It's all right with him down
in Jesus. Great is Thy faithfulness, Great
is Thy faithfulness, Pulling by Your angels, worthy by me. All I have needed, I have had,
so I am. Thank you, Sherry. Gabe? When Paul said in Ephesians,
he told us to speak, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart
to the Lord, speaking to yourselves. I think he was actually saying,
talk to yourself. Commune with your heart. David
said, commune with your own heart on your bed. sing psalms and
hymns and make melody in your heart, I found this by experience. If you're feeling down, start
singing. Sing that song we just sang,
Great is Thy Faithfulness. And I promise you, it will drive
some of those dark clouds away. What a song. Go back with me
to Lamentations 3 now. Read with me verses 19 through
21 again, Lamentations 3. Jeremiah writes and says, "...remembering
mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my
soul, have them still, are always in remembrance, and is humbled
in that. This I recall to my mind. He remembered something. And
therefore he says, I have hope. God had Jeremiah write this book
called Lamentations. He lamented or he sorrowed over
many things. He wept. He is called the weeping
prophet, as you heard the pastor say. Jeremiah was in prison.
He was in a pit, I mean literally in a pit. He was imprisoned several
times by his own people, by the king of Babylon, One time he
almost died. The king's servant said, Jeremiah
is going to die from hunger. We've got to get him out of there.
So he was in terrible affliction. He's called the weeping prophet
because he had much to weep about. This book of Lamentations, he
laments many things. He weeps over the sinful and
wicked state of his people, Israel. I ran into someone today and
they were rejoicing over what has transpired here, this election,
and they said, Isn't it great that God has put in the man who
is best for our nation? I could just say, may God have
mercy on this nation. No, quite often he puts in a
man for the judgment of a nation. It was so in Jeremiah's day.
History repeats itself. He wept over the sinful and wicked
state of the nation, his people. Like Paul, remember, said, I
have my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel. that they
might be saying. He wept over the false prophets.
He said, My heart is broken because of these false prophets. They're
everywhere. What they were saying about his
God broke his heart. The reproach and the dishonor
that they were bringing upon his God in the name of his God
made him weep. he wept over the captivity of
his people is because of these false prophets whom the people
hearkened to. I may deal with Romans 1 on Sunday,
but you see, sin and wickedness and all of that is a result of
idolatry. Romans 1 clearly teaches us that.
This is what happened to Israel. God said, because you have forsaken
me, the living God, and gone after other gods. Therefore,
he gave them over to all these things. He wept over his people, the
sinfulness, the captivity of his people. His people were put
into captivity because of their idolatry, and they were in bondage
to sin and to the world. And Jeremiah wept over his own
sins. He was not a sinless. Man, look
at verse 40 through 42. He said, Let us search and try
our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart
with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed
and have rebelled. Like old Isaiah. Remember Isaiah
said, Woe is unto Israel. Woe is, and rightfully so. Everything
he said about the people was true. A sinful nation laden with
iniquity at chapter 1. From the sole of the feet to
the top of the head, no sound of sin. That's true. But when
Isaiah saw the Lord in chapter 6, he said, woe is me. He said,
I'm a man of unclean lip, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lip. And that's when Isaiah said,
I'm cut off. He's going to cut me off. Peter knew something
about that. Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful
man. He wept over his own sins. And so, Jeremiah wrote this Lamentations. God had him write this Lamentations
of his misery and his affliction. He talked about being in darkness.
Have you ever been there? He talked about being in gall
and bitterness. Bitterness and gall. He talked
about feeling like he was dead. He talked about being shut out
and cut off. Look at verse 54. Jeremiah said, he said, I've
cried and cried, and he said in verse 54, he said, I'm cut
off. He talked about being desolate,
he talked about having no peace, and verse 17, he said, I can't
find peace, it's far from me. Verse 18, he said, my strength,
I don't have any strength. I can't seem to find any strength.
