Lamentations

[0:00] Seeking the Lord's help, we'd like to get your attention to the Lamentations of Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 1. Lamentations of Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 1.

[0:18] I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

[0:39] The scriptures clearly reveal that God deals with his people.

[0:49] And they come into the knowledge of their God. They come into a knowledge of his sovereign dealing.

[1:07] And Jeremiah is not the only prophet and servant of the Lord who passed through deep waters to enter into a knowledge of the justice, righteousness and holiness, majesty and power and sovereignty and glory of his God.

[1:32] Her mind, when these words rested upon it, went to Job. And what a word this was could well have been spoken by the lips of God's servant Job.

[1:51] Jeremiah, in a different way to Job, was caught up in the wrath of God against his ancient people.

[2:08] Sent as he was to preach the certainty of divine justice and wrath against their sin. If they turned off in repenting.

[2:23] And looked at it. Purely naturally, Jeremiah's ministry would appear to be a complete failure.

[2:37] There was no repentance. There was nothing but argument. We hear in the prophecy of Jeremiah those awful words. Is there any word from the Lord?

[2:47] And it's saying, so good. Whereas in fact, it was uttered as a reply to the word that had already come from the Lord.

[3:03] But it wasn't wanting. It was wanting. But, if we consider that there was no success to Jeremiah's ministry, what is abundantly clear is this.

[3:27] God was justified. What the Lord's servant said came to pass. God was but he was bound up in his nation.

[3:40] As Daniel is in his own prayer. I believe it is in the name of the book of Daniel. When the days of the captivity were solemnly over and the Lord's ear was opened to hear the prayers of the prayer of Daniel, we hear the Lord's servant confessing first his own sins and then the sins of his people.

[4:14] While I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of God of my God while I was yet speaking in my prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me.

[4:41] There was an answer. The great clouds of the wrath of God were turned aside in the other glorious aspect of the Godhead mercy.

[5:00] And this was something that Jeremiah was not utterly unaware of. In his prophecy there are many times when he had a hope that when God's solemn chastening of ancient Israel was over then there would be mercy.

[5:27] It is from his prophecy that comes the statement of the new covenant. But here as we follow the servant God we see how the Lord worked and dealt in his soul and how there was known in his heart most solemn knowledge of that God with whom he communed in all his holiness and majesty and glory.

[6:06] and he says here and I believe this is the experience of God's dear children they must all pass this way I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his rod.

[6:26] it is a pathway that God would have his church to come into. He would have his people to come into.

[6:39] And the prophet had seen this. You see today we're living in a day when there is a gospel of love. everyone is preaching so called the love of Christ.

[6:54] There seems to be nothing else. All is love. It's a social gospel of getting together. But you know there is a solemn foundation to this which seems to be totally lacking today.

[7:16] It seems to me today that there are few that know what it is for the Lord to shut out their prayer. Few that can enter in to the blessedness of this chapter.

[7:31] Because if there is one word that stands out over this chapter it's divine exercise of soul. Here was a man of God who had a right beginning.

[7:46] He knew the foundation of that which led as he speaks of it here in this chapter. He had such a sight of the Lord's mercies of what it was to quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

[8:01] Of what it was to mourn and repent and to sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. And yet what it was to come in as he did at the end of that chapter and say Lord thou hast pleaded my cause, thou hast redeemed my soul.

[8:23] You see to many that the whole sequence of this would be a mystery. All they know is all you've got to do is believe. Are you a believer?

[8:37] And there seems to be no more in their religion than that. But I find it peculiarly sweet that the prophet could come in here with the tried and afflicted family of God and say I am the man that had seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

[9:04] A child of God. under the peculiar dealings of God with his soul. My mind went, when these words rested upon him, to this, thy wrath and thy star.

[9:24] They comfort me. Oh to be brought down under the fire of God's wrath, the cleansing fire of God's wrath, to be brought down, to be cleansed under that fire, to be brought down to confess our sins before God and to know where we stand in his sight.

[9:55] If we are God's children, we shall be brought into the solemn affliction of soul that is described here.

[10:06] we shall come into these deep waters. The 107th Psalm adequately describes the path where God's dear children fall.

[10:29] soul, it says, because of their iniquity, are afflicted. Their soul abhoreth all manner of me. Then they cry unto the Lord in their affliction.

