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The Lord's Mercies

Lamentations 3
Matt Wortmann • July, 12 2026 • Video & Audio
14 Sermons
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MW
Matt Wortmann • July, 12 2026
14 sermons
The sermon explores the profound depth of God's mercy by examining Lamentations 3, contrasting the believer's natural state of affliction and despair with the enduring hope found in Christ. It emphasizes that while human nature leads to darkness and self-reliance, true salvation comes only through recognizing one's spiritual poverty and relying on God's unceasing compassion. The preacher argues that divine mercy is not merely a temporary relief but a permanent assurance that prevents believers from being consumed by their sins or circumstances. By focusing on the faithfulness of God's compassions which are new every morning, the message encourages listeners to find stability in Christ rather than in their own understanding or worldly solutions. Ultimately, it calls for a humble reliance on sovereign grace as the sole source of peace and deliverance.

Sermon Transcript

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Good morning. This looks like everybody's part of the bride's family today. I teach 7th and 8th grade and everybody always wants to sit in the back row. I don't know why that is. You're all more than welcome to come up. I took a shower and I got cologne on. Thank you all for having us first off. My dad and I are very excited to come up here and as we said yesterday meeting a lot of your people, like-hearted people. There's a difference.

Meaning a typical person and then meaning a believer that has like-hearted and it has heard the gospel If you don't mind, let's go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer Lord, we ask that today that you bless us with the gospel, that we can hear your word, and that there's something in here, whether it be a word or a verse, or a full message, or just a sentence, that blesses our hearts. We ask this in your name, amen. I'm gonna take you to a very dear verse from myself and my family, Lamentations 3. Lamentations 3, and I'm gonna read to you out of Lamentations 3, verse 1 through 22, quite a long passage in reality. And what I see in these particular verses, and I'll just be selfish as myself, And I see a believer in here as well, and I actually my wife and I we were married to these verses as well So you'll see several levels of a believer here in verse 1 it reads Lamentations 3 I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light and Surely against me as he turned, he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones.

He hath builded against me and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places, and they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made a chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone.

He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow, for death. He hath caused the arrow of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes, and thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I have forgot prosperity.

And I said, my strength, notice in that verse, if you have a King James Version, my strength is capitalized, my, because it's not our strength, that's the Lord. My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and my misery the wormwood in the gall my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me This I recall to my mind therefore have I hope and here's the verse It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not I So I go back to verse one, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod and of his wrath he has led me and brought me into dark places.

A believer is born of sin originally. He is not one that knows the Lord naturally. The Lord is different than our nature. Christ knows the wrath of God. He was brought low on his own accord to save those that were given to him. willfully sacrificing to satisfy the sins that we're born with. Surely against me in verse three, he is turned, he turneth his hand against me all day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old, he hath broken my bones.

A lot of times doubt comes into a believer because of physical ailments and we get into some dark places in our mind. We can convince ourselves that we're actually stronger sometimes than what the Lord gives us. Our own paths are set and our mind and our heart is different from the Lord's path. It's easy to become bitter sometimes, even though you've heard the gospel, the human nature sometimes still creeps in, and that's why we pray. He hath built it against me, encompassed me with gall and travail, in verse five. There's roadblocks in every single nature of our being, borders that we create on our own that separate us from the Lord.

What I love about this particular set of verses is that it shows the low of the low of a believer, the natural humanistic side of a believer. And then at the end, you see what the true salvation actually is. Our one focus is what is bothering us at the moment, isn't it? My dad and I talk about this quite a bit, is that we can become very nearsighted because whatever is going on at that moment in time, that is the fruition of our heart.

In reality, though, the Lord is always there if he grants us the ability to turn to him. Matthew Henry wrote one time, we are drunken with our own sins. We look everywhere but the Lord. It's easy to do that because we can fix our own problems. I'm being sarcastic, obviously, but we have the ability to go ahead and take care of our own business.

