Amen. Well, if you turn in your Bible to the gospel of Matthew, chapter 23, we're willing to finish the chapters. We look at the last three verses, verses 37, through 39 this morning. Matthew 23, verses 37, through 39. Last time we looked at the generation of God's wrath, a phrase right out of Jeremiah, that while God is patient and tolerant and long-suffering with sinners, if they don't repent, if they continue to spurn His mercy and His messengers and despises word eventually, God's patience comes to an end because He's holy, because He is just, because He is good. And so He brings His wrath in some form of some great particular judgment like the generation of God's wrath that endured the flood of Noah, or the generation of God's wrath that was destroyed by the fire and brimstone that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah and admins of Boyam in the cities of the plain, or the generation of God's wrath that were defeated and destroyed and taken into captivity by Babylon, many of them killed in 586 BC. And we know this generation that Jesus is speaking to in our text, day two, or a generation of God's wrath because in 70 AD, the greatest destruction that had ever come upon Israel would come upon them and they would be defeated and destroyed and their temple would be wiped off the face of the earth by the Romans. Well, in today's text, we're going to look at the other side of this aspect of God in His holiness and in His wrath. We're going to consider God's compassion for His visible people. We return to see today, I think, to see and believe that God is compassionate much more than that God is holy and that God will judge and by that compassion and love, we rule out the wrath of God, right? If God is truly loving, well, ultimately, He's got to accept everyone and everything because love has to be loved, we're told. And if love wins, then no one ultimately is going to be going to hell. I mean, that's not very loving. And so I think we separate these two aspects of God, that He is a God of wrath, that He is a God of justice, that He is holy, that He will most certainly judge. That was the purpose of the all main, I say to you, all these things will come on this generation. Yet, this God is also a God of love, a God of compassion, a God of mercy, a God of grace. And the idea that God can't judge in order to be loving is a wicked God, is an unholy God, is a love that's not love but license, where we get the word licentiousness, where all is acceptable, because God just doesn't care, it doesn't care about right or wrong, it doesn't care about good or evil, that's what happens if we don't have a God who says no, ultimately I will consume the wicked. And so our God, beloved, is love, God is love, and our God is a consuming fire. How does that go together? Well, we'll see this in our text this morning, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness and for your justice and for your holiness, and we thank you for your grace and your mercy and for your forgiveness and how we pray that in your grace and mercy, you would cause us to be holy, and that you would continue your work that you've begun, and we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Matthew, chapter 23, beginning in verse 37, this is the holy word of Almighty God. Matthew says, O 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, bless it as he who comes in the name of the Lord, when you've established this word in our hearts this morning, I pray. I want you to notice the chosen people of God, I want you to notice first of all the chosen people of God, we see this in verse 37, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jesus expresses his compassion. As God as we'll see, for his chosen people, God promised Israel in the wilderness that when they came into the land, and he enabled them to conquer it, and they had peace, that he would choose a place where he would put his name in the midst of his people, that he would pick a particular city, and his heart would be there, and they would worship him there, there would be commanded to go only to that place, to offer all of their sacrifices, to enter into his holy presence, that they couldn't enjoy outside of that place and outside of the means that he had given them the priesthood and the sacrifices and all of that. And when David was king and actually finally conquered and gave them that peace, God made that decision. He said he wouldn't, and he chose Jerusalem, and he placed his heart there, and his people could come there. And so Jerusalem represents really the people, it's not just the city, it's the city because it's the people, it's the Jewish people, it's God's people, it's the Hebrews. And in saying it this way, Jesus is expressing his great compassion for his people. This is a common figure of re-duplication or doubling, where the same word, a name is said twice, and it expresses great compassion and great passion or importance in the moment, as it were. You can think of several places in scripture where this happens, when God appears to Moses in the wilderness, and Moses sees a bush that doesn't burn, and God did that to get his attention and says when God saw, when the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see the bush, he called him from the midst of the fire, Moses, Moses. Remove the sandals from your feet for the ground on which you stand as holy, or when God calls Samuel, as a young boy, remember the child of the prayer of his mother who was barren, Hannah. And he calls him in his sleep, Samuel runs to see the Eli and says, I'm pure AM, you called me and Eli says, I didn't call you, go back to bed, and it happens again, and Eli says again, go back to bed. And then finally the old man figures it and says, you know, next time he calls you, say, speak, Lord, for your servant hears, and so this time Samuel lays down, and this time God says, Samuel, Samuel, and he says, speak, Lord, for your servant hears, and he becomes a prophet. He's