 All right, here we go, Matthew 23. We're going to be looking today at verses 34 through 39. And what we're looking at, and you'll see this when we get to the conclusion of the chapter, we're looking at words of sorrow. And you'll see that as we enter into and conclude our study. But let's begin together, here in Matthew 23, at verse 34. And I'll read to the conclusion of the chapter, verse 39, and give you an introduction. Remind you of where we've been and then move into our study today. Matthew chapter 23, beginning at verse 34, reading to verse 39. Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barakaiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 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. As we've been going through Matthew 23, we have seen that Jesus has been revealing the character traits of the religious leaders of his day, the scribes, and the Pharisees. And in chapter 23, Jesus had preached an entire message and he was warning the people concerning these religious leaders. And he did not hold back. He revealed what they truly were. Because you see, on the outside, they appeared righteous. But Jesus wasn't speaking of their outer appearance. Jesus was speaking concerning the matters of their heart. And so as he's been speaking, he's been clearly delineating them in a certain way that is demonstrating that these are people that should be warned against and that the people who were listening to them were in danger by actually allowing these people to influence their spiritual lives. And as he was speaking, he didn't hold back at all. He revealed what they truly were. And we saw this as we went through chapter 23 up to this point. He spoke of them in this way. He said, you are hypocrites. You are sons of hell. Blind guides. He said, you are fools and blind. You are whitewashed tombs. You are serpents. You are a brood of vipers. And as he was sharing these very encouraging, cheerful words with them, he had closed by saying in verse 32, fill up the measure of your father's guilt. Now when he says fill up, that image is that of a cup. It's a cup that is filled to the brim. It's a cup that is filled to the brim, to the top, with sin and therefore becomes a picture of a cup that is also filled with what happens when somebody's life is filled with sin and that is wrath and judgment. So what we have here is a picture of a cup filled with sin that is producing wrath and judgment. In the Old Testament, the cup is used as an image, sometimes of blessing, like when the psalmist said, my cup overflows. And I was speaking concerning the presence and beauty of the Lord in their life and the blessings that God has brought. But the cup is also used in the sense of judgment. And there are times that God through the prophets would speak concerning coming judgment. And he would use the image of a cup. For example, Isaiah in chapter 51, verse 17, awake, awake, rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath. You who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. So he speaks of the cup of God's wrath. Jeremiah 25, verse 15, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel said to me, take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. Once again, a cup filled with the wine of God's wrath. So this is what Jesus is saying when he tells him to fill up the cup. He is saying, since you have hardened yourselves against all warnings, the responsibility is yours. You are planning on killing me. Go ahead, do it, and suffer the punishment that results. We need to remember that God doesn't close his eyes to this kind of sin. God is gracious and through the old to the New Testament you see his compassion and his mercy. You see that God is a loving and a gracious God and I thank him every day for his grace and mercy to us, to me in particular. But he is also a righteous judge and he is angry at the unrighteous every day. So not only is he a loving and merciful God, he also is a righteous God and he doesn't ignore those who undermine the faith. Remember in Luke 17, how he says in verses one and two as he was speaking to the disciples. It is impossible that no offense should come but woe to him through whom they do come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. He doesn't take this kind of influencing people away from him, he doesn't take it lightly. And he's very clear about that throughout scripture. You see when Jesus is speaking in this chapter and he's bringing his judgment upon false teachers that completely opposes the idea that all religions stand equal before God. Because today we have those who have bumper stickers and you've seen them, I've seen them. In my neighborhood we have one that just says coexist. And it has the symbols of a variety of religious persuasions throughout the earth and that is the common way people think that they think that all roads ultimately are leading to God and you Christians what makes you so offensive is you say that all roads don't but in fact they do. And they would actually call upon themselves to have as a witness Jesus Christ and they would say well Jesus talked about love and mercy and grace and goodness and they're saying that because they don't read their Bibles. Of course Jesus Christ speaks about love and yes he tells us God so loved the world that God gave his only begotten Son. Of course that's the heart of the Christian message but we need to remember that there are other conversations that you can call into play here that will give greater insight. For example, when Jesus in John chapter four was speaking to a woman of Samaria and in that conversation we're all familiar with that particular portion of scripture but Jesus needed to go into this particular area. He was by a well called Sikar. A woman of Samaria came and began to draw water from that well Jesus initiated a conversation with her and as they were speaking according to John chapter four verses 20 through 22 the woman spoke to Jesus