Turn with me now to the book
of Lamentations, chapter three. Lamentations three, it's page
1026 in my Bible. Lamentations three. I have a
message that I'm very excited to bring to you tonight. I believe
it's going to be insightful. I believe it will be helpful
with our understanding of things. And I don't say that because
of me. I say that because of the word
that the spirit of the Lord has written right here. We are here tonight because we
read four verses from this chapter last Sunday morning and I kept
thinking about the fact that the next few verses are just
as good and just as comforting as the verses that we read. So
we're gonna look at them tonight. Here are the verses that we read
Sunday. Lamentations 3 verse 21 says, This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in
him. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. It is of the Lord's blood. It is of the Lord's substitution
with us. It's of the Lord's death for
us. It's because the Lord bore the
grief and carried the sorrows. It's because the Lord paid the
price. It's because the Lord suffered
the wrath. Mercy. This is what it took for
him to show mercy. That is why we are not consumed. It's because he was consumed
in our stead that we are not consumed. Verse 22 goes on to say, because his compassions fail
not. His compassions fail not. What good news that is. Hold
your place right here and go over to Psalm 78. Psalm 78, and this really is
amazing to me, verse 37. Psalm 78, verse 37. For their heart was not right
with him, neither were they steadfast in
his covenant, but he being full of compassion, forgave their
iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned he his
anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. That's amazing. Full of compassion. Look at Psalm
86. Verse 14, it says, O God, the
proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men
have sought after my soul and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a God full
of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. Gracious, long-suffering, plenteous
in mercy, truth. Who is he this way toward? Who
is he compassionate toward? Look at verse 16. Oh, turn unto
me and have mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant. Save the son of thine handmaid,
every one of his servants, every one of his sons, every soul in
Christ, all of his chosen people in Christ, all of the heavenly
father's children. That's who he is compassionate
towards. Look at Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verse 13. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his
days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place
thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children. His pity, his favor,
his mercy, his righteousness, his compassion toward his people. Our text said it starts over
brand new every single morning. Brand new compassion every single
morning. Go back to Lamentations 3. Now the next two verses will
be our text tonight. Verse 25, it says, the Lord is
good unto them that wait for him. to the soul that seeketh
him. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Now, I want to point out that
Lamentations 3 is speaking of Christ. These are the words of
Christ. Lamentations three comes alive
when you realize these are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse one, it says, and again,
if you hear Christ speaking, he said, I am the man that hath
seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He led me and brought
me into darkness but not into light. Surely against me is he
turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day. These are his words from the cross. Verse 12, he
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. Verse
15, he hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with
wormwood. Verse 19, remembering mine affliction
and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. This is the cross. Look at verse 27. It is good
for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Christ is the one
who bore the yoke. He said, take my yoke upon you. Verse 28, he sitteth alone. He by himself urged our sin. He sitteth alone and keepeth
silence because he hath borne it upon him. The Father is the
one who laid all of our iniquities on Christ. Verse 29, he put his
mouth in the dust, humbled. If so be, there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth him. That's Christ. He is filled full
with reproach. The Lord will not cast off forever,
but though he cause grief, though the father laid all this grief
on the son, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies. This is Christ speaking. Lamentations
three is Christ speaking, but this is also his people speaking. Verse one, we can say, I'm the
man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath in Christ. I suffered all of that in him,
with him on that cross. Verse 24, Christ said concerning
the father, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will
I hope in him. We say concerning Christ, the
Lord is my portion, saith my soul, I'll hope in him. We wait on Him. So verse 25 and
26, this is Christ speaking. He is the one who waited on the
Father. It's good that a man do this, and he did it. But because
of that, we wait on Him too. Because Christ did this and accomplished
this, we accomplish this in Him, and we wait on Him also. And this brings us to the heart
of the message. Now let me just Take a minute, all right? Let
me focus us on the heart of the message. I said all that because
this struck me, and I really pray and hope and believe this
