I please God to bless us together
this evening as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Lamentations
of Jeremiah chapter 3 and we'll read verse 22. The Lamentations
of Jeremiah chapter 3 and reading verse 22. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail
not. It is surely a truth that this
word is not comprehended and considered as much and as often
as it should be. Because if it were not for the
mercies of the Lord, the truth is that we would indeed be consumed. That means we would be destroyed. We would be demolished. Now, Jeremiah was a man of God. He was a prophet of the Lord.
And yet this was his testimony. He recognised the truth of it
and it will be a blessing for us if we realise the truth of
it. The fact is that no self-righteousness
has any room in such a word as this. Indeed what it proves is
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They are not really
worth anything. In fact they are of course a
great hindrance in our spiritual walk. And so to recognise that
we do, from day to day, consider and are blessed with returning
mercies. every day. To realise, as Jeremiah
says, it's only the Lord's mercy that we're not consumed. Now
naturally man doesn't think like that. Naturally man thinks, well
he's not too bad. If you ask the general run of
people, what they thought of themselves, they would say, well
I live a fairly good life and I've made one or two mistakes
and I've perhaps done a few wrongs, but generally speaking I'm living
quite a good life. They wouldn't think that they
deserved to be destroyed because of their sin. The fact is that
many do not know the true conviction which comes through the work
of the Holy Spirit in conveying to us the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. There may have been a time, indeed
there would have been a time in our lives when sin would have
not been a problem and we would have carried on in our wild career. A wild career
because we were rushing headlong to a lost eternity. and yet to think that the Lord
was gracious to us. Again, He didn't deal with us
as we deserved. He didn't cut us off. We were
not consumed. And so the Church of God have
proved this down through the ages. And it will be a great
blessing for us tonight if we are able to stand alongside Jeremiah
and all those worthies according to the Word of God and also confirm
it to be true of us, of me, it is of the Lord's mercies that
I am not consumed. To realise that we deserve, deserve
to be cut off and especially to those who have been brought
up who have heard the Gospel preached for perhaps many years, and yet in so many ways have
turned away from God. They are really trying to please
themselves rather than to please God. They follow their own way. They follow their own lusts.
They follow their own desires. And has God dealt with them?
Has God cut them off? Has God destroyed them? Has God
cut you or me off? Has He destroyed us? The truth
is that it's of the Lord's mercies that we are here tonight. Just
ponder that. It's the Lord's mercy that you
and I are here tonight to be able to hear the gospel. It's not because we were good,
not because of anything righteous in ourselves, but we're here
tonight because of God's mercy. Because of God's mercy, well, do we acknowledge it? Do
we think tonight, well, what a blessing that is? What a blessing
to have a God who is so merciful, who indeed has not consumed me. Perhaps we only have to look
back during the day and to think, well, I should have been consumed,
I should have been destroyed. Naturally, I don't deserve to
live on this earth. because of the sin within me
and about me. Secret sins, untold sins, sins
in our hearts, sins in our minds. And yet, the Lord has still had
mercy upon us. The blessing is that we are still
able even to come here tonight. If we think of the analogy with
Israel, they lived in Jerusalem and they were favoured there
with many, many comforts and yet they continued to ignore
the blessings and the favour of God. And indeed they deserved
to be cut off and to be left. Well the Lord did deal with them. He fulfilled what he said he
would do. And that was to take them into
a land of captivity. And spend a long time there.
Now that's not a pleasant place. To be found as it were in a foreign
land. Spiritually that may be so. In
a foreign land. Not able to enjoy times of worship
as perhaps we once did. That was the case of Israel.