and said this the woman said our fathers worshiped on this mountain you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship Jesus said to her woman believe me the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the father and he went on to say you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. He didn't get into a theological debate with this woman at the well. He simply pointed out you worship what you don't know salvation comes from the Jews. Jesus was pointing her very clearly to that fact. Now if all religions led to God then why did Jesus say that to the Samaritan woman? If all people could go to heaven by trying to be good then what was the purpose of the death of Jesus Christ? Now Paul in Galatians chapter two verse 21 said it like this he said I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness could be gained through the law Christ died for nothing. There was no reason for the death of Christ if you could be made righteous by obeying laws and rituals. So Jesus came to bring the message of salvation and the message of salvation is found in this we completely trust in him. He is the ladder to heaven and through him that is how we're saved. In first Timothy chapter two verse five Paul said it like this he said there is one God one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus. So because of this Jesus strongly condemned the religious leaders of Israel they were rejecting him and in doing so provoking others to do it also. He had said in verse 13 here in Matthew 23 woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for you neither go in yourselves nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. So the Lord is speaking very directly to them he's referring to them by what they are and he is sharing with them concerning their danger. In verse 33 we had closed with these words he says to them serpents brood of vipers how can you escape the condemnation of hell? That's a very powerful statement. So he identifies them as serpents as well as a brood of vipers. Now a serpent is a word that is used in general to speak of a snake but a viper that's a little bit different. Vipers are very small poisonous snakes. They live primarily in the desert and sometimes they would climb into a pile of twigs and as they would climb into the twigs and all because they're small and because of the coloring they would blend in with the twigs and so if somebody were to come and pick up this pile of twigs to use as firewood then it's very possible that they would also be picking up a viper and we see that actually in the book of Acts in chapter 28 verse three where it says there that Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and as he put it on the fire a viper driven out by the heat fastened itself on his hand. And so that would happen during that day. Vipers were used in a proverbial way to describe that which is deadly and that which is deceitful. So Jesus is saying not only are you serpents but you are a brood of vipers. You are deadly and you are deceitful and that's why he says in verse 33 how can you escape the condemnation of hell? You're deceitful and you are deadly how can you escape final judgment? Not only have you turned my people against me but you are preparing to kill me and you will not escape judgment. And as he's saying that he says in verse 34 therefore indeed I send you prophets wise men and scribes some of them you will kill and crucify some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous able to the blood of Zechariah, Son of Barakiah whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Surely I say to you all these things will come upon this generation. And so Jesus is coming to the conclusion of his message and he's giving them a final warning. Now he is saying you think that after you've killed me my work will be eliminated from the world and in this you're absolutely wrong. My work in this world will continue long past my death. You see the church was not intended to exist in one small nation Israel for one small amount of time, first century. The church is called by God, created by God, intended by God to exist until the return of Christ. And so Jesus is saying you think that by putting me to death you'll end the message but the fact of the matter is the message is gonna continue and I'm gonna actually do something that you're not even aware of. I will send workers out into the world and my message will continue to spread. And these people, by the way that applies to every believer in this room, these people are commissioned to share the gospel throughout the world. Every one of us in here, a lot of times we think that there's only certain people that have been commissioned to take this message and to share it, that's not true at all. We all have been given that commission. Every believer that I have in this room has been called by God and commissioned by God to live in such a way that the gospel of God can go out and the word can be used through your voice to their ears to draw them to salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus in Mark 16 verse 15 said go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. And so he was not intending for his message to die with him, he was intending his message to continue. But these people thought if you kill the messenger you will destroy the message. And in this he's saying no, that's not true at all. I send you prophets, wise men, scribes. And this is what you'll do. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. No, I'm sending you these people and you will respond in this way to them. You will persecute them and you will kill them as you also did me. I send you prophets, wise men and scribes. You will continue to persecute me through your persecution of my disciples. Now the disciples have been prepared by Jesus to weather persecution. It is something that happens. It isn't something you wake up in the morning saying, boy, I hope today I'm persecuted. You know, I'd really enjoy it, you know. And now it's not that at all. And we're living in a time where I understand this fairly well. We're living in a time where we would prefer having a good day over a day that causes us pain. Of course, of course. Who wakes up in the morning intending to be hurt for Jesus' sake? We don't wake up that way. We're hoping that the Lord will use us. We're hoping he'll sustain us and strengthen us. He will day by day. But we don't go out of our way to provoke people to punch us or swear at us. I mean, that's not what we intend to do. But we have encountered those kinds of responses over the years where you'll share a message or start sharing the gospel and somebody gets upset. But we're so prone to wanting only days that we consider to be good that we don't even realize that even in the days that don't seem to be as good as we'd like them have resulted in a fruit in our life that has given to us more patience, more endurance, a greater sense of what love is, and an understanding in depth of the gospel that we didn't have before those things happened. But we like the promises, don't we? And as I mentioned before, we have these, we have, Marie and I have these too. We have what they'll call little treasure chests of promises or promise boxes. And what you have is you'll open the lid and you have a verse for the day and you might pull that verse out and you look at it and it says, you will be the head and not the tail. And you say, all right, Jesus, right on. Thank you so much. Today, today is that day. And you'll do that over and over again. You are more than conquerors. Oh, absolutely. There's no doubt about that. In Christ I can do all things. Amen. Then you pull it out. You shall be hated by all men for my name's sake. And he said, oh man, I got my wife's promise of the day. I didn't really, I'll put it back. I don't want to steal the blessing from her. You know, we, we don't, we don't, we don't want and understandably, but yet Jesus said, this is what'll happen. Remember that Matthew 10. He said in verses 16 through 18, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men. They will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account, you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. So the Lord has already made it clear and that's what he's saying to these scribes and Pharisees. He said, I, I send you prophets, wise men and scribes, but he says, some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. I'm sending them, you will abuse them, this is what he is saying here. This began very early in the history of the Christian church, by the way. When you look in the book of Acts, and we've been going through this, some of you have joined me on the journey through Acts and you've already seen this. The gospel in the message, as you see the gospel preached in the book of Acts, very often the ones who are preaching, when they're given the essentials of the gospel are reminding the people that they're speaking to, that the people they are speaking to were responsible for wanting the death of Christ. And you see that, and that was happening to such frequency because that's what happens when you preach the gospel. You have to share that these people, you are guilty of the death of Christ and all you died on your behalf and you wanted them dead. That ultimately what happened is, is the religious authorities that commanded the apostles to cease preaching. And you see in Acts 4.18 that they, these religious officials called Peter and John and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. That started from the very beginning. No longer speak and no longer teach in the name of Jesus Christ. They were commanded not to do that. In some ways, by the way, that occurs even to this day. Even to this day, there are ministers who are commanded not to preach and teach what the word actually says. So if I go to Canada and I'm teaching the book of Romans and as a visitor there in that land, they will take my teaching. There are officials who will take that teaching, review it because if I say something in Romans one, we'll say that is accurate as to what the word of God says as it pertains to sin and the various kinds of sin. And they hear that. And they will actually confiscate that teaching. And they say it's a form of hate speech. There are preachers who have been put in jail for preaching the word of God unvarnished, for teaching the word of God in other countries and all. And so they're commanding them not to teach nor preach in the name of Jesus. That's happening right now. What's interesting is we expect the world to forbid us to do that. We really do. I expect the world to say, don't say that, that's a very hateful thing to say. You are a hateful man because you say this. I expect the world, you know what's weird is the church is saying the same thing. That's what's weird. When believers will actually say, that's just unkind, that's unloving, you're a hater, that's even more discouraging. I expect the world to say, cease preaching in the name of Jesus. I expect that because the word of God is like a surgeon's scalpel and it goes deep to the heart. I understand it when people respond like that, when they don't know Jesus, but when the church itself is commanding you not to speak in this way, that's when you see this trouble that we have today, even today. You see, when they were commanded, when the original apostles were commanded to cease preaching, they continued to do so. And the result, if you go through the book of Acts, as you see this as persecution arises against believers. Ultimately, we have a man named Stephen and Stephen was martyred. And when Stephen was martyred, great persecution arose against the church. And what Jesus is simply saying here, here is your persecution will not quench the flame of the gospel. Now what's gonna happen, verse 35, he says, ultimately, on you may come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth. In