And I know you all do. You know, I never used to think
of this when I would preach and think, well, this is just a passage
of Scripture. Now when I look at it, I think,
well, I think somebody else would be blessed with it as well if
they think back on things that have been. Lamentations chapter 3. Verses
21-26. I'm going to read it as it's printed, and
then I'm going to do something that I haven't done in quite
a while. I'm going to go backwards. I'm going to preach from it in reverse
order. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. Now often times when it's grammatically
written this way, it refers to what's gone on before. This is
not. This, the proper interpretation would
be, it looks forward. This I recall to my mind, therefore
I have hope. And then he tells why he has
hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. And Matt read that this morning
in Psalms 103. He has not dealt with us after
our iniquities. So it's throughout the Scriptures.
It's basically throughout the Scriptures. The believer who
understands what he is, understands his flesh, understands his sinful
nature that he carries with him until he dies. He knows he's
not getting any better. Yes, he grows in grace. But better? No. Because evil is present with
the believer. Always is. This I recall to my
mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions 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. It is good that a man should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Now, as I said, I'm going to
look at this, I'm going to start at verse 26 and go backwards. To hope and wait upon God and
the salvation of God in Christ is a beautiful thing. It is good
that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. The reason why we hope and the
reason why we're waiting, because the drawn sinner, the sinner
who is being drawn by the Holy Spirit of God, is made aware
that we can do absolutely nothing to hurry salvation. Now, you parents with children,
I don't care if the children are 20 years old, 25, 29, or
2. You cannot hurry salvation. Salvation is not on your time
frame. Not on my time frame. It's on God's time frame. We can do absolutely nothing
to hurry salvation. We have zero power over God to
quicken His grace to us or upon any sinner. were just like Moses
of old when he escaped out of the land of Egypt. He came to
the Red Sea. His back is towards the Red Sea.
He's facing the full wrath of the Egyptian army. And what did
Moses say to the people? Stand still. You can't do anything. You can't do anything. The issue
with today's religion is they're trying to do something for God
and God's not paying any attention. He's not noticing their puny,
useless works. Stand still, he said, and see
the salvation of the Lord. You can't go this way. It's a
C. You look back and here comes
the army. Sure annihilation. See and watch
and stand still and wait for God's work to work His free,
unchanging grace and full deliverance towards those of us undeserving
sinners all through the Lord Jesus Christ. In this religious
day and age of activity and noise and vile, useless works, stand
still. It is good that a man, that a
woman, that a child should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord, for the free grace of the Lord. Because that's the only way salvation
comes. You may be waiting for God. You may be in a different
church where you're not hearing the gospel. You're not waiting on the salvation
of the Lord. You're waiting on the inventions of man. You're
waiting on this so-called Holy Spirit movement to get somebody
up and start bouncing and jumping and moving around. No. I know this world thinks we,
or the believer, or the Church of the Living God is crazy. All
we do is come and sing hymns, pray to God, ask for His blessings,
and hear the preaching of the Word. But there's more to it. This
is 2015, this is contemporary. No. Contemporary worship mocks
the grace of God. All these different inventions
of men, they may be morally accurate, they may be keeping people off
the streets, but God's not going to use it. He doesn't use it. He uses the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. This noisy generation. Behold God, who is in Christ
Jesus, reconciling sinners unto himself. It is good that a man
should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. He saves us through the reconciling work of the Lord,
unassisted by us, unaided by us, and certainly unwanted by
us. Wait, I say. It may come at the age ten, I
just threw that number out there. It may come at the age 20, 50,
99. But wait and look only towards
Christ. Look only towards Jehovah God. Wait. Wait. Come and hear the Gospel preached.
Wait. Let us reason together. Let's
pray together. Let's ask God to do something
for our children. But wait. I've seen way too many
times where parents will, and they may not twist the arm, literally,
but they'll put them under bondage and they'll get a decision out
of their children. And then when they get older,
where are they at? Where are they at? Wait. on the Lord. It is good, it is good for a man, a woman, that should
both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Verse 25, The Lord is good to
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. Why is
it good? The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him. One, because God is good. And He's good towards
them that solely and singularly wait and seek Him. That man that
was excommunicated by the Pharisees, when he was born blind, And then the Lord healed him. He didn't know who Christ was.
He knew he was blind and that he saw. And then the Pharisees
came and questioned him. They said, I think it's this
guy. He looks like this guy. And he
says, I am that guy. So they bring in his parents. Of course, they had them all
under bondage. If you say certain things, if you identify yourself
with this Christ, you're going to be excommunicated. And that
doesn't mean the same thing it does in this generation. It would
be like the Church of England, the state's religion. That's it. You're out. They said,
he's of age, ask him. Ask him. Did you not understand me?" I
said, I don't know who it was. I said, I'm Him. Then when they
cast him out, and they made fun of him, and they excommunicated
him, and all this other thing, the Lord came to him. The Lord
sought him out again. He said, do you believe that
the Son of God, He says, who is this? The one standing here
talking to you. I'm Him. I'm He. Wait. It is good unto them that
wait. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. Seek and you shall
find, the Scripture says, wait and you shall possess. Him, Him
only. You see, in this world, it's
a good thing to diversify and expand and have multiple routes
and routines of income and hope and advancement. But not God. God's ways are not our ways.