And yet you see the mercies of God were great towards them. Ezra and Nehemiah remind the
people of God's favour and of God's blessing. And Ezra says,
And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have
forsaken thy commandments, which thou hast commanded by thy servants
the prophets, saying, The land unto which ye go to possess it
is an unclean land, with the filthiness of the people of the
lands, with their abominations, which have filled it from one
end to another with their uncleanness. Now, therefore, give not your
daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your
sons, nor seek their peace or their wealth for ever, that ye
may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for
inheritance to your children for ever. And then he says, And
after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our
great trespass, seeing that thou, our God, has punished us less
than our iniquities deserve, and has given us such deliverance
as this." Well, Ezra was here reminding the people of the Lord's
mercy towards them. They hadn't been dealt with as
they deserved. They deserved to have been consumed, to have
been destroyed. But the Lord was gracious. Long-suffering. And in reality, if you and I
look at our own lives, I'm sure if we're honest before God, we
won't be able to claim that we're a great Christian. He won't make
a claim and say, well I'm a wonderful example. We have to hang our
head, perhaps in shame and confess that we're not what we should
be, we're not what we would be. And we're thankful therefore that
we have the blessing of God's Word to encourage us in the day
and age in which we live. And just remember this, seeing
that thou, our God, has punished us less than our iniquities deserve,
and perhaps, we have to say, much less than our iniquities
deserve. Indeed, the Lord has been very
gracious and has given us such deliverance as this." Well, there
we have the words of Ezra. And Nehemiah spoke similar words
when he also wrote his book. He wrote and he said in the ninth
chapter, Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the
terrible God, who keepeth covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble
seem little before thee that hath come upon us, on our kings,
on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers,
and on all the people since the time of the kings of Assyria
until this day. How be it? And it's always good
to realise such a truth as this. How be it? Thou art just in all
that is brought upon us, for thou hast done right, but we
have done wickedly. Now, we see there the grace of
God. We see that the Lord has blessed
Ezra and Nehemiah, so that they are able to observe God's mercy. Now, what a blessing for you
and me tonight, if we can observe God's mercy toward us. God's
mercy. It's a lovely word, isn't it,
really? Mercy. Mercy is welcome news
indeed to those who guilty stand. So if we've stood guilty, and
all God's people do stand guilty, everyone born again in the spirit
of God, everyone who enters into heaven will come under that situation
of guilt, guilty. They recognise they're a fallen,
undone sinner of the earth and deserve indeed to be cut off. Yes, you won't consider that
you're above the judgements of the Lord. You'll bow down and
realise the truth of God's word. So here we have these statements
then in Ezra and Nehemiah, directing us so clearly to what we deserve,
and yet, for his mercy, it is of the Lord's mercies that we
are not consumed. Again, I believe this isn't something
which just occurs once in our life. again and again we'll have to
be concerned, have to be ashamed of our life. Perhaps not that
which is evident to the world. It would be good if to the world
at large we appear to live a good and upright life. The real problem
is Our heart. The real problem is our heart.
That's the problem. I think I may have told you once
before, I was down years and years ago when I was a young
man on a farm in Berkshire and it was a lovely peaceable farm.
We were down in a valley and I said to the old farmer, and
he was a godly old man, And I said, oh I say, it must be lovely to
be down here with nothing to distract you. And he just turned
to me and he said, still got my old heart. That was a tremendous truth. And I've never forgotten it. And how true it is, we still
have to battle with our heart. So we can come and say, indeed
with Jeremiah, it is with the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed because of the sins of our heart. Yes, what a blessing
it is that the Lord doesn't deal with us, otherwise none of us
would be here tonight. We would have all been cut off
as worthless comrades of the ground, not worth anything. Well, as we realise before our
holy God, in and of ourselves, we're not worth anything. But
here we're to come, like the Apostle was able to say, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. And what does that do? It brings
honour and glory to God. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. What a favour it is then, to know something of the work,
the blessed work of the Holy Spirit within us, teaching us
and directing us to observe the Lord's mercy. Now, my friends,
it is a mercy to realise we are a sinner. That publican, he realised
he was a sinner and he cried for mercy. God be merciful to
me a sinner. And he was not consumed. He went
down to his house justified, not because of his deeds, but
because of God's mercy. God heard his cry and it was
a cry And it was a true prayer. It wasn't just a form of vain
words. There was reality in his prayer. Now, it is at the Lord's mercy
if the Lord grants us the blessing of prayer. True prayer, prevailing
prayer. Not just to pray with ourselves. That's what the publican did,
he prayed with himself. Blessing is to pray to God. Now
it's God's mercy that gives you true prayer. And if He gives
you true prayer, it will be prevailing prayer. And why will it be prevailing
prayer? Because the prayer will enter
in to the holy place. And why will it enter in? Through
the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. and it's of His mercy. That is so. Because if it was
not so, our prayers would not enter in. There would be no access
at the throne of grace. There would be no mercy seat.
