Let's open our Bibles again to
Lamentations 3. You know very well that every
child of God knows sorrow and trouble. And my question this morning
is, in those times, why don't you just quit? Why don't you
just absolutely quit? Job's wife asked him, why don't
you curse God and die? Why don't you just quit? Well,
I can tell you why. You know why. We have a good
hope through grace. We don't have a good hope because
we've done things right. We've kind of minded our P's
and Q's pretty well, and you know, the Lord's going to bless
us. We have a good hope because the Lord Jesus Christ is our
Savior. Now here in Lamentations, the
Chaldeans have come and destroyed Jerusalem. They've laid waste
to the city and carried the people away captive. Jeremiah is sitting
on a hill outside the city looking down at the city he loves that's
destroyed. The people are gone. He's weeping. I didn't know this until this
week. The hill he's sitting on looking down at Jerusalem is
the hill Golgotha where years later the Lord Jesus will come
weeping. fulfilling a lot of the things
that Jeremiah's weeping about. And Jeremiah's brokenhearted.
But when we get to the end of our text this morning, Jeremiah
comes to the conclusion, and I hope we learn this, that we
do weep. Now, we weep. There's times of
trouble and trial, and we weep. But it's never as bad as it could
be. Never as bad as what we deserve because the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered for us. giving us a good hope through
grace. So that's where we're going to
go. But in the beginning, there's a time of sorrow. In verse 1,
Jeremiah says, I'm the man that has seen affliction by the rod
of his wrath. Every child of God at times is
going to feel the rod of correction. Look over in Hebrews chapter
12. Every child of God is going to feel the rod of correction.
Hebrews 12 verse 6, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, whereof all sons are partakers, then
are ye bastards, and not sons. So every child of God, if your
son is going to feel the rod of correction, and that feels
like wrath, doesn't it? It does. There's no point in
pretending. It does feel like wrath. But our heavenly Father
corrects lovingly. When I was a boy, my parents
spanked me. And it felt like wrath. I mean,
I want to tell you, it felt like wrath. A lot of times the look
on mom's face looked like the look of wrath. And it should
have been. I wasn't the easiest kid. But I know this. It was done in love. It was absolutely
necessary for me. It was. It was the best thing
for me. I trust my parents that they
did the right thing because I needed it. Well, how much more do we
trust our heavenly Father? He's all-wise. He's all-loving. He will only give His children
what's best for us. But think about Christ our substitute.
He dealt with matters in a totally different realm. He did feel
the full force of God's wrath. He felt the full force of the
rod of God's wrath when our sin was charged to Him. And when
He wept about feeling the Father's wrath, it was for real. He felt the full force of God's
wrath without any mixture of mercy and love. And that's why
the Father can deal with us in love and mercy, because He dealt
with our substitute in unmitigated wrath. So He never deals with
us in wrath. I know it feels like it, but
it's not wrath. It's a hand of correction. Now,
verse 2, Jeremiah says, He had led me and brought me into darkness,
but not into light. Now, again, there are times We
feel like we're in the darkness of a dungeon. And that's real.
Children of God do go through a time of darkness. But it's
only going to be for a short time. Believers are children
of light. God has delivered us from the
power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son, the kingdom of light. And there will be times of darkness,
but I promise you it's only temporary. And you know why I know that?
Because Christ, our substitute, suffered true darkness. He suffered
not only in physical darkness when the sun wouldn't shine.
