Let's take our Bibles at this time and pick them up and read Matthew chapter 23 and verses 37 through 39. We have Jesus in the Tuesday of the Passion Week. In the last week of his life, he's just about to leave the temple, but here he's in the temple speaking for this last time to disciples and no doubt to the scribes and Pharisees of which he speaks when he cries out, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem. So the last verses of Matthew 23, verses 37 through 39. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You might not remember this, but the first day of the Passion Week, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. You read of that in Luke 19. And when the people of God, or at least the people who were thrilled with his coming into Jerusalem, were crying out, Hosannas to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At this end of or toward the end of Jesus' public ministry, there is a similar lamentation. We're not told that Jesus wept, but indeed there is pathos here and passion and an amazing revelation. In fact, there is revelation here in this lamentation of Jesus over Jerusalem of the worst of men and the best of God. The worst of men here is their sinfulness that is revealed in no uncertain terms by Jesus who has pronounced woe upon the leaders of Jerusalem, but who describes their entrenched resistance by saying that as often as he would have gathered Jerusalem's children, The leaders of Israel were resisting. Often, I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, Jesus says, but you are not willing. And so here is revealed the sinfulness of men, those who reject the revelation of God, even the Jesus of God, and who would have none of him. But at the same time, there is revealed here this purpose of God in Jesus' manifest to save his own. There is objection, there is obstinacy of men, resistance of religious men and their leaders, but Jesus himself is resolute. He's going to accomplish the good pleasure of God and gather Jerusalem's children, though they even kill him, and it takes his death to accomplish this gathering. And so we have on the one hand the sinfulness of men that's revealed, and what it really is all about, the resistance to the salvation of God, and on the other hand, the love of God that makes its way not only on this earth, but even among sinners to save his own. And so, beloved, we hear this. And we hear of the pathos of the moment, the passion, the lamentation of Jesus as he enters into the last phase of his ministry, which will lead to death. And can we, ought we then therefore be affected to the core of our being? There's revelation here that belongs to today. This is the word of God, and that has to do with the revelation of our sin and the sin of this world, but of the Savior's love even today, who laments over Jerusalem and who seeks to pursue Jerusalem's children and to gather them home. So let's hear with great humility, but also expectation of Christ's lamentation over Jerusalem. Likened is this gathering by Jesus to the gathering of a hen and her chicks, or of some bird, the Greek word is general, and her offspring. That's what the gathering of Jesus is likened to by himself. Secondly, there's this resistance and the consequent lamentation of Jesus. And then finally, there's desolation, and there is hope. When Jesus says, your house is left to you desolate, and then he says, you shall see me no more to you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's the desolation. That's the destruction of the Jews as the people of God but also the hope for it will be for a time that they will reject him and be desolate. But there will be a time when Jerusalem and her children will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus is presented here as we know and love him to be, the gatherer of sinners. This is the basic doctrine of this text. It has been the doctrine that we've received throughout Matthew and our discourses on Matthew, our preaching and our hearing. Jesus is the gatherer of sinners. This in fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ of Nazareth and of God. He's God's gatherer of the sinners of God's good pleasure, of God's elect. Gathering is a way that God describes the gospel. The gathering of God, of his people, is the good news. The people of God are like the rest of the Adamites, born in trespasses and sins, death. And they are in that state of death, outcasts of God, at enmity with God. And they are lost. And so repeatedly, Jesus has said in Matthew, He's come to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They need to be gathered. They're lost. And so he would save them. And even at this time, in his description of the terrible character of the scribes and Pharisees of late, and we heard that last Sunday, the pronunciation of woes, Jesus is in this way, in this righteous judgment, gathering the sheep, gathering the sinners. And he is doing this by declaring himself to be the one who can pronounce woes not only, but who is the savior of those sinners. He describes accurately the case, the truth of the situation of sinners. They are dead in sins. They are guilty before God. And if anyone is hearing this sermon, maybe on the internet for the first time, or if there's those whose ears are being opened for the first time in the congregation, God be praised. Know this, you must hear the truth. The Savior is for the gathering of sinners like you and like I am. We are sinners and we stop up our ears, and we'll see this more in my second point, but we are sinners and we need salvation. We are not righteous, needing some help to be a little more righteous, with the help of God even. No, there is none righteous, no, not one. There are none who are guiltless, and none therefore who can stand before the God who's holy, who is the judge who