Alright, Lamentations chapter
1. Now tonight, I'm going to preach
a funeral message. You might ask, well, who died?
Well, it's not a funeral for one individual. It's a funeral
for a whole city. And, in essence, a whole nation.
That's what the book of Lamentations, in essence, is. It's a funeral
message. You know what a lament is. That's
a sorrow. It's an expression of grief,
sorrow, an expression of soul pain. This is the lamentations
of Jeremiah. I believe the Lord, the God,
the Holy Spirit used Jeremiah the prophet whom we've studied
his prophecy in 52 chapters. And here we have this follow-up,
an appendix that Jeremiah wrote expressing his own heart sorrow. Now he did that in his prophecy,
I know, but this is special. This deserved a book all to itself. This lament. And you have four
or five chapters here, and each one is what I would call a funeral
message. In fact, I've entitled tonight's
message, A Funeral for Jerusalem. A Funeral for Jerusalem. Jerusalem's
destruction. as we've seen, is a glaring testimony
to the judgment of God against sin. God is holy and just and
He must punish sin. You see, the punishment of sin
is no arbitrary matter with God. It's not just A choice, as one
man said, of his free will. God's will is free, but all wills
are bound by the nature. That's why we don't have a free
will. Because our wills are bound by
our nature. Well, God has a perfect nature. A holy nature. And therefore,
for example, God cannot lie, neither can God choose to lie. Because He's truth. He is truth. That's His nature. God cannot
change. He cannot be unfaithful. In the
book of Lamentations is where you read that great statement,
great is thy faithfulness. We sing that hymn. Well, God
cannot be unfaithful. It's not in His nature to be
unfaithful. Well, in the same way, God must
punish sin because that's His nature. He's holy. He's just.
He must do right. And therefore the groundwork
is laid for the issue of the gospel, the grand issue of the
gospel, and that's this. Unless the matter of sin is dealt
with in a just way, there can be no salvation. Unless the matter
of sin is dealt with in a just and right way, there can be no
salvation. Understand that. And Jerusalem's
destruction is a glaring testimony of that Jerusalem's destitution. He's gonna say a lot about the
city being destitute. The first verse, he said, the
city that's alone. Nobody with the city, no comfort,
no neighbor, no help. Full of people, but now she's
like a widow alone, left out in the cold, destitute. Well,
Jerusalem's destitution as described here in this chapter is a glaring
testimony and a picture of fallen man in sin without Christ, without
grace, without hope. And that's the way I want us
to look at these first 11 verses of chapter 1. I started to entitle
the message, Man Without Christ. But I decided to say a funeral
message for Jerusalem. But that's what it shows. Man
without, that's a picture here. You can see that as I read through
those passages. Man without Christ. What does
he have in store for himself? Look at verse one. He says, how
doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? How is she
become as a widow? She that was great among the
nations and princess among the provinces. How has she become
tributary? This city that was once full.
And when you read this, think about Jerusalem in the days of
King David. A great nation, a great city. And in the days of Solomon, even
though it began to degenerate at the end of Solomon's reign,
but think about it in the temple of Solomon. It was a great nation. Remember the Queen of Sheba came
to Solomon because she had heard of his wealth and his wisdom
and his fame and she was really impressed with what she saw in
Jerusalem and Judah. But now what's it like? It's
empty. Now it's like a widow left destitute
with no means of support. That word, that princess, one
commentator said it'd be like a queen. She was once the queen
among nations, now she's a slave. She's now a tributary. What that
means is it's just one of those places you don't wanna go to,
you just wanna get through. You don't go there for any reason,
you just wanna get through it. You're going somewhere else.
And then in verse two, it says, She weepeth sore in the night,
and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath
none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously
with her. They have become her enemies.
This is sorrow unto despair. Sorrow unto despair. Now all
of this is a grand description of fallen man in Adam, born dead
in trespasses and sins without Christ. Think about Adam in the
garden. He was once full as he was created
and set down in the garden by God. But when he sinned against
God, what did he become? He became empty, spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. Like a widow left destitute. Once Adam was the greatest on
earth among creation. Not greater than God, but greatest
among creation. He was given dominion over the
earth like this Jerusalem that was a princess or a queen among
the prophets. Now she's a slave. Well, Adam,
when he fell, what did he do? He became a slave to sin. He
became under the bondage of sin and Satan and under the curse
of the law. You see what this picture does?
