Lamentations. Lamentations. The word lamentation means a
mournful song. It means a song sung in mourning
with the beating of the breast. That's absolutely what lamentation
means. In Luke 23, let me read to you,
it says, all the people came together when the Lord was crucified,
the people came together to that sight. After seeing that, beholding
these things that were done, they smoked their breaths. I lament that we don't lament
more. Jeremiah 9, in Jeremiah, he told
the women to take up a weeping, to teach their daughters to weep. Our Lord, going to the cross,
said, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your
children. I lament, look at chapter 2,
Lamentations, chapter 2. I lament that we don't weep enough
for ourselves and our children. Verse 19, Jeremiah is called
the weeping prophet. He's a type of Christ who wept.
He says in verse 19, Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning
of the watch, pour out thine heart like water. Before the
face of the Lord, lift up thy hands toward him for the life
of thy young children. Look at chapter 3, verse 41. Let us lift up our heart with
our hands unto God in heaven. What's the problem? Same with
Israel. Rich. Increased with goods. have need of nothing. Everything's
just fine. Jeremiah, as I said, is called
the weeping prophet, a type of Christ. And our Lord wept. He was the most joyful. He's
the blessed man. Happy. But the joy that was set
before him came to this earth to do what he did for his people. And yet he's called a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. I don't think he let that sorrow
show until when he was about to go to the cross. Then he said,
my soul is greatly troubled. And at Lazarus' tomb, he did
weep, didn't he? But Jeremiah was a weeping prophet,
as oh that we might. You know, what Scripture says
to those who laugh all the time, it says, let it be turned to
mourning. But to those who mourn, it says, weep not. You understand? I think of Psalm 2 that says,
let us serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Some of you know what that means.
Fear and trembling, rejoice. Can you fear and rejoice? Can
you weep and rejoice? I weep. I fear for some in this
room. But I rejoice over most in this
wrath, but I want all of us to never know. Lamentations, chapter 1. Look at this. And you know, religion
is such a The next message in the next hour is paranoid. He's
dealing with the religious world that hates him. But, you know,
God's church should be like Jeremiah. Zion and Judah was in, they were
in captivity, they were afflicted, they were in bitterness. Chapter
1, look at verse 1. City, solitary, full of people,
but like a widow. Verse 3, Judah's gone into captivity. because of affliction, because
of servitude. Verse 4, they mourn. Our gates are desolate. Our priests
sigh. Our virgins are afflicted. She's
in bitterness. Why? Verse 8, this is why. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned. against God, and that's why she
was in captivity. Is anyone in captivity today? Everyone is, until the Lord leads
captivity, until the Lord removes them from this captivity. Everyone
is captive to sin. Everyone is captive to this God
of this world who holds people captive. How? Things. The things of this world. Jeremiah watched his brethren
literally be taken by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon. He was still in
Jerusalem. And he watched them come and
get his brethren and take them into Babylon. Now Babylon has
always represented the world, like Egypt. He watched his brethren
being taken by the world. And I'm watching the same thing. I'm seeing this world suck people
in like a pit. I feel it myself. There's something
in this world called gravity that holds us all down and it
pulls us all down to the earth. There's something else stronger
than that. It's called sin. It's called materialism. It's
called the things of this world. It has a drawing power and the
God of this world holds people captive to these things. They
can't look up. They won't look up. They don't
see anything but the things they see. But I want our vision, I
want us to see the things that are eternal, the things of God.
I want us to be single vision, our minds set on one thing, things
above. I want us not to turn to the
right, look to the right or the left, but straight on. And I'm watching some of my brethren
being sucked in by this world, by the riches of this world,
and they're sucking their children in with it. People that don't
come to worship, don't bring their children, or telling their
children you don't need God, we don't need Him either. Sad, boy. We need to be weeping. I'm a sorry preacher if I don't
have a burden for people. If this is just a time let's
get together and let me get my sermon over with and we go on
about our way. This is life or death. These
are words of life or death. You know that? Our Lord's coming. Real soon. And I look forward to that for
me and for many of you. But not for some. They'll be
weeping then, wailing. Jeremiah was a man of sorrows.