has made all men to obey him, and who is angry with sinners every day, who hold the truth under in unrighteousness by their unrighteousness and by their denial. We are depraved completely, as our catechism says, unless we be renewed by the Spirit and born again. We are those whose mercies are not acceptable to God. whose righteous works, whereby we might seek to earn something with God, cannot get us into the kingdom of heaven. There needs be a new birth, as Jesus says to Nicodemus. There needs to be a record that is spotless, not at City Hall only, but in the throne room of heaven and in the courts of heaven, whereby God himself reckons us to be absolutely right with him This we know needs to be by a righteousness that God himself provides. Jesus comes and when he says, I'm the one who is gathering Jerusalem's children, and he even says how often I wanted to gather your children together, he's speaking of the fact of his messiahship. He's the gatherer sent from heaven. He's authorized from heaven. He's appointed from heaven. He's qualified as the eternal Son of God. He's God the gatherer. He's God in the flesh the gatherer who needs to come in the flesh and who needs to establish the right to gather God's own soon to die on the cross by paying for their sins. Sins may not get in the way. Sins will not get in the way. He'll deal with them. He will abolish the guilt of them. He will take away the right of sin to hold us sinners in its grip and in its estimation of us. Jesus Christ is going to gather by himself being ungathered, as it were, on the cross for our sake. That is, himself to be loosed from the favor of God in some inscrutable, inexplicable way when he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the price for the gathering. It needs to be paid because you see at stake in the salvation of sinners and the gathering of them is not just our salvation but God's honor. And that is the most important thing. God's honor. God being glorified in the justification of sinners. The saving of them, the gathering of them. Of course, the Savior himself will even do more. He will die for them, but he will rise for them, and this is all necessary for the gathering of sinners. And then he rises to heaven and, literally understood by us who focus on the death of Christ for sinners, is now his work. and his life for sinners at the right hand of God. You know, Jesus is very busy in heaven, ever living to intercede for the saints of God. And on that day of Pentecost, pouring out with the great effulgence of mercy and grace of his own spirit from heaven, so Father and Son engaged in the economy of salvation, of causing those who were established as by right God's people now to have this salvation applied to them. And then there's more. The Savior who pours out the Spirit in general upon the church is now the one who calls, and he gathers that way. He calls us by name in the preaching. That's what he's doing now. He's gathering you, beloved. He's calling you to himself, not only for the first time, but over and over again. Do you hear that? You who are at loose ends with regard to your own peace and your status with God, loose end sinner, he's gathering you. He's calling you to come close to him, to believe, to be his gathered one. To gather him up, as it were, to hold on to him, that's what the gatherer does. He gathers and He alone and then He makes us to have this heart and these hands that want to gather Him up in our arms. The lovely mutuality of God's covenant in response to the unconditionality of God's covenant. takes hold of us that we might hold him. As our form for the supper says, and our part for baptism says, for our part of the covenant, the responsibility. Jesus says, history long. He's been gathering, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. And you'll note here, Jesus links his sending of prophets and other messengers of his, and they're being stoned, to link his own gathering while he's on earth to the gathering that he had performed before he was on the earth. This is an amazing revelation here. the identity, the reality of Jesus before he's born, he was gathering. As our catechism says in Lord's Day 21, question 54, the question on the church, what do you believe in the church that's chosen? That the son of God, from beginning to the end of the world, gathers this people that's chosen by his spirit and word, and then defends and preserves that people. That's the gatherer. That's the gathering. That's the story of the gospel. Out of the mass of fallen humanity, God's chosen one are gathered by this great Son. Let me just cite a few texts to remind you that this is this amazing truth of the entire Bible, the God who gathers. Isaiah 11, for example. He will set up a banner, verse 12. He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts, the ungathered of Israel. He will assemble them and gather together, gather together, the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And then you have Isaiah 43, verse 5. Isaiah 43 and verse 5, and there it is said, get it here. Fear not, for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, give them up, and to the south, do not keep back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Notice here. The gathered ones who are being gathered by the Lord are gathered by a sovereign Lord who calls to the four points of the compass, bring my people to me. Let them come. I am gathering them and nothing can resist that. And so you have other places that speak of the glory of the Lord itself gathering the children of Israel. And notice how this people here is described in very unflattering terms as chicks who are gathered under a hen. Notice that. It seems very unflattering to Jesus himself, who compares himself to a hen, but it's certainly unflattering to us, ourselves, who are compared to chicks, little chickens, or little birds, as the term can be used. Jesus describes his gathering here in this way. How down to earth can you get? Barnyard earth. Jesus, a hen in the barnyard. a mother hen in the barnyard, and the chicks, her brood, being gathered to him. This is also something that is Old Testament and biblical eminently, this description of God himself being as a mother hen. Psalm 91, verse 4, he shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge. His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, and so on. Psalm 17, verse 8, another similar reference to this God who is as a hen in Jesus. Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of your wings, and so on. So here's Christ as a mother hen, describing in barnyard terms, and we can understand these things. saving people who are no better than chickens. Helpless, dirty, yes, and they're dirty, and they're just chicken. They're scared. They're those who cower, who fear the shadow of the hawk or the cry of the hawk, who need the great hen to save them, to call them to himself. This is the idea here. So Jesus is described as this hen who would save from the hawk or the eagle, maybe an allusion to the Roman eagle and Jesus saying here, there's no help in that bird, in that nation. But be that as it may, he's the outstanding savior as this hen. As this one then who cares for the ones under his wings and who keeps them from the cold and who heals them, he says, with his wings, Malachi. so that in every way they are cared for. Now this bespeaks his love, his love. And his love for them, Jesus says, who are these chickens, but who are special kind of chickens in a special place, Jerusalem. The chicks are called Jerusalem's children. The Jewish leaders, represented by the name Jerusalem, are those who refused the hen, Jesus, in his attempt to gather them, and who was by this Seeking to gather Jerusalem's children. You see that? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together. This is vital for the understanding of the text. The hens that Jesus gathers are not any, or the chicks that he gathers are not any chicks. They're not any chick even in the farmyard. They're the brood. They're the ones that belong to the hen. He's not calling everyone head for head here. And he has this place that he's calling. It's called Jerusalem. These chicks are Jerusalem's children. They are being prevented in one way or another from being gathered by this hen, Jesus, by Jerusalem's leaders, the scribes and Pharisees upon whom woes have been pronounced, eightfold woes, just prior to this text. So in other words, this is a covenant gathering. Jesus is concerned because His Father is with Abraham's seed. The children of the promise, the elect of God from those children. He's concerned about them. He's come to do the will of the Father to save those lost sheep and children of the house of Israel. Now described as chicks being gathered by a hen. Jesus here is being faithful to the will of his Father. but he meets with resistance. This is the second thing about this text here. He meets with resistance. In fact, history long, God himself has met with resistance. This is what sin is, resisting God. Do you know what resisting God is? It's the only way you'll understand this well and humbly The only way you understand Jerusalem's objecting to Jesus gathering his chicks is if you yourself put yourself in their place. Can you do that right now? Can you pray for the Spirit to do that right now for you? Understand just how resistant you are and I am. You see, what's being alluded to here is the nature of man, the nature of man, woman, and every child of Adam to resist God. Even in the garden, you think of that. Adam and Eve preferred the voice of a devil and the words of a devil to the voice and the words of God. How terrible. Even among those who were sinless and righteous and whose every choice and every love was of God and to God and so on, yet because they were made fallible, God in his wisdom decreed this fall, and it occurred, because God works all things according to the counsel of his decree, and mysteriously, without being the author of sin, behold, there's sin in heaven. At first, you realize that, children, heaven has a history. And before the history of the fall on the earth, there was a history of the devil and a third part of the angels of heaven, Revelation 12, whom the devil took with him And they fell, and they became inveterate, stubborn person-makers who resist the will of God at every turn. This is the history of Israel. Isaiah 30, verse 15, for example, for thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest, you shall be saved. Isaiah 30, verse 15. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. I'll repeat it. In returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. But you would not. You would not. Same would not that's presented here in our text. The would, the desire of the Savior, and the would not of sinners. Here it is. How often I would, another translation, gather your children together as a hen gather her children under her wings, but you would not. You would not. This is the truth here of total depravity, which excludes the free will of man. Very important text. This is the truth of Psalm 81. But my people would not heed my voice, and Israel would have none of me. So I gave them over to their own heart to walk in their own councils." Understand this important doctrinal difference here and why we are reformed and not what's called Arminian. The time of Dort in Holland, 1618-19, great controversy over this, the free will of man. The Arminians saying because there's a freedom of man, an autonomy of man that God cannot violate, God himself cannot violate. Therefore, man is free to choose good or evil, and that's why he is ultimately rejected is because