Let us turn to God's Word in
the portion of Scripture we read and turning again to the last
three verses of that portion in Lamentations chapter 3 reading
then again at verse 39 through 41. The last three verses of
the portion we were reading in Lamentations 3 39 through 41. Wherefore doth a
living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let
us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us
lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens. Saying something then this morning
I trust with regards to this living man and addressing the
theme really of the living man's complaints and his confidence
in his God. Wherefore doth the living man
complain? The margin says murmur. A man for the punishment of his
sins. Let us search and try our ways
and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in the heavens. We see in the last two verses
something of the man's prayer to his God. want us really this
morning to concentrate more especially upon verse 39 the Lord will come
again to the text later this evening but this morning really
to consider something of the cause of his complaints and to
begin with the circumstances of the life of the Prophet Jeremiah
as he writes this book as he thinks about the Lord's various
dealings with him. Back in the book of the prophecy,
in Jeremiah itself, the contents of that book that bears his name
and chapter 38, we read of an incident where, because of his
faithful dealings, he was actually cast into the prison as it were. And what an awful place it was.
He was cast into the dungeon. there in the opening verses of
Jeremiah 38 how he defended those in Judah, in Jerusalem because
of his faithful words warning them that they must submit to
the Lord's dealings as the people are going to be taken away into
exile under the Babylonians. that he submits to God's sovereignty
in that terrible judgment. But now it was such an offense
to the people. And we're told there in verse
6 of that 38th chapter, Then took they Jeremiah and cast him
into the dungeon of Malachi the son of Hamalek that was in the
court of the prison. And they let down Jeremiah with
cords in the dungeon. There was no water. but mire,
so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. And it would appear in some way
he is mindful of these things in the chapter that we have read,
the language that we have in the first part. Verse 3, Surely
against me is he turned, he has turned his hand against me all
the day. He sees the hand of God in those
things that have sadly befallen him. Verse 9, He hath enclosed
my ways with ewen stone. How he feels the crookedness,
the strangeness of the Lord's ways and the Lord's dealings
with him at that time. He cannot fathom what the Lord
is doing. He cries out later in the chapter. Verse 55, I called upon thy name,
O Lord, out of the low dungeon. We know from what follows in
that 38th chapter in the book of Jeremiah that he was actually
brought out of the dungeon. The Lord did hear his prayer.
But this is something purely of the circumstances used by
the Spirit of God to move him to write as he does here in this
third chapter. as he can't understand the ways
of God, he is a faithful servant of the Lord and yet how he suffers
in the course of his own ministry. But surely the real cause of
his trouble is that spiritual life that is in the soul of the
man. The living man of whom he is
speaking here is one who doesn't simply suffer in terms of the
trials and troubles of this mortal life, but knows something transpiring
in the very depth of his soul under the sovereign hand of that
God who is his savior. He's a living man, a spiritually
living man. And in many ways it's because
there is that spiritual life in the man that he experiences. so many strange feelings. The Lord Jesus himself tells
us, doesn't he, how it is the spirit that quickens the flesh,
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
their spirit and their life, but where there is that spiritual
life in the soul, there's also trials of a spiritual nature. There's the testings of the Lord,
By nature, all of us are dead in trespasses and sins and we
need to know that grace of God in regeneration. The sinner must
be born again. And the Apostle reminds those
Ephesians what they were. You have to be quickened, he
says, who were dead in trespasses and in sins. If any man's in
Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation. He has new feelings,
strange feelings. Well, this is really the man
that he is describing here in the words that I've announced
for our text this morning. He knows something that natural
men know nothing of because he has spiritual life in his soul.
And there are two particular things that we can say are the
evidence of that spiritual life that is now within the man. First
of all, there is a consciousness of sin and what sin is. The hymn
writer Joseph Hart certainly knew that. New life from him.