your obstinate rejection of the gospel, you are filling up your judgment. The more grace that you reject results in greater accountability to God. In Romans two, verses four and five, the question is asked, do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience? Not realizing that God's kindness leads you towards repentance, but because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath when his righteous judgment will be revealed. You are rejecting your own mercy. God has provided a way for you to not have this happen to you. But you think that because he hasn't dealt with you quickly that he must be giving permission for you to continue. And the problem is, is you do not understand that what he's doing is giving to you more opportunity, greater opportunity to turn from your wicked ways and get right with God. But instead of doing that, you're adding to your bank account wrath against wrath because you're not getting it wiped out. That wrath is gonna come upon you. The blood of Christ will have covered that and you will not suffer the wrath of God, but because you reject it, you reject his grace, you reject his mercy, Paul is saying what you're ending up with is standing before God, a righteous judge and you will ultimately pay the price yourself. You see, of all people, the Jews stood most guilty because they had so many advantages. In Romans nine, it says it like this in verses three through five, Paul said, I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers. Those of my own race, the people of Israel, theirs is the adoption as sons, the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises, theirs are the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ who is God overall, forever praise, amen. They had all these advantages and yet completely rejected him and they were under stricter condemnation because they had the most information. This nation, this beautiful nation that I love with all my heart, I love this country, served in its military, I love this country but I also fear for it because in many quarters we have turned our backs on God, there's no doubt about that and we stand with greater accountability because the gospel is preached from corner to corner, north to south, east and west throughout this beautiful country. There are countries that you cannot preach the gospel in but this is not one of them. There are countries that will not allow you to come in wearing a cross or carrying a Bible but this is not one of those countries. We have the ability to climb in a car and turn on a radio and hear the gospel preach 24 hours a day here in this beautiful nation of ours. We have the ability to turn a television program on and watch people talk about Jesus Christ in this beautiful country that we have. We're able to buy music and we're able to go to church and we're able to do a variety of things because we have the freedom to do that and even soon within a few short weeks we're gonna be celebrating the resurrection of Christ and this nation will once again remember even if it's trying to hide this and create a fiction or a mythology related to it and we hide Jesus behind Easter eggs and Easter bunnies. The fact is the message of the gospel will still go forth in many, many pulpits and will thunder through many pulpits throughout this station and this America that we love so much that has dull ears to hear and harden hearts to receive will still be hearing a message of a gospel, a message that God loved the world and sent his son, a message that says that he died to take my sins and he was buried but the third day he arose from the dead that he ever lives to make intercession for me. That will thunder from pulpit to pulpit from east to west, north to south throughout this great and mighty nation and yet many people will disrespect that message and they look at it as a myth and for them Easter is simply a time to gather together with family and friends and have some ham and roast or whatever and just hang around and drink and all and they have forgotten the message. They have forgotten it. And I am not surprised by that and I don't condemn people for that fact but the greater concern that I have is that the church itself forgets. The church itself forgets the reason for our existence. Why we're even gathering? Why we celebrate? And why we call good Friday the day when Christ died? We call it by the word good because we understand that it was for our good that he died. It was for us, not for himself. And then we celebrate on the resurrection day that we have a living savior who ever lives to make intercession for us you see and we believers understand that and believe it. We don't hide it behind the myth of the Easter bunny and we don't see it as oh, let's go out and find these colored eggs because whatever. We see it as no, this is a time when this nation even if you try and hide the message under a basket even if you try to make it into a kid's thing and some myth that only the ignorant would really believe. No, we as a nation can't get past the conscience. This nation was founded on Christian principles. It was founded on what is called the Judeo-Christian ethic. It was founded on that. You cannot remove that from history no matter how many revisionist textbooks are written. You cannot say that the founders of this nation, the signers of that declaration, you cannot say that these people were all of them unbelievers because many of them were pastors and teachers and they believed that this is a nation that was conceived in the mind of Almighty God himself. We were intended to be a nation that is a city on a hill and yet today we see that a basket is being placed over that light but this is one man that won't allow that basket to go over and I'm gonna shine that light before the world because that's the only reason that we exist is to worship Jesus Christ and that's what God has called us to do, you see. And that's what Christians do, you