If you will, open your Bibles
with me to the book of Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3, right
after Isaiah and Jeremiah. Can you all hear me okay? Lamentations chapter 3, we'll
start reading in verse 1. Jeremiah says, I am the man that
hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath 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. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath
builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He
hath set me in dark places, that they that be dead of old. He
hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain
heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret
places. He hath turned aside my ways.
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was
a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath
filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with
wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones.
He hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul
far off from peace. I forgot prosperity." Notice
how troubled he was in verse 18. And I said, my strength and
my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction
and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath been still
in remembrance. and is humbled in me." Without
a doubt, this is a picture of Christ, but I'm going to focus
on the trials that Jeremiah endured and the trials that you and I
endure. Perhaps this was the most troubled Jeremiah had ever
been in his life. I think, and you can go on and
read the whole chapter, but obviously he was very troubled. He said,
the Lord won't even hear my prayer. I ask you, have you ever been
here? Perhaps some of you are troubled
right now. I know we all go through trials in this life. Seems like
the longer we're here, the more troubled our life gets. Obviously,
with Rupert's situation, a great trial has been taking place at
this church. And my heart hurts for my brethren who hurt. That's
just the way it is. Our Lord is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. We ought to be touched with each
other's infirmities as well. But for the Bible study this
morning, I pray that what I've prepared here, I pray that what
the Lord has given me will be an encouragement to you, you
who are troubled. Notice here in verse 21, he said,
this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. That's what I've
titled this message, therefore have I hope. What is our hope?
And the first thing that he gave us here in verse 22, he said,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. It is of
the Lord's mercies that we're alive. We cannot wake up in the
morning except God in mercy give us breath. He gives us, we don't
even feel it, but during the night when we're asleep, He's
given us breath after breath after breath. We wake up, God
gives us breath. God gives us life continually.
It's of God's mercy that we're alive. Somebody's going to wake
up today and not go to sleep tonight. Because we're at God's
mercy. We don't know. We don't know
what tomorrow's going to bring because we're at the mercy of
God. Whether we like it or not, that's just so. God is sovereignly
in control, ruling and reigning as He is pleased. It is of God's
mercy that we're here today, that we're here. There are many
churches in America, all over the world. There are many churches
in Spring Lake. But we're here. I don't know where the gospel
is, but I'm convinced this is the only place in the city where
the gospel is, and yet you and I are here. Why are we here?
By the mercy of God. That's it. By the mercy of God. God saw to it in mercy that we
would be here, exactly all of us who are here, and some of
us, some of our brethren can't be here, but we're here by the
mercy of our God. And think about this, the desire
that we have to even be here. You who truly desire to be here,
I find it in my heart, there's a desire to be with God's people,
hearing a faithful man declare Jesus Christ and salvation in
him every week. Why? Because God in mercy put
that desire in this heart. He gave me a new heart, a heart
for Christ, a heart to worship him. It's all by the mercy of
our God. It is of his mercy that we are
not in hell right now. I said we're at the mercy of
God, whether we like it or not. That's especially true in salvation.
We should be in hell right now. Mercy is not earned. Grace is
not earned. If it could be earned, it wouldn't
be grace. If it could be earned, it wouldn't be mercy. God sovereignly
has mercy on whom he will. Notice our passage here. It says
it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Consumed
in what? Consumed in God's wrath, which
is what we've earned. From the moment we came into
this world, we came into this world dead in sins. By one man's
disobedience, we've all sinned. We've all sinned and we can't
blame our sin on Adam. Came forth from our mother's
womb, every one of us speaking lies. Every single one of us. It's by God's mercy that we're
not in hell right now. And as long as we're alive, we
may not have experienced God's grace yet. Somebody here may
not have experienced God's mercy and grace yet, but as long as
you're alive, there's hope. There's hope. And I pray if God
has not been merciful to you yet, I pray he would. I pray
he would. It is of his mercy that we have
faith, faith in Christ, faith to look to Christ, to trust in
him, to rest in him alone. It's by God's mercy that we have
this hope of eternal life. The scriptures say that he that
hath the Son, he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting
life. And it's all by the mercy of our God, is it not? It's all
by God's mercy. It's his gift, his gift of faith
in Christ. And we'll see that in the next
message. It's of God's mercy that we have
a hope and peace in this life. I mentioned earlier, as we get
older, and you may laugh because I'm not very old, but I know
it to be true. I read it and I hear it from
other men who've shared their experiences. We get older, we
go through more trouble. Well, how do we get through it?