That is from God. New life from him we must receive
before for sin we rightly grieve. Well the first evidence then
of that new spiritual life is that there is a grieving over
sin. The living man complains. because
of that that he feels in himself now. The psalmist says, I remembered
God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. He laughed. The remembrance of
God, it troubles a man. When he begins to know something
of God and the holiness of God and the fact that he is one who
in Adam sinned and in his own fallen nature, he has sinned
and transgressed and fallen short of the glory of God. And it's
not just something that's experienced at the beginning of that new
life. It's not just the evidence of
regeneration, but there's that sense in which the believer feels
it all his days. Certainly that was the case with
the Apostle Paul. How he felt the conflict between
his old nature and the new nature. Christ says that which is born
of the flesh is flesh that is born of the spirit is spirit
and Paul takes that up doesn't he right into the Galatians the
flesh he says losteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh and these are contrary one to the other and you cannot
do the thing that you would and he murmurs and he complains I
know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. The evil that I would, not that I do. You know the language
of Paul there in the 7th of Romans. All wretched man that I am. You
shall deliver me from the body of this death, he says. But then
he thanks God because he sees that all his deliverance and
all his salvation is only in the Lord Jesus Christ and so
we must ever look to Christ oh well it's not just the case
with a man like Paul the Apostle it was there also in David the man after God's own heart
we only have to read the Psalms of David to see that He says
there in Psalm 55, my heart is so pained within me. Oh the living
man, he has his consciousness of what he is as a sinner. My iniquities prevail against
me. Think of the language of David,
Psalm 51 we could read or Again, the language that we have there
in Psalm 38, he speaks in Psalm 38 almost as if he is one who
is a leprous. He seems to use language that
suggests he has that dreadful biblical disease. My iniquities
are gone over my head, he says. There's a heavy burden there,
too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long.
All the living man, you see, he's conscious of something.
He's aware of who God is. God the High and the Holy One,
thrice holy. Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit. And what is this man? He feels
his sin and he grieves over his sin. He sighs and he cries because
of all those abominations that are within. And it's interesting
the word that we have here, the verb, to complain. It's a in the original it's a
reflexive verb it's an action that reflects back on the man
himself as it were as he complains he's wearying he's wearying himself
in his compliance he feels these things so acutely so keenly this
living man there is that consciousness then of what sin is Wherefore
doth a living man comply? But then also it says, a man
for the punishment of his sins. What are we to make of that second
clause? In a way the clauses here are
parallels, they relate one to the other. This living man, you
see, he knows something of what it is to be chastened for his
sins. That is the punishment he's speaking
of. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment
of his sins? But what is his punishment? Well,
the punishment he's deserved, certainly. But we need to be
careful here, because if this living man is a new creation
in the Lord Jesus Christ, He never suffers the penal punishment
of his sins. He never suffers the penal punishment
of his sins. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who has borne that punishment in the room and stead
of all his people. We're familiar, aren't we, with
the language of the 53rd chapter in Isaiah. Surely, says the Prophet,
He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did
esteem Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He
was wielded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He has died as the substitute.
He has borne the punishment that was the just desert of the sinner.
God has visited on his holy person all that wrath that was due to
the sinner. And because of Christ's substitutionary
atonement there can be no penal punishment of sin. Top lady knew
that. As he says in the hymn, payment
God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, his
hand, and then again at mine. That would be unjust. God cannot
demand a double payment. If Christ has paid the penalty,
there's no penalty now to be paid. So we need to be clear,
when the Lord God comes and punishes the living man, the true Christian,
it's not penal, it's chastening, and there's a difference. There's
a difference with God's chastenings. God says through His servant
Isaiah, fury is not in me. or when he comes to deal with
his people, fury is not in him. What is it that this man is complaining
of? It's the rod, isn't it? It's
the rod, it's a chastening. As the chapter opens, I am the
man that hath seen affliction by the rods of his wrath. Oh God's chastening rod. and he comes and the psalmist
says thou was the God that forgave us them though thou took us vengeance
on their invention on their inventions thou was the God that forgave
us them he forgives his people but how does he deal with us
because of our foolishness and our sins and our backslidings he takes he takes vengeance on
those things he chastens his people and yet in the midst of chastenings
and this is what the prophet is complaining of really in the
midst of these things he has to acknowledge verse 22 it is
of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his
compassions fail not they knew every morning, great is thy faithfulness. Verse 33, He doth not afflict
willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Oh, what a word is that! And look at the marginal reading
of verse 33, He doth not afflict willingly, He doth not afflict,
the Hebrew literally says, from His heart. He doesn't afflict
from His heart, fear is not in Him. Whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. What son is he whom his father
chasteneth not? If we're good parents, we do
correct our children because we love them. And so it is with
the Lord, is it not? Again, the language of the wise
man there in Proverbs 3.11. My son, he says, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary at his correction. We do become weary. We don't
like his chastenings. And yet, what a favor, what a
blessing it is. Here is the living man there. He's a man who knows something
of the chastenings of the Lord. Again, Jeremiah, what he writes
there in his book, in chapter 31 and verse 18, the mouthpiece
of God, he's the Lord's prophet, you see, he speaks the words
of the Lord. I have surely heard Ephraim, says God, bemoaning
himself thus, thou hast chastened me and I was chastised as a bullock. unaccustomed to the yoke turn
thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God. And it's a language of appropriation
isn't it that we have there in that 31st chapter. Speaking of
Ephraim, Ephraim of course was the the principal tribe at the
time of the rebellion when the ten tribes in the north broke
away from the house of King David, after the death of Solomon, his
son Rehoboam behaves foolishly in his dealings with his people
and the ten tribes they rebelled and they choose another to be
their King, Jeroboam I. And it was Ephraim, the tribe
of Ephraim that were the leaders in that rebellion. And there In Jeremiah 31 now God through
his servant the Prophet speaks of Ephraim. Oh thou hast chastised
me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Now the bullock must be broken
in to make it profitable to the farmer that he might use the
great strength of that beast that's what is being spoken of
there But there now Ephraim is made to ask that the Lord would
turn. Oh turn, turn to me, turn me to
thee he says. Thou art my God. Whom the Lord loveth any chastener. It's the mark of sonship. But
here is this living man and he he complies, he murmurs wherefore? does a living man comply? and of course the whole verse
is in the form of a question why does he comply? because he
has a sense of what he is he is a sinner he is conscious of
his sins and he knows he is a sinner because God is dealing with him
in the way of chastening but he is a fivered sinner because
the Lord loves this sinner and therefore corrects him and will
cause him to turn to the Lord and so let's turn in the second
place to the consequence of his compliance and what is the consequence? well look at what we're told
in verses 40 and 41 Let us search and try our ways
and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in the heavens. It's a sort of silly quiz, isn't
it? He's addressing himself. He's addressing himself. We have
those two Psalms 42 and 43 which are very much a prayer. And those two Psalms form quite
a remarkable soliloquy. We have that recurring phrase,
not identical, but each time a slight variation. In Psalm
42 verse 5, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou
disquieted in me? Hope thou in God. for I shall
yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. And then repeated
at the end, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art
thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.
And then again at the end of the 43rd Psalm, Why art thou
cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope in God. for I shall yet praise Him who
is the health of my countenance and my God." And I suggest to
you it's worth looking at those three verses in those two psalms
and comparing the verses and the slight variations. And it's
a profitable meditation to do that. But there is the psalmist
you see speaking to his own soul. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why is his soul so disquieted
within him? It's the same really as we have
here in the text in Lamentations 3. Wherefore doth a living man
comply? A man for the punishment of his
sins. As he addresses himself so in
a sense he answers himself. In the words that follow here
in verses 40 and 41. You see, where the Lord deals
with us, where the living man knows something of the chastenings
of the Lord, is he not brought to some soul exercise? That's what Paul says in Hebrews
12, 11. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, he says. Nevertheless, afterwards,
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who
exercise thereby." Oh, there's a nevertheless! This living man, you see, in
his complaints, there's a nevertheless for him. There's an afterward. There's some profit here. And
what is the profit? Why is he brought to some exercise
in his own soul. That's what it says there in
Hebrews 12, 11. It's profitable to him who is
exercised. The profit doesn't come automatically. The Lord deals with us in order
to stir us up. And we need stirring up in our
spiritual life. If we have any spiritual life
in us it will be stirred up many times. The Lord deals with His
people. And what do we see here? Well,
three things really with regards to the consequence. First of
all, there is self-examination. What is the answer? There in
verse 40, let us search and try our ways. All self-examination. the Lord Jesus speaks of that
there in the third chapter of John every one that doeth evil
hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deed should
be reproved but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that
his deed may be made manifest that thou wrought in God there's
the difference you see those who are children of light now
come to the light They'll seek to examine themselves
in the light of God's words. And we are to examine ourselves.
