of my Lamentations chapter 2. Let's ask God to bless again. Father, we bow before you this
evening as people who are unworthy of the least of your mercies. Indeed, we come to You as mercy
beggars. We confess we deserve nothing
good from You, but rather the very judgment
of God because of our sins. Lord, our fitness and our worthiness
to draw near to You is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His name that is most precious. This is the name that Gabriel
gave to Mary, later to Joseph, And this name means Jehovah,
our Savior. Our Redeemer is God who saves. And Lord, we come to You through
His name, through His merits. And now we confess our utter
need of You. Lord, the preacher needs You.
Lord, the hearers We need you. We ask that the Spirit of Grace
would come upon us and these next few moments that we share
together may it be a time of seriousness, a time of reflection,
a time of thinking of our own sinfulness, Rejoicing, rejoicing in the Lord
Jesus and his once and forever offering for sin. Lord, he is
our righteousness. He is our wisdom. He is our sanctification. And
he is our redemption. And as You enable us, we shall
only glory in Him. So Lord, help us tonight for
Jesus' sake. Amen. As I observe religion, so much
of religion in 2021, I feel duty bound to be honest
with you and see if I can expose the vast majority of religion
today as being a sham and a fraud. That's just to be honest with
you. It's a sad thing that you can't
believe every preacher that comes along carrying a Bible saying
he's speaking for God. You just can't do that. No wonder
we're admonished in the Scriptures that we should be like the Bereans. They searched the Scriptures
daily to see if those things that they were hearing from the
lips of the Apostle Paul were so. And I would say this to all
of you, and I'd say this to those of you who are watching by way
of the internet or you're listening to this message later on. You're
absolutely foolish if you receive everything that every preacher
says without, first of all, consulting God's Word to see if this is
what God says. You've got to be cautious. There
are two things I think I know that have got to be always on
our minds. Number one, who is getting honored
through the preaching? Who is getting glorified? That
should always be of utmost importance to you. Is the preacher exalting God? Or is he belittling God? Preachers
today, most of them, they belittle God. They've got a little god
that should be spelled with a little g. Because their god is quite
pitiful. He wants to do some things, but
sinners won't let him. And his hands are tied. I was watching a little bit of
one of the false prophets on TV the other day, and he said,
God wants to make you wealthy. If you'd just believe in Him,
He would. He would. And he said, God doesn't
want you to be sick. God wants you to be healthy.
And if you're not healthy, it's because you don't believe Him
enough. That man is absolutely, without
question, he is lying on God. And no telling how much money
he's got, because he flies around in a jet that costs I don't know
how many millions of dollars. but gullible people sending money. In this day of religious darkness,
religious chaos, religious ignorance, religious confusion, people who
profess that they're going to heaven, they have a no-soul salvation,
and yet they have no idea of what heaven is like. I've said this before, most people
wouldn't be happy in heaven if God let them go there. Because
heaven is not what the natural man thinks it's going to be. A comedy show on television. Somebody was explaining to a
little boy what heaven's going to be like. And he said, what
do you enjoy doing down here? He said, I love to fish. He said,
that's what heaven will be for you. You go fishing any time
you want to. That's sad, isn't it? You know
what heaven is? It's a place of worship. What
are folks in heaven doing? They're honoring God's Lamb. They're blessing God for His
salvation. They're singing salvation to
our God and unto the Lamb, the Lamb of God who was slaughtered
for His people. And as I listen to these preachers,
and every once in a while I'll tune into them on the television,
As I listen to them, I don't ever, ever hear any of them asking
the kind of questions that need to be answered. Oh, they're asking,
do you want to be wealthy? You want to be healthy? Most
people would answer, well, who doesn't? I can tell you a question
that I'm asking. They're not asking how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Nobody's asking that. I have
never heard one of these preachers on television ever bring that
subject up. And the reason is because they
don't know the answer to the question. And it's one of the
oldest questions in God's Word. How can God be just, just and
holy and righteous, and yet justify, declare people like us to be
righteous in His sight? How can God do that? He doesn't
just utter those words. He can only do it in a way that's
consistent with His own justice. He can only justify on the basis
of His righteousness, His holiness, and His justice being satisfied
in the death of the Lord Jesus. That's the only way God can be
just and justify. He can't justify you apart from
a substitute who dies in your stead. And that substitute has
got to be God Himself. He's got to be equal with God
and He's got to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
That's absolutely vital. That's the only way God can justify. He can't just wave His arm and
say, well, I forgive you all. He can't do that. He's too holy. He'd have to forsake his title
as God if he were to do that. That can never happen. He can
never cease to be just. He can never cease to be holy.