How do we get through the day? God gives more grace. God gives
us faith. He increases our faith. He gives
us a hope and a peace that we otherwise could never have. I
hear of people go through great trials, and I just wonder if
they don't have Christ as their only hope of salvation. I truly
don't know how they get through this life. I mean, you watch
the news, you hear some pretty awful things that people go through.
And even in the church especially, brethren, cancer and sickness. There are many great trials that
we suffer. And I just, I hate to think about not having a hope
in Jesus Christ and having to go through this life. By God's
mercy, we have a hope. We have a hope that we otherwise
could never have. Praise God for his mercy. I like
this. David said, when my foot slippeth, thy mercy, oh Lord,
held me up. That's all I got. It's all I'm
trusting in Lord, your mercy. Let us hope in his mercy. Recall
that to mind. When you're troubled, just think
about God's mercy to you. Oh, what hope. What else ought
we to recall to mind? Look at verse 22 again. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed, because his compassions fail not. The word compassions here means
tender love. Compassion and love is synonymous.
God's tender love, it does not fail. Oh, God's love does not
fail. You know, people who say that
Christ died for everyone and yet there's still a chance you'll
go to hell. Not God's love. If God has set his love on you,
you will not perish. God will see to it that you will,
you must be saved. You may be 99 years old and you're
still lost, but if God has loved you from eternity, you're gonna
believe. You're gonna you're gonna be saved most assuredly
God cannot fail. He shall not fail. We read it
in Isaiah 42 There's no way his love could fail. That's one of
God's perhaps his most beautiful attribute his love. Oh his effectual
love And because God's love cannot fail He's able to show mercy
He's able to show mercy and his mercy shall not fail turn over
with me to Romans chapter 9 I want to read you a few verses here
Romans chapter 9. I want us to think about God's
mercy, God's love. Recall these things to our minds,
brethren. Oh, what hope is in his mercy and love. Look at Romans
chapter 9, verse 11. It says, for the children in Rebekah's
womb, the children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Well, that's not
fair. Look what it says, verse 14. What should we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God not right? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
You know, Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. And that's what
that's what he said. He said, Moses. You listen to
this, I'll show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. That's God's glory at its finest
right there. The fact that he is able to have mercy on whom
he will. And that mercy is effectual.
That love is effectual. I want to talk about for just
a minute about God's effectual love. What are some of the results
of God's effectual love? Because his compassions fail
not. Because his love fails not. God became a man. What a mystery. You just think about that. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. How could we ever begin
to explain that? God became a man? That just blows
my mind to think about. But because of God's love, because
He is the sovereign God, He can do whatsoever He's pleased. Because
He cannot fail, He can do whatsoever He's pleased. If God became a
man, if He purposed to become a man, He's going to become a
man. And that's exactly what he did. Because of God's effectual
love, that man, our God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, he fulfilled
everything of which the prophets foretold. He was the woman's
seed. He had his heel bruised, but
he shall crush the serpent's head. And it happened. The son
of David. You think about everything that
had to happen exactly a certain way for him to be the son of
David. That's remarkable. You ever trace
the lineage of Christ? That is remarkable. But because
of God's effectual love, that was nothing to God. He simply
purposed it. He willed it, and it came to
pass. Because that's our God. Our Lord was crucified on the
cross, suffered the wrath of God in our stead, made sin for
us to make us the righteousness of God in him. And he was effectual
in doing so because God's love does not fail. God's love cannot
fail. Rose again the third day because God was satisfied. This
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Oh, because God's
love shall not fail, because his compassions fail not. All
of his people, all of his bride, shall be with him forever in
glory. He said, no man can pluck them
out of my father's hand. He said, Father, I pray that
those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, and they
shall. They shall. We shall be with
our Lord forever in glory. I love this verse. Psalm 145,
verse eight says, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. full of compassion, full of love,
slow to anger, and of great mercy. Oh, brethren, praise the Lord
for His compassion. Praise the Lord for His love
for His own. Recall this to your mind. Are you troubled? Have
hope. Our God, who is love, cannot fail. His love shall not fail.
