Well, friends, those are very moving words, I'm sure, and very helpful as we come to look at the Scriptures this evening. What I want to do is to turn your attention for a moment or two to these words in Luke 19, and particularly verses 41 and 42. Let me just read 41 to 44 again to give you the context and the situation. This of course was our Lord's reaction as he is riding on the donkey towards Jerusalem. After he had come through the crowds, or as they were shouting, blessed be the king that comes in the name of the Lord, he is filled with grief, verse 41. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee. And they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation. Now it's particularly versus the fact that he wept over the city and the words that he spoke in verse 42 that I want us to think about a little bit this evening. We see here something of the tenderness and the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior. He is riding in triumph into Jerusalem and there's great joy and rejoicing by the multitudes, but it is short-lived. It wasn't going to be long before those shouts of Hosanna were exchanged for shouts of crucify, crucify. That's the fickle nature of crowds, isn't it? Here is what is called the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But as Matthew Henry says, not to be respected, but to be rejected. I want to begin this evening by reading a little bit of a more lengthy passage than I would normally read, but I think it sets the scene for us. It's written by Dean Farrer in his book, The Life of Christ. Now, I don't know what you think, I don't know if you've seen Pharaoh's Life of Christ. It was, for my grandparents' generation, one of the classic books about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and although he was an Anglican, Dean Farrer, much of what he says is very helpful, particularly in his understanding of the situation in Jerusalem, in Judea. in fact, in the whole of the Holy Land. In fact, he has some incredible insights into the Holy Land. And he, Dean Farrer, along with another man, Dean Alford, who wrote a commentary, as it were, on, well, it was more than a, it was, It was more the history, but it was very much a commentary on the Book of the Acts about the life of Paul. And for that generation, they were well-known and often used books. But Farrer has this, I think, helpful description of what is happening here, as he describes for us the situation on the Mount of Olives. The road, he says, slopes, by a gradual ascent up the Mount of Olives, through green fields and under shady trees, till it suddenly sweeps round to the northward. It is at this angle of the road that Jerusalem, which hitherto has been hidden by the shoulder of the hill, bursts full upon the view. There, through the clear atmosphere, rising out of the deep valleys which surrounded it, the City of Ten Thousand Memories stood clear before him, and the morning sunlight, as it blazed on the marble pinnacles and gilded roofs of the temple buildings, was reflected in a very fiery splendour which forced the spectator to avert his glance. Such a glimpse of such a city is at all times affecting, and many a Jewish and Gentile traveller has reined his horse in at this spot and gazed upon the scene in emotion too deep for speech. But the Jerusalem of that day Remember, this is before AD 70, before the destruction of the temple, with its imperial mantle of proud towers, was regarded as one of the wonders of the world and was a spectacle incomparably more magnificent than the decayed and crumbling city of today. Of course, he's writing 150, 200 years, well, yeah, more than 200 years ago when he writes that. And who can interpret, who can enter into the mighty rush of divine compassion which at that spectacle shook the Saviour's soul, as He gazed on that mass of gold and snow—not literal snow, but the appearance of the whiteness of the buildings, the marble? Was there no pride, no exultation in the heart of its true King? Far from it! He had dropped silent tears at the grave of Lazarus. Here he wept aloud. I'll come back to that a little bit later. All the shame of his mockery, all the anguish of his torture, was powerless, five days afterwards, to exhort from him a single groan, or to wet his eyelids with one trickling tear. But here, all the pity that was within him overmastered his human spirit. and he not only wept, but broke into a passion of lamentation, in which the choked voice seems to struggle for its utterance. A strange messianic triumph, says Farrer, a strange interpretation of the festal cries, the hosanna cries of the crowds. The deliverer weeps over the city, which it is now too late to save. The King prophesied the utter ruin of the nation which he came to rule. "'If thou hadst known,' he cried, while the wandering multitudes looked on, and knew not what to think or say. "'If thou hadst known, even thou at least in thy day, the things that belong to thy peace, And there sorrow interrupted the sentence, and when he found voice to continue, he could only add, But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trencher out about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation. It was the last invitation from the glory of God on the Mount of Olives before that Shekinah vanished from their eyes forever. Well, I think Pharaoh has caught something of the situation of the sorrow, may we say of the pathos of the expression in perhaps a way that we don't often stop to consider. And I want us just to think very briefly and very simply about these words that our Lord spoke here in verse 42. Notice firstly, the favor that they had known, the favor that they had known. