Turn with me in your Bibles to
Lamentations chapter 1. Lamentations chapter 1. And our text will be found in
verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all you,
that pass by? And that's the title of the message
this morning. Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing
to you? Now, this book of Lamentations
was written by the prophet Jeremiah after the nation of Judah had
been destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. The prophet Jeremiah
was sent by the Lord God of heaven to preach repentance to the nation
of Israel, to the nation of Judah. This man was sent to preach,
repent and turn to God from your idols. And yet we know that the
nation of Judah did not repent. They did not turn. And God says,
if you will not repent, if you will not return unto Me and worship
Me and forsake the idols of the land of the heathen, He said,
I will come and destroy you. And so now, here it is. They
would not repent. They did not repent after many
years of Jeremiah preaching to them, repent, repent, repent. And they said, no, we will not. And so God here has brought swift
justice, swift righteous judgment upon this nation. And they are
now laying in ruins this great city. Friends, this city was
not like any other city on the face of God's earth. God Himself
came and dwelt in the midst of this city, in the midst of His
temple. And they neglected the worship
of the only true and living God. No other nation in all the world
had the Word of God but this one nation. And they forsook
the Word of God, they forsook the worship of God for false
idols. And now God has brought them
into captivity. And here it is, Jeremiah sitting
in the heap of ashes in the middle of this beautiful city that was
once flowing with people, once prosperous nation. He sits there
now and he says, the people are gone. Where are the people? The city is destroyed. And I
can imagine his affliction. You see, he was as their pastor
for many years. And he loved them. And they would not repent. And
now the destruction of God has come and here's the prophet weeping.
That's what this whole book is about. It is a book of lamentation. concerning the wrath of God for
the nation of Judah. But I tell you this, as I look
at this passage of Scripture, I see something greater than
just a historical fact. I see something greater than
just a prophet weeping for a nation. But rather, I see in this passage
of Scripture none other than the Lord Jesus Christ and His
church. You see, as all of the Old Testament,
Jesus taught His disciples when He was risen, the Scripture says
He began at Moses and all the prophets to expound unto them
all things concerning what? concerning Himself. These things
are about Christ. So when you go and read the Old
Testament, people tell me, oh, the Old Testament, I don't understand
it. I don't understand it. If you don't understand it, it's
because you're not finding Christ in it. I encourage you, every
passage of Scripture you read in the Old Testament, you should
run as fast as you can to Jesus Christ, because that's who God's
talking about. This is who God is speaking of.
He's not just speaking of a historical fact that happened. He's not
just pouring out poetry. My friend, He is speaking to
us of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I encourage you to read the Old
Testament in this fashion. Now in this text, the nation
of Judah is a picture and a type of the church It's a picture
and a type of every believer in Christ. And I'll tell you,
as I read this passage of Scripture to you this morning, if you would
testify that everything that is spoken about the nation of
Judah in this text, every believer identifies with that text. They
know what it is to be desolate, to be empty, to be vile, to be
wicked. We know what that is. Why? Because we know our own nature,
don't we? We know that this is speaking of us. When God created
Adam, He created Adam perfect and holy and righteous and upright. The Scripture says that this
place was full of people. that this place was the greatest
nation on the face of the earth. My friends, when we look at Adam
in his perfection, we see the very pinnacle of God's creation. Adam was the prince among men,
my friends. I'll tell you this, other than
Jesus Christ, He is the best of us in His holy nature. When He was holy, He was the
best that man could ever attain. He was perfect in every way,
a prince of men, holy and upright. And as the city was full of people,
so was Adam full of righteousness. He was full of righteousness.
Yet when he rebelled against God, what happened? He lost all his righteousness. So you read that first verse
and you say, oh, how does the city sit solitary or empty? Friends, we all by nature are
empty of righteousness. And as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes
9, he said men are full of evil. Full of evil. This is us by nature. We rebelled
against God and so every child of Adam is fully and spiritually
dead at birth. And if you are without Christ
this morning, these things will not resonate with you unless
the Spirit of God gives you life because you are spiritually dead.
And you cannot understand these things. These things are of no
value to you because you are dead. Because you are dead. Romans 5 tells us this. Flip over to Romans 5. Every
one of you know this. I don't want to misquote it. Romans 5. And verse 12. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12,
"...Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned."
