Jesus Wept Over It

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’

“And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”’” (Luke 19:41-46 ESV)

I believe that Jesus Christ still weeps over those who make professions of faith in the one true God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – and for the same reasons he wept over his people Israel when he walked upon the earth. And that is because so many of them are deceived into believing the lies and into rejecting the truth taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles. And he knows that they will not inherit eternal life with God but that they will die in their sins, without hope.

For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For he also said that not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one obeying God the Father.

[Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Ephesians 4:17-24; Romans 6:1-23]

Now Jesus was not just speaking here of the judgment at the end of time or at the end of our lives on this earth when we will either enter into God’s holy presence or when we will end up in eternal damnation and torture. But he was speaking of a physical judgment on his people Israel that was to come which I believe occurred in 70 A.D., if I am not mistaken, which is when the Old Covenant temple of God (a physical temple) was destroyed, for it was no longer God’s temple, for his temple was now the hearts of his saints.

And the wayward and rebellious and lukewarm church of today is promised a similar judgment in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, where five out of seven churches were threatened with God’s judgments if they did not repent of their waywardness and if they did not turn and now follow Jesus Christ with their lives in humble submission to him as Lord (Owner-Master) and Savior of their lives. And after these warnings of judgment were given, then in the book of Revelation we have detailed for us the types of judgments to come.

And it is clear that Christians will exist during this time of tribulation, and that they will have to endure severe persecutions for their walks of faith in Jesus Christ, but that God will use this time to purify their hearts and to make them ready to meet their Lord at his return, which is when our salvation will be complete, and not before then, and only if we are those who are walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living in the power of God and if we are not walking in sin, making sin our practice (1 John 3:4-10).

And I believe that the church in America, at large, which fits the description of the church in Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22), and is fleshly, and is market-driven, is already under the judgment of God, and that soon we may see the physical institutions of human origin called “churches” being physically destroyed such as what happened in 70 AD when God visited his people Israel in judgment, and the physical structure which once was God’s holy temple, was destroyed, never to be rebuilt, because God does not live in buildings made by human hands, but in the hearts of those who serve him.

For we know that a time of great tribulation is coming, and that God is going to judge the people of the earth, but the book of Revelation begins with God threatening judgment to the churches which did not repent of their sins against the Lord, and then what followed was the declarations of judgments, whereby we learn of the persecutions of Jesus’ followers during this time, as well (Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13). So we need to take this seriously.

For right after we read of how Jesus wept over Jerusalem, we read of how Jesus cast immediate judgment on those who had turned his temple into a marketplace (a den of robbers, a house of trade, a place of business). And his temple today is the church, the body of Christ, which so many now have turned into places of business to be marketed to the people of the world just like any other businesses, using human marketing schemes and ploys to attract the ungodly to the gatherings of the church to grow their “churches.”

And God’s judgments are definitely upon those who have turned his temple into places of business and who are marketing “the church” to the world via worldly means and methods, and who are also turning his church into places of fun and entertainment, and who are thus altering the character of God/Christ and of his church and of his gospel message so as to attract and draw in large crowds of people from the world, and so as not to offend them with the truth of the gospel taught by Jesus and his NT apostles.

Thus, the Lord is calling out to his people to come out from among these institutions of human origin called “church,” which are just businesses of human making, and to not have fellowship with the ungodly, and to not partner with the ungodly (the world). And then he will receive us and he will be a Father to us, and we will be his sons and daughters. For we are not to take the “mark of the beast,” i.e. the influences and character and nature of the ungodly world upon us, but we are to be holy as God is holy.

We are to come out from among these market-driven and flesh-driven businesses called “church,” but which are honoring the flesh and not God, so that we do not participate with her/them in their sins and in their plagues, for this worldly and flesh driven and market driven “church” of today has piled her sins high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities, and he will judge her (Babylon) for her sins. So find a fellowship of believers in Jesus who are following the Lord and not human marketing schemes.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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