called as a prophet with that figure again. How about the time when God had commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, whom he loved, Isaac? And Abraham, it says, had the knife raised above his head, he's about to plunge it into his son, who is bound on the altar. And God says the angel who cries, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, and Abraham says, here I am. And he says, do not lay your hand upon the child or do anything to him, for now I know that you truly fear God. Or how about when Peter was boasting that he alone would not betray Christ? And Jesus pulls on the side and says, sign and sign. This very night the devil's asked for you, that he would sift you like wheat. But I prayed for you so that when you turned strength in the brethren, or how about when Martha was so interested in everything else, but sitting and listening to Jesus and Jesus says to her, Martha, Martha. Your sister has chosen the one thing that is needful, and it will not be taken from her, but you're worried about many things. This expression of compassion, this expression, this cry of importance of great passion, Jesus on the cross, Ailey, Ailey, Lama Sabakkhanai, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus says here, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, he does not say Babylon, Babylon, Ramses, Ramses, Damascus, Damascus, Athens, Athens, Rome, Rome. He doesn't say Washington, Washington, America, America, he says Jerusalem, Jerusalem. God had given his special love and favor to Israel by way of covenant. And it was theirs. They were the chosen people of all the people on the earth, they alone were the chosen people of God. God says this in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6, you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the other peoples of the earth. Why was Abraham the most righteous of all the people, you know, there are ministers who teach that unfortunately. That God went to about a dozen or so, man, maybe he tried Hamarabi or Sargon, one of the other guys that was around back then. Hey, will you be the father of my people now? Will you believe in me? I don't believe. And finally, Abraham said yes and now God had something to work with. That's absurd. There was no good thing in Abraham and all. He was no better than any of those. It was God's call that made Abraham the father of the faithful. It was not Abraham's faith that made him called of God. Joshua teaches us this in chapter 24, verse 2, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Tara, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the river in old times, and they served other gods. Abraham and Tara and Nahor, they were from a family of idolaters. If you want to know, they worship the moon. And God says the very next verse, verse 3 of Joshua 24, then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, I led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants, and I gave him Isaac. Abraham wouldn't have had any of those things, but the grace of God called him and changed him, and he became from Abraham, Abraham, the father of many nations. Apart from that, he would not have been the father of the faithful. Ezekiel 16 says something similar, thus says the Lord God, the Jerusalem, your birth and your nativity are from the land of Canaan. Your father was enamorite, your mother was a head type, two of the cursed peoples. Abraham and Sarah, there were not for the call and grace of God. They would have lived and died as moon worshippers across the Jordan. It was God's call, that transformed them, that made them the people of God, that gave them faith. He would have lived and died an idol worshiper. So why did God call Abraham? Why did he call the Jewish people? Why did God set his love upon them? We get an answer somewhat in Deuteronomy 7, verse 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any other people. Wasn't because they were greater, wasn't because they were more pliable or more receptive. What has God constantly complaining about the Jews? Your stubborn, your stiff-necked, it wasn't because of anything in them, it's what the text means. You were not more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all the peoples. Here's the reason, verse 8. But because the Lord loves you, why did God choose Abraham? Why did God choose the Jews because He loved them? Why did He love them? Because He chose to love them. There's no answer beyond that. Because we're talking about grace, we're talking about mercy, and as soon as we get to the point where we find a reason in the object that compelled God, or that at least made it consistent with God, to take them over the others, we're not talking about grace anymore. We're talking then about somebody doing something that made them better, but that's not what Israel did. God chose them because He decided to not destroy everybody. He chose them because a Savior needed to come into the world, and He chose Israel as the people from whom the Savior would come. He didn't choose another people. He didn't choose again the Babylonians, or the Egyptians, or the Assyrians, or anyone else He chose the Jews. For He says to Moses, Romans 9.15, He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom ever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom ever I will have compassion, so then it depends not upon the man who runs, nor upon the man who wills, but upon God who shows mercy and whom He wills to have mercy as mercy and whom He wills to harden. It says He hardens, and He hardens, as I've said before, by simply giving people over to what they want to do, and when God gives any fallen person over, they run after sin. Whatever particular sin they're inclined to, that's how God hardens. He just withdraws His restraining presence a little bit, and they run after sin. God doesn't owe anyone mercy. He doesn't owe anyone grace. He didn't give mercy to the angel steady. There was no savior sent to the angels. And God