[10:43] God's love. You see, there is in this a knowledge of God in all his glory and holiness.

[11:03] It's the work of the Spirit to strip a religion which is a covering too short, a satisfaction that is human. That which is the plan.

[11:18] Paul on the road to Damascus knew the wrath of God when his sight was taken from him. God's dear children know it. When the Lord took Elijah to the cave, there was teaching as the Lord dealt with his dear servant.

[11:43] And as the Lord passed by in all his glory over those mountains, and he rent the rocks, the mighty wind passed by, and there was a fire, over the hills, Elijah had such a view of the glory and majesty of his God.

[12:04] When the Lord took his servant Moses to Sinai, and answered that prayer, show me now thy glory.

[12:20] What a solemn view he had of his God as the Lord hid him in the cleft of the rock. Oh, the seed on Sinai, God, in the holiness and majesty of God.

[12:40] And I believe this, you see, that when the Lord deals in the churches in revival, the first visible manifestation of the operation of God is conviction.

[13:00] It ever has been the kind. Whether it was Jonathan Edwards in the United States of America, whether it was under George Whitefield, or dear Berridge, or Newton, Daniel Rowland, all the godly men, when the Spirit came down with almighty power, they were as in the day of Pentecost, pricked in their heart.

[13:24] It's absent today. Not utterly, not utterly, but how good it is, as I have heard in recent years, just one or two tell me they're lost, utterly lost.

[13:44] The heavens are iron and brown. God has shut out their prayers. The days of darkness are years, not months. They're more than absent God.

[13:56] they're cut off and eternity is before them and they're without hope and without God. And God is dealing with them. They would give anything to know that the Lord loved them.

[14:10] What are they looking for? Revelation of Christ's blood in their heart. And you know, whenever we look at those who came to Jesus, it firstly wasn't the Pharisees.

[14:31] They didn't come for any help. They had no need of anything. They had all they wanted. They were resting on their own work. So it wasn't them.

[14:48] And he wasn't the whole. it was the afflicted. I'd have you know that the afflictions of those who came to Christ were divinely ordained.

[15:04] Who has sinned? This man or his father neither, but that the glory of God may be revealed. There was a divine purpose in that weakening, as there was in Paul's thorn in the flesh.

[15:15] afflictions as divinely given are to bring the sinner to Christ. The woman who touched the hem of his garment experienced the glory of the principle of the virtue of Christ flying forth into her soul.

[15:36] Daughter, go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee. It brought her to him. There was a double healing, body and soul.

[15:50] Oh, hey, the Lord uses affection to bring the sinner down to do business with him in deep water, to bring them to his mercy to do business with him and to bring them for that vital living union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:19] The rod of his rock, oh, what a word it is, I'm the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his rock. It's exactly the same word as the hand of God has touched me.

[16:39] Oh, can we look back man? This is not the rod of eternal wrath that is spoken of here. You can tell this by reading this chapter beginning to end.

[16:55] But to be in our lives brought to a place where we have a hope that our affliction has not come by chance as the world speaks, but it has come by a divine hand.

[17:19] Jeremiah's afflictions were in the hand of his God as the Lord put him into the ministry in a Jew and told him that before he formed him in the womb.

[17:36] He ordained him a prophet. It was that very purpose of God that his dear servant should go into these paths. We have a clear sight of it and the origins of this in the courts of heaven above when there is manifested in the book of Job Satan coming to the Lord.

[17:59] over Job and was told all that he has in thy hand but touch not his soul. All the affliction that then came.

[18:15] The glorious mystery of the eternal electing love of Christ in bringing his dear servant down into the deep waters of affliction that he might hear his voice that his dear child might be brought into the depths of the reality of the knowledge of his sin that this righteous man outwardly morally uprightly might be brought to the place where he said behold I am vile and to know the rod of God's rod in his life with clouds and darkness surrounding him and the purpose of

