Through the Bible (Lamentations)

something about wednesday nights when the sun's just going down it makes me feel like summer's on the way isn't that great it's kind of hope uh as we finish lamentations we see the light that's good well we've been learning from lamentations it's uh it's quite a book uh we we saw the um you know chapters one and two uh 22 verses uh 22 letters of the hebrew alphabet uh acrostic in nature in chapter three we're in the middle of that but there's 66 verses which remember we talked about the acrostic you know uh in the hebrew aaa bbbcc all the way down that's why there's 66 verses there chapter four is acrostic but one thing i think i misspoke last week i said five is also but it's actually not there's 22 verses but uh it's not now there's a reason i i wonder that we might you know speculate why did jeremiah not make the last chapter uh one of those alphabet verses uh but you also have the exact same number of verses which remember the verses were added later so what's the deal with that we'll we'll talk about that uh maybe as we get to it tonight but on sunday we looked at the first half i should say of chapter three um the you know the the um the moaning and groaning of jeremiah's reaction which you can't blame him you know to god's wrath you know remember we've been sort of titling each one of these poems each chapter is a poem of durge as it's called there in in the septuagint and you know we looked at chapter one last week and we saw that that's you know basically jerusalem's desolation chapter one and then in chapter two we saw god's punishment for jerusalem's sin that's chapter 2 kind of a heavy chapter chapter 3 is jeremiah's reaction to god's wrath that's what this whole chapter is about and we started on that last sunday last saturday and we we kind of saw the beginnings of it and you could break this chapter chapter three into three segments uh that kind of identify what jeremiah's reaction really is about the first deal is jeremiah's affliction and that's verses one through twenty remember when we read that on sunday how um you can just see the heaviness and jeremiah's starting to take it personally he's not just talking for israel he's talking about himself personally about the affliction look at some of the words he used here you know verse 1 affliction verse 2 darkness verse 4 old and broken verse 5 travail verse 6 dark places dead verse 7 hedged and heavy verse eight cry shutting out of my prayer verse nine enclosed and crooked uh verse 11 desolate verse 14 derision which means you know laughing stock uh verse 15 bitterness and verse 16 brokenness uh verse 19 affliction and my misery uh verse 20 humbled these are these are words of a of a depressed dude and we saw that on sunday and then the the beautiful shifting of gears uh in verses 21 and 22 and 23 that's what we looked at on sunday how did he uh pull up out of that first third of this chapter uh you know this section about jeremiah's affliction um well we saw that he changed gears and we're going to call verses 21 all the way through 40 the second section of this uh chapter we're going to call it you know jeremiah's reflection so the first half is affliction verses 1 through 20 and then 21 through 40 jeremiah's reflection and we already started this discussion right uh we saw you know dealing with depression uh last weekend if you missed that teaching i think it's an important one you know to see how jeremiah deals with depression and i think it's something we can really learn from uh as it relates to depression so jeremiah's depressed he starts out with his affliction and now he goes to reflection and he reflects verse 21 as we read on sunday 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 man just beautiful beautiful scriptures uh and jeremiah this is the way he thought through this and recalled his recollection uh that that's what that's what got him up out of this misery and so as he begins to reflect on the lord and how to get out of the misery he starts that in those those verses but he continues this reflection and and he talks more in verse 24. he says there the lord is my portion saith my soul therefore will i hope in him notice jeremiah does not say the lord gives me my portion but he says the lord is my portion this is a a great secret of the christian faith um and it's a hard one to really get our brain around until jesus is all you have it's that old saying corey ten boom said you know jesus you'll never really know that jesus is all you need until jesus is all you have and she's the one who could say that as she was living in outsits there and and and you know the holocaust there stuck her sister died there in the concentration camps and and in the snow working you know skinny skin and bones like it was about as ugly and bad as a life could get but she's the one who said you'll never know that jesus is all you need until jesus is all you have and and this is where jeremiah just might be i mean he could give you know corey ten boone a run for the money on affliction as he's been through all kinds of horrible stuff uh dungeons and beatings uh you know chains and and being dragged off by enemies and um just all kinds of horrible stuff seeing people killed all around him and and yet he he says the lord is my portion and that's something we need to remember especially in the days when you know we kind of wonder about what's going on in the world and are we losing our freedoms are we losing this losing that well i wonder if the more we lose the more we'll put our trust in the lord i know christians that have been praying for persecution for the church in america and i i'm not sure i'm praying that yet i don't enjoy the idea but i do understand that the persecuted church has always been a healthy church when you watch that historically when the church is persecuted you find that people realize wow jesus is important and jesus is real and this is where jeremiah gets this is where you find people all the time when they're in total affliction and suffering they all say this that man the lord is my portion and because of that i will put my hope don't let our stuff that is our security uh whether it's your possessions or your insurance policies uh or you know your financial portfolio or you know all your friends or whatever you put your trust in or rest in um don't forget those things they can all come and go they have for many so throughout the ages but the lord is the same and he's the one who's our portion and he's all we really need we just don't know that a lot of the time but jeremiah reaches that point in his life the lord is my portion saith my soul verse 25 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 it is good for a man that he bear the yoke of his youth interesting sort of thing where jeremiah actually gives us a little bit of wisdom here you know in the middle of this sorrow of his affliction and reflection on what happened to his life but he starts saying some stuff that i think is very educational and very important for you and i to you know lay hold on and it's this idea of quietly waiting on the lord first of all do we know how to wait upon the lord they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength they'll mount up with wings like eagles they'll run and not grow weary they'll walk and not faint wait upon the lord you know um the bible teaches us over and over to wait upon the lord but some of us might even have that down but the question is are you waiting quietly i wonder if the lord is just up in heaven going shh but lord but i really am like you know we're so quick to cry oh lord we want meat we what remember the jews out there in the wilderness they were so hungry and they were they were like we're sick of this loathe some bread you know this man we went meat