Lamentations 3. That'll be our
text this morning. So turn with me, if you would,
to that passage, Lamentations 3. Lamentations is a little book
in the Old Testament that follows the book of Jeremiah. Lamentations
3. My subject this morning is the
believer's hope. That's a good word, hope. or
we could call it the hope of eternal life. They are one in
the same. The believer's hope is a hope
of eternal life. The Hebrew word for hope is pronounced
Tukalith and it means expectation. Our English definition defines
hope as a feeling of expectation and a desire for a certain thing
to happen. Another definition for hope is
defined as the grounds for believing that something good may happen.
I like that. I like for good things to happen.
It's a feeling of trust. And some of the synonyms for
hope are longing and craving and hankering. I thought that
was a Southern word, but turns out that it's not. Hankering,
anticipation, yearning, eagerness, So I think a very good question
for each of us to ask ourselves this morning would be, what is
my hope? What is my hope? Or maybe even
more correctly asked, who is my hope? In Ephesians chapter
two, verse 12, Paul speaks about a time when every believer was
without Christ. He said, being aliens from the
Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in this world. See, to be without
God is to have no hope. And I read about some in the
Bible even called disciples that went back and turned away and
walked no more with the Lord Jesus. I read about Judas, a
dear friend of the Lord for three and a half years, walked with
him, talked with him, lived with him, who sold out the Lord Jesus
for 30 pieces of silver. I read about a man named Demas
who forsook the preaching of the gospel with the Apostle Paul
because he loved this present evil world more. I read about
two men, one called Hymenaeus and Alexander, who made a shipwreck,
Paul said, of their faith, who Paul said he delivered to Satan,
that they might learn not to blaspheme. I read about a professing
believer named Simon Magus, whose heart was not right with God. John talks about those whom he
said, they were not of us. They went out from us. And over
the years, I have myself seen many who have lost interest in
Christ and in his word. I've seen many leave and depart
from the gospel. And that's so alarming to me.
For where else can any go? Christ alone has the words to
eternal life. but the scriptures warn us to
take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. The apostle Paul is just
relentless in encouraging believers to examine themselves, whether
they be in the faith and to prove their own selves not to be reprobates. Paul even had a great concern
for himself. You see, preachers, are not exempt
from guarding their own faith and making their own election
sure. Just men. Paul wrote with great
concern that when he had preached to others, that he himself should
wind up being a castaway. That's very alarming to me. I
don't want to have preached to others and myself be lost. So
what is my hope in this life? What is my expectation? What
is my desire? What do I long for? Well, I certainly
long for forgiveness and pardon. I definitely aspire that all
my sin be put away. I want remission for my sin. I want exoneration and acquittal
for all my offenses against God and His law. I most definitely
long for eternal life. I hope and desire to forever
be face-to-face with Christ my Savior. Don't you? Sure you do. And I hanker. I hanker forever
to be with the One who loved me and gave Himself for me. And I have a good hope through
His grace and His mercy. Do you have a good hope? Do you
have the hope of eternal life? Do you have the hope of forgiveness
of sin? Brother Mahan used to say that
a believer's hope is somewhere between proud presumption and
deadly despair. Proud religious presumption says
things like, me and Jesus, we got a good thing going. Proud
presumption, religious presumption says, I know I'm saved and if
anybody makes it to heaven, I will. Then on the other side, deadly
despair speaks this way. Well, I don't know if I'm saved
or not. We'll have to wait until the
smoke clears and the dust settles to find out if I'll end up in
heaven or not. But I have made my decision and
I have cast my vote. But the believer's hope is found
somewhere in the middle between presumption and despair. The
hope of the child of God is not assuming, not prideful, not self-righteous,
nor being overconfident in themselves. The true child of God is not
timid, not unsure and wavering. They're confident, but their
confidence is in Christ and what Christ has done for them, not
what they do for God. Speaking of the believing child
of God, one old believer said it this way, God has hedged in
his people on one side with precious promises and godly assurance
so that they don't despair having great hope. And then God on the
other side has hedged in his elect with warnings and caution
so that believers do not presumptuously assume that they're saved apart
from believing and trusting in Christ. God's people are neither
hopeless nor expectant. They know that salvation is of
the Lord, and it's at the Lord's discretion. What comfort to know
that. They know that there's one way
to be saved, that there's only one mediator between God and
men, that there's only one substitute and one sacrifice for sin, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. They travel down that narrow
and straight path that leads to life, and they're careful
not to stray to one side or the other. Christ is the way. Christ is the truth. Christ is
the life. And it's in and by and through
Him that a man comes to God. That's what the Lord Jesus said.
