Lamentations chapter three. Now,
the book of Lamentations is the weeping, the mourning, the lamentations
of Jeremiah after he has seen the prophecy that God gave him
concerning Israel come true. Jeremiah has seen Jerusalem and
all of Israel destroyed by the Babylonians. He's seen the people
that he loves carried away captive, and most of them will never return
to Israel. And Jeremiah is brokenhearted. This is very real sorrow. And we can understand the way
that Jeremiah writes. He exaggerates his sorrow a little
bit. He says, there's never been any
sorrow like my sorrow. We can understand that. And if
you don't understand it, you just wait till you're in sorrow
someday. You think, nobody's ever felt as bad as I feel. That's
the way Jeremiah wrote this. But you know God's Word, even
Jeremiah in his very real sorrow, his lamentations, gives the believer
hope. That's the title of our lesson
this morning, Hope and Lamentations. The believer's hope in our lamentations,
in our sorrow, is Christ. Our hope is in Christ, salvation
through his suffering. Now if you want to get a blessing
from the book of Lamentations, if you want to see the true message
of Lamentations, Read it as Christ speaking. Not Jeremiah, but as
Christ speaking. It is Jeremiah speaking. This
is the way he really feels. This is his experience. But really,
this is Christ speaking through Jeremiah. I wanted to show you
that in a few places. Look at chapter one, verse 12.
This is Jeremiah writing, but see if this is not Christ speaking.
Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see
if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto
me. wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
Really, that can't be applied to anybody but Christ, can it?
Chapter 3, verse 8. Also, when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. Sure sounds like Christ crying,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, doesn't it? Look
in chapter 3, verse 30. He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach.
That's our Lord giving his cheek to those that would smite him. Verse 53 of chapter three. He
says, they've cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone
upon me. The Lord Jesus died and was buried
and his sepulcher was sealed with a stone. And then verse
54, I called upon thy name, O Lord. verse 54, waters float over mine
head. Then I said, I'm cut off. I'm cut off. Those are the words
of Christ who cut off for the sin of his people. Now they are
the words of Jeremiah and every believer can identify with these,
with the thoughts that Jeremiah has and his lamentations. Cause
we all go through times of trial. We suffer the trial of our faith
and those fires, cause real emotions in God's children. In chapter
three, verse one, Jeremiah says, I'm the man that has seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. Every child of God is acquainted
with that. Every child of God, to some degree
or another, is acquainted with suffering. Now, certainly not
as much as the Savior. That's the Savior speaking. Not
as much as the Savior, but we're acquainted with suffering. I
always like what Brother Henry said. God only had one son without
sin. He didn't have any sons without
suffering. Look at verse two. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. Every child of God knows that.
We know that when we're in such dark places, God's brought us
here. God sent these trials and we don't see light right now.
We will someday, but well, there's times you wonder, don't you?
Am I ever going to see light again? Verse three, he says,
surely against me is he turned. He's turned his hand against
me all the day. Now that did happen to the savior. Didn't the father turn his hand
of justice against him? And we feel like that way. Sometimes
we, we know God's the one who's in charge of this trial. It didn't
happen by accident. This is God's hand. We know our
father's the refiner who's putting us in the fire. We know it's
his hand that's turning up the heat on that fire, and he's turning
it up to do us some good, to burn off some draws. And it may
feel like punishment, but we know it's not. God never punishes
his children for our sin, because he's already punished Christ,
our substitute for our sin. But that correction, that refining,
burning off the draws, It feels like God's turned His hand of
punishment against us, doesn't it? Verse 4, he goes on, he says,
My flesh and my skin hath he made old, he hath broken my bones. He hath built it against me and
encompassed me with gall and travail. He set me in dark places
as they that be dead. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He's made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. Have you ever done that? Cried
unto the Lord? Seems like he won't hear. Now we know he's
promised to hear. We know that he said, I hear
the cries of my people, then why does it feel like he won't
hear me? David felt that way, didn't he? Psalm 13, he said,
how long will you forget me? Oh Lord, how long will you hide
your face from me? Verse nine, he hath enclosed
my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked.
It feels like the Lord's walled us off. And not with a temporary
fence, but with a stone fence where they've hewn the stones
so they fit together exactly and cemented them together. He's
made it where I can't get out. Verse 10, he was unto me as a
bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He had turned
aside my ways. He's pulled me in pieces. He's
made me desolate. I know the Lord's my best friend,
but it sure seems like he's hunting me to destroy me like a, Lying,
just lying in the weeds, waiting for me to come by to destroy
me. Verse 12, he hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for
the arrow. It seems like the Lord used me
for target practice and he never misses. Verse 15, he hath filled
me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with
wormwood. God's made my life bitter. And it may be bitter
against him, but he's made my life better. He made my life
here below the, so there's a sweetness left in it. Verse 17, he says,
and thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot
prosperity. This thing's gotten so bad. It's
gone on so long. I've forgotten what it was like
to have a peaceful day. This thing has gone on so long.