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ coming and he is lamenting over the city. He knew the blessings of the past and the prophecies and the warnings that had come from the prophets of the Old Testament and of course even with John the Baptist as well in his cry for men to repent. But now there is great inward weeping and mourning, while the people are full of praise. Hosanna in the highest! Look at verse 38 here, where we read, they say, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Wasn't that an echo? Well, it may not be an echo, but it does reflect upon the words of the angels at his birth. Peace in heaven, glory in the highest. But how different the circumstances are now. And here, this praise is hollow praise. In fact, many only had political aims in view. There was outward exuberance, but no inward reality, no spiritual work in their hearts. They ran with a crowd today to God's house, but in a few days' time they will turn from Him and cry for His crucifixion. I think that has a very solemn message, doesn't it, to us, dear friends? Please, I'm not passing any condemnation upon you, dear friends, here this evening, but it does remind us that we need to be so careful, so sure that our conversion is genuine, is true. that our understanding of the grace of God is not just simply experience. Now, of course, there are people today, some people today, who thrive on experience. And there are some people who come and say, Christians shouldn't have experience and we should get away from all these excesses and the rest. Well, my friends, any Christian experience, if it's true Christian experience, is very wonderful and glorious and powerful. But how easy to see this sight before us, which Dean Farrer has described for us, and see Jerusalem, what is described by the psalmist as the joy of the whole earth, beautiful for situation. This city, which was not large, even by the standards of the day of the first century, But it was an impregnable fortress, surrounded by God. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved, the psalmist said. But when the city is forsaken by God, it becomes a prey to heathen nations, and the armies who sacked it, and the beautiful temple. The days were going to come when not one stone will be left upon another. there will be utter ruin and desolation. And even on the cross, you remember, our Lord called upon the daughters of Jerusalem not to weep for Him, but to weep for themselves and for their city, the holy city. Now, our friends, of course, we understand, and I'm sure you know this, I'm not trying to teach you anything you don't know, but I'm sure you understand that in the New Testament, particularly, and as we go through the Scriptures, we come to understand that Jerusalem is also a picture of the Church, the Bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem. It's wonderful to think of these things and to understand them and to see the way in which the prophets in the Old Testament spoke forward of the coming of the Lord and those wonderful words in Jeremiah and Zechariah speaking of the Lord, our righteousness, the branch. But of course, Jeremiah goes on later in his prophecy to use precisely the same words about the Lord, our righteousness, and the branch of the city of Jerusalem, the people of God, the church. You and me as true members of the church of Jesus Christ. Do we weep over the city of God? Do we weep over the church, the new Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, because so often It is in ruins. It is divided. It is spoiled. Thank God for the churches where there is harmony and unity and fellowship. Bless you, dear friends. I trust that's true for you at Westerning. But sadly, I know of many churches, and I'm sure you know of many churches, where there is dissension and argument, and the whole witness of God's grace is spoiled. How sad. And yet what does this do? It also reveals to us something of the true nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both perfect God and perfect man. He sheds a tear, tears, as the God-man. and there is a sense, and I'm not trying to divide his humanity and deity when I put it like this, there is a sense in which he sheds tears as a man for what he had foretold and foreknew as God. In fact, there is a sense in which his tears are even more poignant because he is that perfect God-man, because he knew every detail of the tragedy that was to come on them. and he knew of his death and of the destruction of Jerusalem, of the judgment that must fall on them, the rebellious nation, and his heart yearns for them, and he weeps. Now, the word of describing his weeping in verse 41 is an insignificant word. It's not unusual. It does occur in the Scriptures a number of times. You know I am sure that in John chapter 11 we read as our Lord stands at the grave of Lazarus and as he sees the effect of sin and as he sees the mourning of Martha and Mary and the others who