Now we're turning again to Luke
chapter 23. I'm taking the title for the
message from what the Lord says in verse 28. The Lord turning unto them said,
as He hears the lament of these women wailing and crying, so
brokenhearted to see the blessed Savior being so mistreated, They
know exactly what's going to happen. They're going to lead
him to that hill known as Golgotha, Calvary, and they're going to
nail him, and they're going to stand there and watch him die. Broken-hearted. You put yourself
in their place. What would you do? You'd weep
as well. But the Lord Jesus Christ, turning
unto them, said, Now, how gracious is this? The Lord takes notice
of their weeping, their crying, and He dresses them as the daughters
of Jerusalem. Daughters of Jerusalem. And here's
what He says, and this is totally contrary to the way the natural
man would think. The natural man would think,
well, I'm glad you're crying for me. I'm glad you feel some
sympathy with me. But the Lord said, don't weep
for me. Don't weep for me." He said, weep for yourselves and
weep for your children. So the title of the message will
be, Weep Not for Me. What a tremendous statement the
Lord of Glory utters here. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilling the will of the Father as He sets His face like a flint
marching toward this hour, this time. He knows exactly why He
came. He knows exactly what's going
to take place. Remember, He said, I must be
betrayed, I must be mistreated by the Pharisees and others,
I must be killed, and I must be raised up the third day. The
Lord knows exactly what's going to happen, and yet He set His
face like a flint, and no one could turn him away from this
appointed hour. Isaiah recorded it this way,
the Lord God will help me, therefore, our Lord said, I shall not be
confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint. unchanging
in His purpose. I know that I shall not be ashamed
before God." The Lord is unchanging in His resolve, unchanging in
His purpose. He said, I must go to the cross
and I must die. The Lord Jesus Christ is no failure
in accomplishing our salvation. The Lord came for this very purpose,
did He not? Didn't He come for this very
purpose? He came to seek and to save the lost. The Lord came
to lay down His life for the sheep. That's exactly what He's
doing. The Lord came to shed His blood
to put away our sin. the sin of his elect, the sin
of his people, and that exactly what's going to take place. He
appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
fulfill the holy law of God, both in precept and in penalty.
Remember he said, he said, I came not to destroy the law and the
prophets, but I came to fulfill the law of God for you. The Lord
fulfilled every law of God in precept and in penalty. The penalty of the broken law
says what? The guilty must die. That's why he died. Becoming
guilty for our sin as our substitute. And the Lord came to bring in
and establish everlasting righteousness for us and he freely imputes
that into us. The Lord came to give us eternal
life, to give us the free gift of God, and to bring in an everlasting
salvation of which He freely gives. Aren't you glad He came? Aren't you glad that when they
say to Him, when they say to Him, He saved others, let Him
save Himself. If He be the Christ, the Son
of God, come down! Aren't you glad He didn't come
down? Aren't you glad He didn't save Himself? Aren't you glad
that He gave Himself for our sin? You see, the Lord came in
the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law to redeem them. And He came according to
the eternal will and purpose of God, and this was decreed
from all eternity. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He is now fulfilling the Scripture
as the Lamb of God that taketh away our sin, the Lamb of God
that's led to the slaughter to put away our sin. Isaiah 53 says,
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth.
He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter. This is God's sacrificial
Lamb for our sin. The Lord would not have us weep
over the remedy. He is the remedy. The Lord's
suffering and dying for us, for our sin, that is a remedy. He
would not have us weep over the remedy for sin. The Lord is doing
the will of the Father. He is doing what He came to do.
You remember He prayed, Lord, not my will, Thy will be done. He prayed in John 17, Father,
I've glorified thee on the earth. I've finished the work you gave
me to do. This was his delight. This was
the Father's will in accomplishing our salvation. Now notice, if
you will, verse 27. Luke 23, 27. And there followed
him a great company of people. I don't know how many people
this was, how many people is a great company of people, but
you know the scribes and the Pharisees and all these religious
self-righteous men who were so bloodthirsty, desiring to see
him die, a great company followed him and the Roman soldiers and
the armies and all these different people. women, a great company and of
women, which also bewailed and lamented for him. Now, these wicked people all
rallied around together to quickly put the Lord Jesus Christ to
death in a way that was not according to Jewish law, but he died under
Roman law. That's why he's being crucified.
