Would you turn back to Luke chapter
23. Greg Elmquist is going to be
preaching for us tonight. He was at the meeting in Ashland
this weekend, and he's going to be here tonight to preach
for us. I'm looking forward to that. Verse 27 once again, 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. I've entitled this message Weep
Not For Me. I believe these women had a true sense of sympathy
for the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not of the number which
called for his crucifixion. They saw that he was being treated
unjustly. And they knew what was awaiting
him. They knew he was to be crucified,
perhaps not understanding that he was the God man. They didn't
understand that, but they thought he was a good man, a good man. Maybe they had been the beneficiaries
of some of his miracles and they were truly sympathizing with
the fact that he was going to the cross. believing that he
was being treated very unjustly. Women are usually, not usually,
they're more sensitive and sympathetic and empathetic than men, aren't
they? They just are, that's the very
nature of things. So they wail and lament. And
while the Lord was headed to the cross, and he heard them
wailing, and lamenting and crying for him in genuine sympathy,
he stopped and he turned around and he said, daughters of Jerusalem,
don't weep for me. Now, why would he say that? Don't
weep for me. These women were genuinely distressed,
weeping with sympathetic tears, and the Lord said, don't weep
for me. And do you remember some years
ago, a movie came out, Mel Gibson directed it called The Passion
of the Christ. I didn't go see that. I'm not
gonna go see a man trying to act like the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I know that many churches here in Lexington, everywhere,
all over the country, use this as a witnessing tool. Bring people
to see the sufferings of Christ. And I heard that every time when
the movie was over, all you would hear was sobbing and tears over
the physical sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. It moved people
to tears and sympathy and thinking he did this for me, he did this
for me. They would be sobbing. Now that's
pretty much what was going on here. People moved. And I, listen,
I would not in any way make less of the physical sufferings of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who can describe the suffering
that he had to endure? But that's a human emotion. It's
not spiritual. It didn't come from the Holy
Spirit. That's a human emotion. We feel
so bad that this man is experiencing this, even moved to tears. Now, I'm all for weeping before
the Lord and tears, but don't think tears are necessarily a
sign of something truly spiritual. These women were crying and sobbing
and the Lord said, do not weep for me. Turn to Matthew 16 and I repeat,
I would not in any way diminish his physical sufferings, but
that stirs up human emotion. Now let me show you this in Matthew
chapter 16. beginning in verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Now I love the word must. He
must suffer many things. It was God's will for this to
take place. He must go to Jerusalem and be mistreated by the religious
crowd. It was all a part of God's purpose.
He must be killed. God willed it. The justice of
God demanded it by what he was doing on Calvary's tree. He must
be raised from the dead. He who lives cannot stay dead.
He rendered complete satisfaction to God by what he did. Don't
you love that? When he was raised from the dead,
God said, I'm satisfied with him and everybody he died for.
Now, what does Peter do? Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall
not be unto thee. And Peter was exercising human
emotion at this time. We don't want you to go to the
cross. We don't want you to be killed. We don't want you to
be mistreated. Don't do this. Don't do this. Can't you understand
why Peter said that? And look how our Lord replied. Verse 23, but he turned and said
unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Now I don't know a stronger rebuke
in the Bible than that. Get thee behind me, Satan. Now he had just said to Peter,
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I'm sure Peter
was feeling very good about himself at this time. And then the Lord
turns around and says, get thee behind me, Satan, for you don't
savor the things that be of God. You savor the things that be
of men. You see, the things of God is
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the things of God. Who Christ is and what he accomplished,
that is the things of God. Back to our text in Luke 23. Jesus turned unto them and 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 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, a living tree, me, what shall be done in the
dry? Now, he says, here's why you
need to weep. And he speaks of two coming judgments.
