Look at verse 32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion,
and he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. Let's talk about the source of
grief. And before we do that, we'll
seek God's face. Our dear Father, we're so thankful that you hear
your children when we call upon your name. The psalmist said,
your ears are ever open to our cries. And now, Lord, Your people
cry unto You. Your servant cries unto You to
be with me and to be with these who are in this building and
those who are listening on the Internet. Be with us, O God,
to give us attentiveness, unto the gospel of your redeeming
grace, and give to us, Lord, the spirit, the attitude of worship. May we render, O Lord, unto you
that honor that belongs to you as we focus our attention upon
that one who is your only begotten Son, And as we remember that
He was the sacrifice of God for us because of our sins. We bow before You in humility,
in lowliness. And Lord, it is amazing. It is
due to Your amazing grace that You will receive all the cries
and prayers of Your people, and You do so through the merits
of Your dear Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We come
to You through the precious, bloody sacrifice of our Savior. We ask You, Lord, to hear us
when we pray, and we're thankful that You do. Lord, speak to all of us tonight. This message that you have laid
upon my heart is for somebody. Indeed, all of us are in need
of it. If we don't need these words
tonight, we'll need them down the road. As we remember that
one who is the source of all grief, That is, as we remember, Father,
that you're the first, very first cause of all things. We are lost in wonder and amazement
as we consider the greatness, Lord, of your being. And enable us this evening just
to get another glimpse of the glory of God and how marvelous
you are in your secret workings of providence, by which you bring
to pass all things, for you have indeed purposed all things, and
they'll all fulfill that which you have decreed, and they'll
work out all of them together for the good of your dear children. So speak to us this evening,
we ask your Father, for Jesus' sake, amen. I do believe that the prophet
Jeremiah was maybe more than any other Old Testament prophet,
a man of sorrows, a man of grief, A man who's often, as he writes,
as the Spirit of God led him to write, he's a man who spoke
with a broken heart. I wish for myself and for all of God's
preachers that we would truly speak to you from our hearts. I heard Brother Scott Richardson
one day in one message many years ago say, true preaching originates
in the heart of God. And God speaks from his heart
to the heart of a man. And then he speaks from his heart
to the heart of those who are his congregation. I do want to speak to you tonight
from my heart. I've tried to digest this myself. You know, studying the Scriptures, it's more important than reading
the commentaries. I'll tell you how the commentaries
can help us. If you're a Sunday school teacher,
if you speak from this pulpit from time to time, those commentators
can certainly be of assistance to you. But we must be enabled
by the Spirit of God to take whatever is written by men and
then to kind of chew it up and digest it. And first of all,
looking at God's Word to see what the Lord has to say, and
then we kind of let it marinate a while. Maybe
that's a good way to put it. And we ask the Spirit of God,
Lord, let me in my own words from my heart, speak that which
you have conveyed to me through your word and oftentimes through
the assistance of others who have written things that are
a benefit to me. And that's what I want to do
this evening. It's what I always want to do.
And that's what every true preacher of the gospel longs to do is
to speak from my heart to your heart tonight, the source of
grief. Now, Jeremiah, he is known as
the weeping prophet, and he is very much acquainted with grief,
but he makes this statement in verse 32, though God causes grief, Now this goes against what most
preachers preach today. Because what most preachers believe
and most people think is that it isn't God who causes grief,
it's the devil. That's what most people believe.
They believe good things, things that are very pleasant, things
that are enjoyable, things that are nice, things that are comfortable. Those things come to us from
God. But grief, affliction, trouble, sickness, Death. Now God didn't have anything
to do with those things. That's what most people believe.
That's of the devil. That's of Satan. But this man
of God, Jeremiah, he writes As he takes his ink pen, as it were,
as he writes these things out, the Spirit of God had him to
write these precise words. Though he cause grief, God causes
grief. That's what Jeremiah wants us
to know. That's what the Spirit of God
wants us to know. You see, our Lord, and I prayed
this in my prayer, the Lord is the first cause of all things. He's the God of predestination. He's the God of His eternal decree. And before God ever made anything,
in fact, in old eternity, in and of Himself, He originated
and He appointed and He ordained and He predestinated everything
that will ever happen. If you ask me, Jim, are you a
predestinarian? Well, what you're asking me is,
do you believe the Bible? That's what you're truly asking.