and then and then when they didn't have a king we won a king we won a king and the lord's just like i wonder if the lord would say that to us you know all oliver crying and chirping like a bird remember um hezekiah who was given that letter and he was you know and you know he prayed the lord and then he also heard from isaiah like one thing about hezekiah is he learned that he was going to die and he chirped like a bird lord i don't want to die and he that's what the bible says he chirped like a bird that's a funny phrase for old hezekiah and the lord said okay i'm going to let you live for 15 more years but those were the most 15 miserable years of his life he should have just kicked the bucket when the lord said he was going to kick the bucket the lord knows when that should happen uh you know it's funny how we have this perspective on things you know we have this very limited view and the lord sees all and he knows what's good and and yet here we are but lord you know and i wonder if some of us just need to be still and know that he is god and and this this phrase here you might want to mark it in your bible it's it's a hard one for us to you know apply to our lives but this idea of hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the lord um i love this it's so good about seeking the lord one of the bummers about truth is sometimes because of the quantity that we hear truth the more we hear it somehow the less we believe it so in the christian church today somebody will come and say here's what you need to do oh i know what you're going to say say lord read your bible pray every day read your bible pray thank the lord the reason we say that over and over is because it's the truest thing your little fast lips ever uttered seek the lord it says here and he says you know the lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him yeah yeah yeah see lord i've tried that for 10 minutes i was thinking of the lord be still be quiet like it's so hard for us you know we're we're the antsy little kid i just can't wait you know we just like talk about that quiet still quiet in confidence that's what we should have this is i know this is christianity 101 but man this is the one i think we've we i fear we we just blow it off seek the lord pray every day read your bible and they're just such solid truths and they're so true and they're so right and yet people just go yeah yeah whatever may we never be at that place jeremiah you know he's in a real dire situation and he's saying the same thing seek the lord with quietness and weight on the lord for the salvation and then even verse 27 is such a meaty concept he says it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth you know you sometimes you kind of got to do your time the lord as you go through things as you're growing and learning and and sometimes we want stuff here and now you know this is something that our modern age uh young people i think we have to be careful about because because we've been able to do this in some ways we've been able to get what we want live out our dreams very early um you know there's there's a there's a big difference between like a a kid you know that lives here in portland on instagram wanting to live out their dreams and become an influencer uh versus the kid that i met like say in you know burkina faso africa in wagaduku the city where there's no internet connection and there's no technology and there's no food and there's no houses and there's like i've met kids that don't have that same you know thing and and so what happens is because of our culture and because of our you know wealth and what have you we kind of get what we want early and i i wonder you know sometimes all these young people who are so quickly into the being an influencer or you know having you know their their thing that they want so quickly and and in some ways i'm happy about that but in other ways i've realized there's not a seasoning sometimes there's not a weightiness or a heft to the influencer themselves they haven't they haven't waited on the lord they just kind of said we're going to make this happen and they can because they have resources uh but but sometimes we need to remind young and old really that there's a there's a it's good for a man that he bear that he bear the yoke of his youth you got to sometimes do your time you know i see this in ministry as well brett i want to lead a glorious bible study uh and and and do you know what you do bible prophecy you know the thing is this is this is great to do what i do and i love i love that i get to do this but just just to say this so you know i spent years decades teaching in sunday school classes of little three and four-year-olds uh long before i was teaching wednesday night bible studies and prophecy updates and stuff like that and there was something about that that was really good you know i've learned by the way if you can teach kids you can teach anybody i mean you know you guys are all polite you sit here on a wednesday night oh yeah nice very interesting very interesting good stuff you're very nice uh if you're teaching kids you're boring i don't like you we want to go like kids are really good lesson learners if you're if you want to learn how to teach the bible start teaching three four year old kids they're great it's a great learning ground for instruction and teaching but sometimes you got to do the time and that's kind of the burying the yoke of the youth i think that's what jeremiah's talking about here verse 28 he sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath borne in upon him he put his mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him he is filled with uh full of reproach this is speaking of humility and submission that's what jeremiah is referring to in this kind of strange language of the king james but you know even in the newer translations it's a little hard when we're talking about face in the in the dust or whatever what's that talking about it's talking about humility and submission and and i'm reminded there of um of jesus himself who was god in the flesh he became dust if you would we're made of dust and jesus you know put his face in the dust in that way and even verse you know 30 says he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him it really reminds me of isaiah 50 verse 6. do you remember that where it says this i gave my back to the smiters my cheeks to them that plucked off the air i hid not my face from the shame and the spitting and i set my face like flint like this is what jesus would do for us prophetically spoken of in isaiah 50. and so i see this submission that you know jeremiah is referring to in lamentations and it's very much christ-like submission you're faced in the dirt if you would that's kind of the idea that it's being talked about here verse 31 for the lord will not cast off forever thank the lord for that but though he caused grief yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies for he do he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men he um you know it's like the lord is is like this loving father and you parents know how this is you don't enjoy you know disciplining your children it's not like yes i get to spank junior again you know hopefully you don't feel that way that's that's abusive but like the lord he doesn't glory or take joy in you know dealing with us and jeremiah is kind of talking about this the lord's not going to cast off forever and and he'll have compassion on the multitudes that's what the lord does his mercies you know are a multitude of mercies i love that it goes with all the other scriptures in the bible about his mercy his mercy endures forever it says um any and he does not afflict willingly it's not the lord wanting to do it but it grieves him as as he's