First time I ever heard that song, sung to that tune, was by David. It was such a blessing. I think I was in Kingsport, and I thought, what a blessing.

I'm gonna ask you to take your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations. Find Jeremiah, Lamentations is just just before the prophecy written by Jeremiah. There's no doubt that this book was penned by a man named Jeremiah. But these words are the words of our blessed Savior, He who has truly redeemed His people in absolute justice. Nothing left undone. Almighty God is just. And he's going to deal, he's going to deal with sin. Oh, that he might be pleased to have dealt with my sin and his blessed son. Oh, that God might have mercy today.

What I'd like to do, I'd like to deal with the first eight verses of this precious book. Now, you remember this. Jeremiah was the Lord's man that he used his hand to write it. But these words are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for every hell-deserving sinner that God has been pleased to show mercy, we've got some hope here. We've got some hope in these words. I pray that God bless them to our hearts.

I'm going to read the first eight verses and then we'll just look at them for just a minute. The scripture says, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned. He turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me. and compassionate me with gall and travail. He has set me in a dark place. He set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also, when I cried and shouted, He shut it out. My prayer. I have. Nothing. With. And myself. To hope.

But that when the Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary. that he died for me. That's all I got. In myself, I see no good thing. I know that. But here's the Lord. The Lord expressing, the Lord telling us, if you're going to have any hope, it's going to be what he has to say. Because I'm telling you right now, by revelation of God's Spirit and by experience, I know that I do not deserve God's mercy. I don't deserve it. Nobody does. But that Almighty God would be pleased to save a people of His choosing is a miracle of God's grace.

The Lord Jesus Christ, now you have to understand, he's saying this because he actually experienced what man by nature deserves of God's wrath. He experienced it. I read about it. I read in the scriptures. what God has to say about what shall happen to every man, every woman that leaves this world without Christ as their mediator, as their advocate. I read it, but I cannot enter into it because I've not experienced it. But listen, he experienced what it is to be cast out, to be judged of God. He experienced it. This wasn't play like, this wasn't a game with him. And here's what he said, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

The Lord Jesus Christ alone. The eternal lamb of God, God's beloved son. He is the only one that can speak by experience of the affliction of God's wrath. He's the only one that can speak of it with knowledge having experienced it. And then relate that experience to human beings like us. Now if you want to know what it will be to leave this world without Christ, If you want to know what God has to say about leaving this world and finding yourself, leave this world without the Lord Jesus Christ, and let me tell you what the scriptures has to say about leaving this world without the Lord Jesus Christ as your substitute and advocate.

There was a rich man, a man named Lazarus, and it says that the rich man died, he died, and the next words, and lifted his eyes up out of hell. I'm not here to scare you. I can't scare you into doing anything. God's got to give you a new heart, I can tell you that. But I'm telling you right now, if you don't know, if you know not the Lord, and you leave this world without Christ, I'm telling you right now, you will go through hell forever. And that word forever is a big word. When you think you maybe have gotten to this, it will never and eternally, you're going to be in hell.

Now there's only one man that has ever experienced being forsaken of God. My God, my God, Why hast thou forsaken me? The answer is because you're holy. You're holy. Christ Jesus bore the debt, bore the guilt, bore the wrath for all of his people. And now here he is, he's saying it. I'm the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. only the surety himself, the one who was brought up with Jehovah. He was set up, he was anointed to be the sufferer for his people, the savior. And he can speak these words and he's telling us something. We're not left in the dark. about what's going to happen. I'm telling you, this is what's going to happen. What happened to him when he was made sin? What happened to him? We're going to see right here. We're going to see. Only the surety himself can express these words. He saw, he saw by experience God's affliction.

Verse 2, he said, he hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Here's the Christ who speaks as the providential hidings of almighty God is known in himself. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before her shearers. He was dumb. And listen to this. He opened not his mouth. He didn't say. Led and brought by Jehovah, he has led me and brought me into darkness. Look that word up. brought me into distress. He brought me into misery. He brought me into affliction and calamity. He brought. And he's going to experience. He said, this is the way it is. This is it. This is it. He had brought me into darkness, but not into light, not into happiness, not into prosperity, not into joy. His meat, this is what he said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me. And what did he send him to do? To be the substitute of a people of God's choosing. And I've said before, how are you going to know? If you're one of them, I'll tell you what will happen. You're going to hear the Word of God, you're going to hear what God has to say through these scriptures concerning His Son, and you're going to believe Him, because God's going to give you faith to believe it. Believe this world without Him, and you'll face just exactly what we all by nature deserve.

Verse 3, Surely against me is He turned, he turneth his hand against me all the day." I looked at those two words right there. Surely, against me is he turned, and he turneth his hand against me all the day. Two different words which combine together saying the same thing, but this is what he was saying. It says, his beloved father, the one with whom Christ was ever beside, ever been with him, the one who delighted in his father, delighted in his will, his way, my meat, do your will. It was the father's unbending justice that turned away turned away, turned away from Christ. He turned away from Him. He turned away from the only begotten Son.