Because if you believe the Word of God, if you believe this is
the inspired scripture, then you have to believe in God's
blessed and secretive predestination. He ordained all things. Most
people believe that God kind of got everything going in creation
and then He said, well, let's see how it all turns out. No,
that's not our God. The Lord said to His disciples,
even the hairs of your head are numbered. The Savior said, a bird can't
fall from the air. How many millions and millions
of birds are there? I'm talking about the B-I-R-D-S
now. How many birds are there in all
of the world? And yet every one of them, their
lives are marked by God. And then He says to His disciples,
you're more important than those creatures. Regardless of what
the modernists say and the crazy people say that the life of animals
is more important than human life, we know that's falsehood. We're talking about the lives
of people, but even the lives of the animals and of the people
are ordered by God. And if we in this life experience
grief, if we feel sorrow, if we have
times of hurt, times of disease, times of pain, times of heartbreak,
if we have those episodes in life where we just bottom out,
because it seems like everything is against us. We must always
remember this, whatever is going on in my life is of my God. And He loves me too much to hurt me needlessly. I didn't say He loved us too
much not to hurt us. but He won't hurt us needlessly. He won't cause us needless sorrow,
grief, and pain. All things are of God. It is one thing to say that we
believe in the grace of God. We believe sufficient grace for
all things. It's one thing to say we believe
God is sovereign. He's sovereign in every situation,
and in saying that, you're absolutely correct. But it's another thing in times
of grief, in those painful times of life, it's another thing then
to say, my Father still rules all things. And this, too, will
work together with all other things in my life for my good. Let's kind of jump into the message
here, and I'll tell you, Jeremiah speaks. He speaks in a threefold
way. Number one, he speaks of his
own grief. over and over through the book
that bears his name, the book of Jeremiah, as well as this
book that he wrote, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, over and over he
declares the record of his own experience. Now to go through
all that he endured, all the ups and downs of life that God
put Jeremiah through would take an enormous amount of time. We
don't have time to do that tonight. But I want you to look at a few
verses, and I want first of all for you to go back into the book
of Jeremiah and look at Jeremiah chapter 20. Look at Jeremiah chapter 20.
This is a man He is an inspired prophet of God. He spoke God's
truth. He was faithful. He was courageous. He was daring, for he spoke to
people who had no, most of them, had no interest in what he had
to say. And his message was certainly
a glorious message of the gospel because he speaks of the Lord
our righteousness. So he sets forth our Lord Jesus. We read that all the prophets
of God wrote of Him. And Jeremiah, he certainly is
no exception to that. He wrote of our Savior, Christ
is our righteousness. He established our righteousness
by His death upon the cross of Calvary. And Jeremiah tells us
that. But Jeremiah also deals with
and sets before us many of the things that happened in his life. He spoke of the judgment that
he himself told the people about. Look at, I said chapter 20, look
at 19, chapter 19, verse 15. The last verse of chapter 19
of Jeremiah. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, behold, I will bring upon this city and upon
all her towns all of the evil that I have pronounced against
it, because they have hardened their necks that they might not
hear my words. He's bold. He preached to people. They weren't amening his messages. They weren't saying, that's right
preacher. No, they were totally against
him. Almost all of the people of Jerusalem. So that as we get
to chapter 20, look at verse one. Now he names a man, his
name is Paschal. And his name means one who is
free, freedom, one who is free. Now, Pasher, the son of Emer,
the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the
Lord, that is Pasher, he was a priest himself. He heard that
Jeremiah prophesied these things, not pleasant things. See, the
people wanted to hear things that were nice, pleasant things.
They wanted to hear peace, peace. Everything's alright. Don't worry
about what this preacher's saying. There's no judgment. There's
no day of reckoning. He's just trying to scare y'all.
