Let's turn to Lamentations chapter
3. Lamentations chapter 3. Our text is verses 21 through
26, but I want to just begin here with the first words that
Jeremiah spoke. He said in verse 21, this I recall
to my mind. And therefore, because I recall
this to my mind, therefore have I hope. There are things that
we think about, things we fill our minds with that cause us
to become very weak and cause us to lose sight of our hope. We get to thinking about our
temporal state. We get to thinking about our
jobs and what we don't have that we wish we had and all these
sorts of things, how much workload we have, all our responsibilities.
We get to thinking about our trials and our afflictions, our
hardships that we're in. Or we think about our spiritual
state. We begin to look at our sins.
Think of our unfaithfulness. Or we look and see how many there
are that's preaching a false gospel. And how many there are
that flock to hear that message. And it troubles your heart. It
causes you sorrow in your heart. Jeremiah had some of those same
thoughts. If you take the time sometime
and read the book of Jeremiah, read the book of Lamentations,
and see what Jeremiah faced in his day. When God sent Jeremiah,
God told him before he was sent, the Lord told him, they're not
going to hear you. He sent him forth to preach and
he told him before he went, they're not going to hear you. You think,
well, why did he send him? Well, that wasn't a very successful
ministry. We're not called to try to convert sinners. We're
called to preach the gospel. The success of the Gospel is
the Gospel itself. It's Christ Himself. Whenever
God hears the Gospel preached, He hears His glorious name exalted
in the person of His Son and therefore we're a sweet savor
unto God in them that believe and in them that perish. It is
the success of the Gospel, not if men are converted. So there
you are, you got Jeremiah preaching to people that he knows aren't
going to hear him. And the message he's preaching is a heavy message.
He's preaching judgment. Judgment has come. Judgment has
come. He was persecuted by those who
heard him. They mocked him. They reproached
him. They made fun of him. They didn't
want to have anything to do with him. They didn't want to hear
his message. The times in Israel were much like they are in our
nation. The civil leaders, the preachers, and the people were
corrupt. Religious, but corrupt. And God
was pouring out judgment. Now all of this, when Jeremiah
began to look at all this and focus his attention on these
things, this is what he said happened. Look at verse 18. And
I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. That's
what happens when we look at those things. It's my strength
is perished from the Lord. My hope is perished from the
Lord. That came about from filling
his mind with earthy things. Remembering mine affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, that's what caused this.
My soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. That means
it's downcast. But then Jeremiah said this,
this I recall to my mind, this I bring back to my mind. I start
thinking on this and therefore I have hope. Now when you see
what Jeremiah suffered and we know some of the things he suffered.
When you hear a man that suffered like that and you hear him start
to speak about hope, you want to listen to what this man says
because he is telling you some things that are true. He is going
to tell us some things that are true about hope. These are things
to recall to our mind. These are things to focus our
mind on, brethren. Here's what a good hope is. The
things that He's going to tell us. And plus, He's writing by
divine inspiration. He's writing as the Holy Spirit
dictates to Him, telling Him what to write. So you can be
sure this Word is certain. He's going to tell us what His
hope was. Now, is anybody interested in
having a good hope? A good hope. A hope of eternal
life. The scripture says all who are
born of God have a good hope through grace. Do you have a
good hope? Do you have a basis to expect
that God will receive you on judgment day rather than cast
you out into eternal darkness and that you'll inherit eternal
life in His presence? Do you have a basis for that
hope? Scripture says we're saved by hope. That means this ought to be vitally
important to everybody here. We're not talking about a proud
presumption of just simply feeling like, well, God is going to receive
me into heaven. And this is not talking about
the flippant way that men speak about God in our day. It has
no basis in the Word of God. We're not speaking of a hopeless
despair either. This is a good hope. This is
a real hope. Believers are given a sure hope. Hope of eternal life which God
that cannot lie promised before the world began. Now, you saw
what happened with Jeremiah when he started looking at these earthy
things, focusing on those things, and now we're fixing to see what
what he said, why he has a hope when he recalled these things
to his mind. And here's what we're going to see tonight. If
we would go through this life in the midst of sorrow and suffering
and all the things we face in this life and have a good hope,
have confidence, have peace and have some assurance of salvation,
some contentment, it's only going to be by having a good hope.
