Learning to Lament: Believe God's Divine Purposes in SufferingLamentations 1
Notes
Transcript
Staff Feedback from 8/22:
def of lament, exposing confidence in God’s steadfast love and hope in His pure justice (1:18)
always borne out of faith
faith: current, existing now
hope: future, anticipating something that is not a current reality
Elect Exiles - today, we are still God’s exiles
JB Chapter 1 Summary: The city that was once full of life, with God at its center, is now empty and rejected by those she thought loved her. She seeks for comfort but she doesn’t get it. Her sin, continual rebellion and rejection of their covenant with God has brought about devastation. She then admits her guilt and makes a plea to God to act on His justice.
MF Definition:
An expression of sorrow before God that leads to confiding in his steadfast love and enduring with hope in his justice.
The Lord is righteous to afflict His people.
How should we respond to the affliction of the righteous Lord?
Jeremiah is waiting for deliverance. In his waiting he remembers and rehearses God’s faithful character.
Only Christ could redeem what had been broken.
We can rejoice now that he is renewing us day by day.
The people have been exposed and their loss is total.
Learning to Lament: believe God’s divine purpose in suffering.
Why is this happening?
The Purpose in Affliction
Introduction - bib theology
Introduction - bib theology
Review
Review
Remember that lament and grief are not the same.
Everyone experiences sorrow but not everyone experiences godly sorrow.
Remember that lament is hope in future faithfulness.
“Lament looks ahead without skipping ahead.”
Because life hurts right now! (example: stubbed toe, cut finger)
a friend betrayed you, your phone fell off your car and is lost forever, war rages around the world, a child is still born, a mother abandons her child, your family member is openly rejecting God, your uncle died unexpectedly, the history on your computer exposed your sinful tendency, a sister in Christ approached you about your allegiance to self image over identity in Christ
Remember that lament is the language of God’s children. (because suffering is a part of life)
Note on today’s culture: Some may say or assume crying is a sign of weakness!!!
There are plenty of songs written about crying and most of them say “don’t you cry no more or “big girls don’t cry”
Children of God, in deep sorrow, cry out to a God who is faithful to keep His Word.
Remember that the struggle is good. Endure. James will bear this out.
DEF: an expression of deep sorrow that exposes confidence in God’s chesed and enduring hope in God’s sure justice.
Example: Do you remember that stage you had as a kid where you were punished for wrong (made sense), but it also felt like every other thing your parents asked you to do was because they didn’t like you?
So when dad said punishment was coming for hitting your brother, it felt pretty similar to when mom told you to clean your room.
In both instances, instruction is taking place. Instilling character in the child.
But both instances did not begin with a transgression.
Today we will take a look at the suffering that these exiles are experiencing and think of it in a similar way.
Background:
Background:
In God’s covenant with Abraham. God chose a people to bless, grow, and give an abundance of land to. Abraham leaves not knowing wear he’s going but all the while believing.
Then, for 400 plus years, these people are in bondage, waiting for the promise to be delivered.
In bondage, but not one that’s self-inflicted. It was not the result of sin.
God fulfills His promise and delivers His people from bondage, giving them opportunity to carry out His mandate again of expanding their kingdom borders.
They enter into the land after their wandering and are now in a place where they can prosper.
But the people rejected God and did what they pleased, living in adultery and idolatry with pagan nations.
So as a result, God’s people split into two nation, then were carried into exile.
The exile, different than the bondage in Egypt, was completely self-inflicted.
They made their bed and now they were laying in it.
How could Jeremiah and the people believe that God’s divine purpose (promise to Abraham) would be fulfilled when all they could see was destruction?
Read v. 1, 17-22
Believe that every pain you experience is justly brought about for God’s divine purpose.
Whether it was brought about because of your sin or not.
As we begin to look at chapter 1, I want you to keep two things in mind. In each point we look at, we will see two elements.
Individual Element - The Author’s Lament - v. 1-11
Whether we are considering the emotions that were felt, the sin that brought them to this point, the devastation, the terrible suffering, the admission of guilt that led to that suffering… each of these is recognized by the individual looking on and by the city as a whole.
Corporate Element - The City’s Lament - v. 12-22
Why does that matter?
It matters because this morning, individuals have gathered at 3023 Union Road. We could call this gathering a corporate gathering, as many individuals make up the whole. What do we do when we gather? What do we remind each other of when we gather? Something unique is happening for those who are IN CHRIST.
Excerpt from Ray Ortlund
To all who are weary and need rest; to all who mourn and long for comfort; to all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares, to all who fail and desire strength; to all who sin and need a Savior; to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness; and to whoever will come--- this church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. - Ray Ortlund
ADORATION, THANKSGIVING, CONFESSION, ASSURANCE, SUPPLICATION
We gather to reorient our hearts to worship the Creator when our hearts don’t naturally seek Him.