uh you know punishing the jews and also us but why does he punish us why does he chasten us hebrews tells us the book of hebrews that there in chapter 10 it says that whom the lord loveth he what chasteneth which is a fancy word for spanking he gives us a spanking because he loves us and and the people that he doesn't discipline or punish um the lord says they're they're not sons at all um so if you're a son of god or a daughter of god the lord's chastening is part of the deal but he does it because he loves us and good news it's not going to last forever and boy i bet jeremiah and the jews right about now are thinking this is lasting forever because this has been a long and slow uh torturous season really for many many years decades the jews have been under siege of the babylonians and see and suffering but it took it took this long for them to finally well they never really did repent we'll see that in a minute verse 34. it says to crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most high to subvert a man in his cause the lord approveth not so you know the lord doesn't willingly agree uh grieve the children he doesn't want to he doesn't enjoy it but he's doing it to basically in verse of 34 35-36 that you know god is not going to condone this is kind of another hard thing to discern it's he's not going to condone affliction due to injustice the lord will cause affliction as a just punishment but for unjust affliction that's due to injustice the lord he's not going to allow that to happen that's the lord we serve and by the way that's good news because right now in the world do you see a lot of injustice there's a lot of things that just plain old aren't fair but you know the lord sees all that and we can put our trust in the lord to take care of those things you know vengeance is mine saith the lord i will repay so if there's if there's a person who's doing injust things in the world today the lord is going to take care of that we don't even have to you know worry about the vengeance part we we just trust that the lord's got that and that's kind of what he's saying here well verse 37 who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the lord commandeth it not out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins let us search and try our ways and turn again to the lord this is basically people saying what they think even though it's not what the lord says do you ever get a sense people talk big and they say stuff that they think they know but you get a sense that they kind of don't have a clue you don't know what you're talking about and jeremiah is kind of saying that you know he says you know who is it that saith this will come to pass when the lord doesn't command it to happen i hear that all the time i think we should be more humble perhaps myself included and when we say this is what's going on or this is what's going to happen or we're going to go do this or we're going to do that remember in james where it says don't say tomorrow we're going to go do such and such a thing because you don't really know so you need to use this kind of language you know if the lord will then i'll go do such and such thing tomorrow and not to be so presumptuous that stuff's just going to happen because we said it's going to happen we're not god when god says something's going to happen it's going to happen when you say something is going to happen well there's a percentage somewhere that's accurate and inaccurate it depends on who you are have you ever noticed some people's percentages are worse than others as far as saying things that are true or false uh man just because you say it with confidence doesn't mean it's necessarily true so what are we supposed to do in light of that search our hearts that's what it says in verse 40. try our ways let the lord search and try our ways and turn again to the lord i'm reminded of what you know the psalmist david there in psalm 139 verses 23 and 24 he said this search me o god and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting um good prayer from the psalmist david who was asking the lord to search him to the lord try my attitudes and my actions and see if there's wickedness in me let me know if i'm off course or you know out of your will that's that's what david is asking of the lord and that's really what jeremiah here is reminding us to do let us search and try our ways and turn to the lord well that's the second section of chapter three the first section jeremiah's affliction second section of the chapter is jeremiah's reflection but now thirdly and lastly in this section we have jeremiah's supplication he's going to kind of make a prayer sort of to the lord but it it's going to be interesting because it's also instructive we'll learn from his supplication so he says in verse 41 let us lift up our heart with our hands unto god in the heavens we have transgressed and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned thou was covered with anger and persecuted us thou slain thou s not pitied thou hast covered thyself with a cloud and our prayers should not pass through thou hast made us as the off-scouring of the and the refuse or garbage in the midst of the people all our enemies have opened their mouths against us fear and a snare has come upon us desolation and destruction question if the lord's mercies endure forever and if he is the forgiver of sins and as the things that we've taught here at thee that the lord is quick to forgive sin if that's true then why does it say in verse 42 jeremiah says we have transgressed and have rebelled thou hast not pardoned is jeremiah wrong here or or is he correct in saying this anybody correct or incorrect there's some there's some debate i love it it's an interesting thing that he's saying but here's here's the thing um he's saying it pretty emphatically saying you know we have transgressed and rebelled thou hast not pardoned so who has he not pardoned well the answer is that if the lord's mercy is enter forever then he must pardon right except for one thing were the were the jews that were not pardoned and let's just say the ones that got slain on the mountains of jerusalem for example which was most of them and did the lord pardon their sins the answer seems to be no but there's an easy answer to why that's true they never repented they just kept going in their sins and they never repented before the lord see the lord would that none should bear us that's what you know ii peter tells us he wants everybody to be saved but he's a perfect gentleman he doesn't force his mercy and pardoning and forgiveness on people so a large portion of these jews they never had their sins forgiven um and that that means they died in their sins there's no uh worst thing i think that can happen to a person to die and still be in their sins because the wages of sin then would be death but see to the people that have repented and uh turned to the lord now here's the the group that we're not talking about here jeremiah himself we know jeremiah was one who even is confessing his sins we'll see that even in a second we have sinned jeremiah said that shows repentance so jeremiah of course any sins that he had done would be forgiven but there even is a group of jews that lived through this and i wonder if many of them remember when jeremiah was prophesying way back in the book of jeremiah and he was saying break off your sins and submit to babylon go out with your hands up and say we are your prisoners remember this those are the people that lived so those are the few that tiny remnant of people that went to babylon and you know you might argue daniel shadrach meshach and abednego and others they ended up going into babylon into captivity but i believe many of them if not all of them because they did what jeremiah told them to do