Let us turn again to God's word
in that portion that we read in the book of Lamentations, the short book Lamentations of
Jeremiah, to give it its full title, in which of course we
see the prophet lamenting those things that have befallen God's
ancient people and the destructions of Jerusalem, written at the
time of the Babylonian captivity, when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar
had taken the city and removed the people into captivity. And so, in the opening words, Jeremiah speaks of the solitary
city, and of the city sit solitary that was full of people. How
is 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 had befallen
the city and befallen the people of God very much entered into
Jeremiah's own soul. He felt these things personally. He felt them very deeply as we
see here in chapter 3, I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his rock. And down in those opening verses,
that opening paragraph through to the end of verse 21, we see
him lamenting all that he feels in the depths of his soul. But
this morning as we turn to this chapter I want to direct you
more particularly to what he says later in those last three
verses that we read from verse 39 to 41. Wherefore doth a living
man complain? Is he not addressing himself? He is the man. 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 heart with
our hands unto God in the heavens. Here then we see the living man
and we see two things with regards to this man. We have his complaints
and then we also have his confidence. And certainly we see that latter
aspect, his confidence in his prayer to God. how he exhorts
himself and exhorts his fellow believers. Let us, he says, twice
in verses 40 and 41, let us turn again to the Lord. Let us lift
up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens. Here is his confidence in the
midst of all that has befallen himself personally, all that's
before him, the people of God, the terrible desolations that
have come upon Jerusalem. Where should he turn? Where can
he turn? His confidence is clearly seen
to be in God. But first of all I want us to
consider something of the cause of his complaint. Here in verse
39, Wherefore doth a living man complain, he says. And what is the cause of him
making a complaint? It is because he's a living man. It's because there is some life
in his soul, his spiritual life, that is the cause of him having
these feelings, expressing himself in such words as we find in this
book He is one who is no more dead in trespasses and in sins. Is that one that we can identify
with in the opening words of Ephesians chapter 2? You are
the quickest who were dead in trespasses and in sins. He was once, as all men are by
nature in that fallen condition, having no thought for God, no
desire towards God, no sense of need before the Holy One,
but here is one now who is alive. It is the spirits that quicken
us, says the Lord Jesus Christ. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are light. And so He is not just
a man, he is a living man, spiritually alive. And as he is spiritually
alive, we can observe these two things. There is a certain consciousness
of sin. Wherefore doth the living man
complain? The man for the punishment of
his sins. He has a consciousness of what
sin is. He is not ignorant. The Hymnwriter
says new life from Him we must receive before for sin we rightly
grieve. He is grieving because He sees
what sin is and He feels it. And where do we see sin? We see
sin of course in the light of God's countenance, in the light
of Him who is the Holy One, the Throat's Holy One, that God before
whom even sinless angels have to veil their faces and they
cry, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts heaven and earth are
full of thy glory He is the Holy Trinity and it is before that
holiness of God that the angels bow their heads and therefore
Must we sinners come as those who are only too well aware of
what we are, so unworthy? With those who have transgressed,
with those who have sinned against you. The psalmist says, I remembered
God and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was
overwhelmed. Selah. How significant is the
Selah at the end of that verse in Psalm 77. Remember the strength
of those words, it seems to have something to do with the way
in which they would make use of the Psalms, sing the Psalms
in the worship of the Tabernacle and the Temple. It indicates
a pause, a reflection, a consideration of what has been said, I remembered
God and was troubled. Are we troubled when we think
upon God? Is our spirit overwhelmed when
