1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:07,140 You’re listening to a sermon from Pastor Colin Smith of Open the Bible. 2 00:00:07,140 –> 00:00:16,660 To contact us, call us at 1-877-OPEN-365, or visit our website, Openthebible.org. 3 00:00:16,660 –> 00:00:19,020 Let’s get to the message, here is Pastor Colin. 4 00:00:19,020 –> 00:00:25,639 Well, please turn with me to Lamentations and Chapter 5, the last of this four-week 5 00:00:25,680 –> 00:00:30,100 series in this little-known book in which we’ve been discovering that in every part 6 00:00:30,100 –> 00:00:35,060 of the Bible, God makes provision for his people, and he has made a particular provision 7 00:00:35,060 –> 00:00:41,259 for us in regards to the issue of grief that we have been looking at over these weeks. 8 00:00:41,259 –> 00:00:46,740 Now, our focus will be on the end of Lamentations Chapter 5, though we will also look at some 9 00:00:46,740 –> 00:00:50,500 earlier chapters to get an overview of the whole book. 10 00:00:50,500 –> 00:00:55,939 But I want you to notice first something very striking at the beginning of Lamentations 11 00:00:55,939 –> 00:00:58,939 and Chapter 5. 12 00:00:58,939 –> 00:01:06,760 Remember O Lord, verse one, what has befallen us. 13 00:01:06,760 –> 00:01:10,419 Look and see our disgrace. 14 00:01:10,419 –> 00:01:19,980 Now, the words we and us and our are all over this chapter and here’s the significance of 15 00:01:20,019 –> 00:01:22,720 that. 16 00:01:22,720 –> 00:01:30,239 Lamentations and Chapter 5 is actually the first time that the grieving people themselves 17 00:01:30,239 –> 00:01:31,739 actually speak. 18 00:01:31,739 –> 00:01:36,360 I’ve read quite widely now on lamentations and I’ve yet to find any scholar who does 19 00:01:36,360 –> 00:01:38,339 not affirm that. 20 00:01:38,339 –> 00:01:45,580 The people of God themselves, the grieving people don’t actually speak a word until Lamentations 21 00:01:45,779 –> 00:01:52,339 Chapter 5 and that is the significance of suddenly us seeing the we and the us and the 22 00:01:52,339 –> 00:01:53,339 our. 23 00:01:53,339 –> 00:01:59,419 In other words, and you can understand this, these people have been so shocked, they have 24 00:01:59,419 –> 00:02:05,660 been so stunned, so numbed by the horrendous events that have taken place in their lives 25 00:02:05,660 –> 00:02:12,940 they can hardly take in what has happened to them, they just sit there in silence and 26 00:02:13,880 –> 00:02:17,059 word in chapters 1 to 4. 27 00:02:17,059 –> 00:02:24,020 Only in chapter 5 do the people themselves for the very first time actually begin to 28 00:02:24,020 –> 00:02:26,059 speak. 29 00:02:26,059 –> 00:02:31,259 Now that of course raises a very obvious question, then, who has been speaking in the first four 30 00:02:31,259 –> 00:02:33,660 chapters of the book? 31 00:02:33,660 –> 00:02:39,059 The first answer to that question of course is that the book of Lamentations was written 32 00:02:39,279 –> 00:02:41,179 by Jeremiah. 33 00:02:41,179 –> 00:02:45,440 The tears and the talk and the guilt and the grievance and the hope and healing that we 34 00:02:45,440 –> 00:02:51,580 have been looking at together are poured out through Jeremiah by the power of the Holy 35 00:02:51,580 –> 00:02:55,059 Spirit who moved within him. 36 00:02:55,059 –> 00:03:02,059 But there is very clearly more in Lamentations than Jeremiah himself could fulfill. 37 00:03:02,820 –> 00:03:08,740 Scholars often speak about Lamentations being like a kind of drama in which you hear different 38 00:03:08,800 –> 00:03:14,240 voices. There is the voice of the city. There is the voice of the prophet and now in the 39 00:03:14,240 –> 00:03:19,039 last chapter we finally hear the voice of the people. 