So I want to know what's this good hope. I want to know what's
this good hope Jeremiah speaks about. First of all, recall this
to your mind, believer. A good hope is in the mercies
of God. Look at verse 22. This is what
he recalled to his mind. This is why he had hope. It is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. The first word
that Jeremiah mentions when he speaks of hope is it's of the
Lord's mercies. It's of the Lord's mercies. Jeremiah
didn't have any hope in his personal merit. He didn't have any hope
in any of his own works. It was in God's mercies. He wasn't
hoping that God would save him based on his morality, but God's
mercies. Not in anything about Him. God's
mercies. Some have hope in family relations.
Some folks think that, well, my mother and my father are believers,
I was raised up in the church, or some of this sort of thing. That's not a hope. That's not
a hope. Some people have a hope in their
church. Because of the church they're
in. That's not a good hope. Some people have a hope in their
religious works. They've made a decision. They
were baptized. They joined a church. They've
been faithful to attend a church service. That's not a good hope. Some people have a hope and a
feeling. Jeremiah had hope in none of those things. His hope
was in the Lord's mercies. Now, if you're going to have
a hope in the Lord's mercies, that means you're going to have
to be a sinner. Mercy is only for sinners. If we're going to
have a hope in the Lord's mercies, we have to be a sinner. A sinner. Only sinners need to be saved
by God's mercies. The publican, that publican who
Christ said, he went down to his house justified. He smote
upon his breast and said, God have mercy on me, the sinner. He was a sinner. Sinners are
the only ones who need mercy. Now this is the first thing that
needs to be settled. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? A sinner is somebody who knows
he can in no way save himself. A sinner is somebody that knows
he cannot at all make himself righteous before God. A sinner
is somebody who knows he can't make himself holy. He can't pay
the price he owes and redeem himself from the curse of the
law. A sinner is somebody that knows there is nothing good in
his flesh whatsoever. He never thought a good word,
spoke a good word or done a good deed. Nothing he's ever done
will merit anything with him before God. Now, are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? God is plenteous
in mercy, and God delights to show mercy, but only to sinners. Only to sinners. This is a faithful
saying worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. That's who He came
to save. Now, God's mercy is that Christ
redeemed sinners. He died for sinners. That's God's
mercy. Christ was sent for sinners. And Christ redeemed sinners.
He died for sinners. And He paid everything that sinners
owed. But He did it only for sinners.
He did it only for sinners. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ put away the sin of real sinners by His death. He put
away the sin of real sinners. He obtained eternal redemption
for real sinners. God's mercy is this, that Christ
effectually calls sinners to repentance. The Lord stood there
and He had called Matthew. Matthew was a sinner. Levi, he
was a sinner. He was a publican, a tax collector. His job was a sinful job. He was a thief. He was making
money for himself, building him a big house, big riches, everything
else, and he was doing it by stealing from folks. This man
was a thief in his heart, a thief in his deeds, a thief in his
words. He was a thief through and through. He was a sinner.
Christ came to him and called him. He came to him and called
him. And when he did, Matthew wanted all his friends to know
about it. And so he had a big party at his house, a dinner
party, and invited all his friends to his house because he wanted
to meet Christ who had called him. And there he is sitting
at a table with other publicans, the folks he had worked with.
He's sitting there with other friends of his. And since he
was such a notorious sinner, all his friends were sinners.
Everybody he invited to the house were sinners. And when the Pharisees
saw Christ sitting at the table with these sinners, They began
to murmur under their breath and think, what's he doing sitting
with these sinners? And Christ turned to those men
and He said this, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance.
I didn't come to call men like you who think you're righteous,
who think that you're good, who think that you've done something
to merit salvation. I didn't come to call you. He
said, I came to call sinners to repentance. That's God's mercy. Christ calls sinners to repentance. Get this next part right here
now. He says, it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed.
That we're not consumed. You know the only reason that
God didn't consume us when Adam sinned in the garden is because
God mercifully chose a people in Christ before the world began.
It was of His mercies from the garden that we were not consumed. Did you know that the only reason
we haven't been consumed since we were born or born again is
because of His mercies, His providential mercies. Romans 8 says this. You know, you're familiar with
this. He says, We know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose. Do you know that God called His people in eternity?
All the things that Paul lists there. He foreknew us, foreordained
us, He predestinated us, He justified us, He called us, He did all,
He glorified us. He did all that in eternity.
He did it when He did all that giving us to Christ His Son.
When Christ became our surety, the works were finished from
the foundation of the world. So when you and I came into this
world, brethren, the reason we were kept all our days and not
consumed in God's wrath is because of His providential mercies.
