When I was just a 19-year-old
boy, God graciously caused a faithful, faithful gospel preacher to cause
my path. He became a lifelong friend,
a man of tremendous influence in my life. I've told you about
him many times, Brother Harry Graham. He was already a fairly
old man when I met him. He had pastored a small church
in Asheboro, North Carolina. for almost his entire adult life.
Shelby and I spent many, many nights, lots of hours sitting
in their family room discussing things that were so helpful to
our souls. And we're never in their company.
Shelby and I said this so many times when we left their house. They would occasionally come
to our little apartment, but usually we were at their house.
When you're in their company, you always learn something. something
that helps you, profit from them. They were kind of guests who
always brought their welcome with them, delighted to be around
them. He was a blessing to me, still is. The Lord took him home
last year, but he's still a blessing. I still remember and profit by
things I learned from him. One night as I sat at his feet
on the hearth in his living room, just before we left, Harry made
this statement to me. When God deals with a sinner
in mercy, he takes him to hell first. Now you remember that. That's a pretty good summary
of the book of Lamentations. In this little book of masterful
poetry, the Lord God explains to us in vivid, vivid picture,
why he sends judgment upon men. But specifically, Why he sends
judgment upon men whom he loves, who are the objects of his mercy,
to whom he is determined to be merciful. Look in chapter 3,
we'll begin at verse 31. Lamentations 3.31. If I'm talking to somebody tonight, whom God has cast off. I mean God has cast you off. God Almighty has cast you off. So that in your soul you know
God's cast you off. This is God's word to you. The
Lord will not cast off forever. he will not cast off forever.
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion, according
to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men. Now, we'll come back to these
verses in just a little bit, but let me first give you an
overview of Jeremiah's lamentations. As I stated, this short little
book of five chapters is such a masterful piece of poetry that
the scholars and critics, that is, those fellows who think they're
smarter than God, have determined that Jeremiah could not possibly
have written the book, because it was just too high a piece
of literature for such a man to have written. You see, this
book is written almost entirely in an acrostic. Now, what I mean
by that, if you were writing something in an acrostic, for
example, the word grace. G, grace. R, righteousness. A, atonement. C, Christ. E, eternal. That'd be an acrostic. Now, it's not too hard to do
with a word, but to do it with a whole book of poetry is a tough
piece of business. In this little book, you'll notice
that chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5 consist of 22 verses. Chapter 3 of 66
verses. Chapters 1, 2, and 4, each verse
begins with one letter of the Hebrew alphabet going through
the entire alphabet Chapter 2, the same thing. Chapter 4, the
same thing. So just like in Psalm 119, each
verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and Jeremiah
writes his poetry that way. In chapter 3, the 66 verses,
In chapter 3, every third verse begins with one letter of the
Hebrew alphabet going through each of the 22 letters in the
alphabet. And this is done in a masterfully poetic manner.
If we could read it in the Hebrew language, I'm told that it is
a tremendous piece of Hebrew literature. And Jeremiah likes
this piece of poetry, but it is not a piece of joyful poetry. It's full of grief. As its title
indicates, Lamentations is a book of sorrow. Grief and sorrow caused
by divine judgment. Divine judgment upon the people
of God's choice, the people of God's covenant, the people who
are called the children of Israel, the seed of Abraham. The judgment
Jeremiah had faithfully warned the nation would come to pass
has now come to pass. The Babylonians have invaded
the land, they've destroyed Jerusalem, and they've carried Israel away
into captivity where they will remain for 70 long years. There was only a small remnant
left in the city of Jerusalem, and Jeremiah was one of them.
And the book opens with the weeping prophet, weeping as he had never
wept before. Weeping over the city he beheld
under the judgment of God. Weeping over the people he loved
for whom he had labored all his life. The book begins with a
sudden burst of anguish and sorrow. I don't know that I have ever
read any book or any story that began quite this way. Look at
verse 1, chapter 1. No introduction, no salutation,
no word of explanation. Jeremiah just begins like this.
How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people? How
is she become a widow, she that was great among the nations,
and princess among the provinces? How is she become a tributary,
a slave? She weepeth sore in the night,
and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath
none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously
with her. They have become her enemies. Judah is gone into captivity
because of affliction. And because of a great servitude
she dwelleth among the heathen. She findeth no rest. All her
persecutors overtook her. between the straits. Jeremiah
seems to have walked up on one of the hills surrounding the
city, and he sat down and just looked. And as he looked upon
the desolate city, his heart crushed within him. Six hundred
years later, That one of whom Jeremiah was obviously a type
in picture, that prophet of whom all the prophets spoke, the Lord
Jesus Christ our Savior, is upon the slope of the Mount of Olives.
