Luke 19:41. And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.
The first lesson which I learn from these words is that Christ was truly man. “When He was come near and beheld the city, He wept over it.” The whole Bible unites in declaring that Christ was truly God. In one place it tells us that He “was with God and . . . was God”; in another place that He “thought it not robbery to be equal with God”; in another place that He “is over all, God blessed for ever”. But in this passage it is just as plainly proved to us that He is truLy man. It appears from this: He wept. It is altogether human to weep. There are no tears in heaven, for there God will “wipe away tears from off all faces”. And though there are tears in hell – for “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” – yet these are the tears, not of pity, but of anguish and despair. The tear of pity belongs only to this life.
It also appears from this: He wept at the sight of what He saw. This is a sure mark of humanity. When you only hear of people being poor, then you feel but little compassion and show but little sympathy; but when you go and visit them – when you enter their wretched room and see how poorly it is furnished, when you see the straw bed, the sick mother, the pale, hungry children – then the eye affects the heart and compassion is sure to flow (and that is the reason why God bids you visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction). Just so it was with Paul at Athens; it was when he saw the whole city given over to idolatry that his spirit was stirred within him.
Just so it was with Jesus at this time. When he came near and beheld the city, He wept over it. He had come from Bethany and Bethphage, two villages on the other side of Mount Olivet. He was riding on an ass’s colt, covered with the garments of His disciples. The whole multitude of His disciples were rejoicing and praising God for the wonders they had seen. When they looked to their meek and lowly Master, they cried, “Hosanna. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord”. And when they looked on the city of their fathers stretched beneath their feet, they felt the psalm rising exultantly within them: “Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together . . . Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.” But Jesus – what was He doing? When Jesus beheld it, He wept over it. When He came to that part of the road down the Mount of Olives which commands the fullest view of Jerusalem, He wept over it. When He saw the beautiful city of God, the dwelling place of David and Solomon, the scene of so many types of Himself, the glorious temple with its enormous pile of white stone rising into the air, its brazen gates and golden roof where God had dwelt, where all the prophets had prophesied, where thousands of believers had worshipped – when He remembered how sinful they were; when He saw how they would, before long, crucify Him, despising and rejecting all His offers of mercy; when He saw the coming destruction of His people and the eternal vengeance which was to follow – Jesus wept. O believers, this is your Saviour!
How truly is your Immanuel your Elder Brother also; for you “have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of [your] infirmities”, but was in all points tempted like as [you] are, yet without sin”. In time of pain, believer, you should remember that Jesus knows that feeling, and has compassion for you. In time of hunger and thirst and nakedness, believer, remember that Jesus knows that feeling and has compassion for you. In time of weeping, remember that Jesus wept and has compassion for you when the bursting tear starts forth and will not be restrained. In time of sorrow for your unconverted friends, remember Jesus felt that pain and has compassion for you. In all your afflictions He was afflicted. Little children, tell Him all your little sorrows, for Jesus was once a little child, and has pity for them all. O grown believers, tell all your human griefs to Jesus, for He is truly man. “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God”; and then, but not till then, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
The gospel contains the things which belong to a man’s peace. Peace of conscience can only be found by receiving this message. Worldly men have no true peace of conscience. It is quite true that many men, by continually sinning, have seared their conscience as with a hot iron, so that it is dead and past feeling. Even the most worldly men have times when conscience smites them. With all their smiling face they often take withering glances at their past wickedness. Often when laughing and talking with sinful company, the recollection of some horrid sin, and the fear of God’s vengeance, strikes through their heart like an arrow. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Conscience is often awakened to awful power by the Spirit of God. When He reveals a man’s true condition to him, shows him that all his natural life has been spent in sin and opposition to God, that he has been earning much wages – but the wages is death – what great confusion and trouble there is in the conscience then! The most seared consciences are sometimes awakened to hideous power in a time of sickness, or on a death bed. Business and fascinating pleasures, that amused and occupied the mind, now cease to interest them; the companions of life’s merry hours are now removed, or if admitted to the sick man’s chamber, try in vain to raise a smile on his cheek. God makes him feel the bitterness which elicited that saying, “Miserable comforters are ye all”. It is strange to see the worldliest of men – those that all their life loathed the company of Christ’s messengers – beseeching their minister to pray by their bedside. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
After death all seared consciences are awakened to a power that shall never end. The body returns to the dust as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it; then begins the gnawing of the worm that cannot die. The sinner can nevermore forget his sin; he can no more sleep, or enjoy pleasures, so as to forget his sad condition; “their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched”. “There is no peace . . . to the wicked.” Now the message which we bring is one of peace. It tells you how to find peace from the smitings of conscience, peace from the awakening of the Spirit, peace on a death bed and peace in eternity. If God will open your heart to attend to the things which are spoken; if you would be persuaded to hear and to receive the Word, which tells you of Christ having died instead of lost sinners, then that would give you immediate peace. And peace of heart can be found only from receiving this message.
