Turn with me to Lamentations
chapter 1. Lamentations chapter 1. If you want to read when you
get home verses 1-13, do that. We're going to start about verse
4, speaking of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, He says
in verse 4 of Lamentations 1, the ways of Zion. So he is speaking
of the church, or the church is speaking here. The prophet
is weeping for the church here. The ways of Zion do mourn, because
none come to the solemn feasts. All her gates are desolate, her
priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
Her adversaries are the chief. Her enemies prosper, for the
Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the
daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed. Her princes are
become like hearts that find no pastor. They are gone without
strength before the pursuer. Jerusalem, again the church,
remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old when
her people fell into the hand of the enemy. And none did help
her. The adversary saw her and did
mock at her Sabbaths. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned. Therefore she is removed. All
that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness.
Yea, she sigheth and turneth backwards. Her filthiness is
in her skirts. She remembers not her last end. Therefore she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. O Lord,
behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself. The adversary has spread out
his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she has seen that
the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command
that they should not enter into thy congregation. All her people
sigh. They seek bread. They have given
their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. See, O Lord,
and consider, for I am become vile. Now these next few verses,
we're going to look at two, are specifically prophetic about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously, Isaiah says, in our
afflictions, He was afflicted. So this is what's going on here.
But look at this. This is amazing to me. It's humbling,
it's sobering. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by, Behold, and see if there been any sorrow like
unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevailed against them, that he hath spread
a net for my feet, he hath turned me back, he hath made me desolate
and faint all the day. Now here in verse 12 is what
we're going to look at. Just this one verse. The church
prefigures Christ. And this language is prophetic
and made to suit our blessed Lord more than Jerusalem or more
than the church. Compare Zion in verse 4 and Jerusalem,
and he's talking about Israel. Compare this with Isaiah 49 verse
3. Isaiah 49, we'll look at verses
1, 2, and 3. Compare that to Jerusalem, the
church, Israel, Listen, O Isles, unto Me, and hearken, ye people
from far. The Lord hath called Me from
the womb. From the bowels of My mother
hath He made mention of My name. He hath made My mouth like a
sharp sword in the shadow of His hand. Hath He hid Me and
made Me a polished shaft in His quiver? Hath He hid Me and said
unto Me, Thou art My servant, O Israel, and whom I will be
glorified." He's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark chapter
15. Mark chapter 15. Is it anything
to you, all ye that pass by? Compare that with Mark chapter
15 Verse 29, and they that passed by railed on Christ, wagging
their heads and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple and
buildest it in three days, save yourself and come down from the
cross. And he says basically the same
thing in Matthew 27. We won't turn there. And then
compare in our text, verse 12 of Lamentations 1, See if there
be any sorrow like unto my sorrow." Well, we know Isaiah 53 and verse
3 says, He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. So, let's
address the passage specifically, and behold the Lamb of God, which
John the Baptist said, taketh away the sin of the world. As
He beheld Him in John 1.29, John the Baptist, may we behold the
Lamb of God as well in this passage. And this is overwhelming. I was
reading in my daily readings and Hawker had something to say
about this and that's what arrested my attention several days ago.
But this, it's just amazing because this is us in here as well as
the former verses The church, you know, we look at sin when
something's wrong or something bothers us. We look at ourselves
and say, Lord, have I sinned? Have I grieved you? But look
at this. Look at the first verse. Is it
nothing to you, you, us here, all ye that pass by? Is it nothing? What a sad account of us. Now
this hymn that we just sang, First couple of verses, stanzas,
talking about how we were outside of Christ. Everything, I'm guilty,
it's me, it's all me. But if anything good comes, it's
Christ. This is us. Is it nothing to
you, to me, all you that pass by. And even still, after the
Lord has saved us, how cold we get in worship. You know, our
mind wanders. We're so forgetful of our Lord,
we just set Him on the shelf often. What a bitter pill to
swallow. From our birth, by our nature
and our practice, Christ's substitutionary death on Calvary's tree meant
nothing to us. Now you think about when the
Lord saved you, you think about before that time. You may have
been religious. I may have been religious. You
may not have been religious. But the bottom line is, Christ
was nothing. Christ was nothing to us until
that glorious day when He made Himself known to us by His matchless
grace. He was nothing to us. If you're
without Christ this morning, It's hard to concentrate. I grant
my voice and my pastoral abilities are not wonderful, but the book
is opened. Matt read from the book. I'm
reading from the book. The gospel is declared unto you.
What do we see to prove that Christ's death was nothing to
us? Well, all we like sheep have gone astray, Isaiah 53. Who hath
believed this report with the Bible? Isaiah 53, 1. It's as
though you're preaching, you're preaching, nobody believes it.
