Well, he said everybody knows
me, and I will say this. There's no place that I feel
more at home preaching than here, except home. And that means a
lot to me, and your pastors are blessing to me, and I appreciate
y'all having me. It's good to be here. Lamentations
1.12 is our main text. this morning, Lamentations 112,
which I imagine most of you could quote without looking at it. Is it nothing to you Our Lord asks, is it nothing
to you? I thought about as we saw the
song we just did. I wonder if we have really any
idea what we're what we're singing about. And I wonder if our Lord asks
this. Is it nothing to you? All you that pass by the same
way he asked Judas betray us, thou the son of man with a kiss
knowing. That really most of the time
it is. It didn't much to us, is it? 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. All
through the scriptures we're called upon as we are here to
behold and see. And it's always The same place
we're called to look. David said in Psalm 27, one thing
have I desired of the Lord, one thing. And that will I seek after. And
I guarantee you, whatever it is you desire, you're gonna seek
after it. And me too. That I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. for this reason, to behold the
beauty of the Lord and to inquire. I want to find out more about
his beauty too, don't you? To inquire in his temple. Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 4 that we faint not, we as believers,
we faint not And our inner man is renewed, though the outward
man perish, and it does. The outward man is perishing.
But we're renewed day by day. We faint not. Our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory while we look. While we look. While we look
not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not
seen. The thing that we are called
upon all through the scripture to behold is something that can't
be seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. Everything we see with these
eyes. But the things which are not seen are eternal. What can
you look at that will cause you to faint not? though your outward
man perish, that will cause you to be renewed inside day by day,
every day, that will encourage you and strengthen you and cause
you to rejoice, though there is trial and affliction and trouble
on the outside. But you can't see it. Remember in Numbers 21 verses
5 through 9, the people had sinned against God and murmuring against
God and his providence and rebelling against God's authority, Moses.
And God sent fiery serpents into the camp and they bit the people
and much people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses
and said, we've sinned. We have sinned. And they said
to Moses, pray unto us. praying to the Lord for us that
he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed. And God
said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and raise it up on a pole and
it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh
upon it shall live. And our Lord said to Nicodemus
in John 3, 14, as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness,
so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in
him. What is it to look? to believe
in Him. Where do we look? Believe in
Him. Should not perish, but have everlasting
life. How do you look and see that
which can't be seen? Well, faith is the evidence of
things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. And we have
the answer in Hebrews 12 too, looking unto Jesus, Looking unto
the Savior, looking unto Him, away from self and unto the Lord
Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Looking
unto Him, to whom you can't look unless He gives you eyes to look.
The author and finisher of our looking. Look to Him. It's like that blind
man in John chapter 9. After the religious folks kicked
him out, the Lord Jesus Christ found him. The one who had given
him sight found him and asked him the question. They asked
him a bunch of questions before that. Religion loves to ask vain
questions. He asked him the question, do
you believe on the Son of God? And he said, what I think most
of us are probably saying this morning, who is he, Lord? You
want to find out? You got any interest in finding
out? Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in? And he said, thou
hast both seen him. He's talking to a man that didn't
see anything just a little while before this. You're looking at
the one who gave you eyes. And it's he that speaketh with
thee. So looking unto Jesus, the one
by whom we're able to look, and the one who keeps us looking
to him, the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, counting
the shame as a small thing for the joy, and is sitting down
at the right hand of the throne of God. So in Lamentations 112,
we're asked, is it nothing to you, all you that pass by, behold
and see. We're asked a question and we're
given a command. Behold and see if there be any
sorrow. Like unto my sorrow, which is
done unto me. Behold and see something that
can't be seen with the natural eye. God's gonna have to author
faith in you if you're gonna see. which is done unto me, examine
and consider. And as we do, may God give us
comfort and strength, renew us the inner man. Encourage his people, comfort
his people. It seems from the language of
the verse that the Lord would have us look into this, behold
and see. And so I've tried. Somebody said
last night, I'm going to try to preach on such and such a
text. I've heard people say that. I
used to think, well, are you going to preach or not? I don't think that anymore. We
try, don't we? And we thank God that your ability
to receive The gospel is not dependent upon our ability to
deliver it. Aren't you glad? We're glad,
and y'all are glad too, aren't you? I'm thankful he hides these
things from the wise and prudent, but he reveals them to babies. So we want to tell forth, here's
what I want to do. I want to tell you completely
and fully how wonderful the Savior is. I can't do that, but he can. And so we try, but we thank God. He said, it's my sorrow. First
of all, he said, it's my sorrow. There's no sorrow like his simply
by virtue of it being his. There's no sorrow like his sorrow
because of who it is that suffered. It's the nature of Christ's person
that everything he did is unlike anyone else ever did or was. Whose love is like his love? There's no righteousness but
his. Everything else that passes for a righteousness is filthy
rats. They just want righteousness.