God has everything the sinner needs and He's placed it, as
I said before, in one basket. One basket. One way. One life. One truth. And that's
all in the person of His dear Son, the Christ, the Anointed,
The ladder, Jacob's ladder, the scapegoat, the elder brother,
our beloved spouse. It is the Lord is good unto them
that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. Him and Him alone. Verse 24. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. You notice how this word
hope and wait, it's just coming up throughout all these verses. Our hope is well grounded if
God is our portion. Now this word portion here in
this text specifically means allotment. Allotment, part. Turn to Psalms 119. And verse 57. David says, Thou art my portion,
O Lord, I have said that I would keep Thy word. Thou art my portions,
Thou art my allotment, You're my part. Psalms 16 and verse 5, to me
is a little bit different, it has the same connotations. 16
verse 5, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The
Lord is the portion of my inheritance. He is our inheritance. He is
our part. And with Him being soul, that's
more than enough. That's more than enough. You
remember the parable of the prodigal son? Give me my inheritance.
Give me my lot. Give me my portion, which comes
to me. He went out and it didn't last.
It didn't last. Not so. If you have made, if
you've waited on the Lord, if you've hoped in the Lord, and
He's your portion. You cannot, for lack of better
phrasing, you cannot outspend Him. You can EXP all day long. Expenditure. Expenditure. Now
when we write checks, gotta go to the checkbook and say, okay,
I got enough here to cover it. That's not with our Lord. He
is our portion. And you want something that just
totally amazes me and blows me away? Turn to Deuteronomy chapter
32. In case any of us have ever doubted
the Lord's thoughts and actions towards us, we His people who
have made Him our hope, we who have waited for His salvation,
we who seek Him, we who have made Him our portion by God's
free and sovereign grace, not of ourselves, Deuteronomy 32
and verse 9, for the Lord's portion is His people. What? That kind of flips it around,
doesn't it? The Lord's portion is His people. We're His by right, we're His
by death, we're His by covenant, We're His by privilege. On and on we could go. We're
His portion. Therefore we can't help but make Him our portion. I'll get back to this in a little
bit. Back to our text, verses 23 and
22. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are
new every morning. What? His mercies. They're new every morning. Great
is Thy faithfulness. Once we truly see that Christ
is our hope, our desire, and our portion, we must also see,
and we will see, Simply put, we did not deserve the heart of any of these mercies. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They
are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. We realize that His faithfulness
is great even when ours is not. His faithfulness is great, even
when ours is not. But understanding that we, as
was read this morning's reading in Psalms 103, He has not dealt
with us after our iniquities, that it is of the Lord's mercy
that we're not consumed. These two things, God's grace
and our inability, God's highness and our lowness, they go hand
in hand. It's got to be like a renewed
heart is also a thankful heart. It's a generous heart. It's a
melted heart. A new nature is a gracious nature. A forgiving spirit is a forgiving
spirit. You just cannot have one, you've
got to have the other. These things, says the Apostle
Paul in the New Testament, these things accompany salvation. You
say, well, salvation is isolated act. It depends on yes and no,
I suppose. But we're always coming to Christ.
We never stop coming to Christ. We never stop repenting. We never
stop seeing how sinful we are. We never stop seeing how ignorant
we are outside of His grace. But yet we can do all things
through Him that strengthens us. But it's Him, not us. But Paul says in the book of
Hebrews, these things accompany salvation. Labor of love, ministering
to the saints, Hope in God until the end. We're not slothful. We're followers of those that
inherit the promises and on and on it goes. These things accompany
salvation. These things change the life.
The regenerated soul is an awakened soul. Dead to the world. Dead to the world. This leads me to my last point
in verse 21. This I recall. I like how it's worded in Hebrew.
Make to return to my heart. This I recall to my mind. This I make to return to my heart. Therefore, Have I hope. All the things that we've just
talked about. Waiting on Him. Seeking Him. He being our portion. We understanding that we do not
deserve the least of His mercies. Like Paul said, he said it as
an aged believer, as an aged saint. He was less than the least.
He wouldn't be worthy to be called an apostle. This wasn't just
a newbie. This wasn't a neophyte in the
Lord. This was an aged believer who
said these things. When things are very discouraging, I remind you who's under inspiration
of God, but who wrote this book? The weeping prophet. The book of lamentations. You don't think he was tried?
You don't think he was discouraged? You don't think he was depressed?