And then sorrow, it describes in verse 2, sorrow unto despair. Adam had no hope within himself.
No sinner does. No one born of Adam has any hope
within themselves. The best that man can do will
bring him to despair ultimately. There may be moments of feel-good
religion or moments, you know, I was thinking about the folks,
I don't know who won that lottery last night, but I guarantee you
they are feeling good today, aren't they? They are feeling
good today. But you know what? And you know
this is true. It's not going to last. It's not going to last. Would it be great if the Lord
in His sovereign providence would take one or several of those
people that won that lottery and use that as a means to cause
them to seek the Lord and use it for His glory? But you don't
know. Most of the time that doesn't
happen, does it? Most of the time it turns people into like
a Jekyll and a Hyde. And how many times you read stories
of people who gain wealth like that and then they just squander
it away. We had one locally here that died as a drug addict. Things
like that. Here, Jerusalem is abandoned
by all lovers and friends. And then it says in verse 3,
Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction. Adam brought
affliction into the world. Trouble, trouble. Man is of few
days and full of trouble. That's what we are. The infirmities
of this flesh, the afflictions of the body. And it says, and
because of great servitude. Now what he's talking about there
is that Jerusalem and Judah, Israel had gone through years
of pain and hard labor. And they had. They had. Think
about them in Egypt. Think about them going through
the wilderness. God had brought them through that. But even in
spite of great servitude, she dwelleth among the heathen. She
was exiled. She findeth no rest. All her
persecutors overtook her between the straits. In other words,
instead of the comfort and peace and the fellowship of the people
of God within their land, what were they? They were scattered
among the nations, scattered among the heathen, conquered
by her persecutors. The persecutors won. And notice
this phrase here in verse 3. She findeth no rest. Now that's man without Christ.
No rest. You see the only rest eternally
and spiritually that man can have is in salvation by God's
grace through Christ. There's no rest without Christ.
Christ said in Matthew 11, Come unto me all ye that labor and
are heavy laden and I'll give you what? I'll give you rest. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the book of Hebrews chapter 4 tells us, is the same as entering into
His rest. What is His rest? It's the rest
that He took after He finished the work of our redemption. You
see, religion can't give you that. Man's religion cannot do
that. Man's religion will put you to
work trying to earn your salvation, trying to establish a righteousness
of your own. But entering into Christ is entering
into His rest. He finished the work. He's the
end, the finishing of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. That's what the Bible tells us.
No rest without Christ. And look at verse 4. It says,
The ways of Zion do mourn. Their ways is an evil way. Because
none come to the solemn feast Those solemn feasts represent
all the feast days that God gave them that were to honor Him and
picture Him and to show some aspect of their eternal salvation
for all who come to Christ. But you see, they turned it into
a legal system of self-righteous works and it became vain. So he says, none come to the
solemn feast. It's vanity now. It's worthless.
It means nothing. And then he says, all her gates
are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins
are afflicted. And she's in bitterness. That's
what it is. It all leads to bitterness. It leads to bitterness. When
they see that it doesn't work, they give up on it. And that's
the way it is with self-righteous works-oriented religion, free
will religion. If you ever come to a point in
your life where you see it doesn't work, you'll give up on it. Now
some people persevere in that unto the judgment. Look at those
in Matthew chapter 7. Lord, haven't we prophesied in
your name? But now they've seen because of God's judgment that
it doesn't work. It will not put away sin. It
will not make you righteous. It will not redeem you. It will
not raise the dead and give them life. Won't do it. Can't do it. And look at verse five. Her adversaries
are all the chief. In other words, her enemies prosper,
her enemies are above her. There's no victory here. Without
Christ, there is no victory. You see, Christ is our only victory
over sin, over Satan, and over the curse of the law in every
way. He's our victory over sin because
he bore our sins. He was made sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He's our victory
over Satan because he cast the prince of this world down by
his death on the cross, putting away those sins. And he had victory
over the curse of the law because he kept the law. He honored the
law. He fulfilled the law. You didn't
do that. I didn't do it. Can't do it.