Maybe you’re here right now and you don’t feel broken, you don’t consider yourself to be suffering, you don’t think you need rest. “Everything’s good!”
Maybe you walked in this morning and all you see is destruction, and maybe even feel like Jonah, that you’re drowning in it.
I hope this morning, that each of you, would see your own need to learn to lament.
Faithful lament is grounded in remembering what God has always done. Ps 121
A Lonely View of Sin’s Destruction v. 1-4
A Lonely View of Sin’s Destruction v. 1-4
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised
In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion,
On the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
The city they once sung of and rejoiced in its glory is now
FALLEN from glory v. 12-15
FALLEN from glory v. 12-15
WEAK where they were once strong
v. 2 sobbing at night
v. 3 she lives restlessly among heathen nations, being overtaken in her weakness, and mocked at v. 7-8, 17, 19
They are ashamed as if naked v. 8
v. 6, 10 Any symbol of power was gone. (priests, princes, and temple)
the city known fir her purity is now
UNCLEAN where they were once the purest
v. 4 All that was pure is gone, nowhere to be found. The priests are gone, the virgins are gone.
Even surrounding nations saw Jerusalem’s wickedness.
v. 9 “her filthiness is in her skirts”
v. 17 “Jerusalem is a filthy/menstruous woman among other nations”
this was such a massive, visible fall from glory, one that Jeremiah had warned of, that if they continued in disobedience the city would become a heap of ruins. Here they are, looking at the heap of ruins.
COMFORTLESS v. 16-17
COMFORTLESS v. 16-17
LONELY
v. 1 a lonely widow, enslaved royalty with no beauty (v. 6)
v. 2 “none to comfort her
v. 3 “she finds no resting place”
v. 9 “she has no comforter”
v. 13 “faint all the day long”
v. 16 “a comforter is far from me”
v. 17 “there is none to comfort her”
v. 21 “there is no one to comfort me.”
v. 22 “my heart is faint” “heard but ignored”
DECEIVED
v. 2 sobbing at night, those she thought were friends are enemies (v. 5)
v. 19 deceived by lovers, priests and elders died with no food
Do you see and feel the devastation?
Her friends are gone, her lovers are gone, her trusted sources of comfort and pleasure were no longer providing what they hoped and wanted. This is what sin does!
AFFLICTED/SUFFERING v. 12-15
AFFLICTED/SUFFERING v. 12-15
This is God’s doing
But WHY? Consider the first word of the book. This is the word used as a funeral term.
But WHY? Rebellion
v. 5 “the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions”
v. 8 “Jerusalem hath grievously sinned”
v. 18 “I have rebelled”
v. 20 “I have grievously (extreme) rebelled”
v. 22 “All of my transgressions”
The reality of sin is that it is an open rejection of God’s plan, chesed/faithful love, protection, provision / and life itself.
APPLICATION:
You‘re sitting here this morning and your SUFFERING/PAIN/AFFLICTION is very real.
But it is JUST that we suffer. John Stott said “creation is out of joint because it is under judgment.”
SIN brings death, pain, loneliness… ALWAYS.
Deuteronomy 28 This is God’s Word and it must be fulfilled.
The people rebelled, so a God caused destruction was at hand, it had to happen.
God is against sin. So he reacts to sin because of who he is.
As we suffer, God’s divine purpose is not dependent on our ability to discern what that purpose is/awareness of it in the moment. (consider Moses and Job/if time allows, Rom 8:28)
Heb 11:25-26 - Did Moses fully understand the redemptive work of Christ when he chose to suffer affliction with God’s people over enjoying the pleasures of sin and treasures of Egypt? No, but he trusted God’s divine purpose.
Job thought he knew the whole story, but he could only see part of it.
So God puts job in his place in an epic rap battle...
Where were you at creation… were you there when God laid the foundation… when I gave the earth it’s dimensions… or kept the water down in it… have you made the rain or caused the sun to rise… did you give courage and strength to horses and lions?
Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him?
He that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Will the one I (God) created correct me as to my purposes? Job’s response: I’m vile, (cover mouth)
Maybe you’re tempted to doubt God’s goodness.
Jeremiah 20:7 thought God had deceived him, doubting God’s divine purpose.
O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived:
Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed:
I am in derision daily,
Every one mocketh me.
Maybe all you can see is the pain and you’re tempted to despair.
Maybe you don’t know where you can turn, where they would turn, where the suffering exiles could turn, for comfort?
But lets be instructed by our passage.
Believe that every pain you experience is justly brought about for God’s divine purpose.
An Honest Prayer for Sympathy v. 12, 16: Please look at me. / Do you even see me? v. 9, 11, 20 (to God and passers by) Deal with the affliction and WHO has brought this unrest.
An Honest Prayer for Sympathy v. 12, 16: Please look at me. / Do you even see me? v. 9, 11, 20 (to God and passers by) Deal with the affliction and WHO has brought this unrest.
Remember that lament is the way of life.