But this is all according to the will of God. They rallied
around and they cried, crucify him. Give us Barabbas. We want
a thief and a robber. And Pilate said, what am I going
to do with this man? Well, they said, crucify him. We have no
king but Caesar. They hastily accused him, did
they not? Hastily accused him, swiftly
condemned him, hurriedly carried out the sentence of death against
him. You talk about a rush to judgment. Boy, they were rushing,
weren't they? As soon as they arrested him that night, the
next day he dies. But we know he dies according
to the will of God. But these men, even though they
went out and plotted his death, falsely accused him, swiftly
condemned him, hurriedly carried out the sentence of death, and
they did what their wicked heart wanted to do. But we know this.
We're sure of this. They only did what God determined
before to be done. You see, this is God's sacrificial
lamb. Never think of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ as an accident. He dies on purpose. He dies according
to God's eternal purpose. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken with wicked
hands, Peter said at Pentecost, and have crucified the Lord of
Glory. But they only did what God determined before to be done. Now, as the Lord of Lords and
King of Kings, He marches triumphantly through the cross to accomplish
our salvation. to give his life a ransom for
us, to shed his precious blood, to put away our sin. Now the Lord says here, don't
weep for me. Remember a few years back, they
made that Hollywood movie, that one famous actor he portrayed
or tried to act like he was, they call that the passion of
the Christ. Was that the name of that movie? And I wouldn't
go see such a thing like that. It's nothing to me but idolatry,
but many religious people were taken up with that thing. And
it was said in that movie theater that you could hear people weeping,
weeping, and weeping, openly weeping when they see this man
so brutally, brutally mistreated. But the Lord says here, don't
weep for me. Don't weep for me. Weep for yourself. Now we have the last words of
our Lord Jesus Christ spoken before he is crucified. Now I
would not recommend to you to go see that movie or to look
it up and even look at it. I can't stand that religious. Hollywood? What's Hollywood going
to do with the gospel? They're going to butcher it just
like they do everything else. But we have here the last words
of the Lord Jesus Christ before he's crucified. And Luke is the
only one that gives it. Matthew is not recorded. Mark
is not recorded. John is not recorded. There followed
him out of the city a great crowd of people. You see that? A great
crowd of people. Missing among them were some
notable people. You know who's missing in this
great crowd? the apostles, all of them, forsook him and fled. They did. We read in Matthew
26, when all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets
might be fulfilled, then all the disciples forsook him and
fled. Matthew 26, 56. Now, even though
Peter And the other said, when Peter said, Lord, I'll never,
not me, I'll never leave you, never, I'm going to go to prison
with you and I'm going to die if need be, I'm going to die.
And the other disciples chimed in with Peter and said, yeah,
Peter's right, we agree with Peter, we're with you right to
the end. And when it came right down to
it, they all left him alone. But we do find others that followed
him out of malice and spite. The Pharisees, the scribes, they
couldn't wait to see the Lord suffer and die. But there's another
crowd here that follows him, that followed him out of sympathy
and heartache. These women, which lamented,
bewailed him. They are crying out loudly, spiting
their breasts, and lamenting him. He calls them here daughters
of Jerusalem, probably the women that had benefited from his ministry,
whose children were healed, who had mercy given to them, and
we could spend the rest of the message pointing out different
women that the scriptures talk about that were blessed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm thinking particularly,
if you want to turn with me, you can, Because we know over
here in John 19, I've got it written down here, John 19, verse
25, we know two women, or three that are named here, that were
standing at the foot of the cross. John 19, 25, now they're stood
by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary,
the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. There were some women
who didn't forsake him. But the Lord turned to his own
mother and says, don't weep for me. Don't you find that astounding? These other women may be Mary
and Martha, whose brother Lazarus had been raised from the dead.
Oh, they loved the Lord, didn't they? Maybe they were in this
crowd of women who were lamenting and crying and wailing. Maybe
the woman with the issue of blood who suffered twelve years of
misery and was healed by the Lord's grace. Maybe she was in
that crowd of women following the Lord. Or maybe the Canaanite
woman whose daughter was grievously vexed with the devil. whose daughter
was made whole." Maybe she was in that crowd following the Lord. And the Lord in compassion and
pity takes notice of them weeping. Daughters of Jerusalem, verse
28, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and weep for your
children. Now, two things on this point. The Lord does not need our pity. Never feel sorry for the Lord. He doesn't need our pity. The
Lord does not need our pity, but we sure do need His mercy.