is a real help to somebody. Verse 25 says, the Lord is good
unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Now,
sometimes like on Sunday morning, I get all fired up and I talk
too loud and I smack my hands and I scare people and stuff
like that. And tonight is not a high energy
night. But I am excited to tell you
this message. I'm very excited to tell you
this message. I believe it will make something clear that possibly
many adults have wondered about. And I know many young people
have wondered about. I have had you young people on
my mind my entire time of studying this. I really would like for
you young people to pay attention to this. And all of us, I'd like
for me to pay attention to this. This is something that I wondered
about. And it's something that I'm still
interested in having it clarified to me. This is something I want
to know about. And this is something that I
want all of us to know about. And the subject that I'm talking
about, what I'm getting to here is seeking the Lord. seeking the Lord. All right,
that's the title of this message. And that's what I pray the Lord
will give us some instruction on and some clarity on. Verse
25 says, the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the
soul that seeketh him. The Lord is good to the soul
that seeks him. What is it to seek the Lord? You young people and you adults,
you hear us stand up in the pulpit saying, seek the Lord. All right, if you think I'm talking
to you, I am. Talking to me, I'm talking to
you. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. You hear us stand
up here and say, Seek the Lord. We read in Isaiah 55 where it
says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. There's going to
come a day. Noah built an ark. He did. Noah get inside that
ark. He did. That door was left open
for seven days. And then after seven days, the
Lord shut the door and that's it. It did not matter who was
banging on that door. It was shut. Seek the Lord. I know the world seems great. I know life seems great. I know
that social media seems great. But all of that is going to end
that fast. And then it's going to be you
and God. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. We read in Jeremiah 29 where
the Lord said, You shall seek me and find me when you search
for me with all your heart. David said in Psalm 27, When
you said, Seek my face, my heart cried, Thy face, Lord, will I
seek? Seek. Seek. Become a seeker. Become a seeker. It is good for
a soul to seek. All right. What does that mean? What does that mean? How do we
do that? I want to point out that the
word of the Lord, who cannot lie, is so, this is so, it is
good for a man or a woman to seek the Lord. What does that mean? How do we
do that? How does a sinner seek the Lord? All right. How does a sinner
seek the Lord? I'm going to give us the answer
and then we'll talk about it for a minute. What is seeking
the Lord? Verse 26. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Verse 25 said, the Lord is good
unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Here
is what seeking the Lord is. It is to hope in him and to quietly
wait for his salvation. That's what it is. That's what
seeking the Lord truly is. If we are going to seek the Lord,
then we are going to hope in him. And we're going to quietly, patiently
wait for him. If we are going to seek his will
in the matter, we talk about, you know, well, we'll seek the
Lord's will in the matter. All right, how do you do that?
How do you seek his will? We hope in his will, and we quietly
wait for the evidence of his will. We're gonna quietly wait
for him to make his will known to us. That is seeking the Lord. Turn over to Exodus 14. Exodus 14, the children of Israel
here finally were allowed to leave Egypt. They were delivered
from the bondage of Egypt. And as soon as they left, as
soon as they started heading out into the wilderness, Pharaoh
changed his mind and sent his soldiers after them to kill them.
And they came up on the Red Sea and they were pinned against
the, here comes Egypt, and they're pinned up against the Red Sea,
and they started crying, what are we gonna do? What are we
gonna do? Verse 13, Exodus 14, verse 13,
and Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still, and
see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have
seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. The Lord
shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. You know what
Moses was saying to them right there? Hope and quietly wait
for the salvation of the Lord. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. What are we gonna do? We're gonna
seek the Lord. Turn over to Psalm 46. Psalm 46, this is the Lord our
God speaking. And in verse 10, he said, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Be still and know. Hope and quietly wait. That's what it is to seek the
Lord. It's to be still and know that
I'm a sinner. Be still and know that He is
the Savior of sinners. Be still and know that no man
or woman can come to Him except the Father draws him or her.
Be still and know that if He draws me, He will make me willing
to come to Christ in the day of His power. I wish I could really impart
this to you young people because this is something that I, you
know, I tell you all the time, the struggles that I had, hearing
about election, wondering if I believed in election, just
I didn't, I didn't know if I was one of the elect. I can't, I
believe a lot of young people who grew up under the gospel
have that problem. All right, let me start over.