we consider that He is the Holy One and we are such great sinners? Here is the mark then of that
living man. And we see it clearly in the
case of Jeremiah, a spiritual man, alive to God, conscious
of what he was as a sinner, but in the New Testament we see it
also of course, we see it in that great seventh chapter of
the epistle to the Romans what does Paul cry out there time
and again I know that in me that is in my flesh there dwelleth
no good thing he felt it no good thing in himself
he would do good but evil was present with him that's what
he says all wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from
the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. His only hope was in God, nothing
in himself. And it is the same with Jeremiah,
you see. As he mourns over his sin, as he utters this word of
complaint, where can he look? He must look to God. Let us turn
the game to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in the heavens. The only place where he can find
any hope. But that hope strangely is born
of this consciousness of sins. It is the sinner who needs to
know God as his Saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And we see it time and again
of course in the Psalms where David is many times making his
confessions to God, acknowledging what he is. And this is a man
after God's own heart, David. And yet, David, such a sinner. In Psalm 38, the Psalm of David
to bring to remembrance. Oh, when he remembers God, you
see. What does he say? My iniquities are gone over my
head. There's a heavy burden there
too, heavy for me. My wounds sting and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day. Mourning, complaining all the
day. It's the same spirit that we
see here in the case of Jeremiah. The guy in the psalmist can cry
out my heart, be sore pain within that sense of our own sin and
our own unworthiness as God is pleased to make known to us something
of our sad condition. What are we as the fallen sons
of Adam and Eve? We are those who were conceived
in sin, shaped in iniquity. Our heart then should be sore
pain when we think of what we are. in our flesh, no good thing. This is the man, the living man. You must comply because of that
sense of his sinnership, his conscience of what he is. Wherefore
does a living man comply? And it's not only what he sees
and feels within himself, but he is aware of that, that he's
all about it. Look at what we are told in the
next book in the prophecy of Ezekiel, and there in chapter
9, verse 4, the Lord says to the prophet, go through the midst
of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon
the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the
abominations that be done in the midst thereof." Set an arc
upon these men, you see. You see the abomination, the
wickedness of the citadel that was going to be destroyed. And
that's what Jeremiah is lamenting, of course, the destruction of
the citadel. When evil is all about and all these men, you
see, they grieve. at what they witness. This is much of Noel Reason with
us this morning, but I remember shortly after her husband died,
speaking with her as a widow, and she was only young when one
thinks back in her late fifties, mid to late fifties, when he
was taken. But she'd come to terms with
it, and she made this observation, she said, I just felt he wouldn't
have been able to cope with the wickedness that is so abounding
in this day. And isn't that true when we think
of the situation, how there's been a terrible degeneration
over the years, over the last decade. Unspeakable things. It was back of course in the
early 1990s, it was I suppose 20 years ago this year that he
died. And he was taken away. from the evil that was to come,
because there are those of the godly who just couldn't stand
these things, they were overwhelmed by these things. It's the mark
of a living man when sin is a grievous thing to him, his own sin, and
the sin that he witnesses all about him. It's interesting to
examine some of the words that we find in scripture. Maybe some
of you do that, engage in word studies. And this word, the Jews,
to comply in the text, wherefore doth a living man comply? The margin tells us that the
Hebrew has the idea of murmur. But when we examine the word
even more closely, we discover that this particular verb, the
Jews here, is what's called the reflexive verb. In other words,
the action in the verb reflects back upon the person. And the meaning here is that
the person complaining is wearying himself, is wearied in himself,
is overwhelmed in his own person by that that he is witnessing,
that that he is experiencing. Wherefore doth a living man complain?