It's gotten so bad. I've forgotten what it was like
for anything to go right. Now you and I try not to say
these things out loud, don't we? Jeremiah is honest. This is the way he really feels.
We try not to say these things out loud because we know we ought
not. We ought not say these things to offend God's people, to offend
our weaker brethren. And we're so full of pride, we're
ashamed. We're ashamed for people to know
we really feel this way, but we do. And Jeremiah did under
inspiration of the Spirit. He wrote about it. These are
his lamentations. You can see why he's so full
of sorrow. But now we get to some good news. The child of
God is never hopeless. We may feel like it, but we are
never hopeless. We always have hope in the Lord.
Look at verse 21 of chapter three. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. Now when it gets this bad, When
your lamentations are this real and this miserable, what's your
hope? What are you hanging on to? Look
at 2 Corinthians chapter 4. So I told you every believer feels
at some point the way Jeremiah did and the apostle Paul could
identify in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 8. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Now, Paul, how can you be so
sure? How can you be so sure when you're cast down, you won't
be destroyed? How can you be so sure that God's not going
to forsake you? Because of the believer's hope.
The believer's hope is Christ. The believer's hope is that God
will be merciful to me because he dealt in justice with my substitute. So let me give you five or six
things here about our hope and lamentation. Number one, our
hope and lamentation is God's mercies. Verse 22 in Lamentations
3, it is of the Lord's mercies we're not consumed. Now, if the
Lord dealt with us after our sins, We'd surely be consumed,
wouldn't we? But the Lord always deals with
his people in mercy. Never in justice, always in mercy. Now mercy, this is a good hope.
Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. So who's mercy for? Mercy not for the righteous,
is it? Mercy is for sinners. Sinners who don't want what we
deserve. That's who mercy's for. Are you a sinner? If you are, you've got a good
hope. Mercy is for you. God's mercy is for you. And I
love how scripture talks about God's mercy. Scripture always
talks about God's mercy in large terms. Jeremiah is in the midst
of his lamentations. He talks about mercies, plural.
It's of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed. Scripture
talks about God who's rich in mercy. who's plenteous in mercy,
who's abundant in mercy and grace. Let me give you some things here
about God's mercy, give you a good hope. Look in Genesis chapter
32. I wish somebody's sitting there
thinking, yeah, but I don't deserve that. I hope somebody's thinking
that, because here's the first thing about God's mercy. It's
always undeserved. Genesis 32 verse 10. I'm not worthy of the least of
all of the mercies and all of the truth, which thou has showed
under thy servant. I am not worthy of the least
of all the mercies. God's mercy is undeserved. Second, God's mercy is sure.
God promised his people, the sure mercies of David, the sure
covenant mercies in Christ Jesus, the son of David. Look at Romans
chapter nine, God's mercy is sovereign mercy. It's undeserved,
it's sure, and it's sovereign mercy. Romans chapter nine, verse 15. For he sayeth to Moses, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
And look at verse 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. God's
mercy is softened mercy. Then look over a few more pages
in Titus chapter three. God's mercy is in Christ. Remember I told you Christ is
our hope and lamentations? Well, God's mercy is in Christ
who is our hope. Titus 3 verse 5, not by works
of righteousness, which we've done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. See, God's
mercy is in Christ and that mercy gives us a good hope of eternal
life, doesn't it? Oh, this is a good hope in God's
mercy. And I love what Jeremiah says
here. He doesn't say that we're not consumed because of our love
for God. He didn't say we're not consumed
because of our repentance or our faith. He doesn't say we're
not consumed because of our good works. There's no mention of
us here, is there? It's of the Lord's mercies that were not
consumed. Now that's a good hope because
God's mercy is everlasting. It never changes. What did God
say? I'm the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Now there's coming a day these
bodies will be consumed because this flesh is full of sin. It's
got to be consumed. It's got to be done away with.
but the soul of a believer will never be consumed and never perish
because of God's sure mercies. Number two, our hope and lamentation
is God's love. Verse 22, back in our text, it's
of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed because his compassions
fell not. They're new every morning. God is love. And we know God,
being God, his character, he'll never fail, will he? Then God's
love for his people will never fail you. That's a good hope.
Love begins with God because he is love. And we love him because
he first loved us. See, it's all dependent upon
him, isn't it? That's what makes this a good hope. It's all dependent
upon him. And I love how God describes
his love for his people. He describes it in tender terms. He uses the word here, compassions. He's speaking of a tender love.