Everything will be alright. And this man, Pasher, he's a
false priest. He was the chief governor in
the house of the Lord. He heard that Jeremiah prophesied
these things. He heard his message on judgment.
And so, look at the second verse. Passure, he smote Jeremiah the
prophet. He put him in stocks that were in the high gate of
Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord. And it came to pass
on the morrow that Paschur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. So he had him locked up. Then
said Jeremiah, the Lord hath not called thy name Paschur,
but Magor Misabit. which means terror against terror,
or all around you is going to be the terror of God. For he
says, verse 4, For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I'll make thee
a terror to yourself and all your friends. They shall fall
by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. You'll
know that I'm telling the truth. and I'll give all Judah into
the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive
into Babylon and shall kill them with the sword. Moreover, I will
deliver all the strength of the city and all the labors thereof
and all the precious things thereof and all the treasures of the
king of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which
shall spoil them and take them and carry them to Babylon. And
thou, pastor, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into
captivity, and thou shalt come to Babylon. You're gonna die
there. That's what he says. You'll be buried there, thou
and thy friends to whom thou hast prophesied lies. He's bold, isn't he? But listen,
listen to what he says next. Oh Lord, thou hast deceived me. And I was deceived. You're stronger
than I am. You called me to this. You forced
me to be a prophet. And you prevailed. And I'm in
derision daily. Everyone mocks me. Here's a man who seems to be,
he's way up here. Bold as a lion. And then all
of a sudden, it's like the bottom falls out. He says, Lord, you've
deceived me. I thought people would receive
this message. Well, the Lord said, they're
not gonna believe you. And he says, Lord, they mock
me. Look at verse eight. For since
I spake, since I started preaching, I cried out, I cried violence
and spoil. Because the Word of the Lord
was made a reproach unto me and a derision daily. Then I said,
I will not make mention of Him nor speak any more in His name.
I'm going to quit the ministry. That's what Jeremiah said. I'm
not going to be a prophet anymore. This is too hard. People are too fickle. They're
not believing what I said. I quit. There'd been many a preacher
of the gospel who's quit on Sunday night and then started up again
on Monday morning. That's just the way it is with
the preaching. And here's the reason Jeremiah
didn't quit. His word was in my heart as a
burning fire, shut up in my bones. I was weary with forbearing.
I couldn't stay. I couldn't quit. I couldn't quit. He says, I heard the defaming
of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, we will report
it. All my familiars watch for my
halting." They're watching for me to fail. Saying, peradventure
he will be enticed and we shall prevail against him and we shall
take our revenge on him. He's down at the bottom. But
now listen to it. Look at verse 11. The Lord is with me as a mighty,
terrible one. That is, terrible to his enemies.
Therefore, my persecutors, they shall stumble. They shall not
prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed,
for they shall not prosper. Their everlasting confusion shall
never be forgotten. But, O Lord of hosts, Thou triest
the righteous and seest the reins in the heart. Let me see Thy
vengeance on them, for unto Thee have I opened my cause." Do you
understand? He's up here. He's down here. He's up here. It's kind of like
a roller coaster ride with Jeremiah. He manifests the grace of God. And then he manifests that he's
a sinner saved by grace. And that's the way it is with
all of God's people. That's just our experience of
life. Grace is manifested, we're strong. And then, then we just, we're sad, We get down in the
dumps. He continues in verse 13, because
in verse 12, there's his prayer, and his prayer turns to praise
in verse 13. Singing to the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord, for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the
hand of the evildoers. So, okay, he's straightened back
out. Now, wait a minute, though. Look at verse 14. He says, cursed
be the day wherein I was born. Don't sing happy birthday to
me. That's what he's saying. That was not a happy day, that
was a cursed day. Let not the day wherein my mother
bear me be blessed. In fact, cursed be the man who
brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto
thee, making him very glad. He said, just let that man be
as the cities which the Lord overthrew and repented not. And let him hear the cry in the
morning and the shouting at noontime because God didn't kill me in
the womb. You know, every child of God
is of course different. There's some of the Lord's people
who are positive And some of the Lord's people are negative,
right? I mean, that's the way it is
with everybody. The whole human race, are you going to run across
people who are positive? It seems like they're always
up. They're always smiling. Everything's fine. Yeah, the
glass is 80% full. And then there are people who
say, you know, it's 20% empty there. There are always negative people.
