Lamentations 3 | The Lord is Faithful

Intro

Hey Y’all, how is everyone? Cool Cool.

Ready for cooler weather?

Cool.

So, does anyone know who Polycarp is? It’s okay of you don’t, he’e old.

Polycarp is one of the disciples of John. Like bible John, the beloved disciple, John, the apostle, John who was with Jesus.

Polycarp was discipled by him, and is considered one of the church fathers. He was part of the second generation of leaders of the early church, as the apostles, the disciples of Jesus started getting killed off, you had their disciples start to step in to leadership rolls, and they also wrote letters to churches, just like the disciples did. We don’t hold them as scripture but they’re a good reminder to read.

But anyways, tonight we are going to be talking about how even in suffering, disaster, doom, the lord is faithful. In scripture, the Lord is faithful. \

And even in reading church history, the Lord’s faithfulness is seen.

and so, I’ve been reading some of the writings of the church fathers, these second generation leaders of the church’s writings.

Polycarp has been the most interesting, he was a disciple of john, and a leader in the church, and like all of the other disciples of Jesus, except for John, he was martyred.

He was murdered by Rome for his faith in Christ.

And what is interesting in reading his works and others, they have the account of Polycarp’s trial and death.

and it is fascinating, at least to me, listen to this. Listen to just how resolved Polycarp is in his faith and in the faithfulness of God.

He is standing in front of the roman Judge who is telling him, all you have to do is say Caesar is lord, “swear by the fortune of Caesar” is what the judge asks him to do, swear by caesar, that’s it.

This is what Polycarp says to the roman judge,

“Since you are vainly urgent that, as thou sayest, I should swear by the fortune of Cæsar, and pretendest not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn what the doctrines of Christianity are, appoint me a day, and thou shalt hear them.”

man tells the Roman Judge, you don’t know me, but all i am good for is teaching christ.

Roman Judge hates that answer and says this, “I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast thee, except thou repent.”

Polycarp then says, “Call them, we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt what is evil.”

The Roman judge didn’t like that, and says, okay if you aren’t scared of the lions, i’ll have you burned at the stake. which for me, I’m picking the lions, it’s over in a couple seconds.

But this is what Polycarp says in response, to that

“Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why take your time? Bring forth what thou wilt.”

So after that, the Roman judge has a pyre set up, and the tie Polycarp to a stake and light the thing on fire.

But as Polycarp is having the flames rise to him, the man starts praying, and this is his prayer.

thee, I give Thee thanks that Thou hast counted me, worthy of this day and this hour, that I should have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body, through the incorruption [imparted] by the Holy Ghost. Among whom may I be accepted this day before Thee as a good and acceptable sacrifice, according as Thou, the ever-truthful God, hast foreordained, hast revealed beforehand to me, and now hast fulfilled.

and the book goes on to say that he was taking a while to die in the fire and he kept preaching the gospel so much that they eventually stabbed him to shut him up.

But that is what we are going to be looking at tonight, the faithfulness of God and our faith in God, that he is protector even in the storms. When life kicks you in the teeth, God is right there.

So that’s where we are gonna live tonight, looking at the story of the lord’s faithfulness.

Context

SO if you have a bible great, if not bring one, if you need one, throw a hand up, if you don’t have one take this one.

turn over to lamentations 3, it’s a long one, but while you’re flipping over there let me just recap for you

So last week we looked at the Lord’s justice, that he is just, that sin requires judgement from the lord. And that the Lord is just in all things.

And so tonight we are going to be looking at how even through suffering, the Lord is faithful. the lord is with us.

So lamentations 3, everyone there? We are going to read the whole thing, and while we are reading it, see if you can see the shift in Jeremiah’s words from despair to hope

so, let’s read this, but before we do that, let’s pray for our time in the word. Pray with me

pray

okay cool, so let’s read this whole thing, it’ll take a second, but let’s do it.

Lamentations 3 ESV

1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; 2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; 3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. 4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; 5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; 6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. 7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; 8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; 9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked. 10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding; 11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate; 12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. 13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; 14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. 15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. 16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; 17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; 18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” 19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. 28 Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 29 let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope; 30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. 31 For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. 34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 35 to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, 36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. 37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? 39 Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! 41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: 42 “We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven. 43 “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us, killing without pity; 44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 45 You have made us scum and garbage among the peoples. 46 “All our enemies open their mouths against us; 47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction; 48 my eyes flow with rivers of tears because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. 49 “My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, 50 until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees; 51 my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city. 52 “I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; 53 they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me; 54 water closed over my head; I said, ‘I am lost.’ 55 “I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; 56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ 57 You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ 58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. 59 You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord; judge my cause. 60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. 61 “You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me. 62 The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. 63 Behold their sitting and their rising; I am the object of their taunts. 64 “You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. 65 You will give them dullness of heart; your curse will be on them. 66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.”

Okay cool,

did you see the change in tone form Jeremiah?

Look at verse 21-22 Lam 3:21-22 “21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;”

He is quoting Malachi 3:6 which is

Malachi 3:6 ESV

6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

The Lord will stay faithful, he will discipline, but will not totally destroy.

