Let us turn once again to God's
Word. In that portion we were considering
this morning in the book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Lamentations
chapter 3 and verses 39, 40 and 41. Wherefore, that 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
heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. The Lamentations of Jeremiah,
as we said, it's a short portion, a short book that follows his
prophesied, and in it we see him lamenting the desolations
that had come upon the city of Jerusalem. And of course this
was the consequence of their sins, their evil ways, their
idolatry. God's judgement had fallen with
the Babylonians laying siege to the city, the city falling.
and the people being removed, taken away into exile for 70
years of captivity when Jerusalem lay in desolation. He opens by speaking of the solitary
city out of the city. She's solitary that was full
of people. How has she become as a widow
she that was great among the nations and princess among the
provinces how is she become tributary and those things that he witnessed
around him the result of the sins of the nation we said he
also felt very much in his own heart how these things came into
his very soul And so at the beginning of this third chapter he says,
I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He felt these things. Sin was
such a great evil to the prophet Jeremiah. And we remarked that
the reason why he felt the reality of sin was because he was a living
man. The opening words then of the
text, wherefore doth a living man, a living man complain, and
I said we would consider something of his complaint and something
of the confidence that we see in the verses that follow, verses
40 and 41. There we considered in the former part,
we considered in particular Jeremiah's complaint, as I say, was because
he had such a consciousness of sin. Wherefore doth a living
man complain, a man, for the punishment of his sins? When we are dead in trespasses
and sins, There's no complaint with regards to sin. We don't
see it to be the great evil that it is. We're oblivious. We simply
go our way. We pursue our own course. New
life from him we must receive before for sin we rightly breed. But when we see sin and see it
as that that has been committed against God, and that God who
is a holy and a righteous and a just God, and that God who
is also a good, gracious, kind, loving and compassionate God? Or do we not see the great evil
that sin really is? Remember how the Psalmist cries
out, I remembered God and was troubled, I complained and my
spirit was overwhelmed within me. Or do we have such views
of God that we see in the light of all that God is, and all the
goodness that is in God, we see in that the awfulness of our
condition as those who are sinners, that our sins are against such
a God. How Paul the Apostle was brought
to feel it, as he says at the end of Romans 7, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
He wanted no deliverance. He wanted to be delivered from
all that he was, all his fallen nature, all his sins. I thank God, he says, through
Jesus Christ, our Lord. There is the sinner's only hope. He complains, Jeremiah, because
there is that spiritual life in his soul. The life of God
has come into his soul. and he is very conscious of his
sins, but also we said he complains also over the matter
of the punishment of sins. Wherefore does a living man complain?
A man for the punishment of his sins, not penal punishment, but
that correction that God meets out to his children, those chastening
That's what he's referring to. We know it cannot be the penal
punishment because Christ has already borne that. He has suffered
that just punishment that was the sinner's dessert. He has
died as a substitute in the room instead of his people. God has
poured out his wrath against their sins in the person of his
only begotten Son. and this top lady so rightly
says payment God cannot twice demand first at my bleeding shortest
hand and then again at mine that would be unjust and God is just
and righteous and good and so the punishment here is not penal
but correction it's the rod of the Lord's I am the man that
I am that have seen affliction by the rod of his wrath, he says
in the opening verse of the chapter. He was chastened. And what was
the result of that chastening? Well, his complaining, his murmuring
in a sense, although we did say that even his complaining might
be understood in terms of his groanings before God, his prayers
to God, But the result of all this is that there is some real
exercise in the man's soul. None chastening, for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless, says Paul, or is
an afterward. It yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness to them who are exercised. or to be exercised by God's dealings
with us as he comes, as he speaks to us here in his holy word,
as he comes and speaks to us by his rod. Hear ye the rod,
says the prophet, hear ye the rod, it has a voice, who has
appointed it? All these things come under the
sovereign hand of God and they are to be exercised and we see
it here in the case of Jeremiah. He is brought, as we said, to
three things. He's brought to self-examination. Verse 40, let us search, he says,
and try our ways. Self-examination. There's little
of it, I suppose, in our day and generation. And yet, how
necessary. Examine yourselves, says Paul.
