PERSONS OF INTEREST TO HEAVEN
[p. 133] PERSONS OF INTEREST TO HEAVEN
Luke 23:27 - 30; Luke 22:61,62; Luke 7:44; Luke 10:23,24
You will notice that each of these passages mentions that the Lord turned either to one person or to several. In the first passage Jesus turned round to people who were lamenting His sufferings: “A great multitude of the people, and of women who wailed and lamented him, followed him”. They were not weeping or lamenting for themselves; like many people today they had a measure of sympathy for the Lord; they are not apostate. There are many apostates in christendom; in one great European country christianity has been completely refused, and nearly all the other countries are putting it aside little by little. But there are some who are sorry about this, and would like to keep christianity in the world; they do not want to return to paganism or re-establish Judaism. They prefer christianity, hence they regret the rejection and ruin of it, but they are not at all sorry about their sins, nor are they concerned about the judgment to come. This is what is set out in the first scripture we have read. These women were lamenting the Lord Jesus because He was being led to His crucifixion, but they were not lamenting their own sins, hence it says, “Jesus turning round to them”. The Lord is not indifferent to the opinions that are current today in christendom, and He is sympathetic with those who would maintain christianity as the religion of Europe. In that connection He turns round towards us, as if to say to us, “Weep over yourselves”. Previously some told Jesus “of the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with that of their sacrifices”; it was cruelty. The Lord said, “If ye repent not, ye shall all perish in the same manner”, Luke 13:1 - 3. That is what I would impress on our spirits, at this time, that whether christianity is rejected in Europe or not, unless we repent we shall come under judgment. So the Lord says, “Do not weep over me, but weep [p. 134] over yourselves and over your children ... . Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us”. The Lord directs the attention of these women upon the judgment to come. The evils that are the consequence generally of bad government, are to be regretted, but, while regretting them, we must not forget that each one of us will come under judgment, so the great thing is to weep over ourselves.
Is there one here who has never shed a tear over his own sins? if not, now is the time to do so, for “it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment”, Hebrews 9:27. Have I ever thought of that? that unless I repent, I shall come under judgment, and this judgment is not simply death. How solemnly this is described to us in Revelation 20:12,13; the prophet John “saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne ... and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hades gave up the dead which were in them”. All the dead, great and small stood before God. John also saw “a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled”, but the dead did not flee, they stood before the throne, each to be judged. And how were they judged? “Books were opened ... and the dead were judged out of the things written in the books according to their works”. How solemn all this is, dear young people! Have you ever wept about this, about yourselves? It is good to be sympathetic towards people who may be ill-treated in the world; and to sympathise with those who are ill, or who are suffering; and God would encourage such feelings in us; but what about your own state? This most terrible sentence bears on us, “If ye repent not, ye shall all perish in the same manner”. Is there somebody here who has never repented of his sins? This meeting is in view of leading you to repentance; “God therefore ... enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent” (Acts 17:30); this is addressed to you now, and we beseech you in the name of the Lord to repent now.
“[p. 135] Jesus turning round to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me, but weep over yourselves”. He is moving towards the cross where He is about to die for them, but His heart is so full of tender compassion for them that He says, “Do not weep over me, but weep over yourselves”. How touching it is to see Him turn round to them, and He is turning round to each of us here this evening.
In chapter 22:61, it also says that the Lord turned round, and this time looked at one person. Who was this person? Perhaps such an one is here tonight; someone who has not only sinned in a general kind of way, but in an inexcusable way. Peter had sinned in a most inexcusable way, and it was all the more serious because the Lord had warned him. He had been warned. He had said to the Lord, “Even if all should be offended, yet not I”, and Jesus says to him, “Verily, I say to thee, that thou today, in this night, before the cock shall crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny me”, Mark 14:29,30. Are there not some here who have been warned, and in spite of the warnings, have followed a path in which they have sinned and denied the Lord? Your name has been recorded by the Lord; He has noted that He told you on such a day, in such a month, in such a year, that if you pursued this path you would surely sin and deny Him. The Lord has not forgotten this warning; perhaps you have forgotten it, or neglected it and have fallen under the power of the devil, and have sinned grievously. If so, the Lord is here this afternoon, to turn round towards you and look at you.
