The Master Weeping Over Sinners

I'd like for you now to turn
in your Bibles to Luke 19, verse 41. On three occasions we're told that our Lord wept. The first was at the grave of
Lazarus. Our Lord saw the sorrow of those
whom he loved, Mary, Martha, He meditated upon the fruit of
sin, death and corruption, the fall of the body, the decay of
the body, the body once created by him in God's own image. And our Lord came upon the sorrow
of death, the corruption of death, and the decay of death, and he
wept. He wept. Someone said, Who, knowing
the image in which man was originally created, does not look at what
sin has done to that man and weep? We have cause to weep over
ourselves, over our frailties and infirmities, disease, people
that are deformed. people that are pitifully crippled
and dying. And our Lord beheld the condition
of the human body as a result of sin, and he wept. He wept. And then Paul talks about, over
in the book of Hebrews, our Lord's tears in Gethsemane's garden. Here he bore the great burden
of human guilt. I know there's no way that I
can feel the load of sin and the guilt of sin and the ruin
of sin like he felt it, as Don was praying in his prayer. There's
no way that we can comprehend the guilt of our sins or comprehend
the lack of righteousness. There's no way that we have the
power or ability to praise God as we ought, to understand what
he's done for us, as long as we have these finite minds, we're
just capable of so much, and it's so vast, it's so infinite. The love of God is so vast and
so infinite. How can I comprehend it with
a limited mind and a limited understanding? It's like a little
boy one day sitting by the seashore, and a preacher came by. The little
fellow had a bucket And he had a tin can. He was dipping the
water out of the ocean, putting it in his bucket. And the preacher
said, What are you doing, son? He said, I'm putting the ocean
in my bucket. Impossible! This vast, limitless
span of water in your little bucket? Well, in a way, he was
telling the truth. He did have the ocean in his
bucket, at least some of it. He had the ocean in his bucket,
not all of it, but some of it. I know a little bit about the
ruling of the human spirit and soul. I know a little bit about
the guilt of sin, a little bit. I've got the ocean in my bucket.
But there's no way that I can comprehend it like Christ did
in that garden. Infinite holiness met infinite
guilt. Infinite understanding met infinite
darkness. And that's the reason he wept
in that garden. He wept over the great burden of human guilt,
that mist of sin that rose from the Garden of Eden and gathered
more of its corruption and defilement down through 4,000 years fell
right on him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And that's the reason
he said, My God, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. He'd
have died right there if God hadn't ministered to it, under
the weight and burden of human guilt. But I feel it, and hard
must be the heart that does not mourn and weep and grieve over
our sins. Our Lord wept over the burden
of human guilt. Do you weep over your sins? Christ
did. He wept over our sins. And then
here in the text, look at verse 41. Let me come directly to my
text. Verse 41 of Luke 19. This is the third time we read
where Christ wept. And when he was come near, he
beheld a city, the city of Jerusalem. And he wept over it. He wept over it. Jerusalem, the
city of David, the city of glory. Jerusalem, home of the prophets,
once walking the streets of Jerusalem, men like David, Solomon, Jeremiah,
Isaiah. Jerusalem, where the temple of
God stood. Jerusalem, now hotbed of Phariseeism. Jerusalem, full of religious
hypocrisy. which stoned and killed the prophets,
Jerusalem, which cried that day, that black, terrible day, Crucify! We have no king but Caesar."
And our Lord looked over that city, he beheld the city, and
he cried. He wept. Someone said, Did Christ
or sinners weep, and shall our cheeks be dry? Let floods of
pity and grief burst forth from every eye. The Son of God in
tears, angels with wonder sing, Be thou astonished, O my soul,
he shed those tears for thee. He wept that I might weep, for
each sin demands a tear. In heaven alone no sin is found,
There'll be no weeping there. But does our theology discourage
us from tears for ourselves and for others? Then either our theology
is wrong or we have misunderstood it. Now, you think about that. Does our theology discourage
us from tears? tears over sin, ours and tears
over sinners, others. If it does, then our theology
must be wrong, or else, if it's right, we must have it in a fashion
that is not as our Lord taught it. Because he wept. He wept
over that city. He wept. Does our doctrine produce
dry eyes and cold hearts? Then our doctrine must be wrong.