The first judgment he's speaking of is the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 AD. That's when everybody's going
to say you'd be blessed if you never had any children to have
to experience the horrific things that are getting ready to take
place. When Titus, the Caesar of Rome destroyed, ordered the
absolute demolishing and destruction of Jerusalem. And Josephus, the
historian, talks about it and all the horrible things that
happened. And during that time, people who Never had children
are going to be the ones who are thought to be most blessed
because of the destruction that's coming. And the second thing
he's speaking of, I have no doubt it's talking about judgment day
when they shall begin to say to the mountains, fall on us
into the hills, cover us, hold your finger there and turn to
revelation chapter six. beginning in verse 15. And the
kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the
chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every
free man hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains
and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us
from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath
of the lamb. For the great day of his wrath
has come and who shall be able to stand? Now weep for yourselves
because of this coming judgment. If this happens to me, the green
tree, what's going to happen to you? A dried out tree. Weep not for me. Is the Lord Jesus rebuking these
women for their tears of sympathy? Because on some levels, it seems
commendable, doesn't it? Them being moved by the suffering
of the Lord. It's sure a lot better than the
ones who were crying out away with him, crucify him, and the
soldiers mocking him, mocking his kingship and so on. They
were genuinely moved to sympathy at what the Lord was going through. If we have any spiritual understanding
of what was taking place, and this is, this I believe is the
most important statement I'm going to make and everything's
going to go from this. If we have any spiritual understanding
of who he is, we will know that he is not an object of pity. Let me repeat that. If we have
any spiritual understanding of who he is, we will know that
he is not an object of pity. Don't you wait for me. This is why he came. The lamb
slain from the foundation of the world is now the lamb being
slain in time. This is why he came. He came
to die. He came to glorify his father. He came to save his people
from their sins. He says, do not weep for me. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews chapter 12. Verse one, wherefore, seeing
we also are 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, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Watch this. who for the joy that
was set before him. You get that? When he was walking
to the cross, there was a joy that was set before him. And
because of that joy that was set before him, he endured the
cross. despising, counting it as nothing,
the shame. And this word demonstrates how
truly the sins of his people became his. He felt the shame
of them. He felt the shame of them. You know what it is to
be ashamed of your sin, particularly when you're exposed or when you
think that the Lord's watching you or seeing you and you feel
ashamed? He felt the shame of all the sins of all of the elect.
That's how truly he bore those sins. But he counted it as nothing. because of the joy that was set
before him. I love the way the writer to
the Hebrews begins this chapter, wherefore seeing we are also
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. And look
at all the men mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11. First man mentioned
was Abel, Abel, the first Christian martyr. He knew the only way
he could come into God's presence is through the blood of that
coming lamb. He understood that. He didn't
think that the lamb he was offering up was putting away his sins.
He knew what it represented. By faith, Abel offered to God
a more excellent sacrifice by which he obtained witness that
he was righteous. That sacrifice made him righteous. God testifying
of his gifts and he being dead yet speaketh. He's speaking to
us today. Abraham and Moses, Noah, all
these men mentioned, these great cloud of witnesses. And let me
remind you about Old Testament believers. I want to remind you
something. We usually think that they're less sinful than we are. Kind
of super saints who didn't have the problems we do. Like Elijah,
a man of like passions. like-passioned, all of these
men have the same problems you and I do, every single one of
them, but they believe the gospel. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us
lay aside every weight, anything that would hinder us in running
this race. Weight. Oh, how many weights
you carrying that need to be laid aside? A whole lot of them.
Me too. What's he say to do? Let us lay
aside every weight. And the sin which does so easily
beset us. And most people think, well,
that's your besetting sin. Everybody's got a sin that they
have a particular problem with and grapple with. Who's denying that? Everybody
does, but that's not what he's talking about. The sin that does
so easily beset us, every one of us, is unbelief. He's talking
about that. The sin which does so easily
beset us, not believing the gospel. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us. Verse two, looking unto Jesus. I wish I could say what I need
to say about this. Pray for me. Do you know this is the only
time in the New Testament this particular word is used? Looking. And it has a peculiar meaning. It means to quit looking at anything
else and look at one object. Looking unto Jesus, to turn your
eyes away from other things and fix your eyes on something else. I think of the words of John
Newton, in evil long I took delight, unawed by shame or fear until
a new object caught my sight. and stopped my wild career. Here's something you cannot do.