Recall this to your mind also. Look in verse 23 of our text. Verse 23, Lamentations chapter
3. Talking about His compassions, His mercies, they are new every
morning. Every single morning. I told
you we're here by the mercy of God. We woke up today because
God was merciful and given us another day of life. Now, I urge
each and every one of us, when we wake up in the morning, you
know what the first thought of our mind ought to be. You know
the first thing that crosses our mind as soon as we wake up
ought to be, Lord, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for another
day. Thank you, Lord. Truly, we ought to thank the
Lord for another day, and we ought to consider his mercy.
We ought to consider His love toward us first thing in the
morning. First thing in the morning. And there's a lot we ought to
thank Him for, not just another day. Thank you for faith in Christ. Thank you for saving me from
myself, my sin. Thank you for saving me out of
this world. We would pursue this world and
everything it can offer till the day we die, only to find
out that it was nothing. Thank you, Lord, for keeping
me from that. Oh, I pray God would enable us and cause us
to be mindful of that, to thank him first thing in the morning.
And if we have a good day, you know, we'll get home from work
or be there in the evening at home. Today was a good day. Why was it a good day? You know,
whatever happened in the day, you may have got a promotion
at work, you may have just had a good day at work. Maybe you normally
have a bad day at work, well, you finally had a good day, oh, I'm
happy. You know, whatever happens during our day to make us go
home and say, that was a good day, we ought to just consider
this, this is the day which the Lord hath made, and for that
reason. I'm going to rejoice and be glad
in it. I pray God will give us the faith to think like that,
to truly be grateful in our hearts to him for his mercy, for his
compassions, which are new every morning. And if we have a bad
day, truly there are no bad days. If God is on his throne and we
belong to Christ, there's no bad day. But in our language,
I'll use this. If we have a bad day, first let
us know it could have been worse. I called my stepmother last night,
and I told her, I'm like, well, everything didn't go as planned.
You know, it did, according to God's plan, His purpose, but
not according to my plan. Like Craig said, I came here,
and I thought I was about 20 minutes away, and next thing
you know, all the roads are blocked. I sat there for about an hour,
didn't know what to do, and had a headache. Man, this ain't good. But the Lord saw to it. He gave
me a wonderful place to stay. We may not have had power, but we have the power of God. We
have faith in Him. Wonderful people. Thank you for
taking me in. But it was a good day. I didn't get to study as
much as I liked yesterday, and it makes me a little nervous
standing here now, but I'm trusting in God right now to bless his
word. But if we have a bad day, let
us consider our God's mercy. God was merciful to us in that
it wasn't worse, first of all. But also, if we consider God's
mercy, how loving and merciful he is to us, was it really a
bad day? Absolutely not. Often, the days we consider to
be bad and rough Those are days that God has given us to try
us. Sorry I'm having you turn a lot, but if you will, turn
back to Job chapter 7. I want to show you a couple verses
here in Job chapter 7. We think our trials are bad,
but we know from the Scriptures God sends us, He appoints us
unto our trials for our good. I'm going to show you that here
in Job chapter 7 verse 17. He said, what is man that thou
shouldest magnify him and that thou shouldest set thine heart
upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try
him every moment. Our Lord's mercies, his compassions
are new every morning, but often those mercies and those compassions
come in the form of trials. And like I said, God tries us
for a reason. He sends us through the fire
that he may refine us as gold. He will strengthen our faith.
He will cause us to look away from ourself, look away from
the things we can see with our eyes, and cause us to not walk
by sight, but walk by faith in Christ. Tomorrow may not be promised,
but you know what is promised? God will save his people from
their sins. And in that, I rejoice. Oh, I
rejoice. My voice shalt thou hear in the
morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct
my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Psalm 5 3. Oh, may God
give us the grace to seek him and his mercies and his compassions
first thing in the morning. Recall that to your mind, brothers
and sisters. Recall that to your mind. Look back at our text,
verse 23 again. Let us recall this to our mind
also. His mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. I think we're going to sing that
hymn in just a few minutes. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God. He is faithful that promised.