Either that or we misunderstand. For our Lord whom we say taught
us our doctrine, wept over sinners. He wept over human guilt. He
wept over human sorrow. He wept. He sorrowed not as those
who had no hope, but he did sorrow. And our Lord wept. Does our theology and our doctrine
make us ashamed of tears? Then our theology and our doctrine
must be wrong, or else we misunderstand it, because our Lord was not
ashamed of we. This text suggests four things
to me. Four things. The first is this.
Our Lord is willing to save sinners. The gospel of our Lord, believed
and received, is the source of peace. Thirdly, there is a day
of grace. There is a day of grace. And
fourthly, there is a grave danger of judicial blindness and hardness
of heart hanging over those who do not avail themselves of that
day of grace. I'm going to show you that. Now,
let's look first of all at the first point. I'm going to be
brief because I want you to go away with a blessing and not
with a weary, weary body. It says in verse 41, And when
he was come near, he beheld a city, and he wept over it. Our Lord
is willing to save sinners, and I see two proofs of that. Number
one, of course, his word. He said he would. He said he
would. O Jerusalem, how often would
I have gathered you, but you would not. And the second proof,
his tears. Our Lord's word and our Lord's
tears. Our Lord delights to show mercy. Our Lord wept over man's
fall and man's ruin and man's condition and man's rebellion
and man's inability. He wept over these things. He
didn't rejoice in iniquity, he wept over it. I received a letter
this week. I want you to listen to it. I'm
thankful that I can still cry, I can still weep, and not just
over injuries to myself or to my immediate family, but I can
still, and I pray God will give me more, and I pray God will
give me tears for those we don't even know, genuine, sincere tears. I'm going to read you just part
of a letter, not all of it, I'm not going to read it all. From
a young woman, I'm not going to identify the person, if she's
here or listening to this tape or anything later, I'm sure she
wouldn't mind me using it because no one could identify her, but
she said this, Brother Mahan, before I got married, I became
pregnant. I started reading the Bible to
figure out what to do. What I ended up doing was very
wrong indeed. I said to God, God, I'm going
to sin one more time, and then I'm going to change my life.
Well, I got an abortion, and I changed. And I began to try
to do right, but I found no peace. Because how can I expect God
to forgive me when I can't forgive myself? The abortion was not
as wrong as my saying, I'm going to sin one more time and then
I'll live for you. Do you know of any place in the
Bible, Brother Mahan, where someone has sinned as I have sinned and
God has forgiven them? You know, I think one reason
why I lose my temper and why I'm so hateful is because I think
I'm going to hell anyway, no matter what. So what's the use
of trying? Would you please help me? Now, any one of you here who
know the Savior's love and who know your own heart could answer
that letter, couldn't you? This is the very kind of person
my Lord came to save. I wanted so much when I read
that, I wanted so much, and she's not in this city, I wanted so
much to just take the truth of who Christ is, and the compassion
of Christ, and the love of Christ, and the mercy of Christ. I want
to take it and just put it right in her heart. But I can't do
that. I know God, I know our Lord rejoices
to show mercy. Listen to Him throughout His
Word. Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them white as snow. You know what Christ said? She says, can you find anywhere
in the Bible, my soul, Peter found mercy, who denied his Lord,
David, Solomon, Abraham, solitarcist, persecutor, blasphemer. I'm not come, he said, to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The Son of Man has
come to seek and to save that which was lost. Don't measure
God's mercy by man's mercy. Man's got no mercy. Our Lord's