40 00:03:19,039 –> 00:03:24,559 Scholars debate how many voices there are in this drama of Lamentations but what I want 41 00:03:24,559 –> 00:03:31,440 us to see today is that there is, and this is true of all scripture, there is one voice 42 00:03:31,440 –> 00:03:37,559 that is more important than all of the rest. 43 00:03:38,220 –> 00:03:44,100 For four chapters the people of God numbed by what they have suffered have been sitting 44 00:03:44,100 –> 00:03:51,100 in silence. Someone else is putting into words what these people could not actually express 45 00:03:53,479 –> 00:04:00,479 for themselves. Someone else is coming alongside them and saying, this is what you have felt 46 00:04:00,699 –> 00:04:07,699 isn’t it. This is what you have taught isn’t it. This is what you have experienced isn’t 47 00:04:08,880 –> 00:04:15,880 it. Now, I am going to call that person today the councillor and I want us to see that what 48 00:04:17,359 –> 00:04:24,359 happens in this remarkable book is that a councillor comes alongside grieving people 49 00:04:25,079 –> 00:04:32,079 and ministers to them in their sorrow and loss. Throughout these four chapters bringing them 50 00:04:32,559 –> 00:04:39,559 to a point in chapter five where finally they are able to speak for themselves. And I think 51 00:04:39,839 –> 00:04:46,359 that the ministry of this person is really a model for what we today would call counselling 52 00:04:46,359 –> 00:04:53,359 at its very best. What I wanted to do today is to introduce this councillor to you. I 53 00:04:53,559 –> 00:04:59,459 want to tell you about his ministry and I want to invite you to seek his help. 54 00:04:59,459 –> 00:05:06,459 Three observations. The first is this, that the councillor sits with the people. If you 55 00:05:07,140 –> 00:05:13,220 turn back now for a moment to chapter one you will see that lamentations begins with 56 00:05:13,220 –> 00:05:20,220 this language of description. As you glance across it there’s no we or our or us here, 57 00:05:21,160 –> 00:05:28,160 the people don’t have any words, they are sitting in silence in their suffering. Someone 58 00:05:28,619 –> 00:05:35,619 comes alongside, you imagine sitting looking over the rubble of this ruined city and someone 59 00:05:37,100 –> 00:05:43,980 comes and sits beside you in your sorrow, and in your grief, and in your tears, and 60 00:05:44,140 –> 00:05:51,140 in your loss. And that person says, verse 1, how lonely sits the city, that once was 61 00:05:51,700 –> 00:05:58,700 full of people. This counsellor is not a detached observer. He is in the grief with the people. 62 00:06:05,920 –> 00:06:12,920 He sits beside them and he weeps with them. Their city is His now. One of the great works 63 00:06:14,059 –> 00:06:21,059 of His city. Their loss is His loss. Their sorrow is His sorrow. And verse by verse, 64 00:06:22,299 –> 00:06:28,459 this counsellor sitting beside the grieving people of God, he holds up the brokenness 65 00:06:28,459 –> 00:06:35,459 of their lives. Every piece- Look at what has happened. He walks them through it. Picture 66 00:06:36,899 –> 00:06:43,579 yourself sitting with a counsellor who is helping you. Supporting you in grief and sorrow 67 00:06:43,619 –> 00:06:50,619 and loss. He does not sit on the other side of a desk. He sits beside you in your sorrow 68 00:06:52,299 –> 00:06:59,299 and he weeps as you weep. And when he speaks he puts into words exactly what you have experienced 69 00:07:04,220 –> 00:07:08,100 and exactly what you are feeling in a way that you could never have put it into words 70 00:07:08,700 –> 00:07:14,739 for yourself. In fact when he speaks, you find yourself completely amazed. How do you 71 00:07:14,739 –> 00:07:19,440 know me so fully and so completely? That’s exactly what I am but I could never have 72 00:07:19,440 –> 00:07:26,100 said it quite like that myself. Now you may have said at different points in 73 00:07:26,100 –> 00:07:32,100 your life if only there was someone who could feel what I feel, but no one can know the 74 00:07:32,739 –> 00:07:38,899 extent of my grief, my sorrow, and my loss. No one can plumb the depths of another human 75 00:07:38,899 –> 00:07:42,940 