In verse six, it says that he sets me in dark places as they be dead of old. Those are a lot of times in our own heart and our own mind. We're set in dark places. And in verse seven it says, he hedged me about, and that particular terminology means that he put some sort of fortress or wall around us that blocks us from something. He cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. We're burdened. And when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer in verse eight.

A lot of people that, we live in the Bible Belt, my father and I. You could take a rock and throw it 20 feet and hit a church of some kind. And a lot of the people, when we have what we call Disciple Now, D-Now they call it, I'm a school teacher, so I got 100 students that go to these camps. And they come back with this fervor of belief.

They always say, all you have to do is turn to God. They put these post-it notes all over town. All you have to do is call on God. All you have to do is call on God. Well, that is not exactly how that works. See, the Lord saves his people. And then from there, it's not that you call on God, it's that he puts it in your heart that you call on God. What a blessing that is. So when you cry and you shout, he shutteth out my prayer, a believer even, sometimes it doesn't work out for us.

He is going to put you in the path. If you would have told me years ago that I would be a school teacher in Jackson, Missouri, married to a brunette that is 5'5 and two kids, I would have said, you're out of your mind, because that was not my path. However, the Lord He will direct you into your own path. So sometimes, when you cry and shout, you want certain delivery, that's not what he has in plan for you. In case, he takes your heart to this different level.

Inside of our hearts, we can be at the most depressive and helpless state. We're set in dark places. The no light of grace is afforded to you at that moment in time. We're surrounded by sin, hedged about. It's a pretty depressive message so far. Give me a second. A strong structural wall, this hewn stone.

There are moments that there's no way out, no matter what our actions are. There's nothing good enough to provide relief. We've all been there where you try, you try to find solace, you try to find comfort, but it's by our own action. God's not listening to you, is what you would think. That's sarcasm, I actually had that in my notes here, that's just sarcasm. We all look for a solution. There's one solution. the solution, and that's Christ. We are excited sometimes to wander because it's more fun to go that direction. Once we do so by nature, when we question why God would allow that to happen, it usually comes down to an uncomfortable group of our own standards, like we don't understand why. Lord, I mean, I'm doing the best I can, you know? That's not how that works. He set me aside in verse 11. He had turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate.

You think about the word desolate is there's nothing there. Isn't that how we all were at one point in time when you first hear the hear the Lord? I remember the first time I heard it. I thought, oh my, what do I have to offer? And the answer is really nothing. But the Lord has everything to offer if you're one of his.

We know not that what the Lord has in store for us. There are more moments in our life in which we will not like. There's more in store for us that we don't like, thoughts Feelings inside of ourselves that are dark and sinful. There are more to come. Insecurities, uncomfortableness, desolate and left with nothing. Matt, you drove 11 hours to tell us about how bad things are.

He hath bent his bow. I'm not done yet. He set me of the mark for arrow. Verse 13, he has caused my arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins, and I was a derision to all my people. A derision to all my people meant that you're the worst of the worst to everybody.

The thought the Lord would leave us to death, we would be the lowest of the low to even the worst of the worst. A believer knows what we are and our condition when the Lord opens our heart. When we find out, when the Lord actually shows us the gospel, And then you're knocked down, not just a peg, you know what you are. When the doubt of a believer is made by fear, and fear means reverence, which means that when you look to God, you revere him, because we do know how bad our sin is.

And I'm gonna read that one again. We know how bad our sin is, and that our sin is death. This is scary to know the truth. and then doubt that you are part of the elected. You found that too? You hear the word, you're like, there's no way. There's no way the Lord can be that gracious to save someone like me. There's no way.

Verse 15, he fills me with the bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed, in verse 17, my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. That sounds pretty bleak, if you ask me. But isn't that how we all are when we first hear the gospel? The eyes are open, the heart is truly open. It's a terrible state to be in. Bitter, filthy, hungry. However, the perfect state to be in is if you're saved.