The only way is but by Me. So, as a believing child of God,
what is my hope? Christ is my hope. What is my
aim? To trust in Him alone. Who is
my hope of forgiveness? Christ alone is. What is my expectancy
for forgiveness? That He put my sin away. I have
confidence in His ability, not mine. I put my faith in His faithfulness,
not mine. Who is my hope of eternal life?
Christ is. What is my anticipation of having
eternal life? That He Himself, God in the flesh,
died the just for the unjust to bring me to God. And if you
trust in Christ, it's the same of you. Now, does a believer,
does a chosen child of God have hope that others don't? You better
believe they do. Now in our text here in Lamentations
chapter three, Jeremiah sounds a beautiful note of the gospel. He remembers that time when he
was without hope and without God in this world. In verse 18,
he said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Now
let me sincerely ask you, have you ever been there? Have you
ever been without strength and without hope? You know, that's
the starting place for grace. A man or a woman will never have
a need of grace, never have a need of Christ until they see that
they have no strength or hope. That's just a fact. In verse
19, Jeremiah said, remembering mine affliction and my misery,
the wormwood and the gall. You see, when I remember the
affliction of my sin, when I remember the misery that sin caused me,
it brings me great humiliation. The wormwood and the gall here
is just a figurative expression of Jeremiah's bitter and grievous
afflictions. And verse 20, Jeremiah continues,
and he says, my soul hath them, speaking of his affliction and
misery, he said, my soul still has them in remembrance, still
in remembrance, and is humbled in me. It's the remembrance of
our affliction and our misery of sin that brings the child
of God great humiliation. God doesn't help those who help
themselves. God helps those who cannot help
themselves. God helps those who are afflicted
and in misery and need help. You might ask, well, what good
does it do to remember our sins, misery, and afflictions? What
Jeremiah tells us here in the very next verse, look at verse
21. He says, this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. Like David, our sins are ever
before us. My soul has these things still
in remembrance. And oh, how humbled I am by them. I'm reminded that I have no power,
I have no ability, that I am absolutely helpless when it comes
to helping myself. David said, it's good for me
that I've been afflicted, for it's in our affliction that we
learn God's statutes. It's in our affliction, it's
in our misery that we learn God's statutes. And that word means
appointments. In our affliction, we learn the
appointments of God's grace and God's mercy for our misery. So in that sense, it's a good
thing. It's good for me. It's that which
gives me hope. My helplessness gives me hope
because that's who God helps. The helpless and the hopeless.
It was this affliction and misery that Jeremiah called to mind
that gave him hope. Now there are four things here
that the prophet calls to mind and four things that gave him
great hope. I pray that God will cause them
to do the same for us. I want you to leave here this
morning with hope, a great hope, a hope of eternal life, a hope
of eternal salvation. Let's look at them together.
The first thing is found in verse 22. It's the Lord's mercies and
compassions. Look at it. It's of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail
not. Oh, I could just camp out right
there for a while. That's speaking of eternal life.
That's speaking of life everlasting. Jeremiah says we're not consumed
because of the Lord's mercies. And friends, that's the only
reason we're not. You see, we're guilty. God's law pronounces
us guilty. And the soul that sins, it shall
die. How many times have you heard me tell you? The wages
of sin is death. We're not going to escape God's
law in and of ourselves. But it's the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. It's the Lord's mercies that
God's wrath and judgment don't fall upon us and forever send
us to hell. We're not consumed because of
the Lord's compassions for us. The Lord's mercies to us never
fails. Now pretty much everything I
do fails, but not him. Jeremiah's hope of eternal life
was not based on his merit, but on God's mercy. Jeremiah's hope
of eternal redemption was not based on his love for God, but
on God's love and compassion to him. And isn't that what John
said? He said it pretty plainly and
pretty straightforwardly. He said, we love him because
he first loved us. His compassions fail not. His love never fails. Our hope of salvation is not
based on morality, our morality, but it's based on God's mercy.
And Jeremiah said, when I call this to mind, I have hope. It's the Lord's mercies and the
Lord's compassions that give me this hope. Hope of forgiveness,
hope of pardon, hope of life eternal, hope of heaven's glory,
hope of being forever with Christ. And there's no hope in my merit. There's no hope in my works,
but there's a sure hope in God's mercy. That's what Paul said. He said, which hope we have as
an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil. In Psalm 51, David said the same
thing that Jeremiah is saying here. David said, have mercy
upon me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness, not according
to my works or my love for you, but according to your love for
me, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, those
mercies that don't fail. He said, blot out my transgressions. And if he doesn't, they won't
get blotted out. Oh, that's sinful. Wretched public, and I can see
him there in the back of the temple. The Pharisees up front
making a big show. Lord, I thank you, I'm not like
other men. I do this and I do that, and
me and Jesus got a good thing going. The publican wouldn't
even raise his eyes unto heaven, but looked down and he beat on
his chest as to say, Lord, take this stony heart, be merciful
to me, the sinner. That's the source of our hope,
friends. knowing who and what we are. And when I recall to
mind what I am, I have hope. You know why? Because Christ
came into the world to save sinners. And a sinner being what I am
makes salvation something that I actually qualify for. You know,
in this life, I don't qualify for much, but being a great sinner,
I qualify for God's grace. And so do you. I'm calling to
mind God's mercies. God delights to show mercy. God
is plenteous in mercy. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet what? Sinners. Christ died for
us. Christ didn't die for good people.
