Weep for Yourself — Erlo Stegen

Shall we pray once again? Thank you, Lord, for this privilege of meeting together at your feet. We ask you to please speak to us. Give us the heart of Mary. And not that of Martha, who was busy with many things, but rather the heart of Mary who listened to words from you.

We ask this Lord Jesus that your name would be glorified. Amen. Luke 23. Luke 23. From verse 27. And they followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

Jesus’ Warning to the Daughters of Jerusalem

But turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will they do when it is dry? Let's read thus far. The portion that we've read contains a lot.

Many points of which we cannot expound upon, but we'll just touch upon them. Here the Lord Jesus is carrying the cross on the way to Golgotha. A great crowd surrounded him. Some with love that they felt for him.

Some had pity. Some were mocking. And his enemies were in the crowd too. And then there was the inquisitive crowd, the taggers on who just saw something happening like flies attracted to a smell they followed.

But the theme upon which I'd like us to talk today and expound is, do not cry for me. Do not weep for me, but for yourselves and your children. Here in this crowd, there was also a man called Simon of Cyrene.

When Jesus had been whipped and attacked so sorely and his strength was failing under the cross, they looked for a person who would be round about them going with the crowd and they got Simon of Cyrene.

They forced him to carry the cross. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus. And we get to hear of those men later on in the New Testament. And so some Bible commentators believe that Alexander and Rufus were actually the sons of Simon and were believers in Jesus.

Simon was an outsider. He was just busy in his field and here came this crowd along. And then they forced him saying, carry the cross for him. He didn't want to. But he was forced to. This Simon was born in North Africa.

He was an African like we who are here. We are people of Africa. It always troubles me, it concerns me when I hear black Africans saying that the gospel is for the white man only. It should rather be the other way around that white people say, no, this is for Africa, it's not for us.

We hear different traditions like they paid a dowry. Now there's no white nation that practices the dowry system or the lobola. So this man who then carried the cross for Jesus, he was an African from North Africa.

Even to Joseph, he was told by the Lord, now you take Mary, your wife, and the Christ child and you go to North Africa, to Egypt. For Herod, this white man, wanted to kill Jesus. And so Joseph got up that same night, took Mary, took the child, and they started their journey to Africa.

Africa gave him refuge. And so when Herod sought to kill the Christ child, it was Africa that took them in, these refugees into Africa. And our Lord could escape. And so it breaks my heart when I hear from Africans saying this gospel is the European thing, it's not ours.

And then they resist the gospel. And they cast it aside and rather take other traditions, which is not good. There are some good and wonderful African traditions, but there are some that are not, that are bad.

So ancient Africa received the Lord Jesus as they sought refuge in Africa, and also through this African who carried the cross. That's why it confuses me when blacks say, no, this gospel is not ours, it's not for Africa.

The amazing thing is, Africa now receives many of the bad things from Europe and from the Europeans, but the good things they cast aside. And so you'll find black Africans who say, this Christianity is not our own tradition.

But you'll find him saying that with a cigarette in his mouth, being from the whites. Where does the cigarette come from? And he'll have a bottle of liquor, of alcohol, spirits in his hands, and he'll drink that.

But he doesn't say, this is not our tradition, therefore I should not drink it. They drive in motor cars, well, where do they come from? Buses. Aeroplanes. But they don't say, this is a white man's thing and therefore I will not make use of it.

So what do you say about this? So a person says, I don't want what the white man's thing is, this gospel is not for me, but they'll be wearing a tie, a jacket, shoes, where do they come from? There are some people with a brain and there are those who do not have it.

The bad things that came with the whites, you readily accept, but the good things, no. Why do they say it? Because this decision of theirs will cast them into everlasting hell if they reject this. So Simon of Sarin from North Africa was forced then to carry the cross.

And so he was the father of Alexander and Rufus, in other words, through his carrying the cross, there was blessing upon his children. And so Jesus had been cruelly whipped, they'd use whips which have not just the whip itself, but at the end of which would be pieces of metal.

And if they whipped a person, it would make, it would plow the back. And the Bible does say, and his back was plowed, if you think of a plow going through the soil of a field. Unrecognizable, full of wounds from his head to his feet.

They'd put upon him a crown of thorns. Now, I had not really noticed that point so much regarding the crown of thorns, but when I got down to the Tugela Valley, where there is this wilderness full of thorn trees, then I got to understand what it meant.

For as we walked in that area, thorns would go right through the soles of our shoes into our feet. And despite a tractor which would plow there, which has very thick rubber tires, these thorns would penetrate even those tires and cause punctures.