You don't think there was fightings here? Fears here? You don't think
all this was going on? This is perhaps, I don't know
if he's the most, but he ranks right up there with the most
troubled of prophets in Old Testament. The weeping prophet he's called,
Jeremiah. When things get very discouraging,
when things are troublesome, worrisome, and downright disheartening,
This I recall in my mind. Take a step back and recall. Recall what the Lord has done
for you. What it means to have an allotment,
an inheritance, to have God as that allotment, that portion.
What it means to not be annihilated. What it means when we continually
sin against Him that He's faithful and just and forgives if we confess
our sin. We have an advocate with the Father. Recall these
things. Bring them back to your heart.
Bring them back to your mind. For out of the heart, the issues
of life. Recall all these things and you
will receive hope. I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It's not a baseless hope. It's
a hope fraught with full and complete confidence. David, I built my house, so will
God. This kid's, you know, I raised
this kid, they're going off. They're going the wrong way. They won't listen to me. It happens. Children are a blessing to the
Lord, but there are many troubles followed that. spouse, friends, neighbors, people
who profess to be believers, but you just don't see any growth
going on. Recall these things to your mind and have hope. The only kind
of hope and grace that matters. Think on these things. Paul said
that in Philippians 4. Think on these things. Whatsoever
things are pure, lovely, boom, boom, boom, boom, which brings
me kind of back to where I was heading before. How we need to
think on Him daily. But it's hard. It's hard to think
on the things which are above. We spend entirely too much time
thinking on the events and circumstances and situations of this world. We really do. We really do. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm
not saying it's easy because I can just walk over and shut
the TV off. I don't care who wins the Super Bowl. I don't
care who wins the NFC. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me.
But I like it. I'll watch it. But you know what? It pulls me
away. Whether it's the commercials
or whatever, I'm just making statements about perhaps me.
When you get older in grace, when you start getting the gray
and losing the hair, You'll realize a lot of things that we worry
about and a lot of things in this world, it really doesn't
matter. It really doesn't matter. And Bruce made a comment years
ago when we're struggling financially or whatever. You said, you know,
we talk about losing the house and that's a big deal. It's home. But you made a comment. Now whether
you believed it or not, I don't know. It was a good comment so
that's why I'm using it. It's just a house. You can't take it with us? You're
not going to take it with us? And we start to downsize. We start to take stuff and we're
kind of like, you know, we're not going to hoard this stuff.
If I haven't used it in a couple of years, I'm going to give it
away. Or I'm going to bring it here
to church for the people. I don't need it. Because with the things
of this world comes the care of responsibilities of taking
care of it. My point is, this I recall to
my mind, therefore I have hope. You can recall your health, it's
going to be gone. You can recall your pseudo-intellectualism, it's going to wane. You can recall
your finances, stable. There's no hope in any of this
stuff. You see what I'm doing? I'm trying to knock the props
out of everything that we have hope in. And I recall to my mind
these things, and I'm not saying it's easy, and I'm saying the
younger, the harder. The harder it is, because everything's
going on. And you have responsibilities
that older folks don't have, as far as raising children. But
we have other responsibilities. But you just kind of like, there
goes one, there goes another. We spend entirely too much time
thinking on the events, circumstances, and situations in this world.
This is why we gather together to think on Christ. Therefore, We have hope. Think on these things. This I recall to my mind. This
very specifically. The person and work and worth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have hope. There is hope for
the Israel of God. And His name is the adorable
and wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. Recall Him and think upon Him. Maybe I'm getting more... Melinda
and I talk about it a bit. She's never been one to just
noise. I like music. I'll listen to music and I'll
do this and that. She's one that's just like, you
know what, there's just too much noise. There's too much noise
in the world. Everybody's talking. You can't even listen to the
sports without having something in the background, which makes
it harder for me to hear. I'm old. But you know what? It's
not geared towards me. It's geared to the strong, and
the under-armored people, and the wise. That's who it's geared to. It's
geared to youth. It's not geared to the aged.
And it bothers me. But then I think, you know what?
Go ahead. Go ahead without me. I'm not
of this world anyway. I'm not going to be self-righteous
and say, well, I don't do this and I don't talk to these people.
No. You're friendly. We're nice.
We're believers. These things accompany salvation. But in the
end, let us, by God's grace, implore Him to show us how to
recall these things to our mind. We're talking today, and in a
matter of about ten minutes, we had three conversations going.
We forgot what we were talking about on everything. She's getting
ready to say something. But I know, this is all over
stuff, but I can say, you know what, I can sit down. And you
say, well, pick out a scripture. One scripture that you love.
Like this one. And just read it. Beautiful. This is what He has done for
His people, and we're His portion. We need, by God's grace, to make
Him our portion. Bruce, would you close us in
the last hymn? Think about those that are about
us. Friends, people that we work with. We drop a word right here
and there. We wish so much that they would
come and know you.