I mean, that's the way it is. God keep us from becoming negative
people. But we will continue to show
and manifest our own humanity. And grace will be seen, but also
our corruption will be seen. because we're up and down. It's the experience of the people
of God. Why did God tell us? And this
is just one example I'm giving you here from the 20th chapter
of Jeremiah. Why did the Lord set these things
before us? Well, to remind all of us that
even His preachers even his sermon, even an inspired prophet of God, left to himself, there's nothing
to him. He got no strength. And that's
true of this preacher, it's true of all of you, it's true of everybody
who's watching. If God leaves us to ourself,
we're gonna sink right down to the bottom. We won't have any
joy. We won't have any happiness.
We'll be like Jeremiah there in chapter 20. I curse the day
I was born. You know, even Job said that.
I asked Matt to read that passage from Job chapter one, but later
on, Job will say, what's it, chapter three or chapter five?
I forget exactly which one. Job said essentially the same
thing. I curse the day I was born. There really isn't anything to
us by nature. Did you know that? There's no
good to us by nature. The only good is the good that
God brings to us. That life that he gives us in
Christ Jesus. Over here in our text in Lamentations
chapter three, 22 times, In the first 17 verses, Jeremiah essentially
says, of all of his hardships, God did it. God did it. Look at just a few of them here.
He was afflicted. He said, the Lord did it. Look
at chapter three, verse one. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. God has taken his rod to me. Now, it really wasn't the rod
of wrath because there is no rod of wrath for God's children.
The rod of his wrath fell upon his son, the substitute of his
children. And our Lord Jesus felt the rod. He felt the wrath. He bore our
wrath, the wrath that we were deserving of because of our own
sinfulness. He bore all of that wrath and
He consumed it all. Just like on the brazen altar,
the carcass of the animal that was offered to God was consumed.
Well, our Lord Jesus, the fire of God's wrath got hold of Him,
but it didn't consume Him. He consumed that. And there's
no wrath left for the people of God. There's no judgment for
you, nor for me. But Jeremiah, he says, I felt
the rod. I felt the rod. He says in verse
seven, that when his soul was brought into bondage, he felt
like God had hedged him about. Look at verse seven. He's hedged
me about. He's put me in prison. There's
no way out. Have you ever got so low? And some of the Lord's dear people
have gotten this low. You feel so low that there's
no way out. That's how Jeremiah felt. You
see, the people of the Scriptures, they were real people with real
problems. Just like we're real people with
real problems. And when he was at the very end
of himself, at his wits end, as it says in Psalms, he just
felt like the Lord had so hedged him about, he couldn't get out
of any of his troubles. You ever felt that way? One wave
after another. Like the ocean, just wham! One wave hits you, and when you
recover from that, watch out, here comes another one. And I'll tell you what, those
waves of grief and affliction are going to keep on coming through
your life. You can fuss about them. You
can murmur about them. You can tell others about how
difficult it is for you. Or you can bow to the will of
God and ask God for grace and say, Lord, I know you're the
first cause of all things, and I don't understand what you're
doing. Might as well be honest with the Lord. He already knows.