The word compassions here actually means from the womb. This is
the love that you have for that baby that comes from your womb. Oh, it's a tender love, isn't
it? It's a caring love. It's a providing love. This is
tender terms that God describes his love for his people. And
we often don't enjoy this hope as much as we ought, because
we have a bad understanding of what love is. You know, the emotion
that we feel, we call love, is not God's love. He's loved for
his people. Friends say they love one another,
and then they fall out of love with each other. I heard a woman
say, well, I used to love him, but not now. That's not love,
is it? A couple gets married, they stand
before the preacher, they swear before God to love one another
to death do them part, and then, oh boy, one day they say, I don't
love you anymore. That's not God's love for his
people. That's not God's love for his bride. You can be confident
in his love. And it's hard for us to understand
how God can love somebody like me. We're ugly. We're defiled
by sin, we're unlovable, we're unfaithful. Yet scripture tells
us God loves his people with an immutable, unchanging, everlasting
love. I'm glad God's love for his people
is everlasting. It's eternal. That means it started. God's love for me started before
I did. I didn't do anything to make God start loving me. He
just did because he would. And it's eternal. I can't do
anything to make God stop loving me either, because his love is
eternal. And God's love for his people,
God's mercies for his people are new and fresh every day. And I'm thankful for that. I'm
a sinful man. I need mercy every day. Jeremiah says his mercy is new
every day. I need God's love every day. Can't face a day without it.
Jeremiah says it's new every day. Now I thought about this,
that God's love is eternal. Yet Jeremiah talks about it being
new every morning. Now you older folks, you remember
when you started dating your husband or your wife and All
you had to do is think about them. And you get that queasy
feeling in your stomach, you know? I remember Jan and I were
little. We were boyfriend and girlfriend. I'd sit next to her
in church. Sometimes our hand would touch one another. Oh my
goodness, what a thrill. Remember that? That's love, so
exciting, sweetheart love. But love that stood the test
of time. That's even better, isn't it?
When Jan and I were first married, I didn't think it was possible
that I could love her any more than I did at that moment. Now,
I believed I would. To me, people told me, you will,
but oh, how much I loved her. And you know, today, it's the
same love, but now it's deeper, it's richer, it's got an element
to it that it didn't have when we said I do, because it stood
the test of time. Well, God's love for his people
is eternal, yet there's a newness to it every day. There are new
discoveries of God's love for us every day. There's new amazement
every day that God could love me and his son. God's love is
always both that new sweetheart love, and it's that love that
stood the test of time. Oh, his love's a good hope, isn't
it? The songwriter said, if you would think the ocean filled,
and were the skies of parchment made, the right to love of God
above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. That immeasurable
love of God for his people is a good hope, a good hope in lamentations. Third, our hope in lamentation
is God's faithfulness. The end of verse 23, he says,
great is thy faithfulness. One of the things I greatly desire,
I greatly desire to be found faithful. I desire to be found
faithful to the Lord. I desire him to keep me faithful.
I desire to be faithful to you. to be a faithful pastor, to be
a faithful preacher, to be a faithful friend. I desire at the end of
my life, somebody say, there lies a man who is a faithful
husband, a faithful father. I desire to be faithful. We ought
to be faithful. But our hope is not in our faithfulness. Our hope, the believer's hope
is in God's faithfulness to us. God has promised to be faithful. God is faithful to himself. And I thought about that. I heard
Brother Henry say that often. God's faithful to himself. What
does that mean? You ever wondered that? What
does that mean? It means this. God's faithful to his purpose.
God's faithful to his character. He cannot deny himself. He'll
do what he promised. God can't lie. He'll be faithful
to himself. He will fulfill his promise to
his people. He's not going to tell you one
thing and do another. Whatever God said he's going to do, that's
what he's going to do because he's faithful to himself. God's
faithful to his covenant. God's covenant promise to save
his elect in his son. God's going to be faithful to
that covenant. They're going to be saved. God's faithful to his
word. You take this word and believe
it. I don't care if you can't understand
it. I don't care if it seems to contradict your experience.
You take God's word and believe it. Because God's faithful to
his word. God's faithful to his grace. God's faithful to his
many mercies. God's faithful. And even when
we fail and stumble and our faith fails, God remains faithful. Oh, Peter, bless his heart, denied
the Lord three times. Peter's in glory. Why? Because God's faithful. He's
faithful to his promise. And our salvation is received
by faith, isn't it? But now our salvation is not
accomplished by our faith, it's received by faith. Our salvation
is accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ, his faithfulness to
do everything that God required to save his people. Now that's
a good hope, through the faithfulness of Christ, because he got the
job done. Fourth, our hope and lamentation is the Lord is my
portion. Verse 24, the Lord is my portion,
saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. That's a good
hope. Now, you know, we're so concerned About what are we going
to eat? What are we going to wear? Where are we going to live?