joined at the site, we read in those most moving words, in what is the shortest verse in the Bible, it's only just two words in our English Bibles, Jesus wept. Now that is itself an amazing statement. And maybe we'll think a little bit more about that later. But this word is a different word. And the word that is used here in Luke, this is the only time this word is used of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a word which speaks of great emotion. The word translated wept is a word which speaks of wailed. It speaks of bursting into tears. It speaks of whole heart and body sobbing. There is great emotion. Even in our English translations, something of the broken nature of the sentences comes over. The deep emotion. In that description I read from Dean Farrow, he caught something of that as he described our Lord's words over the city. It is the word that is used of Peter in Matthew 26 and verse 75, after he had denied his Lord and we read, and he went out and he wept bitterly. It's the word that is used in Matthew 2 and verse 18, quoting the Old Testament of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted. Now, this word is only used here of the Lord Jesus. Now, it's used in other places, but this is the only time it is used of Him. In all his sorrow, he was a man of sorrows, unacquainted with grief, and there are many evidences of that in the Gospels, but this is great emotion, this is unusual, even for our Lord, we might even say unique. The favour you had known, the blessings you had experienced, and he weeps. And here were the people, and there they were, praising and singing Hosanna, but they were satisfied, and they were content with their lot, and they were relaxed, rather than rebuked and challenged by their lack of spiritual understanding. Surely this reveals the very heart of God. He that has seen me, says the Lord Jesus, has seen the Father. But here they reject the Son, and therefore reject the Father also. and his tears fall amidst judgment. This is an unusual picture that we have or description we have here of the Lord Jesus in his passion and compassion. How wonderful to have a saviour who understands our sorrows and our griefs. who understands how sometimes we can weep so much that we are almost, as it were, out of control of ourselves, who've known what it is. But our Lord's tears fall amidst judgment, because obstinate impenitence calls for justice, but even God's justice is tempered with tears. I find that most profound, most moving. God's wrath against sin, which will consume the ungodly, and yet is tempered with tears. You remember how our Lord speaks those wonderful words in Isaiah. They come a number of times in the Old Testament, but Isaiah takes them up on a couple of occasions and in Isaiah 30. And verse 15, you will remember, for thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. And yet, Isaiah 30, 15 says this, and ye would not, you would not. Oh, my friends, Let the tears of the Lord Jesus Christ banish your fears. Come to him who weeps with compassion over you. And those of us who know the Lord and trust the Lord and are saved by the Lord, never speak of judgment in harsh and unjust terms. I remember many, many years ago, when I was a child, my uncle, who was a faithful minister preacher of the gospel, he was amongst the group of brethren churches, but he was a preacher and he was involved in a lot of evangelism. He was a very powerful evangelism in his day. But I remember him telling me, this was not what he said, But I remember him telling about a man who drowned in a boating accident on the River Trent. and how some of the people around this man had had the experience of coming up, growing up in a Christian family, but he had rejected the word of God. And some of the people in the church where he had been, when he died, they turned around and they said, it served him right, because he had rejected God. And my uncle was shocked. And I remember, I don't know how old I was, probably 10, 11, 12. I'm not sure whether it was, it was probably just after my father died. So I was probably in my early teens. But I can remember being utterly, with my uncle, shocked that people should react in that way. But sadly, that is how some people think. Bless you, my dear friends. I'm sure you don't think like that. Now we must speak of judgment. but we speak with tenderness and with tears, the favour they had known, the special opportunities of God's grace. Now, not only had they had all the Old Testament laws and the prophets, but they'd had three years' ministry of the Lord Jesus himself, and they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth, and they had marvelled at the mighty acts of the Son of God, and they had heard clear calls to repentance and faith, and yet they had ignored it. Oh, my friends, we need, don't we, to keep on speaking the truths of the gospel of the grace of God, that men may hear the call of God, that they may respond, that they may not reject these words. I wonder if any of the Jews of our Lord's day argued that they'd been baptised with John's baptism, so they were all right. But past experience is no guarantee of present knowledge. We're not saved by experience, we're saved by the grace of God. And what does the Lord say to us? He that endures to the end shall be saved. And I