You see, Adam was full of life. as long as he obeyed the command
of God. As long as God told him, Thou
shalt eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat. In the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And Adam died when he ate that
fruit, and when he did, all of us died as well, spiritually. And just as the Scripture says
concerning the friends of Judah in this text, He said, where
are the friends of Judah? You see, the law was a friend.
The commandment of God was a friend to Adam until he disobeyed. And then what? The law was against
him. The law that was once for him
is now turned against us because we have sinned against the law
of God. We have disobeyed God in every way. And the law had dealt treacherously
with us, hasn't it? It has. It spiritually condemns
us. You see, when Jesus Christ was
talking to Nicodemus, He said, I came not to condemn the world.
Why? It's already condemned. When you breathe your first breath,
you are already under the condemnation of God. And the feast of fellowship that
he once enjoyed has turned now to the captivity and enmity against
God. Scripture says that the natural
man receiveth not the things of God, and neither is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can he be. You can't be subject
to the law of God by nature. You're at enmity against God,
and you've lost your fellowship. Yet because God in great mercy
and love for His elect We see a verse of hope. I see a verse
of hope in this chapter. And up until this point, I saw
no hope. If you read this chapter up until this verse, you will
see no hope. You will see nothing but desolation
of Judah, which is the desolation of the natural man. But in verse
12, we see hope. We see hope. And here's the hope. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me." Friends, I want you to understand
that the voice of the prophet is also the voice of the Son
of God. When you read this passage, you
must read this concerning Jesus Christ. This is the gospel message of
hope for sinners. This is the message of the cross
of Jesus Christ. This morning as I preach to you
this message of the cross. The message of suffering. Isn't
that what he's talking about? He says, have you seen, behold,
and see if there be any sorrow. He is talking about the sorrow
of the cross. The sorrow of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as I preach to you this morning,
pay attention to me very carefully, because as I preach the cross
to you this morning, every one of you will pass by the cross. Every time the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ is preached, the cross of Christ is set before
you, the crucified one is set before you, and you will pass
by Him this morning. You will. When you hear my words,
you will hear the words of God this morning, and you will pass
by the cross. And as you pass by, will you think nothing? Is it
nothing to you as you pass by? Or is it everything to you? You
see, I don't know this morning what it will be to you. I know
what it is to me. As I pass by and study, I've
seen this. And I hope that it will be a
blessing to you as it was to me, and I hope to make it clear
this morning. Hear the question of the Savior, is it nothing
to you? What does the cross mean to you?
And I'm not talking about some little wooden piece of wood that
the Lord Jesus Christ hung on. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about those little idols you wear around your neck.
I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about a cross
you see in front of some church building. What I am talking about
is the death and the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I mean by a cross. I want you to understand that
I mean the cross of His suffering. Paul says this. concerning the
cross. He said, I desire not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so when I preach to you Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, you are passing by the cross this
morning. You are passing by the cross. And as you pass by, the
Savior will say, is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to you? I want us to pass by the cross,
and as we pass by this morning, as you and your mind's eye pass
by the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ by hearing the gospel,
I want us to see three things as you pass by. And these things
you should always take notice of when you pass by. First of
all, I want us to notice the person of the cross. I want us
then to notice the purpose of the cross. And lastly, I want
us to know the people of the cross. First of all, the person
of the cross. In our text it says, Behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow that is done
unto me. Who is this that's speaking? Now friends, I know that Jeremiah
suffered greatly. I know that he was greatly afflicted
by what he was seeing and what he had felt concerning his nation
being destroyed. I know he greatly suffered. But
my friends, is His suffering even worthy to be compared to
the suffering of Christ? No. No man has suffered like
Christ. No man has suffered like Christ.
In chapter 3, He said, I am the man that has seen affliction. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only man that has ever lived and endured the very wrath of
God. He is the only one that has ever
really suffered. The Scripture calls Him a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He is the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Now, no doubt when Jeremiah suffered,
he did suffer, but not as he suffered, not as Christ suffered.
He is the man of sorrows. And there he is. Take notice of him. Look in your mind's eye to see
the man on the cross who is writhing in anguish and pain. Who is he? Who is he? If you miss this,
you miss everything. If you don't know who he is,
it's not going to matter why he suffered. If you don't know
who he is. Friends, this man who was mocked,
this man who was beaten, this man who was spit upon, this man
who was crucified, is none other than God manifest
in the flesh. I'll tell you, there were many
that passed by that afternoon on the cross. There were many
that passed by. And in Matthew 27, when they
passed by Him, the Scripture says they mocked Him and said,
if thou be the Son of God. You see, they missed who He was. And if they missed who He was,
then they're definitely going to miss why He's there. They said, if thou be the Son
of God. Jesus said, I am the Son of God. And they crucified Him because
He said the truth. Because He told them who He was.