Prove your own selves. Are you not your own self? Do
we know ourselves? Or do we know that Jesus Christ
is in us? That's the great thing, is it
not? To know ourselves and the reality of our religion. And
how we should come with David as he pleads with God there in
the 139th Psalm, that Psalm that says so much about God and his
omniscience, so he knows all things. and nothing can be hid
from him, we cannot hide ourselves from him, and we come to the
end of that great 139th Psalm, and what does David say? Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me, and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. The exercise in the self-examination,
but then also this exercise is brought to see God. This living
man, he will call upon God, he addresses himself, he addresses
his fellow believers, he says, let us turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in the heavens. And we said this morning, whilst
it is good to have that inward look, to be examining ourselves,
more important to have that upward look. And to turn away from ourselves
and to look to God. Pour not on myself too long,
lest it sink the lower, look to Jesus. Kind and strong, mercy
joined with power. Always to be that looking away,
looking only onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And we need to look to him. So,
there's self-examination, we said, there's that seeking after
God, and there's that sincerity. or the importance of that sincerity. Spoken of here in verse 41, let
us lift up our heart with our hands. Not just the lifting up
of the hands, not just the external of prayer, but that prayer that
comes from the heart, the lifting up of the heart unto God. Is not this the language of faith
that we have in verse 41, the sincerity of this man, that blessed
singleness of mind, how he's earnest with God. Let us lift
up our heart, he says, with our hands unto God in the heavens,
to be sincere, or that we might be those, friends, who are without
any guile as we come before our God. Isaiah the prophet says,
with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. Can we say
that? That with our spirit within us,
there's that within us, there's that earnestness, that longing,
that yearning after God. All our desire is towards him,
all my desire is towards him says David and my groaning is
not heard from them. You see the prophet is witnessing
terrible catastrophe all around him. The temple right to the ground. Jerusalem in ruins. The kingdoms
of Israel and Judah no more. the people taken away into exile
how desolate the whole scene is and yet what does he do? he turns to God the psalmist
says from the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my
heart is overwhelmed within me lead me to the rock that is higher
than I So, tonight I want us to consider something of this
man's confidence. Where does he put his confidence
in the midst of all these calamities that are on every hand? We say
the living man's confidence to be in God. Verse 41, Then let
us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. And who is this God? Who is this
God in the heavens? well he's spoken of also of course
in verse 40 let us turn again he says to the Lord and we observe
the name that he makes use of there at the end of verse 40
it's the covenant name oh it is that blessed God of the everlasting
covenant Lord as we have it in capital letters you know the
significance of that that name that is derived from what God
declared to Moses concerning himself, the great I Am. Well,
I want us to observe two things then with regards to his confidence
in the God of the Covenant. He is looking to God as the compassionate
one, and he is looking to that God who is constant, consistent,
unchanging. in all his dealings. First of
all though, the compassion of God. The compassion of God. As I said, the name Lord is derived
from Exodus chapter 3, where he appears to Moses and gives
him his commission. He's going to deliver the children
of Israel out of the bondage, the cruel bondage, which was
Egypt. And previous to chapter 3, of course, we read of how
God looked upon the children of Israel in all their bondage. The children of Israel, it says,
sides by reason of the bondage, the end of chapter 2 of Exodus.
the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and
they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the
bondage and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon
the children of Israel and God's had respect until then. And then we come into chapter
3, Moses keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, in
the backside of the desert. And God appears there in the
burning bush. This is how God has respect then
unto the children of Israel. He raises up one to be their
deliverer. But it's the God of the covenant,
you see. And how God hears the groans of the children of Israel. And this is not the same here
with Jeremiah, this living man. Wherefore doth the living man
comply? Oh, even his moanings, his murmurings,
his groanings, they enter into the ears of the Lord God of Surveillance,
the Lord God of Hosts. He does not Seek after God in
vain when he lifts up his heart with his hands in prayer unto
God. It is no vain thing. In a sense,
we can say, in this chapter we see Jeremiah encouraging himself. David, David Ziegler, when the wives and the children have been
taken whilst he was at war with his men and they return and there
is Ziggurag in flight and his men turn against him and they
are stolen because all is lost and David encouraged himself
with told him the Lord is God and this is what Jeremiah does
he remembers God and the God of the covenant. And what a God
he is, he is a compassionate God. Look at verse 22, he says,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his
compassions fail not. Thou knew every morning
great is thy faithfulness. And then again at verse 32, though
he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies. What a word this is. He will
have compassion, it says there at verse 32. And the word that
we have here is derived from the verb that means to be soft,
to be gentle. All God is a gentle God. David
says, thy gentleness hath made me great. This is God's compassion. This is the character of the
God of the covenant. How He delights in mercy. I know we often refer to those
words that we find at the end of Micah's prophecy. Those great words in chapter
7 of Micah. Who is a God like unto them?
that parteth iniquity, and parteth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage, he retaineth not his anger for ever, because
he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have
compassion, that's that word again, God's gentleness. He will turn again, he will have
compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, And thou wilt
cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt
perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou
hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. What is the
truth to Jacob? What is the mercy to Abraham?