As long as man is unconverted, he can have no true peace of heart, because of the conflicting passions that are in his bosom. The grand passion in every natural heart is selfishness. It is seen in the child grasping and holding everything for itself. It is seen in the boy seeking nobody’s pleasure but his own, always forgetting others and indulging himself. It is seen in grown men making haste to be rich, not caring what becomes of others if they are helped forward; not caring who may be without food if they have bread enough and to spare, and can only heap up wealth. Or, if they give something to the poor, it is that they may have the sweet luxury of thinking themselves benevolent or seeing their names in print. Now if selfishness reigned alone, unconverted men would have some quietness in their bosoms; there would be the calm of an unholy bosom, receiving all but giving out nothing – like the Dead Sea. But when the other passions are much used as servants, they at length become masters, and they contest with selfishness for dominion over the heart. The love of money, the love of dress, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life acquire such power that they overpower selfishness. The soul is led contrary to education, contrary to reason, contrary to self-interest. O brethren, how many of you feel that your life is just a history of this war of diverse lusts and passions? “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
But the message we bring tells of the Spirit, who makes a clean heart and renews a right spirit within. Come to Jesus and you will yet be seen sitting at His feet clothed and in your right mind. There is no peace like that of a pure heart that loves God and loves the Saviour. God is blessed and He is pure; He has no tumult of passions within. Would you not like to be made like God, to have Him dwelling in you? “O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Peace about the things of the world is also found in the gospel message. As long as a man is unconverted, he must share in the inordinate cares and anxieties of the world. One day he is lifted up to heaven by the prospect of success in business and is mightily elated with money-making. Again he is sunk into despondency by gloomy forebodings of failure, distress, poverty. At one time his family are in health, and he fears no danger and expects no distress. Again sickness comes, and death, to blast his fairest hopes. There is not a straw on the sea more at the mercy of winds and waves than is the peace of unconverted men at the mercy of every wind of providence that blows. Is that not the real truth, unconverted man?
It is only in Christ that a poor soul can come to rest even for this world. Christ is a complete refuge in every storm of providence. Is my soul united to Christ? Then God is my Father, and He will be sure to supply all my need. “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them,” and will He not feed me? “Consider the lilies how they grow; they toil not, they spin not, and yet . . . Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” If then “God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven,” will He not much more clothe me, His ransomed child? O brethren, he is the richest man in all the world that feels in his heart that no storm can come near his dwelling, and that the Lord shall preserve his going out and coming in from this time forth and for evermore. Then do not turn away from our message; it belongs to your peace for time and for eternity. Do not say that it is sad tidings we bring you; do not say of us that we are men who turn the world upside down. Yes, we are; but it is to turn it on its right side, that it may once more be a pleasant vessel full of “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding”.
The time is at hand (how near it may be to many of you!) when you shall feel with agony that the message of Christ is the only message of peace; that the ministers of Christ are your truest friends, the peacemakers whom Christ calls blessed.