That's us. And it says in John 6, we will
not come unto Christ or God that we may have life. That's us by
nature. And every man, every woman, every
boy, every girl does that which seems right in their own eyes. Proverbs 21. That's us. Nothing. This word nothing. It
means of no purpose, vain, and needless. It almost pains me
to say that. We are absolutely nothing without
Christ. Is it nothing to you? He is addressing each one of
us, all you that pass by. How can this greatest act in
human history, that is the death of Christ for sinners and God's
glory, is said to be nothing to people, to humankind? Because
we are totally depraved. We're born in sin and carry nothing
for the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. We will sooner,
look at your own life, we will sooner talk about the weather,
money, things, recreation, entertainment, than the bleeding, suffering
Lamb of God. That's what we do. So what we're
saying, if somebody were to look at our lives, take the last week,
take that, and if they saw you, they would say, well, what's
important to this person? Oh, well, I've seen this person,
this is what's important. Is it nothing? The vicarious sufferings of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What a sad, tragic commentary
on us. Is there a more tell-tale verse
in all the Word of God against us? Is it nothing to you that
pass by? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Continue on in this verse. Stop,
consider, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow, says
Christ, which was done unto me, wherewith the Lord did this unto
me, and afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." May we
see, as Isaiah, I believe, was 63, 9, to see that in all our
afflictions, he says he was afflicted. From the manger to the cross,
sorrow, sufferings, and agony met Christ at every step of the
way. He made this world, He came into this world, and John chapter
1 verse 10 says the world, we're of the world, received Him not.
The world became a curse after the fall. So Christ had to be
made a curse for us. Humanly, the best that we could
do shows up in Christ's trial, which is to honor this upstart
king, was to place a crown of thorns on his head. signifying
to all the supremacy of His sufferings. He was the King of Sufferers.
Truly, factually and really, our Savior bore and sustained
and carried all our corruptions and loads of sins on purpose
that we might be delivered. And is it nothing to us? Behold,
See if there has been any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Sorrow never
before or never after would be seen on this level. And there
is a lot of suffering, a lot of affliction, a lot of vile
things going on in the name of religion, in the name of humankind. This sorrow, which is what the
word here is anguish, affliction or pain, look who did this. Was there any sorrow, affliction,
pain, like unto my sorrow, affliction, and pain, which is done unto
me? Wherewith the Lord..." The Lord. The Lord afflicted His
Son. By the Father He afflicted Him,
but it was carried out and fulfilled by men at Calvary. Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2 and verse 23.
Verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know Him,
Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you, me, have taken and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain." Make no mistake, man and men are fully responsible,
carried out what God had foreordained. It pleased the Lord to bruise
them, says Isaiah. Yet men, in their careless hatred
and enmity towards the Redeemer, did exactly what their heart
told them to do. And the sad thing is, I remember
reading this a long time ago and it made me mad. It was that
book that I threw against the wall after I read it. If I was
there, if you were there at this point in time in history, we
would have been yelling away with Him. We would be saying,
come down off the cross. You said you're going to destroy
the temple and bring it back three days. You can't even save
it. That's what we would be doing. And then you go back up, and
the fatal blow to me is, it's nothing. Twenty-something years
living my life, doing what I wanted to do, thinking I was the center
of the universe. And I don't say this to our children
to discourage them. Go ahead and do what you can.
Be the best person you can. But I'm telling you this, without
Christ, really, you can do nothing. Because everything you do will
amount to nothing if it does not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. How mysterious are His ways?
Indeed, they are past finding out. By our logic and reason,
we always try to, you know, it's like a chess game or checkers,
we always try to, okay, God's doing this, so I'm going to do
this. We can't figure them out. His ways are not our ways. If
you get time to read that little pamphlet slowly on Esther, and
see the sovereignty of God in Providence, He's doing what He's doing on
purpose. But it's still way above us. Therefore, if His ways are
mysterious and His ways pass finding out by our reason or
logic, it therefore is easily concluded salvation must be by
divine revelation. It must be He's got to open our
eyes and the ears of our heart to see Him with whom we have
to do. Let me re-read verse 12 and make some closing comments.
Is it nothing to you, all you 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? I address the unconcerned. Is he done yet? Preacher, are
you done yet? I've got the food in there, I'm
getting hungry. I address those who are unconcerned this morning.
Passing over this story, passing over this verse, this crucified
Savior, is it nothing to you? Is it nothing to me? I tell you to look and live.
Look and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. You can't do anything. You can
look. You can live. But even that has
to come by God's sovereign grace. It's almost a paradox. You can't
come, but the preacher tells you to come. You can't come,
but the scripture says, behold, look and live. Christ himself
says, you believe on me, you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
You believe on me, you have eternal life. We don't have to make it
complicated. We just basically say it, and like your dad said,
get out of the way. Just get out of the way. So that's
how I address the unconcerned. And I address you who are concerned.
As He is everything to you, everything important in life and death,
He's precious indeed to yours and to my soul. We delight in
Him. In closing, turn to Psalms 137. Psalms 137 and verse 5 and 6. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her
cunning. If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to
the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem, if I prefer not
the church, if I prefer not the brethren, if I prefer not Christ,
above my chief joy." He is our chief joy. And life happens. We raise our
children, raise our grandchildren, raise maybe our great-great-grandchildren. It happens. But He is our chief
joy. So I have to ask you, may we
never forget three things. One, where He found us. Complete disregard for Him and
His life-giving sacrifice. Secondly, that it pleased the
Father to wound, bruise, and slaughter Him for His people. And thirdly, this must be so. Four, God's justice demands it.
Our salvation depends upon it, and God's ultimate glory fulfilled
it. May God be honored in the preaching
of His Word. Nathan, would you close us?