was good and right, and holy to do that, and He would have been good and right and holy to destroy all mankind, to throw all of us into hell at any moment in any age. We've got to recognize that, that we only deserve His wrath in and of ourselves. But by way of covenant, God gave His mercy and grace to Israel. He visited them. He treated them differently. He set them apart. He placed His favor upon them while God is angry with the wicked every day. He placed His delights upon Israel whom He called the apple of His eye, His chosen people. He likened them to His bride, and even when they were separated as two kingdoms because of their sins, then God likened them this two of His wives, even to meet and to show. But they were His people. How is it in our text that God, the Son, expresses this particular love that He has for the Jews beyond saying Jerusalem, Jerusalem, well, we see it in the rest of the verse. The one who kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent to her. How often I would have gathered you together as a chicken, children gathered your children together as a hen, gathers their chicks under a wings, but you were not willing. How did God show the special favor, the special delight in Israel, by sending her the prophets? That's what Jesus says. How would He have gathered them together, by sending them the prophets, by sending them His word, by calling them to be saved, to believe, to repent, to just believe and live by His word? That's how, that's the only reason Jesus gives in the whole text, who kills the prophets and those who sent to her, and that's how I would have gathered you. I would have gathered you by the prophets. I would have gathered you by the word. The word that would have brought you life. The word that would have brought you righteousness. The word that would have sanctified you. That would have kept you. How often I would have done this. They would have believed in God. They would have never suffered any of the judgments. How often Christ would have protected them from the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and everyone else, if they would have just come. They would have never suffered any of those things. This is how He says that He sought to gather her, how He loved her. John Calvin says, quote, by this, He means that whenever the word of God is exhibited to us, He opens His bosom to us with maternal kindness as a mother gathers her her chicks. That's what it's like when God sends forth His word in its saving power and truth. He is showing you the love of a mother who would save her children, who would die before her children would be harmed. So secondly, I want you to notice the will of God. I want you to notice the will of God. No, we've got to do it now. There are at least three ways that scripture speaks of the will of God. That's not unusual, because we, I'll show you, have the same aspects to our will. The first aspect of God's will that we consider is the preceptive will, because that's the easiest one. The preceptive will is from the word preceptor law, and it means what God commands. What is God's will for you in the preceptive understanding of His will? It's what He's commanded. I want you to do what I say, right, thou shalt. That's God's will for what you are to do, thou shalt not. That's God's will for what you are not to do. It's preceptive. It's in the law. It encompasses all morality, all holiness, all righteousness. God would have us to be holy as He is holy, to be perfect as He is perfect, to be righteous as He is righteous, and that's true for everything. That's true at any time, any place, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are, no matter what race you are, no matter what job you have, it's always God's will for you to obey and to be holy. And this really is the will of God, that we should be seeking for, that we should be striving to put on. Because most of the time when people say, I'm looking for God's will, I'm trying to find God's will pastor, I don't know, should I go to this college or that college, I don't want to miss God's will, I'm trying to find God's will, should I marry this person and I've been dating for the last ten months, I don't know, I don't want to miss God's will, I'm trying to find God's will, should I take this job or that job? Well, I've got these two job offers and I'm afraid if I go to the wrong one, I'm going to miss God's will. And you know what? God's will doesn't depend on any of those things. It doesn't ultimately matter. As long as again, as long as you're not taking a job as a professional criminal which is forbidden by the perceptive will, as long as you're not marrying an unbeliever which is forbidden by the word of God, the perceptive will, it doesn't matter who you marry. It really doesn't. You've got to get this idea, there's this one perfect someone for me out there among eight billion. Good luck. A Christian can marry any other Christian and be happy and be satisfied and glorify God and that's God's will. A man and a woman obviously, a Christian man can marry any woman and vice versa. Or what job you take, it doesn't matter if you're a plumber or carpenter or doctor or lawyer, you can serve God and God's command to you and every one of those jobs is to be holy, to be righteous, to obey, to not sin. And you can do that and either one of those things and it doesn't matter which city you go to to live in, God doesn't really care if you live in Detroit or Pittsburgh, well I mean you should live in Pittsburgh, that was about it, it's a Detroit or Chicago, that doesn't matter. Or any other two cities, as long as you keep Pittsburgh out of it. You know he doesn't say of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh does it, he says Jerusalem, Jerusalem. But those things don't matter when we're seeking to do God's will but we're all caught up in that because we really, when most people say they want God's will, what they want is the best for that. I want the spouse