You say, now wait a minute. You're telling me that God turned away from His Son where sin was found. That God turned away from Him? Surely, against me is he turned. He changed the obvious exhibition of his will. He changed the direction. You say, well, I thought that God doesn't change. God doesn't change. But I tell you what he did. He changed the obviousness of what we see. And this is what he did. He who was ever with the Son, the Spirit, the Father, the Almighty God, three in one, the Scripture declares, surely against me is he turned.

And then it says, he turneth his hand against me. And what that actually means is this. When he turneth his hands, it says he was actually smiting me. He turneth his hand. The course of his counsel and his providence was revealed in that he turned away from him, forsook him. Why have you forsaken me? But when it says he turneth his hand, this is what he means. He turneth his hands. I wrote this down. He declared that he was smitten by God the Father with blow after blow unceasingly in the day of his justice and judgment. It was just, I read this again. I was, I want to see exactly. He turneth his hand against me all the day. And I wrote down, the Father smote Christ with blow after blow without ceasing. in the hand of his justice and turned upon him as he hung upon that tree as the substitute. He said, he beat me and beat me and beat me.

Zechariah 13, 7. This is what the scripture says. Awake, O sword. against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow." This is God Almighty speaking in absolute justice. Where sin was found, God gonna deal with it. And He's either gonna deal with it in the center, or He's gonna deal with it in the substitute. But He's gonna deal with it.

All the blessing of thanking God Almighty have mercy on me or don't leave me to myself. Don't don't leave me to trust in my little fickle foolish. You know. I've done something to satisfy God's justice. No, you haven't. No, you have. I was, you know, I gave down, I prayed the sinner's prayer. I did that two or three times, you know. Because I thought maybe it didn't take the first time. I went down, you know, maybe I wasn't baptized enough. So I went down. I baptized a couple of times, you know. One time, truly. The other time, just show. Soothe my conscience for a few minutes, you know. I'm the man. I'm the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

Surely, verse three, against me, as he turned, He turneth his hand against me all the day. And then in verse four he said, my flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. Yes, as the God man mediator, the one who suffered the anguish, not only of his enemies, But he suffered anguish under the wrath and judgment of what was deserving to his people under God's hand. The Lord Jesus himself, he said, I was tempted. He was tempted in all points like as we are. He knew no sin, but listen to this. He bore God's wrath knowing what he was doing. And he didn't open his mouth. He opened not his mouth. He is the one who was worn out and spent in his flesh My flesh, my skin hath he made old." Jews said to him one time, they said, you're telling me that you saw, you know, you saw the day of Abraham. You're telling us now, you said, you saw Abraham's day. And he said, you're not even 50 years old. No, he was like 30, 33, 34, something like that. He was wore out. Age does something to you. Trials do something to you. You start to behold the signs, the evidence of having borne trials and tribulations, sufferings.

Here was the Lord, and this is what he said, my flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones." He was scourged, he was beaten before his crucifixion, and the scriptures declares this concerning the way he looked. Isaiah 52, verse 14, as many were astounded at his visage was so marred more than any other man in his form, more than any of the sons of man. He was the one that experienced trial and tribulation.

Now, I look at somebody and they look, you know, they're hard, they're worn, and they've had a hard life, and they're this and that. ever was worn in body as he was. Scripture says, the Lord, speaking, he hath broken my bones. The word there, broken, means shattered, not literally, because it was said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ that none of his bones were broken. I want you to turn, hold your place and turn to John 19.34. John 19.34. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record's true, and he knoweth what he saith is true, that ye might believe. For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. None of the bones, the scripture reveals, of the Lord Jesus Christ, physically speaking, were broken.

Now, prophetically, the amazing thing is, we are His people, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, one with Him. And when it says that not one bone of the Lord Jesus Christ was broken, those bones are pictures of us, His people. and not one of his bones concerning his people gonna be broken. God's gonna save his people from their sins. But this scripture speaks rather of the greatness of his sorrows. He, again, he felt, he experienced the judgment and wrath of God. He felt it. He knew. by experience what it was. But none of his bones, those for whom he was dying, were broken or shall be broken.

Back in Lamentations 3 verse 5. He, that is, God the Father, hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath builded against me." Here the Savior relates that the Father had set, as it were, a siege against him.

Mr. John Calvin says this of that scripture, the Lord was blocked up like a strait with walls. He was laid in a place and he could not get out. He couldn't get out. He wouldn't get out, but he couldn't get out. There was no escape. God had him confined all around, and there was no way for him to be released from that place. Not that the Savior would go. Love kept him there. Love constrained him, but he was there in the midst of a place being made sin that he could not go. That's what he said.