Am I going to have a roof over my head? Do I have enough to
retire on? Everybody's saying the world's
going to hell in a handbasket. How will I be able to retire?
Will I be able to live comfortably in my golden years? Well, I'm
not telling you don't think about those things ever. Use common
sense about them. Prepare for those days and plan
for them. Don't make them the be-all and
end-all. If you make those things the be-all and end-all, it'll
make you selfish. You won't be of any use to anybody. When the
children of Israel went into the Promised Land, all the tribes
of Israel got a portion. They all got an inheritance.
They got a portion of the land, except for one tribe. Levi didn't
get anything. Levi didn't get a blade of grass
worth of land in the Promised Land. But you know, Levi, the
tribe of Levi had the best portion. The portion for the tribe of
Levi was the Lord himself. He told him in Numbers 18 verse
20, you're not going to get any land. But the Lord said, I'm
your inheritance. I'm your portion. God's children
have a portion. And you know, we're not promised
material wealth or inheritance like money and possessions and
land and those kinds of things in this world. You know where
that idea comes from? That idea comes from false religion.
False religion that only cares about the flesh and can only
reach the flesh. That's what they have to say
your inheritance and your portion is. That's not the portion of
God's children. We don't have a portion on this
earth because we're not from here. But now God's children
have a portion. They have an inheritance, and
our inheritance is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell
you this often, God does not give his people things, spiritual
things, and he gives us material things we need for this world.
What I'm talking about is spiritual things. God doesn't just give
you things. He doesn't give you wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption and eternal life, you know, like
they're things you ain't put in your wallet. Our portion is
a person, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our wisdom. He is our righteousness. He is our sanctification. He's
our redemption. He's our life. If you've got
Christ, you've got it all because He is all. That's so much better
than having a wallet full of things. Christ is our portion. Now that's a good hope. I don't
care how much you save up for retirement. You can save up an
awful big nest egg, and you can outlive it. Maybe you got in
the stock market, and the stock market crashes. You live too
long, you outlive it. You'll never outlive this portion. This portion. Christ, your portion,
will never be worthless to you. If you have him, you'll never
wind up with nothing. You always have everything. That's
a good hope. Fifth, our hope and lamentation is this, the
Lord's good. Now the Lord is good. Verse 25,
the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that
seeketh him. The Lord's good. When I don't
understand what's going on, the Lord's good. When I think I understand
what's going on, the Lord's good. When I'm healthy and when I'm
not, The Lord's good. There's none good but God. That's
his character. Now, God says he's good to those
who wait on him. Let me ask you, has anybody ever
waited on the Lord in vain? No. Simeon waited a long time,
didn't he? But one day, there he is. I've seen him. Oh, I've seen
the Lord's salvation. He didn't wait in vain. You wait
on Him too. You will wait on Him in pain.
Has anybody ever sincerely sought the Lord for mercy and not found
it? No, no. You seek the Lord. You seek forgiveness
in Him. You seek mercy in Him. You seek
Him because you need Him. Seek Him like blind Bartimaeus
sought Him. Don't shut up. Don't quit. He'll
stop and have mercy on you. Seek him with urgency, because
you need him right now. I will not let you go except
you bless me. Seek the Lord sincerely, seeking
with all of your heart. And God said you'll find him.
You want me to tell you how to seek the Lord, how to wait on
the Lord? Look at verse 29. He put his mouth in the dust. If so be there may be hope. You want hope? Put your mouth
in the dust. You know what that means? Bow
down with your face in the dust before the King and wait on Him. Seek Him. He's good to those
that seek Him. And then last, our hope and lamentation
is this. Salvations of the Lord. Verse
26. It's good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Now you
wait on the Lord. You call on Him. You seek Him.
but you wait on Him. Don't run ahead of Him, wait
on Him. Why wouldn't I wait on the Lord? I can't do anything
for myself, but He can, so I'll wait on Him. I certainly can't
save myself, but He can, He saves sinners, so I'll wait on Him.
I can't cleanse myself of the filth of sin and the guilt of
sin, but He can, so I'll wait on Him. I can't give myself life,
but He can, so I'll wait on Him. You know, a bad hope is a salvation
that I have to initiate or that I have to keep propped up through
my good works. A good hope is salvation that
is of the Lord. Salvation that's of His wisdom.
He found a way to be just and justifier. Salvation that's by
His grace, freely by His grace is in Christ Jesus. Salvation
is by the sacrifice of God's Son, by the righteousness of
God's Son. Salvation that's by the calling and the keeping of
God is a good hope. That's a salvation that'll save
your soul. And no matter how bad it gets
in this life, if God saved your soul, it's all right. All right,
Lord bless you.