He suffered in the darkness of the absence of the presence of
his Father. That's darkness. True darkness. And no child of God will ever
suffer that kind of darkness because Christ suffered it for
us. And we can take comfort in these
times of darkness. It's temporary. The Lord will
come and provide a way of deliverance, but Jeremiah doesn't quite see
that yet, does he? Well, look at verse 3. He says,
"...surely against me is he turned. He hath turned his hand against
me all the day." At times, it feels like the Lord has become
my enemy. Dealing with us punitively. I've
felt that way. Have you? I mean, if we're honest
with each other now, we feel that way. But for the believer,
that's never true. Never. Because the Father turned
His hand of justice on His Son. He gave His Son the justice that
our sins deserve. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him. It pleased the Father to smite
the Shepherd. So now, the Father turns His
hand of love and mercy on His people because He turned that
hand of justice on our substitute. He turns His hand of mercy and
grace on us. And that's the conclusion. We'll
come to that in a minute. That's the conclusion that we'll
see. But verse 4, Jeremiah just does not see that yet. He says,
My flesh and my skin hath He made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me. He
compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places,
as they that have been dead of old." Have you ever felt like
you are just surrounded in a sea of sorrow and affliction? Just
no matter where you look, every direction, as far as you can
see, all you can see is sorrow, trouble, and affliction. You're
trapped. in a graveyard at night. That's
what he's talking about in verse 6. He has set me in dark places
as they that have been dead of old. He's talking about a graveyard.
Have you ever felt like you've been dropped off in the middle
of the graveyard at night? Dark. It's scary. You're surrounded
by death. Do you know God's elect, while
we may feel that way sometimes, will never fully know that because
Christ our Redeemer suffered that for us. He suffered sorrow
like we'll never know sorrow. He knew the sorrow of being punished
for sin. He suffered the darkness of not
just the graveyard, but the grave. He died under the wrath of God
for our sins and they put his dead body in a tomb and sealed
it up. But he walked out. Now he walked
out and every one of his children We'll walk out in Him, never
to go back. All these bodies will die, but
we'll never suffer eternal death, spiritual death, because Christ
our Redeemer died. He was buried, and He walked
out. We'll spend time in the graveyard,
but never in the grave. That's good news, but about 2
o'clock in the morning in the graveyard, it's still scary.
We'll look at verse 7. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out. He hath made my 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."
Now there are times that it feels like the Lord has absolutely
enclosed us. He's trapped us in trouble. And
with hewn stone walls, not just a temporary wall, you know, sticks
or stones stacked up. Hewn stone walls that fit perfectly
together. Well cemented. You can't knock
it down and you can't climb over it. Hewn stone walls. It feels
like the Lord has put me in a maze. A crooked path and I cannot escape
trouble and sorrow. Just broken. And when I cry for
help, like a child of God will do in times of trouble, it seems
like the Lord will not hear me. Has He left me alone? Have you
ever felt that way? Job did. Look in Job 19. Job 19, verse 7. Behold, I cry out of wrong, for
I am not heard. I cry aloud, and there is no
judgment. He hath fenced up my ways that
I cannot pass. He hath set darkness in my paths."
Jehovah felt that way. He felt like, I cried unto the
Lord, I'm trapped, I can't get out, but He won't hear me. Well,
I'll tell you, no matter how bad it seems, and the Lord may
delay an answer for a while, for a time, but He always hears
the cries of His people. You think Israel is down there
in Egypt for 400 years and God never heard them? No. He heard
the cries of His people. And eventually, what did He do?
He sent the deliverer. His ear is not heavy that it
can't hear. He hears the cries of His people. And in time, He'll provide a
way of escape. Now that's how it is for God's
children. For the elect. How did God deal with Christ
our substitute? Look in Psalm 22. Dan Culver
preached from this just a few weeks ago. Psalm 22. Verse 1, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not. Thou hearest not. In the night
season I am not silent, but the Lord did not hear me. Because God is holy. He was dealing
with His Son in justice when He was made sin for us. He didn't
hear his son as he cried. So he can, in righteousness,
hear his people when we cry. He'll hear, even though at times
it seems like he's not. Well, verse 10 back in our text.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret
places. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. Sometimes
it seems like the Lord, who is my shepherd, is not protecting
me, but He's stalking me like a lion or a bear stalks its prey,
waiting in the bushes to jump out and tear us to pieces. When
I was a kid, I had a paper route. Last house on my paper route,
they got a dog. And I think now it's part pit
bull. You didn't hear much about that then, but I think it was
part pit bull. The single most vicious dog I have ever seen. And that dog hated me. I don't know why, but he did.
And he, I mean, he'd kill me if he could. Every day it was
an adventure delivering the paper to this house. Now, when you
didn't put it out in boxes, you had to go put it in their door.