they didn't get slain on the mountains of jerusalem but they were taken into captivity and the lord pardoned their sins i believe those people very likely had their sins pardoned maybe there was a repentance in them so there is a group that was pardoned but remember jeremiah's with this tiny group right now in jerusalem while he's writing lamentations that were just kind of left a tiny remnant still but when he says this i believe he's referring to all those that failed to repent they failed to you know turn to the lord and accept his way thus i think he's accurate when he says you know thou has not pardoned and what else happened to those people thou covered with anger and persecuted us thou has slain and not pitied thou has covered thyself with a cloud that our prayers should not pass through um interesting one of the things that the bible teaches is there that sin makes it so your prayer your prayers fail to fly your prayers will not reach the ears of god when you're living in sin where do we read that well isaiah 59 verse 1 says you know the lord's you know hand is not short that he cannot touch you his ear is not deaf that he cannot hear you but it's your sin that separates you from god there's all kinds of things by the way that the bible teaches us about what makes your sin your your prayers not reach heaven uh one is unconfessed sin that's the top of the list um there's other ones like uh i've done whole sermons on this by the way uh you know what makes your say your your prayers fail to fly you know asking amiss james uh tells us that in chapter four verses one through four uh mistreating your wife husbands uh remember you know it tells us there in um first peter chapter three verse seven it says that if you uh dwelves their wife according to knowledge giving honor to the wife uh uh as she's the weaker vessel not inferior just different vessel root beer mug wine glass two different vessels one's weaker than the other but one's better than the other um that's the idea and so we're to deal with our wives in a way where we're giving honor to her if you don't do that the bible says your prayers will be hindered guys do you want to have your prayers reach heaven make sure and be loving to your wife there's also um unforgiveness we talked about that on sunday if you're unforgiving of others then the lord will not forgive you and thus your sin is still held accountable unless your prayers fail to fly and and then also not listening to the word of god if proverbs you know 28 verse 9 talks about if you you know read the word but fail to take heed to the word then your prayers will not be heard by the lord so those are just five things that that make your prayers not reach heaven here in lamentations jeremiah acknowledged that he says the jews that were unrepentant and just kept going in their sins and never repented the lord has you know covered himself with a cloud that the prayer shouldn't make it through that cloud that's a bad situation if your prayers are not being being heard by the lord now some of you might say great no wonder my prayers aren't heard because i'm a sinner but isn't that why jesus taught us to pray in the lord's prayer right up toward the beginning forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors because that's the first thing we got to kind of say when we're when we're praying to the lord it's always good to start out lord i'm a sinner please forgive me of my sins and if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and man one sincere confession away you don't have to go to a priest you just go to the lord jesus is the mediator between god and man so you pray and say lord forgive me of my sins and guess what your prayers are suddenly back and connected to the lord sad though the unrepentant sinner is still stuck with no prayers because the lord the lord's ear doesn't hear that prayer and that's what jeremiah says here and so all this stuff is what happened the enemies opening their mouths fear and a snare desolation all because of unrepentance that's what jeremiah is saying but he goes on in verse 40 a oh wait let me just say one thing more here verse 41 before we move on did you notice it said let us lift our heart up with our hands unto god and have it the heart the hebrew word lev which is your soul in the in the old testament hebrew bible lifting up your heart with your hands what does that mean well the bible says in quite a few places where to lift up our hands to the lord and uh you know if you're if you're raised in a baptist church or one of the more rigid churches the idea of lifting your hands in church well that's just a pentecostal crazy thing that's for those carers maniacs you know but it's not true actually lifting your hands is a biblical thing whether you like it or not it's just right in the bible and well brett it says you're lifting up your heart with your hands that's just metaphorical but now you can say that but there's a bunch of other scriptures that talk about lifting your hands let me give you kind of some of my favorite psalm 63 verses 3 and 4 says this this is you know worship it says in uh psalm 63 verses 3 and 4 it says because thy loving kindness is better than life life my lips shall praise thee thus will i bless thee while i live and i will lift up my hands in thy name lifting up of hands is the way david worships the lord and one of those things lifting hands does is you can lift your soul your inner person the part of you that thinks and fills and it's kind of a an outward sign that we get to do in worship say lord i'm just lifting up my thoughts my life my sins my everything to you it's a it's an act of submission you know if you feel the cold barrel of a gun in the middle of your back it's submission you know you lift your hands stick them up you know but the lord's not holding a gun to our back but you and i we say lord we want to surrender our lives to you that's lifting up your hands it's not not just here uh psalm 63 but also psalm 134 verse 2 it says lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the lord that's something we get to do it's not a got to it's a get to it's so funny some of you uh still you see people lifting their hands like one of those weirdos doing here those eighty creakers little hand lifters um i remember as a junior higher hopefully you're not at my level when i was in junior high but i remember watching people lift hands and and i'd always kind of laugh there'd be the the different styles of lifting hands and i'd sit in the back and kind of observe there's the old lady she's the swayer you know she's lifting her hands and swaying and then you know who was it tim hawkins did the whole uh dissertation on the lifting hands you got the you know hold the baby uh you know if you're lifting your hands like this or carrying the tv set you know or uh flying like a bird or touchdown you know like like like the way different people you know lift their hands to the lord you know there's the washing wax on wax off you know whatever there's different styles that people have of lifting hands uh one person came to me this is great one person came to me and said brett i noticed at the creek there's a lot of people that only lift one hand and the bible says lift up your hands what's the deal with those athy creekers and i don't know what got into me i said well this church we actually carry bibles too so um that's what i said because i thought it was kind of a funny little thing but um but yeah you know sometimes i shouldn't say things but anyway uh so you know psalm 130 uh 34 verse 2. you know lift up your hands in the sanctuary also psalm 141 verse 2 uh it says my prayer will be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice did you know there's a link to prayer and lifting your hands we in the