Now turn in your Bibles to the
book of Lamentations, chapter 5. Lamentations, chapter 5. Now the title of the message
this evening is taken from verse 21, next to the last verse, which
the prophet speaks a prayer from his heart as he laments the sad
condition of Jerusalem and Judah. He says, Turn thou us unto thee,
O Lord, and we shall be turned. The title is Turn Us, O Lord. Now, I have two points in this
message as we look at this whole chapter. The first point is dealing
with the first 18 verses. And the first point is simply
this. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. Sinners in the
hands of an angry God. You've heard that title before,
haven't you? A sermon used to be printed in our American literature
books in high school. I don't know if they do that
anymore or not. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. And then
secondly, beginning around verse 19, the second point is sinners
in the hands of a gracious God. Sinners in the hands of a gracious
God. As we've seen in this little
short book of Lamentations, which is a follow-up to the prophecy
of Jeremiah, Lamentations is the sorrow of
God's prophets. sorrowing from his heart over
the sad state of his nation, his people, his family. This
chapter 5, Lamentations 5, is really a detailed story of Judah's
sufferings under the judgment of God for her sins. And Judah,
like all nations and all men and women by nature, had failed
miserably. under the terms of a covenant
where salvation is conditioned upon them. And understand that
at the whole old Testament is such a glaring testimony to the
fact that if God places us under any form of a conditional covenant
for salvation, we'll fail. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. This first part of chapter five,
this sinners in the hands of an angry God, reads like another
description of man's ruin and sin. What is said here about
Judah and Jerusalem physically and the suffering they're going
through and the state that they're in can be said of all men and
women by nature spiritually fallen in Adam. This is the state of
the nation, the state of the human race as fallen in Adam,
ruined by the fall. It speaks of the depravity of
man. It sets forth the certainty of
the punishment of all sin. God must punish sin. He can by
no means clear the guilty. He cannot look over sin because
He's a holy God. It's not in His nature to let
sin go by. It is not. And sin always brings
death and destruction, doesn't it? The wages of sin is death. Sin, when it is finished, brings
death. James 2. But in seeing these
sinners in the hands of an angry God, we can see ourselves if
left to ourselves. We can see our state without
God. And what these revelations and
descriptions, graphic descriptions of man's depravity, man's state
in sin are for in the Bible, is ultimately to show us our
need of God's grace, our need of God's mercy, our need of Christ. That's what it's for. Let me
just read through these verses. Verse 1, remember, O Lord, what
is come upon us. Consider and behold our reproach. It says our inheritance is turned
to strangers, our houses to aliens. Foreigners had invaded the land,
taken over. We're orphans and fatherless.
Our mothers are as widows, destitute. We've drunken our water for money.
They had to pay for their own water. Our wood is sold unto
us. They had to buy their wood, the
wood of their own land on their own farms and areas. I thought
about that. They've drunken their own water
for money. And I thought about back in Jeremiah
2, 13, where he said the people had committed two great evils.
They'd forsaken the fountain of living waters and hewn out
for themselves cisterns that'll hold no water. That's kind of
like just a description of us, isn't it, by nature? Verse 5,
our necks are under persecution. We labor and have no rest. They're
like slaves. We've given the hand to the Egyptians
and to the Assyrians to be satisfied with bread. They sold themselves
to these countries just to get something to eat. I thought about
how, you know, God provides for His people. We don't have to
sell our souls to the devil to get something to eat. He provides
for us, doesn't He? Verse 7, Our fathers have sinned
and are not, they're gone, and we've borne their iniquities.
Well, you know, when you see passages like that, you know,
that's repeated several times in the Scripture. The children,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are
set on edge. That's like proverbial expressions.
And it's not an accusation upon God as if he's unjust. I mean,
why should the children suffer for what the fathers did? The
point that's being made in verses like that, in these proverbial
expressions, is not that God is unjust. He's not. God would
never condemn the righteous And he would never justify the sinner
in that sense. He always judges according to
truth. But the point that's being made
here, our fathers have sinned and are not, and we've borne
their iniquities, is this, that the children are just like the
fathers. Sin runs deep. Adam sinned and brought the whole
human race into sin and death and condemnation. And that sin
runs all the way through the human race. It's not that the
fathers have sinned and the children have not. The fathers sin and
are not. The children have borne their iniquities. The children
are just like them. We're all born in sin. Now it's
true that certain things that the Israelites did under that
old covenant had far-reaching consequences unto several generations. That's true. But don't ever think
that the children were better than the fathers. They weren't.