he chooses the evil, which is, of course, true. But they're saying that at the same time, therefore, salvation depends on the sinner's choosing. This text all by itself says no, can't be. As often as the hen would gather the chicks, Jerusalem's leaders, not just Jerusalem, not just the people themselves, but the leaders, the religious cream of the crop, did not have the desire to want to be saved, to want to fellowship with God, Not at all. In another place, John 5, verse 40, I believe Jesus says, you will not come to me and you would have eternal life. You will not. Your will is depraved. And this is exactly what the Bible says in every part. That's why it can be described before the flood that the imaginations and the dreams of men's heart was only evil continually. So in another place, there's none that doeth good. No, not one. There's none that seeks after God. This is described here in this text. And it was so important at the time of Dort, you realize, that the Armenian head of state at this time was executed. And 80-plus ministers, Armenians, were banished from Holland over this idea of free will. I wonder if that would occur today. When reformed in Presbyterian of every stripe or bedfellows with Arminians. It's okay. We just have a different take on things. It's a hard concept to understand, to be sure, how God could condemn sinners and they don't have free will. But, and therefore we'll just Let them be them and us will agree to disagree and we can have fellowship. And it doesn't really mean anything. You see, this is just making easy what God has not made easy. And I'll say to you, this is not an easy thing to understand here. Jesus is described here as willing, and people are not willing. And therefore, it seems Jesus doesn't get his way. And the will of man is that on which depends the salvation of God. Seems like that. Until we remember everything that was said in the first point about the gathering God. I review for you. God says, I will gather my people. I will gather them from the north, the south, the east, and the west. I will gather them. My glory will gather them, the prophet says. I will gather them and they shall be gathered. I will seek them and they shall be found. That's what God says in no uncertain terms in the Bible. And this is exactly what's occurring here. And you note here, it cannot be said, that Jesus is failing in his desire, and that's why he's lamenting here. Some people, many people interpret it this way. This is the great failure of Jesus, and that's why he's weeping. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to do something, but you wouldn't let me. and they explain the grief as this frustration of the attempt of the Savior to save His own. But you know, dear, there's nothing like this in the text. Not only is this contrary to all the doctrines of grace, which is irresistible, the doctrine of the cross, which is efficacious, the doctrine of the fact that many are called indeed externally, but few are chosen, and those who are chosen do respond to the Savior who calls by name His own. And they come. The text itself does not speak of Jerusalem or Jesus desiring the salvation of Jerusalem itself, but Jerusalem's children. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing. Jesus is speaking to the religious ones, the leaders. upon whom he has pronounced woes. But with regard to Jerusalem's children, he's saying, I have over and over sought to gather them, but you have been preventing them. You have been trying to throw obstacles in the way of my ministry, of my salvation, and woe to those who throw obstacles in the front of a faithful ministry and eldership. Woe to those. who would frustrate externally the work of God in his church, and especially woe to those who defy the Savior before their very eyes. Says nothing at all here about Jesus not getting what he wants, as if his seeking to gather them was a vain thing. frustrated by the willingness, the unwillingness, not only of the hens, the chicks he would gather, but by a people that was proud and obstinate, Jerusalem. In fact, Jesus gathers every single one whom he seeks to gather. That's the truth of the Bible, beloved. He's the glory of God. He will not be frustrated in this attempt. He gathers every single one. All the men and all the ones who kill the prophets and so on, they do hinder. And this is what he's referring to here. They hinder the external ministry of the Savior, just like today. In the Church of Christ, the external ministry of faithful elders and pastors is being hindered. It's being objected to. And yet, there can be no ultimate resistance to the grace of God and the work of God underneath. What Jesus, though, is lamenting is what you can see, the deplorable state of Jerusalem. This is terrible. This brings grief to the eye of the Savior in the form of a tear, and to the heart of this very man, so that yes, he does grieve at sin. But he's not like a man to grieve and be frustrated about it, or like a sinful man to have been seeking all along to gather something that the Father himself had not given to him to gather. Jesus comes and seeks to save the ones who are given to him in the counsel of God. That's John 17. And Jesus will die for them, and Jesus will pray for them, and Jesus will come again for them. And to say that this lamentation reveals some frustrated purpose of God is to have a lamentable interpretation and not a biblical one. As much as we like to attribute altogether human emotion to Jesus, let us not make it altogether blasphemous as if God, whose heart is set on something, has a broken heart, just like us, and just like unrequited lovers. This is what the conclusion is. And look on the internet, there's many sermons that are entitled, The Unrequited Love of Jesus. So he, in other words, he loves but his love is not