see. And so we need to be aware of that and Jesus is speaking and he's saying, listen, you have so many advantages but you're completely rejecting me and that makes you under stricter condemnation because you have the most information. In Luke 12, 48, we read the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. And so Jesus is speaking to people who had all of these things. They had the covenants and they had the promises and they had so much and they were accountable for so much. And he's speaking now to the teachers and he's saying to them, you are greatly responsible because you are turning people away from me rather than opening the door for them to receive me. You have misapplied scripture. Don't misapply scripture. Be very careful that when you share scripture and when you write scripture that you're rightly dividing scripture. Facebook counselors abound. Have you noticed that? I don't know how many of you have Facebook accounts. I'm assuming pretty much anybody with a computer probably does. I was sharing with you last week that 1.79 billion people you're involved with Facebook. So a lot of people have Facebook and there are a lot of Facebook counselors. A lot of people who like to spout off their advice to people and I see that all the time because I have a personal account, church account and another account because I got a huge ego. And now I just gotta, I just do that to try and keeping contact with people and to use Facebook as just one of those means to get out a message and share. I do that pretty much daily in one form or another and all. So I read a lot of the things that are posted and I have discovered that there are quite a number of Facebook counselors. Quite a number who speak in the name of God but give bad advice. And that's something that concerns me. But besides that, there are times when I have written a word of advice for somebody and then somebody will write to contradict it and counter it. And I wonder where they got their wisdom from. Probably from the Almighty Google. I don't know, but they get their wisdom from some source. And this happened recently and as this person was writing something that was contradictory to the counsel I gave somebody, I started to think, forgive me, it sounds egomaniac and I realized that. And some may misunderstand what my point is and that's okay, that happens every time I teach and that's fine, that's all right too. But let me say it this way, be very careful when you begin to say that you know something because you may not know it as well as you think you do. Be very careful that when you give an advice, that the advice you give is solid and not just from your own flesh because a lot of times we're motivated by our flesh to give advice and then we mangle scripture to try and tie in to make our advice look biblical because there are people like me who read those and we say no, no, no, that's not what that scripture says and you're misapplying it. Now what gives me the right to do that? Well, I started thinking about it just this week. I started thinking, I've been teaching the Bible since September of 1973 and so I thought to myself, I wonder how long that is in weeks and so I consulted Almighty Google, 2270 weeks. 2270 weeks have transpired since when I first began to teach so I started asking myself, how many Bible studies do you think you've done in 43 and a half years? And I've probably have given Bible studies over those years between eight to 10,000 Bible studies. Eight to 10,000 studies represents eight to 10,000 hours standing here in various places, communicating. Then I started thinking, how many hours is represented in the study time required to give an hour Bible study and is probably anywhere from altogether no less than 12,000 study hours, probably 15 to 18,000 hours of studying the Bible. And so with that, I'll write, this is what it says in scripture and then somebody who doesn't even pick up the Bible as a hobby wants to correct what has taken me 18,000 up to 18,000 hours of study to say, does that make sense to you? It doesn't make sense to me that that's where people are today. Listen, if you can Google it, you know it. Listen, if you want to have brain surgery, let me get on one of the pages that describe it and I'll do it for you. You want to take a flight? Get me a plane. I'll read a couple of days on how to do it. I'll take you for a flight. You want to go? No, but when it comes to teaching the word of God, when it comes to communicating eternal truth, all you need to do is go to Google write down your opinion and debate the person who is all those years of experience and that's what's going on today and Jesus was speaking in that day and he was saying to these people here, you are closing heaven. You're not going in yourself and you're keeping others who would go in and the reason you're doing it and the way you're doing that is you're rejecting me and encouraging others to do the same. Be very careful. When you start communicating things about the kingdom of God, James 3.1 says it like this, not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. Be very careful. And so he's speaking here and he says from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah. It's interesting when you look at it, look at Abel, it starts with the letter A, look at Zechariah, it starts with the letter Z, from A to Z, Abel's the righteous son of Adam, slain by his wicked brother Cain. Zechariah, well this Zechariah is unknown for certain because in the Old Testament there are 29 men named Zechariah. But this may be the Zechariah mentioned in chapter one, verse one of the book of Zechariah. The problem is there's nothing recorded concerning the way that Zechariah died. But as he's speaking, verse 35, he says this, he says, whom you murdered. So Jesus places the responsibility on them. In verse 30 they had denied any responsibility. But Jesus says their unbelief condemns them. In this statement he is saying that