That's why I said, you weep for yourselves. Let us not weep over
the remedy for sin in Christ crucified. Let us weep over the
disease. What is the disease? Our sin,
our iniquity. You see, he took our disease
in his own body upon the tree. Let us weep over our sin against
God. Our sin was the cause of his
death that brought about his needed death for our sin, the
shedding of his blood to put away our sin. It says in Scripture
that He bare our sin in His own body on the tree, that God made
Him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. So let us not weep over the remedy. Let us weep over the disease,
our sin against God. Secondly, the Lord says, don't
weep for me. Because this is the very reason
that he came to this earth, to suffer and die just for the unjust. That's why I read earlier, Don't
turn, let me just read it to you again from Hebrews chapter
12 verse 2, looking unto the Lord Jesus our Savior, who is
the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that
was set before Him, the joy of accomplishing the Father's will,
the Father's purpose, the joy in putting away our sin, the
joy of purchasing His bride with His own blood, the joy that was
set before Him, He endured the cross, despised his shame, and
he sat down victoriously at the right hand of God, having purged
our sin by the sacrifice of himself. Daughters, children, the Lord
said, don't weep for me. You weep for yourselves. You
weep over your own sin against God. Now, here's the second thing
I want us to notice. Verse 28, excuse me, verse 29
and verse 30. The Lord tells of a coming judgment,
verse 29. For behold, the days are coming,
they are coming, in the which they shall say, blessed are the
barren and the wombs that never bare, that never, blessed be
that woman that never had children, and the woman who had never nursed
a child, the paps that never gave suck. They shall begin,
they shall, then shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall
on us, and to the hills to cover us up. Now, judgment's coming. Judgment coming. Sad times are
coming for these people in Jerusalem at this time. Judgment was coming
on this city. Judgment was coming on these
people, that is, the Jewish nation. For the willful rejection of
the coming of the Messiah, he came unto his own, his own received
him not. Not many years after this, in
the year of 70 AD, The Roman army was dispatched to this city
and leveled it. I mean they destroyed it. There
was not one stone left upon another. They destroyed the temple, they
killed all the priests, and they killed most of the people.
It is said by the Jewish historian that the Romans crucified so
many Jewish people that they ran out of wood. to do it. Can you imagine such a thing?
They could not chop down enough trees. It is said by the Jewish historian
that most of the people were starved out. The Roman army surrounded
that walled city and cut it off and starved these people out.
It is said by the Jewish historian that these women were so starved
and famished that they ate their own children. Cannibalism. That is why the Lord says in
that day it would be better for a woman never to have a child
for such sorrow. He says in that day they will
beg to die for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them
rather than to starve to death at the hands of the Roman army. And judgment happened. What the
Lord says shall come to pass in that day on Jerusalem, it
came. It happened. It was real. You can read about
it more that's given in Matthew chapter 24 and chapter 25. But there's something greater
than that judgment. And that's just a type and picture
of what happened there in Jerusalem. That's just a type and picture
of what's going to happen when the Lord comes back the second
time. What happened in that day in
Jerusalem pales in comparison to the second coming of our Lord,
and the judgment that will fall upon those not found in Christ,
when the wrath of God will be unleashed without any mixture
of mercy." Where do you want to be in that day? I think where
I want to be, I want to be found in Christ. I want to be in Him. Let us never forget, God is love. Scriptures teach that. The scripture
said God is good, and he is. The scripture said that God delights
to show mercy. God is merciful and gracious.
But let us never forget God is holy. And the Lord our God will
punish sin. Either He will deal with your
sin in Christ crucified at Calvary, or He will deal with your sin
in all eternity in the eternal judgment and condemnation of
everlasting hell. Now, I know that's not a popular
subject in our day. Turn to Matthew 25. But nevertheless,
it's so. God is holy and He will punish
sin. God is so holy that when He found
sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ, being made guilty for our sin,
the Lord suffers like no other one suffers. In Matthew 25, when
all nations, verse 31, when the Son of Man shall come in His
glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit upon
the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered
all nations, And he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats, he shall set the sheep on his
right hand and the goats on the left. Then shall the king say
unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world." That's the blessedness of being found in Christ. Look
down at verse 41, Matthew 25, 41. Then shall he say also unto
them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Verse 46, Then shall these go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life. There is salvation with the Lord,
but apart from Him, Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, apart from him there
is no mercy, apart from Christ crucified there is no pardon
of sin. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1
verse 7, and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven. with His mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, that obey
not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of His power. In that day, they'll say, turn
to Revelation 6, as they said in that day, they cried for the
rocks and mountains to fall upon them. They prayed to die. Lord, kill us right now, so we
don't suffer anymore. Turn to Revelation 6, look at
verse 12. And I beheld, when He had opened
the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the
sun became black as sackcloth of hair, And the moon became
as blood, Revelation 6 verse 12. And the stars of heaven fell
unto the earth, even as a fig tree, cactus, or untimely figs,
when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed
as a scroll when it was rolled together, and every mountain
and isle were moved out of their places. 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, every free man hid themselves
in the dens, in the rocks, in the mountains, and said to the
mountains and the rocks, Hide us from the face of Him that
sits upon the throne from the wrath of the Lamb." This is the
last judgment, the second coming of the Lord. For the great day
of His wrath has come. Who shall be able to stand? Who is going to stand in His
presence? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has
never lifted up the soul to vanity, nor hath sworn deceitfully."