But here in Jerusalem is a picture of man without Christ and the
enemy prospers. The enemy, the adversaries are
the chief. Look at verse five, this is all the work of God,
for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions. You see, this is the work of
God because of the sin of Israel, sin of Judah. This is not, this doesn't have
anything to do. And this is one of the things
that you see out of the book of Jeremiah. Remember we talked
about this, how God was using these heathen nations as an instrument
of his justice against his people. And then later on, he's going
to punish these heathen nations. Somebody says, well, that doesn't
seem right. That's not fair. Well, listen, these heathen nations,
they did not have in their minds and hearts that they're doing
justice. All they had in their minds and
hearts was greed. greed and greed for money, greed
for riches, greed for power. That's all they had. They had
no idea that they were there to honor and glorify God at all. That wasn't their purpose. But
here he says, it was the Lord who afflicted her. This is God's
justice. This is God's chastisement here. I think about this when they
talk about the chastisement of Israel, the chastisement of Judah.
We know that after 70 years in captivity, they're gonna come
back, but they're not gonna last much longer. There's about 400
and some years, and then they were destroyed again. 400 to
500 years, then they were destroyed again. And this kind of chastisement
here is God giving them what they deserve. But you know what?
When God chastises a child of God, it's not God giving us what
we deserve. I understand what I'm saying.
When God chastises his true children, it's correction. It's for instruction,
you see. He's not giving us what we deserve,
he's giving us what we need. That's what he's doing. But here
he's giving us what they deserve, giving them what they deserve.
And I love that in Isaiah chapter 53, I can't remember exactly
what verse it says, but it says, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And what that means is the punishment
that would bring peace between God and His people was upon Christ. We didn't suffer the punishment
that would bring peace. We suffer punishment in the way
of correction, chastisement, because we need it. We're children.
We're children of God. We need to be taught. We need
to be instructed. We need to be corrected. But
the chastisement, the punishment that would bring peace between
God and sinners That was upon Christ. And that's why the angel said,
peace on earth, when the child was born. Peace on earth. And it says there, goodwill towards
men, when it literally would read, God's goodwill towards
those whom he favors. That's what it really means.
Well, who does he favor? Well, his elect from the foundation
of the world, whom he chose in Christ and gave to Christ. all whom he redeemed by the blood
of the cross. And so he favors all who he calls
by the power of the spirit. But here, this affliction here
is a picture of damnation without Christ. It says in verse five,
her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. All her transgressions. Look at verse six. It says, and
from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed. That's
man without Christ. He has no beauty. What kind of
beauty are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about our beauty
before God. We have no beauty. Look over
at Psalm 27. In other words, there's nothing
pleasant in us or of us or about us for God to look at. and be pleased with without Christ. That's what he's saying. Well,
where are we going to find that beauty? Well, look at verse 4
of Psalm 27. David the psalmist writes, by
inspiration of the Spirit, he says, one thing have I desired
of the Lord. That will I seek after. That
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Now, what's the house of the
Lord? That's the temple where the Shekinah is. or the tabernacle
where the Shekinah is. And he says, to behold the beauty,
you may have the word delight in your concordance, the delight
of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. Now how are you going
to behold the beauty of the Lord? I'll tell you how, by looking
to Christ. For Christ is the beauty of the
Lord. In Christ, we see how every attribute
of God's nature is honored, magnified, and revealed in the salvation
of sinners by His grace and His mercy. That's the Shekinah right
there. Hold your finger there at Psalm
27. I'm going to come back to that in just a minute. But what
he's saying over here, here it is that Jerusalem has no beauty
without God. Her beauty has departed. What
is he talking about? Well, that's when they destroyed
that temple. when they took those vessels away, when they lost
the Ark of the Covenant. Incidentally, I saw a program
on that. They think they know where it's at. They think it's
in Ethiopia. You may have heard that. And
they've got it in a little tent or something. They won't want
anybody in there to look at. So they think they found it. Well,
I got news for them. You won't find it. It's departed.
The beauty is departed, you see. And that's the way it is with
man without Christ, without grace, without truth. He has no beauty.
Look on, it says in verse 6 here, it says, her princes are become
like hearts, that's a deer, that find no pasture. That's what
they are, they go hungry. There's another picture of man
without Christ. He has no pasture. Know where
to feed spiritually, know where to feed his soul. You see, think
of Psalm 23, when a sinner in Christ, washed in his blood,
clothed in his righteousness, what does Christ do? He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. He restoreth my soul, leadeth
me beside... You see, he gives us everything
we need. Here they don't have anything
they need, spiritually speaking. They may have won the lottery
last night, but they have no pastures, spiritually speaking.