And he can only forgive on the basis of a suitable sacrifice,
a suitable substitute laying down his life in the stead of
the guilty. That's the only way. But I don't
hear many people asking that question. I don't hear any preachers,
at least not any on television, asking the question of how can
God be just and justify the ungodly? Or how can he be clean? Who is
born of a woman? How can we be clean? We're born
filthy. We're born stinking. Well, how
is it that a holy God, who charges His angels with folly, and in
whose sight the heavens aren't even pure, how can He take somebody
like me, somebody like you, and then welcome them into His presence,
embrace us to His own bosom, and not compromise His justice. And the only way is through the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus. You know the answers to
these questions, but most people don't. And they're wrapped up
in religion. People are sold out to their
religion, but it's a religious lie, sadly. People are called upon to believe
a God they've never heard about. Our brother just read to us from
Romans chapter 10. Whosoever calleth upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him
of whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him of whom they've not heard? People don't hear a thing about
God. They don't hear a thing about how holy God is. How righteous
God is? How powerful God is? I hear preachers say, God needs
you. Would you let God? That's one of the most ridiculous,
stupidest statements there ever was. Won't you let God do thus
and so? Let God? God who made all things? God who said, is there anything
impossible with me? God who spoke the world into
existence. God who said, let there be light,
and there was light. God who created man out of the
dust of the ground. God who breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life. And you gonna keep God from doing
his will? that He needs your okay before
He can save you? It's sad to listen to religion
today. It really is. Religion has practically
no true concept of who God is. He's really to them more of an
influence. Somebody who wants to help you,
but is hindered by man being uncooperative. Oh, he's got a
good plan for your life. How many times have I heard that
guy out of Atlanta, Georgia say that? Big church. God's got a
wonderful plan for your life. If only you let him have his
way. What about God's omnipotence? What about God can do anything
consistent with His own holy character? What about the God of purpose? What about the God who said,
I will do all my purpose. And you can't frustrate me. People don't know anything about
such a god. The god of religion today, he's
a pathetic failure. That's what he is. And I do like
Elijah did to the gods that those false prophets called on. They're
on Mount Carmel. I mock them. I mock their false
gods. If you're one of the ones, anybody
here, anybody out there, you're one of the ones who you worship
one of these false gods, who wants to but he can't, he desires
to but you won't let him, he's got a wonderful plan for your
life, which may or may not come to pass, but it's all up to you.