Look at verse 12, equated with grief. Is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow. Chapter 1, verse 12. See if there
any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. Jeremiah is a type of Christ.
This is Christ speaking. Like, you know, the Ethiopian
eunuch said to Philip, Isaiah speak of himself or another man? He was speaking of Christ. They never parted Isaiah's garments.
They never spit in his face. Jeremiah did go through deep
troubles. But this is Christ speaking.
Is it nothing to you? Hold and see if there's any sorrow.
Our Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Whose
sorrows did he bear? He had no sorrow before. He lived
with God in glory and perfect peace and happiness and harmony
and love and holiness. It came down here. to bear our grief, God's people,
His people, to bear our grief and our sorrow, our sin, in His
body on the trail, so that we won't sorrow forever. He sorrowed
deeply, a man of grief and sorrow, so that we won't sorrow forever.
And we should sorrow over our sin, and we do. But that's not
going to last forever, like our Lord. All right, He's the substitute. Our Lord came as a substitute
for His people. Chapter 3 is where we will dwell. Chapter 3. And again, I remind
you how God in His providence put this exactly. There are seven
pages in our Bible. This is page three and a half. The cross, you see. The cross
is the center of the universe. Like the sun is the center of
the universe. The cross. Our Lord hung on a cross. The
world was in darkness. You know, the world was in darkness
from noon till three. But oh, the sun of righteousness
was shining in all its glory, hanging on that cross. The world
didn't see it that way. We did. No. We're not in darkness. But our
Lord God sent the substitute down to this place, this pit,
to rescue his people out of the pit. What pit? The world. The world. And the world doesn't think the
world's a bad place. The world loves the world. The
world hates God. God's people are not others'
work. They love God. Substitute for sin, he said in
verse 1, I'm the man. Now this is Christ speaking.
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath. I
am the man. I am the man. I remember I referred
to how many scriptures talk about no man. Is there no man? Isaiah 59 says that he saw there
was no man. He wondered. There's no intercessors.
His arm brought salvation. He put on garments of vengeance. He put on righteousness as a
breastplate, a helmet of salvation. For who? His people. Like David fought all those battles
for his people, for Israel, for Judah. And our Lord, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, came here, the substitute of his people.
He said, I am the man. God became a man. I am the man. God was man. Where is that? First Timothy 3.16. The world
knows John 3.16. I want you to know First Timothy
3.16. Great is the mystery of God.
It's a mystery to my...not to us. God was manifest in the flesh. I am the man. God was manifest,
revealed in the flesh. He came in the flesh. I am the
man, the only man. Simon Peter stood up on Pentecost
and lots of world people talk about Pentecost, Pentecost, Pentecost.
We're Pentecostal. If you're not preaching the man,
Christ Jesus, if you're not preaching Christ crucified, you're not
Pentecostal. We're Pentecostal. This is the
message of Pentecost. Simon Peter stood up at Pentecost
and said, You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth,
a man, approves. of God. That's never been said
before of any man. In fact, the Lord looked down
from heaven, Psalm 14, to see if there were any that did understand. Any that did seek after God.
Any. He said, there's none. No, not
one. So somebody came. See, and Adam
all died. And in Christ, the second Adam
came, the man. A man approved of God. A man, the way God created man
to be, for his glory. The man. Behold the man. I am the man, he said, that hath
seen affliction by the rod of God's wrath. Stay with me now. Affliction. Psalm 89. Go over
there with me. Psalm 89. What a psalm. Psalm 89. Right now, it's my
favorite psalm. Psalm 89. It is just wonderful. Read it. If you haven't read
it in a while, it starts out with saying, let's sing. Sing.
Sing about mercy. Sing about His covenant, verse
3. Oh my, sing about His heavens He's made. Sing about everything. Psalm 89, verse 20. Psalm 89, verse 19. Then thou
spakest in vision to thy holy one, I have laid help upon one
that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen of the people, a man.