a man for the punishment of his sins. The living man then, he
is the cause of his complaints, he is alive spiritually, and
therefore he is so very conscious of what sin is. But then also,
as a living man, he knows something of chastening is for sin. It
speaks here of the punishment of his sin. Now this punishment,
this punishment of sin, the living man would recognise is something
that he's deserved. The man he's receiving is just
punishment, he feels that. However, we need to be clear
in this that the punishment is not a penal punishment. The living
man, that is the spiritual man whom God deals with and God corrects
and chastens, God never deals with his sin in that penal sense. There is a difference. We know
that God could not and would not punish him in a penal sense
because someone else has already borne that penalty that was the
just desert of his sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that one
who was dealt with the sin of his people forever and we see
it of course in that remarkable 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah Isaiah 53 verse 4 for example
surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we
did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted but He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. Here is that one you see bruised
for our transgressions, wounded for our iniquities, bearing our
griefs and our sorrows. Dying in our room and in our
skin, that's what the Prophet is saying. And because the Lord
Jesus Christ has borne that penal punishment of sins, that punishment
cannot be visited upon the living man, the spiritual man. Payment
God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, His
hand, and then again at mine. Why can God not do that? Because
it would be unjust. To require double punishment
would be unjust. And God is a just God. And so
if Christ is born at penalty, that will never be visited upon
the living man. God says again in Isaiah, fury
is not in And yet, as we must recognise,
God does indeed deal with his children. He pardons their sins. Thou wast a God that pardoned
them, says the psalmist, yet thou tookest vengeance on their
inventions. He pardons them, but he corrects
them. and we see that surely in this
particular chapter God lays his rod upon his children in words
of the chapter I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod
of his wrath that is his chastising rod he knew what it was to be
punished because of sin to be corrected
and yet God has a good end in view, a gracious end in view.
Verse 22, it is at the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed
because His compassions, they fail not. Verse 33, He does not
afflict willingly. Or as the margin says, He does
not afflict from the heart, nor grieve the children of men. Oh, He is a gracious God, even
the Lord's others He chastened, and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth. And so this punishment that's
spoken of, you see, we like to think of it in terms of God visiting the penalty of sin upon
Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is born,
that wrath of God, that this is that punishment that comes
in mercy. My son, despise not thou the
chastening of the Lord, neither beweave it by his corrections. It's the mark of God's love when
he comes and punishes in this particular fashion. And yet we
see the man complaining. Wherefore doth a living man complain
or murmur? A man, for the punishment of
his sins, he should not be complaining in this fashion. He is not to be excused. It is to be recognised that sooner
than complain he should bow to the Lord and acknowledge God's
good and gracious dealings, even in visiting upon him the correction
of his sins. These are the lamentations of
Jeremiah. The author, the human author
then, is the same as we have in the previous book, that long
book of the prophecy of Jeremiah. Look at what the Prophet says
back there in Jeremiah 31. and verse 18 he says I have surely
heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus thou hast chastised 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
here is Ephraim you see rebellious Ephraim a reference to to Israel
to the ten tribes after the division of the kingdom, bemoaning himself,
complaining, murmuring, as a bullock unaccustomed to the earth, leaving
to be broken. But then coming to this, desiring
that God would turn him, that he might be brought to accept
God's deeming. That's what the living man should
desire, that he might be fivered with that spirit of meekness
to bow down before God's lawful authority as he comes to chasten
his children. The cause then. The cause of
his complaint. Yes, it's because of God's chastening
and he's kicking against it, he's rebelling against it initially.
but also we are to recognize that as a living man he has such
an awareness, such a consciousness of his seeing. But then turning
in the second place from the cause of the complaint to the
consequences, the consequences of it. And we see some of the
consequences in the following verses. Let us search and try
our way 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 soliloquy. He's addressing himself. He's
addressing his own soul. And addressing other believers,
encouraging others of the people of God. He uses the plural us. Not just addressing himself.
But we sang, did we not, in the mythical psalm, in Psalm 42,
and we have those verses twice in that psalm and then again
we find the same truth at the end of Psalm 43, how the psalmist
will address himself. Verse 5, O why art thou cast
down my soul? Why in me so dismayed? Trust
God, for I shall praise him yet. His countenance is mine aid. And then again at verse 11, O
why art thou cast down my soul? Why thus with grief oppressed
art thou disquieted in me? In God still hope and rest. And then Psalm 43, And verse 5, Why art thou then
cast down, my soul? What should discourage thee?