the nation is guilty of rejecting her prophets and by murdering Jesus they once again are filling up the cup of wrath. And that's why he says in verse 36, assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation. The accumulation in other words of guilt from able to the present time results in judgment. This rejection of God and his ways is actually going back generations. So in a sense, judgment has been restrained through God's patience. Over time the sin had grown and now it's time to be judged. Oh, Jerusalem, verse 37, 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 are not willing. See, your house is left to you, desolate. For I say to you, you shall see me no more until you say, blessed is he, who comes in the name of the Lord. I chose to entitle this particular installment of our study of Matthew, words of sorrow. Because that's what you're hearing here when he says in verse 37, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. This is called a lamentation. It's a song of sorrow. It's a passionate expression of grief and pain. You see, it's not that the Lord takes pleasure in pronouncing judgment, it's that they are determined to reject his offer of salvation. He made that clear when he gave a parable that revealed Israel's rejection of him. It's found in Luke 19, and he said in verse 14 that those subject to the parable or those who were within the parable when considering someone ruling over them said, we will not have this man reign over us. And it's a broken heart that Jesus is showing when he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. You see, Jesus has given a picture of a compassionate concern that they are rejecting. I wanted to hold you, I wanted to love you. I want to protect you. I want to save you, but you would have none of it. And Jerusalem is portrayed as being pictured as representative of the whole nation of Israel. And it's not just the city of Jerusalem he's speaking to, he is speaking to the nation that is rejecting him. He's saying, I wanted to gather you. There's a hawk that is above that you can't see because your chicks, your babies, you don't understand. And as the mother hen tries to gather her chicks under the wing, so she can give her life up so that those chicks can survive, because that's the picture. The mother hen that is gathering the brood trying to bring them under her protection because when that hawk swoops down it'll take the mother and save and spare the children. He is saying, I would have gathered you like that but you would have none of it. You don't understand my protective love for you. You don't understand my desire for you. You're busy with your life that causes you to scurry around unaware that there's danger just waiting to take you. She don't see it. Any parent in here understands what Jesus is saying. Any parent does where you tell your child be careful with them. I think they mean you harm. Oh, they like me. They like me. Oh, really? Be careful with them. Listen, you don't understand. Times have changed. I wonder how many parents in here have had conversations with your kids when they're growing old enough to get out from underneath your wings. And you're saying, oh, you be careful here and you be careful there and I don't want you to do this. Oh, dad. Your daughter's walking out the house. Say you have a daughter and clothing's a little tighter than it should be. And you say, no. Oh, dad, come on, dad. It's no big deal, dad. No. My daughter, Corinne, can tell you that when she was a young teen, one of her friends was over and she came walking and she told me this just the other day. Dad, you remember? And yes, I do. And she started to walk out and it wasn't like she was some, you know, Las Vegas showgirl or anything like that. She wasn't going out like that. But it just was, I just, no. So I said, honey, I said, you need to go change. That's not appropriate to her. Oh, dad. I said, you'll change. That's all I have. I said, I'll take you and buy you something, but you're not going to wear that. Her friend still remembers that conversation and they're both almost 40 years of age now and still remembers that conversation because she was there when I said, no, you're not going out like that. Dad, guys are like girls. Ah, no, we're not. No, we're not. A woman walks into this room right now wearing a bikini and the women will say, that color doesn't go with her skin tone. It doesn't match her hair. A man doesn't even notice she has a head. We're different. We are different. And so there's warnings. There's warnings that you give. I want to keep you under my wings. I want to protect you. I will lay my life down for you. I will do that. And oh no, and they scurry out and do what they want, when they want with whom they want, because what do you know? You're old and we're young. We know what's going on and you don't. Maybe it was that way. When you were growing up, it's not that way now. Come on, Dad, it's a 21st century. Wake up. You know, when my baby, I'll use Corinne again as an illustration when Corinne was first born. I, she was handed to me. I held her. I'm looking at this baby. I fell in love with her. I already loved her before she was born. And then they handed her to me and I presented to her mom. And we have that moment, you know, took a selfie. No, we have that moment together. And I thought this with her as well as my others. I thought, I will do my best to protect her from harm. I will do my best to give her the best life that I can. No way that she'll make mistakes. No way she'll make some bad decisions. Knowing that we will suffer. But I didn't know how much over the years we would, but we did. But as I held that baby in my arms, and I remember it very well, I had that moment with God and my wife. And I said, I will do the best I can to save this baby from crying. I will do my best to be a good dad and to raise her in the way she should be raised. I was a young man, little baby, Marie and me. She