It got worse and worse. Even from this time to Jeremiah,
through that intertestamental period between Malachi and Matthew,
look at the state of the nation. Look at our nation. Think about
it, people talk about how things have gotten worse. And I think,
I agree in some sense that certain things have gotten worse as to
the openness of them. But my friend, listen, the generation
before us was just as sinful as the generation today. And
go on back, go on back, all the way to Adam. Look at verse eight. Servants have ruled over us.
Slaves rule over them. You see, there's none that doth
deliver us out of their hand. There's no deliverance here.
You can't escape the wrath of God. This is sinners in the hands
of an angry God. You cannot escape it. It says
in verse 9, we got our bread with the peril of our lives because
of the sword of the wilderness. What he's talking about there
is how they have to risk their lives to gather food in the desert
where there's bandits who'll kill them. Verse 10, our skin
was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. In other
words, It's almost like the aging process that speeded up. Verse
11, they ravaged the women in Zion and the maids in the cities
of Judah. Their women were raped by these invaders. Princes are
hanged up by their hands. The faces of elders were not
honored. You see, there's no class of people that could escape
the wrath of God for sin, the judgment of God for sin. You
could be rich or noble, but that doesn't relieve you. Verse 13, they took the young
men to grind and the children fell under the wood. The young
men had to do the work of grinding the grain, not to feed themselves,
but to feed their conquerors. Children had to go to work. Verse
14, the elders have ceased from the gate. That means there's
no counsel, no judgment, no wise men to settle issues and matters
of government. The young men from their music,
they stopped dancing and playing and singing. The joy of our heart
is ceased. That's the consequences. Man
in sin may prosper for a while. He may smile for a while, but
it won't last. The joy of our heart is ceased.
Our dance is turned into mourning. Sorrow. The crown is fallen from
our head. We have no nobility, no dignity. Woe unto us. And here's the key. You could say that we have sinned
or you could say for we have sinned. For we have sinned. Then he says, for this our heart
is faint. For these things our eyes are
dim. This body is dead because of
sin. That's what the scripture says. Because of the mountain
of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes, or some translations say
the jackals, walk upon it. There it is. You want a picture
of man at his best state? There he is. Isn't that something?
What a graphic description of sinners in the hands of an angry
God. Sinners receiving what we deserve
and what we've earned. That's it. There you go. That's
the best you can hope for unless, unless something else takes place. Here's the second point. Sinners
in the hands of a gracious God. And I want you to notice this.
Let me read through these last verses and I'll come back and
make some comments now. He says in verse 19, now listen.
Thou, O Lord, remainest forever. thy throne from generation to
generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us
forever? Why have you forgotten us forever
and forsake us for so long a time? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord,
and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old, but
thou hast utterly rejected us. Thou art very wroth or angry
against us. Most scholars agree, and I agree
with this. If you look at the actual language, the original
language of verse 22, it could and should read something like
this, unless thou hast utterly rejected us, unless thou art
very angry against us. It's kind of like in the form
of a question. or a pondering meditation, which
simply means this. This is our state by nature.
This is the best we are and can do. And if we're going to have
any salvation, any redemption, God's the one who must do it.
We can't do it. And that's what he's talking
about. And if God would ever give us what we deserve, this
is it. Well, the first thing when we talk about sinners in
the hands of a gracious God, The first thing that he brings
forth in verse 19 is simply this. That salvation, whatever it is,
salvation is of the Lord. Look at verse 19 again. Thou,
O Lord, remainest forever. Now what he's saying is this.
The sinfulness and depravity and even the destruction of man
under the just wrath of God has not changed God one iota. It's
not, listen, it's not affected God, one iota. Now that may sound cold and cruel
and distant to somebody. Say, well, God's not affected
by this? Let me tell you something now.