There would be no blessing. It is the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. It is the wonderful blessing
that we have and advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who pleads our case. You see, we couldn't plead it
ourselves. All we can bring to God is our failure. Our failure. I wonder if you
really recognise you're a failure in the things of God. If there
was a word which suited you, it was failure. To realise then that the Lord
directs us to recognise that we are a failure. And that means
we can't rely on ourselves. And to know therefore that it's
of God's mercy that we are not consumed because of our situation. What do we do? What can we do? What must we do? We look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord's mercies and
the mercy is that God directs us to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit shows us our
need and shows us what we must do. We must come to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I came to Jesus as I was. What a blessing that is, that
we can come as we are, needing mercy, realising our need and
pleading unto Him that He will be gracious to us and bless us
and do us good When we come and we recognise our need of mercy,
then it is that prayer becomes not just a tradition, just another
saying a few words. It then becomes our spiritual
life. It becomes the breath of our
soul. true, urgent, earnest prayer
that God will indeed be merciful to us and that we shall be able
to confirm with Jeremiah, it is the Lord's mercies that I
am not consumed. Yes, we are not consumed because
of God's mercies. Now it is His grace, it is His
favour that brings us to a position where we acknowledge such a truth,
that it is only of His grace that we are not consumed. We come to that place, we have
to then say, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross
I cling. It really means that we are looking
to Christ for everything. We've got nothing ourselves. It's all been marred, it's all
been sinful. Sin is mixed with all we do.
As the Apostle said, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. It's a painful lesson to learn.
It's a good lesson to learn, because it takes us away from
ourselves. It directs us then to the only
way of salvation, the only place of blessing, the only place of
favour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are then able to come and
say, yes, it is the Lord's mercies that I am not consumed. Jeremiah went on, and we read
on this chapter, much instruction in this chapter, He tells us,
he sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne
it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust,
if so be there may be hope. Born again, child of God, the
sinner, blessed with life in the soul, comes the situation. The Lord brings us here so that
we are alone, alone before God, we keep silence, and we put our mouth in the dust,
if so be there maybe hope. The great truth is that where
there's life, there's hope. We cannot give up hope. It may
perhaps sometimes be low, when things appear dark and black. And yet, as it were, there's
that little chink of light. Hope. Hope. He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth him, his fearful would approach. For the Lord will not
cast off forever. It may appear that we are cast
off. We can't seem to get near to
God in prayer as we desire. We can't seem to pour out our
heart in prayer as we would. It may seem that we cast off. Well, the truth is, and we are
thankful we have, those who have gone before have proved God's
mercy and faithfulness. So Jeremiah says, for the Lord
will not cast off forever. Although he caused grief, and
it will cause grief, far off this from God, will cause grief
to the true believer. It's not a situation that you
will find pleasant and enjoy. You'll find it grievous. Although he caused grief, the
Lord causes grief, The Lord brings us into these situations. And you might say, well why does
the Lord bring us into these situations? Well, it's to prove
what is in our heart. Whether we will serve the Lord
or not. It's to prove whether we really desire to seek the
Lord earnestly. To follow the Lord more fully.