He is faithful that promised. You think of all the promises
our Lord has given us in his word. I think there's a verse
that talks about, I was young and now I'm old. Yet have I not
seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread? God
will not forsake his own. If we're in Christ, he's not
going to forsake his people. He shall save us. You think of
all God's promises to us. God's faithful. Great is thy
faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Naturally,
we think we're faithful. You go to work, or you go to
school, or just go to the grocery or somewhere, you'll hear, oh,
he's such a faithful man, such a man of faith. God's people
are faithful, but we don't boast of our faith. We boast of Him.
We boast of Christ and His faithfulness. It's because of His faithfulness
that we're saved. We rely on His faithfulness,
not our own. The only faithfulness we have is God working in us,
and we don't see it. But note this, God, He's faithful. He has purposed our salvation
from eternity. Isn't that remarkable? He has
purposed our salvation. And like I said, He can't fail.
And He ordained everything that must happen for us to be saved. And He sees to it that everything
which He's purposed, which must come to pass, He sees to it that
it comes to pass. I think there's a verse, I have
spoken it, I will bring it to pass, I have purpose, I will
do it. That's our God. You know, I can look just at
my life, my short life, and I can see God's wisdom and His purpose
in everything that took place in my life. I'll tell you about
it in more detail if you want to know, just ask me sometime,
but I see God's goodness. Where I see sin, I see God overruling
it for good. All because I know that had to
happen for God to bring me to hear the gospel for him to reveal
Christ in me and You who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you
just think about for one second You just think about everything
that had to happen exactly the way it did for God to bring you
to Christ You just think about that and it's remarkable. It
is remarkable. Our God is faithful. Oh, how
faithful is our God? And He will be faithful in bringing
all of His sheep together into one heavenly fold. I'm probably
going to mess it up, but I want to read you a couple verses from
Psalm 23. Says the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He
maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside
the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Our God is faithful, and he will
be faithful in seeing to it that all of his people shall be with
him forever in glory. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." Oh,
how faithful is our God, brethren. Recall that to your mind. What
hope, what hope. Look back at our text, verse
24. Verse 24 says, the Lord is my
portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. You know, we have a portion in
this life. Many of you, I'm sure, have a
house, you have a family, you have jobs, or had jobs, or you
have money, you have bank accounts, you have things in this world.
That's our portion, that's our lot in this life, but that's
not our life. If we belong to Christ, the things
of this world, whatever we have here, is not our portion. Our
portion is Christ. Jeremiah said, the Lord is my
portion. He had material things, just
like we all do, but he said the Lord is my portion. I wanna show
you a verse in Psalm 73. This is two verses, these are
two of my favorite verses in all the scriptures. Psalm 73,
verse 25. Oh, what a comfort this is. Psalm 73 verse 25 says, Whom
have I in heaven but thee? Speaking of Christ, there is
none upon earth that I desire beside thee. The things we have
in this life, we're not looking to these things we have. That's
not our desire. We're thankful for them, because
we need things to survive. That's not where our desire is.
By God's grace, our desire is in Christ. Look at verse 26.
My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my
heart and my portion forever. God is my portion. The Lord is
my portion. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. There's a verse that says, I'm talking about those
who fear the Lord. There's no want to them. We lack
nothing. We lack nothing. With Christ,
we have everything. I've heard some people say, is
Christ enough? And you may have heard this,
if He's all you have, if He's all you've got, He's enough.
If you have something else, you've got to add your works or your
decision to the mix, then He's not enough. But if He's all you
have, He is enough. Christ is everything. He's all
to His people. He is all to His people. He's all our desire.
We don't desire the things of this world. We know they're temporal.
We know that they're truly worthless. But Christ, oh, He's everything. He is everything to us. And we
desire to spend eternity with our Savior. Let me quote you
a verse from Psalm 27. It says, one thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Is it so with you?