that's going to make me the happiest, I want the job that's going to make me the most fulfilled, I want to live in the best city where I'm going to have the best time and that has nothing to do with God's will because God's will may be that you suffer difficulty, that you go to a place that's torn by war or that your spouse has hardships or whatever and those things happen and they're real and you can still be in the midst of God's will and that's the beauty of this, it's not about your happiness and your contentment or oh I'm missing God's will, you could be as much in the center of God's will in the biggest highest palace of this world and in the dungeons of China about to be executed because God's will is that you be holy as he is holy and it has nothing to do with your circumstances unless you're in disobedience, that's the will we are to seek beloved, the second kind of will that's a little bit more complicated, the people struggle with is the decreed of will but we see this everywhere in scripture and you all depend upon this and you all actually love this aspect of God's will more than anything else, even though many people deny it in their words because they don't think things through but the decreed of will comes from the word decree or declare and this is that word by which God declares all things, he declares the end from the beginning, God has a book in which everybody's going to be saved was written down and their name's written before the foundation of the world and everything else was written in that book, everything that happens to everyone from the tiniest butterfly on the outer skirts of Mongolia right now whatever it's doing to the greatest nation and whatever it might do. The decreed of will of God is that secret will by which God accomplishes his purposes in the world and that includes everything because if there's one thing that's outside of that then God can't promise you anything because that thing that's outside of that might mess up what he is trying to do. This is God's secret and perfect plan right, we say God has a plan, what's in that plan, everything's in that plan, everything's in that plan, I know people that struggle with this and they say well gosh you know I feel like that God can't predestine everything because that makes my life meaningless and they're imagining that they're outside the plan and know it's that you're in the plan that makes everything you do so meaningful because everything you do is a part of this plan to do something else and otherwise then your life would be meaningless except the once or twice that he intersects with you with his plan. Beloved, this is that will by which we say God is in control, what's he in control of? Most things, everything, everything. Every atom is under the complete control of God if God wanted it to cease to exist, it would cease to exist because there's a person on earth right now that God doesn't want to be here, he would take them out in a moment. Everything that exists continues to exist because God at some level wants it to or he would stop it from being here because he has that power and he has no obligation to any creature to give it a second more existence. And so if anything exists God must want it to exist or else it wouldn't exist and therefore it's a part of his plan to do something that he wants and this is how we understand God's decreed of will that it includes even the sin of man, even the evils of man because again if God wanted somebody to not commit some evil that he knew that they were going to commit he could stop them in a moment by any means that he wanted to and he doesn't have to let them live. So if he lets them live to do evil that he knows they're going to do then he has a reason for it. This gives us great comfort Beloved. This means no matter what happens to you no matter who does what to you, you can know that it's part of God's plan somehow, somehow, right? This is how that promise is true. He causes all things to work for the good of those who love God and are called according to this purpose and you can say that in the midst of cancer you can say that in the midst of being shot you can say that in the midst of about to be put to death for your faith. He's in control, this is his will for my life and I know as long as I'm obeying him that this is for my good because my God is over this and he could stop it in a second and if he lets it happen to me then I know it's for my good. This is why this will is so powerful and comfortable and why you've got to get this. I remember talking about this once on a program I did at Cornerstone. We got a letter from shaky hand from Oklahoma, wrote to me through that program and he said, pastor if I could just believe what you say that even the bad things in my life are somehow from God. And yes he doesn't mean the bad and that person who's doing the bad thing, they're at fault in God's going to judge them unless they repent but that somehow God's in control of this and somehow even in these bad things God is still with me and he is still going to bless me and keep his promises if I can only believe that pastor. Well believe it because it's true, it's God's will that all things come to pass even again the things that men do that God hates according to his precept of will. He has a reason and a purpose to allow them. This is what we see in Acts chapter 4 verse 27. For truly against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, now listen to this. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. That's everybody in the world. Gentiles choose Herod Pontius Pilate against your servant Jesus. They were gathered together to do what? Verse 28. To do whatever your hand and your purpose determined beforehand to be done. Everything that happened to Jesus, every unjust act was predetermined and purposed by God. To do what? Something wrong? No. To save us from our sins. He made use of those wicked evil acts. The betrayal, the false trial, the plucking of the beard, the striking, the crown of thorns, the crucifixion, God willed those things that we would be saved in Jesus and took them on knowing them, that we would be saved in any moment. He said, I could ask my father for 10,000 leads of angels and this would end. I don't have to do this. And he did. This is God's decreed of will, beloved. He said that by which God does all things, causes all things to occur. It rules over the smallest things, not a sparrow falls to the ground, apart from your father's will. We used to sit in the yard, we'd be out with our beady guns, trying to shoot at these innocent little birds, rotten little kid that I was. It only gets me comfort to know that for whatever reason that I was allowed to do that, still God was in control, but a sparrow can fall to the ground, apart from your father's will. This is God's plan. It's over all things. You don't have to worry about messing this up, you can't. Everything you do, right? Oh, I have no Christians who have wrestled this. I don't know if I should get up now or an hour from now, maybe I'll miss God's will. Well, unless you're commanded to get up to go to work because you've taken that responsibility on, and therefore it's a perceptive will that you get up at this or that time, it doesn't matter. Whatever time you get up, it was as well. Whatever happens was his decreed of will. You might not understand how it works together, we'll understand some day, but everything that occurs again, if God didn't want it to occur, he would stop it. If it occurs, he has some good reason for it. And the sins of Mendo, we mean evil, God means good, right? That's Joseph. You meant it for evil, but God meant it. Same things. All that you did to me, God meant it for good. He used it for good. This is God's decreed of will. The first rule would be his law, the second rule would be his plan. That we see in our text, and the reason why I had to spend that time, because I wanted to distinguish that from what we see in our text, which is God's will of disposition, sometimes called his dispositive will, dispositive disposition, what does that mean? It talks about God's character, God's nature, God's will of disposition is God's nature. It's what God in himself, all things being equal, just a delights in and enjoys. God's will of disposition is the good, and the beautiful, and the true. God delights in these things. He would, that all would also delight in these things in that sense. That's what we see in our text. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, Jesus says this, how often I want it, it's the word fellow, will, how often I will build, to gather your children together, as a hen gathers their chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Well, there is a sense in what's God willed to do it, and if it was decreed it will, it would happen. He's not talking about his law there either, he's talking about his compassion, how often I would have, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. Love it, this is true, this is sincere. God would have all people to be saved. He would have all to just believe and come, and that was especially true of Israel, who were given the covenants. How often he would have protected them, how often he would have delivered them, but they would have just come running for them. Have you ever seen it? Have you ever seen a mother hen gather her chicks? That's one of the advantages of growing up in Salzburg. We're right outside of Salzburg and there are kind of my mom had chickens, my dad had chickens. I remember I was part of the future farmers of America, I don't know why you joined these groups at school, and I wasn't a farmer, but maybe some of my buddies were in there, whatever. And you could get chickens, it gets a little bit of credit, I said to dad, you know, I'm thinking about getting chickens. He said, I'll ring every one of their necks, they're filthy animals, you're not getting chickens. I mean, he grew up with the chicken coop, you know, when I was at Penn State we walked by the chicken coop, some, yeah, they were filthy animals. But have you ever seen it? Have you ever seen a chicken, a mother hen? She sits there and she starts, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, she starts clocking and the chicks come running. And they burrow themselves up and under her feathers and she kind of squats down on them and then woe to the predator that approaches her, like even like a big doberman or something. She will just stand her ground and she will die before she'll give up one of her chicks, long as they come, long as they come under her wings, they're protected. She will peck that thing and this, I've seen dogs back off, big dogs of little chicken up with it when those chicks are under her. You can watch some videos, just do a search, mother hen gathering chicks and it's pretty fascinating stuff, but she's just like himself to that. There's real passion there, there's real desire there, that mother hen wants the chicks to come. And this is the will we're talking about, God's ordinary disposition, isn't of course all would come, of course they would come. He wants them to choose the good, choose the good. If Ezekiel 1832, I have no pleasure in the death of the one who dies, says the Lord, therefore turn and live. Ezekiel 3311 say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that, in other words, I have pleasure in, but that I have pleasure in, that the wicked would turn from his way and live, turn, turn from your evil ways, why should you die, O house of Israel, that's what he says, this is God speaking to his people, God wills that all would come, and he wills that they would come. In this will of disposition, it is his disposition, that of course people would want to be saved and to choose to believe, but the will of man is such, and the fallenness of man is such, and he said, no one ever would. If that's all it was, was God's character in his natural desire for all to come, and