And he looks at that proud city, very same city, very same city,
and he weeps. Weeps over a people doomed by
their own obstinate rebellion. He cries, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sin
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. And you would
not. You would not. Pastor, that doesn't fit our
understanding of theology. Well, throw your theology away
and listen to what God says in his word. Just throw it away. You would not. Behold, your house
is left unto you desolate. It's obvious then, at the very
outset, that the weeping prophet was a type of our weeping savior.
And there are numerous pictures of Christ throughout these five
chapters. Both Jeremiah in his sorrow and Jerusalem under the
wrath of God portray our Redeemer. Look at chapter 1 verse 17. We'll
look at just a couple of them. I can't possibly go through all
of these. Jeremiah is speaking. No, Jerusalem is speaking. No,
Christ is speaking. Yes, all three times. All three
times. Jeremiah takes the sins of the
nation as his very own. And he takes the anguish and
suffering and wrath poured out upon the nation as his very own.
And the nation speaks of the anguish and woe that's poured
out upon them. But this twelfth verse cannot
possibly be understood in its fullness except as you put it
in the mouth of the Son of God. Listen to what it says. Is it
nothing to you, all you that pass by? To most folks it is
nothing. Talk to your neighbors about
the crucified Savior, and they're sitting yawn. Talk to them about
blood redemption, and they'll look at you like, well, you're
going to shut up and talk about something important, like when the crop's
going to come in. Is it nothing to you? All you
that pass by, behold and see. Stop and look at this. 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. Look in chapter 2, verse 15. All that pass by clap their hands
at thee. They hiss and wag their head.
Verse 16. All thine enemies have opened
their mouth against thee. They hiss and gnash the teeth.
Verse 8 of chapter 3. Also when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. I cry out. Psalm 22, our Lord
says, I cried unto you, but you heard not my prayer. All the
day long, but you heard me. Why have you forsaken me? Why
have you forsaken me? Verse 14, chapter 3. I was a
derision to all my people. and their song all the day. Sounds
a whole lot like what our Lord said in Psalm 69. They that sit
in the gates speak against me, and I was the song of the drunkards.
Verse 15, chapter 3. He hath filled me with bitterness.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood. Verse 19. Remembering
my affliction, my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Remember they gave our master
gall to drink. Verse 30. He giveth his cheek
To him that smiteth in, he is filled with reproach. Our Lord
said, I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. In all these things throughout
his life, from the day that he came into this world to the day
that he left this world, our Lord Jesus earned the title given
to him by the prophet Isaiah, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Now I want you to see clearly
what Jeremiah does here. If you read these chapters with
any care at all, you cannot avoid seeing the fact that Jeremiah
deliberately assumed the sins of his people as his own sins. He speaks of them throughout
this book as his own sins. And he takes their judgment to
be his own judgment. And thereby he stands, typically,
as a substitute for the people. Throughout his book, as the words
are expressed, Jeremiah speaks as a substitute for a people
who had sinned against God, who had sinned against him, who had
disregarded him and disregarded his word. Now what was done to
Jeremiah, and what Jeremiah did typically, representatively,
was done in reality with and by our great Savior, the Son
of God, our substitute. He was not only one who assumed
our sins and claimed them as his own. He was made to be sin
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He was cursed for us. He bore the judgment of God for
us as his own judgment that we might forever be blessed of God.