He is at least God's covenant. He is the God of the covenant. And the God of the covenant is
a compassionate God. And of course we see this in
him who is the great messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus
Christ. When we read the Gospels and
we read parts of Matthew's Gospel concerning the ministry that
the Lord Jesus Christ exercised here upon the earth, how he was
compassionate, if we'd have read earlier in Matthew chapter 9
and verse 36 we're told when he saw the multitude he was moved
with compassion oh the Lord you see is stirred in his own spirit
when he sees the multitude and their great need and this is
that one who has come of course as God's servant that one who
is the messenger of the covenant, the mediator of the new covenant. In the portion that we read then
there in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 18 we have a reference
back to the words of Isaiah 42, Behold my servant says God, Whom
I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased,
I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to
the Gentiles. He shall not strine nor cry,
neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets or the gentleness
of Christ. A broody greech shall he not
break, smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth
judgment unto victory. The Lord Jesus Christ, you see,
is that One who comes to reveal to us all the character of God,
all the goodness of God, the Mediator of the New Covenant. Remember again the words of the
Apostle, writing in the Hebrews, of this One who is the Great
High Priest. We have not a High Priest, he
says, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity.
but was tempted in all points like as we are yet without seeing.
Oh he feels, he's touched, he sympathizes, he's a compassionate
high priest. The guy there in Hebrews concerning
the priestly office we're told who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself
also is encompassed with infirmities. The Lord Jesus Christ, you see,
he has come and taken part of our human nature upon himself. He's altogether identified with
us in our humanity. He is truly bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. He didn't take upon him the nature
of angels, he took upon him the seed of Abraham, who And this
is the wondrousness, the compassion of God that is the confidence
of the Prophet at this time. It is the Lord that he would
turn to. Let us turn again to the Lord,
to Jehovah, to Jehovah Jesus. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in the heaven. What of God's compassion? Well,
His compassion in a sense is that that never fails. It never fails. Going back to
verse 22, it's interesting. You'll observe there that the
first three words are in italics. In other words, they're introduced
by the translators. They're not a rendering of anything
that's there in the original. They're introduced to bring out
the meaning. But if we omit them, if we omit
them, can we not read the verse something like this? The Lord's
mercies are not consumed. It could be understood that that's
what's being said in that verse. The Lord's mercies that are not
consumed. Because His compassions, they
fail not. God's mercies, God's compassion,
they never fail. They are new. Every morning,
great is thy faithfulness. His compassion never fails. He
is ever, always a God of compassion. Even though the Lord Jesus Christ
is now risen from the dead and ascended on high and exalted
at God's right hand, Yet still, he feels. He feels for his people
here upon the earth. He sympathises with them. In
all the frailty of our human nature, he was tempted just as
we are, tempted in all points like as we are. Yet, he is without
any sin. All but he knew what sort of
temptations were. How he was so fearfully assaulted
by Satan. All we can understand is this
one, never failing compassion we witness in Christ, ever faithful,
ever faithful. Look at verse 32, but though he cause grief, yet
will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. God chastises his people and
God corrects his children, that's true. And yet, that work in God,
when he comes with his rods and smites his children, that is
spoken of, we might say, as his strange work and his strange
act. His strange work. It's not something in the sense
that he delights in. Therefore, his chastenings are
only for a little while. He is ever faithful, you see,
in his compassion. His chastenings, his corrections
are only for a little while. Peter says, now for a season,
if need be, you are in heaviness. through manifold temptation,
it's now. And the strength of the words,
it's just now, at this moment. It's for a season, now for a
season, for a little while. A short period of time, not a
great period of time. Now for a season, if need be. It's only as and when these things
are necessary. Oh, Peter, you see, will remind
us that God's dealings, God's contrary dealings with His people
are sobering. They don't last forever. Verse
31, For the Lord will not cast off forever. The Lord will not
cast off forever. His compassion then is always
the same. He's a faithful God. And this
is the encouragement I say of Jeremiah. And not only of Jeremiah,
it's the encouragement that we see in others. We see it in Isaiah
also, in chapter 54 of Isaiah. Look at verses 7 and 8. Isaiah 54 verses 7 and 8 he says,
For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. all the exceeding
great and precious promises that we have here in the Word of God.