He was working everything together for good for those that he calls. And everybody that He called
in eternity shall be called in time. Because get this, brethren,
read the Scripture and bow to God. Don't bow to men's doctrine. Don't bow to a church's doctrine. Bow to God's Word. Read this
Word and hear what God says. He says all things work together
for good. That's not just fatally luck
would have it. They just all seem to work together
for good. God works everything together
for good. That's why there's no doubt whatsoever
that He'll be able to call those that He called in eternity to
faith in Christ in time. Because He's working everything
together for that purpose. And it's of His providential
mercies that we're not concerned. You realize this, brethren, everything
that takes place in this world, all over this world. Big, small,
seen, unseen, everything that's coming to pass in this world. Our God's working them together
just for you who are His. He has been from the beginning,
from the foundation of the world. He has all our lives and He'll
continue to do so. Everything is being worked together
just for you. While Jeremiah was in that day
and he looked around and he saw all this trouble and all these
things that caused him to be weak and without hope, even when
he was weak and had no hope because he had his mind full of this
corruption, God was still working everything together for his good.
All that evil he saw, God was working at for his good and for
the good of his people. That's the so with you and me,
brethren, all the time. God's absolutely sovereign. Nothing
that happens out of His control. And He's doing it for the good
of His people. He's doing it on purpose. He's doing it for
His elect, both those who are lost and those who are saved.
He's doing it for them. God says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and
not of evil to give you an expected end. Now if He's going to give
us an expected end, He's got to be able to bring it to pass. And He's able. And then it's
of the Lord's mercies that He regenerated us and called us
and keeps us. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter
1. Look at verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You know what?
I'm not going to speak against God's mercy. I'm going to tell
you this. If God's purpose is to make a
man born again, He's going to do it according to His abundant
mercy. He's going to bring it to pass.
He's going to bring it to pass. He's done it and He begot us
again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead. He's saying our living hope is
Jesus Christ who's raised from the dead and seated at the right
hand of God. He begot us again so that now
we could behold Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. He's
our hope. And He says, He's gotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. So we're regenerated and
we're kept by the mercies of God, brethren. Not one of God's
elect shall ever be consumed because the mercies of God toward
His people is sovereign, immutable mercy in Christ. His mercies
don't change. Those that He's determined to
show mercy shall receive mercy. He said this, and it's in Christ. Look at Psalm 89. Psalm 89. Now this is in Christ. Look at
this. Here's why we can be sure that
these mercies are not going to change. Now look at this, Psalm
89. Oh Lord, give us faith to see
this, faith to believe, human repentance from dead doctrine. Look at this, Psalm 89 verse
28. of verse 27. He says, I will
make him, my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
My mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant
shall stand fast with him. Do you see that? His mercies
are in Christ. They're for Christ. And he says
this, His seed, that's all His elect, that's all those Christ
died for. His seed also will I make to
endure forever in His throne as the days of heaven." Our mercies
are unchangeable mercies from God. to us because they're for
the sake of Christ. They're in Christ and they're
for Christ. So, they're unchanging mercy. So, believe me, we're
not expecting eternal life because of any merit in us. Back to Lamentations
3. We're not expecting any kind of acceptance with God. We don't
have a hope based on merit in us or anything in us whatsoever. We're going to inherit eternal
life. Our hope here, we'll inherit
eternal life because of God's mercy. Alright, here's the second
thing. Our hope is God's love. God's
love. Verse 22. At the end of Lamentations
3.22, he says this. He says it's of the Lord's mercies
that were not consumed because His compassion, this is His love. His love fails not. It fails
not. They are new every morning. Jeremiah's
hope was not his love for God. That wasn't his hope. His hope
was God's love for him, his compassion, his compassion. Our compassions
fail. We're hot one day and cold the
next. His compassions never fail. God's love for His people is
from everlasting to everlasting. That means that those God loves,
He always loved and He shall always love. His love for His
people never changes. It's as infinite as God. I won't
have you turn there, but you're familiar with this. He spoke
this through Jeremiah. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Now, the only way God could love
somebody today and tomorrow put them in hell is if God's love
changes. God's love does not change. You
have to conclude those God loves, He's always loved and He shall
always love because He saves them. His love for His people
never changes. And God's love is free. He loves
His people freely. Freely. Meaning there's no cause
in us. In Hosea 14, verse 4, He said,
I'll heal their backsliding. I will, He said. I will love
them freely. Freely. You know, you can't say
there's much cause in somebody to love them when they've departed
from you, and they're cursing your name, and they're rejecting
you in every way. In thought, word, and deed. You
can't say there's something in them. That's what backsliding
is. And God said, I'll heal their backsliding. I will love them
freely for mine anger is turned away from Him. How is He going
to love me freely? I deserve His anger. I deserve the wrath of God. I've
sinned against Him. How is He going to love me freely?