Is that your one desire? Is He your only portion? He alone
is my portion forever. Christ is all to me. And I love
this. We are His inheritance, and He
is ours. That's a wonderful thing to think
about. You think about us being His inheritance. I mean, it doesn't
seem like He's getting a lot out of the deal, but truly we
are His inheritance. We are the people God chose and
gave to Him from eternity. It's real, and He is our inheritance.
He is our portion forever. Blessed be our God. Christ, Christ
send you the hope of glory. Christ is my hope of glory, my
portion forever. Recall that to your mind next
time you're troubled. He is my portion. I shall not want. And
lastly, look back at our text. Lamentations 3 verse 26, I'm
sorry, verse 25, says, the Lord is good unto them that wait for
him, to the soul that seeketh him. It goes without saying that the
Lord is good. We know that. He's God. His very name means
good. Everything God does is good because
He does it. He's God. He's good. But He is particularly
good to those who wait for Him, to those who seek Him. I ask
you, have you ever waited on the Lord? We read in Psalm 27,
wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He shall
strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Have you been there?
Have you been trialed, troubled, and waited on the Lord? If you
have, you have found Him to be good. The psalm we were just
looking at, Psalm 73, verse 1, says truly God is good to Israel.
Truly, God is good to Israel. Truly, God is good to his people.
Oh, may we see our God's goodness in all things, in all things.
Whatever the day may bring, may we see and may we trust that
our God is good. He's good. I want to show you a verse in
Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 25. This matter of seeking the Lord
and waiting on him. If God enables you by His grace
to seek Him, to wait on Him in all things, you will find Him
to be good. Isaiah 25 verse 9 says, And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation." Oh, how true are those words, child of God.
We've waited for Him. He will save us. Oh, He will
save us. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. Oh, praise God. Let me quote
you a verse from 1 Corinthians 2. It says, As it is written,
I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him. What a hope. You recall these
things to your mind. Oh, may God enable us to recall
these things to our mind, too. May He give us the grace to just
think of Him, to think of His mercies, think of His love for
us, to think of what awaits us. If we belong to Christ, if we
belong to God, it's never entered into our heart, our thoughts,
the things which God has prepared for us. Oh, blessed be our God. How great is our God, His faithfulness.
Let me show you one more verse here. Lamentations 3 verse 26
says, It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for
the salvation of the Lord. We're hoping in Him by God's
grace. We are looking to and hoping
in Christ alone. And notice here it says both
hope and quietly wait. I asked if you've waited on the
Lord. Perhaps we're waiting on Him, right? We're always waiting
on the Lord, truly. We're always waiting on Him. Waiting on Him
to comfort our hearts, to increase our faith, to give us more grace,
enable us to look to Him more and more. enable us to truly
rest, truly rest in Him. But it says, quietly wait. You
know, I feel like we may say we're waiting on the Lord, but
yet, at least for myself, daily murmuring, complaining, why this? Why me? Why is this happening?
Gabe just preached a message to us last week. It was called,
Why Do Things Happen? Because we think about that every
day. Why does this happen? Why is this happening? It is
good that a man should both hope and quietly wait. Wait for what? The salvation of the Lord. Our
Savior is coming back. He's coming again. He's going
to come. The trump shall sound. He shall descend. And He's going
to bring us home to be with Him. I want to read you two more verses. You don't have to turn there
if you don't want to. I've had you turn it everywhere it seems
like. But in Romans chapter 8, Verse 24 says, For we are saved
by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for? Why would we hope for something
we can look at and touch and see? Because it's going to perish
very soon. But if we hope for that we see
not. What is that? Christ. We see
Him by faith, but we don't see Him with our physical eyes. We
don't see heavenly things. But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it, quietly hoping and
waiting on our Lord, waiting for Him to return. If you are here today without
this blessed hope, I pray that God would prick your heart with
His blessed gospel and give you hope in Christ. And if you're
here and you do hope in Christ, perhaps you are one of those
I talked about, maybe you're troubled. Maybe you are very
troubled right now. I pray that this would be an
encouragement to you. Not so much what I've said, but you
just read those verses again. Recall these things to your mind,
brethren. I pray that God would give us the grace to look to
Him, to trust in Him, to rest in Him, and to quietly wait and
hope and seek His salvation. Amen.