I want so very, very much to
preach the gospel to you in the power of God, for the glory of
God, for your soul's everlasting good. Turn with me, if you will,
to Lamentations, Chapter 1. Lamentations, Chapter 1. We will begin reading at verse
8. For two weeks I have had this
portion of scripture relentlessly on my mind, studying it, meditating
on it, go home at night and lay down, turn the lights off, Kiss
Shelby goodnight and lay there thinking about this portion of
scripture. I pray that God will seal it
to your heart and to mine. Lamentations 1 verse 8. Jerusalem
hath grievously sinned, therefore she is removed. All
that honored her despise her. because they have seen her nakedness,
her shame, her sin. Yea, she sigheth and turneth
backward. Her filthiness is in her skirts. She remembereth not her last
end. Therefore, she came down wonderfully. She had no comforter. Now notice the change of persons
in the next sentence. Jeremiah has been talking about
Jerusalem, her sin, her nakedness, her filthiness, her shame. Then at the end of verse nine,
he speaks in the first person about his own affliction. Oh
Lord, behold my affliction. O Lord, behold my affliction,
for the enemy hath magnified himself. In verse 10, the weeping
prophet changes persons again as he pours out his lamentation
to God. The adversary has spread out
his hand upon all her pleasant things, for she hath 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've given their pleasant things for
meat to relieve the soul. Then beginning at the end of
verse 11 and going through verse 14, Jeremiah again speaks in
the first person. Be sure to connect what the prophet
said in the last sentence of verse 9 with what he says here. The last sentence of verse 9,
O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified
himself. Verse 11, see, O Lord, and consider, for I am become vile. 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. From
above he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them.
He hath spread a net for my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by His hand. They are wreathed and come up
upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands. from whom I am not able to rise
up." As a faithful pastor, Jeremiah's heart was broken because of the
woeful condition of God's church. The sorrows of Jerusalem were
truly his sorrows. The people for whom and among
whom the prophet had labored all his days faithfully had rejected
him, had rejected his message, and despised him. The man of
God who brought these people the word of God chose to hear
false prophets and cast him into the pit. They would not hear
God's word by God's servant, but rather they chose to hear
smooth things from smooth-tongued preachers suiting their own ears. And by their own rebellion and
sin, by their own unbelief, The sons and daughters of Abraham
brought upon them the judgment of God. And still they were Jeremiah's
beloved people. His heart broke for them. The
very people would cast him into that deep, dark pit. The very people who despised
him, his heart broke for them. While he's in that dungeon, he
beholds the ruins of the city. and he weeps in bitterness, identifying
himself with the people who despised him, taking their crimes to be
his crimes. He had been a faithful prophet
to their souls. He had faithfully served their
souls and faithfully served God. The Lord God raised him up and
spoke by him to his people, and faithfully he served them, and
yet he speaks as one of them. identifying himself with them,
taking their sins as his own sins. And in bitterness he cries,
see and consider, O Lord, for I am become vile. Is it nothing
to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. The sorrow which is done unto
me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me. in the day of his fierce
anger. If we read these words and interpret
them as being merely the words of Jeremiah, we must conclude
that the prophet was mistaken. For there have been many who
endured greater sorrow than Jeremiah endured, greater pain than Jeremiah
felt, greater difficulty than Jeremiah endured, greater opposition
than Jeremiah faced. Jeremiah, we must understand,
speaks here as a representative man. He speaks here as one who
is typical of Christ our Savior, the man of sorrows. The only
one from whom these words can be spoken with absolute truth. You read what we've just read,
and the words spoken by Jeremiah concerning himself, his affliction,
and his sorrow could be spoken truthfully in an absolute sense
by no one except Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows. When he who
knew no sin took our sins to himself and was made sin for
us. and suffered the wrath of God
as our substitute, then he could say indeed, behold and see if
there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Like that which is done unto
me wherewith the Lord, the triune Jehovah hath afflicted me. in the day of his fierce anger. Hear the words falling from the
lips of our Savior, and you'll come close to understanding what's
expressed here. These are the words of God our
Savior, the incarnate God-man, when he suffered the wrath of
God in our stead. Hold your Bibles open here at
Lamentations 1. Read the text with me again and then we're
going to come back to it from four or five angles. The end of verse nine, chapter
one. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Behold my affliction. For the enemy, the fiend of hell. The serpent seed, the enemy. hath magnified himself. Verse
11. See, O Lord, and consider, for
I am become vile. 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.