When you're in that moment, you no longer think of yourself and your own prosperity. You no longer think of any kind of accomplishment of your own. You realize that it is not of you. I forgot the Lord. I am not looking at the Lord. I'm bitter. I'm filthy. I'm hungry. I am in need. And what greater fulfillment of need is there than Christ? There is no other fulfillment takes over satiation of food. It takes over any kind of physical strength.

I said my strength in verse 18 my strength. And so I could take you all the way to verse 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance, all of what we were, all of what we still can be, all of our nature. And it's humbled in us, because once you hear the gospel, you're knocked low, as it says in Psalms. In Samuel, it says, I beg. We want the Lord. We want to hear the gospel, but that is not put in us by our own nature. My soul hath us still in remembrance and is humbled in me. He puts into a believer new. The old man. Multiple times and multiple preachers have said that old man, the old man.

There's a new. and times in which we are shown and then become aware of our true state we're in, brought low, humility of spirit, and it's not comfortable. I don't know if you can go back or not, but I can tell you exactly. I don't want to, what do you call it, profess up here. It's not for me to do that up here. But do you remember when you first heard the gospel? Do you remember when you were first called?

And it is a humbling moment when you go, oh my, oh my. And in the same breath, you say, oh my, when you see how precious the Lord is and how He's the Savior. I mean, it could be that simple that the Lord Jesus is a true Savior. Once there, believers revel in it when they finally hear Christ and what he's done. Because then we see because we can actually see and we can actually hear.

My dad and I used to do, my dad used to do this years ago and I've fallen into the trap of it too. We have a lot of local preachers of super churches. We're talking like 250 people in a church and it's nuts. Like they have Starbucks in there and all this kind of nonsense and you listen to them and of course they got to close their eyes and they pray for your soul because I guess the guy up there that's making a big paycheck can save your soul.

And that is not the condition we are in. That is not true salvation. Christ is salvation. I could probably stop there with that sentence. Christ is salvation. Matthew Henry also wrote that bad as things are, it is owing to the mercy of God that they are not worse. We are afflicted by the rod of his wrath, but it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Verse 21, this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. But what is hope?

Therefore have I Christ. Christ, the intercessor of all sins saves, brought low in human form, lived perfectly, and died for his elected, took all the sins. Well, Matt, you say that, but when I leave from here, I'm gonna think this and I'm gonna correct. It's not what we wanna do, that's our human nature. Christ has already taken that away. Doesn't mean go and sin, do all you want. Smoke and drink and hang out with those that do, that's not what they're saying. In our hearts, we are changed. The new man has been put in, and therefore have I hope. Are we going to live perfect? No. No, we can't. It's not our nature. Is there something that's perfect?

Salvation, sovereign grace by Christ. The conqueror of physical ailments, hedges, and stone that block us off from Christ, those who attack verbally or even physically. No. I mean, we can get in a car accident as soon as we pull out of the parking lot. Is that because Christ doesn't love you? That's not what we're talking about.

Hope in our heart. In verse 19, it says, remembering my affliction, we remember us at our lowest. And we can look on this fondly. We look at what was and what is, and that's not what we're actually comparing. What we're seeing is we're seeing Christ. We look on that, what we were, and Christ's full salvation. It is not of sins that we admire. It is the mercies that follow that we revere of the Lord. Grace does not promise that a tax will wait for convenient seasons when you're ready. Grace does not allow you to have that, an ailment or what have you, even a thought.

Instead, it promises that God will be present when you need strength, if you pray, when he is ready. In 2 Samuel 22, verse 19, it says, the Lord is my stay. He is my stay, my salvation. This is the verse that I probably first heard the gospel ever was verse 22.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail not. And there's so many beautiful pieces to this. The Lord's mercies were not consumed. And on top of that, his compassions fail not. They can't. They can't. It's not like it eventually, some point in time, Christ's power will falter. No, no, no. His compassions fail not. That's a fact. There is no debating that one. If left by worldly designs, we would much be consumed. By others or even by ourselves, we would find destruction on this earth by our nature and permanent death after passing away. No salvation.