If you're righteous before God, it's His righteousness. It's
not like His, it's His. No man cometh to the Father but
by Him. See if there be any kindness and longsuffering like that of
our Savior. Behold and see. Is there any
faithfulness like His? Who is faithful? Like our Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no power like His, forgiving
sins as it pleases Him. Who has power on earth to forgive
sins? And raising up the dead as he
will. Of course there's no sorrow like his sorrow. There's no anything
like his. And when Paul emphasizes and
gives due regard to the wonder of his suffering, of what Christ
accomplished, and that word sorrow means pain, suffering. And of course he was sorrowful
unto death. When Paul talks about what he
accomplished by that and gives due regard and glory to him in
it, he just simply reminds us of who it is that suffered. It
is Christ that died. If we can find out who it is
that died, we'll find out what happened on the cross. And you
won't any other way. There's no sorrow like his with
regard to the intensity of it, to the magnitude of it. That
may be the first thing you think of when you think, well, there's
no sorrow. Nobody suffered ever as much as he did. And that's
true. But it's not really like we would
really think, I don't believe. I can't much enter into this.
I know this. I know his sorrow was supernatural.
It's beyond anything anybody else could ever suffer because
of who he is and because of How can you calculate and measure
the grief and pain that my sin deserves before God? How are
you going to calculate that? We've sinned against the infinite
God. Our sin is infinite. And so can suffering be infinite? I believe so. Even those who
suffer in hell do not ever know what he suffered. Hell is eternal
because though the cup of God's wrath against sin be gulped incessantly
and forever, it can never be drained by any sinner. And yet my Lord drank that cup
dry on Calvary, and not for himself, but for all of his elect, all
of God's people. And notice in the text that it
was the Lord that afflicted him. How can we measure his sorrow
without Him giving us a glimpse of that. It was the Lord that
afflicted him. How much is God's honor worth
to him? How great a gulf is there between
the holy God and sinners, and what did it take to span that
gulf? He who is holiness itself suffered
all of the wrath of God against all of the sin of all of his
people for all time. The measure of a fall must take
into consideration the original height from which one fell. And
so those who suffer in hell, even if they were able to descend
to the depth our Savior did, which they cannot, they would
not have done so from the very height of glory, from the very right hand of God,
from the very bosom of his Father. Have you figured out yet that
I'm in over my head this morning? This is the weight that our Savior
began to shoulder when he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. There's no sorrow like my Savior's
sorrow in that he suffered willingly. It's all that we can do to endure
suffering. I'm not looking for it, are you? And whatsoever suffering we endure
at the time of death, we don't consciously decide to endure
that. It's the way of our flesh, but
our Lord for the joy that was set before him. For the joy. For the joy. that was set before
him, he endured the cross willingly, voluntarily, despising the shame to think
little or nothing of, that's what that word means. He counted it a price worth paying
to honor his father and to save a worm like me. There's no sorrow like my Savior's
sorrow in that his sorrow was an exercising of prerogative. Our lives will be taken from
us by the one who gave them to us. He said, nobody takes mine. Nobody takes mine. They will
be, our lives will be taken without any input from us on when, or
where, or how. He said in John 10, 17, therefore
does my father love me because I lay down my life that I might
take it again. No man taketh it from me. Religion
loves to argue about who killed the you know who killed Jesus
Christ the Jews or the or the or the Romans You know the answer
to that don't you it pleased the Lord to crush him No man
taketh it from me I have power and to lay it down and I have
power to take it again. This commandment I've received
of my father. The sorrow that was his death was not only endured
willingly as we saw, but it was an act of will. He didn't just willingly submit
to death, he willingly gave himself for our sins. Even if I was willing to die
for somebody, I don't have the authority to do that. Or the ability to give up my
spirit. When he died, he bowed his head
and gave up the ghost. Much less do I have the power
to take it up again, but he did. And why did he lay down his life?