And it was just an adventure and terror every day. But one
day I go to their house and I deliver and there's no dog. I mean, I'm
so happy I can't hardly believe it. And I'm going through this
backyard and through this field to go home, that dog sat in his
backyard every day and watched the way I went home. I'm convinced
he got out of that yard and was lying in wait. And he jumped
out of those bushes and I'm telling you, I thought, I'd die before
he got to me. And the owner, I carried a tire
iron with me, with that dog. And the owner saw and he ran
down somehow, he didn't kill me before the guy got there.
He hit that dog in the head with the tire iron and he did not
stop. And I got home. I told my mom I would never go
on that paper again. That dog was lying in wait. And
he jumped out. And I'm telling you, it was one
of the worst feelings I've ever experienced. I remember it to
this day. That's what Jeremiah says feels
like the Lord's done to me. Suddenly jumped out and made
me His prey. And I don't understand. The Lord's
my shepherd. I shall not want what is going
on. That's the way He feels like. I thought of this yesterday.
I told James yesterday driving down the road. I think the Lord
does this. I don't know. Who knows why the
Lord does the way He does? I think He may do this to teach
us how frail, how weak, how dependent on Him we are. Now, you know
the Lord never makes His people His prey. He's never going to
come out at us like a lion. But He does hide His face from
us for a moment, doesn't He? You know how dependent on Him
we are? If He hides His face from us for a moment, it feels
like He's become a lying to us. To teach us how dependent we
are. But you take comfort. He'll never deal with us that
way. Because He tore our substitute to pieces. But He'll deal with
us in mercy. Look at verse 12. He hath bent
His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused
the arrow of His quiver to enter into my reins. When we're in trouble, in trial,
it feels like we're under attack from the Almighty. He's aimed
His arrows at me and He's shooting at me all the time. And this
archer never misses. His arrows always find their
mark and just pierce to my inner being. It feels like the Lord's
using me for target practice. I know what He's talking about.
Do you? Job did. Look back in Job again, chapter
16. Job 16, verse 12. I was at ease, but he hath broken
me asunder. He hath also taken me by my neck
and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His archers
compassed me round about. He cleaveth my reins asunder
and doth not spare. He poureth out my gall upon the
ground. He breaketh me with breach upon
breach. He runneth upon me as a giant. It feels like the Lord's become
my enemy, under attack from him. And I grant you, that's exactly
what we deserve. By nature, that's just exactly
what we deserve. We can expect no better if it
weren't for God's mercy and God's grace. But no believer will ever
truly experience that. Why not? Because the Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute, was pierced for us. They pierced Him. Physically, and God pierced Him
in His soul. And He's made an offering for
sin. The Father took out His anger
and His wrath for sin on His Son. And He'll never take that
anger and that wrath out on us. He'll never treat us as His enemies. He sent His Son to die for us
so that we wouldn't be His enemies. So He'd adopt us into His family
to treat us as sons and daughters, not enemies. But I know at times
it does feel that way, doesn't it? Verse 14, Jeremiah says,
I was a derision to all my people, and they're a song all the day.
Not only is God against me, but men are against me. God deals
with me and afflicts me, and men make fun of me. The way it
feels, isn't it? That's exactly what Christ our
substitute suffered, as He suffered under the wrath of His Father
for sin. What do men do? Make fun of Him. Come down. If you're the Son
of God, come down and show it. Prove it. Make fun of Him. Well,
verse 15, 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.
You know, we get so upset that food doesn't nourish us. When
you eat something that's supposed to be good for you and nourish
you and strengthen you, it just makes you sit at your stomach.