Somebody's got to pay. Somebody's got to pay. Christ
pays. Christ paid everything. He bore the fury of God's wrath
in the place of His people. And now God's not angry with
His people. He said, I'll love them freely
because He paid it all. And then His love's unfailing.
Look here in our text in Lamentations 3.22. It says His compassions
fail not. They fail not. That means God's
love for His people cannot be destroyed by anything in His
people. Now, if you'll just consider
federal headship for a minute, we were all in Adam. That's where
we were when Adam sinned. That's how we became sinners.
Now, if God's compassions could be destroyed by something in
a sinner, they'd have been destroyed right then, because we sinned
in Adam. That didn't destroy His love
for His people. He didn't destroy His love for His people. In fact,
when we came into the world cursing Him every breath and walking
against Him with our hearts all our days, like some of you sitting
here right now, He didn't change His compassion towards His people.
He knows them that are His, and His love for them is everlasting.
Everlasting. That's why our text, that's exactly
what our text says. Jeremiah said, he said, I'm looking
around me, I'm seeing all these things, I have no more strength,
I got no more hope. Because I'm looking on my afflictions,
I'm looking on myself, I'm looking on my people, I'm looking on
the now, I'm looking at the earthy. He said, but then I recall this
to my mind, and therefore I have hope. It's of His compassion,
it's of His love. that we're not consumed because
His compassions fail not. They don't fail. They can't be
changed because of something in us. The gifts and calling
of God are without repentance, brethren. And those gifts and
callings are without repentance before as yet God's even given
them to us to realize that we've been gifted and called. He's
gifted and called us from eternity when He chose us in Christ and
He won't go back on that. even when we didn't know Him
and was cursing Him, even since we've known Him and still fail
constantly. God loves His people in Christ
and Christ shall not fail. Christ shall not fail. So our
hope is Christ's love for us. He says to all those for whom
He died, I've graven you on the palms of my hands. There's love
that does not fail. Satan and men and governments
and the world, everything try to prevent Christ from loving
His people. Nothing prevented him from it. He went to that
cross and laid down his life and put away the sin of his people
and nobody or nothing prevented him because he could not fail.
He said, and I've graven you on the palms of my hands. Therefore,
your walls are before me continually. I've got you under my eye, under
my watch all the time, protecting you. You want to talk about our
love for him? You want to talk about our love
for him? The only reason we love Him is
because of His love. That's what John said. We love
Him because He first loved us. Our love is the effect of His
love. So we can't boast in our love, can we? But look at this. Though His mercies and His compassions
are as old as eternity. Look at verse 23. They're new
every morning. New with God. He loves His people
the same as He's ever loved His people. Can you get your head
around that? I mean, we love somebody, but
then they do something that just hurts us so bad, and we still
love them, but you just don't love them like you did love them,
or something to that effect. You know, our love, well, it
takes a while to love them like you love them, but God's love
has known no alteration. It's been as new and as fresh
and as loving as it has always been in spite of what His people
have done. And it's new to us. He makes his mercies new to us.
My great-grandmother, we call her Mama Linus, she had a metal
water pitcher in her refrigerator. And I was younger than Will.
I was little. And I'd come in from that hot
August summer in South Arkansas, and I'd go to her refrigerator,
and that metal water pitcher made water taste so good. It was so cold. I mean, it was
cold. But you know, even in that metal
water pitcher, if it sat there very long, it would just get
stale, stagnant. Wouldn't be any good. That's
our treasures in this earth. That's everything you can obtain
in this earth. They feel new and they appear
new for a little while and then they're old. That shirt that
you just loved and you couldn't do without, you know, a year
ago that you just, oh, you wanted to wear it every time and you
had to make yourself wear something different because you wanted
to wear that all the time. Now you look at it and you think,
it's been through the wash four or five times and I don't even
really want to wear it now. Everything in this life is that
way, but not God's mercy, not His love. His compassions are
new. His mercies are new every morning.
It's because Christ is the fountain of living waters. He's the fountain
of living waters, brethren. Now, He tells us to seek Him
first because His mercies are new every morning. So every new
morning, what should we be doing? We ought to be seeking new mercies.
