I'm going to read to you out
of Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations chapter 3. Without a doubt, my favorite
verses in the Bible. And by request, Drew married
my wife and I to these verses. I hope I can get to those in
particular. So I also teach American history,
early American history. And so that's like the Native
Americans all the way to the establishment of the United States. And when you look at history
in a lot of time at different perspectives, history actually
lies to you from the elementary school perspective. For instance,
Washington never cut down a cherry tree and didn't tell a lie, that
whole story. And his teeth weren't wood. By
those perspective, Christopher Columbus thought he was on the
other side of the world and thus named the natives in Puerto Rico
and Cuba as Indians. And so that's a misconstruction
of our history as well because they were not Indians. They did
not live in India. This town is a misnomer 100%. We're named after Andrew Jackson,
who was part of the Indian Removal Act. And what is our mascot? We're the Indians. So we are
the Jackson oops in reality. by that standard. But this book
here, it doesn't lie. There's no misconstruction unless
you just don't understand the Word of God. And so I hope that
everybody hearing this does understand the Word of God and is blessed
by Christ to know the truth. The last time I was up here,
I preached on Philippians 3, verse 12, and the topic was being
apprehended of Christ, kept permanently by His mercy. And in Lamentations,
you will find something that I title this message as Everlasting
Peace. Everlasting Peace. Not temporary,
but Everlasting Peace. And I start in verse 1 and will
read to you in the opening through verse 18. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness but not into light. Surely against me is 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 as they that be dead of old. 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 in hewn
stone. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lieth
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. He
hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath
caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my veins. 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 broken my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered
me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul
far off from peace, I forgot prosperity. And I said, My strength
and my hope is perished from the Lord." There is doubt to
be found in any believer. The doubt is only of ourselves
and not of the nature of Christ, because Christ is unwavering.
He is sure. But our nature is anything but
sure. We are saved if you believe you are saved and yet you can
find out at different points in the day. And that is a leftover
remnant of who we are. Now by a believer you are saved
but yet this comes in multiple times in our daily life and our
aspects of our nature. In our lowest point we were shown
what Christ is. We are shown what we are as well.
Verses 1 and 2, I am the man that hath seen affliction by
the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. We have been shown. That is a
doubtful saying. That is a scared statement in
reality by any believer. I believe any believer that gets
into that point, that's fear. that comes into play because
we know that this is not a flip of the coin or a decision by
our design. We don't have a choice whether
we be saved or sent to eternal damnation. There is no choice
by our nature and so on our lowest point we get to see our nature
and fear creeps in that is of ourselves. We spend our state
to be a woe is me Without the wisdom of God, and wisdom is
in capital letters, so without Christ, it is nothing but despair. Lowest point that we could ever
be in, whether it be when we first heard the Lord Jesus Christ,
because that would be, you know, my lowest point would be, holy
smoke, okay, everything I've heard now makes sense, and look
at me. So it's a woe is me. There is
a fear that if we don't hurry up and do something before we
truly believe, the outcome is beyond repair. It's hell. But, and I love that word, Drew
said that multiple times years ago, however, but, instead, in
those little promises in the Bible, that's how they always
start. When shown the truth, we see the Lord has put us into
a position of despair on purpose, we must be shown our worth. Our
worth is nothing. If you're offended by that, then
you don't believe. You don't get to see what Christ
is. We must be shown our worth. Our
worth is nothing. By ourselves, without Christ,
our worth is nothing. Verse 3. Surely against me he turned. He turneth his hand against me
all the day." That's fear of a believer. He gave up. The Lord really didn't select
me. I'm not one of the elect. God
forbid is a statement written by the direction of God. It means
that God does not want you to do anything you will not do. It is absolute. He will also
not do anything He has not promised, God forbid. It's not just your
action, it's His promise as well. He did not turn against you,
but that is a fear that a believer has. We see our condition, our
natural condition, we say there is no way the Lord would be with
us. Why would He be? If we look internally
at our own thoughts and hearts, The sin that is there would scare
you. You know, if we all shared, if
you look in the mirror, it would scare you. And it does. There
is no way the Lord would be with us. However, He has opened our
eyes and shown how vile we are. And that's a good thing. By a believer's standards, that's
a good thing. We need to know what we are. In the balance of
salvation, we need to understand what we are. More importantly,
we need to understand what He is. Surely against me He has
turned. Surely, how could there be another
way? Our way is the best. My ego,
if you knew it, I think my wife, maybe my parents may have a little
bit. My wife knows what it really
is. It is beyond massive. Beyond massive because my way
is the best. Our way is the best. Why wouldn't
it be? We created it. We're right. God does not agree
with our ways. When shown the way of the Lord,
we see our way is not a way at all. So my ego, as big as it
may be, is faulty at best. We are humbled to see that our
way is so wrong, how could anyone love us? The first section of
this verse I think that's why it apprehended me so much, verses
1-13. You saw there a believer knowing
his own condition. Verse 4, our bodies, let's just
talk physical. 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
as they that be dead of old. Get out of bed? How many pops
does it take in the ankles and the knees before you get to your
shoes? How many times do you worry about sneezing before throwing
your back out? The body fails. Our own bodies
fail. More to the point, forever our
soul was put into travail and hopelessness. So beyond our control,
our soul, our situation sounds bleak. We are hopeless to be
left to our own. Our own design is failure. Our
bodies fail. We are tempted by so many things. physical, emotional, things not
of the Word, we are tempted. I'm not talking about things
like, I'll have an extra piece of cake. That's not a temptation
of what we're talking about. We're talking about a permanent
temptation. Sin. He allows us to see our rite
of passage by our plan to be set in dark places. Our rite
of passage is only through Christ. Our plan sets us in dark places. We are of the dead of old by
our natural condition. Verse 8, Also when I cry and
shout, he shutteth out my prayer. At that point in time, it's either
two things. not our time to know Christ before
He has called it, or you're praying for something He doesn't want
you to have, because His ultimate goal has already been set. He
knows the plan, and you're part of it. Verse 9, 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 as a lion in secret
places. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate without
anything. He's going to knock you down.