God is God. He changes not. He changes not. God is a loving God. He is a gracious God. He is a
compassionate God. I don't know how to explain that
to you because it's not emotions like us. God doesn't change. He's not happy one day and sad
the next. Sometimes the scripture describes
God and his actions in human terms not to relate a changing
God. but just to come down on our
level. It's just like when we talk to
our children and we talk to them in baby talk or in terms that
they might understand these high concepts that they'll have to
grow into in adulthood. There are things about God that
we can't grasp, but here's the thing about it. Whatever happens
in God's sovereign will, God working all things after the
counsel of His own will, God remains forever. He has no beginning
and no end. Has no beginning and no end.
He has no father, no mother. We do. But God doesn't. God has
always existed. And He never changes. But, the
thing about it is, we need to understand that the fact that
God never changes is the salvation of His people. Malachi 3.6, how
many times we quoted? I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's His
mercy. We read back in Lamentations
3 in verse 22 where Jeremiah wrote, it is of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed because His compassions fail not. God remains forever. God is sovereign. God is in control. His mercies
endureth forever. The ground and assurance of salvation
come from his throne. And look at it verse 19 again.
Thy throne from generation to generation. Now salvation, just
like the justice of God against all sin and depravity comes from
his throne, salvation also comes from his throne. God is sovereign. He's the sovereign judge of this
universe. He must punish sin, but he's
the sovereign savior of his elect people. And he must save his
people. He's never changed. His throne. Listen, if God is not absolutely
sovereign in all things, there is no salvation for us. You can
mark it down. And the reference here is to
the covenant that God made with David. It's recorded back in
2 Samuel chapter 7, when he spoke, he said, and thy house and thy
kingdom shall be established forever before thee, thy throne
shall be established forever. Brother Bill read it in Psalm
45 in verse 6. Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right or a righteous scepter. God's throne is a righteous throne
as well as a sovereign throne. God's throne is a gracious throne.
Look over at Hebrews chapter 4 with me. Whenever we come to
God for salvation, whenever we approach God in prayer seeking
His will and His blessing, whenever we come to worship like we're
doing right now, we have to realize that we're approaching a throne. We're not approaching some little
beggar or somebody who wants to save us but can't, but we
won't let him, or wants to bless us but can't or won't, we're
coming to a throne. The throne room of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Look at it. He says in verse
16 of Hebrews 4, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need. the throne of grace. Now, how
in the world, as we look at that first point that I spoke of in
Lamentations 5, sinners in the hands of an angry God, knowing
what we are by nature, knowing what we are at our best, how
in the world can I, a sinner, approach that throne and see
it and be assured that it is a throne of grace? Well, there's
not but one way. Look back up at verse 14 of Hebrews
4. Seeing then that we have a great high priest. There's the issue
right there. Do you have a great high priest? One who is willing and able and
duly appointed to represent you before a holy God? Well, there's
only one who fits that bill, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the King of kings. And then it says, that is passed
into the heavens. Now literally that says he's
passed through the heavens. Now how did Jesus Christ, the
God-man, the Son of God incarnate, how did he pass through the heavens?
He passed through the heavens as the one who finished the work
he was sent to do. He came to this earth. and became
God in human flesh. The Word made flesh. He was made
of a woman, made under the law. All the salvation of His people
was conditioned upon Him. He kept the law. He fulfilled
the law. He established the law. He brought
forth an everlasting righteousness under the justice of the law
of God for the sins of His people charged to Him. He died because
the wages of sin is death. He was buried and He arose again
the third day and He ascended into the Father. He's the substitute
and surety of His people. He's the Lord our righteousness.
It's by His blood alone that our sins are forgiven and we
stand before holy God at His throne accepted in the beloved.
That's the only way through Jesus Christ. Jesus the Son of God. So let us hold fast our profession. Now what is our profession? What
do you profess? I profess to you that Christ
is my salvation. I profess to you that Christ
is my whole salvation. I profess to you that Jesus Christ,
the son of God who passed through the heavens, is my only salvation. This is all my desire, David
said. This is my hope. This is my assurance. I profess to you that it's by
his blood alone that I stand washed clean before holy God.