[19:16] God hidden from him and be shut up as we read here of the prophet Jeremiah he says in this chapter that my flesh and my skin he has made old he has broken my bones compassed me with gall and travel and he brought him to drink this cup of wormwood set me in a dark place he has hedged me about that I cannot get out he has made my chain heavy he has enclosed my ways he has unto me like a bear lying in wait he has turned me aside pulled me in pieces bent his bow caused the arrows to enter into my reign filled me with bitterness he has made me drunken with wormwood well could Job have said all that my dear friends I tell you today I'd rather hear that from a young person than ever to hear this solemn easy believism seeing it it's very worst in free will with all you've got to do is accept Christ tonight come forward you felt nothing but you're now a Christian but equally seen in our churches or have good when there are those who are brought before the church by the

[20:57] Lord under his divine commandments not by anyone asking them whether they'd like to join or not but brought by God into the church who is able to speak of this wormwood and gall this bitterness you know we as a denomination give lip service to Bunyan's pilgrim's progress but how many know the pathway from the city of destruction of the cross how many know the slough of this bond how many know the temptation of the of legality we're full of it today legality duty faith is raising its ugly head everywhere where there's a sight of God here what he's done there won't be any duty faith there there will be my cry I cry and shout and he shut it out my prayer where's duty faith then what do you say to a young person who tells you they're lost all you've got to do is believe just bend your knee now and we'll accept

[22:17] Christ together that goes on solemn law but then we may point out error but where is this work of the spirit in our churches today where is it in our own heart where is the solemn knowledge of sin you see I say this in the light of the blood of crime it is known by sinners who are brought to be drunken with wormwood bitter is their cup bitter are their sins bitter are the fruit of their sins oh to have real sinners in the sanctuary of God I am the man to be able to come to the church and truly say I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his arm to know as a foundation what it is to feel the mighty wrath of God of God's wrath although

[23:29] I believe you know there are a number of things that God will teach us in the awful reality of this play the first absolutely essential nature of this teaching is that far from saying I'm a Calvinist and I believe in the doctrines of grace or I read John Owen or Goodwin or Sibbes or one of the great Puritans and read this they will have a deep inward experience of sovereign grace or when we see the mighty work of the Spirit I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath there will be a solemn knowledge of this God in his almighty sovereign power you will be brought to a place where if ever you are saved it will be the

[24:40] Lord who has done it and you won't be a duty-faced man then it will be God who has done it you will sing that hymn with the counties of Huntingdon Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God he to save my soul from danger and depose his precious life oh to grace how great a debtor daily I am constrained to be you see the crown is put on the Lord's head and not on the creature the crown will be put by the sinner on the Lord's head sovereign grace will be indelibly written in the heart let that grace

[25:43] Lord like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee this religion isn't light you know because it takes all wisdom all strength all power from the creature there's no self help in this religion in fact it lays the axe to the root of works man is ever struggling to have a hand in his salvation and bring something to God of his own the Lord is intent that he should be taught in his spirit in such a way that he knows nothing in my hand I bring top lady knew it you know he was no duty for this man simply to thy cross I clean he knew and it's that knowledge only is obtained as we are brought this way

[26:54] I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath that has done business with the Lord in deep waters under a knowledge of his absence with anger against their sin of their utter inability to come to him of a knowledge that faith is the gift of God that they must be quickened by his spirit and brought out of nature's darkness there will be a deep teaching that you were dead in trespasses and sins and there will be a knowledge of the glorious resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ in your experience and you know I believe over the whole of that work of God there will be a tender fear of God and a gracious sobriety there will be a total separation from this world in all that that means we see so much of this today homes of members of our churches with the television in it a dress of young people earrings when they're baptized trousers and I don't know what else is in our churches it stinks of a total lack of the mighty work of the spirit of that which is of the flesh when there is a separation a mighty work of the spirit under divine conviction which is so lacking today there will be no argument with God as to what you've got to leave when there is a revival these things are going to go there's going to be a great work of the spirit in which there will be a manifestation of sin in the soul and a separation of this world one of the great hallmarks of revival in the churches is separation oh it is the work of the spirit is to cut down under the wrath of

[29:05] God it is to bring affliction into the soul into the loins it is to bring weakness into the experience and to bring the sinner down to Christ empty poor broken needy there won't be a lot of talk of religion then but I tell you this among those thus taught there will be communion there's a lot of fellowship about today which makes me sad it makes me shudder it's human it's fleshly it's something we haven't seen in our denomination before it's creeping in it's the sort of thing you expect in certain churches but it's now showing its ugly head in our own me a world we're getting together when the spirit were there will be a communion it won't be on that plane or level it'll be something vastly different it'll be this then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the