He's going to knock you down and humble you at that point
in time. He hath bent his bow and set
me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of
his quiver to enter into my reins." If you read this chronologically,
verse 11, you are humbled because you were blessed by the Lord
Jesus Christ to hear the truth. In verse 12 and 13, He kept you. You're in the Christ's target.
He's gonna keep you. His arrow will land true. He
hears us not in certain times. He does not, does shut out our
prayer. Our prayer in those times are
of our wants and not of our needs, and therefore are not of the
Lord's graces. A believer can see the Lord as
a predator in our low lights. We fail, that was a typo, Sorry,
that was a... Graham really got me on that
one. Okay. It's supposed to read, a believer
can see that the Lord is gracious in our low lights. We fail in
our faith and He will chastise. We are desolate for a reason.
If a believer is desolate, then there becomes a need. Look at
verses 12 and 13. He hath bent His bow and set
me as a mark for His arrow. He has caused the arrows of His
quiver to enter our veins. His bow and true arrow is not
of death. His arrow is made true to deliver
only life. It enters into your veins. Your
derision, your doubt, your sin is replaced by the true arrow
of love delivering only, and I mean only, His mercy. We are killed of our own nature
to be delivered by the arrow of life, salvation eternal. We are put into a perspective
of seeing mercy that we do not deserve. It will arrest you in
your steps to preserve you into eternal salvation. It will knock
you to your knees, not to make you just repent of your sins,
but to praise the Lord Jesus Christ. We finally see ourselves
and him as one. What a mercy. He saves because
of His love, not by our own design or our own creed. Now, those verses paint a very bleak
picture of a believer. The lowest of low. Our nature,
by human standards, is established by verses 1 through verses 11. And that last word in verse 11,
desolate, is where we were at at one point in time. And then
the verses of mercy are bestowed. Verses 14 through 25, my favorite
passages in the entire book. Look at your condition, And more
importantly, look at His mercy. Look at Him. Verses 14, 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 forgot
prosperity. And I said, my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Lest doubt, we were humbled. And yet, but, however, verses
19, remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and
the gall, my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled
in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore,
have I hope." We know our condition and we know that He saves. It is of the Lord's mercies,
verse 22, that we are not consumed because His compassions, they
fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him." I could
stop, but I have some comments. Verse 19, we are humbled, we
see ourselves, our habits, our weaknesses, our desires of the
earth physical and itemized. We are now aware. We see our
condition. A derision to all my people.
I sat in a pew for a long time. There's now more people in here
that can understand this comment. I sat in a grace church. I was
a derision to my people. I did not know the truth. I was
a derision to the community. Why? I didn't know the truth. We see that. He humbles you. He knocks you to your knees.
Verse 20, by the grace of God we remember what we are. I hope
we never forget what we are. We do not become haughty because
we have the truth. Arrogant, we remain in fear of
the Lord. And that fear obviously means
reverence. Not just physically do we remember,
but also in our hearts, the private manner that we have on our own
hearts. And He humbles us. Verse 21,
this I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. By the grace of
God, we understand where we came from. It gives us no reason to
brag of our earthly ways. I have two degrees. I can run
a marathon in under three and a half hours. I feel like I can
grill cheeseburgers pretty good. I do my own laundry. I do well
in the community. I shower and smell pretty decent.