If you're one of those, I feel sorry for your God. Your God's
a pathetic failure. He's nothing. He's no more than
an idol. People are called to believe
on a Savior they know little to nothing about. They call Him Jesus, but they don't know what His
name means. What a beautiful name. The angel said to Joseph, now
you call Him Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
You see, this Jesus has got a people. They were given to Him from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue in God's election of grace. Way
back in the everlasting covenant of grace, God ordained a people
to be His own. to be His children. He predestinated
them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. And
He gave those people over to His Son. It was a gift. All that
the Father giveth Me, the Savior said, they'll come to Me and
I won't cast them out. These were chosen in grace and
given to the mighty Savior. God said in Psalm 89, I've laid
help upon one who's mighty. Not a needy Savior, not a Savior
who needs your permission before He can save you, but a mighty
one. He's the Almighty God. Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6
says that. Thou shalt call His name, Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God." Well, is He mighty or not? The Everlasting Father, and He's
the Prince of Peace. I'll tell you, we have been blessed
because we know who He is. He's the Savior. And He saved
a people. When that angel said to Joseph,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people,
those people the Father gave Him, I would raise his question,
well, did He save them or not? And if He did save them, how
did He do it? Or did He go back to heaven and
say to the Father, I tried to save them. Oh, that's foolish. He saved these people by His
blood work upon the cross of Calvary. When He laid down His
life in the stead of the guilty. That's when He saved us. That's
when the issue was settled. That old song, the issue was
settled long ago. When? Back at Calvary. when He gave Himself a ransom
for our sins. And the justice of God looked
on Him and found Him to be accountable for all the sins of all of His
people. And justice went after Him and
found Him and poured out God's wrath on Him. And then He endured
it all until the cup of divine justice and wrath was empty.
And the Savior said, It is finished. That's when we were saved. In fact, you asked me when I
was saved. I was saved before the foundation
of the world. I've always been saved. Because I've always been in Christ
Jesus. Because in old eternity, I have
always been His. And He's always been mine. And
I have been safe and secure in this shepherd of the sheep. I
was saved then. I was saved when he laid down
his life for the sheep. The good shepherd who laid it
down. He said, nobody's going to take it from me. I laid it
down on myself. And I was saved when the Spirit
of God convicted me of my sinfulness. and showed me the only hope I
had was in a crucified, buried, risen, exalted Savior. I was
saved then. And one of these days, even this
body is going to be saved when it's raised from the grave. Oh,
my soul is saved. I'm going to heaven when I die. unless the Lord comes soon and
takes us all home, that'd be just fine with me. And we just
miss that part. But if we don't, if He doesn't
come back and we go ahead and meet Him by way of the grave,
that's okay too, isn't it? That's okay. Because David said,
yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I'll fear no evil. Why David, you got a strong faith?
No, that's not the reason. You're mighty in believing? No,
that's not the reason. Why aren't you going to fear?
Thou art with me. That's what he said. Thou art
with me. There's no need or reason to
be afraid of anything. He's with us and He takes us
home to heaven. That's just fine. Man, I want
to go and worship Him in perfection. This body will have to be cast
aside. And the funeral home will take
my body and whatever they do to it to get it halfway presentable
so that people can look at me and say, well, don't He look
natural? No, he looks dead to me. We're so afraid of death, even
in death we want to look like we're alive. He looks so natural,
doesn't he? Well, that's all right. That's
all right. And this body will be buried,
but one day the Lord's coming back and he's going to raise
this body. See, he redeemed this body too,
right? He redeemed this. Ain't much
to it now. Oh, I know we're fearfully and
wonderfully made, but our construction now has been ruined because of
sin. There's disease and weakness
that has invaded, continues to invade the body. And so the body's
going to die. And worms are going to devour
it. But like Job, My Redeemer liveth. I know He does. And in
my flesh, I shall see God. And not another, I'll see Him
for myself. He's gonna make me a new body.
This same body's gonna make it over new. And when He does that,
then I can say, I'm fully saved now. I'm fully saved. But people don't know too much
about that. And the reason people are so
ignorant, I'm talking about religious people now, the reason they're
so ignorant about who God is, who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit
is, what our condition is, the reason is because preachers are
not being honest with people. Preachers don't know. I'll actually lay something else
at the feet of the preachers. The reason this country's in
the awful condition it's in, to a great degree, is because
preachers have lied on God. Don't take the Word of God anymore.