heart. But you see when you look at lamentations, 76 00:07:42,940 –> 00:07:49,940 that is exactly what we are finding right here. Someone who does plumb the depths of 77 00:07:50,000 –> 00:07:56,160 another human heart. What this book is telling us is that when 78 00:07:56,200 –> 00:08:01,880 the people of God were in a place so dark and so desperate they could not even speak 79 00:08:01,880 –> 00:08:08,880 for themselves, someone came and sat with them, and wept with them as one who knew their 80 00:08:14,779 –> 00:08:21,779 suffering from the inside out. Now surely when you see that, you will feel 81 00:08:22,779 –> 00:08:29,100 with me that this points us forward very wonderfully as the Old Testament constantly does to our 82 00:08:29,100 –> 00:08:36,099 Lord Jesus Christ, who is described as the wonderful counselor, the one who comes alongside 83 00:08:37,119 –> 00:08:44,119 us in our grief and in our sorrow, and ministers to us by His Holy Spirit. In fact, the Lord 84 00:08:45,119 –> 00:08:47,520 Jesus described 85 00:08:47,520 –> 00:08:53,179 himself and his ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit in precisely this way. Our Lord 86 00:08:53,179 –> 00:08:59,679 refers to the Spirit as another counselor. That’s John 14 in verse 16, meaning that 87 00:08:59,679 –> 00:09:06,260 Jesus Christ Himself is the Counselor, and that he fulfills this wonderful counseling 88 00:09:06,260 –> 00:09:11,799 ministry in the lives of the people by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 89 00:09:12,599 –> 00:09:18,840 You see, here is something very wonderful. When you become a Christian the Holy Spirit 90 00:09:18,840 –> 00:09:28,119 of God actually dwells in you. That means that the Holy spirit of God is present with 91 00:09:28,119 –> 00:09:36,880 you in everything you experience, knowing from the inside even your greatest sorrow 92 00:09:36,880 –> 00:09:45,659 and your greatest loss. Because He indwells you He knows everything that you have ever 93 00:09:45,659 –> 00:09:53,059 thought and has experienced everything that you have ever felt. He knows you from the 94 00:09:53,059 –> 00:10:03,340 inside because He dwells in you. So here is a very wonderful truth that is a comfort and 95 00:10:03,539 –> 00:10:09,059 strength to God’s people. God knows you completely. Nothing you have ever thought 96 00:10:09,059 –> 00:10:17,080 or felt is ever hidden from Him. If you should come to a time, brother, sister, 97 00:10:17,080 –> 00:10:23,599 when you are convinced that nobody could ever know what you have endured, or what you have 98 00:10:23,599 –> 00:10:28,500 thought, or what you have felt. No one could ever understand possibly the depths of your 99 00:10:28,500 –> 00:10:40,299 anguish. Remember the counsellor who is in the grief with you, who sits alongside you, 100 00:10:40,299 –> 00:10:49,979 who weeps with those who weep. The counsellor, the wonderful counsellor, he 101 00:10:49,979 –> 00:10:57,859 sits with the people of God in their sorrow and in their loss. That’s the first thing. 102 00:10:58,020 –> 00:11:04,640 Here’s the second. This counsellor speaks to the people of God in their sorrow and in their 103 00:11:04,640 –> 00:11:08,559 loss. Now if you just turn over a page, we’re trying to get the big picture of Lamentations 104 00:11:08,559 –> 00:11:14,299 here today. And if you look at Lamentations chapter three you will see that there is a 105 00:11:14,299 –> 00:11:21,080 very striking change that occurs at this point in the book. Throughout the first two chapters 106 00:11:21,080 –> 00:11:26,400 the counsellor has been speaking for the people, on behalf of the people, putting into words 107 00:11:26,539 –> 00:11:33,539 what they would not have been able to express themselves. Now the counsellor speaks to the 108 00:11:33,539 –> 00:11:44,400 people. Notice he says, I am the man who has seen affliction. I am the man who has seen 109 00:11:44,400 –> 00:11:53,400 affliction. Now suddenly the counsellor now is speaking to us. He’s been speaking for 110 00:11:53,700 –> 00:12:00,700 us. But now he’s speaking to us. And when he speaks to us, he speaks about himself. 