trust we're not guilty, bless you, I'm sure you're not, of trusting to some decision you made years ago and yet not going on with the Lord today. Sadly, I've met people like that sometimes. How is it with your soul, my dear friends? How is it with your soul today? Are you right with God? Are you progressing with Him? Are you growing in grace? Or does the Savior weep over you? Such possibilities, such opportunities. Here you are a Christian man, a Christian woman, but you're not where you ought to be with Christ. You're not living for him as you should. Maybe there's some sin in your life. Does he weep over your rebellion and sin? Or does he weep as he weeps with you in all the sorrows and difficulties you face, and you share in his compassion and his grace toward you, the favor that they had known? Secondly, more briefly, these second two points, the fault by which they perished, the fault by which they perished. Look at what he says here in these words. If you had known, even you, if thou had known, even thou, even you. What is he saying? Well, of course, remember, he is speaking specifically to the people of Jerusalem. to the Jews, to the families, to the children who were singing his praise, and the people who were before him, the people in Jerusalem. You, Jerusalem, of all cities, are guilty of willful ignorance, and Jerusalem, the city, is denounced, because she should have recognized the Messiah, who, when he came, and yet he knew the true character of the city, It's very significant that he comes into the temple and casts them out and throws them out. He says, my house is to be a house of prayer. That was the situation that he faced. And he knew something of the cruelty and the self-righteousness and the stubbornness and the obstinate prejudice and pride. Of course, he was going to face that when he faces his trial in a few days time. And yet in the face of all this provocation, look at his compassion. Jerusalem, Jerusalem of all places, and the scribes and the Pharisees of all people, should have been able to read the signs of the times. They had all the equipment and knowledge to do so. But they were ignorant, willfully ignorant, which added to their guilt. Oh, what joys you might have had! Oh, what delights you might have understood! Here is God the Son coming to his own chosen people. What delights of joy, of pardoned sin, of fellowship, of the glow of the Holy Spirit! What expectation of glory to be revealed! What revelation of God's character and being you should have known! I have been with you for three years. If only you had heard the words of Malachi, where God says through Malachi, prove me now, put me to the test that I may open the windows of heaven, that I will open the windows of heaven and pour you out such a blessing. And yet, my friends, we know, don't we, that false peace does disappear like a mirage in the desert, leaving you in the arid sands of despair at the approaching sounds of the vengeance of our God against the unrepentant. And such is our Lord's weeping over the rebellious city. This surely should melt hearts of stone. And yet how sad it is that men are so hardened that they can trample, as it were, on the Redeemer's tears. and almost seems as though they are resolved to be condemned, even when the tears of the most perfect man will not stop them. My friends, it reminds us again, doesn't it, of the wonder of the saving grace of God, because nothing, nothing but the work of omnipotence can stop men and women from eternal suicide. Here were people who had lost their peace, and that's how our Lord describes it. These things which belong to your peace, but you've lost it. They were favoured. Egypt never had peace. Syria never had peace, but you did and you lost it. London never had peace. Westerning, by and large, never had peace. Arlesy never had peace. Bedford never had peace. But Jerusalem did, and they lost it. They were the favoured city, the things that belong to your peace. God have mercy upon you. What neglected opportunities in this your day, our Lord says to them. The harvest is past. The summer has ended and we are not saved. The truth was plain for all to see. that they had hardened their hearts and stopped their ears and closed their eyes to the gospel. My friends, it's tragic when we find people like that and sadly there are so many around us like that today, aren't there? Who have no time for God and for his word and his truth. And here we are, what is it, a year? People are talking about the fact that it's a year and we should reflect upon these things, but they're not calling up men to pray. They're not calling us to pray in these desperately wicked days in which we live. The favor they had known, the fault by which they perished. Thirdly, the future they could have averted. The future they could have averted. the future coming was trouble and disaster and judgment. It could have been peace. What a contrast. The things that belong to your peace. What belongs to your peace? What makes for your peace? My friends, people are seeking peace, are they not? They're seeking happiness, they're seeking contentment, they're seeking answers to the greatest issues of life, but they're not turning to the place they should turn to. The only peace is to be found in the gospel of the grace of God, because only the gospel