He died the just for the unjust that we might be justified and
made to live before God forever. We also learn from these five
chapters something about God's judgment. Jeremiah tells us repeatedly
throughout these chapters that judgment is God's work. All judgment
is God's work. Now, I realize I'm not talking
to folks out on the streets. I wish I could. I wish they'd
listen to me. When you hear things like what happened on September
11th a couple years ago, you hear about As far as tragedies
occurring, earthquakes, famine, all those things, you hear about
murder in the streets, you hear about war and famine and pestilence
and disease, and folks say, well now, that's Satan's work, that's
the devil's work. Satan is always, now hear me,
he is always God's devil. And he doesn't wiggle without
God's decree. You understand that? No matter
where judgment falls, no matter how judgment falls, no matter
what the ultimate end of judgment is, it is God's work, always
God's work. And it is righteous. Judgment is the righteous retribution
of God upon men who deserve his wrath. It's never arbitrary. God never sends judgment without
a reason. He never sends wrath without
a cause. But rather it is God's righteous retribution upon obstinately
stubborn, willfully rebellious men and women who refuse to bow
to His authority, to His rule, to His dominion, to Him as God
Almighty. And we are taught that all for
whom the Lord God has reserved mercy, are made to acknowledge
that God's judgment is righteous and just. No man, no woman, will
ever know God's saving grace until they are convinced in their
souls they deserve eternal damnation. It's not going to happen. It's
not going to happen. You'll never cry for mercy until
you need it. You'll never seek grace till
you need it. You'll never escape from prison till you know you
deserve to be there. You'll never escape from hell
till God puts you in hell. And let's look briefly at these
five chapters. Let me just call your attention
to a few things. In chapter one, in the first part of the chapter,
Jeremiah speaks for Jerusalem and speaks of Jerusalem. As a
woman bereft of her husband and her children, In the second part,
Zion speaks and bewails her misery, identifying herself as a people
with whom sin is one thing and remains the same, with whom judgment
is a matter of merit, with whom wrath is a matter of what they
deserve. She acknowledges that her punishment
is from the Lord, and she confesses in verse 18, look at it, the
Lord's righteous. Wait a minute, wait a minute
now. Your children are starving in
the streets. Go back and read Old Testament
of History. Women are reduced to boiling their own children
and eating them. Go back and read the history.
Wait a minute now. Wait a minute. A monstrous tyrant
has come and leveled the city. This monstrous tyrant has carried
our sons and daughters, husbands and wives away. And she says
the Lord is right. I have sinned. I have sinned. No, we won't argue with God.
He's done right. Chapter 2. In the second chapter,
the prophet gives a remarkable description of the ruin of Jerusalem. He speaks as an eyewitness, no
less than 48 times. I counted this several times
in the last couple of weeks. No less than 48 times in these
22 verses, the prophet says, God did it. 48 times. He even says He is the Lord 48
times, one way or another. He says God did it. In chapter
3, he continues to ascribe the judgments that befell the city
as the work of God. In this chapter, in 22 verses,
22 times, he asserts that fact. God did it. Again, he makes the
miseries of the people to be his own. Out of the midst of
misery, he stays himself upon God's faithfulness and his unfailing
compassion. He asserts, unhesitatingly, in
verse 33, God didn't do this willingly. What a word. You mean he did it against his
will? No. He did not do it for no reason. He doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men. Let me see if I can illustrate
it possibly, a little, and I mean just a little. When Faith was a child, there
were times, like most of you parents when she was somewhere
between two and six, it seemed like about every hour. But there
were times when I'd take her to the bedroom and she'd go get
the paddle, that was part of the pain, and she'd bring it
to me and I'd bend her over my knee and I would wear her out. She's beginning to understand.
It hurt me more than it did her. She's got to a role now. But
she's just beginning to understand it. There was no desire in my
heart to hurt that child. No desire. But I was determined
to hurt the child for her own good. Understand that? He doesn't
afflict willingly. Oh, nor grieve the children of
men. Chapter 4, God's spiritual judgments
are again described in verse 11, the Lord hath accomplished
his fury. Oh, what a word. And then in
the fifth chapter, it is not the prophet who speaks, it is
not the substitute who speaks, but the people. In chapter 5,
we'll see what happens when the Lord brings sinners to repentance. He brings his elect down to hell,
that he may bring them to cry out to him for mercy, confessing
their guilt, their sin, confessing before him that they deserve
his wrath. Before the holy, sovereign Lord
God, they bow down and confess who and what they are, seeking
his mercy, acknowledging his righteousness, his justice, and
his truth. Look at it with me. Verse 1.
Remember, O Lord, What has come upon us? Consider and behold
our reproach. Lord, look what you've done to
us. Look where we are. Verse 15. The joy of our heart has ceased.
Our dance has turned into mourning. We used to be the most happy,
good, lucky people in the world, but now there's nothing but sorrow
and weeping. We used to be admired of everybody.