111 00:12:02,820 –> 00:12:09,479 He has established a relationship with you. You now know after two chapters that as if 112 00:12:09,479 –> 00:12:15,820 he were inside your skin, he understands what you think and feel and says it better than 113 00:12:15,820 –> 00:12:22,159 you could say it yourself. But now having demonstrated that he knows you completely, 114 00:12:22,159 –> 00:12:30,479 he wants you to know him, and so he begins to speak about himself. Notice what he says. 115 00:12:30,479 –> 00:12:43,640 Verse one, I am the man who has seen affliction. A very distinct title or description that 116 00:12:43,640 –> 00:12:54,880 he gives to himself. The counsellor describes himself as the man. The man. Now notice what 117 00:12:54,880 –> 00:13:03,700 the man tells us about himself. The man suffers under the rod of God’s wrath in verse 1. The 118 00:13:03,700 –> 00:13:12,919 man is driven into the deepest darkness without any light verse 2, and in verse 8 the man 119 00:13:12,919 –> 00:13:19,119 tells us that he will know what it is to call and cry out for God’s help but for God to 120 00:13:19,119 –> 00:13:30,299 shut out his prayer. And then, having described the experience of his own suffering, the man 121 00:13:30,299 –> 00:13:38,239 tells us about his hope, verse 21 and 22. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have 122 00:13:38,239 –> 00:13:49,659 hope, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. 123 00:13:49,659 –> 00:13:55,840 So what we have here, putting the pieces together then is the ministry of a counselor, a very 124 00:13:55,840 –> 00:14:02,299 wonderful counselor who describes himself as The Man, that’s the title that he takes 125 00:14:02,299 –> 00:14:07,599 here, who comes to the people of God when they’re so stunned and so shocked that they 126 00:14:07,599 –> 00:14:13,159 can’t even put words together to speak for themselves. All they can do is sit in silence 127 00:14:13,159 –> 00:14:18,640 but this wonderful counselor speaks in such a way that the people of God become persuaded 128 00:14:18,640 –> 00:14:24,739 that he knows them completely. With compassion, he holds up each piece of their shattered 129 00:14:24,739 –> 00:14:29,219 lives and says, this is what has happened. Let me walk you through it, line after line, 130 00:14:29,219 –> 00:14:36,580 verse after verse. And now he tells them about himself as if 131 00:14:36,580 –> 00:14:48,039 he was saying I know you and in your sorrow and your loss, I want you to know me. So for 132 00:14:48,039 –> 00:15:00,140 four chapters the people of God are silent. They’re experiencing the ministry of this 133 00:15:00,820 –> 00:15:11,640 counselor who speaks for them and speaks to them. 134 00:15:11,640 –> 00:15:16,419 Let me show you very wonderfully as we come back now to chapter five, where the ministry 135 00:15:16,419 –> 00:15:22,700 of the counselor brings them and where the ministry of our wonderful counselor can bring 136 00:15:22,820 –> 00:15:25,000 us. 137 00:15:25,000 –> 00:15:31,479 Chapter five then, if you follow the flow of the book, is really giving to us the fruit 138 00:15:31,479 –> 00:15:35,539 of the ministry of the counselor. 139 00:15:35,539 –> 00:15:41,400 He’s been speaking, ministering in these ways for and to the people in and out of these 140 00:15:41,400 –> 00:15:49,119 two things for four chapters, and now here is the fruit of his ministry. 141 00:15:49,119 –> 00:15:51,859 Where does the counselor bring the people of God? 142 00:15:51,979 –> 00:15:57,599 He brings them first, obviously, in chapter five, to a place where the very first time 143 00:15:57,599 –> 00:16:02,700 since the devastation they’ve experienced, they are actually able to pray. 144 00:16:02,700 –> 00:16:05,599 That’s where he brings them. 145 00:16:05,599 –> 00:16:08,359 And you see chapter five is a prayer, isn’t it? 146 00:16:08,359 –> 00:16:12,020 It’s God’s people finally able to speak to God himself. 