his command that they should come, no one would ever come, that's really the sad state of things. He saw it in our scripture reading, saw it in our call to worship, how long, no one would ever come, and that's because I thirdly, the will of man, thirdly, I want you to notice the will of man. Verse 37 again, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones, those who are sent are often, I would, often I wanted to gather your children together as a handgatherer or chicks under a wings, but you were not willing. It's the exact same word for willing, hello, I willed, you were not willing. It's not that they didn't see, did you see it, no, that nice act, it's not that they, all they couldn't see, all they didn't know, they just didn't know, all they didn't understand, all they didn't have an opportunity, they were not, they understood, they had all the opportunities, they were not willing, they did not want. Many verses talk about this, beyond what we had in our text Isaiah 652, I have stretched out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, God says, who walk in a way that is not good according to their own thoughts, well, there it is again, the thoughts, the internal sins. Jeremiah 7, 13 and now because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, I called you, but you did not answer, these calls were sincere, these calls were real, God desired that they would hear, because they would come, but the depravity is man, a man is such as that they rejected the calls, in fact they not only rejected it, they mocked it, they not only mocked it, they had to kill the messengers, that's what the verse says, oh Jerusalem's Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophet, wasn't enough to just refuse them, they had to kill them, kills the prophets, stoned those who are sent to her and beloved the contention of reformed theology is that this is the condition of every fallen person, there were all just like this, apart from the regenerating grace of God, apart from the saving grace of God, apart from the grace of God that takes away the heart of stone and gives the heart of flesh, apart from the effectual inward call, the outward call which is sincere, which is from the heart of God which you really want people to listen to will have no effect, because we need more than just ears, we need a new heart, and this is the salvation that Jesus came to bring, that apart from the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, an opportunity and offer, a thousand offers, it will never be enough, in fact the more God showed mercy to His people, the more they spurned it, every time what Israel had a good time of peace and prosperity, what would they do, build the idols again, go to the prostitutes again, raise them up, male call it prostitutes, female call it prostitutes, under every tree, the asher and poles, the bales, the idols, whenever they had peace and prosperity they would go back to evil and then God would bring judgment and they would cry out, save us, save us. John Calvin says where the mercy of God was greatest, it was there, that there was the greatest wickedness and rebellion because that's what man does. We see God's mercy and long-suffering as an opportunity to do more of what we want, which is sin. And apart from the grace of God, that's the response and that's what Christ is crying out here. He's really lamenting over the fallenness of man. It's not just that we're lost and we need a little help, we need an entirely new heart and mind. As Ephesians 2 says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, according to what you once walked, according to the prince of this war, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Paul says, among whom we all, Paul includes himself, we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh and of the mind and we, Paul says, we, Ephesians and Paul, believe us, we were by nature children of God. We were dead. What's the next verse say, but God, even when you were dead in your trespasses and sins made you alive, beloved, this is the fatal flaw of liberal Christianity, which is exposed as an absolute folly, that people will respond, people are naturally good, that if we love them enough, if we show enough care for kind enough, for merciful enough, tolerant enough, if we give away enough free stuff, free food, free health care, free housing, free education, free childcare, counseling, free transportation, internet phones, needles. If we love people enough, they'll turn away from crime, they'll turn away from unproductiveity and divisive and destructive behavior and why we'll bring them into the kingdom, we'll be and bring the kingdom, we'll be Christ to them, we'll win them by our love, our love will transform the world. That's what they teach. We'll transform the believer, unbeliever, we'll transform the city, we'll transform the world and that's what God has called the church to do, to transform the world. No, he is not. No, he's not. He's called us to witness to the salvation of Christ that you can have in this day, but judgment is coming and the day of salvation is coming to an end. That's what he's called us to do. Our love is able to transform anything because right in our text beloved is love incarnate. It is love. It is divine love. It is perfect love. Perfect love is before the Jews pleading with them to repent and believe. Perfect love is saying, I'll give you everything you need. And they not only reject it, they're going to kill him for it. They took perfect love and they nailed it to the cross because apart from the saving power of the gospel that God the Holy Spirit brings to those whom God sends him that regenerates them, that gives them a new heart and a new mind and a new new soul and apart from that we hate the love of God and we don't want it because it comes at a price. We have to bow the knee and admit that we're sinners and deserve to go to hell and we are good people, darn it. And God needs to recognize