You cannot look to Jesus and your works. Can't be done. You look at one or the other,
no mixture. You can't look to Christ and
your experience. You can't look to Christ and
your growth or lack thereof. Where's the one place God looks
for your acceptance? One place. His son. You do the same thing. That's
the only place of your acceptance. Looking unto Jesus. Notice it says looking, not you
look nor you will look, but looking. My salvation began in my experience. I was not saved until I looked
to Christ. Only. And you know how my salvation
is maintained? Looking unto Jesus. And you know, my salvation will
be consummated by looking to him. When he shall come, we'll
be like him for we'll see him as he is. Looking unto Jesus. Now here's an interesting thought. We begin our race at the finish
line. Looking unto Jesus. That's everything. Looking unto
Jesus. That is everything. Looking unto Jesus. And we look to him as the author
and the finisher of our faith. Look at the text, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now, you'll notice
the word our is in italics. It was supplied by the translators
to make it more understandable, but I think this time, maybe
it doesn't, he is the author of our faith. If you have faith,
he gave it to you. You know that, don't you? If you have faith,
he gave it to you. 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. If
you have faith, he gave it to you, but that's really not what
this passage is talking about. It's talking about he is the
author of faith, the gospel, the faith of God's elect. Faith
is another word for the gospel. The just shall live by faith.
The justified, those God has justified, those Christ died
for, they live by faith. The faith, and he's the author
of it. It begins with him. He's the
finisher of it. He's the perfecter of it. It
ends with him. He is the author and the finisher of the faith. And that's the way we look at
it, don't we? When we look to him, we're looking at him as
the beginning, the middle, the end, the alpha and the omega,
the first and the last. He is the author and he is the
finisher of faith. I love the way the gospel is
called the faith. The faith. You know, there's
something you believe. What do you believe? You believe that
Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of faith. You believe
that he is always in salvation. You look only to him and you're
afraid to look anywhere else. You know, that's what the fear
of God is. If you're really afraid of God, you know what that means?
That means you're afraid to look anywhere but Christ only. That's the fear of God. If you
can look anywhere else, you don't have any fear of God, you don't
have any respect for God. You bring him down to your level
and you think he's just like you. He's not, let me tell you
that. He's not, he's not. I'm to look to Christ only as
the author and the finisher of faith. Who for the joy that was set
before him. Now this is why the Lord said
to the daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me. Who for the joy that was set
before him, the joy of doing his father's will. Now, as much as he was suffering
at this time and who knows, I can't describe it. He knew He was doing
His Father's will. You know something I know about
myself all the time? I know I'm not doing the Father's
will. How can you say that? Well, I
can say it. I can say it. As long as there's sin in me,
I have to say that. did His Father's will perfectly. And that doing of the Father's
will is my personal righteousness before God. And I make no apology
for saying that. His doing of the Father's will
is my personal righteousness before God. Oh, He had the joy of glorifying
his father. He said right before he died,
father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also might glorify thee. This was for the glory of God. How God is glorified in him going
to the cross. Don't weep for me. He had the
joy ahead of him of once again, having that glory, which he had
with the father before the world was for a time that was suspended.
I don't understand all that, but he was a man. He became flesh
and he didn't have the glory for a temporary time that he
had with the Father before the world was, because he said, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. He knows he's going back to the
Father. How difficult was it for him to be
away from the Father? I mean, even when he walked upon
this earth before the cross, he didn't have the same presence
that he was beholding his face. And now he is thinking, I'm going
back home. I'm going back where I was. And
he had the joy of achieving a glory, which he would never had unless
he went to the cross. Now he achieved glories that
he would never have had had he not gone to the cross as the
mediator between God and men. There's one God, one mediator. God won't have anything to do
with you or me apart from Christ. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now I like to think
of this, Christ a ladder. What good would a ladder do you
if it didn't reach the bottom? Wouldn't do you any good at all,
would it? What good would a ladder do you if it didn't reach the
top? You'd be stuck. Christ is the ladder that reaches
the top because he's God. He's the ladder that reaches
the bottom because he's man. And he brings God to men. And he brings men to God. That's what he accomplished on
Calvary Street. And he achieved glory that he
would have never had, had he not done what he had done on
Calvary Street. Now here's what he did. Here's
what he did. And this is the glory he achieved
by what he did. He takes somebody like me. sinful, ashamed of myself. He takes somebody like me and