mercy is infinite. Our Lord's mercy reaches to the
lowest pits of corruption and to the farthest point of rebellion. He's able to say to the uttermost,
the uttermost extent of guilt and the uttermost extent of ruin,
the uttermost extent of rebellion, he delights to show mercy. Turn
to Romans 5. Let me show you something over
here. Romans chapter 5. Romans the fifth chapter. Let's
read verse 6 through 8. Listen to this. For when, verse
6, Romans 5, verse 6, when we were without strength in due
time, Christ died. He died for real sinners, ungodly. Our Lord didn't die for sham
hypocrites. Our Lord didn't die for folks
that act religious and hide under a veneer of religion and profession,
an impure heart and an impure nature, and impure thoughts,
and an impure imagination, and evil motives, and end in jealousy,
and lust, and hate. He died for those who know their
sins, and confess their sins, and admit their sins, and face
their sins, and go to Him with their sins. the ungodly. Read on. In other words, you
here, for a good man, for a good cause, you'd lay down your life,
wouldn't you? But God, but God, not for a good
man, not for a righteous man, but God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Some of you men here, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, your country
was at stake, your liberty, your children's liberty. the liberty
of other people, so you were willing to die for that liberty. But now suppose down here on
the streets of Ashland there is a derelict, a drunk, a wino,
covered with disease, filthy, ungodly, a tramp, a thief. Would you die for him? You say
there's no cause to die for him, he's already dead, he's twice
dead. There's no cause to give a good
life for a poor life. There's no reason to give a good
life for a lost cause. That's what Christ did. Our Lord
died for death. He died for evil. He died for
sinners. He died for the ungodly. That's
what he's saying here. Some of you, for a good man would even
dare to die, or for a righteous man would die. But God committed
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners of the worst
sort, he died for us. And dear young lady, will God
forgive you? God delights to forgive you.
Will God show mercy? God delights to show mercy. Will
Christ receive and embrace you? Some of His people won't, but
He will. Some of His preachers won't,
but He will. They don't know Him anyway. Some
of His religious professors and some of the defenders of the
faith and some of the crusaders for the cross and some of the
theologians won't, but He will. For he will, he spreads his table
for the hungry. Our Lord opens a hospital, a
great physician welcomes the sick. Ask David, ask Peter, ask Mary
Magdalene, ask the harlot, ask the woman at the well, ask Saul
of Tarsus. Our Lord delights to show mercy.
And I know that, two proofs of it. Number one is his word. And
number two, I see him standing, looking at that city, that corrupt,
defiled, wicked, rebellious city, and he cries. And I see us crusaders and theologians
and evangelists and religious enthusiasts. We go out in the
strength of the Lord to defend the cause of right and truth,
and we leave laying all alongside of us broken hearts wretched
humanity, and we are too. We just don't know it. We're
traveling in the strength of our flesh. But if we could just
look at them and love them and weep, like our Lord. And I don't
mean weep hypocritical crocodile tears that you have to think
of something sad to cry. I'm talking about weeping over
human ruin, human ruin, human guilt. Verse 10, our Lord looked at
that and He had something to say. He wept over that city and
He had something to say. And He said, If you had known,
if you had known, even thou, if you had known in this thy
day the things that belong to peace. Little girl, if you just
knew where real peace comes from, It doesn't come from your resolutions
to do better. That's where you've made your
mistake. It doesn't come from your striving
and working and endeavoring to make yourself acceptable to God.