They crucified Him. They said He was a blasphemer.
And they hung Him on the cross. But friends, this was not just
any man they hung on the cross. This was God. manifest in the
flesh. And you get that from 1 Timothy
3, verse 16. Without controversy. In other
words, there's no debate in this, Paul says, and I'm not going
to even try to debate this with you. I don't care to. Without
controversy. Without argument. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The One that was crucified, mocked
and rejected was the same One that created everything. The
same Person that gave them breath and strength to drive the nails
in the cross was the One being crucified. They could not even
mock Him without the breath that He had given them. This was God
who created all things. John says this in John chapter
1. It says, "...in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The same was in the beginning with God. And not anything was
made that was made without Him. He made all things. Friends, God the Son came. And I want you to understand,
he who is the second person of the Trinity, united himself with
the nature of man. He became a man. And he was so
much a man that he was not God. Or he was so much God that he
is not man. He is the God-man. He is man
and he is God. United together in one person. God united himself with the human
body and walked among men as a man. Now friends, most of us
sometimes have trouble crossing the street for someone that we
like. God Himself came down and took
upon Himself our frail human body and walked among us doing good. That's what Peter says in Acts
chapter 10. He walked about doing good, healing all that were oppressed
of the devil. My friend, He did nothing but
good, and He by His healing proved His deity over and over and over
again. He proved Himself. And yet men
still reject Him. If thou be the Son of God, do
this. If thou be the Son of God, do
that. My friends, He has proven to
you enough who He is. He is the Son of God. He declared
the gospel of God to men. And what did they do to the Son
of God? They crucified Him. And don't
be all high and mighty as saying, Oh, well, if I was there, I wouldn't
have done that to Him. Liar! Liar! We would have all
been hammering the nails in His hands. We would have all been
chanting, crucify Him, crucify Him. That's what we would have
done. Son of God came and men put Him on a cross and said, away with Him. We will
not have this man to rule over us. And I'll tell you this, so is
it with all who pass by this morning and do not see the Son
of God. If you pass by the cross this
morning and do not see the Son of God, you pass by and your
guilt is just as much guilt as these that passed by that day
and said, if I'll be the Son of God, come down. Your guilt is the same and you
think nothing of Him. But I pray that God, by His grace,
would open our eyes to see that it was God Himself that came
down and suffered, that it was God that walked among men, that
it was God declaring unto men His gospel of peace, that it
was the God-Man who suffered and died. I'll tell you this, if God the
Holy Spirit would move on you as you pass by the cross to see
Him, You'll say, like that Roman centurion, he says he feared
and said, truly, this was the Son of God. Truly, this was the
Son of God. Friends, if you pass by and think
nothing of the death of the Son of God, then know this, you will
be judged according to the gospel you hear this morning. God will
judge you by my gospel. And if you pass by without believing
on the Son of God this morning, then, my friends, you have spit
in the face of God's Son. And He will demand justice for
your rejection of Him. You will find yourself in the
same place as those who nailed Him to the cross. You will find
yourself in the same place right next to Pilate ever remembering that He sent
a just man to His death. Second of all, as you pass by
the cross this morning, I want you to see the purpose of the
cross. Why did the Son of God come and die such an ignominious
death as the cross? Such a humiliating death as the
cross. Why would He do it? What was
the purpose of this cross? What's the meaning of this cross? I tell you that the purpose of
the cross was to save God's elect people. This is why God sent
His Son to die on such a horrible death as this. Because He would
save His people. The purpose of the cross is rooted
in eternity. It's rooted in the eternity of
God's love and election for His people. It's rooted there. You will find that this cross
was intended from before the foundation of the world. The
Scripture says that Christ was slain as a lamb slain. When? From before the foundation
of the world. You see, God purposed the death
of His Son even before there was ever sin. God purposed this
for the saving of His elect people. You see, God had set His mercy
and love upon them. But I'll tell you this, election
and the love of God never saved anyone. Did you know that? The mercy, the love and election
of God never saved anyone without the blood of Jesus Christ. He purposed His election. He
purposed salvation only by this one means, the blood of His precious
Holy Son. This is how He could save us.