Your body just rebels against it. We take a bite of something
that's supposed to be good and there's a gravel in it and it
breaks off our teeth. Just everything's horrible. I thought about those
old boys on Hee Haw. Doom, despair and agony on me. That's the way we feel. We just
get down on our mouth and it's just horrible. Not only does
food not nourish me, it doesn't taste good. You lose weight,
you know, because it just doesn't taste good. It tastes like ashes. He's covered me in sackcloth
and ashes, like those old Jews did when they were mourning,
and those ashes have gotten in my food. And it just doesn't
taste good. It's the mourning. Verse 17,
he says, And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I
forgot prosperity and I said my soul or my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering my affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath him still
in remembrance and is humbled in me, bowed down in me. It seems
like I've been in trouble and sorrow so long I forgot what
it was like to be happy. Have you ever forgotten what
it was like to be happy? Have you ever forgotten the happy
days? What that felt like? Have you
ever forgotten what it felt like when the sun was shining and
blue skies? At that moment, you're like Jeremiah,
bowed down with sorrow. Just at the end of your rope. Then he says, at the end of his
rope, when he's bowed down as far as he can go with sorrow,
He says, this I recall to my mind. Therefore, have I hope. What is he talking about? Why
isn't the believer destroyed at times like this? How in all
this can he still have hope? Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. Look around you, Jeremiah. What
reason do you have for hope? 2 Corinthians 4, verse 8. We're
troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed,
but not in despair. Persecuted, yes, but not forsaken. Not forsaken of God. Cast down,
but not destroyed. Why not? You know, in this trial,
not only is the believer not destroyed, the believer is made
stronger. I grant you, this might destroy
the unbeliever. It won't destroy God's children. It will make
them stronger. It will make them more valuable.
Our wise, heavenly Father is the wise refiner. He puts His
gold in the fire like Dan prayed to burn the dross off. He'll
burn the dross off. He'll never lose any gold. and
never melt off and lose any of that gold. He puts it in to make
it more precious. To make it shine more beautiful.
How do I know that? That's easy to say, isn't it?
Sitting and standing up here today, that's easy to say. Can
you say it when you're in the fire? When you're in the fire,
how do you know? Why do you still have hope when
you're in the fire? Well, the answer is the character
of our God. He's going to list here six reasons
for a good hope. The first one, verse 22, it is
of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Now the clouds
start to break, don't they? And the sun shines through. It's
been dark up until now. But the sun starts shining through
and we think of God's mercies. Look over at verse 31 here in
this chapter, chapter 3. For the Lord will not cast off
forever, but though he caused grief, yet will he have compassion
according to the multitude of his mercies. Mercy. Mercy is
not getting what we deserve. And to the sinner, mercy is mighty
sweet. Oh, I love mercy. Are you a sinner? I mean a bona fide sinner. If
you are, mercy is for you. Oh, mercy is sweet to the sinner. And listen, Scripture talks about
mercy in large terms. He says here, it's of the Lord's
mercies, plural, that were not consumed. I mean, I should have
looked this up to see how many times, often in Scripture, it's
mercies plural, of the Lord's mercies. Scripture talks about
the Lord being rich in mercy. Being plenteous in mercy. Having
abundant mercy reserved for His people. And God's mercy is like
God Himself. God's infinite, isn't He? So is His mercy. It's infinite.
That's why when He talks about mercy in such large terms, because
it's infinite. There's no end to it. God's mercy
is like Himself. It's eternal. This afternoon,
you read Psalm 136. That's my favorite Psalm. Twenty-six
times the psalmist said, His mercy is forever. His mercy is
eternal, just like God Himself. And third, His mercy is immutable. It's unchangeable. Our circumstances
change, don't they, around us? We change. God's mercy does not
change. It's immutable. I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed." It's because of the Lord's mercies that we're
not consumed. Let me give you three things
about God's mercy. I read this. This is not mine.
I read this this week. Look over at Ephesians chapter
2. God's mercy is undeserved. Completely undeserved, unearned,
unmerited. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
our citizenship, in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." But God, who's rich
in mercy for His great, His unconditional love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ.
By grace, you're saved. Mercy for the miserable. It's undeserved, isn't it? That's
God's mercy. Look over Romans chapter 9, second
mercy. God's mercy is always sovereign
mercy. It's mercy from the king, from
the throne. Romans 9, verse 15. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God's mercy is sovereign mercy.
And third, God's mercy is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
over in Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3, verse 5. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy hath He saved us
by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That's where you find mercy.