modern day church tend to lift our ends with song and that's cool too and songs can be kind of like prayers if we're praying they're singing to the lord that's that's all part of it um but you know the idea of lifting hands what is it you know in first timothy i love where you know paul exhorted young timothy when he said this he said first timothy 2 8 he said i would therefore that men pray notice these didn't say women because i think women have a natural proclivity to be prayer people and men are not as much so he said i with that men pray and then he says lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting um there's often a link to praying with your hands lifted remember moses there at redeem when he was looking over the battle and he lifted up his hands and the battle was being won as he interceded on behalf of joshua but when he let his hands down the victory was being lost there's a link to prayer and lifting up your hands don't don't neglect that in your own personal prayer closet the idea of lifting up your hands can be uh something that's really really helpful but um the idea of lifting up your your heart to the lord this is where jeremiah kind of gives us something new that when you're lifting up your hands you're worshiping the lord you're exalting the lord you're submitting to the lord but you're also lifting your soul up to the lord and when you lift your hands to the lord well that's just kind of a quick rundown um don't be afraid to lift your hands and and forget what people think about it uh brenda what will my wife think if i'm lifting my hands she knew that i was grouchy this afternoon and now wednesday night lifting my hands she'll think what a hypocrite um well that's your wife just needing to repent of her own sins don't worry about her uh you know we're all sinners but your wife should be really happy if you're lifting your hands lord because you know what sinners need to do that if you're a sinner you should be the first one to lift your hands it's not like you're saying i am holy so i'm lifting my hands no you're saying i'm a wretched sinner so i'm lifting my hands uh your wife should say hey men to that you know if she sees that but that's always a pitfall when we worry about what other people think what is my baptist grandmother going to think if if we're lifting hands in the church you know the bible says it so we should do it uh it's kind of that simple uh it's a great way to worship and express our heart to the lord well uh verse 48 goes on in this jeremiah's supplication he says in verse 48 mine eye runeth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not without any intermission till the lord looked down and behold from heaven mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city mine enemies chased me sore like a bird without cause you know again we see jeremiah the weeping prophet um you know acts chapter 20 verse 19 paul said i have shed many tears for you jesus wept over jerusalem the idea of compassion you know as g campbell morgan who was actually approached by somebody said man did you hear dl moody teaching about hell it was a you know with such you know kind of force and they were being critical of dl moody and g campbell morgan you know they thought he'd say yeah you know that's kind of kind of dark you know or he shouldn't be talking about hell like that but g campbell morgan answered this uh critique of dl moody and said you know dl moody earned the right to speak up like that on hell because he said it with many tears it's like he earned that because he set it out of compassion um and and you know it's funny i think that as long as we're you know speaking with compassion real compassion like jesus or like jeremiah then then we can speak the truth um but god for you know forbid us to speak the truth with a meanness or a lack of compassion because man people don't receive that very well if it's coming from i know more than you do so here's the truth listen up that's the problem with social media as i see people clicking away typing the truth but it comes off like you're screaming at us and nobody wants to hear that and they think it sounds coarse and you know it's the old saying what did they say you know people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care and there's a lot of people spouting knowledge of things that are even true but the way it comes off is pretty harsh we need to have that compassionate heart like jeremiah and that's what makes it palatable it's almost like the tears are the anaesthetic that makes the truth palpable or you can receive it well jeremiah then starts talking about his own struggles he said in verse 53 they have cut off my life in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me remember we read about that um in the book of jeremiah they threw him in a dungeon lowered him with a rope and he sunk in mud neck deep so he's sitting in a dungeon neck deep with a little hole and they put a rock over the hole and left him there to rot like that's a bad day at the office poor jeremiah so he goes back to that he says man i i think they cut my life off in the dungeon and cast a stone on me verse 54 waters flowed over my head then i said i am cut off or i'm going to die here i called upon thy name o lord out of the low dungeon thou has heard my voice hide not thine here at my my breathing and my cry don't you wonder if jeremiah is sitting in that dungeon you know with the rock and then it's dead silent and suddenly he can hear himself breathing and he's oh lord can you hear my breathing i can hear my breathing like we don't think about our breathing until that's the only thing that's there and that's you can almost picture this like jeremiah is painting a colorful picture of how brutal it was for him verse 57 thou drewest near in the day that i called upon thee thou said fear not don't you love that jeremiah is telling us that when he was at his darkest point the lord said don't be afraid jeremiah verse 58 oh lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul thou hast redeemed my life o lord thou hast seen my wrong judge thou my cause thou has seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me thou has heard their reproach oh lord and all their imaginations against me the lips of those that rose up against me and their device against me all the day behold they're sitting down and they're rising up i am their music what's he saying i'm their joke like they're singing a little ditty about jeremiah the failed prophet um but jeremiah was the only one right remember these are the prophets probably referring to here that were speaking lies remember there were hundreds of them saying oh everything's gonna be great and jeremiah was the lone prophet speaking the truth and that's who he's referring to here these people that you know their lips rose up against him um their devices were against them and they were singing songs about him derogatorily is the idea verse 64 render unto them recompense o lord according to the work of their hands give them sorrow of heart thy curse unto them persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the lord why is jeremiah speaking um curses upon people is that okay well the answer i think is yes because the lord spoke this the lord said i'm i'm gonna curse these prophets so jeremiah is just saying lord do what you already said you're going to do like he's affirming god's plan and purpose but i think it's okay because of that we do have to be careful about that though because we have to make sure that what's the lord's plan can you curse your boss lord please make my boss to die brutal and bloody death like are you okay in praying that no because that's not the lord's will jeremiah did know what the will of the lord was because the lord made it clear these prophets