Yes, a man, but the man. Christ Jesus. I have found David,
that is Christ, the son of David, my servant. With my holy oil
have I anointed him. That's the Christ, the anointed
one. With whom my hand shall be established. Man says God has no hands but
your hands. Oh, he has hands and his hands
are Jesus Christ. And we're in him, we're in his
hand. Mine arm shall strengthen him. The enemies shall not exact
upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will beat down
his foes before his face and plague them that hate him. But
my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him. In my name
shall his horn be exalted. I'll set his hand in the sea,
his right hand in the river. Keep reading. You cried out my
father, my God, the rock of my salvation. I'll make him my firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for
him, about for him. Forever my covenant shall stand
fast with him. That's Christ. His seed, verse
29, I'll make to endure forever. His throne is the days of heaven.
If his children, read on, forsake my law, and we have. and walk
not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not
my commandment, then will I visit their transgressions with the
rod, and their iniquity with stripes." And so Christ came because His
children had transgressed. His children had not walked in
His love. So, He was afflicted by the rod
of God's wrath. He had laid on Him the iniquity
of them all. This is not Jeremiah talking
to Jesus Christ. You remember the story about
the schoolhouse up in the mountains of Kentucky, and a new teacher
came in. He knew he had to have law and
order in there, full of ruffians, big boys, big farm boys, a one-room
schoolhouse, you know, from first grade up to tenth grade. This
young teacher had to establish some kind of rules, and so he
said, I'll tell you what, you all make the rule. You make the
rule, and there's got to be punishment if you break the rules. And so
they said, no cussing. Okay, no cussing. No lying, no
lying. Okay, no lying. Somebody said,
no stealing. Okay, no stealing. They said,
there's got to be punishment, though, or a law is no good without
punishment. What's the punishment for stealing?
Ten stripes across the bare back with a rod, somebody said. The teacher said, that's kind
of severe, isn't it? Ten stripes. Okay. One day, big Jim, this
boy named Jim, very big, strong, muscular, farm boy, came up to
the teacher, said, somebody stole my lunch. Did they? Yeah, somebody stole
my nuts. So the teacher did some examination. He found out there's
a little boy named Joe. Little skinny boy. Poor boy. He always wore a big coat all
the time. He said, Joe, come up here. He
did. He said, Joe, did you steal Jim's
lunch? Yes, sir, I did. He said, I was
hungry. I was hungry. He said, well,
Joe, you know the punishment. Ten licks across the back with
a rod. Take off your coat, Jim. He said,
don't make me take my coat off. Take off your coat. Strip him. Strip. You know what our Lord
did? Strip him. God said, strip him. I'm going
to lay the stripes on him. So he took off his coat, nothing
but skin and bone. Did it please the teacher to
do this? No. Did it please God to bruise his
side? Not in the sense of pleasing,
but please God to make you his people. And the only way he can
do that is either whip you or whip his side. So the teacher
took that rod back. And started to hit that boy,
and big Jim came running up and threw himself across little Joe. He said, don't hit him, teacher. Hit me. You sure about this, Jim? I'm
sure. The teacher took that rod across
that big boy's shoulder. Ten stripes, the full extent
of the law. On the tenth strike, that rod
broke. Jesus Christ took my weapon. The wrath of God was laid on
him, because the iniquity, our iniquity was laid on him. And
God saw the chastisement of him, necessary for our peace. And
God said, I'm satisfied. Does that put substitution in
perspective? It ought to. Who did he do this
for? Not poor little innocent creatures. Rebels. The ones that say, kill
him. The ones that say, we ain't it.
Go back where you came from. That's it. That's me. That was me. That was me. I don't
care about this Jesus Christ stuff. Young rebel. I don't care
about this. I don't need this. Yes, you do.
You just don't know it. He took your licking long before
you had any idea about it. Oh, look at verse 2 of our text.