It's in Jesus Christ our Savior. And even in times of hard trials,
the Lord has tender mercies reserved for His children. It's of the
Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. That's a good hope. You can hope in God's mercy. Second, we have a good hope Because
His compassions fail not. His compassion, God's love, fails
not. God is love. And He will never fail. He'll
never change. So therefore, His love for His
people will never change. Love begins with God. It's bound
with God. It begins with God. We love Him. If you know Christ, you love
Him, don't you? Why? because He first loved us. Love begins with God. And as
human beings, we have a bad understanding of love. Unfortunately, we do.
We see a couple get married. They stand before the preacher
and all their friends and family, and they promise to love one
another to death do them part. I guess the divorce rate is still
about 50%, so three or four years later, they're getting a divorce.
And you ask them why, and the husband tells his wife, well,
I don't love you anymore. That's not love. We've got a bad understanding
of that. Now you listen to me. God never
will tell His bride, I don't love you anymore. You can be
confident in God's love. And I know that's hard for us
to understand. How can it be that God loves me? I don't love
me half the time. I certainly wouldn't love myself.
I wouldn't love somebody like me. We're defiled with sin and
ugly and awful. That's why Scripture tells us
so many times God loves His people. He's not going to tell you, I
don't love you anymore. God's love is just like His mercy. It's like Himself. It's eternal. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. It's infinite. It is an infinite
love. You cannot measure it. And it's
an immutable, unchangeable love. And here's our comfort. I didn't
do anything to make God start loving me. There's nothing about
my circumstances that made God start loving me. So when those
circumstances change, God won't stop loving me. And because I
didn't do anything to make Him start loving me, I can't do anything
to make Him stop loving me. He loved me in His Son. And His
Son will never change. I just feel very inadequate.
If you think about the love of God. How do you talk about the
love of God? It's infinite. The songwriter
said that I love this. If you would ink the ocean field,
and were the skies of parchment made, to write the love of God
above, it would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole. Those stretched from sky to sky.
The love of God. How rich and pure. How measureless
and strong it shall forevermore endure, the saints and angels. When we've been there 10,000
years, we'll still be seeing, not begun to scratch the surface
of the love of God. That's why we're not consumed.
It's because His compassions fail not. We have a good hope
in the love of God. Third, God's love and God's mercies
are new every morning. Aren't you thankful for the past
mercies of God? You look back over your life
and, oh, I'm thankful for God's mercies. I can look back and
see where the Lord's been so merciful to me. Oh, my soul,
you've been so merciful. I give thanks for Him. I do,
sincerely. Well, I'm a sinner. I need new
mercies every day. Yesterday's manna won't feed
me today. I need new mercies. New manna.
And the fountain of God's mercy and God's love never runs dry. New mercies wake us up, greet
us every morning. We've got a little puppy. One
of his favorite things he loves to do is go wake Savannah up
in the morning. You tell me you want to go wake up Savannah?
And he runs to the stairs. He knows what that means. You
take him up and put him in her bed. He goes wild. I mean, he's
so happy. He's jumping all around, licking
her face and waking her up. And she smiles. You know, he's
all over licking her face. When you wake up in the morning
tomorrow, God's mercies kissed your face and woke you up. His
mercies are new every morning. Every day we find new discoveries
of God's mercies and His love that we didn't know before. That
gives us confidence, doesn't it? Even in the fire, I have
confidence. His mercies are new every day.
Or, great is thy faithfulness. We have a good hope. Not because
of our faithfulness. Like I said in Sunday School,
I want to be found faithful. I want to be found a faithful
steward. But our hope is not in our fickle, changing faithfulness. But we have a good hope. Our
God is faithful. He's faithful to His covenant. He'll never forget the covenant
of grace He made with His Son. He's faithful. He's faithful
to save us in His Son. He's faithful to His Word. He'll
never violate one precept, one sentence, one punctuation mark
of His Word. He's faithful. He's faithful
to His promises. Even when we fail and we stumble,
and we do, He's faithful. He's faithful to His people even
when, well, we never deserve it, do we? He's faithful. He's
promised never to leave you or forsake you. Bank on it. He never will. He's promised
grace for the hour. Yes, He's promised trouble and
trial, but He's promised Grace for the hour. My grace is sufficient
for thee. You can bank on that. He's faithful. He's faithful to give His people
eternal life in Christ. And one day, you have it now,
eternal life. One day, we'll have it with Him
face to face. Because He's faithful. That's what we read in Sunday
school. Because He's faithful. that promise, great is thy faithfulness. Now fifth, verse 24, the Lord
is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him.