“The cock crew”; the hour had struck; Peter had grievously sinned, but the Lord turning round, looked at him. Amid all His sufferings, He thought of this sinner and sought to lead him to repentance and confession. “The cock crew”, the moment has now come for you to confess your sins: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins”, 1 John 1:9. The time has now come for you to repent;
[p. 136] do not put it off till later, do not pass out of this door without repenting; the opportunity for you to be saved has come. You notice that Peter wept bitterly; the Lord had not turned to him in vain. May it be that this meeting is not in vain, but that someone will turn to the Lord repenting and receive the forgiveness of sins. A repenting sinner will receive forgiveness. In the gospel it is proclaimed that remission of sins is offered by Christ, because He gave Himself for our sins; He died for our sins and He suffered for our sins, so God can pardon you now; forgiveness is proclaimed. Will you not repent and accept God’s precious offer, forgiveness? As I said, Peter’s sin was inexcusable, for the Lord had warned him, but like many young men and young women, he neglected the warning; it says, “They having lit a fire in the midst of the court and sat down together, Peter sat among them” Luke 22:55. You may be neglecting the warning, and go away and sit down in the midst of worldly people. Perhaps you say, ‘It is quite legitimate for me to have a meal with a friend, and to sit in a restaurant to take a meal with a companion’; but who are these companions? Are they christians? Who were the people Peter was sitting with? Did they love Jesus? No, they were some of the enemies of Jesus, and Peter was sitting in the midst of them. You will have noticed how it happened. “A certain maid, having seen him sitting by the light, and having fixed her eyes upon him, said, And this man was with him. But he denied him, saying, Woman, I do not know him”. Whilst you are sitting with ungodly friends someone comes towards you and says, ‘This young man is a christian’. You find that in such company you have no power to confess the Lord; you are in bad company. Peter said, ‘I do not know the Lord; I do not know the Nazaraean’. See how dangerous to be amongst bad companions. Then it says, “After a short time another seeing him said, And thou art of them. But Peter said, Man, I am not”; Peter was afraid and told lies. It then says, “After the lapse of about one hour, another stoutly maintained it, saying, In truth this man also was with him, for also he is a Galilaean”. You notice that he had been allowed one hour; an hour had passed since the first two lies. Now Peter replies, “Man, I know not what thou sayest”. We see then what one is capable of doing, when warnings are ignored and bad companions are followed; but the Lord has His eye on you. He has followed all that is happening; He sees you in this place in company with such people; He has heard what you said. And, “the cock crew. And the Lord, turning round, looked at Peter”. Think of the Lord of glory turning round to look at a poor sinner, but He did not turn in vain. “Peter, going forth without, wept bitterly”. Have you done so? Forgiveness awaits you.
I will pass on now to the third scripture, in chapter 7. Here it says, “And turning to the woman he said to Simon, Seest thou this woman?” He did not tell anybody to look at Peter when He turned round to him; His look was for Peter alone, and Peter understood its meaning, and it brought him to repentance. This look of Jesus pierced his conscience; Peter went out and wept bitterly. It was a matter between the Lord and Peter, for the Lord does not wish to expose us to others. He seeks to expose us to ourselves, in order that we are able to judge ourselves. But here he says to Simon, “Seest thou this woman?” Who is this woman to whom He is attracting attention? She is worth looking at. A poor sinner is not worth looking at; the Lord does not invite us to look at them: if the Lord looks at them it is in order to convict them. This woman had a spiritual history, and there are such persons here to whom the Lord would draw your attention, if you wish to see them. Who was this woman? She too had been a great sinner. The Pharisee called her a sinner, a woman of the city. She had been a sinner, but she had changed her mind about sin. She saw that the path [p. 138] of sin leads to judgment, but she saw more than that, she saw the Saviour. He had been invited into the Pharisee’s house, but she came uninvited. Have you come here because you have been invited? This woman entered into Simon’s house because Jesus was there. Enduring the freezing atmosphere of the Pharisee’s house, she stood behind Jesus, weeping. Like Peter, she realised she was a sinner; realising it and repenting. She is judging her sins, and is weeping over them. Such a woman has a spiritual history. She has an alabaster box of myrrh, and she anoints the feet of the Saviour. The Lord does not forbid her such a privilege. If she had done it in hypocrisy, He would not have allowed her to do it, but He saw that she was repentant, and too she had ointment. She was weeping for Jesus, and her tears were tears of love. She had already wept over herself, but now the Lord is accepting her service, as in addition she wiped His feet with the