It says in Lamentations 3 verse 2, He led me and put me in darkness. Verse 6, He sent me in dark places
as no dead. Literally, Jeremiah was put down
in a pit. Jeremiah 38. Oh, man, I want
to read that. Poor Jeremiah. He just kept trying
to preach to people. And they hated him for it. And
that's fitting because that's man. He hates the truth. He hates
those that preach it, those that believe it. And they put Jeremiah
down. They lowered him down in a pit
and it says he sunk in the mire. You know what was in there. It was dark. How long did he
stay there? And I think he was literally
writing this right here when he was in that bed, thinking
about it. Well, our Lord was put in a pit, a pit of hell. on Calvary's tree, in the mire. He was put in this pit called
planet Earth. It was a pit to Him. It was like
us getting in a cesspool for our Lord to come down here, His
holy, pure, righteous nature as God, for Him to come down
here. He could read people's thoughts. If you and I could
read one another's thoughts, it would be nauseating. They would like each other. That's
a fact. Our Lord, for Him to come down
to this world, Holy God come down to this pit, like being
sunk in the mire and the filth and the corruptions all around.
Why'd He do it? To deliver us from the pit. John, he came into the pit, and
he told, he gave commandment, deliver them out. Leave me in
like he went into that fiery furnace where his three fellows
were. And he delivered them out. And
he stayed in. They brought Jeremiah out. They
lifted him up. That's our Lord. He didn't stay. God said, I'll not leave his
soul in hell. My Holy One to see corruption.
He's put in a pit in darkness. When our Lord was on the cross
from three, from noon to three, the world was in darkness. Oh,
but the light never shone so clearly as when Christ hung on
that cross. The world was literally black when our Lord was hanging
on the cross. Literally black. Well might the sun in darkness
hide and shut his glories in. When Christ the mighty maker
died, for man the creature sinned. Oh, hide your face, son. Let
nothing eclipse the glory of Christ on that cross. The natural
sun, hide your face, because the sun of righteousness is at
his peak, at his highest, at his glory. And let those in darkness
see the light that shineth in darkness. The light of the knowledge,
the glory of God. in the face of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Oh, may the Lord show us as we
see this, lament. He was in prison, verse 70. He
said, he hedged me about, put me in chains. I was going to
read Jonah 2. My brother read that. He said,
I went down to the pit and the weeds wrapped about my head.
I was in chains, the barbers. And after Jonah was put in that,
the whole story is Christ on the cross. That's Christ crying
from the cross. He could have literally cried
that from the cross, but our Lord. And when Jonah cried, chapter 2 verse 8 says, they
that observe lying vanities, they forsake their own mercy.
Anything other than Christ is a lying vanity. You know that?
The mercy of God, the salvation of God, life is Christ. There
is no other life. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that doesn't have the Son hath not life and shall not see
life. And the wrath of God abides on
him. The world doesn't see that. They do. Christ does. He that observes lies and vanities
forsakes his own mercy. And then he cried out in verse
9, Salvation's of the Lord! Amen. And our Lord on the cross,
it's finished! The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
it. The decease that he accomplished. Death. Victory over death. Sin and hell. Salvations of the
Lord. You know what happened when he
cried that? Jonah came out of that belly. Christ was put in the grave.
Verse 9, He closed my ways with hewn stone. They put our Lord
in a grave and rolled the stone over the door. Three days later, God said, roll
away the stone. It's finished. It's over. Phew,
man. Now quit smiting your breast
and start singing. Salvation is on the way. What a story. What a chapter. Is this the greatest chapter
in the book? Right alongside Isaiah 53. Right alongside Matthew
27, his cross. Verse 10, I've got to quit. He was unto me as a bear, as
a lion. The Lord allowed, God allowed the lion, Satan as a
roaring lion, to have him. Verse 12, he bent his bow, set
me as a mark for his arrow. He caused his arrows to enter
my reins. He was pierced. First, by the
wrath of God, the arrow of God's wrath. And secondly, by a sword,
literally a spear that a centurion came by and ripped his side open. After he died, he was hanging
on the cross. A centurion came by with a spear and pierced his
side. And out of his side came what?
Blood and water. You know how few people know that?
You know how few people care? You know, don't you? You're so
blessed. You know what that means, don't
you? You're so blessed. Really. That's our salvation
that came out of his side. Like Eve was born out of the
side of Adam. We were born out of Him that
day when He travailed on the cross. Like a woman travailing
at birth, water and blood comes out. When our Lord travailed
on the cross, water and blood came out. Our justification,
blood. Our sanctification. Our salvation
was accomplished by Him and Him alone. They pierced His side
because everybody is going to look on Him whom they pierced.