Christ longs after the salvation of the chief of sinners. “If thou hadst known, even thou.” Jerusalem was, in some respects, the wickedest city that ever was. It was very guilty, because it sinned against greater light than other cities. The temple of God was in the midst of it; the worship of God was constantly maintained in it. All that were godly in the land came up to worship there three times in a year; even godly foreigners, like the Ethiopian treasurer, came from afar to worship there. All the prophets were given messages to Jerusalem, and yet we learn from the prophets that iniquity abounded in Jerusalem. “How is the faithful city become an harlot? It was full of judgement; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.” The light which God brought into Jerusalem only made the wicked inhabitants love the darkness more.
Jerusalem was a very guilty city, because it persecuted the prophets. God sent many messengers to Jerusalem, but all were persecuted there. Christ told His disciples to begin the preaching of the gospel at Jerusalem, yet they were stoned there and put to death; so it seems to have been a proverb which Christ quoted: “It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem”. And Stephen spoke the truth when he said, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” But Jerusalem reached the highest guilt, because it rejected Christ. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” This was the city over which Christ wept. It was nothing good in Jerusalem that moved His pity. He saw nothing but wickedness and coming misery. It was not the piteous cries of Jerusalem that moved His pity. Jerusalem was going on in its usual way, buying and selling and getting gain. It was the guilt of Jerusalem that moved His pity. He saw that the storm of God’s anger was over it, and its day of grace was past – that it would have the deepest place in hell; therefore He wept and sighed forth the broken wish, “If thou hadst known, even thou”. Are there some here who have committed great sins? Are there some of you who can look back on deep stains and dark blots in your history? Are there not some who have sins that cry to heaven? Sins against honesty, sins against purity, sins against sobriety? He sees no beauty or goodness in you. He sees and hates your sins. And He sees your hell; therefore He says, “O that thou hadst known, even thou,” poor sinner, the message that belongs to thy peace.
Are there some of you who have sinned against great light – some who had godly parents, who taught you to read the Bible and to pray, who prayed for you and with you; and have you despised all their words and prayers? Have you shut your ears and run into the vice and sin of the world? Some of you have had godly ministers who cared much for your souls, who watched over you and instructed you when you were young, who took great pains with you in admitting you to the sacrament of Baptism, who spoke to you by yourselves and in public preached very faithfully to you. Have you had this great blessing and yet trampled all under foot – broken through the good hopes of your minister, gone with wicked companions and plunged into sin? Then behold, Christ weeps over you still, saying, “If thou hadst known”; O that thou hadst known – even thou, poor sinner – “the things which belong unto thy peace!”
Are there some who feel that they have deliberately rejected Christ – that they have, like Jerusalem, crucified the Saviour and put Him to open shame? Have you put away the outstretched arms of Christ and would not have Him as a Saviour? Still see how He says, “If thou hadst known, even thou”. Ah, whatever you are – in whatever sin you lie, at whatever distance from God you now are – Christ is this day offering you salvation. He has the same heart in heaven that He had on earth. Awake then, poor godless, unconverted souls! Will you trample all this bleeding love under your feet? “If thou hadst known, even thou, the things which belong unto thy peace.”
Jerusalem had its day of grace, and so have we. “At least in this thy day, but now they are hid from thine eyes.” The day of grace is like the day of nature. It has its dawn, its morning, its full noon, its twilight and its midnight. Jerusalem had a long day of grace. That day was at its height during the three years that Christ taught in her streets, but soon the twilight came on, which ended in the blackest night, when these things were hid from her eyes. So it is with us. Most people who are ever converted are converted in youth. Conviction of sin and conviction of righteousness are most easily wrought into the youthful mind. It is commonly observed that young people are readiest at learning languages; if the season of youth is allowed to slip, it will hardly be possible to learn them afterwards. Now, although conversion is altogether a supernatural work, yet it is also true of conversion that it is far oftener wrought in youth than afterwards. My young friends, this is your day of grace. Remember, it quickly passes; the twilight is at hand; the night comes when no man can believe. And how many of you are old and grey-headed, and yet unconverted! Let us pray that Christ, and the things that belong to your peace, will not yet be hid from your eyes!