I profess to you that his righteousness alone imputed to me justifies
me before God. I profess to you that the faith
that I have to lay hold to him and submit to him is from him
and not from me. I profess to you that he's the
author and finisher of my faith. And then he says in verse 15
of Hebrews 4, for we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points
tempted or tested like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore
come boldly into the throne of grace. Grace reigns through righteousness
by Jesus Christ, our Lord, and that we may obtain mercy. There's
mercy for God's people in Christ and find grace to help in time
of need. Look over at Hebrews 10. I read this verse so often but
I cannot preach a message like this and not go there. I'm just
being honest with you. It's just always on my mind.
I'm talking about approaching the throne of God. Thy throne. That's what we're doing tonight.
What right do I have to be here tonight worshipping around the
throne of God? What right do you have? And here's
another question. How can I know that my worship
is accepted with God? How is that even possible? I
know, listen, I'm going to tell you something. I know that my
worship, my thoughts, and even my heart is not perfect before
God. I know, listen, you're sitting
out there and you're listening to me and you're trying hard,
I know. But something's going to pop into your mind and it's
going to take your attention away. You know that's the case.
If not tonight, it's generally the case. We have to fight. That's the warfare of the flesh.
How can I know that anything that I think, say, or do as a
sinner is accepted before God? Because I know it doesn't equal
perfect holiness and perfect righteousness. Well, look here. Verse 18, he says, now where
remission of sins of these is, there's no more offering for
sin. Sins got to be remitted. That means pardoned. God says
up in verse 17, their sins and iniquities will I remember no
more. That means he'll not hold them against them. He'll not
charge them with sin. Well, verse 19, having therefore
brethren, boldness, confidence, freedom, liberty to enter into
the holiest, that's the throne room, you might say. Now, where
are you going to get freedom, liberty, confidence to do that?
By the blood of Jesus. You see that? by a new and living
way. And it's a new and living way
which He, Christ, hath consecrated for us. Christ is the one, He
is the way, He made the way for His people. He is the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. Through the veil, that is to say His flesh, He
did it as God-man. He did it here on earth when
He went to the cross and offered Himself without spot to God.
He himself was made sin, Christ who knew no sin, for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so verse 21,
having and having a high priest over the house or the family
of God, let us draw near with a true heart. A true heart is
a sincere heart, but it's also an honest heart. Honest about
what? Honest about my sin. I don't
have any right to come to God's throne apart from Christ. I have
absolutely no right. It's not me and Jesus got a good
thing going tonight. Jesus is everything tonight.
Christ is everything tonight. He's all in all, you see. It's
the Holy Spirit who makes us honest. Isn't that right? In
conviction. I'm a sinner, Lord. My only right and title to come
before this glorious throne And as a sinner in the hands of a
gracious God, rather than a sinner in the hands of an angry God,
my only right and title is Jesus Christ and him crucified. No
other. And so true heart in full assurance
of faith. Now that's not fully being assured
that I've got enough faith and I'll never waver. No. The full
assurance of faith is the full assurance that comes to a sinner
saved by grace looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. And having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
that evil conscience is a guilty, condemned, legal conscience.
The conscience has to be sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ.
That's how guilt's removed. That's right. And our bodies
washed with pure water. That's acceptance before God.
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to Lamentations 5 now. This throne is God's throne of
sovereign grace. It's God's throne of sovereign
mercy. It's the throne upon which His
seed is established forever. It's the throne of justice and
judgment. It's the habitation, the mercy
and truth. It's where mercy and truth are
met together. The Bible says in Psalm 132 and
verse 11, the Lord has sworn in truth unto David, he will
not turn from it, of the fruit of thy body will I sit upon thy
throne. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about Christ. Made of the seed of David according to
the flesh. There are two things necessary for the salvation of
a sinner. Number one, sinners must be justified
before God. That's based on the blood, the
righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Christ. Secondly, sinners
must be liberated from sin. They must be born again by the
Spirit. They must be turned. Look at
verse 21. Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord. Listen to the next line. And
we shall be turned. You know what he's saying there? He's saying if God turns you,
you'll be turned. Man turns you, you won't be turned.
If the preacher persuades you, you won't be turned. You may,
listen, you may turn over a new leaf for a little while, but
it won't last, and it's certainly not turning unto God. If any
sinner is going to be turned, now what is it to be turned?
It means to be brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. It's the new birth. Sinners must
be justified. Sinners must be regenerated.