I don't understand what you're doing. Lord, I know you love
me. And I know you have infinite
wisdom. And you will take this which
I'm going through right now. and you'll make it to blend with
everything else that you bring to pass in my life, and you'll
make it all work out for good. That's what God does. That's
what we want. That's the kind of attitude we
want. Look, Jeremiah says, he's made my chain heavy. He's put
me in shackles. Boy, that's getting low, isn't
it? God has put me in shackles. I've got a heavy chain I'm dragging
around. He even says in verse 8, also
when I cry and shout to God, He won't even hear my prayer. Pretty bad when you get that
low. You think God doesn't hear you. He goes on and on. Verse 10,
he says, He was unto me as a bear, lying in wait, as a lion in secret
places. He's comparing God to a bear
and a lion. Oh, Jeremiah, what's the matter
with you? And when we feel the same way,
others might well look at us and say, what's the matter with
you? You know he's not like a wild animal coming after you to tear
you to pieces. Verse 12, he says, he's bent
his bow and he set me for the mark of
the arrow. He's caused the arrows of his
quiver to enter into my reins, one right after another. So much so, he says, things were
so bad, verse 14, I was a derision to all my people. The Lord's
filled me with bitterness. He's made me drunken with wormwood.
He's broken my teeth with gravel, gravel stones. He's covered me
with ashes. He says in verse 17, I forgot
prosperity. Nothing's good. And I even said, my strength
and my hope is perished from the Lord. As I remembered my affliction,
as I remembered my grief. My soul still had them in remembrance
and is humbled in me. And I made mention of this in
a previous message in verse 21. He said, I recall to my mind
who my God is, his glorious selection of grace. He loved me before
he made this world. He chose me to be his child. He sent his son to be my substitute,
to live, die, be buried and rise again for me. He sent His Son
to do that. And as I think of all the goodness
of God to me through Christ Jesus, through His Son, I have hope. Let me tell you something. You
don't have any hope in your grief and in your trial. Your hope's
got to be found in the Lord. In the Lord. A lady sang this
morning, my hope, blessed Jesus, is anchored in Thee. Thy righteousness
only now covereth me. Thy blood shed on Calvary now
is my plea. My hope, my hope is not in myself. It's not in me holding out. It's
not in me enduring to the end. My hope is in Thee! In the living
Christ Jesus who loved me and gave Himself for me. He's my
hope. He's my hope. God does cause grief. He confesses that. Just like Job did. When all those
things happened to Job, as Matt read to us a while ago, when
he heard the news of the death of his children, he didn't say
the Lord gave and the devil has taken away. That's the world's
wrong theology. He said the Lord gave and the
Lord has taken away. Now he still was heartbroken,
and he wept, and we understand that. But he knew the one who had directed
all of this, whose wind blew that house down where they were
meeting. The Lord did. And you know the way Jeremiah
says this in verse 32, but though he caused grief, he doesn't merely
affirm that God causes grief, but he takes it for granted that
his readers already know that. You do know that. I'm confident
that you know it. That when afflictions arise,
the Lord is the one who brings them. Because all things are
of God. But that next section, or the
next section of this verse anyway, though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion. He does cause grief, but his
compassions never fail. That's what Jeremiah discovered.
And he says it earlier in the chapter. In verse 22, it's of
the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed, because His compassions,
they fail not. These things are of God. They're
of God. And then secondly, so Jeremiah
speaks of himself personally, and I've got to go quickly. He
speaks as the representative of his nation. He realizes that the things that
are happening to Judah, to Jerusalem, they are of God. Let me show
you that. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 10. Let me show you this. Isaiah chapter 10. Look at verse 5. And this is
something Isaiah understood. Are you there? Isaiah chapter 10 and verse 5. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger
and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical
nation. and against the people of my
wrath will I give him a charge." Take the spoils, take the prey,
you tread them down like the mire of the streets. God said,
I'm going to raise up this Assyrian king and make no mistake, he's
my rod of anger. He is the staff of mine indignation. But look at verse 7. Howbeit
he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is
in his heart to destroy and cut off nations, not a few. In other
words, he's doing these things because he is covetous, he's
a bloodthirsty monarch, he wants to take over another country,
but what he doesn't realize is he is an instrument of my wrath. And everything that he's going
to do to Judah, He will do because God has purposed it to be done. He will use their natural covetousness
of the Assyrian empire and the king especially. He will use
his anger. He will use his desire for more
power. God will use all of those things
in order to bring to pass that which is purposed to do. And
that's the way it always is. Now, did it relieve the Assyrian
king of the murders that he committed? No. But God would have us, through
the writing of Isaiah, to know behind all of these things is
our God. And the greatest illustration
of this is the wickedness of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish people,
and Herod and Pilate in arresting, falsely accusing, and crucifying
the Lord Jesus Christ. God used their natural enmity
toward the Son of God, their natural hatred and he used it in order to bring
to pass that which he purposed to do, his son would die on a
cross as a sacrifice for poor sinners. And God uses everybody
to fulfill his purpose. Nothing escapes his attention. in 2 Samuel chapter 16 when Absalom
had taken over and David is running, fleeing the country. As he goes
along and on his right hand and on his left hand are the mighty
men of Israel who supported him. And all of a sudden there kind
of comes out of the woods and runs along beside him a man by
the name of Shimei. He started throwing rocks at
David and he cursed David. He cursed David. Man, he's saying
some awful things about the king of Israel. And one of David's
generals said, if you want me to, I'll relieve him of his head. And I won't think twice about
it. And David said, don't do that.