As Jeremiah laments and records the city’s lament, they remember God’s original intention.
But they are also very aware of the present hardship. They aren’t living in the past. They are lamenting what they are now. They just want someone to see them.
Do we get a glimpse of God’s purpose from these verses?
v. 13 God brings about repentance. “he hath turned me back”
Believe that every pain you experience is justly brought about for God’s divine purpose.
GOSPEL CONNECTION:
Do we have a biblical example of faith in God’s purpose?
Spurgeon: “We apply to Jesus and his sufferings to-night the words which the prophet wrote in reference to Judæa and her national sorrow. We hear the Son of God saying in his death pangs to all this vast assembly, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.”
So you say, “DOES ANYBODY SEE ME, DOES ANYBODY CARE?”
Jesus says “come unto me all ye that labor and and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly, and you’ll find rest for your souls.
Then this Jesus on his way to the cross, STOPS.
He stops to pray, and he says, my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death… He experienced extreme, near death sorrow for sins He didn’t commit. Then He laments:
He expresses his suffering and asks the Father to take this cup of His wrath away
Then speaks to God’s just, divine purpose and says, ‘not as I will’.
Jesus fully understands your suffering!!!
He has suffered for you so that you don’t have to. He has paid the price for your ransom and desires that you would turn to Him in belief.
but also in this we learn that He has suffered so that we too can endure suffering as believers.
READ STRICKEN SMITTEN AND AFFLICTED
An Accurate Confession that expresses faith/should dominate our lives: v. 18-22 You’re Right and I’m Wrong
An Accurate Confession that expresses faith/should dominate our lives: v. 18-22 You’re Right and I’m Wrong
We need to see here that the Plea and Confession are expressions of faith in God / statements recognizing His faithfulness.
He is the Rock, his work is perfect:
For all his ways are judgment:
A God of truth and without iniquity,
Just and right is he.
To say that God is in the right is to trust that:
To say that God is in the right is to trust that:
God is faithful in bringing the punishment that He said He would.
“A promise of God is of greater satisfaction and encouragement to a true believer, than all the visible things on earth.” Richard Baxter
That He was just to do it. (doesn’t mean we understand God’s full divine purpose)
Lament must always involve repentance.
As you remember, last week, from 1 Peter we heard that God uses suffering to expose and refine us.
So we might say, Suffering often reveals to us our idolatrous hearts.Suffering brings clarity.
How many times have you been exposed to your own sinfulness in your pain? (broken leg)
So what do we do? REPENT
“Under God’s judgments we first learn, how foolish it was ever to have expected anything good from the world...” - Diedrich
That He must deal with all wrongs. v. 22
“If there is no day of judgment (to account for all the wrongs of the world that people have gotten away with), what hope is there for the world? But if there is a day of judgment, what hope is there for me? Jesus is our answer to both questions.”
“God did not punish Jerusalem’s sin and ignore ours. Jesus dealt with both.”
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
Believe that every pain you experience is justly brought about for God’s divine purpose.
CONCLUSION:
CONCLUSION:
This pain filled part of your story is only a small fragment in light of eternity.
Anger, resentment, and bitterness are the natural result of storing up these emotions.
LAMENT!!! (imperative)
Pour out your pain, your complaint.
A complaint that turns from sorrow to hope (present and eternal) in God’s established faithfulness.
Allow God to bring clarity through your suffering.
You might be asking yourself this morning, am I suffering because I’ve sinned or is God just instructing me through suffering? The truth is, you can’t answer that question now, and you may never be able to in this lifetime. But… that doesn’t matter. Our success in our trial does not depend on knowing what God’s purposes are. Our response to both should be the same… that’s encouraging!
REPENT!!!
2 Cor 7:7-11 That is what godly sorrow always leads to.
Things don’t have to be bad to repent. Repentance and faith are a way of life.
Pray in faith that God’s will be done.
ENDURE!!! knowing as we’re told in 1 Peter that we are to commit our souls to the faithful Creator.
We come full circle to the gathering.
For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.
Paul lays out how to be faithful while suffering.
1 Peter 4:12-19 Paul tells us to not be surprised when the fiery trial comes. But instead, rejoice that you get to partake in Christ’s sufferings and know His future glory. He will receive glory now and you will be given glory later. So suffer now as a Christian instead of for your transgressions. Let judgment begin in God’s house/with God’s people. Suffer as God has designed that you suffer (v.19).
Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
“Real hope does not minimize the sorrows and trials around us. Nor is it undone by them. Real hope perseveres, and prevails.” David Mathis
Maybe now we can say: ‘God’s destruction of Jerusalem and affliction of His people is the most gracious thing He could’ve done.’
and maybe we can also say: I my pain/suffering is a gracious act of God in my life.
Afflicted Saint to Christ Draw Near
Believe that every pain you experience is justly brought about for God’s divine purpose.
Faithful lament is grounded in remembering what God has always done. Ps 10, 121