Now the crowd is falling from our head. Woe unto us that we
have sinned. What a worry. Not woe unto us
because we have no happiness. Not woe unto us because we no
longer dance in the streets. Not woe unto us because folks
no longer respect us. Woe unto us! We've sinned. For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are
blind. Verse 19. Thou, O Lord. Thou, O Lord, remainest forever. Thy throne from generation to
generation. Our sin hadn't changed you, hadn't
affected you. Our rebellion hadn't toppled
your throne yet. You're still sitting where you
were. Verse 21. Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord,
and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old. But, and this is how the prophet
ends his lamentation. Thou hast rejected us. Thou art
very wroth with us. Lord, we bow before your throne
and we acknowledge if you send us to hell, we've earned it. And you're still God, just, holy,
true. Lord, if you will, turn us. turn us, and we shall return, but we don't deserve it, you
rejected us, you cast us off, and it's right. Now, come back
to chapter 3, let me see if I can give you the message of this
book. Remember, the judgments described in these
5 chapters, are not judgments that God performed against Babylon,
or the Philistines, or the Moabites, or the Ammonites, or the Egyptians. These are judgments that God
Almighty performed against, let me change that, for Israel, the people of his choice. the
people of his covenant. There were judgments performed
against them, performed for them, because he was determined to
make them know themselves, and at last to bring them out of
Babylon and back to Zion, and establish them again as his people
in the earth. But all of that was typical.
All of that was but a picture. You see, this nation was raised
up by God specifically to be a type and picture of another
nation called the Israel of God. They are the physical seed of
Abraham, raised up by God to be pictures and types of the
spiritual seed of Abraham, that is, of God's elect. And so this
picture of judgment shows us what God does to and for his
people in mercy. They were brought down that they
might be brought up. They were abased that they might
be exalted. They were laid low that they
might be lifted up. They were wounded that they might
be healed. Did you ever notice in bringing
the prophets, I think specifically in Hannah's prayer, the prophets
never say, I haven't found yet a place where any prophet said,
the Lord makes alive and the Lord kills. Now if I were talking
about physical, natural things, I'd say I don't. I've never heard
one say the Lord heals and the Lord wounds. That's how we would
think about it, but that's not it. Scripture says the Lord kills
and he makes alive and he will never make you to live except
he slay you. He wounds and he heals and he
will never heal you except he wound you. Now Here is our hope,
verse 21. This I recall to my mind. Therefore
have I hope. It is in the Lord's message that
we are not consumed, because his compassions, they fail not. For the reason we're not already
in hell, because God's long-suffering, gracious, merciful, good, His
compassions they do every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good to them
that wait for him. How good I'll sit down and wait
for him. To the soul that seeketh him.
Here's our counsel from God. It's good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is
good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth. He sitteth alone, and keepeth
silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth
into dust, if so be he may hope. He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach.
And here's an explanation of God's work, his strange work.
Has the Lord brought you down to hell? Has he wounded you? Has he destroyed you? Has he
cast you off? Has he set his holy wrath in
your heart so that you dare not look up? Has he caused you to
see clearly that you deserve eternal damnation in hell? Has
he convinced you, convinced you beyond a doubt But should right
now, right now, should you fall into everlasting darkness, into
the pit under his wrath, it's exactly what you deserve. If he has, this is God's word
for you, for the Lord will not cast off forever, but though
he cause grief, Yet will he have compassion according to the multitude
of his mercies, for he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve
the children of men. Now faith, simple childlike faith
is that which obtains God's salvation. But any faith that does not arise
from a felt need of divine mercy is not true faith. All who know
the Lord God in the experience of his saving operations of grace
freely acknowledge and frankly confess that God is exactly right
and exactly just in the exercise of his grace and in the exercise
of his judgment. I want us to focus our attention
to these three things in verse 32, and I'll wrap this up. First, the prophet speaks of
God's strange doing, though he causes grief. He causes grief. You read this
third chapter. Jeremiah speaks of things, he
says in verse 1, he was afflicted and he said God did it with the
rod of his wrath. In verse 7, he was brought into bondage.
He said God put a chain on him. In verse 8 through 19, he was
overwhelmed with grief. He said, he's pulled me in pieces.