They've got books to read out of, got sermons for a year, They can, like I've told you
before, a church up in Michigan not far from us where I pastored,
they ran the tapes of Andy Griffith because it teaches such good
moral lessons. It's no wonder we're in the kind
of shape we're in. It's like I told you, was it
last week, I heard those two guys talking, they were talking
about a professor at some kind of religious college, and one
fellow said to the other, he said, don't use the Bible to back up your argument, because
he despises the Word of God. And in our seminaries today,
all question marks about the authenticity of the Word of God,
the inspiration of the Word of God. Is there any wonder when
the kind of shape we're in? Let me tell you something. In
the days of God's preacher, his name was Jeremiah, he lamented,
he lamented about the spiritual corruption of Jerusalem and Judah. He wept. He's called the weeping
prophet for a reason. He wept because he saw what was
going on. He heard the false prophets who
said to the people, peace, peace. There wasn't any peace. In fact,
you can go back into the book of Jeremiah, and I don't have
time to do that now, but Jeremiah notes one of the false prophets,
his name was Hananiah. And Hananiah said, he said to
all the people, we're going to be taken into captivity in Babylon,
just like Jeremiah said, but it's just going to be two years.
And then God told me to tell you, I hear that on television. I
just got a word from the Lord. God just told me to tell you.
Boy, run as fast as you can if somebody says that to you. Because
everything God's got to say He says in this book. But that man,
false prophet, he said, God said to me, two years, All the things
that Nebuchadnezzar stole from the temple, they'll all be given
back and everything's going to be just fine. And Jeremiah said, you are lying. That is not what God said. God
didn't give you that message. Furthermore, Jeremiah said, before
this year ends, you're going to die. And he did. He died. Because they stayed in captivity
not two years, but seventy years. And he went around saying, peace,
peace. Everything will be alright. And
Jeremiah said, that's not true. It's not true. And he laments. He laments over
the sad condition of Jerusalem and Judah. They forsook God. They forsook the way to God.
They forsook the Word of God. They had the Scriptures, they
had the Word of God, but they took it for granted. And then
Nebuchadnezzar came in, the Babylonians, who were God's instruments of
judgment. They came in. You know what they
did to the Word of God? The people had ignored the Word
of God. They didn't follow the Word of God. They didn't believe
the Word of God. You know what the Babylonians
did when they came in? They burned the Word of the Lord.
They took it for granted. God's on our side. Really? Really? Now His Word's taken
from you. And I'm going to tell you something,
if he ever takes the Word of God away from you, you've got
no hope. That's it. That's what happened
to Judah. And they were carried off into
captivity. And in Babylon, only Ezekiel
and Daniel were taken into Babylon. Jeremiah still left in Jerusalem
with a very, very small remnant. And then after the Babylonian
captivity, there'll be Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi, and
that's all, under the coming of Messiah. And God wasn't pleased to raise
up very many truthful voices. And the warning to you and me
tonight is, number one, don't take the Word of the Gospel for
granted. They say, it'll always be here.
Really? You look at those seven churches
of Asia Minor. They're not even in existence
anymore. Great churches of the past. They're
not in existence anymore. What happened to them? Error
crept in. Legalism crept in. Those who
taught another way of salvation, they came in and intermingled
with the congregation and slowly began to instruct people in wrong
things. And suddenly, churches that were
very strong, very truthful, they slowly slipped into idolatry. And a good example of that is
the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptists. One of the men who was so influential,
James Pettigrew Boyce. I've got his theology book in
my office. And most Southern Baptist churches
still have the confession of faith of the old Baptists. And
don't believe it. And if you confront them, if
you tell them, well, you ought to go back and look at the history
of your denomination, they'll read it and say, well, I didn't
know it said that. That's because they've forsaken the truth of
God. And you see, this is what troubled
Jeremiah. And he laments. He's full of
sadness. That's why it's called the Lamentations
of Jeremiah. And in the second chapter, there's
only 22 verses. 44 times in the second chapter
of Lamentations, Jeremiah attributes all of the harsh and painful
and cruel things that happened to Judah. He attributes it all
to God who's pouring out just judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah,
44 times. And I hear people say, well,
God's not gonna do anything bad to anybody. They forget about
the words of Amos, shall there be evil in the city and the Lord
hath not done it. Here in the second chapter, he laments. Judah's departure
from the truth of God. And he laments something else.