Christ didn't die for moral people. Christ didn't die for righteous
people. Christ died for sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. This I recall in my mind, therefore
have I hope. It's the Lord's mercies that
I'm not consumed. The mercy and compassion that
God has for chosen sinners, it never ends and it never fails. And that brings me to the second
thing that gives the child of God great hope. Are you interested? It's the Lord's faithfulness.
Look at verse 23. They are new every morning, His
mercies, His compassions, new every morning. And then He says,
great is thy faithfulness. God's love and mercy and grace
is everlasting. His love, mercy and grace, Last
forever. That's what that means. You know,
I'm not too smart, but I figured that out. If he ever loved me,
he loves me still. Whom he loves now, he always
loved. And he will always love. His
love is new every morning. You know, no matter how often
I fail him, and I fail him, oh, thousands of times a day, no
matter how much I disappoint him, and I can assure you it's
a lot, no matter how many times I fall, and it's a bunch, his
love is new every morning. Great is his faithfulness, not
mine. His. And if our redemption was
based on our faithfulness, we'd have a very good reason to fear
and be full of doubt. But we don't because it's God
that's faithful. Great is His faithfulness. Great
is my unbelief. The great is his faithfulness.
Great is my unfaithfulness, but not his. He has no unfaithfulness. He's faithful. He's the Lord.
He changes not. Therefore, we the sons of Jacob
are not consumed. God is faithful to his purpose.
Whom God foreknew, God did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. Listen, God is faithful. Because
whom God did predestinate, He also called. And whom He called,
He also justified. And whom He justified, He also
glorified. You know what that means? God
is faithful. He's faithful to His purpose.
He's faithful to His Word. He's faithful to His promises.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, it
can be against us. He cannot fail, he cannot deny
himself. The foundation of God standeth
sure, have this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. God
is faithful to his son. Christ said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me and he that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. That's being faithful, he's faithful. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all that He hath given me, I will lose nothing."
Not a word. Now that's faithfulness. Beloved,
when I call this to mind, I have great hope. God is merciful and
compassionate to sinners. And God is faithful. God's not
a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent.
And that word repent means to change. God didn't change His
mind. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Hath he not spoken, and shall
he not make it good? We tell folks, you know, I'll
make that good. I'll make that good. Well, I
hope that we do, but sometimes we're not able to. But he is.
He's always able to make it good, because he's merciful and compassionate,
because he's faithful. Great is his faithfulness. And
then thirdly, I have great hope because the Lord is my portion. Now listen, you need to just
wrap yourself up in this. Verse 24, the Lord is my portion,
saith my soul. Therefore will I, what? Hope
in Him. The Lord is our life. The Lord
is our provider. That's what the word portion
means. The Lord is our nourishment. The Lord is our salvation. The
Lord is our inheritance. The word portion means allotment. The Lord Jesus Christ is my allotment. The word means smoothness of
the tongue. I've thought about that a lot.
The word actually means flattery. You think about that. God has
good things to say about me. because Christ is my portion. Is that not mercy? When God said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, let me tell
you something. He was talking about me too. He was talking
about you, child of God. God's tongue no longer pronounces
wrath, judgment, and condemnation against His elect. He speaks
mercy and He speaks compassion that never fails. He speaks smooth
things, smooth things of love that are new every morning. And
this I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. Salvation's not
a thing, salvation's a person. I wish folks could figure that
out. Salvation is an experience, but an experience is not salvation. And people talk about pardon,
but they don't know the God who pardons. Men today preach about
grace, grace here, grace there, but they don't preach the God
of grace. They preach what man does to earn and deserve and
to merit grace, but they don't preach God, the giver of grace
or Christ, the gift of grace. They tell you that sinners are
saved by grace through faith, but they tell you that they worked
it up and that they worked it out. They worked out the grace
and the faith. Not so. Salvation is the gift
of God, and it's not by works, lest any man should boast. You're
not going to be able to boast in your salvation because it's
of the Lord. The Lord is my portion. He's
the vine. We're the branches. Without Him,
we can do nothing. Christ is the head, we're the
body. Listen, He won't be in heaven and leave us behind. You
can't separate the head and the body and there still be life.
He said, I go prepare a place for you. He said, where I am,
you shall be also. Now that's good enough for me.