When he was by these things brought to utter hopelessness in himself,
he found hope in God. And when a sinner is brought
to utter hopelessness in himself. Not till then he finds hope in
God. Not till then. The basis of hope
is the Lord himself. The Lord is my portion. He's
all I've got. He's all the hope I've got. I
look to Him. And the only thing an utterly
helpless, hopeless sinner can do for God's salvation is wait. Wait. Wait! That is, you sit
before Him with your mouth in the dust, and you put your hands
over your mouth, lest you speak that which ought not to be spoken,
and wait for God to speak. And the place where the sinner
waits is in the dust of repentance
before the throne of God's grace, bearing the yoke of guilt, doing
business with God Almighty, Making his headquarters the dust I recall Years ago The Rothbard was down
preaching down in Houston, Texas. Some of the fellas down there,
I forgot which one, told me the story. I don't know whether it was Brother Jack or David.
He was preaching over at C.O. Jackson's in Houston, Texas Somebody
caught him in the middle of the night. Rothbard goes to bed Or
dead when he was alive, old, went to bed by 9.30, 10 o'clock,
soon as he'd get home. And somebody called and woke
him up. And wanted him to pray for their son. Said, Preacher,
he's in hell. Would you pray for him, come
talk to him? He said, no. She said, well, why not? He's
in hell. He said, he deserves it. Let
him stay there a while. Let him stay there a while. And
that's not being hard. What do you do for folks when they're
troubled in their soul before God? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Wait. The best place on this earth
for a sinner to be under the wrath of God is at the throne
of God, keeping silence until God speaks. And when God speaks,
he has real peace. When the preacher interferes,
he just gets something false. This is God's strange doing,
his strange work. He causes grief, but it does
it that he may have mercy. Read the 107th Psalm. Read it
while it's still fresh on your mind. We're told that he created
the waster to destroy, in Isaiah 54. He created the waster to
destroy all earthly creature comfort, to bring us down to
hell, so that we might look to the crucified Christ. and find
comfort for our souls in him. This is how God dealt with Ephraim.
He said, I will be to Ephraim as a lion, as a young lion to
the house of Judah. I'll tear and I'll go away. Then
he turns and says, I'll cause them to cry, come, let us return
to the Lord. Now here's God's sweet delight. Though he cause grief, yet will
he have compassion. Oh, what a sweet word. Compassion. What is that? Co-passion. That's what you have when your
wife's hurting and you hurt too. That's what you have when your
baby's hurting and you hurt too. Co-passion. he will have compassion. And
when he has compassion, he sends his messengers, his messengers
of mercy, and lets you know that he is indeed full of mercy, and
delights in mercy, full of compassion, full of loving-kindness. You
believe the life of our Lord as it's recorded by Matthew,
Mark, and Luke. The Holy Son of God, he weeps
over the city, The rich young ruler turns and walks away, and
Christ had compassion upon him. The widow of Nain, the Lord Jesus
had compassion on her. Jairus, the Lord had compassion
on her. The hungry, mustard kids, he
had compassion on them. Compassion! When he came to the
tomb of Lazarus, he went. Not because Lazarus would go
and raise him from the dead. Why did he weep? Because Mary
and Martha were weeping. Because they were hurting. Called
compassion. Now watch this. Though he caused grief, yet we
have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. This is God's sovereign purpose. Did you ever notice how those
words according or according to are used repeatedly in the
scriptures talking about God's grace and God's mercy? He's predestinated
us and chosen us and blessed us according as. He has redeemed
us according as. We have redemption through His
blood according as. We have attainment and inheritance according as.
Everything according to God's sovereign purpose and mercy upon
His own. You see, everything that God
does. Let me say this now. I'll send
you home rejoicing. Everything God does. Everything
He allows to be done is by design. He says, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. He purposes, he performs, and
he perfects. And hell itself only serves his
purpose. Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah called
him. In the book of Jeremiah he said
he's God's servant. He's God's servant. He's God's
servant. And I'm telling you that every fiend of hell and
every creature on this earth is God's servant. Every event
of providence is God's servant, serving his purpose of mercy
toward his own. I don't know where I got this,
but it's good. Great is the mystery, truly great,
that hell's designs shall hell defeat. But here eternal wisdom
shines, for Satan works. what God designs. That misery of sin that God brings
by the convicting power of his spirit through the gospel is
the forerunner of mercy, which God purposed for his own from
eternity. Now, turn us, O Lord, and we
shall return. Oh may God turn you and never
quit turning you to Christ our Redeemer. Turn us, draw us, and
we'll run after thee.