who are speaking lies to the people and causing them to stumble into total destruction the lord says they're going to feel my wrath and they're going down and so jeremiah is affirming what the lord already spoke and you can do that you can reaffirm what the lord says this is what's going to happen but be careful on this idea of cursing people that's when it starts to become you know witches making curses on people christians don't do that right here's what confused are we are we good on that one okay good good so chapter four uh gets us to uh now the lord's wrath chapter four is about the lord's wrath you know 22 verses in the alphabet acrostic here we go aleph is verse 1. um how has the gold become dim how is the most fine gold changed the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street the precious stones apparently sons of zion comparable to feingold how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers the work of the hands of the potter so basically from gold to broken pieces of pottery is kind of what he's saying it used to be you know glorious jerusalem um but it's gotten to be nothing now verse three even the sea monsters draw out of the the breast uh what's a sea monster uh sigmund for you guys that are grew up in the 80s i might remember sigmund uh or loch ness what's the deal with a sea monster thing well um it's actually um talking about like sea calves you know like the um you know these um sort of giant you know seals or walruses or whatever what's the ones over here in the line and i can't think of the sea lions yeah that's kind of what's being talked about here and it's saying that even the sea lion you know still breastfeed if you would the calf um you know that's the idea they give suck to their young ones but verse three the daughters of zion or the people have become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness now the reason this ostrich in the wilderness thing is a thing is because some ostriches are known to eat their own eggs uh that's the idea here that they would destroy their own young and that's what will happen and we've already read about that and saw that prophesied about the women of jerusalem during this time verse 4 the tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst the young children ask bread and no man breaketh it unto them they that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunhills for the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of sodom that was overthrown as in a moment and no hands stayed upon her why would sodom and gomorrah be less of a problem than for the jews well sodom happened in just ten seconds you know fire brimstone smashed the city it was over almost in a way of mercy the lord destroyed sodom instantly but the jews it was a slow and brutal suffering and starvation famine and like the prophecies that were given they would even you know eat their young horrible cannibalism that it did happen verse seven her nazarites were purer than snow they were whiter than milk they were more ready in body than rubies their you know polishing was of sapphire who were the nazirites those were the people who had a vow like samson but it was a vow of separation you know to be holy and set apart for god now what do they look like well verse eight their visage is a blacklear than a coal they are not known in the streets their skin cleaves to their bones it is withered it has become like a stick they that be slain with the sword are better than they that were slain with hunger for they pine away stricken through for one of the fruits of the field now this is just starvation remember the besieging of jerusalem nebuchadnezzar surrounded jerusalem and the people starved to death it was just a horrible way to die better to die by the edge of the sword than to end up in starvation here verse 10 the hands of the pitiful women have soddened their own children they have their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people um by the way this if you remember was predicted in deuteronomy chapter uh 28 uh par 28 uh verses 56 through 57 if you recall um this is the lord centuries earlier saying if you rebel against me and if you worship other idols and do these horrible sinful things then the lord says hundreds of years earlier he predicted this in deuteronomy 28 56 i'll read it to you he said the tender and delicate women among you which would not adventure to set soul of her foot up on the ground for her delicateness and tenderness her eyes shall be evil toward her husband of her bosom and toward her son and toward her daughter and toward her young one that comes from between her feet and toward her children she shall bear she shall eat them for one of things secretly in the siege of straightness wherewith thine enemy distressed thee in thy gates the lord said this is what's going to happen if you guys do this like the lord tried to say this is the most horrible thing you can imagine and if you guys worship idols and go after other deities and gods this is where you'll end up and the reason i point that out is i want to remind you that deuteronomy 28 there's all these verses in this chapter that are shown to be totally true uh we'll we'll maybe do that even more in in the last chapter here if we have time uh tonight because there's so many parallels uh deuteronomy 28 warnings centuries earlier with the outcomes that actually happened so um so the lord says this through jeremiah this is what happened it actually happened to you guys the way the way it was said verse 11 the lord hath accomplished his fury he have poured out his fierce anger and has kindled a fire in zion and it hath devoured the foundations thereof the kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of jerusalem you know psalm 20 verse 7 talks about how some put their trust in chariots and horses but we will put our trust in the lord well the jews in jeremiah's time were putting their trust in their walled city people said nobody could you know penetrate the walls the glorious walls of jerusalem but the babylonians did and nobody even expected it that's what's said there in verse 12. verse 13 for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her they have wandered as blind men in the streets they have polluted themselves with blood so that men could not touch their garments they cried unto them depart ye it is unclean depart depart touch not when they fled away and wandered they said among the heathen they shall no more sojourn there the anger of the lord hath divided them he will no more regard them they respected not the respected not the persons of the of the priests um they favored not the elders so when the jews went to the foreign lands nobody cared that they were priests or elders they lost all reputation so like even when you know they went to egypt this like verse 15 where it says you know uh they shall no more sojourn there the basically all the other nations like get out of our face we don't want to see you jews with your priests and your prophets and all this stuff they had respect when they were in jerusalem but the jews even to this day sadly in much of the world are hated now that's a fulfilling prophecy as well god still loves the jews and still has a plan for them but largely there's a reason why the world hates them and it's all kind of explained a little bit right here it's really sad verse 17 as for us our eyes are yet failed our vain help in the watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us you know the world will not be there in their times of trouble is the idea they hunt our steps verse 18 that we cannot go in our streets our end is near our days are fulfilled for our end has come our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven they pursued us upon mountains they laid weight for us in the