Paul tells the Corinthians, doesn't he? He tells them in regard to
the Lord's Supper. That church at Corinth, it was
such a gifted church in many ways, remarkable spiritual gifts
were so evident amongst them. And yet there was much abuse,
much foolishness in that congregation. And it was manifest even as they
came together to observe the Lord's Supper, which should have
been an expression really of their unity, their union with
each other as well as their union with Christ. It's a service of
communion, isn't it, the Lord's Supper? it's an expression of
the oneness of the local church and yet their divisions were
so evident amongst them let a man examine himself he says and eat
of that bread and drink of that cup and we need to examine ourselves
and then again he he states it so plainly in the 13th chapter
of that second letter to the church of Corinth examine yourselves
Whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Know ye not
your own selves, so that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobate. Well, we have to examine ourselves.
Let us search and try our ways. And how do we do that? Well, we have to look to the
Lord. David looks to the Lord, doesn't
he? Psalm 139 and in that psalm he so much celebrates. In that
psalm he gives a wonder of God and the attributes of God. He
is omniscient. He is all-knowing. He is omnipresent.
He is in all places. He fills heaven and earth. How fearful that is! The eyes
of the Lord they run to and fro. through the whole earth says
the prophet and David, David comes to the end of that psalm
and oh he wants God to search him search me oh God and know
my heart he says try me and know my thoughts and see if there
be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting is
that our spirit when we come under the sound of God's word
we want God to search us to sift us through and through. We want
to know that we are what we profess to be. If we say we're Christians,
we are living men and living women. We can relate in some
measure to the language of this godly prophet of all, Jeremiah. I am the man, he says. I am the
man. I'm a living man. Wherefore doth a living man complain
a man for the punishment of his sins? O, let us search and try
our ways. Yes, it's a solitude in a sense. He's addressing himself and yet
he's addressing us, isn't he? It's God's word and it's God's
words to us. Let us. Let us search and try our ways. There's self-examination. But
there's also a turning to God and a calling upon the name of
the Lord. As he says there at the end of
verse 40, and turn again to the Lord. You see, he speaks of again,
it's a continual experience really. As I said, that living man it's
not when new life is first communicated to his soul that he he feels
his sin, he's conscious of it, he grieves over it but it's an
ongoing experience and so he has to keep on turning
again and again and again and again to the Lord turn again to the Lord let us
lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens he says
it's good to examine ourselves there is a place for that introspection
but I do like the language of the hymn writer when he says
pour not on thyself too long lest it sink thee lower Look
to Jesus, kind and strong, mercy joined to power. We're not to
be continually poring over ourselves. We're to be looking on to Jesus.
That's the mark of the Christian, isn't it? What was it that McShane
said? One, look at self. Ten, a hundred, a thousand looks
to Christ. Or we examine ourselves, but
the Christian's looking to Christ he's looking on to Jesus the
author and finisher of his faith and you know the force of that
verb to look, to look on to Jesus to look away on to Jesus to take
the eye off all other objects to look away, to look only on
to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, we want faith And
sometimes we wonder if we've got any real faith at all. How
can we find faith? Well, we have to find the Saviour.