And why with vexing thoughts art thou disquieted in me? Still trust in God, for him to
praise good cause I yet shall have. He of my countenance is
the house, my God that doth me save. You see how David there
then in the psalm addresses himself, addresses his own soul, and seeks
to encourage himself, to hope in God, who is the health of
his countenance, and he's God, and it's the same here, it's
the same spirit that we see in Jeremiah, the living man. Instead
of complaining, or murmuring, let us search and try our ways,
he said. and turn again to the Lord. Let
us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens. He will draw some profit from God's dealings
with him as he addresses himself. Paul tells us that in Hebrews
chapter 12 concerning chastening that there is some profit in
it, where there is that exercise. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, he says, but grievous nevertheless afterward. It yieldeth a peaceable fruit
of righteousness to them who would exercise thereby. Well,
this is what we need, friends, when God deals with us and we
receive that new life from him and we have that consciousness
of sin or when God comes with his chastening wrath we need
to be exercised and to look to ourselves and
to exhort and encourage ourselves then we can observe three things
here in verses 40 and 41 first of all Jeremiah calls himself
and other believers and if we are believers this morning that
includes us He calls us to the exercise of
self-examination. Let us search and try our ways. Is that what God's dealings with
us bring us to? We are made to look to ourselves,
to search ourselves and to try our ways. Isn't that a mark,
another mark of the godly man, the man who is spiritually alive? The Lord Jesus in John chapter
3 says as much, verse 20, He says,
Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to
the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God. Or do we want to know that what
is in us is that that is wrought of God? It's God's work in our
souls. And if that is the case, we will desire to come to the
light, to have our religion examined in the light of God's truth,
to expose our souls, as it were, to that searching rise of Holy
Scripture. Again, Paul speaks of the importance
of self-examination. Examine yourselves, he says. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves? Know that Jesus Christ is in
you, except ye be reprobate. Some might like to speak of high
doctrines, you see. They like to speak not only of
election, but they speak of double predestination, reprobation also. But we're not just to speak of
these high doctrines, we're to examine ourselves in the light
of them. And there, in the end of 2nd Corinthians, what is Paul
saying? We have to look to ourselves,
lest we be reprobate. We're to examine ourselves. And how can we examine ourselves?
Well we cannot really, we need God's, that He would come by
His Spirit, that God would come to us in His worth and search
and sift us. The Spirit of David as we see
it in the 139th Psalm, search me O God and know my heart, try
me and know my thoughts, He says. See if there be any wicked way
in me, lead me in the way everlasting. Do we ever come with that prayer
upon our lips? This is what Jeremiah would conclude
then. Let us search and try our ways
and we want God in his word to do just that with us. There is
that then that is attractive in some way strangely to the
spiritual man, there's that that's attractive to a ministry that
is discriminating, where there is a distinction made between
what is true and what is false. The believer wants to know that
he is on the side of truth, that he has that in his soul, that
he is really the work of God. And God doesn't only come, of
course, to try his people in his word, he does it in his ways,
in his works, in his dealings. Again, the hymn writer says right
when he declares afflictions make a surge. What else would
escape our sight, have any foul and dim? Are we and God pure
and bright? And God afflicts us? And God
deals with us? Are we not then brought to look
to ourselves and to see what we are and where we are? There
is a call in first of all the earth that we should examine
ourselves. And then there is the call to
seek God. Let us Search and try our ways
and turn again to the Lord. Oh, let us turn to the Lord.
Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens. Yes, self-examination is good. It's good to have that inward
look. But there's something better
than looking inward. There's also that upward look.
There's that looking to God. Pour not on thyself too long,
lest it sink thee lower. Look to Jesus, kind and strong,
mercy joined with power. That's the best look of all,
is it not? When we turn away from ourselves,
when we're made to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto
Jesus. And remember the force of the
word look there, it means that we take our eye off every other
object. It means literally looking only
onto Jesus, looking away from all else, onto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our time. Or when God comes, when God speaks
to us, you see. This is what we should do, we
should respond by looking to Him. When He speaks to us in His Word,
we should speak to him in our prayers when he deals with us
by laying his rod upon us we should again turn that to prayer and God's rod certainly has a
voice Micah chapter 6 and verse 9 says the Lord's voice cried
out unto the city the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear
ye the rod and who has appointed it hear the Lord. And as we hear, how are we to
respond? We are to cry to God, we are
to speak back to God. This is what God would have us
do. And there is a sense, you know, in which we can say in
verse 9 that even this complaining can be understood to be prayer. Wherefore doth a living man complain? Joseph Hart says, 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 myrrh. Is that not what we have to do?