From above he, Jehovah, the Lord, hath sent fire into my bones. And the fire, the fire of God's
wrath, the fire of God's fury, the fire of God's indignation,
It prevaileth against my bones. He hath spread out a net for
my feet. He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They're wreathed, they're plaited
together and come up upon my neck. He hath made my strength
to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands from whom I am not able to rise up. Behold my affliction. Behold my affliction, the Savior
says. Picture our Lord Jesus hanging
upon the curse tree. There hangs God the Son in human
flesh. Well might the Son in darkness
hide and shut his glories in when God the mighty maker died
for man the creature sin. There he hangs suffering all
the fury of his father's wrath and justice. hanging upon Calvary's
tree as our substitute. He dies the just for the unjust
that he might bring us to God. How many times, how many times
have I passed by this place, the place called Calvary, and
gone my way unmoved and unaffected? God, forgive me. So I come myself again to this
place of greatest shame. And I bring you here today to
tell you again, as best I can, the story of God our Savior's
great mercy, love, and grace. Oh, may God the Holy Ghost melt
our proud hearts and break our stubborn wheels May he be pleased
to open deaf ears and cause all who hear my voice to hear the
voice of the Son of God in our text and live. The Lord Jesus
Christ, our blessed Redeemer, voluntarily endured the painful,
shameful, ignominious, violent death of the cross for sinners
like you and me. that he might save his people
from their sins and have us with him forever in the bliss of heavenly
glory one with him as he is the very righteousness of God in
him. Let me call your attention to
several things here. I'll quit when I think I should. We read this passage of Holy
Scripture, hearing the Lord Jesus, the spotless, sinless Lamb of
God, make a shocking confession. See, O Lord, and consider, for behold, I am vile. What a shocking confession. Can these truly be the words
of Him who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners? Is it possible that that One
who had no sin, did no sin, and knew no sin could bow before
the throne of the triune Jehovah with a broken heart and confess, behold, I am vile. For a man to say that of him
would be blasphemy. For a man to say that of him
would be blasphemy of its greatest depth. For a man to say that of him
would be blasphemy of its greatest depth had he not declared it
of himself. But hearing him declare it of
himself for a man to deny it is blasphemy. If he declares it of himself,
though no man can comprehend the mystery or explain the wonder
of it, we can and should, oh God give us grace to do so, fall
on our faces before Him and worship. When our Lord Jesus was made
sin for us, when the reproaches of them that reproach the Almighty
fell on Him, when He bare our sin in His own body on the tree,
the Lord God Almighty made his darling son vile before him,
that he might justly punish him as our substitute. Hold your
hands here and turn back to two Psalms, Psalm 40. Psalm 40. I've said this so often, I hope
you get it and it doesn't need repeating. But it needs to be
said again and again and again, lest we forget it. God is just. God is just. God is righteous. God is righteous. That means whatever God does
is just. Whatever God does is righteous. He cannot deal with you. He cannot
deal with me in any way except in accordance with strict justice
and not cease to be God. He cannot deal with you. He cannot
deal with me in any way that is not in complete, perfect accordance
with absolute righteousness and not cease to be God. And he cannot
deal with his son. He cannot deal with his son in
any way except in accordance with strict justice and perfect,
absolute righteousness and not cease to be God. The Lord God
could not punish His Son until His Son was made guilty before
Him. And He cannot reward you or me
with righteousness until we have been made the righteousness of
God in Him. God never plays pretend. God never plays pretend. Hear what our Savior says in
Psalm 40 verse 12. Innumerable evils have come past
me about. Mine iniquities. Mine iniquities. Mine iniquities. Do you see that?
Do you see that? This is the same one who in the
preceding verses says, lo, I come to do thy will. Oh my God. He says, mine iniquities. He never committed sin. He never
knew sin. He could not see it. But here
he says, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I'm
not able to look up. They're more than the hairs of
mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Psalm 69, Psalm 69, verse 1. I defy anyone to make any sense
of this 69th Psalm, or of Psalm 22, or of Psalm 40, and apply
the words only to a man. These are the words of the God-man,
our Savior, and they cannot be reasonably understood in any
other way. Save me, O God, for the waters
are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. I know of no commentator anywhere
who denies that that fourth verse is spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. It's hard to deny it when the
Holy Spirit puts those words in his mouth in the New Testament.
These are the words of our Savior. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness. If you care to make a note, the
word would better be translated, thou knowest my guiltiness, my
guiltiness. And my sins, my sins, my sins
which is the guiltiness that's mine, my sins are not hid from
thee. And he speaks to God as he bears
our sins in his own body on the tree. As our advocate, our high
priest, let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts,
be ashamed for my sake. When my people see me here bearing
their sin, in my body, bearing your wrath in my body, in my
heart, and in my soul. Let them not be ashamed for my
sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I've
become a stranger to my brethren and an alien to my mother's children.