He said, I don't have any hope. And my hope is perished. I can't
find any hope that I'm going to be saved. In verse 19, he
said, I'm full of misery. He was full of misery. And he said, Forget, verse 20. These things I had in remembrance,
and he said, it just humbled me, it breaks me, it brings me
down. That sounds like old David, doesn't
it? Old David said, and Jeremiah
is a weeping prophet, and David was too. David said, I've watered
my bed with my tears. Rivers of water, he said, run
down my path. Over the same things. Over the world he lived in, over
his own sins, over his own misery and the prospects for his own
family and so forth. Remember 2 Samuel 23, although
it be not so with my house. He had nothing but trouble. And
he said, Lord, remember David. Would you remember me and all
my afflictions? So God had Jeremiah write this
for the afflicted, because he himself was afflicted. He had
this written so that we would remember that we are not alone. Remember, Peter said, The same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren. There's no
temptation, no trouble, no trial that has taken you, Paul said,
but such as is common to man. And Peter said the same affliction,
everything Jeremiah went through, David went through, all of God's
people go through it one time or another. And he said they're
accomplished. They're accomplishing something.
What's that? Jeremiah said, this has humbled
me. And that's a good thing. Because
the Lord said this, he said, to this man, thus saith the high
and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity, to this man will I
look. To he that is poor and of a contrite
heart. To the humble, he said. This
is the one I'm going to look to. The lowly, the poor, the
humble. For what reason? To revive the
spirit of the humble. To revive. Oh, Habakkuk. You remember we looked at Habakkuk
where he said, Oh, Lord, I've heard your speech and I was afraid. He trembled at God's Word for
his people, for himself, for his country. He said, O Lord,
revive thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of
the years, make known. In wrath, remember mercy. And so that's what the Lord did.
Jeremiah and all that misery said, I just remembered something. The Lord brought something back
to his memory. Look at it. Verse 22. It's of
the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Because His compassions, they
fail now. They're new every morning. It's of the Lord's mercies that
sin will not consume us. Our Lord said, made this blessed
promise, sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under the
law. You're under grace. The Lord
is your master. He'll not let it happen, though
you think it is, though you think it did or does or shall, it will
not. Our Lord, who cannot lie, said
it shall not have dominion over you. I won't let it. I won't
allow it. Sin will not have dominion over
us. Sorrow will not have dominion over us. Sorrow will not consume
us. Have you ever felt like you would be consumed with sorrow?
David, it says, refused to be comforted, didn't he? Was he? Yeah. Eventually. Sorrow will
not consume us. He said weeping may endure all
night. Joy cometh in the morning. Some of you can attest to the
sureness of that promise, can you not? You've watered your
bed. The world will not consume us.
Though we think it might, the world would not consume us. Our
Lord prayed, and the Father always hears His prayer, John. He said,
Lord, Father, keep them from the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but keep them from the world. They
are not of this world, even as I am not of this world." No,
the world won't have dominion over you and won't consume you.
God, who is a consuming fire, will not consume us. You remember
when Moses went up on the mountain and the Lord said, Move away,
I'm going to consume these people. They're nothing but stiff-necked
and hard-hearted. And it says Moses stood in the
gap and pleaded as a mediator for these sinful people. Who's that? That's Christ, isn't
it? The mediator. Assurity. No, God will not consume us.
Because here it says in verse 22, it's of the Lord's mercy. It's the Lord, you see. It's
Jehovah. See, our God is merciful. Our
God, Jehovah, here's the difference between our God and like the
God of the Muslims who is not merciful. Our God, who is God,
is merciful. Scripture says He delights to
show mercy. Scripture says He takes pleasure
in them that hope in His mercy. Scripture says His mercy is in
the heavens, high as the heavens. He said, I am God, I am not man.
And my mercies are as high as the heavens are above the earth
to them that ask for them and fear me. It's the Lord. You see, it's of the Lord's mercy.