And let me touch on this. He laments the judgment of God
that is sure to fall. And he weeps over it. It saddens
him. Because these are people he loved.
People he preached to. People he ministered to. And they wouldn't listen to him.
Oh, he had a beautiful voice. They said, boy, we loved hearing
him preach. But they didn't believe what
he preached. They didn't believe. And I think one of the things,
one of the applications of this that we can make is that because
God will bring them back. He'll bring a remnant back. And
even among all of Judah, there's always a remnant according to
the election of grace. And God is going to save those
people. Now the nation as a whole is
being punished. And even those who are the people
of God, the elect of God, they will suffer horribly also. But God is going to use these
difficult days in order to wound their hearts and bring them to
their wits end until they cry out to God. And then the Lord
will hear and the Lord will heal. I've covered as many verses as
I can. I'm just going to go through, make a few comments here in the
second chapter of Lamentations. Notice how he's always talking
about the Lord did these things. Chapter 2, Lamentations verse
1. How hath the Lord covered the
daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger? Who brought this
dark cloud? Well, surely not God. That's
the way preachers are today. God wouldn't bring a dark cloud
in your life. Really. Well, it says here, how
hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a dark cloud, with
a cloud, in His anger? And He's cast down from heaven
unto the earth the beauty of Israel. And He remembered not
His footstool in the day of His anger. God's angry. Scripture
says he's angry with the wicked every day. Notice in verse 2, the Lord hath
swallowed up all the inhabitants of Jacob, and hath not pitied. He saw to it that they were all
taken into captivity. It says He's thrown down in His
wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. In His wrath,
He threw them down. Every stronghold they trusted
in. And let me tell you something.
If God's going to save you, if you're yet lost in your sins,
if He's going to save you, He is going to cast down every stronghold,
everywhere you think you've found a refuge, God is going to expose
that as being a refuge of lies. You say, I've been baptized,
preacher. He's got to show you and convict you, that baptism
you got that you're trusting in, thinking you're okay with
God. It did you no good. You just went in a dry center
and come out a wet center. It didn't wash any sins away.
He's going to knock all the props out from under you. That's the
meaning. He's going to see to it that his people are taken
into Babylon and they're going to find out every stronghold
they trusted in and relied upon were false refuges. Didn't do
them any good. He says here in verse 2, he's
brought them down to the ground. He's polluted the kingdom and
the princes thereof. And look at verse 3, he's cut
off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel, all their power,
great country, great nation, blessed of God. Now he's cut
off their horn, he's cut off the power. He's drawn back His
right hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob like
a flaming fire which devoureth round about. In other words,
He'd been holding back the Babylonians, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians.
He'd been holding them back. No, no, you're not going into
Judah. And God said, go on. Look at verse 4. He's bent his
bow like an enemy. And Judah was his target. He stood with his right hand
as an adversary. Oh my soul, how horrible would
it be for God Almighty to be your adversary. Who could stand? And it says, he slew. He slew
all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the
daughter of Zion. He poured out his fury like fire. Those who labored in the temple,
the priesthood. Verse five, the Lord was as an
enemy. He swallowed up Israel. He swallowed
up her palaces. He's destroyed his strongholds. He's increased the daughter of
Judah's mourning and lamentations. Look at them now! They're a weeping
people. They're broken. They're broken. We'd put it this way. He took
the starch out of them. And I want to tell you something,
God does that before He reveals His grace to us. He's going to
take the starch out of us. Yeah. You think you're something? God's going to have to show you
nothing. You think you're fit to enter
into His holy presence? He's going to have to show you
your unfitness for His presence. Look at verse 6. He hath violently
taken away His tabernacle as if it were a garden. Just like
a man would plow up his garden. God just destroyed the tabernacle,
the temple. He's destroyed His places of
the assembly. The Lord has caused the solemn
feasts and the Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised
in the indignation of His anger the King and the priests. The
King? The king's position, he ordained the priesthood. He despises
them. Why? Oh, they were still going
through some of the ceremonial actions of religion, but there
was no heart worship. There wasn't any heart. It was
all lip service. Verse 7, the Lord hath cast off
His altar, the brazen altar, the golden altar of incense.