And this means something to the living man, you see. The living
man, the man who has the light of God in his soul, the man who
is a spiritual man, just like Jeremiah here, wherefore doth
a living man complain, the man to the punishment of his sins, How God's promises mean something
to this man. They are meat and drink to him.
They are his encouragement. He is brought to put his confidence
only in the Lord his God. Again, in what follows here,
verse 43 he says, Thou hast covered with anger and persecuted us. Thou hast slain, thou hast not
pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with
a cloud that our prayers should not pass through all the strange
experiences of this man. One minute he's able, as he were,
to encourage himself, to exhort his own soul, we have that sort
of soliloquy. Here in verses 40 and 41, let
us, let us, he says. Speaking to himself, speaking
to his fellow believers, but now, almost immediately, he seems
to think that God has turned against him. This is how it is, is it not,
when God comes at his children, when God has dealings with his
children, and seems to be so contrary to them, and deflicting
them, and laying his rod upon them. Though he imagines God
to be against him, Jeremiah's reasoning here, in verses 43
and 44, it's all wrong reasoning. He's mistaking God. Now, we see
that quite clearly when we turn to the Psalm. In Psalm 89 and verses 32 and
33. Psalm 89 verse 32, God says then,
will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity
with stripes. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness
will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness
to fail." That precious words, nevertheless. I will visit their
transgression with the rod, he says. I will visit their iniquity
with stripes. They will be chastening God will deal with His children
when they sin against Him, when they behave foolishly and presumptuously
with Him. He takes vengeance upon their
inventions, but He forgives their sins. That's
the God that we have to deal with. He is ever always compassionate. And Jeremiah is able in that
sense to find some encouragement when he remembers the character
of his God, the God of the Covenant. The God of the Covenant is not
only a God who is compassionate. When we think of the Covenant
we also see that God constant. What is the covenant? Why? The covenant is the promise of
God. But not only the promise of God,
it's that promise that God has confirmed with oath. He has sworn by himself. And
not only has God confirmed it by oath, but He has sealed it
in blood. in the shedding of the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there's a blessed constancy
then in the covenant. And it reminds us, does it not,
that God is sovereign. God is sovereign in all His ways. It is a covenant that is ordered
in all things unsure. It's an everlasting covenant.
It's a sure mercy of David. And here you see, verse 41, where
is it that he is looking to God? Let us lift up our heart, he
says, with our hands unto God in the heavens. Oh God is in
the heavens. The psalmist says, God is in
the heavens. He has done whatsoever he pleases. The heavens rule, do they not?
God is that one who is a sovereign God. All the inhabitants of the
earth are accounted as nothing and he doeth according to his
will among the inhabitants of the earth and the angels of heaven
and none can stay his hand, none can say to him what doeth that. And that God, you see, who is
sovereign He is the one who cannot be contradicted. He will accomplish all his goodwill
and pleasure. Verse 37, we say that saith,
and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not. We say that saith, and it cometh
to pass when the Lord commandeth it not. God is soft. For there are many devices in
a man's heart, says the wise man in the Proverbs, nevertheless
the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. This God of the
Covenant then is the Sovereign God. He is in heaven and He takes
up the earth as a very little thing. The nations, what are
they to God? the drop in the market, says
Isaiah. They like buying dust on a balance. He is that one then who is sovereign
in all his ways, and as he is sovereign in all his ways, so
God is sure in all his works. His works are as himself, sure
and certain. And not only his works, but also
his words, the very thing that he says, cannot be contradicted. Verse 38, we read, out of the
mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good. God always does what he says
he will do. He is not a man that he should
lie. He is not the son of man that he should repent. Has he
said it? Will he not do it? Has he spoken
it? Will he not make it good? All this is Jeremiah's comforting. The constancy of God. The constancy
of God with regards to his great purpose. He is a sovereign God. His constancy with regards to
the word that he has spoken. And what does this God do? Why? He weighs men's actions. That's
how He deals with men. Thou most upright dost weigh
the parts of the just. When He leads His people, when
He deals with His people. In the day of His east winds, He stays His rough wind. He weighs all His dealings with
His children. And he never lays upon them that
that they are unable to bear. They are never tempted above
what they are able. With the temptation he is able
to make a way of escape that they may be able to bear it. I say this is the comfort of
the prophet that this God that he is seeking in his prayers
is a covenant God, is a compassionate God. He's a God whose ways are
all true and consistent. I am the Lord, he says, therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. He'll never consume them, though
he deals with them in contrary ways at times. See then how this
living man, this man who has that spiritual light now in his
soul, He complains. And why does he complain? Why? He complains because he feels
sin to be a grievous thing. He is conscious of what sin is.