But you know what we do? We do the same thing every morning.
We get up. Just in time to get dressed,
rush out the door, and try to make it to wherever we're supposed
to go. We do it every day. You take a soldier in Afghanistan.
We turn to Ephesians. Ephesians. You take a soldier
in Afghanistan. Just think of this. He wakes
up, and there's his armor. at the end of his bunk. He's
got a Kevlar vest, he's got a helmet, he's got a weapon, he's got his
boots, he's got all his artillery, all his ammunition, he's got
everything he needs. And he wakes up just in time
to put on his pants and put his shirt on and he runs out there
into the middle of the battlefield to wage war. Now, you and I can
look at that illustration and say, that is absurd. There's
folks there that's waging war against us, and there's folks
there wanting to kill him. He's going to die. He's going
to die. Brethren, we do that every morning.
When we get up and we rush out and we don't give God a second
thought, we're doing that very same thing. God's provided us
with full protection, new mercies, new every day, compassions that
fail not. So we ought to start each new
day putting on the whole armor of God. Start each day seeking
His mercies. How? By reading His Word. by praying to Him, if you need
help by reading some faithful article that will get your mind
settled on Christ and see something of Him. The world is wanting
us to spend all our time and all our attention focusing on
the world. You got to go for the world's
aspirations. You got to go for the world's goals. So we come
in in the afternoon. We got to do all our worldly
stuff. We got to get our worldly stuff done. We wouldn't think
of missing our worldly stuff. And so we go to bed late. So
we want to sleep later in the morning. So all we got time for
is to get up, rush out. And we do the same cycle every
day and wonder, why am I always full of doubts and fears? It's absurd to think anything's
going to change when we just do the same thing over and over. God says, as your days, so shall
your strength be. So let us seek first things first. First things first. Each new
day, seek first Christ, seek His mercies. Look at Ephesians
6.10. You think my illustration is absurd? Look at this. Ephesians
6.10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord. You don't have any strength in
you. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put
on the whole armor of God. You get up in the morning, do
you have to put on your clothes? He said, put on the whole armor
of God. That you may be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil. For we're wrestling, brethren. Listen, we're against
an enemy that's a whole lot worse than what the soldier in Afghanistan
is up against. That's nothing. You think he'd
be foolish to run out there and fight that battle without his
armor on? That enemy is nothing. Look at this. We don't wrestle
against flesh and blood only, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the
evil day. of having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of
righteousness, on your heart, having Christ our righteousness
in your heart, and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace. And above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. We ought to do
this, brethren. We ought to teach our children
to do this. We really should. A good hope is in God's faithfulness. Aren't you thankful God? That's
what we just talked about and just thought about. Aren't you
glad God's faithful? There we are. Are these little
powerful soldiers that we are for Christ out there naked as
we can be without our armor on in the middle of the evil day
because we got our minds all set on the world. Oh, here's
my hope though. Great is thy faithfulness. Great
is thy faithfulness. When asked about his hope or
their hope, people will talk to you about their faith. Not
Jeremiah. He didn't start talking about
his faith. He said, great is thy faithfulness. God is faithful
to himself. He can't deny himself. If he
loses one of his own, he is losing more than we are. He is losing
his glory. He can't deny Himself. He's faithful
to His purpose. He's declared the end from the
beginning. He said, My counsel shall stand. I will do all My
pleasure. And He's faithful to that purpose. He's faithful to
His everlasting covenant. He's promised. We have a good
hope from God who cannot lie. He promised this in Christ before
the world began. And God's not a man that He should
lie. He's not the Son of Man that He should repent. If he
said it, shall he not do it? He's faithful. If he said it,
he'll do it. He'll do it. He's faithful to
his son. I just read you that text in
Psalm. He said, I'm going to do this
for the sake of my son. I'm keeping covenant with my
son. And therefore, I'm keeping covenant with his seed. He's
faithful to his people. The Hebrew writer said, let your
conversation, everything you do in this life, let it be without
covetousness. And we think of money, and that
is, we covet money, but we covet honor, we covet praise, we covet
acceptance, we covet God's glory. We covet, we just covet, covet,
covet. He said, be content with what
you have, because he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
My father and my mother are very faithful to me. They are very
faithful to me. And usually, usually, the father
and the mother are the most faithful to us. But, you know what the
scripture says? When my father and my mother
forsake me, my Lord will take me up. He is faithful. He is
faithful. And most of our doubts, most
of our fear, you know what it comes from? It comes from trying
to find hope in our faithfulness to God. Tell me that's not so. When you start looking back over
your life and you become terrified, it's always because you're looking
at what you've done. Isn't it? You're looking at what
you've done. That's not so for the unbeliever. The unbeliever
looks at his life and thinks he's done everything just right.