effectual to the end. It doesn't accomplish the purposes of God. We say no to that, but we do say yes to the heart of the Savior that's revealed here. You know how much Jesus loves you and loves me? You know how much Jesus pours out his life? So much so that he's as a broken man. He is as one forsaken of God. He is as one who takes not sin lightly. This is not a game. And the sovereignty of God is not God the machine saving his own so that he rides over men and is oblivious to what's going on in this world. No, the gospel is God becomes a man. And God in the person of the Son laments over Jerusalem's demise and sinfulness and hypocrisy. How to explain that and let God be God, that's the purpose of preachers. But let the preachers do this with reverence and the people here with reverence. It's kind of like considering how can God come in the flesh? And how can God, the Holy God, take on sin? The same question is how can Jesus, who's fulfilling the purpose of God, and he knows it, and he's gonna gather his own, how can he now lament and shed a tear over Jerusalem? Well, beloved, the outcome, final point, is that there's desolation here that is announced. Woes were pronounced before this text, and now desolation. See, behold, your house is left to you desolate. That means barren, like a wilderness that grows nothing. Your house is left to you desolate. And what Jesus is referring to there is that there is this soon demise of Jerusalem. the representative city of the people of God, the place of God's dwelling. 70 AD, it will all be destroyed. And as Jesus says in chapter 24, not one stone will be left upon another of Jerusalem. When Titus comes in and the Roman eagle is set over the holy place as sign of the conquest of the Roman Empire, it's the end of Jewry. It's the end of the Jewish nation. There is no more Jewish nation. It's desolate. And the desolation is because it does not see Jesus anymore. Oh, it will see him when it crucifies him on the cross. It will see him. And there will be other times when he's visible, say, at the court of Pilate and so on. But it will not be a recipient of any revelation of Jesus. It will be blinded. It is blinded now with a judicial blindness. And this seeing is desolation, or this seeing no more is desolation, because the only way of salvation is to see and behold and believe the Savior. The Savior himself is saying, it will no more be possible among Jewry to save. the people of God. I'm turning from them. Desolation is exactly when God leaves you. You know that sinner? Desolation was the glory is taken out of the temple. When the presence of God is taken out and all that's left is the shell. Like when the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Israel and the priest shouts out, or the priest's relative, Ichabod, the glory is departed from Israel. This is what's happening here. The glory, God Almighty in flesh, is departing from Israel. There is no glory of Israel, the earthly Israel, the earthly Jerusalem anymore. Vain is the attempt of politicians and religious ones to try to support Israel in the name of the fact that they are the people of God. That is worse than hogwash, beloved, to speak in the barnyard language. That's a dispensational myth. The Jews are not the people of God. The people of God are the people of God, and who are the people of God? The elect from every nation. And every tribe, the seed of Abraham, the true seed of the promise, Romans 9, are those indeed who are not simply of the loins of Abraham, but the people of the regeneration of the God of our salvation. You're a Jew, circumcised inwardly, not outwardly, believer in God. among the gathered ones from every nation, tribe, and tongue." Wonderfully, I am convinced there is a hint of hope here, that though there is desolation, Israel will see Jesus no more, the Jews will see Jesus no more, until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Beloved, there's a reference here, I believe, to the coming of Jesus again, and Jews themselves acknowledging that the one they pierced, even Jesus, is their Messiah. There is a remarkable description of the rejection of the Jews in Romans 9, 10, and 11, but of the acceptance of the Jews again at the end of time, so that Romans 11, 26, all Israel shall be saved. Now, many differ on this, even among conservative theologians, and they see there's going to be a massive conversion of the Jews at the end of time. I'm not so sure about that. There may be a significant conversion of Jews at the end of the time. Even the leaders of the Jews, the rabbis today who denounce Jesus, but they will be converted at the end of time if they are one of God's elect, and not as Jews. but because they are the chosen people, they are the ones for whom Jesus has come to gather. Be that as it may, they indeed will be filled with remorse that they crucified him, but they will also say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's what was being said at the beginning of the Passion Week. This will be said at the end of time. I refer to Zechariah 13, 1 and then the end of it. In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And then verse 9. I will bring the one-third to the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them, and I will say, this is my people. And each one will say, the Lord is my God. That's the hope of this text. And it's your hope, beloved. Jesus will not be denied. Be gathered, dear ones, as the chicks under the wings of the glorious Savior, our Savior Jesus Christ. Believe this, that Jesus is the gatherer that we know, and he resists our resistance by his overwhelming grace. Know that. And he will see us all the way to the end. Having loved us, he will love us to the end. Amen. We thank you, Father, for this word. Blessed to our service and our humility and grace. For Jesus' sake, amen.