Don't do that. He couldn't curse me if God didn't
will it, if God didn't purpose it. This is for my good. Just leave him alone. And as
they continued on their journey, there went Simeon. He's running
right alongside them, throwing rocks and cursing David, throwing
rocks at David and his men. And there's his mighty men on
both sides. David said, let him be. This
is of God. It's going to take grace that
God will have to give us. But even in the deepest, darkest,
troublesome times of life, the griefs of life, we need to remember it's the Lord who causes grief. I tell you, it'll get you through.
it will get you through the toughest times in life. When my father died, 1975, and
I was obviously a young preacher, there were people who said to
me, I don't know how you're going to be able to do this, preach
your dad's funeral. My brother gave the eulogy and
I preached the message. I couldn't do it in my own strength
because my heart was broken. I think I've even told you, somebody
said to me, take half a nerve pill. My mind is in a fog most of the
time already. I don't need it to be any foggier. I said, whatever I need to feel,
I need to feel it. How can I ever have compassion
upon people who are grieving if in my time of grief, I got
to take a nerve pill? I found my comfort in the Lord,
and I found that He gives grace sufficient for our needs. Listen, rest in Him. depend on Him. He is our fortress. A mighty
fortress is our God. Do we really believe that? Oh
God, help us to believe that. He's a mighty fortress. So Jeremiah speaks as the representative
of the Sufferings and the grief of his own nation. And I'll give
you this, why does God cause grief to his people? Let me just
give you a few things. I'll give them to you quickly
here. Number one, to test our faith. Now if you say you believe
God, faith is gonna be tested now. Genesis chapter 22, after
these things, after all the things that had happened to Abraham,
God had another test for him. You got another test coming up,
did you know that? You got another test. There's
another pop quiz coming up. And it'll pop up just like that
too, warning out. Just before you know it, you
won't even see it coming. The telephone will ring and you'll
pick up that cell phone and say, hello? Oh no. No, the test. How are you going
to handle it? Well, if you handle it according
to the flesh, you'll go to pieces. If God gives you grace and strength,
you'll handle it in a way that's honoring to Him. It's honoring
to believe God, isn't it, Ron? That honors God. If you say,
I want to honor God, I want to please Him, well, then believe
Him. Believe Him. I want to do something. Well, I tell you what, trust
me, believing Him in difficult times, that's going to take the
mercy of God to enable you to do that. And he sends grief to get our
attention. How easy it is for us to become
entangled with the cares of the world. So he sends these griefs
to get our attention. Like somebody said, if God's
gonna deal with me, he's got to get my attention. He does,
that's just a fact. He's got to get our attention. And He sends grief to cause us
to lean more fully on Him. He brings grief to cause us to
cry out to Him, Father. He sends grief to make us groan
in this sinful world and long for the world which is to come.