hair of her head. No doubt most here have learned that unless they have long hair, they cannot wipe the Saviour’s feet. This woman had not shortened hair. She understood that her hair had been given for her glory, and she could never use it more gloriously than in wiping the feet of the Saviour. Well, dear friends, that is the kind of woman to whom the Lord turns and attracts attention. He did not attract attention to Peter, but He did to this woman; “Seest thou this woman?” The Lord is not ashamed of her; she is one of the jewels in His crown, a trophy of grace. She will shine in the coming day as a trophy of the death of Christ! What a triumph when the Lord can say, “Seest thou this woman?” She was a repentant sinner who, now that she had been forgiven much, loved much; she was loving Jesus. Are there some here who do not love Jesus? I fear that there are; may God not allow you to continue without love for Jesus. It says in Scripture, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22), meaning let him be [p. 139] accursed at His coming. It is a terrible thing to be without love for Jesus, so I would warn all those who do not love Him. This woman loved Him; “she loved much”, it says of her. Why did she so love? Because He had forgiven her so much. So the Lord turned to her and said to Simon, “I entered into thy house; thou gavest me not water on my feet, but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me not a kiss, but she from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she has anointed my feet with myrrh. For which cause I say to thee, Her many sins are forgiven; for she loved much”, Luke 7:44 - 47. You will notice that not only does He draw Simon’s attention to this woman, but he tells him that her sins are forgiven. No matter what Simon might think of her, the Lord Jesus said, “Her many sins are forgiven”. Simon had said that if the Lord was a prophet, He should have known that she was a sinner, but the Lord knew her whole history. He says, “Her many sins”; she was a great sinner, but all her sins were forgiven. Dark though your history may be, the Lord would say to you that your many sins are forgiven. What is so beautiful is that the Lord also speaks to the woman, saying to her, “Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace”. Is there not someone here who would like to hear these words? Possibly this woman knew very little, or even nothing at all about the matter of faith. It is a word that is scarcely mentioned in the Old Testament, though mention is made of people who had faith. Hebrews 11 gives a long list of persons who lived in Old Testament times who were marked by faith. It may be that those here may have faith without knowing it. The Lord does not say here, what is said in the epistle to the Romans, where it is a question of the teaching of justification by faith. Here He says, “Thy faith”. Perhaps you have never thought that you have faith, yet persons who have known you, who have observed you, know that [p. 140] you have. If it is so, the Lord can say to you, “Thy faith has saved thee”. The Lord says elsewhere, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Be transported hence there, and it shall transport itself”, Matthew 17:20. So that is the word of encouragement the Lord would give to some here, “Thy faith has saved thee, go in peace”.
Now in the fourth passage, the Lord turns to the disciples saying, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see”. First of all, I spoke of persons who were weeping about Christ instead of weeping about themselves and judging themselves; then of the sinner to whom the Lord turned and who wept bitterly; finally of the woman, the great sinner to whom the Lord turned and who was forgiven. Now, I would just say a word to those who are found amongst the Lord’s disciples; that is, those amongst us who have the forgiveness of sins, who have received the Holy Spirit, who love one another and are known as disciples of the Lord. The Lord is turning to you now. What has He to say as He turns to His disciples this afternoon, dear brethren? He says, “Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see”. Think of the things that the Lord brings to our attention, dear brethren, of the glorious things the Holy Spirit is presenting in the ministry He is giving us. The Lord says, “I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things which ye behold, and did not see them”. Abraham, David, Solomon and the prophets saw wonderful things, but they did not see the things which we see. Do we appreciate them? Then the Lord adds, “And to hear the things which ye hear, and did not hear them”. In these last days, the Lord is bringing great things to the notice of His own. For more than a century, there have been wonderful revelations as to the rights of God and of Christ; as to the assembly, and all that is to come; do we appreciate them? Are they matters of secondary importance, or have they the first place with [p. 141] us? Abraham would have loved to see them. Moses said, “Let me, I pray thee, see thy glory” (Exodus 33:18), but God did not grant this, whilst now to us all the glorious things of Christ are unfolded. Do we value them? The Lord turns to us in order to impress us by the great things that have been revealed to us so that we may value them. May God grant it to us.