Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Lamentations chapter 3. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. Lamentations chapter 3. I'd like to look at verses 21
to 25. You ask a believer wherein lies his hope of salvation
and preservation. And you're going to get an answer
something like this, found in verse 21, 22. This I recall to
my mind, therefore, have I hope, it is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not." God's people see themselves but
for His grace. always, always liable to stumble, to wander, and to be on the very
brink of forsaking Him. God's people recognize the disrespectful
thoughts that they have of the Lord Jesus Christ. They know
it. They admit it. They say, it's
Paul the Apostle, O wretched man that I am. You know, I watch and see these
hucksters on TV, and everybody is always on the mountain, and
they're always just elated. And I'm telling you, you go back
and read the book of Jeremiah especially, the weeping prophet. I think the older a believer
gets, the more he sees the struggles within, without. And he realizes, For the grace
of God, it's of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed. Because
His compassions fail not. David said in Psalm 94, 17, 18,
"...unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt
in silence." You look in the margin of my Bible, here's what
that word, almost, it means quickly. Here's what he said. Unless the
Lord had been my help, my soul had quickly dwelt in silence. Unless God
would have kept me. He said, when I said, my foot
slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. Remember what happened
to Peter? He was walking. The Lord was
out there walking on the water. And Peter said, Lord, if that's
you, bid me come. He said, come on. Peter got out
of that boat, and what happened? He walked on the water. He walked
on the water until he saw the wind begin to sink. He cried, Lord, help me. The
Lord caught him. The grand foundation of the believer's
confidence and hope is right here, verse 24. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. By grace, when all of our impotent
supports have proven themselves to be failures. I was thinking about that woman
we just considered. I guarantee you she did not come
to the Lord that day thinking, great is my faith, I'm going
to get what I want. What a tower of power I am. No sir. When all of our impotent
supports have been shown for what they really are, impotent,
my works, my faithfulness, my will, He alone is faithful. He's faithful. 2 Corinthians
4 and 9, Paul says, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but
not destroyed. The streams of His mercy and
how thankful I am because the problem with me is that I am
so prone to forget that He is the one that is sustaining me,
even in my frailings, to be thankful, to call on Him, to praise Him,
to bless Him. His compassion, verse 22 says,
fail not. He never fails. He never fails.
He never stops. Psalm 31.10, My strength faileth
because of mine iniquity. That's what David said. But his
compassion? Never. Aren't you glad that it's
not based on us and our ability and our faithfulness? Even under the hand of His chastisement,
which is the hand of His love, when all hope seems to be gone,
His mercies never run dry. His mercies, eternal mercy, redemption
mercy, quickening mercy, keeping mercy, Illuminating mercy. His mercies
never fail. I need to hear again. I need
to see Him again. I want to hear Him. I want to
hear His voice. I want to hear His voice today. His mercies
never fail. Verse 23 says concerning His
compassions that fail not, they are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. Aren't you glad that they're
new every morning? I get up every morning and I
need every morning. I need every morning to be reminded
that His compassions never fail. Lord, help me today. Every morning we have a fresh
remembrance of His compassion toward His people. It makes you
just, number one, you're humbled because you're embarrassed, because
you realize that His compassion never fails. How thankful we
are to be. Zephaniah 3.5 says, Every morning
doth He bring His judgment, that is, His judgment to show mercy. And I've told you this before,
you go before a judge and all the evidence is presented and
the judge makes a judgment call, either for you or against you.
Well, here's what his judgment is. His judgment to show mercy. Every morning doth he bring his
judgment to light. And here's his judgment. He faileth
not. A believer has hope because his
compassions fail not. 23, great is thy faithfulness. 2 Timothy 2.13 says, if we believe
not, oh my, if we believe not, Lord I believe, help mine unbelief.
If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. We are His body. The church is the bride of Christ. One. You know, a man and a woman
gets married. These two are one flesh. This
reason is the old man leave his father and mother, cleave to
his wife. Wife, submit yourself to your
own husband as unto the Lord. He says he cannot deny himself
where his body Chosen in Him, redeemed by Him,
quickened by Him, taught by Him, kept by Him, faithful to His
covenant, faithful to His Word, faithful to His people, faithful
to His purpose, faithful to Himself. Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord. I
change not, therefore your sons of Jacob are not consumed. I wrote in my notes here, I often
doubt myself. I need to scratch that out. I
always doubt myself. I often, no, I always. I question my motive, I question
my action, but I dare not ever question or doubt his faithfulness. And all around, storms, doubts, He's ever faithful. I hope in Him who is good. Look at verse 25. The Lord is
good unto them that wait for Him, to the souls that seeketh
Him. Romans 2.4 declares, the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. The goodness of God. O taste, David said, Psalm 34.8,
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. You know why that man is a blessed
man? Because God has given him faith to believe. That's a blessed
man, a blessed woman, trusts in the Lord. To all that's been
given a heart, to wait on Him. Patiently wait. I patiently waited. I put that in the bullet. I patiently
waited. Boy, I'm telling you, to wait
on the Lord, flies in the face against the
flesh. Flesh, I want something, I want
it right now. I want some gratification right
now. And I don't like, I don't like,
that's what my flesh says, I don't like. I don't like having to
wait. But I patiently wait. Oh, to be patiently waiting on
Him, seeking Him, Having been sought by Him, now
He's given me a heart that seeks Him." That's what, remember what,
in the Song of Solomon, oh the bride says, I sought Him. Have you seen the one whom my
soul loveth? She said, I found Him, I held
Him. He's good. He is and does good. The Lord is good. Everything
He does for His people, For their good, for His glory. Romans 8,
28. And we know that all things work together for good. Now listen. I can't explain. I don't know why. But God does. Why we go through
what we go through. But I can tell you this for God's
people. All things. He said, well, now you don't
understand. You don't understand what I'm going through. I know
what God said. And I can tell you this, whatever
you think, whatever I think, doesn't matter. God said, and
we know, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. A believer has got hope, and
his hope is in Him who is merciful. Why? Because his compassions
don't fail. His faithfulness is great, and
He's good to them that wait and seek Him. And here's the one who is all of my hope. Verse
24, he says, The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. He's all my inheritance. Genesis 15, verse 1, After these
things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying,
Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Let me ask you this. What else
is there for hope? The Lord is the sum total of
the soul's inheritance. The believers, that new creation,
He's the totality. Listen to 1 John 5.12. Now listen
to this. He that hath the Son. hath life. Now what else is there? What else is there? He that hath
the Son hath life. I mean, when it's all said and
done, when this is all over, when the trump of God sounds,
when the dead in Christ are raised, when I mean when it's over, What have you got if you don't
have the Son? Death. Death. That's it. He that hath the Son has everything,
because all things have been committed unto the Son. He that hath the Son has life. I may lose my livelihood, I may
lose my liberty. I may lose my life. But if I have Him as my portion, I have it all. What He demands, He is. He chose us. The Father gave
us to the Son. The Father chose us as the Son's
portion. And the Son betrothed Himself
to the portion. That was His portion too. That
was His heart too. And by grace, He came to this
world and what was Her need? Life. Life. Why? Because she's dead. She
died. His bride died in rebellion against
God. And he came into this world for her sake and lived for her
and died for her. bore her guilt, gave her righteousness
in Himself. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. He that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out. The Lord He is my portion. Lord bless the word to our heart
for Christ's sake.