And it grieves him much. But he complains also because
he knows something of chastening. Poor Jerry Mayer at this time,
when he sees all these calamities about him. How these things enter
into his very soul. And he cannot but come to God
with his groanings and his moanings, his murmurings, his complainings.
But this man also is the man who has confidence in God. He
is the consequence of all that exercise that has come into this
man's soul. He will encourage himself to
look to the Lord and examine himself. Let us search and try
our ways, he says, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our
heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. Oh friends, how
vital it is that we know something of that spiritual life, that
life of God. Remember the words we referred
to them again this morning, those words of that godly king Hesychiah,
when he also knew great trials and troubles during his reign,
in Jerusalem. It was the armies of the Assyrians
that came. But the Assyrians were not successful.
And though they laid siege to Jerusalem, yet Ezekiel prayed
to God and pleaded with God. And God wrought a miraculous
deliverance. The judgment didn't come in Ezekiel's
day. It didn't come from the Assyrians.
It came later from the Babylonians. But it was not only that Puhahesikaia
witnessed great political upheavals during his reign. The Prophet
came to him, remember, Isaiah said he was to set his house
in order, he would die. And he turned his face to the
wall and he pleaded with God and God extended his life by
some 15 years. Before ever the prophet had left
the royal court, God sends him back and he's to pass that news
to the king to tell him that his prayer is heard, his life
is spared, he's going to live and not die. And then we have
that great prayer of thanksgiving to God, Isaiah 38, and what does
he say? The living, the living. He shall praise Thee as I do
this day, the Father, the Father to the children, declaring all
God's truth, all the living man, and this is the living man here
in Lamentations, this strange book, read it through, it's a
short book of scripture, read through these Lamentations. Do
we not see, we read the former part of the chapter of course
this morning, and though there's great lamenting in these first
21 verses and from verse 22 following, what gracious words, what encouraging
words, words that I'm sure we're all familiar with. It is of the Lord's mercy. that
we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. I knew
every man. Great is thy faithfulness. Isn't this the God then that
we are to address? Let us lift up our hearts with
our hands unto God in the heavens. Well, let us pray. Our God, do
hear us now as we come to thee. conclusion of this Lord's day,
do bless to us thine own truth, help us, Lord, to understand
thy word, those things that thou dost speak to us, Lord, by thy
spirit in thy word, O Lord, that we might see that thy rod also
does indeed have a voice. Hear ye the rod, says the prophet,
anew hath appointed it. Might we be that man of wisdom,
Lord, to understand thy ways and thy dealings as well as thy
word? and Lord do grant us grace that we might truly encourage
ourselves in thyself, O Lord, to know that blessed upward look,
to be looking the way and looking only unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down
at thy right hand. One said, Shall Christ my Lord
suffer and shall I repine, O Lord do help us then to take up our
cross and to follow in his blessed footsteps. Hear our prayers for
Christ's sake. Amen. I think also we should have put
in our notices, we should have put a thank you to those who
assisted in a very interesting meeting we had yesterday. Yes,
thank you, much appreciated. Now our closing hymn tonight
is number 120 and the tune is Evangelist 138. With joy we meditate the grace
of our High Priest above. His heart is made of tenderness,
his bowels melt with love. Number 120. In joy we meditate the grace
of our High Priest above. His heart is made of tenderness,
his bowels melt with love. Touched with a sympathy within
He knows how people frame He knows what sore temptations mean
For he has felt the same Innocent and pure, the great
Redeemer stood, While Satan's fiery darts he bore, And did
resist to blood. flesh poured out his cries and
tears, and in his measure fills afresh what every member bears. He'll never quench The brook inflects, but raise
it to a flame. The bruised reef, it never breaks,
nor scorns the meanest name. Then let our humble faith address
His mercy and His power. We shall obtain in bittering
grace in good The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. Amen.