that. And that ultimately is the source of man's rebellion that it's God's fault. We're good. We're victims. It's not our, it's our circumstances. Stuff was done to our fathers. We're in a poor situation. We don't have enough money. These circumstances you change those and man will be good and that's the liberal Christianity and that is destroyed by the stacks. Jesus healed their bodies. He loved them. He called them to believe and had a eternal life and they killed them for it. And Calvin says this, if this charge was justly brought against the ancient people who lived under the law, it is far more applicable to us for now with far greater familiarities and kindness. He invites us to himself by his son. Well, however, they see the Messiah. He's proven to be that. They don't understand all the things that we do on this side of the cross. Calvin says if the Jews were wrong to reject the Messiah and God's judgment fell upon them in effect. He's saying the wrath that's going to come upon the visible church that gives lip service to Jesus, but really doesn't repent and believe and humble itself before them. The wrath that comes on that's going to make 70 AD look like a day in the park. The God's wrath is coming even greater because to reject so much greater truth, so much greater light as we hear the gospel, beloved, it's a dangerous thing to hear the gospel because too much is given, much is required. That's why Hebrews 3.14 says today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion. Today is the day. Do not harden your hearts. Do not so insult the blood of Christ. He offers his blood and to insult that and say, no, the vengeance of God will be unbelievable. That's why he says, see your house is left to you, desolate. Fourthly and lastly, I don't want you to notice the one way, notice the one way. Verse 37, beloved, is not talking about the last three and a half years of Jesus' earthly ministry. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are center, how often I wanted to gather you. Christ is clearly claiming to be God. He's the one who's going to send prophets, hasn't sent them yet, and he's the one who sent these prophets for 2,000 years. Jesus is as God, considering 2,000 years of their rejection, of their hardening their hearts, and he's lamenting how hard they are. And he likens himself to this mother hand, you know, 10 times in the Old Testament, God is the mother hand. 10 times, give you a couple. Psalm 178, keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me under the shadow of your wings. Psalm 91.4, he shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings, you will take refuge. Jesus is God in the text. He knows he's God, he's lamenting, he's calling his people, and he says to them 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. What is that? Remember that was Psalm 118. That was the Messianic Psalm. They all said this two days earlier. It's Tuesday, Sunday, Palm Sunday, the triumphant, they all shouted, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, all four gospels have that phrase, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Again, it's a quote of what Psalm 118, which was a Messianic Psalm, they're celebrating him, they're accepting him, they're receiving him, but it was not in truth. Because three days from now, it's Tuesday, Friday morning, that same crowd is going to shout, crucify, crucify. And Jesus is saying, you're not going to see me again until you say this for real, until you receive me asking, what does he mean? You're not going to see me again. They're going to see him again on Friday when they drag him into the city for this kangaroo trial before anus and Caiaphas, and then when they take him to the preitorium, and that's inside the city, but no more will they see him as the Savior offering salvation. And these are the very last words Jesus says to Israel, for the last 2000 words, he has not said another word to them. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, my heart. How great it was to reject Christ, how great a punishment, how great it is to reject the gospel now, to know the full gospel. Christ is showing us here a great warning. It seems to me that this desolation that came upon Israel, how much greater upon us if we hear the word, if we don't humble ourselves, if we don't receive the word and seek that shelter under his wings, do you recognize you're still one of those chicks? And the only hope and strength and power and ability you have to to live the Christian life is to come under the shadow of the wings of our Lord and Savior. Let's pray. Father, how we pray, that you would help us who do believe to not become bold and think that we don't need your grace, that we can stand on our own. Father, help us to realize that the moment you would allow us, we would run into any sin, we need to be protected, we need to hear you, Lord Jesus, when you call us like that mother, hand calls the chicks and those chicks know they have no hope except in the protection of the mother's wings. Let us be like that again, Lord God. No matter how long some of us may have been Christians, let us be that humble, that we need you as much as the chick needs its mother, that we have no defense, apart from you. And Father, if there are any among us who don't know you, oh, Lord, let them see that the punishment you threatened to Jerusalem surely came to pass, how much more punishment will come upon those who have heard your gospel call, who have seen the blood of Christ that's been shed that would forgive them if they would come. Lord God, help them to see that that judgment is real, and that they would see their only hope as trusting in Christ, give them new hearts, give them a new soul, a new spirit, cause them to be made alive, regenerate them by your word and spirit, that they would believe in repent, that they would love to be under the protection of the Almighty Lord and Savior of His Church, Jesus Christ and His name we pray, amen.