We have to look to Him. We have to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Lord speaks to us, and
the Lord speaks in many ways. He speaks in chastenings, doesn't
He? Even God's right as a voice, maker, that little book of Micah,
how sometimes we overlook those minor prophets as we call them,
as I've said many a time, they're minor not because they're less
inspired than these major writings of the prophets, they're minor
because their writings are shorter, just a few chapters. But it's
all the Word of God, and remarkable things oftentimes there in the
mind of prophets and Micah chapter 6 and verse 9 the Lord's voice
crieth unto the city and the man of wisdom shall see thy name
hear ye the rod and doeth appointed it or do we see God's name in
all his dealings with us as well as in his words remember the
107th psalm that psalm that speaks so much of God's providences
in all the various matters of life on land, on sea wherever
we are and how does that psalm conclude? who so is wise and
will observe these things even they shall understand the loving
kindness of the Lord are we observant of God's providences and God's
dealings sometimes things come into our lives so contrary to
what we would wish Do we observe these things and pray over these
things? You see what the psalmist says
at the conclusion of the 107th Psalm. The wise man observes
and he comes to understand the loving kindness, the covenant
faithfulness of the Lord. And we have it of course in this very chapter. those familiar
words in verse 22 and verse 23 it is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are
new every morning great is thy faithfulness or the covenant
faithfulness of God how he speaks and he speaks to us sometimes
when we experience those contrary providences the mysterious ways
of the Lord Wherefore doth a living man complain? He's not this sort of complaining
in a sense, a prayer. Even the complaining might be
likened to a prayer. He complains to God, Jesus, to
thee I make my moan, my doleful tale I tell to thee, for thou
canst help and thou alone a lifeless lump of sin like me. That's the
language of the hymn, isn't it? Where is that life coming from?
It doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from the Lord, Jesus,
to Thee I make my moan. How we need to pray, and yet
you know here, poor Jeremiah, it seems that his prayers were
being shut out. Verse 8, when I cry and shout,
he shutteth out my prayer, he says. And again, Verse 44, Thou
hast covered thyself with a cloud that our prayer should not pass
through. How sometimes the Lord's ways
are so contrary and so difficult. Well, sometimes we feel our prayers
shut out, we feel maybe we cannot begin to articulate, we can't
speak in prayer. What do we do? Do we not have
to come then with our groanings and our moaning? The Lord says, David, all my
desire is before thee. All my desire is before thee.
My groanings are not hid from thee. It's the Spirit who helps,
isn't it, with all our infirmities. And makes intercession, says
Paul, with groanings that cannot be uttered. And yet those groanings
are prayers. And this is prayer. The living
man. Wherefore doth a living man comply? Or as I said at the beginning,
the margin has murmur. Wherefore doth a living man murmur? I know murmuring in a sense is
not good. We might always equate it with
sin and yet in a sense sometimes we have to acknowledge that even
in that there is a calling upon the Lord. Or there's self-examination
here. There's that seeking God, praying
to God, and then finally this morning to say something with
regards to the sincerity of this man. Look at the language there
in verse 41, let us lift up our heart with our hands unto the
Lord, not just the hands lifted up, but the heart, the heart
being lifted up to the Lord. We know that bodily exercise
profiteth little. There's some profit in exercise,
physical exercise, it's good in that sense, but it profiteth
little, says the Apostle, with godliness. Godliness is profitable
in all things. Oh, to know what it is to be
that living man, that newborn sinner, that regenerated soul, and to know what it is to come
to God in prayer, sometimes even with our sighs and our groans. Remember how Isaiah rebukes those
whose prayers are just a formality. Or we can have a form of godliness
and know nothing at all of the power of real religion, how fearful
that is. There in Isaiah 29.13, wherefore
the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their
mouth and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their
heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the
precept of men, among my religion. And God said he will proceed
and do marvelous works among such a people as that. we don't want a formal religion Isaiah says with my spirit within
me will I seek the earth with my spirit within me I will seek
you shall seek me and find me when you search after me with
all your heart says this prophet Jeremiah Oh, we must surely come as those
who would not just say a prayer, but really pray a prayer, to
lift up our hearts with our hands, to be those who are real Israelites,
spiritual Israelites. Remember Jacob there at Peniel in Genesis 32? where the angel
wrestles with him. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't
it? It's Christ and Jacob and wrestling. And Jacob wants to
know his name, because his name is secret. Revealed to us ultimately
in the New Testament Scriptures. But there, Jacob would not let
the angel go except he bless him. And there, Jacob the supplanter
becomes Israel, His name is changed. Now he's a prince with God. He
has power with the angel. He prevails. Ought to be those
who are the true Israel of God. Israelites indeed. In whom there
is no guile. Just as the Lord said concerning
Nathanael there in John chapter 2. Israelites indeed. Guileless. Sincere. Wholehearted. Are we
those who can identify then with the living man that we see here
in the text this morning? Wherefore doth the living man
complain, a man for the punishment of his sin? Let us search and
try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our
heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. And the Lord
have mercy and help us, and bless his word to us. Amen.