That's not where it comes from. Jerusalem, Christ said, if you
knew, if you just knew what brings peace. It's not all your ceremonies
and your rivers of blood poured out on altars Not your feast
days and holy days and your Sabbath days, and it's not your strivings
and your workings and your law. That's not it. Luther, lying
there on that stone cold floor of the monastery trying to make
yourself acceptable to God, beating your body with thorns, trying
to keep down the lustful thoughts, doing without food, trying to
make yourself acceptable to God. Peace is not found in those things. And I say to you, peace of conscience
and peace of heart and peace with God is not found in your
acts of penitence and resolutions to do better and dedications
and rededications, up, down this aisle, up that one, down that
one, up this one, shake the preacher's hand, rededicate, reconsecrate,
reaffirm, reconfirm, not your good deeds, not your religious
ceremony. These things can bring a temporary peace. I have evil thoughts, so I go
to the Bible and I read a few scriptures and I vow to do better
and promise God I won't think them anymore, you know, and get
some temporary peace, not lasting. I say have a quarrel with a neighbor
or have an argument with somebody or do something I shouldn't have
done, and I go down and I miss a couple of services at church
because I'm ashamed of myself, and then I go back finally and
Get her all straightened out, you know, and I'm walking straight
from now on, you know. Well, I'll give you a little
peace for a while, for a while. But our Lord said this, if you
just knew where real peace is found, you know where it's found? It's found in Christ, it's found
in the gospel. The gospel brings peace. The
gospel is called the gospel of peace. In the gospel, Christ
and his righteousness are set forth, and when I get a sight
of his righteousness, all my burdens will fall off. All of
them. In him, I'm complete. In him,
I'm holy. In him, I'm unblameable, unchargeable. What does that song say that
some of you like so well? Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Part in there was multiplied
to me, and there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary."
Now, I want you to listen to Robert Murray McShane. I want
to read something he wrote. Christ brings peace to the conscience. Christ. In Christ, we can have
peace with God. even in the midst. Now, don't
let me offend you, but this is true. Some of you are looking elsewhere
for your peace and for your joy. And it's what Christ said, Jerusalem,
if you just knew, if you just knew where peace was found, if
you just knew where peace was found, real heart peace, peace
of conscience, peace of heart, peace with God, It's not in your
resolutions or your deeds, however admirable. In Christ, we can
have peace even in the midst of raging lust and temptation. In Christ, we can have peace
even in the midst of personal failure. In Christ, we can have
peace even in the midst of a knowledge that we are failed, have failed,
have failed. In Christ we can have peace in
the knowledge that we are not judged in ourselves, or regarded
in ourselves, or accepted in ourselves, but we are in him. And being in him, we are holy. That'll offend a religious person
who is striving by his own works to make himself acceptable with
God. It'll offend him. And he'll begin to charge that
we're teaching or saying that God will look upon us like they
said to Paul, shall we sin that grace may abound? You know, that's
what the fool said. Paul said, God forbid. But the
man, if you had known where peace was found, All right? Not only peace to the conscience,
but peace in time of great trouble. This past year, for some of you,
has been marked with great trial and sickness and trouble and
sorrow. And the next one may hold even
more. But I'm telling you this, his grace is sufficient. And
if you know that all things work together for good to them who
love him, who are called according to his purpose, and you look
to him, you'll find peace. Peace in the greatest trial.
Peace in the most difficult situation. You'll find peace. You start
looking in here and start making vows and resolutions and all
these things and trying to do what can't be done in the energy
of the flesh, you may find some temporary relief, but not peace. Peace is when you take your whole
burden to the Lord and believe it there. Peace is when you take
your whole soul to the Lord and leave it there. Peace is when
you take all of your family and your friends and your job and
your church and your pastor and everybody else and just leave
them there with him. And then it brings peace at death.
You know what Balaam prayed? He said, Let me die the death
of the righteous and let my last end be like his. What is that? It's to die in Christ. It's to
die in Christ. It's to die not with somebody
sitting around trying to figure out whether you're saved or not. It's to live in Christ and to
die in Christ. It's to die like you live. You
know what so many folks, this is reality. I'm talking about
reality. They get saved, and I don't like that term either.
But anyway, they have an experience. They get saved. And they rest in Christ for salvation.