He told us, didn't he, in John 10, I lay down my life for my
sheep. For my sheep. There's no sorrow like unto my
Redeemer's sorrow, in that his sorrow was vicarious. And that just simply means in
the place of another. I can suffer with you, I can suffer over you. I can't suffer for you. I've suffered a little bit. Everybody
in this room has suffered a little bit in our lifetimes, and indeed
I've brought it on myself, my suffering. But I can't suffer
for you, nor you for me. We can help bear one another's
burdens, But the scripture says, surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. That's not like any other sorrow. There's no sorrow like the Savior's
sorrow because of all that he accomplished by his suffering. What does anybody else's suffering
accomplish? His sorrow for me was effectual
sorrow. It was victorious sorrow. When
Moses and Elijah met on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord
Jesus Christ, they spoke concerning the death that he should accomplish. My death's not an accomplishment.
It's an improvement. It's a blessing. It's gonna be, to die is gain,
isn't it? To live in Christ is Christ. Now think about that. To live
is Christ. And to die is gain. Well, if
to live is Christ, what can be gained if life is Christ? What's
better than Christ? More Christ. Christ without the glass, dark
glass with which we see him through now. Christ face to face. That's what's better than Christ
down here. And here we are this morning
speaking of the death that he accomplished. There in John 10,
where we quoted a while ago, we saw that the Lord had authority
and ability to lay down his life and take it again. And we saw
why he did so for the sheep. And we see in that same chapter
in verse 28, that there's a direct result of him doing that. You
know what it is? They shall never perish. Why? One reason. He died. It is enough that Jesus
died and that he died for me. There's no sorrow like his because
all other sorrow except his is deserved. And there's a couple
of things we need to understand about that. They asked, who did
see in this man or his parents that he was born blind? And the
Lord said, he was born blind so that you could see the glory
of God in what I'm fixing to do here, in me, in my ability. to heal him. And so we're not
to assign certain sins to certain afflictions and trouble. We're
not to do that. And also, more importantly, I'm
not suggesting here, I say every other sorrow is deserved. And
I'm not suggesting that when our Lord, it pleased him to crush
that word bruise in Isaiah 53, it's crush. It pleased him to
crush his son. When he crushed his son, I'm
not saying that he didn't do so in perfect accordance with
justice and righteousness and holiness. He did. Because he
bore my sin in his own body on that tree. He died for the just
for the unjust that he might bring us to God, but it was in
perfect accordance with God's holiness. that he was crushed,
that he bore the punishment for our sin, having borne our sins.
And it's perfectly right for God to say, well done to us. Enter. Spotless. But I believe the thief on the
cross was on to something when he said, don't you fear God. Seeing that we're in the same
condemnation here and we're getting what we deserve. but not him, not him. We receive the due reward of
our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss. There's no suffering like his
because of that. Who else has done nothing amiss?
Our suffering in this life may not be because of any specific
sin that we do. But all sorrow and suffering
is because of me. Generally speaking, it's because
of our sin, is it not? There wouldn't be any if it wasn't
for us. There's no sorrow like the Master's
sorrow in that only Christ ever suffered Enough. All of the suffering ever endured
in this world of sorrow. Nobody has ever suffered as much
as they deserve to. Even in hell, no one ever has
or ever will suffer as much as they deserve to. That's why it
don't end. Our Lord received the just reward
for all of the sin of all of his people that he bore in his
body on that tree. All of it. He got exactly what
it deserved. And how can we even talk about
that? There's no sorrow like our Savior's
sorrow in that his sorrow precludes
the same kind of sorrow in his people. We sorrow not as others. And we don't really sorrow at
all. You know what the scripture calls our suffering, our pain?