Sometimes we have to come and our prayers are just moans and
groans, cries and sighs, We cannot really find words that would
adequately express the feelings of our heart. We have to persevere
then in these groanings and these moanings. And often times it must be the
case because when we seek to articulate When we seek to say
words, words do fail us. Our prayers sometimes seem to
be shut out. Wasn't that something of Jeremiah's
experience at this time? He says at verse 8, also when
I cry and shout, he shut out my prayer. At verse 44 he cries out, thou
hast covered thyself with a cloud so that our prayer should not
pass through. Oh, are there not times when
we come to pray and we cannot find the words? Words fail us. I know God exhorts us to take
with us words and to turn to Him and to say, take away all
iniquity, receive us graciously, but we can't find words. And
then we have to come with our moanings and our groanings. Lord,
says David, all my desire is before thee, are my groanings.
My groaning, he says, is not hid from them. And isn't that
the very prayer at which the Holy Spirit himself is at the
root of? Romans 8.26 The Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what to pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for
us, says Paul, with groaning. that can not be uttered, and
he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the souls according to the
will of God, or the Blessed Spirit, and he makes intercession, and
it's all in accordance with the will of God, and that's real,
that's right prayer, that accords with God's will, that's real
prayer, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. It's that spirit of submission
then, when we come with those groanings. There is to be then
this self-examination, there's a call that we should look to
ourselves and examine ourselves. There's a call to prayer, a call
to seek God. And then thirdly here, Is there
not a call to be sincere, or for sincerity? Verse 41. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in the heavens. It's not just lifting up our
hands, it's lifting up our heart also. What is the lifting up
of the hands? We might say that's bodily exercise.
Bodily exercise probably does little. Not enough to have the
external, the outward. We want something inward. We
want something that's true, that's real. Remember how God rebukes
those formalists in Israel, back in the 29th chapter of Isaiah verse 13 the Lord said for as
much as his people draw near me with their mouth and with
their lips to honour me but have removed their hearts far from
me and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men
therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work among
his people even a marvellous work and a wonder For the wisdom
of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their
prudent men shall be healed. Woe unto them! All they have is the external,
the outward show they address God. But their hearts are not
in their prayers. It's just a formal worship. There is a place, friends, for
sincerity, the importance of it, to be wholehearted. What
is the promise that God gives in Jeremiah 29? You shall seek
me and find me when you shall search after me with all your
heart, he says. With all your heart. And we see
it time and again in the scriptures, Isaiah. 26 he says, with my spirit
within me will I seek the earner. How emphatic the language is,
with my spirit within me. And that early seeking. Let us lift up our hearts with
our hands to be Israelites indeed, the true Israel of God. It was
at Peniel of course, at Jacob, where the angel wrestled with
him, and he would not let the angel go except he blessed him.
It was there that Jacob became Israel, the prince with God. He prevailed and ought to be
the true Israel of God. Nathanael, as the Lord says of
that dear man, the end of John chapter 2, an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no guile. To be those who guilelessly in
our seeking after God, in our desire towards it. Yes, we're
to look to ourselves, to examine ourselves. This is what we should
seek to discern in ourselves. Are we those who are true? Or
is our life just pretense? Are we those who do desire to
be really calling upon God? We want to have those evidences
that we're the living people of the living God. As Icaius
says, the living, the living, he shall praise them as I do
this day. Or that we might be those friends
who can identify them with the prophet. That we might be living
men and living women. I want to go on, if the Lord
will tonight, to consider something more of this man's confidence.
We've said much really with regards to his complaint, the cause of
it, the consequence of it, but the Lord willing we'll consider
something more of his blessed confidence in the evening hour.
The Lord bless to us his word.