They have nowhere to feed, no nourishment. And then it says
they are gone without strength before the pursuer. Without Christ,
we have no strength. Paul said, in Christ, with Christ,
I can do all things. But without Christ, we have no
strength. We have no strength to save ourselves. We have no
strength to conquer sin. We have no strength to make ourselves
righteous. We're impotent. That's a picture. And then look at verse 7. He
says, Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and
all of her miseries, all her pleasant things, those are desirable
things, everything she wanted. And it says, all her pleasant
things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell
into the hand of the enemy. In other words, she's thinking
back. She's she's destitute now. She's
in captivity and she's thinking about on back on how good she
had it All those pleasant things desirable things when her people
fell into the hand of the enemy and none did help her None did
help her He says he says the adversary saw her and didn't
mock at her Sabbaths So now all the good things are now but a
memory We weren't in the garden, but
we read about it. And I thought about this. I wonder
if Adam, how much of a memory he had of Eden before the fall,
and how he thought of it. I don't know. I'm not telling
you I have the answer to that, and you don't either, so don't
look it up. There's nothing in the scripture that tells us what
shot through Adam's mind when he thought about before. But
that's kind of like the idea, you know? You think about, read
about Adam in the garden. and how good he had it. We know
what God says about it. Well, it's gone. It's gone, and
it'll never be back again. But, and without Christ, none
of it, none of it could come back. But here, it says, when
her people fell in the hand of the enemy, and none did help
her. In other words, no help. Israel had no help. Look over
at Psalm 27 again. Look at verse 9. Here's the prayer of the child
of God, who desires to dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of his life and behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire
in his temple. In verse 9 it says, hide not
thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger.
Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake
me, O God of my salvation. There's no help spiritually.
There's no help eternally without Christ. You see that? Look back
here at that verse one more time, verse 7 of Lamentations 1. You
notice how it said the adversary saw her and did mock at her Sabbaths? Well, the heathen, it was pretty
well known in the history of of what's recorded, not only
in the scripture, but even in man's history, that the heathen
would ridicule the Jews for their Sabbaths, their Sabbath days
and their Sabbath weeks, and say, well, they were just a lazy
bunch. They just didn't want to work on that day. And of course, that showed their
mockery, their mockery not only of the Jews, but their mockery
against God, because that seventh day had some significance, didn't
it? It was a time that they were to worship the Lord and thank
God and to think upon the things of God. But you know what? The Jews themselves mocked the
Sabbath. Remember how many years they
were going to be in captivity in Babylon? Seventy years. Why seventy years? Because that's
the equivalent of the number of years that they failed to
keep what they called the Sabbath year. Every Sabbath year they
were to let the land rest. But instead of doing that, they
became greedy and they abused the lamb. And so God put them
in captivity for 70 years. They abused the Sabbath. Now
what is that? That's the equivalent of having
no respect for or gratitude to God for the good things he's
done. And therefore there's no help.
None to help. Look at verse eight. He says,
Jerusalem hath grievously sinned. Well, what do you mean grievously
sinned? All sin is grievous, isn't it? It is. All sin deserves
death. But Jerusalem hath grievously
sinned. Well, they sinned against the
glory of God. They had, listen, they had the greatest revelation
of the glory of God to be found on this earth in that temple. The greatest revelation. And
they grievously sinned. One writer said, it's like saying
they out sinned everyone. And I want you to think about
that. Now here was one of the most religious nations on earth. And they out sinned every other
nation. Why? Because they sinned against the
light. They sinned against the glory of God. And I've been thinking
about that a lot in studying on that subject. You know, for
a person who claims to be a child of God, for a person who claims
to be saved by grace, to neglect the light of the gospel and the
fellowship of the people of God, that's a grievous sin. You think
about that. They grievously sin. Like for
example, the sin of unbelief itself. That's the mother of
all sins. Sinning against the light. Listen,
that strikes directly in opposition to the Shekinah glory of God. And therefore is an open denial
of every attribute of God's character. Now let me show you, turn over
to the book of Galatians. The book of Galatians, and look
at verse 19 of chapter 2. I'll look at a couple of verses
here. Galatians 2 and verse 19. He
says, for I through the law am dead to the law that I might
live unto God. Now you know what dead to the
law means. That means I'm justified. That's another way of saying
I'm justified. The law has no hold on me. The law has no matter
against me. God does not impute sin to me. I have Christ's righteousness
imputed to me. I'm dead to the law. How did
I get that way? Well, did God just shove aside
His law? No. Now remember, we said God
is a just God. He must punish sin. So He says,
I through the law am dead to the law. In other words, it wasn't
without the law being honored and satisfied, but through the
law. Now, how did a sinner like me
through the law become dead to the law that I might live unto
God? Well, here's the answer. Verse 20, I'm crucified with
Christ. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose again, I arose. He's my substitute. He's my surety. He's my representative. He's
my mediator. All of these things. Nevertheless,
I live. As a result of being crucified
with Christ, I live, yet not I, meaning I'm not the source
of the life. That's what he's saying there.