That allows me to get to go to heaven. My hope is not of this world. Your hope is not of this world. Our hope in the face of our earthly
endeavors is that the Lord saves. That's our hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. I can't
find a verse that serves me better. The Lord has every reason to
quit this situation of us on the earth and heaven and hell.
Every reason. Our condition is nothing but
sin. Our natural condition is nothing but sin. when I quit. Eternal salvation
to those that do not deserve it. Why? To the Lord, that would
be impossible. His promise to His people is
unbreakable and unfallible. His love does not fail. He will not change His mind to
serve another purpose. His is of compassion, of compassion. Psalms chapter 103, Psalms chapter
103. I don't know if it was Tim or
Joe who preached years ago on the condition of Christ. And
I've never heard it put that way, where He is unfallible. Yes, I understand that, because
as a little kid you can kind of romanticize God's condition
as all-controlling. But the fact that He wouldn't
change His mind either, whatever promise He set forward, is unfallible. By the utmost power that you
could even imagine, God, would never change. He has the ability
to, but because of His love, won't. Psalms 103, in three verses,
verses three and four, who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth
all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who
crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, Verse 10,
he hath not dwelt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. That's love. That is what that
is. That is a mercy new every morning. What'd he do? Well, he redeemed
your life from destruction, because that's where it was headed. What
else? He gave you loving kindness and
tender mercies. Anything else? Yeah, He didn't
punish you like you should have been, like we should have been.
What does He do? He saves. Instead, a full-blown
replacement of our sins. Back in Lamentations, I read
to you off of verse 23 which reads, those mercies are new,
Every morning, great is thy faithfulness. Every morning, His compassions
fail not. This means not that you wake
up and be just gracious that you wake up. Your mercies are
far more than that. He grants you a trial if you
don't like it. He grants you a loss if you don't
like that either. He grants you a challenge. He
grants you those things. In these, we grow by turning
to Him. That's a mercy. Even our trials
and tribulations, those are mercies. Even the great things that we're
comfortable with, those are mercies. We ask for mercy, and His mercy
is new every morning. He grants you a reprieve from
those. He grants you an awareness. He
grants you a fellowship with a fellow believer. Flat out,
He grants you. He grants you mercy. His mercy
is new every morning. In verse 24, the Lord is my portion,
saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. That word portion
is nice, isn't it? He gives you what you need. He
gives you what you need. That's your portion. Well, that
satiates and that satisfies. That's what that portion does.
It takes care of everything. What portion more do you require
than that the Lord provides? Our souls know this. We require
nothing more, nothing materially, nor anything we can create and
concoct to save our souls or nourish our bodies. Because of
this knowledge of wisdom that was given to us by Christ, we
only hope in Him. We can only find doubt and unfulfilled
promises in a broken and inaccurate road to salvation. in our own
selves. Our own selves can create and
even feel comfortable in the man-made ways of salvation. We
can concoct something that works for us, just put it in like a
puzzle piece, and then we find that the Lord is our portion
that does something different. He is only what we need to be
sustained and satiated in salvation. Only in Him we find hope. He is our hope. And lastly, I'm
moving pretty quick here, verse 25 and 26. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is
good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. We wait because He has promised
He will deliver us. We are patient because He has
been patient to save. And we will wait because He has
put that into us. Not by our design are we patient.
Anything but patient by nature. Our souls seek Him because again
it's imputed in us by the Lord. He is ever diligent to save.
He has chosen us before time. He is patient and loving to save. Our want to wait on Him is derived
only from Him. We were wormwood and gall and
because of Christ We now know our portion. We only want to
be fed in Christ's love. We only want to wait on Him. A believer knows that we could
not be consumed. Go back for just a moment, verses
22 to 23. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. What a blessed thing. to hear
that Christ died for our sins and our own condition is now
satisfied. It's satisfied because His compassions
fail not. I promise a lot of things, say
I'm going to be at a certain point in time, I'll be there,
and I can't do it all the time. but his compassions fail not."
And Drew always says, I love this comment, you put a little
mark by a promise, that's a promise right there. A promise that the
Lord's compassions on you fail not. Verse 23, and they're new,
every morning. You get up and you have a design
for the day, or you have a goal for the day, that doesn't fulfill
itself, The Lord's mercies are new every single morning. Not
by our design, but by His. Great is thy faithfulness. So faithful. I don't even have
the words to describe how faithful Christ is. I mean, He died for
our sins. Nathan, would you pray? to be used to its fullness. The
portion is not less than what it says and not more than what
it says. And you are everything we need. We can't have less, or our salvation would not be
sure. And we don't need more. Everything you have demanded
was done in Christ. So what more would you require
of us? The Lord is our portion, and Heavenly Father, we are so
glad for that. We would praise You forever if
it was in our flesh to do so, but it is weak. O Lord, we are rejoicing.