And these thorns are sharper even than the needles made by the warts. And on the tip of these thorns is a bit of poison. And if it enters into you, it causes an inflammation and you get sick. Remember, Jesus had a crown of thorns on his head, and then they would hit that crown with their stick so that the thorns would penetrate his head.

No wonder Jesus was weak and lost all strength if he was hurt and whipped in this manner. He who was innocent, the Lamb of God, was slain for us. Now, in this crowd following him, there were some believing women.

When they saw the Lord Jesus, their hearts were broken to see the Lord Jesus suffering in this way, to see the wounds and all that had happened to him. And yet, the Lord Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, cry for yourselves and your children.

Weeping for Sin Rather Than Merely Sympathizing with Christ

If you come across the Lord Jesus wounded in this way, on the way to being crucified, it is obvious your heart should be broken. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus said to them, do not weep for me, but for yourselves.

So tell me, have you ever wept for yourself? Not just for the Lord Jesus and his wounds. Yes, of course, you should weep in sympathy, but remember he is there because of you. But if you gaze upon him in his suffering, you should then cry, weep for yourself because of your sins.

Jesus said, weep for yourselves to those who are crying for him. So I ask you, have you ever obeyed what Jesus said? Have you ever wept for yourself, even when you see him in this condition, realizing it is because of your sins that you have true conviction and remorse because of the wickedness of your own evil?

You do get those who very superficially say, well, sorry then, I did something bad, forgive me. But it does not go deep. Without any remorse, because the Bible says that we are to have godly remorse, you should condemn yourself.

Sin is not to be taken lightly. We should all be familiar with the tears of remorse because of our own sins. And in true remorse, true deep conviction, come to the Lord Jesus realizing that he was wounded for your transgressions.

It is because of your sin that all this happened to him. And then cry to God, asking him for forgiveness, for you will reap what you sow. The Bible says God is not mocked. That which we sow, we will reap.

Think of the sins you have committed, your own evil, remembering that it deserves death, you will reap death. For the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. No wonder you should weep in remorse and ask God to forgive you.

For the things that you are busy with, you will reap the consequences thereof. The wages of sin is death. Jesus said to Peter, put back the sword into its place, for he who uses the sword will die thereby.

Kill somebody else, you too will be killed. What you sow, you will reap, and the wages of sin is death. You might have killed somebody like a dog. Remember, you will die in a worse way. King David fell and sinned.

Many people who fall into sexual sin today, they say, well, anyway, King David also did the same. He did sin. God said, since you have taken the wife of another man and sinned with her, other men will take your wives and sin with them.

You did it in secret. Nobody is seeing you. What will happen to your wives will be public, in the open. But let me also say it now, David repented. Read the Bible and see there where David, how much he wept, pleading with God for forgiveness.

David’s Repentance and the Consequences of Sexual Sin

We know him as having sinned. Remember, he only sinned once in that way and never did it again. So deep was his godly remorse. When he was very old, he became very ill. And there was no heater to warm up the room.

He became very cold. And then the people did a strange thing. They went throughout Israel seeking a girl who was more beautiful than anyone else. And so when they fetched her, they laid her then in David's bed.

She was the blanket. But the Bible says he touched her not. Tell me, you man, could a beautiful girl be put in your bed and you do not touch her? Yes, David had sinned, but with godly remorse, he repented and never did he commit that act again.

So it is completely wrong for people to say, well, David was sexually promiscuous, I can do it too. And God struck him, even though he forgave him, with the consequences of his sin, he reaped from that.

So you need to stop completely. Let the whole world cast aside that argument that David sinned, therefore I can too. For the wages of sin is still death. You who kill others, you too will be killed. You cannot separate the consequences of sin from sin.

If you sin, you will surely die, for sin and death come together and are never separated. If you sin, you will surely die, for sin and death come together and are never separated. You who kill others, you too will be killed.

You who kill others, you too will be killed. You will reap the consequences of your sin, unless you come to the Lord Jesus with true godly remorse, repenting, not tears for him, but tears for yourself as you see what you have done.

Never forget that, especially when Satan comes to you and paints sin to be so beautiful, woe to you if you take the bait. The Bible says, do not look at the wine as it sparkles in the glass, for when you've drunk of it, you will be bitten like that of by an adder snake.

Sexual Sin, Disease, and the Consequences of Temptation

And that adder is in you then. I remember when the first person in South Africa got the disease, the sickness of AIDS. Name was Peter. He was an only child of his parents. He was totally unconcerned with his parents and Christianity.