And that's why the Lord does sometimes bring us here. But
though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according
to the multitude of his mercies. He does not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men. It's only as you and I require
these things in our spiritual life to prove the reality of
our religion. And what it proves is this. Our father in heaven is dealing
with us as his children. Like as a father naturally deals
with his children, so our heavenly father deals with us, to show
us ourselves. He has to show us ourselves first.
before he shows us himself. Because if we never saw ourselves
as we really are, at least in measure as we are, we would never
desire the Saviour. Jesus Christ would mean nothing
to me. The great blessing is tonight,
if Jesus Christ means something to you, It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. The Lord's mercy that you are
not consumed because the Lord is teaching us and directing
us. So that we are having to lose
some of the baggage, some of the rubbish which we may have
accumulated, we might say in our worldly days, Things that
we have tried to carry on with. We have to find that we have
to cast them off. Get rid of them. They don't benefit
us. They don't profit our soul. In
fact, they hinder us in the gospel race. In a race, a runner doesn't want
a lot of weights, a lot of baggage does he? The Apostle describes
it as the weight that does so easily beset us. My friends,
sometimes there are those weights which beset us and drag us down. We're not to hide. We're not to pretend they don't
exist. We're not to even allow ourselves such things as besetting
sins. with a desire to turn away from
them, a desire that the Lord be gracious to us and enable
us to turn ever unto Him. And so it is not affected willingly,
nor grieved the children of men to crush under His feet all the
prisons of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before
the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause, The
Lord approves not." Well, we're thankful surely to know that
the Lord is still the same. The same almighty God who dealt
with his people in times past. Therefore we have a record in
the Word of God of many of his saints. And we see their testimony. And we see their lives. And as
we read the accounts of their lives, One thing is very clear. They needed mercy. One thing
is very clear. Because of that mercy, they were
not consumed. One thing is very clear for you
and me today. We need mercy. And it's very clear that because
we receive that mercy that we are not consumed. Well, tonight we thank God for
such a wonderful blessing as this. The mercies of the Lord. Oh, how wonderful, aren't they?
How great they are. You know, the psalmist gave a
long list of God's mercy in the 136th Psalm. He declares many
things. He tells us O give thanks unto
the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. And so if the Lord has graciously
blessed us and given us a conscious realisation of this truth, it
is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Can we come
with the psalmist and join him and say, O give thanks unto the
Lord, for he is good, For His mercy endures forever. Forever. What a blessing that
is. My friends, if God's mercy was
to stop, there wouldn't be any hope for you or me, would there? It wouldn't be satisfactory to
have a mercy yesterday and not tomorrow. We need a mercy that endures
forever. So therefore to realise, this
is what the Lord gives. Can we not come tonight and say,
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy
endures for ever. The psalmist is very full of
this, and it's good if we're full of it. The mercy of the
Lord O give thanks unto the God of Gods, for his mercy endureth
forever. O give thanks to the Lord of
Lords, for his mercy endureth forever. To him who alone doeth
great wonders, for his mercy endureth forever. The Lord alone,
the only true God. O to have right views then of
this great God. And as we observe and understand
His mercy toward us, and it's from this great God, the Almighty
Ruler, who alone doeth great wonders, for His mercy endureth
forever. The psalmist then goes down,
and if you're familiar with the psalm, you will realise that
he goes through creation, and then the deliverance of of Israel,
and how they were brought out of Egypt, and how the Lord was
with them, and they smoked great many kings, and he lists the
kings, and he comes and says, who remembered us in our lowest
state. In our lowest state. Yeah, well,
Israel were often in a lowest state, weren't they? Brought
there by their sins. And my friends, today we may
find ourselves in a lowest state, brought there by our sins. And if so, thankful to know we
have a God who remembers us, even in our lowest state. How
true it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed for his mercy endureth for ever. And now we come to some great
blessings. And hath redeemed us from our
enemies, redeemed us from that great enemy, the devil, for his mercy endureth for ever. Can we not exclaim that tonight?