[30:32] Lord hearkened and heard it wasn't a social gathering it was a spiritual gathering in the old days of the 18th century in the great revival under Whitefield and Berridge and Newton there was a gathering together experience meeting those who'd been called by grace under the sweet refreshing influence of the spirit gathered one evening a week to speak to each other of how the Lord had blessed them in the previous week what he'd done for how he had spoken to them they communed one with the other can we hear them speaking in this way I believe we can I'm the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his rod oh how they had felt what is described here those arrows of conviction in their soul mourned and absent

[31:40] God felt a sweet crumb of mercy felt a little touch of his precious blood little ray of hope we read of these days in the experience of John Warburton we read of them in the experience of John Bunyan we read of them the experience of God's dear servant in generations gone by of the sacred outpourings of the spirit I sometimes travel in Wiltshire over the roads where the Lord's dear servants travel and look at some of the sights and scenes of their blessings if you leave Allington and drive towards Pusing there is a hill rising up beyond and there Thomas Godwin describes in his memoir a sacred experience he had on that hill as he left Allington having spent the morning with Thilpot and how the Lord visited his soul and refreshed it in his journey all to see such a sacred work of the spirit it has a foundation a divine work a teaching it's blessing it's a blessing in which he deals with those who are hungry and thirsty after his righteousness in which he enters into communion with them but this is the foundation this is as it were what I saw tonight the plowing of the ground here is the language of one in whose heart the Lord has begun

[33:21] I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of Israel do you know anything of it I tell you this this won't be your language only in the first days of your espousals it will be your language all through life God's dear children often enter into this solemn experience in the last days of their journey the psalmist David entered into this divine work of God in condemnation when he walked in the paths of adultery Peter entered into this when he passed out of the judgment hall after the Lord Jesus had looked upon him all have God's dear people are brought to know the right of his heart and yet it is the very ground of godly sorrow and repentance we must be brought to be convinced of our sin the Lord brings us through terrible things in righteousness he will do it again and again in our hearts we shall never cry out to him for the fountain of his blood to be shed upon our soul until he brings us to this place but you know the psalmist

[34:54] David had such a view of this thy rod and thy star the fruit of them is good whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourge and scourge him every son whom he receiveth and this scourging is the very means of bringing them under divine conviction under a knowledge of sin under the guilt and filth of sin down to wrestle and to plead with him in prayer make me not to possess the sins of my youth or how David said wash me with hissen and I shall be whiter than snow and what mercy there is in that we receive this glorious experience of atoning love and blood before we are taken out of time into eternity we shall never receive it afterwards everything that will be the foundation of the singing of that anthem in glory must be experienced here and we must enter in to that blessed experience if ever we are to sing the anthem under him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and this is the foundation of entering in to the knowledge of the blood of

[36:34] Christ here the dear prophet knew it and you know he has some blessed things to say in his prophecy I was taken in my meditation to this word blessed is the man that trusted in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is it was good to me as a student many years ago to be brought to see the glory of what it was under the Lord's divine duty to be brought to trust in him and the Lord will call his dear church to these blessed places when Jeremiah was brought out of the dungeon through the interposition of Ebed

[37:35] Mille then when the city was sacked and death was on every hand then the message to Ebed Mille was this thou shalt not fall by the sword but thy life will I give unto thee for a pride because thou hast put thy trust in me oh what a glorious promise that was from God through the lips of Jeremiah to Ebed Mille deliverance from the wrath of God which fell upon that city but not upon Ebed Mille thou shalt not fall by the sword and you know Jeremiah had some glorious promises in the opening of the prophecy of Jeremiah we read that the

[38:37] Lord gave to his dear servant this sweet promise are you not afraid of their faces I am with thee to deliver thee saith the Lord it was here and another promise was yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn and that was given to Jeremiah I have loved thee with an everlasting love love I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his love with an everlasting love that was his promise still he had seen affliction by the rod of his love he had been down into the

[39:40] Mari dungeon to be brought out in fulfillment of God's promise I will deliver them and therefore with loving kindness is this it it is all the mystery whom the Lord love him he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Amen