If the Lord is your Lord, Jehovah is your Lord, is your God. The
God of Jacob, oh, happy is He that hath the God of Jacob for
His help. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. His compassions, they fail not.
I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
that change all the time, up, down, faithful, faithless, are not consoled. Right? It's of the Lord's mercies. I'm
the Lord, I change not. Because in wrath, he does remember
mercy. He remembers his covenant with
his son. He always remembers that. Every time he looked at
Mephibosheth, David thought of that covenant with Jonathan.
So it is with our Lord. He remembers his son. You see,
God will not consume us because the sacrifice was consumed. See, Manoah, he's not going to
kill us because he wouldn't have showed us these things. He wouldn't
have told us these things. And he sure wouldn't have sent
his son. He wouldn't have accepted the sacrifice. You see, how do
we know God will not consume us for our sins? Because this
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Because everybody
ought, everyone's a sinner, everybody ought to just rejoice in that.
That Jesus Christ came into this world to do what? To save sinners. What kind of sinners? The chief. But you don't know me. God does. And that's why he sent this son. And he wouldn't have accepted
the sacrifice if he meant to kill him. And he wouldn't have
showed you these things. You wouldn't be listening to
this tonight and rejoicing in it. He's going to kill him. No, it's of the Lord's mercy
that we're not consumed because, you see, Jeremiah Like Isaiah,
remember the Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah and he said
to Philip, of whom does this man speak? Of himself or another? You see, Jeremiah really, John,
is not writing about himself here. He's writing about the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, he's the man who saw
affliction by the rod of God's wrath. He's the one whom God
turned his hand against. Jesus Christ is the one whom
God stretched his bow and his wrath against and pierced him
through with many sorrows. Jesus Christ is the one who was
cut off as Isaiah wrote. Jesus Christ is the one whom
God made to be sinned, whom God laid on the iniquity of us all. This is talking about that man. That man. Because God laid on
him our iniquity, because for the transgressions of my people
he was stricken, he was cut off, he was cast out, he was forsaken,
wounded, bruised, smitten and afflicted by God, so we will
not live. Yes, it is of the Lord's mercy
that we are not consumed, because Jesus Christ is the mercy of
the Lord. All the mercy of God is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And His compassions, it says,
they fail not. He is the Lord. Jesus Christ
is the Lord. His compassions, they fail not. Oh, I love that passage over
in Hebrews where it says that we have not a high priest that's
not touched with a feeling of our infirmity, but in all points
was tempted like as we are. It says he can have compassion
on the ignorant because he himself was compassed with these same
infirmities. His compassions, they fail not. It says in verse 23, look at
it, just look at these verses now, they're new every morning.
The word compassion is a wonderful word. It means to suffer with
somebody. It means to enter into their
feelings. As we read, he's not a high priest who cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmity, but he took on himself the likeness
of sinful flesh and through sufferings was made perfect. A succorer,
able to succor those that come unto him. He feels. He feels. He knows. His compassions. Compassions. Suffered with. It means the fellowship
of feeling. A fellowship. A feeling. And
His compassions. They are new every morning. His mercies. It says there, His
mercies. It's of the Lord's mercies. The
Lord has much mercy. This was David's plea in Psalm
51. David's plea was, Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies." That's nearly every
saint's favorite passage. Multitude of tender mercies. Mercies. God's been merciful
to you today, hasn't He? Well, His mercy endureth forever,
and His mercies will be fresh and new tomorrow morning. Clean
slate. We start every day with a clean
slate. A clean slate. Brand new day. His compassions, they're new
every morning. He hasn't forgotten our frame,
nor shall He ever. He remembers our frame. He knows
our frame. Just like you know your children
better than they know themselves, don't you? I thought about this. You look down on your children
when they're asleep at night, don't you? Huh? You look at them
and they look angelic. That's the only time they look
angelic. But you look on them, don't you? And how do you feel
towards them while you're looking at them? Huh? Doesn't your heart, in love and compassion, don't
you just hurt for them? Don't you just worry about it?