The Lord's mercies comes in all forms of relief. And so take a second here, if you would, and think about the last week, even. How many mercies? And don't think, well, I found a $20 bill in my wallet. No, and that's not what I'm talking about. Think of the moments when you're sitting there and you're like, the Lord comes to you. Why? Because that's what he does.

He provides you these mercies. The Lord's mercies come in all form of relief. The weight on our hearts are taken away. The relief of our bodies. We're not consumed. It is not of us. To make it overly simple. The Lord is love. True love of his people. If you're one of his elect. He loves you. And on top of that, he will deliver you. Permanently.

You don't have to walk an aisle. Doesn't matter what you put in the plate in the back for a donation. Doesn't matter. Pray to the Lord that love does not fail. It is timeless and never faltering. And then lastly, I'll read to you out of verse 23. And we go back to 22 first. His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. And sometimes we can't figure what that is. What compassions? Well, you maybe go to work today. There's something there.

The mystery of the Lord, I wouldn't question. We will pass away from this earth without knowing everything in here. We will pass away from the earth without knowing everything in the worldly realm. I was told a story years ago, and I was down at a Bible conference, and these two old sage preachers were having this philosophical debate over some, you know, semantic of a verse.

And that's tough, because you can dive in all you want, you know, and you can pull a word out, and that's what my dad and I were talking about, you can pull a word out here and there, Look at the next day. It looks different. It looks different. That's the blessing of the Lord actually in reality I've been preaching out of 2nd Samuel 22 for two months in Bible school and every single time I open that thing the thing looks different and it's blessed so these two sages are very well-known and great grace gospel preachers, they know the truth.

And they're debating this semantics. And they turn to this young man who has learned the gospel. He had not, let me rephrase that, you don't learn the gospel. He's been, the Lord has opened the gospel to him and he's seen Christ. And they go, brother so-and-so, what do you think about that? And he had overheard the conversation about semantics, semantics, semantics. He goes, I don't know about that.

All I know is that Christ is a savior and he loves me. And I went, that's pretty simplistic. The gospel is new every morning to us because it's Christ that we look towards. You don't have to overthink the gospel. Great is the faithfulness. It is new every morning when the Lord brings us back to his path. He is faithful always.

There is an emotion when you hear a passage that touches the believer's heart when we have not heard the word in a while. Dad and I have talked about that, too. When we travel for a long time, you kind of come back and you find like-hearted people and you go, oh, man, I've missed this. It's excitement when a pastor is blessed with a phrase and awakens your soul. We hear a hymn that speaks towards something we've been missing and can bring joy.

Well, you can do that when you're brushing your teeth, too. Great is his faithfulness. They are new every morning. We need the Lord in the appointed time. He will appoint the time. If you're one of his, he will give you a blessing of a scripture. He will give you the blessing of a prayer. Maybe also of just a thought that you have heard in the past. But the Lord is there for you. I asked today, though, that you look back here real quick. At verse 22.

And dwell on this it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not the Lord is everlasting. Shall we pray. Lord, thank you for bringing us here today. We ask, Lord, that again you bless us with fellowship, bless us with the proper words. Bless us, Lord, that we see you in these scriptures regardless of who's standing up here or if we're on our own. We ask this in your name. Amen.
Broadcaster:
Grace Community Church
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Same Scripture

Sermons on Lamentations 3

Quietly Wait For The Lord's Salvation Walter Pendleton · Lamentations 3:18-26
A Question for A Living Man Fred Evans · Lamentations 3:39-41
My Portion Paul Pendleton · Lamentations 3
The Faithfulness of Christ Caleb Hickman · Lamentations 3:21-26
Seeing The Hand of GOD's Affliction Marvin Stalnaker · Lamentations 3:1-8
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