to look nowhere
else. We look to him as the author
and the finisher of our faith. Now next, he says, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, counting as nothing
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Father.
Now this is why the Lord said to those women who were weeping
for him, don't weep for me. Don't weep for me. I'm not an
object of your pity. Weep for yourselves. He knew
of the coming judgment that would ransack Jerusalem in 70 A.D. when he said, you'll end up saying,
blessed are the barren that never bear. And then when he talks
about the people asking the rocks and hills to fall on them, he's
talking about the final judgment. You can read about that in Revelations
chapter 6 where they say, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb.
Don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves. And the
reason you're not to weep for me is because I have a joy in
doing this. In going to the cross, I have
a joy that is set before me. Now understand, the cross was
God's will for Christ. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him, and He accomplished something by going to the cross. He's never,
never is the Son of God to be the object of human pity. Don't weep for me. Now, what
was the joy that was sent before the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
first, the joy of doing His Father's will. He rejoiced to do his father's
will. That's all his life was, was
a doing of his father's will and what joy he received from
that. His first public words recorded
in the scripture as a 12-year-old boy, I must be about my father's
business. That's what his whole life was,
being about his father's business, doing his will. It was the will
of God. It was the purpose of God for
him to go to the cross. Now remember this, the cross
is not God's response to man's fall and trying to clean up the
mess. No, the very fall of man was
designed because the cross must be. I must be about my father's
business. He had the joy of doing his father's
will. And he had the joy of glorifying
his father. He said when right before going
to the cross, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that
thy son might also glorify thee. Now understand this about the
cross. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is for the glory of God. How God's attributes are glorified
in the cross. We see His purpose always comes
to pass. This is what He purposed. We
see His justice. He will not let sin go unpunished
even if it's in His Son. We see His wrath. God really
is going to take vengeance against sin. We see His holiness, His
hatred of sin, but we see His wisdom, how He made a way to
be just and still justify sinners like me and you. We see His grace
and His love and His mercy that He would give His Son to die
for sinners. Every attribute of God His power
to put away sin, every attribute of God is fully displayed in
the cross. The cross is the whole counsel
of God. Don't weep for me with seeing
me go to the cross. I'm doing this for the glory
of my Father. He was to have the joy of the
glory. He knew in going to the cross
it would soon be over. And He was going to have the
joy of the glory which He had with Him before time began being
bestowed upon Him again. You see, when He left Heaven,
He had to leave, in some measure, his glory. But he said in John
chapter 17, right before he went to the cross, glorify me with
thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. What joy he had in thinking of
returning to his father and enjoying that glory. But listen real carefully. He had the joy of achieving a
glory which he would have never had had he not gone to the cross
to be the one mediator between God and men. You see, if Christ wouldn't have
gone to the cross, he could have gone back to heaven, but you
know what that would have meant? That would mean none of us are
saved. None of us can be saved. If all he did was come here and
live a perfect life and then go back to the Father to leave
us an example, no, no, we all fail. We all fail, but Christ
Jesus came as a mediator. Now what is a mediator? It's
one who brings two contending, conflicting parties together.
God's got something against us. It's because of our sin. And
we've got something against Him. It's our natural hatred of the
living God. The natural man hates God. Somebody says, I don't hate God.
Well, maybe you don't hate the God that you've invented. But
I mean the God of the Bible, the sovereign God, the holy God,
the God in whose hands you are. And He can do with you whatever
He's pleased to do. He can save you or pass you by.
And men don't love that God. They say, my God's not like that.
I know He's not. But your God's not the God of the Bible if He's
not like that. This is the true and living God. Now Christ is
the mediator between God and men. Now think about a ladder
that doesn't reach the top. What good will it do you? None.
Think about a ladder that won't reach the bottom. What good will
it do you? None. But Christ is the ladder
that goes all the way to the top. He, as God, brings his people
to God, and they can be accepted. And he, as man, reaches all the
way to the bottom to bring God to us. His name is Emmanuel,
God with us. He's the one mediator between
God and men. And what glories he achieved,
and here's the glory he achieved. He was able, by what he did,
to take somebody like me, a sinful man who could never do anything
to save himself, and make me perfectly conform to his image. He did this by putting away my
sin. keeping the law for me, giving
me his righteousness, and bringing me into heaven as a trophy of
his grace. He achieved glories from what
he did on Calvary's tree that he would have never had. The
glory of saving his people. You see, he did what he did.
The joy that was set before him was the joy of saving his people. He had the names of all of his
people on his heart and he knew that he was going to save them
and what joy he received from that. Don't weep for me, this
is why I came. To glorify my father, to display
the beauties of his character by going to the cross. I'm getting
glory to myself. Now don't forget this about the
cross of Christ. The cross of Christ, Him going
to the cross, it's the event of events. It's the most important,
infinitely the most important thing to ever take place. It's
the most evil thing to ever take place when the creature murdered
the Creator, but it's the most glorious thing to ever take place. Salvation accomplished, God glorified. It's the subject of the eternities.
It's what was being spoken of before time began, worthy is
the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world,
and it's going to be the subject of the eternity, future. We're
going to be singing the praises of the lamb. And he received
the joy of bringing many sons to glory. The joy of sitting
down at his father's right hand, having finished the work, and
all of his people, his precious bride, sitting with him. Oh, the joy that was set before
him. Right now, there's a man in glory
who endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at
the right hand of his father. There's a real man in glory who
is God, who accomplished salvation for everybody for whom he died. Paul said in Philippians chapter
two, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, the things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Don't weep
for me. We would be far more wise to
come to Christ, not weeping in sympathy for him, but knowing
who he is, like the leper, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. May that be the cry of everybody
listening to this message. This is Todd Knight, praying
that God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's
our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon you have just heard,
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