A faithful ministry is a day of grace. Most people who are ever converted are converted under a faithful ministry. It is seldom that God blesses the work of an unfaithful minister. Although conversion is wholly God’s work and does not depend on the gifts and graces of any minister, yet it pleases God to work through His own instruments, whom He has chosen for Himself. A faithful ministry is a day of grace, and happy is that spot where it dawns. But that day has its twilight and its night. “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?” “They were not suffered to continue by reason of death.” Only Christ has an unchangeable Priesthood. Often the burning and shining light is taken away. God takes away the candle as well as the candlestick. How often a barren, cold ministry follows on the back of the liveliest and most fruitful! How many of you have been under lively ministers, whose tongues are now silent in the grave? In this town and its neighbourhood, there are faithful men who preach the truth fully and faithfully. This then is your day. Turn to the Lord now, or else the ministers may be taken from you, and these things will be hid from your eyes!
When the Spirit strives, that is a day of grace. All that are converted are converted when the Spirit strives with them, but the Spirit will not always strive with men. When the heart is greatly moved under the reading of the Bible or under the preaching of the Word, there is little doubt but the Spirit is striving with that heart. When the mind is led seriously to look back at the life it has led, or when the heart shrinks from some sin, there cannot be a doubt that the Spirit is striving. But if this is resisted, then He goes away, sometimes never to return. “My Spirit shall not always strive.” If you have any such awakenings in your heart, do not quench them. It is easy to quench the Spirit! Go back to the world and to the din of perpetual business, or plunge into sensual sin, and you will soon be rid of all awakenings! But remember Christ’s word, even of such as you: “If thou hadst known”.
I would conclude with a word to the unconverted and a word to believers.
Learn the sureness of hell for the Christless! Christ wept over Jerusalem. Do you think He would have wept if there had been no hell? If you were sick and did not know it, but the doctor came to see you and you saw him sigh and shake his head, and if you saw all your friends becoming anxious and beginning to sob aloud, would this not alarm you? O then, poor sinner, think for a moment. You are quite happy and careless, longing to be away from the house of God that you may laugh and have silly talk once more. But see Christ weeping! He now knows the whole of your case; He sees both worlds! Surely there must be a hell for such as you; else Christ would not have wept.
Let believers learn from this to weep over perishing souls. Go near and see their case, and then weep over it. This was the main feature in Christ’s character. If you would be like Him, be like Him in this. Not only love the world, as Christ did; not only be ready to suffer for them, as Christ was; not only pray for them, as Christ did; but weep over them, as Christ did. And do not join the world in its mirth, were it for no other reason but this. Would you deceive their souls? If you were to mingle with poor unconverted souls in their God-forgetting companies – where they dance, drink and are merry, singing their own songs and enjoying themselves in their accustomed manner – what could you expect to do for their conversion? You should weep over them and seek their salvation, rather than put off your Christianity and join them in their worldliness, forgetfulness of God, carnal mirth, and giddy folly. If you would do them good, you must ask God’s Holy Spirit to give you a heart to weep for them, rather than join with them in their sad ways of forgetting their guilt and danger. Only think of the Saviour’s tears when He looked down upon the perishing, and surely that will scare you from ever again forgetting your relationship to Him. And that will make you cherish, for poor unconverted souls, the bleeding heart and weeping eye, and never more go along with them in their soul-intoxicating mirth and hell-forgetting pleasures. Save me from blood-guiltiness, O Lord!
True Christians are sanctified wholly, in their whole man, though they are not sanctified thoroughly. They are sanctified in every part, though they are not sanctified in the highest degree. Their whole spirit is sanctified, that is, the higher faculties of the soul, namely, the understanding and the will. Their understandings are enlightened by the Spirit unto a spiritual discerning both of good and evil, beyond what any natural man does or can attain unto. Their wills are bowed, or rather rectified and made straight, being inclined unto God and His law.
Thomas Vincent