If it were not so, He said, I would have told you so. You see, the
Lord is merciful. The Lord is compassionate. The
Lord is faithful. And then fourthly, the Lord is
good. Look at verse 25. The Lord is
good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh
Him. The Lord is good to them that
wait on Him. The Lord is good to them that
seek Him. Why is that? Because those that
seek the Lord's mercy, those that seek the Lord's person,
they do so with a great need and would come full circle. Sin
seeks forgiveness. Guilt seeks grace. Misery seeks
mercy. We seek the Lord because we need
Him. Like blind Bartimaeus, we need
mercy. Isn't that what he said? Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me? That woman with the issue
of blood, 12 long years. I don't know how much money she
had. We're not told. I know how much she had after
she got done with the doctors. None. She spent all she had and
all she got in return was more pain, more suffering, more grief. But she said in her own mind,
in her heart, she said, if I can just get to him, if I can just
get, if I can just find him, if I can just touch the hem of
his garment, I'll be made whole. She was seeking him because she
needed him. Did you hear me? Do you need
him? I do too, brother. We seek Christ
and we come to Him because we need Him. Do you see your need
of Christ? A seeking sinner comes to Christ
out of need. Those that are well have no need
of a physician. But let me tell you, those that
are sick, those that are dying of leprosy, those who are decaying
away in their sin, they need mercy. They need healing. Are
you willing to wait for the great physician? I always get a little
irritated when I got a 10 o'clock appointment at the doctor and
I don't get called back till 1030 and then they stick you
back in that little cold room and you sit there for another
15 or 20 minutes. Why not just make my appointment
at 11 and let's get her done? But Christ, our great physician,
oh, he's worth waiting for. He's a specialist above all others. He has the cure for sin. There
was no cure for leprosy in the Bible times. Yes, there was. Yes, there was. I take that back. The leper said, I know you can.
I know you can heal me, but will you? And he said, I will. And
immediately he was healed. Oh, there's a cure for leprosy.
And he has the cure. He has the words of life. I want
to do business with him. That's an appointment I'll wait
for. I want to hear him say, rise up and walk. I want to hear
him say, thy sins be forgiven me. Same thing, same thing. One who has a desperate need
will wait on the one who truly has the cure. A sick man or woman
will wait on the one who is the only source of mercy. There's
just one who has the mercy that you and I need. And you'll be
glad to wait on the only physician that can heal you. Look at verse
26. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. When
God reminded Jeremiah of his misery and his affliction, he
recalled the Lord's mercies, he recalled the Lord's compassions,
recalled the Lord's faithfulness to him, and it gave him great
hope. Let's recall those things for
ourselves. When Jeremiah recalled the Lord's
goodness to him, his word, his promises, his people, it gave
him hope like no other. And when Jeremiah was reminded
that the Lord was his portion, he committed his soul to him.
No sinner has ever perished knocking at the door of mercy. No sinner
has ever perished casting themselves at the feet of Christ. Not one,
not one. Now, let me finish by quickly
telling you two ways that you know if you have a good hope.
First, a good hope is a hope that can be explained. Peter
says, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh
you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
If someone asks you, are your sins forgiven? What's our answer?
Oh yes, yes. Let me tell you the reason of
my hope. Let me tell you how they're forgiven.
Christ died to put them away. If someone asks, do you believe
that you're one of the elect of God? Yes, I do. Let me tell
you why I have hope that I am. Do you believe that your name
is written in the Lamb's book of life? Absolutely. Let me tell
you why I have hope in that. We're ready to give an answer,
a reason for the hope that is in you. That's one way you'll
know. And secondly, the second reason is a good hope always
rests entirely on Christ. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Paul told Timothy, he said, I'm
an apostle of Jesus Christ, who is my hope. Paul said, oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then he said, I thank God
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's who can deliver me. That's
where deliverance from sin comes from, from Christ. This I recall
to mind, therefore have I hope." Well, where are you gonna get
the perfect righteousness that God requires? Only one place
to get it, Sharon. Perfect righteousness is the
only thing that can deliver me from this body of death. You
can only get it in Christ. This I recall to mind, therefore
I have hope. He has made unto us righteousness.
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. By His obedience,
many shall be made what? Righteous. We are made the righteousness
of God. Where? In Him. This I recall
to mind. Therefore, have I hope. Well,
are you feeling helpless and hopeless this morning? I know
where you can find help. I know where you can find great
hope. You can find it in the Lord's mercies. You can find
it in the Lord's compassions. You can find it in Christ, the
Lord's portion. You can find it in the Lord's
promises. And you can find it in the Lord's
person. That's where you find it. And
these things my soul, glory be to God, still has remembrance
of. And they continue to humble me.
These things I recall to mind. Therefore have I hope. May God
be pleased to continue to make it so, for Christ's sake.