And we know that's describing the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. Now, one more thought on this
portion of Scripture. Turn back to Luke 23. So we're talking about that judgment
when the Romans came, and it's also talking about future judgment
when the Lord comes back again. He said, I will, I'll go away
and I'll come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am
there you may be also. Now lastly, the last thing I
want to look at is verse 31. For if they do these things in
a green tree, What shall be done in the dry, with the dry tree? Now a comparison is given between
the Lord, who is the green tree, and this dry tree. Now we know the Lord Jesus Christ
is described in scripture as the tree of life. He's the green
tree that's full of life and nourishment. He's full of grace
and truth. He is fat and flourishing. In
Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It pleases
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. We read in
John chapter 1 of His fullness, have we all received grace for
grace? He is the green tree. He is full
of nourishment, full of life. He's called the true vine. In
Psalm 1, he described that the tree planted by the rivers of
water that bringeth forth fruit in his season, his leaf also
shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. The Lord describes
himself as the true lying. We're only blessed in that true
vine. He has life, eternal life, and
salvation is in Him. This green tree, we're blessed
only in Christ. And we're complete in Him. Blessed
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in Christ. Now,
what is this dry tree? Every sinner by nature is a dry
tree. No life. No fruit. No salvation in them naturally. Dead in sin. Trespasses in sin. Destitute of grace. No goodness. No righteousness. Born in sin. Shapen in iniquity. Totally depraved. Fit for the burning. Twice dead. Plucked up by the roots. Fit
for the burning. That's us. Dried trees. Dead. Barren. Dry. You go out camping
and you want to build a little campfire, you don't go out and
pick green trees, do you? You find the dead twigs and branches
and you break them up because they're fit for the fire. That's
what we are by nature. Dry, dead trees. Now, I found this by John Gill
and I'm going to read it to you. It's short. He said, if such
things were done to Christ, judgment, wrath, wrath of God. If such
things were done to Christ, the green tree by His Holy Father,
according to the requirement of the law and the strict shrikeness
of divine justice, when he was made sin for his people who knew
no sin, nor committed any sin personally in himself, what vengeance
then will fall on the dry tree who must answer for their sin
in their own person before Christ Holy God?" You see the comparison? If these things were done to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the green tree, What shall be done in wrath
and judgment to those dry trees? Exceeding wrath. If God spared
not His own Son, when He was made sin, do you think He would
spare any other Son who is a dry tree fit for the burning? Now, closing. Thanks be unto
our gracious Lord for His glorious sacrifice for our sin, fully
putting them away by the sacrifice of Himself. And the Lord would
not have us weep for Him. He won the victory for us. But rather, He would have us
rejoice in Him, confess Him as all of our salvation before God
and men. He would rather have us rejoice
in the Lord always. And again, I say, He says, rejoice
for yourselves. But we rejoice in Him, don't
we? Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoice in His mercy for poor
sinners. who are nothing by nature but
dried up dead trees fit for the burning. But by His grace, He
gives us life. He gives us and He makes us the
green tree. What's true of Him is true of
us as we're in Him. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. You know, believers in the Scripture
are called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. He
is the green tree, and we are trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord. Now, I trusted you listened to
the radio program this morning, but let me just read you a portion
of what I read this morning in the radio program, when it talks
about Jeremiah 17, verse 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord, for he shall be as
a tree planted by the waters, that spread out her roots by
the river, that shall not see when the heat cometh, but her
leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of
drought, neither shall cease from yielding her fruit." Because
in Christ dwells all the fullness of a Godhead bodily, and in the
Lord Jesus Christ we are complete. Now, one other scripture, let
me read this to you, Psalm 92. The righteous shall flourish
like a palm tree. Who are the righteous? Those
in Christ. And he shall grow like a cedar
in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our
God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age. The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering. And they shall be fat and flourishing
to show that the Lord is upright. He is our rock. And in Him, there
is no unrighteousness. He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Now, does that make more sense
when the Lord says, now, don't weep for me, you weep for yourselves. He would have us rejoice in Him
and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.