Trust in Jesus. Believe in Jesus. He died for
my sins. And then they start doing it
themselves. They start working and striving
and living and all of these things to make themselves acceptable
with God, you know, to make God smile upon them. I tithe in order
that God might bless me. I go to church that God might
bless my family. I live a good life so that God
will bless me and all these things, you know. And then they come
to die and they revert back to Calvary. When they come to die, they revert
back to the cross. When they come to die, they revert
back to, well, my only hope, my only peace, when he died,
he died for me. That's your only hope now, in
the best of health, is in Christ. That's where you
find peace. It's not jumping from spirit to flesh and from
flesh to spirit. It is in Christ, in Christ alone,
if you just knew that. if you just knew." That's what
he's saying. Jerusalem, he cried over that city, and he said,
if you had known, if you had just known the things that bring
peace. And that's the blood of Christ,
the sacrifice of Christ, vital union with Christ, being one
with him. He'll never leave you and he'll
never let you go. Nothing can separate you from your Lord. And who can lay him to the charge
of God's elect, and who is he that condemned? Christ died.
He's our hope. All right, the third statement
now, quickly. He said, even thou," verse 42, "...at least in this
thy day." Now, look at that. Look at it hard for a moment,
thy day. If you had known it in this thy
day. Now look at verse 44, the last line, "...because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation." What am I saying? I'm saying this, and I don't
know, you take this, I'm asking God to give me some wisdom here.
I don't know a great deal about this. But it seems to me, as
I read the scriptures, that there is for most men a day, your day,
a day of visitation, a day of encounter with God. Not every
day, but a day. I'm not talking about a 24-hour
day. I'm talking about a period of time. I'm talking about a
span of time, perhaps five minutes, five days, five months, five
years. But a day. A day. What Christ is saying,
he's looking at that city and he's weeping. And he said, if
you'd just known. If you just know the true source
of peace, if you just know what really brings peace, and if you've
known it in your day, in the day of visitation, it's too late
now, you don't know it in its head, you're blinded, hid from
your eyes. My friends, a day, watch this,
a day has dawn, noonday, and midnight. Our Lord said, work
while it's day, the night cometh when no man works. Jerusalem
had its dawn when the prophets stood and proclaimed the coming
Messiah. The sacrifices were offered,
the temple was erected. There in its dawning, our Lord
spoke to the fathers by the prophets. They had the elementary things,
they had the beginnings, they had the The suggestions, they
had the symbols and the pictures. Jerusalem had its high noon,
too, the day of light, the day when the Savior himself walked
down their streets, when the Savior himself stood in front
of the temple and cried, If any man thirsts, let him come to
me, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
That was high noon. And then Jerusalem had its midnight,
when our Lord stood and looked over that city, and he said,
You had your day. You had your day of visitation. But you didn't
know, you didn't understand, and now it's hid from your eyes. The darkness has come and you
can't see. He wept over that city and he
said, Now these things are hid from your eyes. Judicial blindness
has been added to spiritual blindness, and how great is that darkness. I wonder, I wonder how many people
we know, maybe ourselves, who have had
their day. That's what Christ is saying
here. He said, Jerusalem. He wept over that city. He said,
you just know in your day. That's what he says there, didn't
he? At least in this thy day, the
things that bring peace. But now, it's midnight. We started off, the day had its
dawn. And we learned, Jesus loves me,
this I know, for the Bible tells me so. We learned about a man
named David with a sling, and we learned about a man named
Moses that led some people across the sea and it divided, and we
read about a man named Moses who got some commandments, we
read about a man named Adam and a woman named Eve, and we read
about a man named Jesus. And then the high noon, the full
noon of gospel revelation. One day some preacher God sent,
some John the Baptist, a man sent from God whose name was
John, or some Stephen, a deacon, or Philip. One day, by radio,
television, or maybe pulpit, or maybe gospel books, someone
wrote some truthful servant of God. And we learned about man's
inability. God opened the doors to show
us man's ruin and God's holiness. And we came face to face with
a sin question, with a sin problem. We came face to face with our
inability and insufficiency and utter failure. We came face to
face with what David Brainerd said he faced. God Almighty could
save us by his power, send us to hell by his justice. Faith
was a gift of God. that we could find no peace in
human deeds or laws or ceremonies or religions or professions,
that we could find no peace in these things that organized religion
left God a long time ago, and they're still gone. That we've
got to go unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, and
find in Him our peace and our relation with God. And we learned
that that day. And we didn't do a thing in the
world about it. And he said, it's too late now.