147 00:16:12,020 –> 00:16:17,380 Remember O lord, what has befallen us. 148 00:16:18,380 –> 00:16:24,559 I’ve spoken in each of these weeks about the remarkable group of people that met together 149 00:16:24,559 –> 00:16:31,679 with Karin and myself, folks who had all experience devastating loss, we talked about prayer. 150 00:16:31,679 –> 00:16:40,700 And one and another said how difficulty they found it when they were numbed by the experience 151 00:16:41,580 –> 00:16:46,239 and how distant at times God seemed. 152 00:16:46,239 –> 00:16:49,559 Remember how CS Lewis says, where is God when you need him? 153 00:16:49,559 –> 00:16:55,299 And he writes about his own grief and how when he tried to pray, he felt like the sound 154 00:16:55,299 –> 00:17:00,260 that he heard was the sound of a door being closed in his face and bolting and double 155 00:17:00,260 –> 00:17:06,699 bolting and after that said, Lewis, only silence. 156 00:17:06,699 –> 00:17:15,079 I think most Christians know and experience of saying, I just don’t feel able to pray, 157 00:17:15,079 –> 00:17:18,640 but do you see the significance of this? 158 00:17:18,640 –> 00:17:25,219 That these people have been utterly devastated, are brought by the ministry of the counselor, 159 00:17:25,219 –> 00:17:31,500 finally in chapter five, to a place where they are indeed able to pray. 160 00:17:31,500 –> 00:17:36,300 They speak to God for themselves and they do it here for the very first time. 161 00:17:36,699 –> 00:17:43,180 As you would expect, the prayer that they offer comes out of an agony of heart. 162 00:17:43,180 –> 00:17:45,859 The whole chapter is actually agonizing to read. 163 00:17:45,859 –> 00:17:48,300 We just read the last part of it. 164 00:17:48,300 –> 00:17:53,579 It pours out of them and some of the worst and most horrendous scenarios that they’ve 165 00:17:53,579 –> 00:17:56,420 experienced are finally put into words. 166 00:17:56,420 –> 00:18:02,219 But the significance is that out of an agony of heart, the people of God are actually speaking 167 00:18:02,339 –> 00:18:03,800 to God for themselves. 168 00:18:03,800 –> 00:18:09,920 And that’s a wonderful, wonderful triumph of grace. 169 00:18:09,920 –> 00:18:15,739 By the way, the fact that this prayer, when it finally erupts, comes out of an agony of 170 00:18:15,739 –> 00:18:22,739 heart, reminds us you don’t have to be in a place of having perfect peace and composure 171 00:18:22,739 –> 00:18:24,459 of mind before you can pray. 172 00:18:24,459 –> 00:18:26,660 Isn’t that good news? 173 00:18:26,660 –> 00:18:33,239 You know, if we all had to be in a state of calm and with a sense of order and composed 174 00:18:33,239 –> 00:18:38,300 with a sense of peace before we prayed well we wouldn’t be praying very much because life 175 00:18:38,300 –> 00:18:42,380 doesn’t often bring us to such a place. 176 00:18:42,380 –> 00:18:48,680 Remember when Hannah prayed she was deeply distressed the Bible said and wept bitterly 177 00:18:48,680 –> 00:18:54,380 and the Lord Jesus when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane said my soul is overwhelmed 178 00:18:54,380 –> 00:18:56,819 with sorrow. 179 00:18:56,819 –> 00:19:02,000 So don’t ever think that you need to be in a composed peaceful frame of mind with a feeling 180 00:19:02,000 –> 00:19:06,900 that all is well before you can pray you can come to God as you are, that’s where the counselor 181 00:19:06,900 –> 00:19:09,780 brings you. 182 00:19:09,780 –> 00:19:14,000 But there’s more, the counselor not only brings people to a place where they can pray, the 183 00:19:14,000 –> 00:19:18,260 counselor establishes God’s people in faith. 