Now when Israel took possession of the promised land, all the
tribes were given a portion of land that was their inheritance
in the promised land. All the tribes except Levi, the
priests, were not given a portion of inheritance in that promised
land. Look over at Numbers 18. The priests weren't given an inheritance.
They weren't given a portion. Did they get the short end of
the deal where they left out? Look at Numbers 18. Verse 20. The Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou
shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou
have any part among them. I am thy part. I am thy inheritance
among the children of Israel. I believe Levi got the best deal,
don't you? I am thy inheritance. God's children are not promised
material wealth and inheritance of land and possessions in this
earth, although the Lord will provide for our needs on Him.
God's children have an inheritance. And it's not things. doctrinal precepts. It's a person. Our inheritance is a person.
The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord doesn't just say, well,
your inheritance will be eternal life someday or righteousness
that I'll give you or sanctification or some wisdom I'll give you.
It's a person. Our inheritance is a person.
The Lord Jesus Christ. He is our life. That's a whole lot more than
just having life. He's our life. He's the fountain of life. He's
our reason for life. He's the joy of our life. He
is our life. He personally is our righteousness. We're not just clothed in a,
you know, you give your wife a robe for Christmas and she
opens it up out of the box and puts it on and has a nice robe.
That's not the righteousness that God gives. It's a person. We're dressed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our sanctification. He is our wisdom. It's a person
that we cling to. He is our inheritance. He is
our portion. And if you have Christ, you've
inherited everything. If Christ is your portion, you've
got a portion a whole lot bigger than you can ever use up. It's
an infinite portion. Just like He is. He's our portion. He's our inheritance. And verse
25, here's the sixth reason for a good hope. The Lord is good. He's good unto them that wait
for Him. He's good to the soul that seeketh
Him. The Lord is good. That's why we hope. There's none
good but God. Has anyone ever waited in vain
on the Lord? No, sir, they haven't. Has anyone
ever sincerely sought mercy from the Lord and been denied? Absolutely
not. And you don't take my word for
that. I'm going to show you that in Scripture. Three Scriptures.
Look first at Psalm 9. Psalm 9, verse 10. And they that know thy name will
put their trust in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek thee. You seek him, he won't forsake
you. Look over in Proverbs chapter 8. Proverbs 8 verse 17. I love them that love me. And
those that seek me early shall find me. You seek him, you'll
find him. And then last, Matthew 17, or
Matthew 7, excuse me. Matthew chapter 7, verse 17. I got that wrong again. Matthew
7, verse 7. Ask and it shall be given you.
Seek and ye shall find. knock and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh
findeth. And to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. For what man is there of you
whom, if his son ask bread, will you give him a stone? Or if he
ask a fish, will you give him a serpent? If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things
to them that ask him? I'm afraid many times we have
not because we ask not. And you know, we'd be wise to
ask God for mercy. If we do, we're begging the God
of all mercy. We're begging the God who delights
to show mercy to sinners. There's a good hope in begging
Him because He's good. You seek the Lord. And you know
what you'll find eventually? You found Him, but He was drawing
you first. That's why you start seeking.
You beg God for mercy. You'll find it. And what you'll
find is He was calling you first. That's why you start to call
on Him. Believers have a good hope, don't we? That's why He
says in verse 26, it's good that a man both hope and quietly wait
for the salvation of our Lord. It's good that we wait because
we can be confident. Have a good hope. We have a good
hope in God's mercy. A good hope in God's love for
His people. A good hope in those mercies
that are new every day. A good hope in the great faithfulness
of our God. A good hope in Christ our portion. He's enough. He's enough to meet
our every need. And sixth, we have a good hope
in the goodness of our God. He is good, isn't he? Alright,
well I hope the Lord blessed that to you.