can bring peace to the conscience, and forgiveness to the heart, and joy to the soul. Why? Because only the gospel deals with the sin problem. And the only true peace, my dear friends, you know this, don't you? What a great comfort this is. The only true peace that we can have is in Christ. How sad it is that there are men and women today who have a kind of peace even on the brink of hell. They're blind to their danger. We talk about that situation sometimes, don't we, as irony, the irony of the situation, the incongruity of the situation. But my friends, the incongruity of unsaved eternal souls is not a matter of irony, it is a matter of tragedy. Here as a matter of life or death, of heaven and hell, the gospel is the only peace in time of trouble, loss, and sorrow, and bereavement. I don't know about you, my friends, I don't know whether I'm just, as I get older, maybe I'm becoming more depressive, I don't know. But it just saddens me, it grieves me intensely, that in all this trouble, with all this pandemic, and with all the people who've died, and the numbers that have gone up, and up, and up, and up, people still are not facing up to the issues of life and death. You think to yourself, what's going to wake them up? What's going to make them realize the situation? This is the day of God's grace. This is the day of God's visitation. But one day, God's visitation is going to be a visitation of wrath. Now it is mercy. Do not reject his mercy. The visitation of wrath was coming, and it did come. In AD 70, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, and the forests around were denuded in order to make crosses. Utter desolation and destruction. Now my friends, I don't know, I don't know, bless you, I don't know what you have heard and what sermons have been preached in the church over these years, but I wonder how often people have preached about hell. Now friends, we've got to be very careful when we do that. We've got to be very careful that we don't just preach hellfire in an unkind and unloving way. But surely, what will wake men and women up to the dangers that they face? Do not reject these words of tears of strong appeal. Do not withstand the warnings of God's word, because the warnings of God's word are surrounded by his love. Now we don't tend to have open fires in our houses so much in these days, but when we were children we had open fires and that was common, that was the way you kept the house warm. We didn't have this central heating and all that kind of thing when I was a child. And I can remember still having to get up in the morning and The first thing you did was to see if there were any embers left from the fire the night before. If not, you had to lay the fire again and clear out the grate and get the... The first thing you did before you put the kettle on or anything was to make sure that you could get some fire going. sometimes if you had as we had in the house when I was when I was a child we had a I think it was a This dates me. I think it was a quarter back see fire And it was a boil you had to get it a light to get hot water even to get hot water and it didn't last all you know, if you if you'd had if if We were five in the family, there were mum and dad and three children. If you'd had baths the night before then there was no hot water left in the tank and they weren't as well lagged as they are today anyway, so if it was warm it was only tepid. The first thing you had to do was go down and make sure that the boiler, the fire that heated the water was alight. But what did you do? Well, you had to be careful. You had to be careful. You had guards around the fire, and you would warn young children of the dangers of the fire. Why did you do that? Not to restrict their freedom, but out of love for the child. And God warns us of hell fire, not to restrict our freedom, but out of love, yearning over the unrepentant. And how wonderful that there is an answer, only the greatest answer, in the gospel of the grace of God. And a man who doesn't weep over his own sin doesn't know the God of justice and righteousness, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon sin. And a man or woman who does not weep over the sins of others doesn't know the God of love and mercy who sent his only well-beloved son to die to redeem us. Oh, my dear friends, do we not weep for the ungodly around us? A man who is wakened and under conviction of sin doesn't want entertainment and joviality. He needs to know how he can stand before the judgment seat of God with his sins forgiven. Wonderful. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Let him take of the water of life freely. Don't remain unmoved, unsaved, unconverted, ungodly. Do not be misled by false peace or tragic blindness. This is a glorious, glorious gospel. See the Saviour's tears over the lost. And for those of us who know him, may that redouble our efforts to spread this glorious gospel to men and women and boys and girls. And for those of us who don't, may we cast ourselves upon his mercy and find salvation in him. Well, we're going to finish by singing or reflecting upon hymn number 361. 361. All ye that pass by to Jesus draw nigh. To you is it nothing that Jesus should die. Our ransom and peace, our surety he is. Come, see if there ever was sorrow like his. 361. Thank you.