Don't you just fear for them? Oh, Lord, what are they going
to go through? Lord, spare them. Save them from this untoward
generation. Spare them. Restrain them. Lord, save them. And you look down upon them with
compassion, even sorrow, and then they wake up, don't they?
What do they wake up as? Your children. And that makes
them sinners, doesn't it? And it's not long before they
do something mean and on-ramp. Have your compassion stopped? No. They fail not. With you being
evil, you know where you've got that compassion? From your Heavenly
Father, whose compassion is infinite. compared to her or his children.
They fail not. They are new every morning. He knows your frame. He knew
it when you went to bed. He knows it when you wake up.
God cannot fail. His compassions, they fail not.
His love cannot fail. His blood did not fail. Look at the next line, great
is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. God is faithful in His character. God is love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
He's going to draw you. He loves you. And it will never
fail. He will never stop. See, charity, as Scripture says,
never faileth. Well, God is charity, is love. Therefore, if he has set his
love upon you, you can never stop loving him. He's great in
his character, faithful in his character. God is merciful. He will never quit showing mercy.
God is gracious. His character, He's faithful
in His character. He is gracious. He will never quit giving. He giveth and giveth and giveth
more grace. And if you waste the grace He's
given, and you do, and we will, and it says, He upbraideth not,
but giveth more. God is faithful to His Word.
God cannot lie. When He promises, And you read
that promise, and you believe that promise, and you plead that
promise, he cannot go back on that promise. He's not capable
of breaking his promise. He's faithful. When he promises
something, he'll do it. Forever, O Lord, thy Word is
settled in heaven. He's faithful in his promises.
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise not for any
reason, under any circumstances, cast out. Oh God, my Father, grace faithful
to His covenant. This is what David prayed. Old
Brother Roy read this from Psalm 143 last week in the study. David
said, and he pleaded this in his prayer to the Lord, he said,
Hear me, hear my prayer, and in thy faithfulness answer me. You said that whoever calls on
me will answer. In thy faithfulness, hear me."
And so Jeremiah remembered, and he says, I have hope. In what? Hope thou in God. Not yourself. You're a hopeless
case. You know that in yourself? I
am. We are. We're all just hopeless sinners
in ourselves. But with Him, there's a sure
hope. There's a good hope. You see,
it's by grace through faith to this end that the promise might
be sure to all the elect. Don't you love that verse, John?
Favorite verse in all the Bible. Right now it is. It's by grace
and that by faith to this end that the promise might be sure.
Everybody's saved the same way. From the thief on the cross to
Joseph, whom you could find no fault in, saved by grace. He's faithful. And that's our
hope. We hope in His grace. And Jeremiah,
his portion in life was You know, most of the time our troubles
are not as great as we think they are. Most of the time, and
many of them if not most of them, we bring on ourselves. And God
does chasten us for us, and rightfully so. But He doesn't do it to cause
grief. He does it to correct us. David
said, if I had not been afflicted, I wouldn't have learned your
word. He says it's good for me. Like you chasing your child,
right? You don't do it because you love to. Look at verse 32. Though he caused grief, and he
does it, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of
his mercy. You don't spank Kelly. You enjoy spanking Kelly, Sam.