For His mercy endures forever, if He has redeemed us from ourselves
and from our great enemy, the devil. For His mercy endures
forever, who giveth food to all flesh. For His mercy endures
forever. The psalmist concludes it with
these words, O give thanks unto the God of heaven. making it
quite clear, this is the God. I will give thanks unto the God
of heaven, no other God, nobody else, but to God himself, who
does indeed deserve and is worthy of all the honour and glory.
I will give thanks unto the God of heaven, for his mercy endureth
forever. It is in the Lord's mercies That
we are not consumed. We are not consumed. He goes
on to say, for his compassions fail not. His compassions fail
not. You might say, well, what does
this word compassion really mean? Well, you might think it's his
understanding of us. It doesn't fail. He understands
us. We often don't understand ourselves.
We mostly don't understand ourselves. We say, I can't understand myself. The Lord understands us. What a blessing that is. To think
we have a God who understands us. Because His compassions fail
not. Because He understands us. Understands
our situation. Understands our failures, our
weakness. Because His compassion is full
of not only understanding, but compassion also means tenderness. How often have you proved the
tenderness of the Lord towards you? He hasn't, as it were, got
out a big stick and hit you. It's his tenderness. It's his
love towards you. He's shown you his mercy in his
love towards you. Wonderful. What compassion. The tenderness of the Lord. It's
a pleasant word, isn't it? Tender. We think of people who
are tender. That means they're soft, they're
not hard. Think of that with regards to
Almighty God, looking upon us, such unworthy sinners. Here's compassion. And we read
here, it fails not. The law doesn't cease. It does
not fail. His tenderness toward us, however
bad we are. Haven't we got a great God? Haven't
we got a wonderful God? Who do us so graciously like
this? Compassion. Sympathy. Sympathy. He sympathises with
us. He knows what sore temptations
mean. because he has felt the same.
We have such a saviour who sympathises with us. He's passed away. He knows the temptations. So here we have this statement,
His compassions fail not. His sympathy towards us does
not fail. does not fail. That's the great
blessing, isn't it? The truth here is that these
things do not fail. Do not fail. We fail. Things fail. People fail. The Lord does not fail. And his
compassion fail not. It's in the plural, compassions.
It's not singular, it's plural. Again and again, they fail not. It is in the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. Well, Malachi tells us that those
words, right in the last little book, we read in this 3rd chapter,
6th verse, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. It says we have a God who does
not change. That's the reason. Therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. The Lord will not go back on
his word. What he has said, he will do. And it is because of that, that
we can bless God tonight for a word like this. It is at the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions
fail not. No, they do not fail. How many
times the psalmist speaks of the favour and blessing of the
Lord and the many comforting words that are spoken. Again,
he speaks, Asaph speaks in the 78th Psalm and he says, for their
heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in
his covenant. Well, I'm sure that probably
describes it sometimes, doesn't it? But what does Asaph say about
he being full of compassion forgave their iniquity and destroyed
them not. Yes, they weren't consumed, they
weren't destroyed. And destroyed them not, yea,
many a time turned his anger away and did not stir up his
wrath, for he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that
passeth away and cometh not again." Well, so we could go on, the
78th Psalm, that's descriptions there about the Lord's mercy
and favour, as Asaph's able to declare it. How we need to bless
God tonight, we have recorded in the Word of God, words like
this which may be a help to us, an encouragement to us, if we
pass along through many, many temptations, many, many trials
and difficulties, and to understand the favour and the blessing of
the Lord, remembering it directs us, of course, to the mercies
we receive through the Saviour. And we only receive those through
His death, we only receive those through His shed blood, we only
receive those through that great and finished work of salvation.
So if we are to receive any mercy, it is because of what he has
done. And therefore, he shall have
all the honour and all the praise and all the glory. May we come
tonight and be thankful. We have a word like this, it
is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his
compassions fail not. Amen. Bye.