You see, sin. Because of sin, man was separated
from God. He was like Jerusalem. He was
captive to his sin. And this is why men will not
come. I tell you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. You will have eternal life. God
saves by grace. He doesn't save by anything you
do or anything you can do. Come to Christ empty and He'll
send you away with eternal life. And men go, Oh, I don't believe that. That's
too good to be true. Why? Why wouldn't men believe
that? Because they cannot believe that.
Because they cannot come to God. And they will not come to God.
Because of sin, they're separated. They have spiritual death and
have lost their ability to come to God. And even if they come
to God, even if they come to God in their own righteousness,
God could not accept them. You see, God will not have mercy
at the expense of His justice. We do it all the time. We do
it all the time, right? You offend me, I forgive you.
Why? Because I probably offended you
twice as much as you offended me. I'm just as wicked as you
are. I'm just as unjust as you are. But God's not like that. God
cannot accept us, even though He loved us, without taking care
of our sin and satisfying His justice. God's justice must be
satisfied. And the way, the purpose of God
in the cross was to satisfy His justice. So when I pass by the
cross, you know what I see? I see the justice of God. I see
the justice of God. Our text says that the Lord hath
afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. And this was not because of His
sin. I told you he was the son of
God. He had no sin of his own. Why was he to endure the wrath
of God? Because my sin. Because of my guilt. Because of all of the guilt of
all of His elect people, God imputed our sins to His own Son. And when God saw my sin on His
Son, His justice immediately exacted a righteous judgment. He poured out His wrath on His
own Son because my sins were charged to Christ. Go to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Beginning in verse 19. I want
us to see the context of this verse. These verses. The Scripture
says in verse 19 of 2 Corinthians 5, to wit, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself. Here's the context right here,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. Wait a second, Pastor,
you said that God was just. He is. Then how in the world
could He not impute my trespasses to me that were mine? You see,
I sinned. Do I not deserve what I get?
Do I not deserve His justice? How could He not impute my sins
to me? They were mine. But the Scripture
says not imputing sins unto us. Where did they go? Where did
they go? Verse 21, "...for He hath made
Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him." That's where they went. They
went to Christ! My sins were imputed to Christ! The Scripture speaks of imputed
righteousness. And I want us to understand this.
Scripture says that Abraham believed God and it was counted. It was
imputed to him for righteousness. It was put to his charge. When we come to faith in Christ,
His righteousness is imputed unto us. And it's mine. It's my righteousness. That righteousness
is mine. But friends, as I walk in this
life, I don't experience righteousness in my walk, do you? All I experience is sin. But
yet God says it's my righteousness. You know what? I don't see it,
I believe it. I believe what God says. I have
the righteousness of God by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
It's imputed to me. In that same way, our sins were
imputed to Christ. They were not His, but they became
His. Not in His walk, not in His talk,
even on the cross, what was He saying? My God, my God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me? You see, He was righteous, and
yet they were imputed to Him and they became His. So much
so that He says, My transgression. My sin. I tell you this, I can't wrap
my mind around it, but I know this. My sins were imputed to
Christ. And His righteousness is imputed
to me. That's not a fair trade, but
that's a good trade. That's not fair, but that's good. That's
good. And when I pass by the cross,
I see my sins on my Savior. I see Him writhing in anguish
and pain because of my sins. Because of my iniquities. And as we go back to our text,
as we read in our text, it says this in verse 13, from above. hath He sent fire into my bones,
and it prevaileth against them. He hath spread a net for my feet."
What's that net? It was my sins that created that
net that God has spread for His feet. And He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and
faint all the day. The yoke of my transgression..."
See, there it is. He's owning it as His own. Is it nothing to you? You that pass by, is it nothing
to you that the Son of God took your sins On himself? Does that mean nothing? Not important? To all that believe on Him, they
have His righteousness imputed to Him because He took our sins. He suffered, not just physically. My friends, he tread the winepress
of the wrath of God all by himself, without any help from me. And as his humanity was crushed,
his deity upheld him under the wrath of God. He took my sins and was forsaken
of God. He was smitten and afflicted
because of the sins of His people. He was wounded for our transgressions,
the Scripture says. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And praise God, by His stripes
we are healed. By His stripes we are healed.
He alone satisfied the justice of God. And when you pass by
the cross, do you not see the justice of God poured out for
your sins? I do. I do. You know what I also see? I also
see the love of God when I pass by the cross. When I see Christ and how He
has come down from heaven to be mocked of His own creation,
He did it willingly. He wasn't forced to do this.