He has cast it aside. He has abhorred His sanctuary. He's given up into the hand of
the enemy the walls of her palaces. And they have made a noise in
the house of the Lord as in the day of a solemn feast. In other
words, there's noise in the house of God now, but it's a bunch
of pagans. because the Jews have been taken
into captivity. Well, what is this all about?
Look at verse 8. The Lord has purposed to destroy
the wall. Look, the daughter of Zion. She
thinks she's safe. You think you're safe? Oh, I
do this, I do that. I read my Bible, I pray. That's good. Is that the wall
that you think protects you though? I'm a good person. Is that the
wall you think that will hide you from the judgment of God? Oh, that God would destroy that
wall. He's lamenting. It's a sad spiritual condition
here. And it says, He hasn't withdrawn
His hand from destroying. God's not finished. That's what
He says. Therefore, He made the rampart
and the wall to lament. They languished together. Her
gates are sunken to the ground. He hath destroyed and broken
her bars. Everything that she had hoped
in and thought protected her, God took it away from her. And
I hope God will do that for you. Take away everything that you've
trusted in till you see there is no refuge for you except Christ
Jesus the Lord. There's no safety anywhere else. And it doesn't matter what He
has to take away from you to bring you to that position, to
bring you to see that God can only justly save through the
death of His Son. Whatever it takes. Whatever it
takes. For my family members and for
your family members as well. Whatever it takes. Oh God, destroy
it. Show us there's no hope except
in King Jesus. In His bloody sacrifice and in
His righteousness. He says here in verse 9, Her
king and her princes are among the Gentiles. Where are the leaders
of Judah? Oh, they're among the Gentiles
now, they're in captivity. And watch this, the law of God,
the Word of God, it is no more. You take the Word of God for
granted, He might take it away from you. The worship of God, you take
it for granted, Well, the church will always be there. Will it? Take it for granted? He can sure
take it away. He put it here. He can take it
away. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. They have no message from God.
The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground. They
keep silence. They used to sit at the gate
of the city. And in their wisdom, they decided
cases. And how they're sitting in the
dirt, casting dust up upon their heads and their sorrow. Is this
mighty Jerusalem? Is this mighty Judah? They've girded themselves with
sackcloth. And the virgins of Jerusalem
hang down their heads to the ground. There is no more joy. There is
no more jubilation. Sadness. You see, God is breaking
the hearts of His people and bringing them to Himself. And
Jeremiah says, mine eyes do fail with tears. My bowels are troubled. My liver is poured upon the earth. for the destruction of the daughter
of My people, because the children and the sucklings, they swoon
in the streets of the city." This is a preacher who's broken
hearted. No wonder he's so often likened
to our Lord Jesus. Jeremiah is the weeping prophet.
Our Lord wept over the city of Jerusalem. Verse 12, they say to their mothers,
the kids do, where is the corn and the wine? Where are those
days of plentifulness? When they swooned as the wounded
in the streets of the city. When their soul was poured out
into their mother's bosom. Jeremiah said, What things shall
I take to witness for thee? What things shall I liken to
thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee that
I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach
is great like the sea. Who can heal thee? It's like
the sea when there's a storm and the waves keep coming in
and they breach the walls of the city and they begin to wash
everything away and flood the city. And he says, Who can heal
her? Only the great physician. He's the only one who can help. He says in verse 14, thy prophets
have seen vain and foolish things for thee. They prophesied foolishly. They've not discovered thine
iniquity. They hadn't told you the truth
of how full of iniquity you are. They've soft-peddled this matter
of sinfulness Look at verse 15. And all that
pass by, all the strangers that pass by, they clap their hands
at thee. They hiss and wag their head
at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that
men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth, as
is said in Psalm 48? Is this that city? Is this the
city of David? Is this the city of God? What
has happened to this city? God came upon her in judgment. Verse 16, all thine enemies have
opened their mouth against thee. They hiss and gnash the teeth.