The believer looks at his life and thinks, But brethren, the
reason for that doubt and that fear is we're looking at self.
Don't try to find any faithfulness, the hope in your faithfulness.
Look out of yourself to God. Look to Christ and His faithfulness. He's faithful. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I. I live by the faith, by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, who loved me and gave Himself for me. The
only reason I live, the only reason I'm still alive in the
new man is because of Christ's faithfulness. The reason that
He's kept me and will keep me is because of His faithfulness.
And that's true of you, brethren. That's so. That's so. Here's the fourth thing. A good
hope is when God is your all. Verse 24. He said, Jeremiah said,
I was thinking of all these other things and I was weak and had
no hope. Then I recalled to my mind and
therefore I have hope. Here's what he thought about.
The Lord is my portion. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore I'll hope in Him. It means the Lord is
all. Have you ever read in the Scriptures
and just seen what all the Scripture says Christ is to the believer?
I can't possibly even begin to try to exhaust it. But Christ
is our way. He's our truth. He's our life. Christ is our wisdom. We have
the mind of Christ. Brother Ravi just read it. You
wouldn't know a thing in the world about God if Christ hadn't
been formed in you. We have the mind of Christ. Christ
is our righteousness. That means the perfect, absolute,
thorough fulfillment of the righteousness of God's law. The very righteousness
of God. That's what Christ is for us.
And we're that very righteous in Him. He's our sanctification. He's our sanctifier and our sanctification. He's our redemption. The Scripture says He's our everlasting
Father. He'll always be our Father. He's
the last Adam. God who never dies. And so He'll
always be our everlasting Father. He's our husband. He's our surety. Scripture says He's our high
priest. We got a high priest in the holiest of holies right
now, in the holiest of holies, in the presence of God, who is
also our propitiation, our mercy seat. And he's there not with
a lamb of another. He's our lamb. He's there. And
he's our advocate with the Father. And he's interceding with the
Father on our behalf. His presence is there. He's our
provider. Everything we need, He's providing.
What do you have right now? Is there anything you can think
of that you need, that you're lacking? If you say something,
I'm going to tell you you're lying. You may have some things
you want, but if you're Christ, you've got exactly what you need.
And to say otherwise is to murmur and complain against Christ who
provided it. We need to stop that. We need
to... I'm the world's worst about some little stump in my toe and
complaining. We need to stop complaining.
Our murmuring and complaining is a sin against Christ, our
provider. He provides. And what we have,
we have from Him and we have everything we need. If we needed
more, He'd give it. And in fact, we probably... And
if we have more than we need, He'll take it from us. He's going
to keep us not looking to our stuff, but looking to Him. Looking
to Him. And He can do it with sickness.
He can do it with temporal things. He can do it with jobs. He can
do it with houses. He can do it with whatever He
wants to do. Everything's His. He can do it
with the weather. He can do it with whatever. He
can use whatever He wants to to put His people at His feet
right where we need to be. He's our provider. He's our all.
Professing believers, very often I hear folks that speak of all
kinds of things that they hope in. I copied this from Brother
Henry's notes and he didn't know who wrote it, but it expresses
the believer's heart. Listen to this. Once it was the
blessing, now it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling, now
it is the Word. Once the gifts I wanted, now
the giver I own. Once I sought for healing, now
I seek Him alone. Once it was my working, His it
now shall be. Once I tried to use Him, now
He uses me. Once the power I wanted, now
the mighty one. Once for self I labored, now
for Him alone. That's what I'm talking about.
He's my portion. He's my all. And I'll tell you
something, not part, He's all my portion. And it's not just
that when times are good, at all times, even the worst times,
the Lord's my portion. He's the life. Is He your life? Is He all you have? What will you have when you die? Everybody in this room ought
to think about, what will you have when you die? You're not taking
anything of this world with you. Just think of that, how much
sweat and tears and money and labor and time and toil we'll
spend in this world and we won't take a thing with us. You came
into this world naked, you're going to go out naked. But, if I have Christ as my portion,
my all, When I give up everything in this world, and I will as
soon as I close my eyes in death, I'll still have everything. I've
got everything. Because Christ is all. He's all. Heaven for the believers, our
triune God in Christ. He's the reward of our inheritance.