Run to the Word

So the question we are looking at is how is the lord faithful in suffering.

I know a lot of times for us when things are going not well the last thing you want to hear is, well, just pray about it! and have a good day.

none of us want to hear that, that says more about our prayer lives than the faithfulness of God. We should already be in a rhythm of prayer.

When things are not great, your prayer isn’t make me better, sometimes it is, but I think more often it’s lord sustain me, Lord give me strength, Lord help me understand.

I think that is the part about that suffering that really gets to us, it’s not that it’s bad, it that we don’t understand why it’s bad.

We like to think that if we knew the whole plan, we would be okay with some suffering.

But I don’t think that is true, if we knew the whole plan it would freak us out knowing where the Lord was taking us.

So what is this chapter in Lamentations doing for us?

it telling us that we need systems and categories in place before suffering comes, so that when suffering comes, we will be sustained.

Question for you, who in here thinks that they could get up and run a whole marathon first thing in the morning, like wake up, and run 26.2 miles. And let me just quantify 26.2 miles, if you ran in a straight line, from here 26.2 miles you could wind up and robins air force base. SO, who is waking up tmr, and flat out running to Robins air force base, not walk, run the whole time.

I know a couple of people could do it, like Luke or Camryn might could. flat out haul.

Me I’m sweating just thinking about that. like it’s not happening.

But, if someone said, in a year from now, you will have to wake up and run the marathon, you would have time to prepare. You would have time to start you prep.

Fo Luke or Camryn or Dawson or any of the XC runners, they could do it tmr, because they have prepared.

Let me tell you, suffering is coming, I don’t have a time table for you, but at some point in your life, you are going to get rocked. You are going to have to run a different kind of marathon.

and if we do not have systems and categories for how to deal with bad times, we will be crushed by them.

Lament is one of those way.

Lament allows us to reconcile our suffering with the promises of God.

Look at what Jeremiah does, he turns to the word.

How is he able to turn to the word? Because he knows the word.

the reminder for us, know the word. that is the first step in setting up systems to be able to deal with suffering.

Run to the word.

Have community that points you to the word. Have community that walks with you to the word.

It is one thing to a friend to tell you to read your bible, but another thing to have a friend that walks through the word with you.

That is why we have groups here at the church, find one and plug in. There are no lone wolf Christians, we are designed to do this in community.

The Cross & Resurrection

So how do we know this? How do we know the lord is going to do what he says?

Look at the testimony of scripture.

The Lord has promised to keep a people for his glory.

The Lord is faithful to his people even when they are exiled in Babylon. All of Daniel takes place in Babylon.

Nehemiah and Ezra happen during the exile.

It is in Nehemiah that the walls of Jerusalem are rebuilt, and they are paid for by the king.

The Lord even takes out Babylon during the exile. Persia comes in and takes over. And through that, Jerusalem is restored on the king of Persia’s dime.

Even out side of that, look at the rest of scripture.

Look at the cross.

Through out all of scripture the idea of destruction and restoration is firmly present.

As we see here in Lamentations, destruction and after Restoration of the people and city.

Also, through out scripture we see the the Lord promising ultimate salvation and redemption

on the cross we see those promises collide.

Look at the cross.

On the Cross, God came down in the flesh and was crushed for our sins. The sin of the whole world were taken on one man, Jesus. And he was made sin and died so that that our sin can be atoned for.

See there, there is destruction. Christ is killed on the cross, for us. His blood was the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world.

But then look at the resurrection, Christ was destroyed as sin on the cross, sin was judged once and for all. In the grave, Christ rose form the dead. See it, there is the restoration. The beginning of the ultimate restoration.

The restoration of all things.

Christ has come and promised redemption and restoration for you.

This is how we set up the systems we need in place, this is how we set up pur theology of suffering. It is based on the hope that if Christ is raised from the dead, then ultimate restoration is coming. If christ is risen, then what ever this world throws at us pales in comparison to the future glory that awaits, when our faith becomes site and we are in the presence of the almighty.

The already and not yet

He is at this moment redeeming this world and is calling you in to the fold of restoration.

Even in after the cross, in the new testament, in acts and the writings of Paul, we see the faithfulness of God sustaining the people of God.

Followers of christ are beaten, killed, arrested, everything in between.

But because of the cross, and resurrection the people of God have a hope of the future glory.

They are living in the broken world with the hope and promise that it will not be broken forever. That sin has been defeated and it is only a matter of time until the kingdom has come and fully restored this world.

P2Christ

The good thing, is that we as followers of the risen christ, have the same hope. because we have the same God.

When suffering comes, see the cross as the foundation of hope. See the cross, this instrument of death and destruction, and the beginning redemption. The start of the hope of the world

That is the hope we have..

That is the hope He is calling you to. We may not can understand why things are the way they are but you can trust the one who is in control.

You can trust that any present suffering is out weighed by future glory promised by the death burial and resurrection of christ.

Come see christ as lord, come see christ as king.