It didn't come from me. Listen, it wasn't based on my
free will or it wasn't based upon my choice. It wasn't based
upon my doing anything or not doing anything. Yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me. It's the power of Christ. And
he says, in the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. Now look at verse 21. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Now my point I want to make here
is this, for any sinner to deny Christ or any sinner to come
to God seeking salvation by their works of the law, that's the
same as if they would stand right up here and say, now I want to
tell you right now, Christ died in vain. That's the equivalent. You see the implication? Now,
with that in mind, look over at Galatians chapter 5. Now my point is, is that this
shows you how Jerusalem sinned so grievously. They had the truth. They had the Shekinah glory.
They had the revelation of God there. The revelation of a just
God and a saint. The revelation of Christ and
all the pictures and the types and the shadows. And so when
they sinned, that's what they were doing. And look at verse
1 of Galatians 5. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Now, did Christ
make you free or did you make yourself free? Somebody says, well, it was a
combination of both. It was a cooperation. Well, that's
not what this says. He says, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. That's what Jerusalem was entangled
with, the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say in you that
if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now
you see that? That's how grievous this sin
is. Now, wasn't it God who commanded Abraham to circumcise his children,
the firstborn and all male children? Wasn't it God who commanded?
You remember Moses had an argument with his wife over that, didn't
he? Because Moses wanted to follow the command of God and his wife
didn't want to hurt those children. Remember what she said, you're
a bloody man. But Moses did right. Wasn't all the males of the land
circumcised? All right. Then why does he say
if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing? What
does he mean? It depends on why you're being
circumcised. In other words, he's saying this.
He says if you think that circumcision recommends you to God or makes
you righteous, then that's the same as saying Christ will profit
you nothing. You don't need Christ. If anything
else can save you or keep you or bless you or make you righteous
before God, you don't need Christ. You might as well stand up and
say it that way. I don't need Him. Now we do,
don't we? And then look on, he says in
verse three, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he's a debtor to do the whole law. Now, if you're circumcised
thinking that that'll save you, keep you, or make you righteous,
or recommend you unto God, then you've got the whole law to do,
you're a debtor. You might as well say, Christ didn't pay my
debt. And then go on again, he says in verse four. Christ is
become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are. Justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. You're denying grace.
That's what that means. Now back here in Lamentations,
when he says, Jerusalem hath grievously sinned, that includes
all their sin. That includes even the immorality
that existed in the land. But it can all be summed up in
one word, unbelief. the mother of all sin. They didn't
believe God. And look at verse 8. Therefore
she is removed. She's cut off. All that honored
her despised her. Those who admired her for her
lifestyle, now they despise her. And why? Because they have seen
her nakedness. When sinners reject the gospel
of God's grace, the glory of God in Christ, their nakedness
is exposed. And all of that, they groan and
they turn away in shame. Look at it. He says in verse
8, He says, They saw her nakedness, yea, she scieth and turneth backward. That means she turns around in
shame. What she was so proud of, now she's ashamed of. That's the issue. And look at verse 9, it says
her filthiness is in her skirts. What did they use those skirts
for? To cover themselves. In other words, what she tries
to cover herself with, that's her filthiness. What does it
show us? A man without Christ has no covering. All he's got is those fig leaves.