He's our portion. And here's what makes this such
a good hope. Deuteronomy 32.9 says, The Lord's
portion is His people. The Lord's portion is His people.
I am my beloved and He is mine. That makes it a sure hope. Here's
the fifth thing. A good hope is the Lord's goodness.
Verse 25, He said, This is what I recall of mine. Here's why
I've got hope. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. The Lord is good. He's good in everything He is,
in His person. He's good in everything He does.
He's good unto them that wait for him. To wait on the Lord
is to calmly, quietly, expectantly trust the Lord to deliver you.
That's what it is to wait on the Lord. In every trial, from
every enemy, through every sorrow, from temporal trouble and spiritual
trouble. To save you temporally and spiritually
is to wait on the Lord. The psalmist said, wait on the
Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your pocketbook
Your house, your bank account, He shall strengthen thine heart. There's where the strength is.
He'll strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Evildoers
shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall
inherit the earth. They shall inherit the earth.
For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor
perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside
Thee. what He hath prepared for him
that waiteth for Him. That's right. And the reason God's good to
them that wait on Him is simply this. Because our faithful God
will not betray our trust in Him. He will not betray it. Isn't that good? Man! That's
what I'm scared about more than anything in the world is having
my trust betrayed. I'm talking about with men. But
his trust, I can be confident of this, he won't betray my trust.
He said this, kings are going to be your nursing fathers. Queens
are going to be your nursing mothers. They are going to bow
down to you with their face toward the earth and lick the dust of
your feet. He means he is providing for you in the king's court,
in the queen's court, using everybody on this earth to provide for
his people. And he said, and you are going to know that I
am the Lord. for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me."
You shall not be ashamed for trusting the Lord. That's Isaiah
49.23. I'll give you an illustration of this. Spurgeon gave a story. He told a story and he said he
was in his study one day and a brother came by and was in
his study talking to him and the brother began to... charge him, complain against
him right there to his face because Spurgeon was spending on all
these different ways of getting the gospel out. And he said,
what are you going to do if the money stops coming? And Spurgeon
said, I don't ever think about that. And he said, because God
called me and God called me to this work and He is my provider.
And he said, that never crosses my mind. I'm doing this for the
glory of God. I'm trusting in Jehovah Jireh
and he's not going to betray my trust. Somebody knocked at the door
and they went to the door and it was the mail carrier. And he opened
up the envelope and it was a note for a thousand pounds. And the
brother that was complaining said, let's thank the Lord for
his mercy. He said, I'm not going to betray
the trust of them that trust me. Now, that's just so. We try to make things happen
ourselves and try to save ourselves without waiting on Him. He promised
His remnant in Israel, when they tried that, He said, you just
run and try all you want to. Look to Egypt, make your plans,
do all that. I'm going to bring you to your... just like a beacon
on a hill with all its branches broke off. And He said, and therefore
will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious to you. He said,
And therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of judgment, and happy and blessed are all
they that wait for Him. You may not like chasing your
children. I do not like it. But our children don't like to
wait on us. They don't like to wait on us.
They don't like to trust our word. And I'll tell you something,
brethren, when a child refuses to hope and wait on our word,
That child's begging you to love them enough to correct them.
And that child is not just doing it to you, they're doing it to
God. Because God put you where you are. And if you don't honor
God by correcting that child, you're dishonoring your God as
well as not loving the child. Now that's so. And when that
child is doing it, they're begging you, love me, love me, love me. And so, we're chasing them. Read Hebrews 12. That's what
God does because He loves His people. He loves His child too
much not to chasten us. And so He will. He says, I'm
going to do it so that I can be gracious to you. I'm going
to bring you to nothing so that you're sitting on your face in
the dust begging for my mercy, begging for my grace so that
I'm exalted above you so that I may be gracious to you and
have mercy on you. Because God said that's the only
way I'm going to be able to do it. He can't have grace on us as long
as me and you are trying to save ourselves. But He can bring us
to a point where we can't do anything and we see that that's
what it is. And then He'll say, now then,
now I can be gracious to you. Because grace is unmerited. Now
I can shed my grace on you and be merciful to you and save you. You see that? Ah, and the Lord
is good to them that seek Him. How do you seek Him? You confess
your need of Him. You do it with a sincere heart.