These griefs have a way of loosening our hold on the world. And he sends them to remind us,
this world is not my home. It isn't. Mr. Spurgeon said this, I read
a sermon he had on this. This is what I took away from
it. He said, we seldom learn very much except as it is beaten
into us by the rod in Christ Jesus' schoolhouse under Madam
Trouble. That's a good sentence. I like
that. I just had to type it in my notes. We seldom learn much except as
it is beaten into us by the rod in Christ's schoolhouse under
Madam Trouble. We learn more from Madam Trouble
than we do from Mr. Joyful. In fact, you know, in
the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon said, it's better to go to the
house of mourning than it is to the house of feasting. It's
better for you, and it isn't a pleasant thing, but it's better
for you to go to the funeral home and see the end of life than
it is for you to go to a birthday party. That's what he's saying. But I've got to get this last
one in. Jeremiah not only speaks of his
own personal experiences, he not only speaks as the representative
of the nation of Judah, but he speaks as it were in the stead
of, or as if he were, the Son of God. Behold his sorrow. He says this back in, go back
to Lamentations 1, bear with me. He says this in verse 12,
Lamentations 1. Our Savior says this, Is it nothing
to you, all ye that pass by, all those people who pass by
the cross, as we again pass by the cross this evening? Behold
and see, is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow? You think you've got it bad? You don't know sorrow like the
man of sorrows knew it. He felt the grief in his soul. Is 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? Behold his sorrow. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He even says this in verse 14,
the Savior, the yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand. He calls our transgressions my
transgressions. Now that's something. My transgressions. He says in Psalm 69 in verse
5, O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
thee. Well, how can he say they're
his? Well, let me just back up and say, they're no longer ours. Are they? They're not ours. They're
his. He took them on himself. Now they weren't, he wasn't a
sinful man, he was a perfect man. And they weren't infused,
our sins weren't infused into him. They weren't imparted into
him. But they were so imputed and
reckoned to him that he said they're mine and I'm answerable
for them. Boy, now that's grace right there.
That's grace. Behold his sorrow. Our sins were
imputed to him, and his righteousness has imputed to us. Behold his affliction. Look at chapter three again,
verse one. I'm the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of
his wrath. Chapter three, verse one. Who
truly could say that except our Lord Jesus Christ? He felt the rod of God's wrath. You'll never feel it. He'll never
whip you with that rod. He won't do it. He's not going
to punish you for your sins. The rod of His justice fell on
His only begotten Son. And He satisfied justice. Behold his affliction. He says
this in verse two, he hath led me. He brought me into darkness.
Hey, three hours of it, right? Three hours of darkness. Surely against me as he turned,
God turned his back on his only begotten son. Boy, there was
something in that transaction that was too big for us to comprehend. I'll tell you that. We just know
a little bit. But this was the transaction
of all transactions when the Savior rendered to the Father
and His justice that which justice demanded, both punishment and
sin. or death, the death of the Savior. He hath led me. Scripture says
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Really, there hadn't
been but one good man. He said to the man, we know you're
good. He said, there's none good but
God, you said, I'm God. There's none good but God. One
good man. and his steps were ordered by
the Lord. And if he ordered the steps of the one good man, those
of us who are made good in Christ Jesus, you may rest assured,
your steps are also ordered by the Lord. Every single one of
them. In verse eight, he cried to no
avail. Also, when I cry and shout, He
shuts out my prayer. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? And the heavens are silent. You
just go all through this, you see how this is certainly applicable
to our Savior. And He became the hunted one.
Justice pursued Him. He was a derision to His enemies. and he was wounded. Look at verse
30. He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach. You can read in the book of Isaiah
chapter 50, he gave his back to the smiters. In verse 32, though he caused
grief, God put him to grief. Read Isaiah 53 again. God put him to grief. But all
of these things happened to him because of the multitude of God's
mercies to us. So remember, all things that happen to you
as a child of God, all these things happen on purpose. You may never know the purpose
of God and any difficulty that you are called upon to endure. It's not our business to know
the secrets of God's decrees. It is our business to believe
He does all things well. And I say, Lord, I believe. I
sure hope you'll help my unbelief so I can just believe this a
little stronger. Well, let's sing a closing song.