When the doctors diagnosed him and told him that he had AIDS, he was terribly shocked. He got such a great shock, even though it was the very beginning of AIDS in South Africa. He went straight to his parents.

Parents are amazing creatures, even if you have hurt them, wounded them, but they will receive you in whatever condition you are. But Peter from Cape Town spoke to a newspaper reporter and he said to them, had I known how painful, how dreadful AIDS was, I wouldn't have done these things.

I would have lived a chaste life, not having sex. Or I would have lived without sex. He said, you go now as reporters, publish this, warn people everywhere what the results are for me. I would be willing to forfeit all of that.

I would have lived without sex if I would have known the consequences of it. But Satan always paints sin to be attractive, and when you enter into it, woe to you. Here at Mapumulo, there was a girl who was about to die of AIDS.

She had a boyfriend. After all, no one lies like a boy who's wooing a girl. He had said to her, you are the very first girlfriend I have. But when she got AIDS, she discovered that he had had 15 relationships.

Where is she? It is said, you speak like a girl who is being wooed. A boy who speaks like that because he's wooing, he makes it ever so attractive. He covers up, and yet he's hiding his true self. That girl, she was so regretful.

That girl so regretted her act and what she had done, having believed this man who claimed that she was the first and she would be the last girlfriend. But once he had injected her with this disease, it was too late and she discovered he had had 15.

You know the story of that, what happened in France, a young man who was very upright, living with his parents at home. One day he went to a restaurant and when he bought or ordered what he was going to buy, a girl arrived, a very pretty girl, greeted him, asked him how he was, who in this era now you find it's girls who will flirt and woo boys as well.

She asked him who he was, they introduced each other and then she said let's sit down together and drink coffee. It was his first interaction with a girl. She said are you in a hurry to go home, can't we sit here a little longer?

And so they sat a bit, and so she then ordered the coffee for them and paid for it too. They chatted for a long time, the time just flew by, it's amazing if you sit under a sermon and you look at your watch and you say but it's a whole hour already, you noticing the time or if you, but if you're watching TV or you're flirting with a girl, the time just flies by and you're unconcerned about the time and you don't mind if the time goes by.

She then, bringing the coffee to the table, she said how about if we sleep over at a hotel? He didn't know how to respond. She persuaded him and said oh it's no big deal, let's just go there and you can go home tomorrow morning.

Finally, he was persuaded and did what she told him. She filled in the hotel registration forms and then they went to a bedroom to sleep together. It was his very first experience sleeping with a girl in a hotel.

In the morning when he woke up, he looked around and the girl was no longer in the bed. He then went to the bathroom and thinking that she might be there, it was a bathroom with a wall-to-wall mirror.

When he looked at the mirror, he saw that there was something written. You know how girls use lipstick? She had written with lipstick, welcome to the AIDS club. He trembled, he was greatly frightened.

All sleepiness was gone, he got dressed and went straight to a doctor. He didn't even go home, he went straight to the doctor. Without an appointment, he said to the secretary there, the receptionist, I must see the doctor.

She said but you can't without an appointment, it's very full. He insisted he had to see the doctor. She went into the doctor and said what this young man had insisted on and that she had told him it was full.

The doctor said well tell him just to stand by, just to sit there and if I have a gap, I will see him. So he sat down. Not long after that, the doctor came out after seeing a patient which had left and said young man what is it?

He told him and related the whole story. The doctor said well it's too early to tell if you are infected, come back after three months and we will see whether you are positive. After three months when he came back, he was found indeed to be HIV positive.

So that was his end. So in his area in France, that's how AIDS got in. Now it's not just that, there is also an epidemic of what they call Crocodile. Now last year I told you a bit about this dreadful condition.

And how it began in Russia and now has arrived in South Africa. AIDS is nothing compared to the condition of one who has the consequences of Crocodile. When you have this, you will find that it eats and penetrates the flesh until you can physically see the bones while he is alive.

That his cheeks fall off, just the teeth are visible. With some they try and speak and some of their teeth fall out. How will you be nursed? Who will nurse you if you have this condition? God has been speaking for a long time.

He has warned people but this is the way God brings about the consequences, his shambok of God. And if you carefully look at it, one realises, one has to, no longer can you mess around, be immoral and do these things.

God brings about his wrath from heaven upon the children of men where he says I have warned you for long enough, you are cursed when you do these things. I have warned you for long enough, you are cursed when you do these things.