You do it believing on Christ. And you do it continually. And
when a man does that, he'll find Him. Because when a man can do
that, the Lord has already sought him and found him. You do it
by seeking the Lord. Confessing your need of Him with
a sincere heart, believing on Christ continually. Everybody
in Scripture that did found Him and He was good to them. Blind
Bartimaeus, the woman with the issue of blood, the leper. Now
here look, let me show you this last thing and I'm done. A good
hope is the salvation of the Lord. Verse 26. It's good that
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. Now this salvation means salvation of our souls, it means
salvation from our enemies, it means salvation from our sins,
salvation from the law, salvation from all dangers and hardships
in this life, salvation, all salvation is of the Lord. It
is good for a lost sinner to come bow down to Christ's feet
to hope and quietly wait for salvation from the Lord. The
Lord is good to those that come to Him that way. It's good for
believers to do the same in all our temporal troubles. All our
temporal troubles. I couldn't get anything to grow
in the flower bed to the right of our porch. I couldn't get
anything to grow there. And so I got to digging around
in that flower bed. This was when we first moved
in. It was a couple of years or something. I tried and tried.
And I got to digging around that flower bed and I began to find
a bunch of rocks in it. Big rocks. So every time I'd
plant something, you know, they had about three or four inches
to get some root going and then they hit rock and they couldn't
go no further. So I took my tiller out and I tilled up the whole
thing. Well, I wanted some flowers that season, but I couldn't have
any flowers that season because I had to till it under and had
to wait. But the next year, flowers grew because they could take
root, they could grow. Well, a lot of times, brethren,
A lot of times the reason the Lord will make us wait is because
He's got to till up our ground and He's got to till it up good.
He's got to get all the rocks out of the way that would prevent
us from growing in His grace. Because me and you are putting
them rocks in our flower bed all the time. We're putting them
there, all the things we're doing. And God's going to till it up
and He's going to make sure. And that's painful to us and
that's sorrowful to us. But at the end of it, when it's
all done, you know what He brings us to say? It's good that a man
should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. That's what he brings us to see. I'm hoping out, and get
this too now, some will use that doctrine of waiting and they
just cease from serving the Lord. And you say, what are you doing?
I'm waiting on the Lord. No, you're not. You're lazy. You're
not waiting on anybody. It doesn't mean you stop doing
what God has given you to do right now. I'm waiting and hoping
that the Lord will give us a quiet, safe place to meet where we can
worship Him in peace. But I'm not stop doing the thing
He's put in my hand to do while I'm hoping and waiting. And we're
hoping and waiting for the Lord's return, but we don't stop serving
Him while we're hoping and waiting for Him. It doesn't mean that. You see what I'm saying? A man
could hope that one day the Lord might use him to be a pastor.
That means, well, he may use him, but he ought to do what
the Lord's put in his hand right now. This is what the Lord's
given you to do, to serve him now. So serve him now, as you
hope and wait for the Lord to do what He will, when He will.
And you see, that's contentment, when we learn that whatever the
Lord's given me right now, this is where He's put me. This is
what He's given me to do, and He's providing everything for
me to do it. This is my calling, right here, right where the Lord's
put me. There you got some contentment. You're quietly hoping and waiting
on the Lord for the Lord's salvation. When I don't have to make my
way, I don't have to make things happen for myself. I don't have
to bite and claw to get somewhere in this world. The Lord opens the door. And
He makes it so obvious that you go through. And if you don't
walk through when you're supposed to, He'll push you on through
it. You're going to go the way He'd have you go. But that's
good to wait on Him. Wait on Him. And we're waiting
on Him now until He comes and He brings us back home. We're
not of them that draw back. Salvation is of the Lord. We
know it. We wait on Him. He chose us in Christ. Christ
redeemed us. The Spirit regenerated us. He's
keeping us. And He's growing us. And He's
going to return one day. And He's going to bring us to
Himself. And there won't be one The last work that's going to
be done is going to be done by Him just like the first one was.
He's going to raise our bodies, immortal, incorruptible, to be
with Him forever. And we're going to be with Him
forever and eternity. And we're going to see everything that
was done was done by Him. Salvation is of the Lord. Now
there's a good hope, brethren. God's mercy, God's love, God's
faithfulness, Christ our portion, the Lord's goodness, and God's
salvation. Now what's your hope? What's
your hope? I hope the Lord will give you
this hope by grace. And brethren, at all times, bad, good, and
otherwise, turn from those things that have our minds so weak and
so hopeless and recall to mind these things. These are things
to recall to mind. And then we'll have hope. Amen.