He has set me, I'm sorry, verse five. He had built it against me and compassed me with gall and travail. And then he says in verse six, he has set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He set me as dark places. Dark places in the sense that those that leave this world die. Yes, that could be one of the meanings. But he set me in a dark place in this. He was alone. He was alone. He knew what it was to be left without any Hope. He felt it. He experienced.

He hath left me in a dark place. Verse 7. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get. He had made my chain heavy. Hedged about with affliction and confinement according to the everlasting goodness, wrath, The pleasure of God Almighty. Everything that can be said of the Lord's suffering was hedged up in these words.

My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me. No complaints, no arguments, no questions. This is what it's going to take.

And verse 8, also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. The scripture says concerning God's people, this is Joel 2.32, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord but this is what we deserved. This is what we deserve, verse eight. Because of our rebellion in Adam, this is what we deserve, for God not to hear us. That's what we deserve. That's what we deserve.

Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ bore, verse eight. Also, when I cry and shout, because he had to bear what we deserve. Man and woman leave this world without God. That rich man I was telling you about a few moments ago when he said, Father Abraham, would you send Lazarus, would you send him back? Tell my brothers. He said, I got some brothers. Tell them, you don't want to come here. You don't want to come to this place. Would you send him back? And the Lord said, if they won't hear the prophets, if they won't hear the preaching of the gospel, if they won't hear the message of hope in Christ Jesus, if I send one back from the dead, they won't hear him. They won't cry.

But here we have some hope. When we cry unto the Lord, Lord have mercy on me. He hears the cry of his people. He gave them a heart to cry. He's given them a heart to cry out for mercy. Lord, don't leave me to me. Don't leave me to myself.

And here's the Lord, bearing our guilt, also when I cry and shout. God won't hear, not for him. Now for God's people, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, here's what scripture says. Isaiah 65, 24, it shall come to pass before they call, I will answer and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. You know why Almighty God hears The call of his people, before they ever call? Yeah, you know the answer to this. You know why he hears it? Because he gave them a hard call. He put the words in their mouth. He knew what they were going to do. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And when a sinner, one redeemed, regenerated by the grace of God, When they call, it was the Lord Himself that said in power to them, call on me. And then that sinner calls on the Lord. Before they call, I'll hear.

Oh, the wonder of God's grace to His people when we behold how the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing the guilt of His people, was justly rejected that his people might be mercifully delivered from the bondage and penalty of sin and unbelief.

Now I'm going to make a couple of statements here in review of what I've just said. Christ Jesus is the man that has seen the affliction of Almighty God by the rod of His wrath. He knows. Every man, every woman that leaves this world, that leaves this world without Christ, is going to suffer the wrath of God forever. And Christ Jesus knows by experience what it is to be forsaken of God. He knows what it is. As a man, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. I'm the man. I know.

Secondly, he was led into the place of distress and calamity and affliction and not into the light of joy of God's deliverance. He knows what it is. He knows by experience to have God's hand turned against him in judgment and his hand of mercy to be withheld. During that time, how long did it last? I don't know. I don't know. How long was he made sin? I don't know. I know he was, but I don't know. But he said he was. He therefore was worn in his human nature by the bitterness and travail of his soul. He knows what it was like to be flesh and to be worn out by the sufferings that was due sin.

God, according to His good pleasure to deliver us from the penalty of our sins, put a siege, a siege upon Him and enclosed Him in bitterness and anguish and travail. That was His lot. God poured out His wrath upon the Savior. And when He gave up the ghost, the Lord Jesus Christ, He said, no man takes my life. I lay down my life for the sheep. He was buried. He was set in dark places. It's like all men that are going to die. He died. He died.

Now don't ask me to explain this, how God, who is the eternal God, who is life himself, can actually die. The scripture says he died. He gave up the ghost. He knows what it feels like to physically die. I don't. I don't know. You don't either. But he did. He knows what it's like to be hedged and set up in a place to not be able to get out, couldn't get out. And all these sufferings. God was pleased to bruise him. And to shut out his hearing from his cry, my God, my God. I've read that passage of scripture. Somebody said, explain that depth to me. I said, you've heard me say, I can't do that. God's holiness, but God Almighty set him in that place.

We have one that knows what it is to suffer God's wrath. He knows what it is to have to bear the burden of sin. He was made sin. He knows what it is to go through this life rejected of men but rejected of God, why hast thou rejected me? And now the one who has borne all the brunt, all of it, of God's justice and judgment, says to his people, you come unto me, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and I'm going to give you rest.

Give me your rest. Lord, save me by your grace. Lord, help me. Lord, don't leave me to me. Lord, don't leave me to my fickle, play-like religion. Don't leave me to that. Lord, satisfy your justice on my behalf and your son. For Christ's sake, amen.

Gary.