Like Adam and Eve. And they won't work. Remember
David said in Psalm 32, blessed is the man whose transgression
is forgiven, whose iniquity is covered, but not covered over
like this. Not with religion. Not with man's
attempts at good works. Not with his own righteousness,
that won't do it. Covered over like that mercy seat with the
blood of the Lamb. He has no covering. He has no
righteousness. I think about those, again, those
false preachers in Matthew 7. Lord, haven't we prophesied in
your name? Let's cover our sins by preaching.
You know, there's a lot of that going on today. People trying
to cover their sins by preaching. My preaching doesn't cover my
sins. In fact, I get up here and admit
them to you. It doesn't do it. There's nothing that will cover
my sin but the blood of Christ. What can wash away my sin? They
try to cover their sins with baptism. I don't care how many
times you're baptized, it will not cover your sin. It will not
cover your nakedness. What is nakedness? It's guilt.
It's shame. It's no righteousness. They try to cover their sins
with professions, with sincerity and with zeal. It won't work.
Man without Christ is naked. He has no covering and look on,
he has no comforter. has no comforter. Look at verse
9. Her filthiness is in her skirt. She remembereth not her last
stint. In other words, she is not thinking ahead far enough. Therefore, she came down wonderfully.
That is, it was a miraculous coming down. She was brought
down in a miraculous way and she had no comforter. Man without
Christ has no comforter. Oh, you might have some Job-like
comforters, miserable comforters, But you have no advocate. In
the New Testament, that comforter is an advocate. That's somebody
to plead your cause. Somebody to plead your case.
That's why we have it as an advocate. Those who are in Christ, we have
Jesus Christ the righteous as our advocate. And so he cries,
O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified
himself. Verse 10, the adversary hath
spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things. In other
words, the adversary has stolen the things she desired. Think
about the temple. We read about that in Jeremiah
52, how they took those vessels of the temple away and destroyed
the temple. And here it says, For she has
seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou
didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
You know what? As it represented so many great
and glorious things of God's grace in Christ, one thing that
it meant was access to God. Access to God. Access in worship. Access in prayer. Acceptable
prayer. Well, without Christ, we have
no access to God. Without Christ, we have no acceptable
worship before God. Without Christ, we have no acceptable
prayer to God. How do we enter into the holiest
of all? They did it by the blood of a
lamb. But that was a picture. But even that was taken away
from them. Without Christ, we have no access to God. We enter
into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus. How do we come
to God in prayer and be accepted? Because we have a great high
priest who has passed through into the heavens. Christ finished
the work. But none of that. And then verse
11, it says there, It says, verse 11, all her people sigh, they
seek bread. They have given their pleasant
things for meat to relieve the soul. They sold those desirable
things just to get a piece of bread because they didn't have
any bread. Well, without Christ, there is
no bread. He is the bread of life. We feed upon Him. That's what we're doing tonight.
We're feeding upon Christ. If I get up here and just read
you a moral story and say, now look at the bad example Jerusalem
set, now don't you all be like them. You know, that's the way
America is. Well, I haven't given you any bread. No, don't be like
them. No, don't reject God's grace
in Christ. Feed upon Him. He's the bread
of life. He's the water of life. He's our manna from heaven, isn't
He? And we feed upon Him. And He gives us all we need.
And he says, to relieve the soul. And then look at the last line,
see, oh Lord, and consider for I am vile. That word vile there
means worthless. It means to have no value. I think it was Brother Scott
Richardson years ago. And he had a way with words,
as you know. And this is one of those things, I can't get
that image out of my mind. But basically, and I can't quote
him exactly, but it went something like this. He said, man without
Christ isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit. You remember him
saying that? He said that at a conference
here. Well, that's pretty worthless, you know. And that's the way
it is. Without Christ, we have no value.
What is our value? as the children of God. Well,
it's not an intrinsic value. In other words, it's not a value
that we have by nature or within ourselves as far as who we are
or what we do or what we can do. The value we have to God
and to other people is only as we set forth the value of Christ. Only as we portray and communicate
in our preaching and our witness that Christ is all. And that
even holds forth with what the Bible calls our good works. You
see those good works, they are not good because they are good
in themselves or because they earn anything for us or make
God indebted to us. But you remember he says, let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and do what? glorify your father, which is,
now there's the value right there. You understand? Without Christ,
there is no value. Without Christ, there's no worth.
Worthy is the lamb. And that's it. And our only value
is as we set him forth as the Lord of glory, who is our all
and in all, who's everything. Christ is everything to a child
of God. All right.