All right, really listen to this. What is it to seek the Lord?
Be still and know that I'm a sinner. Be still and know that He is
the Savior of sinners. Be still and know that no man
can come to Him except the Father draws him or her. Be still and
know that if He draws me, He will make me willing to come
to Christ in the day of His power. What that means is I will want
to come to Christ. I will want to belong to Him. I will want to be one of His
people. Be still and know that if I have
a desire to come to Christ, the Father put that desire there. Does the Father do anything in
vain? No. Be still and know that if I do
come to Christ in my heart and bow to Christ and desire to belong
to Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ will in no wise cast me out. Oh, I want to be one of the elect.
I want to come to Christ. I want Him to die for me. I just
don't know If I'm allowed to come, I don't know if He'll let
me come. I don't know if you come and
He won't cast you out. Come in the blood of His sacrifice
and He won't cast you out. Seeking the Lord has everything
to do with confidence in Him. Everything to do. No confidence
in me, all confidence in Him. Look back at Lamentations 3. Verse 26, it is good that a man should
both hope, that word right there means expect. Expect. in the Lord. It's good that a man should expect
in the Lord. Well, I don't want to be presumptuous. Expecting on him and his ability,
not me and my ability or him accepting me. I don't expect
him to accept me. I expect that whoever he has
been pleased to save, he's going to save them. There's no ifs,
ands, or buts about it. He's gonna save his people from
their sins. I expect that. It's good for a man or a woman
to look to the Lord in expectation. Not just hoping that he'll do
what he said he'll do, but expecting he'll do what he said he would
do. I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you. It is good
for a man or a woman to say he won't. How can you be so sure? He won't. He won't leave us. He won't forsake
us. I've been young and now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken. He said, fear not. Don't be afraid. I'll strengthen you. I'll help
you. I'll comfort you. It's good for
a man or a woman to say he will. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. He shall strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say on the Lord, he'll do it. He's going to do it. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. It is good for a man or a woman
or a boy or a girl to say he shall. I can't, but he already has. Verse 26, it is good that a man
should both hope, expect, and quietly wait, patiently wait. Don't lift a finger to help yourself
or to help God. Do you want to seek the Lord?
I would like to seek the Lord. Okay, then here's what you do.
Don't lift a finger to help you or to help him. God does not help those who help
themselves. God helps those who can't help
themselves. God helps those who all they
can do is hope. expect, believe in him, on him. God helps those whose absolute
trust is in Christ. That's all they have is faith
in Christ. You know, all those years of
me trying to figure out if I was one of the elect, I guess I thought
I was gonna have this big boom, like this big moment, like this,
ah, you know, and that never came. All that happened was the
Spirit of God whispered to my heart, if you believe on Christ
as the only hope you have before the judgment throne of God, you're
one of his elect. Faith is not of yourself. That's
the gift of God. You can't accidentally believe
on Christ. Well, I believed on him, but
he didn't. It's not a possibility. He only
gives faith, total faith in Christ to his elect. And I, you know, for years, I
did. I worried about the fact that
what if he doesn't choose me? What if he doesn't choose me? That just haunted me. And if that's you, then if all you have is faith in Christ,
that's all any believer has. That's all any elect soul has,
is just hoping in Him and quietly waiting for Him, His salvation. There's nothing that any adult
believer can do to to help him, to improve anything. We're all in the same boat. We're
just beggars of mercy. We're just waiting at his mercy. So it's good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. That's
what it is to seek the Lord. I want to encourage every person
here to do just that. You young people, seek the Lord. You not so young people, seek
the Lord. And what that means is you trust
Christ in the confidence that he's given to you. If you trust
him, he gave you that confidence in him. You trust Christ with
the confidence that he's given to you and you patiently wait
with expectation. I'm looking to Christ and this
is what he said in his word. You patiently wait with expectation
for him to save your soul. Because he said he came to save
vile, rotten, wicked, filthy sinners and that's what you are. If God ever causes us to seek
Christ, this is what we'll say. If he causes us to seek Christ,
this is what we'll say, verse 24. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. That's seeking the Lord. All right, amen.