And many will wail. But he sang to his disciples
after he arose from the grave. He said to Thomas, Thomas, don't
be faithless. Reach hither your hand and touch
my side. You came out of it. Do you believe
me, Thomas? I think Thomas was wrapped around
his head. Thomas wasn't there before. We
didn't hear that. He was full of doubts and fears. Thomas,
you can let go now. Uh-uh. I'm not going to leave you, Thomas.
I'm never going to leave you. You sure? Don't let me leave. You let me before. Don't let me leave, Lord." He pierced him. Verse 14, I was
a derision to all my people. They saw Him. He filled me with
bitterness. These things literally happen
to Christ when He's being crucified. They derided Him. They mocked
Him. If He be the Son of God, let Him come down to the cross.
Let's see if God will have Him. You better hope God has Him.
We better hope God accepts Him. We better hope God is pleased
with what He did on the cross. If not, we're goners. He did. God was satisfied. Filled me
with bitterness. The Lord, they literally took
a sponge with vinegar and put it in his mouth. Well, look down in verse 19.
He says, Remember Him. And the margin says, Remember.
As if to tell us, Remember now. This do in remembrance of me,
Christ said. Remember now, my affliction,
my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Remember that. Don't ever forget that. Don't
ever forget that. And Jeremiah said, I remember
and I'm humbled. The only thing that will effectively
humble the pride of man is the cross of Jesus Christ. How can we ever be proud of anything? That's why Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory, saving the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom I was crucified, in whom I was crucified, and the world
was crucified to me. Oh, bless His holy name. And
then he says, and most of you know these verses, but here's
the context. See, we're talking about Christ
hanging on the cross. You see, it's of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed. Why? Because Christ hung on that
cross. He's the burning bush that burned,
but not consumed, that went through hell for His people, so that
we wouldn't be consumed. We go to hell, we're consumed.
He went through it, was not consumed. But it's of the Lord's mercies
we're not consumed, not consumed by sin, not consumed by this
world. This world is consuming some
people. This world is taking some people down. It'll be the
Lord's mercies if we're not consumed by this world. It'll be the Lord's
mercies if we're not overcome by this world. We hope and pray
that the Lord will give us this faith that overcomes the world. What is it? Look into Christ.
That's it. It's the only way. It's the only
thing that will crucify this world to us and us to this world.
It's the only thing that will show up. There is no thing worth
living for but Him. And it's because of His compassion.
Everybody had compassion on who? Who? A bunch of people that weren't
worth dying for. Oh, new every morning. Isn't
the gospel new? Is the gospel new to you right
now? Is this good news? Oh, here's where we get this
song that we sing, verse 23. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. O Christ my Lord, great is thy
faithfulness. It's going to go on so much more
here, isn't it? But Jeremiah cried in verse 55,
I called upon thy name, and thou heard me. Verse 57, he drew nearer
the day I called. Verse 58, he pleaded the causes
of my soul, redeemed my life. Verse 59, O Lord, thou hast seen
my wrong, judge my cause. What's the cause? What's our
cause? What's the cause why this world
still exists and God hadn't destroyed it yet? What's the cause? Why? Just because? We used to say that when we were
kids and we didn't have an answer. Why did He do it? Just cause.
What's the cause? Because God still has people.
It's all for his kingdom. It's all for his people. He's
putting up with this world for his people's sake, for his elect's
sake. And many of them are still rebels, like most of the world.
Still rebels against God. And we're hoping and praying that the Lord, that
they'll be in his kingdom. The door of the ark is still
opening. The gospel is still being preached. Noah, there's
an ark, there's mercy, there's grace, but by the ark he's condemning
the world. That's what Christ did on the
cross, and yet he saved it. He saved a people. Do you see? Do you see? Do you see anything
of what this is all about? Why Christ came, who Christ is,
what we are, why we do this, why we're here today? Anybody
see? I hope so. I hope so. Okay.