God wants to bring you into marriage being holy without having been sexually immoral. Remember when the bride wears a veil, it is symbolic of virginity. Woe to you if you do not keep God's word. Purity is so important, it has been historically important in nations, even here in the Zulu nation.

The wages of sin is death. What you sow you will reap. Be wise then. Don't just be a person who hears with your ears but one who keeps. Now I want to draw to a close. A certain boy from a certain town here in South Africa, from Afrikaans family, his father was very wealthy.

Parents’ Responsibility to Prepare Children for Death

The father was not a Christian, didn't go to church, he would go fishing or to sports. And then the child got sick. The best specialist doctor was called. And when he examined him, he said, well, he is so sick, I don't think that you can hope that he can recover.

The father came and sat on the bed of his son. And the son said, father, I feel like I am dying. The father's heart was broken. He said, but father, I have one request from you. If I am dead, bury me in the cattle crawl, which actually would be a disgrace in white culture.

The father said, no, no, never. How can I bury you in a cattle crawl? He said, son, I will arrange the best funeral possible in the biggest church in our town and you will have a wonderful funeral. He said, no, father, in all my life you have never taught me about church.

When I die, when I am dying, now you speak about Christianity in church? So this young boy. He said, father, bury me in the cattle crawl. He said, father, bury me in the cattle crawl. You have never told me about Christianity, now bury me there.

Weeping for Children and Teaching Them to Die

Parents. Jesus said to those weeping mothers, weep for yourselves and your children. In America there was a certain girl. A super intelligent girl. Very attractive too. She was tops in sports at her school.

She was tops academically at school. And the parents were thrilled about their daughter. She finished her 12th grade and she went to university. She was immediately targeted and lifted to the highest heights.

If they would choose somebody for a position, it would be this girl who would get it. And after a year, they had a very big celebration at the university. Because it was a beauty contest. She was chosen, this girl, as the beauty queen.

She was thrilled. Phoned her parents at home. And when they heard the news, they said, we are so glad for you. And the mother said, your dad and I will certainly be there. And we'll buy the best ball gown for you.

And they said, you do us proud. Then the day arrived. And the parents were there. She was then crowned. After which there was the dance. Now the parents then said to her, well, it's a long way home. We need to leave now.

Because this happened on campus at university. And the parents left. It was about two hours drive. When they arrived, they got a phone call. And the mother picked up the phone. And a nursing sister from a hospital spoke to him.

And asked, is it your daughter who was crowned the beauty queen today at university? And she said, yes. And she said, I'm sorry to inform you that your daughter has met with a terrible car accident. If you still want to see her alive, come quickly.

They raced together. The nursing sister was waiting for them and took them to where she was. And when they walked in, there were all sorts of machines connected to her all over. The mother went on tiptoes to her daughter, whose face was terribly swollen.

And bent over her. And said, my girl. Your father and I have arrived. And the girl opened her eyes. And said, mother, I know I'm dying. Whispering to her, help me. Teach me. For you've taught me many other things.

You've taught me how to light a cigarette properly when I am an adult and come to university. You've taught me how to hold a wine glass. You've taught me all the best manners possible. One thing you have not done, which you forgot.

You never taught me how to die. Help me, mom. I don't know what to do. I know I'm dying. Tell me. The mother was speechless. She wanted to say something, but couldn't. Be quick. The daughter opened her eyes once again and said, mother, be quick.

Tell me. I don't know how to die. After which she closed her eyes, and that was her end. Weep for yourselves and your children. Are you prepared to leave this world and meet with God? Your children. If you receive a call that your child has died, will you be fearless in the sense that you know I taught my child?

Tell me, mom. You've taught me everything. You've taught me everything. That girl said to her mother, mother, you taught me everything, how to smoke, how to drink, how to do it politely, but you never taught me how to die.

Her father and mother wept tears of regret. It was too late. Fortunately, the child was dead. Listen, family, parents. Jesus said, weep for yourselves and for your children. If you've never wept, weep today.

If you haven't wept, share it with your child. Do it immediately. Teach them that they're going to die and that the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. Those women were weeping for Jesus.

He said, do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children. And then take steps before death arrives. Let us bow our heads and pray. Thank you, Lord, that we could hear your word. Lord, grant that we would hear and understand what you mean when you say, do not weep for me, but for yourselves and your children.

Work, O Lord, in a marvelous way. May your grace, Lord Jesus, be with us all. And the love of the Father reach the very depths of our hearts. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us. Amen. Thank you.

May the Lord be with you and that you redeem the time. If you're not yet right with God, if you haven't yet wept for your children, do so today. Amen.