wilderness the breath of our nostrils the anointing of the lord was taken in their pits of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the hedon rejoice and be glad o daughter of edom that dwell in the land of us the cup also shall pass through unto thee and thou shall be drunken and shall make thyself naked the punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished o daughter of zion he will no more carry thee away into captivity he will visit thine iniquity o daughter of edom he will discover thy sins so you know again a reminder for the not to rejoice in israel's troubles because the lord says i'm coming for you too edom if you're rejoicing about the trouble the jews have received and he says you know edom your sins will be discovered which that's exactly what the lord says you know if you confess your sins the lord will cover your sins but if you continue in sin the lord will discover your sins that's the idea reveal them that's what's being kind of said here now chapter five like i said earlier is not an acrostic and the question is why let's read this chapter and finish up 22 verses um this this chapter kind of um is a little different than the other chapters and maybe we'll see but we'll call it the the prayer of the remnant the prayer of the remnant those that were left alive which is very few a number of jews after this whole jeremiah event with the babylonians the prayer of the of the remnant verse 1 remember o lord what has come upon us consider and behold our reproach would you mark the word remember because i think that's an important part of this whole thing and we'll we'll go back to that in a bit remember um verse two our inheritances turned to strangers our houses to aliens um i'm gonna i'm gonna show you uh some of these verses that correlate to uh deuteronomy i already told you deuteronomy 28 and we've looked at this in previous chapters as well uh last week do you remember we looked in chapter two there were certain verses that just kind of exactly what deuteronomy says i want to show you that as well verse two our inheritance has turned to strangers our houses aliens um and due to jot this down your nose deuteronomy 28 um verse 30 uh it says this i'll just read it to you deuteronomy 28 30 it says thou shalt betroth the wife and another man shall lie with her thou shall build a house and thou shalt not dwell therein you'll plant a vineyard but you'll not gather grapes the lord says because of your sin you're gonna lose your house your family and and other people are gonna live in your houses like that's that's one of the results and that's exactly what this verse is telling us um verse verse three we are orphans and fatherless our mothers are as widows we have drunken our water for money our word our wood is sold unto us that's like aquafina uh or you have to buy water did you know that water is more expensive than a gallon of gas when you buy it like aquafina or dasani i'm just just kind of funny water is expensive but deuteronomy 28 65 matches verse 5. verse 5 says our necks are under persecution we labor and have no rest what's deuteronomy 28 65 well it says this among these nations you'll find no ease neither shall the soul of your foot have rest but the lord will give thee a trembling heart failing of eyes and a sorrowful mind this is what the lord predicted and now jeremiah's saying this is what has happened verse 6 we have given the hand to the egyptians to the assyrians to be satisfied with bread our fathers have sinned and are not or they're dead and we have borne their iniquities servants have ruled over us there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand we got our bread and the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine um verse 11. by the way that that that also is uh deuteronomy um you can mark verse 10 deuteronomy 28 48 where it says this in deuteronomy 28 40 it says therefore thou shalt serve your enemies which the lord shall send against thee and hunger and thirst and in nakedness and one of all things he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed thee why was their skin blackened it's because they were slaves out in the sun working for everybody else and that's what happened here just like the bible predicted of them verse 11 they they ravished the women in zion and the maids in the city of judah just like deuteronomy 28 30. verse 12 princes are hanged up by their hand faces of elders were not honored in deuteronomy 28 50 mark that with verse 12 28 50. what does it say there it says a nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of old age nor show favor to the young that's exactly what says what did they do now this is something that's horrible and i haven't really explained this but when it says there in our text here uh this evening about uh the young people being sort of hanged up by their hands and the faces of the elders not honored the babylonians took a bunch of the jews and literally like hung them with their hands secured over the wall and hung their bodies hanging over the edge of the wall with their arms like tied up and and hanging off the edge of the wall and they they let them die that way by the hundreds these jews just hanging on the wall um young and old and how did they die well they the historians tell us they died of uh thirst mostly uh of sometimes just being burned by the sun birds of the air plucking their skin off like it was a horrible way to die just to be hung on a wall and left there until you just died um and that's what the babylonians did that's what's being referred to here and that's exactly what deuteronomy 28 um verse 50 says young and old would be there'd be no respect one way or the other verse 13 they took the young men to grind and the and the children fell under the wood um what's this all about the men going to grind well this is a funny thing because um uh it reminds me of a thing that i did in africa that was kind of a you know social fupa the idea of grinding grinding the mill of flour is the idea there is that's the word here men were doing that in bible times that was not the man's work uh i know this is very uh you know um male chauvinistic or whatever but this was ancient times um the women did the grinding or the slaves that's that's the truth but now the jews are finding themselves grinding as slaves for everybody else when i went to africa my first trip when i was a young guy i was there out in the bush and i saw something that just seemed so africa to me you know like you see these pictures of these these uh these uh they're sort of like cut logs and they hollow the log out into a bowl and it just sits there and the the women were there pounding with these sticks pounding the millet they'd pour the millet in crush it up into powder and make sort of a flower out of it and i thought this is so cool like i'm really in africa now i've seen this these ladies so i said hey can i try it and and they're like they all chuckled and they handed me the stick and i started you know and all the men and everybody came laughing and they're like and one of the guys came up and he um and my translator said that guy just said men are never to do that work it so it's like like it would have been just the same thing if i would have started painting my nails pink out there in the uh of course that doesn't mean anything here in the states anymore anyway um but you know what i mean it was it was the people were laughing because i was doing a woman's work uh even in africa in modern times like they still kind of think that way um but this is what happened that you know these men were made to grind uh the mill as the idea there and the children fell under the wood the idea is they were also doing the work of of men verse 14 the elders have ceased from the gate the young men from their