Both those acts come from the throne. None of those, neither
of those acts come from me or from you. It's God who justifies
us so that we can honestly say who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that does. That's
total work of God. And it's God who regenerates
us by His Spirit as the Spirit comes and applies life from Christ
and turns us, turned out us unto Thee. O Lord, and we shall be
turned, renew our days as of old. Both are from the throne. The
promises of God have not changed, nor have they been rendered ineffectual
by man's sin or even man's unbelief. Your unbelief does not make the
death of Christ or the purpose of God ineffectual. That's right. The promises of God to His elect
are in Christ Yea, and in him, Amen. Sure and certain. You consider
the redemptive work of Christ. The death of Christ is never
made ineffectual by man's unbelief. You see, that operation is an
operation of God. And His righteous sovereignty
and His righteous throne ensures the salvation of His elect. What
did Christ say in John 6, verse 37? All that the Father giveth
Me shall what? Come to Me. And Him that cometh
to Me I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of Him
that sent Me that of all which He hath given Me I should lose
what? Nothing, but raise it up again the last day. Think about
that. And then that effectual, powerful,
invincible work of God the Holy Spirit to give us life, to turn
us. Turn thou us unto thee. We turn
to God. We don't just turn away from
bad habits. Whatever bad habits we have, we should do our best
to stop it. But my friend, we can't. It's
God who has to turn us. And He doesn't just turn us away
from bad habits. He turns us away from ourselves. That's right. He turns me away
from myself. He turns me away from my hopes
of salvation based on anything but His sovereign grace in Christ.
He turns me away from religion. He turns me away, but He also
turns us unto Him in Christ. That's faith in Christ. Jeremiah
the prophet had made it plain that man by nature will not turn
to the Lord. He'd made that plain. The natural
man. receiving not the things of the
Spirit of God. What has to happen for sinners to turn to God? Look
back at Jeremiah 31. Here's what has to happen. For
any sinner, the best of sinners, the worst of sinners, here's
what has to happen for a sinner to turn to God. And we've already
said it, God has to turn him. What happens there? Look at verse
31 of Jeremiah 31. He says, behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which
my covenant they break. See, that covenant was conditioned
on man. Man broke it. That's the way
we are. Although I wasn't husband to
them, saith the Lord. Verse 33, now here's what has
to happen. But this shall be the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord,
I will put my law in their inward parts. God has to put it there. How does he do it? By conviction,
by revelation. The revelation of his law that
exposes our sinfulness and our depravity and our deservedness
of death. And the revelation of the Word
of God that drives us to Christ as the Lord, our righteousness,
our only hope, our only way of salvation. He said, I'll write
it in their hearts. This is the handwriting of God.
If you're a true believer, God's written this on your heart. And
I'll be their God and they shall be my people. They shall teach
no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
know the Lord, they'll all know me. That's how God turns us. That's an intimate knowledge
of God, closeness to God, a relationship of God as a father to his children. From the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord, I'll forgive their iniquity,
I'll remember their sin no more. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 36. I've
been thinking about this quite a bit. Because I told you this morning,
I'm preparing a series of messages on the new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature, a new creation. What's new? If we're saved, what's
new? Well, he says right here we have
a new heart. Look at verse 25 of Ezekiel 36. This is what happens
if God turns us. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, from
all your idols will I cleanse you. Now how are we cleansed
in scripture? By the blood of Christ, the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ. And then he says in verse 36,
a new heart also will I give you. Now we have a new heart.
What is the heart? That's the inner man. That's
the center of our being. That's who we really are. What
you see on the surface is not really who we are. Do you understand
that? It's not that we're trying to
hide from each other, it's just that we're hindered on this earth. We're hindered by this physical
flesh, but we're also hindered by sin, aren't we? You know,
it's like Jeremiah, you remember? I think it was in chapter 4 there,
we were talking about how he was lamenting and saying God
forsook him, or maybe chapter 2, I can't remember. But he said,
but now here's the real state of my heart. Well, it was chapter
3, wasn't it? That's when he said, it's of the Lord's mercy,
I'm not consumed. This is the real state of my
heart. I don't always express it well. You don't either. I
don't always say it right. And sometimes you might hear
things come out of my mouth that just make you wonder, is that
guy a believer or not? But I know the state of my heart.