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. The reproaches of
them that reproach thee are fallen on me. Verse 19. Thou hast known
my reproach and my shame. My dishonor, mine adversaries
are all before thee. Reproach hath broken mine heart. I'm full of heaviness. I looked
for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters,
but I found none." If you want to turn over a few pages to Ezekiel
4 again, we read this passage earlier, and here we have an
illustration of the vileness which our Savior claims as His
own. Oh, wonder of wonders. Oh, mercy of mercies. made ours makes us the perfection
of beauty. Only because our vileness made
His, made Him vile when He was made sin for us. Here in Ezekiel
chapter 4, beginning in verse 4, we see the prophets used as
an example. Ezekiel was required to lay on
his side as one man bearing the sins of many. The Lord said,
thou shalt bear their iniquity, bearing them to the full extent
of their just punishment according to their iniquity. As he did
so, he made himself polluted, unclean, and vile by God's command. For 390 days corresponding to
the 390 years of Israel's idolatry in which they set up their golden
calves in Dan and Bethel. For 40 days corresponding to
the 40 years of idolatry in Judah under Manasseh's reign. Ezekiel
lays first on his left side and then on his right side. But as
he lays on his sides bearing the sins of the people, to the
full extremity of punishment, the full span of the time deserved
for their sins. He lays on his side bearing their
sins. And the Lord God commanded him
to make himself vile by saying, now you make yourself a loaf
of bread and this is what you eat. You eat this loaf of bread
smeared over with man's dung. Ezekiel said, but God, I've never
had anything like that to touch my mouth. He said, all right,
I'll make it a little bit better. I'll give you cows manure instead. And Ezekiel is required by God
to take the filthy excrement coming from the bowels of an
animal. and spread it over His bread
and eat His bread like one eating iniquity. So our Savior took
our sin as His own and made Himself vile. For He hath made Him sin for
us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. What a shocking confession. Behold,
I am vile. Look back at our text again. Here our Lord Jesus makes an
urgent appeal to Jehovah. See, O Lord, and consider. See and consider. See who this
is. See and consider what I am. See and consider what I'm doing. Here is our Savior crying out
to God, His Father, as He did on that horrid day when He said,
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? He says, Lord Jehovah,
consider who I am. I am your son. I am God in human
flesh. That makes my suffering of infinite
worth, indescribably infinite value. Consider what I am. I am your servant. Here I am. I've come to this last dying
act of obedience. This commandment have I received
of my Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. I've come here, O Lord, as Jehovah's
righteous servant. Consider why I'm here. I came
into this world in human flesh to magnify your law and make
it honorable. and I have all the days of my
life magnified your law and made it honorable. I've come here
to magnify your law and make it honorable that thereby I might
save your people from their sins. Consider for whom I am vile. The iniquity I bear On my left
side is the iniquity of Israel. The iniquity I bear on my right
side is the iniquity of Judah. Oh, Lord Jehovah, I bear the
iniquity of your people. Consider how I have done this. I've come here as your obedient
servant because of the great love wherewith I love this people. Now third, we have before us
a vision of indescribable sorrow. All ye that pass by, behold and
see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. Is there any sorrow so deep,
so undeserved, Any sorrow endured by anyone so effectual for others? What strong language our Savior
uses here to declare how indescribable His sorrow is, the sorrow that
the Lord God Himself put upon Him. Look at verse 12. 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.
From above hath he sent fire into my bones. It prevaileth
against him. He hath spread a net for my feet.
He hath turned me back. He hath made me desolate and
faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreathed and come up
upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall.