music the joy of our heart is ceased our dances turned to mourning the crown has fallen from our hand woe unto us that we have sinned there's a big that's a that's getting close to summary of the whole book of lamentations right there that verse 16. woe unto us for we have sinned for this our heart is faint for these things our eyes are dim because the mountain of zion which is desolate the foxes walk upon it mark verse 18 and write down deuteronomy 28 26 talks about how wild beasts would be roaming into jerusalem that's what the lord predicted hundreds of years earlier and that's exactly what happened foxes walking upon jerusalem verse 19 oh thou o lord remainest forever thy throne from generation to generation wherefore dost thou forget us forever and forsake us so long time turn thou unto us unto turn thou us unto thee o lord and we shall be turned renew our days as of old but thou has utterly rejected us and thou are very wrath against us now this is a weird way to end the book it's like you're thinking oh he's getting ready to end nicely in verse 21 what a great way to let's just end on verse 21 turn thou us unto thee o lord and we shall return to renew the days of old the end let's just stand it right there why verse 22 but thou hast never rejected us thou are very wrath against us well the king james doesn't put a question mark there but how many of your newer translations have a question mark at the end of the last verse anybody yeah some of you guys whatever translations you have they have the question mark they actually get it right uh most scholars linguistic callers agree that that was a question and it's more like this you know verse 21 lord turn us to thee renew our old days well but the house rejected us are you really that mad against us and i think he's leaving it sort of as a rhetorical question like uh are you is it really to where we've just been totally forsaken and i think that question mark is there because the question is lord are you gonna remember us have you forsaken us now this goes back to the very beginning of chapter 5 verse 1 remember oh lord um you know it's interesting because there in the in the scriptures there's people that say lord remember me who else said remember me in the bible well one of my favorite stories by the way and i'll tell you let me close with reminding you of a story from luke the gospel of luke chapter 23 verse 32 i'll just read it to you listen as i read luke 23 32 it says this and there were also other male factors or criminals led with jesus to be put put to death and when they were coming to the place which is called calvary they crucified jesus and the malfactors one on the right side and one on the left then said jesus father forgive them for they know not what they do and they departed as raymond and cast lots and it came the people stood holding and the rulers also with them derided him saying he saved others let him save himself if he be the christ the chosen of god and the soldiers also mocked him coming to him offering him vinegar and saying if thou be the king of the jews save thyself and a superscription also is written over him in the letters of greek latin hebrew this is the king of the jews one of the male factors the criminals hanging next to him which were hanged there railed on him saying if thou be the christ save thyself and us but the other criminal answering rebuked him saying dost thou not fear god seeing that thou art in the same condemnation and we indeed justly for our we receive the due reward for our deeds but this man hath done nothing amiss and he said unto jesus lord remember me when thou come into thy kingdom and jesus said to them verily i say unto thee today thou shalt be with me in paradise you know why i love that that's one of my favorite stories in all the bible the the thief on the cross that said remember me because you know this this is those people that say well hopefully you're good outweighs your bad and then maybe you'll make it to heaven well as it turns out we know this guy ends up in paradise with jesus check he made it what did he do to get to heaven lots of good deeds no in fact he dies a criminal hanging on the cross even admitting yeah i deserve this and and yet the only thing he said was lord remember me that's all he that's all he said that's all he needed he had faith and said this is the one jesus remember me and jesus okay you're good if the thief on the cross can be saved i wonder can you be saved as well the answer is yes you know you and i sin and we make mistakes but man great is his grace and greatest mercy and so this question that jeremiah wraps up in lamentations is lord are you going to be able to remember us that's the first part of this verse and i think the reason maybe this one's not written in the acrostic is it's sort of almost like it's left undone it's like there's still a question mark here about what are you gonna do what what the book of lamentations it's almost like lord what does this mean for me and there's as we close tonight there's just two things that i want to say that i think we wrap up lamentations and we glean first of all two points number one you always get nailed by sin read jeremiah read lamentations they thought they were going to get away with it they thought they were exception to the rule but you always get nailed by sin that's the truth but then truth number two there's compassion and mercy to the repentant from for sin whoever is repentant whoever says lord forgive me and i will follow after you and believe in you you know remember me lord and the lord says okay the question mark at the end of this is answered in the rest of the bible the question mark at the end of lamentations is answered the jews would see ultimately the messiah come and reject him but i love romans chapter 11 verse 25 says eventually all of israel will be saved the jews are going to be remembered by the lord the lord doesn't forget those who are repentant and so the question mark will be answered in the rest of the bible and we'll we'll be getting to that as we start getting into the book of ezekiel the prophet ezekiel man you get in for a ride there ezekiel man wheels within wheels and angels flying all over the place and crazy stuff ezekiel was a mystic and uh it's going to be quite a ride so we'll pick up that next time now let's pray together lord how thankful we are that the simplicity of salvation that you are able to remember us even though we don't deserve it lord that you don't leave us hanging you just you you take care of our troubles and you paid our iniquity and dealt with our debt lord for this heavy book of lamentations i pray that it would remind us that sin stinks and that sin always is something that gets you you always get nailed by sin be sure of this your sin will find you out your word tells us that lord and and yet somehow we think we're the ones the exception that's what the jews thought in those days i pray that we would see the the dastardly nature of sin and how it messes us up and hurts us i pray that we would hunger and thirst after righteousness for you tell us in your word you that you will fill us up if we hunger and thirst after righteousness help us to break off sinful attitudes and actions and thoughts and hunger after righteousness lord i pray that we'd not live lives of sin but we'd change and be repentant and follow your word but when we do fail and when we do make mistakes how thankful we are that you're compassionate and your mercies are new every morning and your faithfulness is great lord we bless you and we thank you in jesus name amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 10,446

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: l46KVAsjA1s

Length: 67min 59sec (4079 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021