he makes me perfectly conformed to his own image. Perfectly righteous,
perfectly holy, without sin, without spot, without blemish,
faultless before his throne. Now that's what he achieved on
Calvary's tree. He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. So what glory he has achieved. I can say this with such depth
of conviction. I'm brought into heaven. I'm
going to be a trophy of His grace. I mean, He'll get all the glory
and none, absolutely none will go to me. I'll be an example
of how much salvation is my grace. what glory He has achieved through
His work on Calvary Street. Don't weep for me. This is why
I came, to glorify my Father and to display the beauties of
His character by going to the cross. You see, by going to the
cross, He magnified and exalted and demonstrated every attribute
of God. He demonstrated His justice,
I'm going to punish sin, His holiness, His hatred of sin,
His power in putting away sin, His mercy, His love, His grace. You know, you find out that God
delights in mercy when you look at the cross, don't you? He really
does. God delights in mercy. He delights
in saving sinners. If you're a sinner, He came to
save you. Well, did Christ only come to
the elect? Absolutely, he only came to the elect. And I'll tell
you something that all the elect have in common. They all believe
themselves to be the chief of sinners meeting the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, what joy was set before him. Now, the cross, I said this last
week, I like it so much, I'm gonna say it again. You all say,
you repeat yourself a lot, I know, forgive me. I've got a limited
amount in my mind that you speak so many times you're going to
repeat yourself, so give me a break. The cross is the event. It's already taken place. It's
by far, our Lord going to the cross is by far, infinitely by
far the most important thing that's ever taken place. It's
the most evil thing to ever take place. The creature nailing the Creator
to a tree. It's the most glorious thing
to ever take place. The glory of God is manifest.
The cross is the subject of the eternities. It's what everybody
was... I guess there wasn't anybody...
Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Of course, I don't understand that, but I believe it. And I love
to repeat it. He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Before there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. And He's
going to be the subject of eternity future. Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain. The cross is God's will. It was God's will for Christ. It's God's purpose. Don't weep
for me. And I think of the joy that was
set before him of bringing many sons to glory. He knew that he was going to
have his bride with him for eternity by going to the cross for them. You see, he made sure that I'm
gonna spend an eternity with him in glory. And he received
joy from that, the joy of saving his people from their sins. The joy of sitting down at his
father's right hand when he had by himself purged our sins. He sat there at the right hand
of the majesty on high and the joy of knowing that I'd be sitting
there with him. That's the heritage of every
believer to sit there with him for eternity, beholding his glory. And right now, while I'm speaking
to you, there is a real man with flesh and blood seated at the right hand of the
father. The man, Christ Jesus, who is
God, what's he doing there? Well, he's ruling and reigning,
controlling everything. You know right now that he's
controlling the thoughts that are going through your mind. That's how sovereign
he is. If you're feeling love to him,
you know who put it there, don't you? If you're feeling indifference,
that's an act of his judgment. If you don't like this, well,
he's in charge of that too. He's in absolute control. He's
ruling and he's reigning. And what else he's doing? He's
receiving the adoration of the heavenly beings. Something else he's doing, he's
making intercession for his people. He's representing me before his
father right now. Daughters of Jerusalem, don't
weep for me, but weep for yourself. Now, I love this scripture in
Philippians 2, wherefore God, because of all that he, because
he went to the cross and became obedient unto death, wherefore
God hath highly exalted him. and given him a name, which is
above every name, that at the name of, I love this, Jesus,
at the name of Jesus, every knee is going to bow. Things in heaven, things on the
earth and things under the earth and every tongue, some willingly,
some being forced to by divine power unwillingly. But every
tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Daughters of Jerusalem, don't
weep for me. The Son of God is not an object
of pity. He's the altogether glorious,
lovely one. Don't weep for me. Weep for yourself. Let me tell you something would
be better to do than to weep for him. Be like that leper and
worship him. He wasn't weeping for him. He
worshiped. He knew who he was. Saying, Lord,
if you will, You can. Make me clean. Don't weep for him. Come to him
as he is and worship him. He's to be worshiped without
reference to what he does or doesn't do for you. He's the
Lord. If you will, You can make me
clean. I can't make myself clean. But
if you will. You can. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ blessed
name. That you would cause us. To look to that son. Not to weep
for him. But to look to him. As all in
all. In our salvation. And Lord, how
we thank you that we start at the finish line. The race has already been won
by our Redeemer. In his blessed name we pray,
amen.