The Lord hath delivered me into their hands from whom I'm not
able to rise up. What mind can conceive? What
tongue can declare the pain, the agony, the sorrow? The Lord Jesus endured yonder
on Calvary's cursed tree when he bore our sin in his own body. When he died, under the just
fury of God his Father, under the righteous wrath of God our
Father, under the just and righteous ire of the triune Jehovah, the
God-man suffers and dies. Much we talk of Jesus' blood,
but how little is understood. Of his suffering so intense,
angels have no perfect sense. who can rightly comprehend their
beginning or their end. Tis to God and God alone that
their weight is fully known. Men, take these things we are looking at this
morning. and drag them down to the mire
of their exalted opinions of their own brains and try to figure
out how it is that these things came to pass. And I'm here to tell you no man
will ever figure out how this came to pass. This is God's doing. His ways are infinitely above
our ways. His thoughts infinitely above
our thoughts. It is ours not to figure out
how God did this, but to bow to and worship God who did this
for us. See the suffering Son of God
pouring out His precious blood, boundless depths of love divine. Jesus, what a love is Thine. As He hangs there under the curse
of God's law being made a curse for us. The sufferer sends out
this challenge. Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. What is that sorrow? Holiness was made sin. Innocence was made guilty. See, Christ is not just holy. He is holiness. He was made sin. Christ is not just innocent. He is innocence. He was made
sin. The spotless Lamb of God was
made vile. The obedient Son of God was forsaken
by his father at the apex of his obedience. That's the nearest I can come
to understanding what transpired here. I've said this to you before,
and I know no other way to express it. Nothing is more heart crushing
to a child than to do his best to please
a parent just because he loves his parents. And he decides one
day, I'm going to do this just for Bob. I'm going to do this
just, oh, he'll be so proud of me when he comes home. He'll
be so, oh, he'll be so delighted when he comes home. And when
dad comes home and sees what you've done, he is utterly disgusted. enraged and angered, because
you've made a mess of things. Twice it happened in my life.
I can only think of twice that I ever really tried to do anything
to please my mother or daddy, the one, until after God saved
me. I didn't care. I'm sorry that's
just the way it was. On one occasion when I was about
eight years old, my dad had just bought a new Cadillac. Had a
brand new baby blue 1957 Cadillac and it was dirty. And it was
parked in the driveway and I decided to wash the Cadillac. And I cleaned
it up. Merle, I worked all day long
scrubbing that Cadillac with Ajax. It was never again a pretty baby
blue Cadillac. All the shine was gone everywhere. And I knew before Daddy got home,
he wasn't gonna be pleased. And when he got home, I found
out just how displeased he was. On another occasion, I decided
to clean up his tool shed. He just had a little shed in
the, just big closet in the basement of the house, and I went in and
cleaned it up. That's where he kept his whiskey,
and I just, he didn't, I guess he knew I knew it was there,
but anyway, I cleaned it up, and I was about to get done,
and I realized he had boxes of washers and nuts and bolts and
screws and nails and all those things, just boxes of them scattered
all over the workbench. So I thought, well, that just
takes up a lot of space. And I dumped them all into one
box and made a nice little box of them. And I thought, he's
going to be so proud of me. I was about 12. When he came
home, he wasn't proud. On both occasions, there was
something that hurt a heapsight more than the stripes on my behind. My intention of pleasing him
only brought out his fury. God's darling son, at the apex
of his obedience, he came to die in our stead. At the apex
of his obedience, was forsaken of God because he bore our sin
in his own body on the tree. The righteous and faithful servant
of Jehovah was punished, punished for rebellion and treason against
the God of heaven when he was most faithful. The just one was
executed by the sword of justice because he was holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners. was made sin and became
vile. Now with all that said, turn
with me one more time to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse
17. Therefore, therefore, because
of our Savior's sorrow unto death, because he became vile for us,
therefore, because he suffered all the fury, all the hail of
divine justice in our stead. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. No suffering so effectual for
another as his. Old things are passed away. All the past, gone and forgotten
forever. Old things have passed away.
Randall, that means it doesn't matter what you are, what you've
done, what you've been, where you came from, it's all gone. God doesn't remember it. Oh my soul, God doesn't remember
what God has put away by the sacrifice of His Son. Any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away and
behold all things are become new. Here I am in Christ, this man
who's nothing but sin. made the righteousness of God
in him. This man who doesn't even understand
holiness made holy in him. This man, this man who lived
all his life an alien from God sanctified in him. And this is
all God's work. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation. to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world, reconciling His elect all over the world
unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word, the message of reconciliation. Now
then, we're ambassadors for Christ. Here I stand, a man redeemed
by the precious blood of God's darling Son. Here we are, a congregation
of sinners, Saved by the blood of the crucified one. Ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us. I don't ask you to do so vocally.
I ask you children of God to join me. As though God did beseech
you by us. We pray you in Christ's name. Be ye reconciled to God. How come? For he hath made him
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh, God give you grace now, receive
not the grace of God in vain, but believe on the Son of God. Behold my affliction, and beholding
His affliction, trusting Him, my substitute, my Savior, my
surety, I am assured I will never know the wrath of God, because
Christ took it away. And God declares to this son
of Jacob, fury is not in me. Oh, I pray that God will send
you to your house this day with the voice of God's pardon in
your soul, knowing that there's no fury in God to you because
you're in Christ Jesus who suffered the fury of God in your stand. Amen.