These light afflictions. And they're all for our good.
Because of him. I'm pretty sure that we don't
really even know what real sorrow is. Anybody think they do? And I don't minimize people's
trouble. I don't want to make light of
the trouble. We sympathize with one another
in trouble. We're to pray for each other and to be a help to
one another. I understand that. But this is
a comparison. He said, see if there be any
sorrow like. This is a comparison. And I tell
you this, we don't know what it is. We don't know what it
is. In Luke 4.18, our Lord announced
that he was sent to heal the brokenhearted, and he has. How did he heal the brokenhearted?
By his heart being broken in our place. If we believe that
he died, carried our sorrows, then we can't sorrow as those
who don't believe him, much less as much as him. We can't even
sorrow like those who haven't seen him in his sorrow for sinners. And why not? Because we believe
that he died and he rose again for us. The man of sorrows. We could never know what it is
to bear the sorrow of sin. We're not ever going to, to be
crushed under the weight of God's wrath. None of God's people have
ever suffered for their sin. People in the world, they say,
well, I'm suffering for my sin. Something bad happens to me,
I'm suffering for my sins, you know. If you can say that, you
don't know what sin is. And you don't know who God is. to be crushed under the weight
of the wrath of Almighty God. In that passage in 2 Corinthians
4 there I read a while ago, it says our affliction is light
while we look at him. And that's not only because of
the comparison between the two, it's also because his sorrow
actually takes ours away. He bore our sorrows. and took
them away. I never have and never will suffer
the consequences of my sin. The chastisement of his children
is not us suffering the consequences of our sin. He endured all of
the punishment for my sin when he took my sin upon himself,
when the Lord laid it upon him. I never have and I never will
pay for sin. There's no sorrow like his in
that his sorrow was necessary. We may suffer a few things, we
think we endure some things. Paul's manner was to go into
the synagogues and open and allege that Christ must needs have suffered. He had to suffer. It was necessary. He obligated himself, didn't
he? If he's not gonna save anybody, he don't have to suffer. But
he said, I will have mercy. If there's gonna be mercy, then
he must needs have suffered. I hope nobody, I don't wanna
offend anybody, but I've heard that song, I Should Have Been
Crucified. I should have suffered, and I
know you shouldn't. What good's that gonna do anybody? You should
not have. He must, he must needs have suffered. And because there was no sorrow
like his, because of his unparalleled sorrow, one day for us, There
won't be anything that even passes for sorrow. Let me just read one of the most
comforting, I think about this passage of scripture quite a
bit. I'll just close with this. Revelation 21, I saw a new heaven
and a new earth. The first heaven and the first
earth were passed away and there was no more sea. I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, look, behold, the tabernacle of God. is with
men, and he will dwell with them. He's with us now, his name is
God with us. And he tabernacled among us.
But this is the tabernacle of God is with men in a whole nother
sense now. And this is him being with us
in a whole, and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. There's just something about
that in there. He's not going to send an angel to do it. God
himself is going to wipe our tears away. And I got a feeling
when he wipes our tears away, they ain't coming back. That's the last tear right there. It's ever going to be cried. And there should be no more death.
Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And this is because our
Lord gave himself for us. He's the
man of sorrows. And there's never been any sorrow
like he is. And there, when we're with him,
there's not going to be any sorrow, period. He's not going to be,
people say, oh, we do something bad, Jesus is sad. No, he's not.
No, he's not. Yours might be. But the Lord of Glory, no, they're
not going to be any. He suffered once in the end of
the world, and he put away sin when he did it by the sacrifice
of himself. He sanctified somebody when he
did that. He didn't make it possible. He didn't make it available. For the former things are past.
I like what God calls our suffering and tears and pain and grief. We do groan in these, but we
do groan, don't we? I like what he calls all of that,
though, death and sorrow and crying, the former things. Passed away for many that we
have loved and still love. They've already passed away,
haven't they? He's wiped it away. And for us, it won't be long
now, will it? Thank God for our Savior and
what he did for us.