He could have any moment stopped this crucifixion and been rightly
just to do so. Yet the Scripture says, He hath
opened my ear, and I did not rebel against Him. God made Him
a servant, and He said, I did not rebel against Him. I gave
my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked out
the hairs. You see, He willingly gave Himself,
and friends, because of these things, He is successful. When I pass by the cross, I don't
see defeat. I see victory. What do you see? Most modern religion sees some
pathetic, weak, effeminate man on a cross that died to save
everybody and save no one. I don't see that at all. Do you?
Oh no, my Savior cried at His death. It says He cried with
a loud voice. He still had His strength. He
still had all His strength. And He was victorious. You see,
when I pass by the cross, I know this, that my Savior's blood
was not shed in vain. But everyone whom He died for
will come to faith in Jesus Christ. I know that. I know that. He is victorious. And any other
Savior that is not victorious is not a Savior at all. I don't
want anything to do with that Savior. I don't want anything
to do with the Jesus that died for everybody and saved nobody.
See, when I pass by the cross, I see victory. I see my Savior
victoriously triumphing over my sin. Praise God for that. When I see He died, He died on
the cross for all my sin and accomplished salvation. Oh, what wondrous love is this!
Oh, my soul! Oh, my soul! What wondrous love
is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful
curse for my soul. What wondrous love He had for
me to die on the cross for my sins. O sinner, pass by and see
the Son of God has come in purpose to take away sin of His people. He is purposed to take away the
sin of all who believe on Him. And He has set us free from shame
of standing before God. I'll stand before God, my friends,
and I'll stand before God in His own righteousness. I'll stand before God clean.
How will you stand before God? If you're in Christ, you'll stand
just like me. We'll stand together clean and pure, made pure by
the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. Can you see these things as you
pass by? I hope so. And lastly, I want
to see the people of the cross. The people of the cross. Go to
Luke chapter 23. When I read this, I was very
much enlightened concerning this passage. I thought it was wonderful.
I read all through the accounts of the crucifixion, and I got
to this one in Luke, and this was something very interesting. If you look in Luke chapter 23,
verse 48, Luke chapter 23 and verse 48.
And this is after everything has happened. Lord Jesus Christ
has died. And everybody had witnessed it.
Everybody witnessed the darkness. Everybody witnessed Him crying
unto God. Everybody witnessed commending
His Spirit unto God. And the earthquake. And they
witnessed the veil in the temple being rent entwined. And now
then everything's settled. And there He is. He's dead. He's hanging on a
cross. And this verse comes in and says,
"...and all the people that came together to the site, beholding
the things which were done, smote their breasts and returned. And all his acquaintances and
the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off, beholding
these things." Right here we have two people. You have the people of sin, the
lost people of this world, lost religious folks of this world,
and you have the people of the cross. The first set of people,
what did they do? They sat and they beheld these
things, they smote their breasts and they went home. Some of you this morning will
pass by the cross and you may feel a twinge of guilt. You may
feel a little remorse. You may feel sad. I don't know
what you're going to feel. You may smite your breath and
say, Oh, I'm worthless. I need salvation. And you walk
out the door and you return home back to the same way you lived
before. No change. You see, they saw all of this
and they went home. But what did his acquaintances
do? And all His acquaintances and the women stood afar off
beholding these things. While everybody else went home,
they stayed there beholding. They behold the cross. Friends, those who have been
saved by the cross, always behold the cross. You see, to a believer in Jesus
Christ, the cross is not part of our religion. The cross is
not just a piece of the puzzle. Friends, the cross to us is the
anchor for our souls. The blood of Jesus Christ is
all our hope. And therefore, we always long
to hear the message of the blood. A gospel message that is not
centered and anchored in the death and blood of Christ is
not a gospel message and God's people won't hear it. I don't
want anything to do with the message that does not and is
not centered in the blood of Jesus Christ. I don't want anything
to do with it. The blood of the cross. is my
only foundation. The death of my Savior, redemption
hath wrought." As you pass by this morning, is it nothing to you? Or is it everything to you? There's no middle ground here. Christ will be everything or
He will be nothing. He will be your Savior or He
will be your Judge. Is it nothing to you the Son
of God was crucified for sin and was buried and rose again
the third day? I pray that God by His grace
would open our hearts this morning and maybe someone here that doesn't
know Christ would see what I see. Love Him like I love Him. To
honor Him. Serve Him. With everything in
us. I pray that God blesses to our
hearts. Men come forward for the Lord's table please.