And you've probably already told her by now that it hurts you
worse than it hurts her. Your dad used to tell you that,
didn't he? You didn't believe a word of it, did you? Now you know. It's true, isn't
it? You don't find pleasure in that. Why do you do it? She needs
it. Teach her not to grieve. You're
not trying to crush her. He said in verse 34, crush him
under his feet. Oh, no. That's man. That's not
God. Man does that. God is not that
way. It even says he doesn't take pleasure in the death of
the wicked. How much less, you know, it does
not please the Lord. It pleased the Lord to bruise
His Son. Does that mean that He took great
pleasure in bringing His pain and suffering? Oh, no. because
it pleased God to make you his people, he had to do that to
his son. Had to. It was Jeremiah's portion in
this life, his portion was, he didn't have much good. Jeremiah's
life, I read the whole book of Jeremiah in preparation for this
message. Oh, he lived a sad life. When
we begin to think we've got it tough, go back and start reading
old Jeremiah. Like I said, he was down in a
pit and about died from starvation. Nobody liked him. Everybody hated
him. He ended up his days in bondage. Well, but here's what he said,
though my portion in this life is not too good, it's the Lord
that gave it. Verse 24, here's what he said,
the Lord is my portion. Here's what gives me hope. This
is what came to mind to me. Here's what the Lord brought
back to my mind. And I believe now that the lines
have fallen under me in pleasant places. Old John Newton wrote
that song, How Tedious and Tasteless Thou Art. He wrote, a prison would a palace prove
if he would dwell with me there. And he remembered, the Lord brought
back to Jeremiah's dark mind, he brought this light to his
mind, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. See, the end is
good. The end is in sight, too. Lift
up your head, your redemption draweth nigh. Now is our salvation
nearer than when we first believed. The Lord is my portion, he said.
Saith my soul. Therefore, verse 24, he said,
will I hope in him. I tell you, that is a sure hope. The Lord is good to them that
wait for Him. We're going to have to, so we
might as well. David said this. This is one of your favorite
Psalms, isn't it? Psalm 27. He said, I would have
fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living. And he went on to say, and therefore
I have hope. He said, what wait I for? What are you waiting for? He
said, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he shall
strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. David said, I would have fainted
had I not thought to see the goodness of the Lord even now.
What's the goodness of God? Behold, on that tree, the goodness
of God. That's the goodness of God. Because
the end of beholding Him is eternal peace. In this world you shall
have tribulation. He said that. But in me you shall
have peace. You shall rest in peace forever. He is your portion, hope in Him. The Lord is good to them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. Seek ye first Him. It's good, verse 26, that a man
should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. You see, everything in our life
was ordained by Him. It says down in verse 37 and
38, who says anything or does anything and the Lord commanded
it not. Whatever comes to pass, the Lord is the one who sent
it. He's God. And he says, like old
Job said that, shall we receive good at the hands of the Lord?
Not even. He said, don't complain for the punishment of your sin.
Don't do that, but hope now in His mercy because He's merciful. It's good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Old Job
said, all my days I'm just going to have to wait. Wait. Oh, Lord, make me wait patiently. You see, the trial of our faith
works with patience. and patience, experience, and
experience hope. Hope. Because that's when the
Lord brings His Word, truly brings His Word to mind, to your heart,
and makes you feel it and know it, and He speaks to you intimately
and from experience. It's good that you quietly wait
for the salvation of the Lord, and it's near. It's good for a man that he bear
this yoke in his youth, and so on. And all this speaks of Christ
and those that are in Christ. And look down at the last part
of this chapter. Look at this. You've got to just
hope and quietly wait. Jeremiah did. I read to you verse
54. He said, I just wept until I
can't weep anymore. And he said, I'm cut off. Well,
read on. He said, I called upon thy name,
O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice. Hide
not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near
in the day that I called upon thee. Thou saidest, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the
causes of my soul. That's Christ's prayer in his
priestly prayer. Thou hast redeemed my life. That's a good hope. Alright,
stand with me. Our Lord, thank You for Your
Word. Again, we thank You for the sure
mercies of the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute,
our cause, Your people, to look to Him and Him only. We look
within. There's nothing but despair. We look to Him. There's great
hope. We look within, we see darkness like old Jeremiah. We
feel cut off. But when we look to Christ, we
see He was cut off that we might be brought in. The Lord let us say with the
hymn writer, I shall yet joy in His countenance. So of the
Lord's mercies that we are not concerned, great is Thy faithfulness,
O God, our Father. To the praise of the glory of
Thy grace, we have met here tonight. Amen.