It's too late. Old Blind Bartimaeus sat by the
wayside, and Jesus of Nazareth, he said, what's going on? Somebody
said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. It's my day. It's my day. I won't have another. This is
my day. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Be quiet. It's
my day. Jesus, have mercy on me. Hush! Jesus, he cried the
louder. It's my day, he's passing by.
I wonder how many encounters that we have, how many times
he crosses our path. Now let me tell you something.
I'm a sovereign gracer of the first number. I'm a human responsibility
believer to And I'm saying what our Lord is saying right here.
I don't, I can't explain these things, I just know they're so,
because he said them. He said, Jerusalem, if you had known,
at least in your day, the things that bring peace, and now they're
hid from your eyes, and no way you'll ever know them now. No
way. It's darkness, it's midnight.
Down there, if you just knew If you just knew, and down in
verse 44, the last line, you knew not the time of your visitation. God was there, God was there. I know a church that's about
to call a pastor. God will bring them his man.
Of course, they elect them now like a slate of candidates. They'll
run a half a dozen. If anything ever happens here
and you don't have a pastor, let me advise you of something.
Number one, wait, wait, wait on the Lord. Number two, hear
men, hear several men, question, look into their lives, all these
things, find out about them. Thirdly, ask the Holy Spirit
of God to lead you to the man, and you present him to the congregation,
and ask them to pray, and that man to pray. But here this church
has got them a list. They're going to vote, and everybody's
going to divide up sides, choose up and take sides, and decide
who they want. One of those men is a good possibility it's God's
man, one of them. And they heard him, and they
met him, and they saw him, and they talked to him. But they
did not recognize him, maybe. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.
We'll know soon, the day of his visitation. The responsibility
is yours. That's right. I can't explain
that. I'm simply saying that if God crosses your path, you
know, he said to the woman at the well, if you'd ask of me
and I'd give you living water, I'm not going to take it and
force it on you. You're going to ask me. You're
going to ask me. And God's not going to force
salvation on you. He's not going to force his preacher
on you. He's not going to force the pastor
he wants in that church. He will not force it. He'll cross
your path. And that's when you have got
to pray for his Spirit to give you understanding of the day
of your visitation, and then do something about it, and do
something about it. And here's the grave danger,
and I close. He said, now, verse the last point, they're hid from
your eyes. They had their day. Holy men
of God had spoken to them, the Holy Spirit. They resisted the
Holy Spirit. He said, as did your fathers.
The Son of God himself stood in their midst, and now is midnight. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
here my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do not
pass me not." I would advise, seriously advise every one of
us, myself, every one of you, to be so alert, to be so alert
to his Word and so alert to his Spirit and to God's that when
he is speaking to us, when he's preaching to us, when he's speaking
through his Word, when he encounters us and crosses our path, to be
so spiritually alert that we can say, Here I am, Lord. You
remember Samuel? Here I am, Lord. Adam, where
art thou? He's over there hiding. Samuel, here am I, Lord. Here
am I. Speak to me. Let's have that
ear tuned to the voice of God, to the message of God, to the
Word of God. And here am I, Lord. Do for me
this morning what needs to be done. Don't let me miss the blessing.
I'm too involved. Don't let me miss the place.
If Christ is here, I want to be here, not like Thomas. He
wasn't there, and the Lord came, and he missed the blessing. Our
Father, bless the Word, to our understanding. It's too difficult
for us, too difficult. We need our Holy Spirit to apply
it to our hearts. Give us understanding, seeing
eyes and hearing ears, and hearts melted and broken. Lord, teach
me, and I'll be taught. Use this message for whatever
purpose it pleases Thee, wherever it's proclaimed in Christ's name
we ask it. Amen.

The Master Weeping Over Sinners

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The Master Weeping Over Sinners

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