It's a new heart. And he says in verse 26, a new
heart also will I give you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. Talking about spiritual life there. And I'll take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. He says, I'll put my spirit within you. And cause you to
walk in my statues. This is God turning his people. Turn me, Lord, and I'll be turned. This is not God asking you to
make a decision today for Christ. This is not God asking you to
accept Jesus as your personal Savior. This is not God saying
He's done everything He can do, now the rest is up to you. No!
He says, walk in My statue, I'll cause you to do it. He said,
and you shall keep My judgments. And you shall do them. Now this
new heart, and I'm going to develop this as we go through the messages
that I'm going to preach. Now, some people say, well, now
that's a perfect heart. Now, what is the heart? It's
the mind. It's the affections. It's the will. All right. And
he says he's going to get he gives us a new one. Some people
say, well, that's a perfect heart, a heart of perfection that cannot
sin. That's not what that's saying
now. For example, if that's if that's
the case, Then listen to this now. If that's the product of
the new heart, if it's absolute perfection, that means that I
have a perfection in me. Well, he says here, he says,
I'll cause you to walk in my statues. Do you walk in his statues
perfectly today? I don't think you do. I know
I don't. Should we try? Yes. Should we
put out a real effort to walk in his statues? Yes, sir. No
doubt about it. What is that new heart? It's
the heart that is cleansed by the blood of Christ. If you want
to speak of perfection, that's the only way we can talk about
perfection, as we are considered in Christ. The new heart is not
a power of perfection within me, but I'll tell you what it
is. The new heart is the power of conviction within me that
I didn't have before. Let me tell you something about
this new heart. Go back here to Lamentations 5. This new heart will not let you
alone. It won't let me alone. It'll
continually, it'll continually convict you of sin. That's where
your mind will go to, your affections, your will. Just the moment you
get to feeling good about yourself, Just the moment I get to feeling
real good about myself, what does that new heart do? It says,
now you remember what you are. But this new heart won't leave
us there. It'll continually drive us to Christ for relief, for
solace, for comfort, for inspiration, motivation. That's what it'll
do. It'll continually show me that
I've never done enough, never will do enough. It's always Christ
is enough. Now you know what's happened
there? Somebody's been turned. And you know what? God's the
one who turned him. Because that new heart will never
go away. It'll never go away. And that's
what he's talking about. Proverbs 20 and verse 12 says,
the hearing ear, do you hear the glory of God in Christ? Read
in that Psalm 80 that I read at the beginning of the service. And he, in the prayer there,
that he was expressing, the psalmist expressing the thoughts of his
heart. And in that psalm, he made this
statement, he said, He said, I can't find it here. It says, Turn us again, O Lord
God of hosts, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Psalm 80 verse 19. Now how does
God's face shine under salvation? 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts. That's
the new heart. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Do you see the
glory of Christ? The glory of salvation? Do you
hear that when you hear the gospel? Does it feed your soul? Does
it inspire worship and conviction and faith in Him? Well, the hearing
ear and the seeing eye of the Lord hath made even both of them.
That's true in the physical realm, but it's just as true in the
spiritual realm. True in physical and spiritual.
The Lord said to the disciples, blessed are your eyes for they
see, blessed are your ears for they hear. The change of heart
and mind is the work of God's power and grace. It's not the
work of man's free will or even man's cooperation. Born again,
people do cooperate, they do submit, they do accept, they
do believe, they do receive, all of that. But our cooperation,
our accepting, our receiving is the result of God's throne.
God turned us. Left to ourselves, we won't turn.
There's no hope for us. And in turning His people, God
always brings us to conviction of sin. He brings us to see our
needs. Shows us the vanity of our hope
in the flesh. and then raises us up to look
to Christ and rest in Him. And that's why he concludes this
lamentation with saying, unless thou hast utterly rejected us,
unless thou are very angry against us. As I said, two thoughts. If salvation comes to us, it's
God, not us, who must do it. And if God ever gives us what
we deserve, we're doomed. But thank God, His throne, God
remains forever and His throne is from generation to generation.
Thank God that He in grace comes to His people in His power and
turns us unto Him.