gets ill. She's just an infant. We take her to the emergency. We had no money. We took her to the emergency. She had 100 plus temperature, small infant. Marie had wrapped her up in a blanket. We brought her into the emergency. The first thing the nurse told my wife was unwrap that baby. She's got a temperature. You need to allow it to dissipate. And by putting that around her, you're keeping her warm. Take it off of her. That's the first thing. And perhaps some of you young parents might need to know that. We didn't know that. So we unwrap the baby. She's at over 100 plus temperature. They say, listen, we can do this and this. But keep monitoring her, because if her temperature goes up above this, it is critical. If she gets to this point, you put her in what they used to call ice water, put her in cold bath. And so we're monitoring her. And there goes her temperature, where that doctor said it's critical. And I take that baby, and we turn on the bath water and fill that tub up. And I'm holding my little girl. And I start to place her in the water. And she starts to scream, because her skin, apparently, was so hot in the cold water. It hurt her. And I climbed in the tub with her. I climbed in. I held her. What you go through, I'll go through. I don't want you suffering. I want you well. And I'll be there for you. I learned that as a young man. And I have been that way all of her life and all of the life of my children. I will take it on me if it saves you. But guess what? They don't listen. They don't listen. I'm going to learn myself. I have to forge my own testimony. I did the best I could to keep you from having mine. I don't want you with my testimony. I want you with a better one. I'm not raising you to be like me. I'm raising you to be better than me. I don't want you to be like me. I want you better than me. And you tell them that. And they forged their own testimony. How often I would have gathered you as a mother hen would gather her chicks under her wings, but you would not. That's what it is with human beings. God himself says, I will lay my life down so you don't suffer. And he said, but you have none of it. You want to do it yourself. You want to do it your own way. Do you think that Jesus was happy when he was saying this to Jerusalem? His heart was broken. These are words of sorrow. These are words of sorrow. You are rejecting Messiah. You have been placed under judgment. Now, he had said that he would send these righteous prophets, wise men, and all. But what they ended up doing is rejecting him. Psalm 81 verse 11, my people would not heed my voice. Israel would have none of me. Jeremiah 2.13, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves, sisters, broken sisters that can hold no water. Jesus knew rejection as many in this room do too. He says in verse 38, your house is left to you desolate. Though many of us have been rejected by others, that in the scope of eternity is a relatively small thing. I have been rejected. So every person in this room, I'm sure, has been rejected in one form or another. Maybe many times, maybe that's the history of your life. A continual sense of not being wanted, a continual sense of not making it, a continual sense of being less than others, a sense that you just don't matter and you feel rejected. Maybe a dad left you, maybe a mom did, maybe a girl, a young man, your children are rejected. All of that hurts. All of that hurts. But the ultimate rejection is when God rejects you. In Matthew 7, 22, and 23, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Cast out demons in your name? Done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I never knew you. That's the ultimate rejection. And he said, the result of this is your house is left desolate. Your city, your temple will be utterly destroyed. And then he says, in verse 39, I say to you, you shall see me no more until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. This is his last open message. You will not see me again. This is his last open message. They will not hear him preach again. But one day, it shall be said of him, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You see, earlier the Pharisees had told Jesus to stop his followers from saying those very words. On Palm Sunday, they had cried those words to him. But the Pharisees had become angered. Luke 19.39 records how that some of the Pharisees called to him from the crowd, teacher, rebuke your disciples. Don't let them say that, but he's saying, in the future these words will once again be said. That speaks of the return of Christ. Zechariah 12.10 in the Old Testament said it like this, I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have peers. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieves bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. Somebody said there can be little doubt that our Lord points to the second advent and to the welcome that will be given him by all those who are the true Israel of God. For the present generation and for the national but not spiritual Israel, the abandonment is final. But the words will be cried out when he returns. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Revelation 1.7 says he is coming with the clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen. He will return. He will return. Voices will praise him. But this was the last open message he would give to the people. With all of those multitudes assembled and he was telling them, you have rejected me. You are false teachers and you're causing others to reject me too. But one day, one day, there will be those who say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. See, so I already do that. I already do that. Blessed is Jesus Christ, my Messiah, my savior, the lover of my soul, the one who is called the Lamb of God who is slain from the beginning of the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and he is our savior and we love him and we bless God for him.