They say, we've swallowed her up. That's what the Babylonians
say. And certainly this is the day that we look for. We found
it. We've seen it. We conquered. It wasn't you,
Nebuchadnezzar. This is God's work. The Lord hath done that which
he hath devised. You ought to underline that.
The Lord hath done that which he devised. This is not according
to the plans of Nebuchadnezzar. This is not according to the
plans and the schemes of the heads of Babylon. This is God
fulfilling His purpose to bring His chosen people down, down,
high, low, all the way to the ground. And knock all the props
out from you to where you have nowhere to look except to the
Lord. He has fulfilled His Word that
He commanded in the days of old. His Word is always going to be
fulfilled. He's thrown down and he hadn't
pitted. He's caused thine enemy to rejoice
over thee. He set up the horn of thine adversaries,
their heart, they cry unto the Lord. Oh, wall of the daughter
of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself
no rest, let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, even
cry in the night. In the beginning of the watches,
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
that faint for hunger in the top of every street." Cry it
out to God. Folks, this is our only hope.
It's in the God of salvation. And he says, this is what the
prophet says, Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast
done this." Who did it? God did. Lord, behold and consider to
whom thou hast done this. You did it to your people. You brought them down. Verse
21, the young and the old lie on the ground in the streets.
My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. Thou hast
slain them in the day of thine anger. Thou hast killed and not
pitied. Lord, you've done this. Thou has called as in a solemn
day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord's
anger, none escaped nor remained. Those that I have swaddled and
brought up hath mine enemy consumed. Oh God, behold. Behold our dilemma. That's what we cry to God. Lord,
look on me. I'm a pitiful mess. I deserve any earthly judgment
you can give me, and I deserve everlasting judgment. But oh
Lord, behold. Behold me. Look on me in love. Look on me in pity. Look on me
and save me for Jesus' sake. That's the cry of the prophet
of God. Oh Lord, we don't deserve anything from You. We've ignored
You, taken for granted Your Word. The Gospel can be preached and,
well, if we get to hear it, fine. If we don't, that's okay. There'll
be other times. We take these things so lightly.
And we're all guilty of it, right? We're all guilty. We're guilty
of taking the Word of God for granted. Lord, don't reward me according
to my sins. Reward me according to the faithfulness
of your son. See your son and his obedience
unto death, and then remember me. And Lord, look on me in Christ. And then I know everything will
be just fine. And even though you destroy this
earth someday, it won't bother me at all. Because I'm one with Christ Jesus. So let come what may. It's okay. It's okay. It's a very powerful
chapter, isn't it? And I apologize for not doing
justice to it. You know, when it comes to the
Word of God, Who is sufficient for these things? That's what
Paul says. Who is sufficient for these things? Certainly not
me. But God often overcomes the inadequacies
of His servants, and He blesses His people, I think often in
spite of who delivers the message. It's not the messenger, it's
the message. Christ and Him crucified. Lord,
bless the words that have gone forth tonight. Such an awesome
passage. And we would do well to do a
little lamenting ourselves over the horrible condition of so-called
Christendom today. And I know we can't change the
world. We're not called to do that.
We can't change professing Christianity. We're not called to do that.
But here's what we are called to do. Preach the Gospel. Stay true to the Word of God.
Always seek God's glory. God's honor. And always, always
declare the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary justice satisfying
death burial and resurrection, and His exaltation on high. And
let come what may. Whatever you do with this country,
Lord, it'll be all right for your people. We rest in you. For Jesus' sake we pray, amen.