184 00:19:18,260 –> 00:19:24,560 So what happens in chapter 5, is they pour out of an agonized heart their words of pain 185 00:19:24,560 –> 00:19:31,579 to God, they lay their sorrow line after line before Him, until it comes to its sum in verse 186 00:19:31,579 –> 00:19:37,819 17, for this our heart has become sick. 187 00:19:37,819 –> 00:19:42,160 For these things our eyes have grown dim. 188 00:19:42,160 –> 00:19:46,739 For Mount Zion lies desolate. 189 00:19:46,780 –> 00:19:53,280 And then notice the next word, but, but. 190 00:19:53,280 –> 00:20:00,439 But you o Lord reign forever, they say. 191 00:20:00,439 –> 00:20:03,839 Your throne endures to all generations. 192 00:20:03,839 –> 00:20:09,339 The city of God lies in ruins. 193 00:20:09,339 –> 00:20:15,319 The temple of God is destroyed. 194 00:20:15,400 –> 00:20:20,359 But God is not tied either to the city or to the temple. 195 00:20:20,359 –> 00:20:33,800 Mount Zion lies desolate but you o Lord reign forever your throne endures to all generations. 196 00:20:33,800 –> 00:20:40,079 There’s a remarkable poem that was written by a soldier who endured the horrors of the 197 00:20:40,099 –> 00:20:51,680 trenches in the first world war. Chaos, carnage all around him. And in the trenches seeing 198 00:20:51,680 –> 00:20:57,939 the chaos of earth below he lifted up his mind and his heart to the throne of God in 199 00:20:57,939 –> 00:21:09,199 heaven and he wrote these words. They cannot shell his temple or dynamite his throne. They 200 00:21:09,359 –> 00:21:18,520 cannot bomb his city or rob him of his own. They cannot take him captive or strike him 201 00:21:18,520 –> 00:21:25,520 deaf or blind or starve him to surrender or make him change his mind. They cannot cause 202 00:21:26,140 –> 00:21:34,939 him panic or cut off his supplies. They cannot take his kingdom or hurt them with their lies. 203 00:21:35,400 –> 00:21:41,400 Though all the world be shattered his truth remains the same his righteous laws still 204 00:21:41,400 –> 00:21:52,880 potent and father still his name. Though we face war and hunger and feel their gold and 205 00:21:53,880 –> 00:22:11,839 The city lies in ruins but your throne Oh God endures forever. That is the most 206 00:22:11,839 –> 00:22:18,880 remarkable statement of faith from people who are grieving the most 207 00:22:18,880 –> 00:22:24,359 astonishing loss and you see that’s what the Counselor’s ministry has brought 208 00:22:24,359 –> 00:22:28,760 them not only are they able to pray out of an agony of heart but there is in the 209 00:22:28,760 –> 00:22:36,640 midst of even this devastation they are established in faith but now here’s 210 00:22:36,640 –> 00:22:42,160 something else that the Counselor very wonderfully does he brings them to a 211 00:22:42,160 –> 00:22:46,939 place where they pray he establishes them in faith and then thirdly he 212 00:22:47,459 –> 00:22:50,900 the people to hope look look at verse 21 213 00:22:50,900 –> 00:23:02,199 Restore us to yourself oh Lord that we may be restored now God is wonderfully 214 00:23:02,199 –> 00:23:07,199 wonderfully honored in this verse and in this prayer because you see what the 215 00:23:07,199 –> 00:23:15,939 people are saying restore us to yourself now God if we have you we can endure 216 00:23:16,719 –> 00:23:26,239 whatever happens there is hope for us and we can face whatever if we have you 217 00:23:26,239 –> 00:23:30,719 and you are for us that’s what they’re saying restore us to yourself 218 00:23:30,719 –> 00:23:41,060 O Lord that we may be restored so here is a counselor this ministry that took 219 00:23:41,060 –> 00:23:45,439 place in the first instance through Jeremiah in the Old Testament but is 220 00:23:45,439 –> 00:23:48,880 clearly pointing us forward to something greater and even more wonderful 221 00:23:48,880 –> 00:23:56,619 a ministry of the counselor that takes place over four chapters that has brought 222 00:23:56,619 –> 00:24:01,040 these grieving people to a place where they could pray where they’re 223 00:24:01,040 –> 00:24:08,040 established in faith and where they are restored to hope 224 00:24:08,040 –> 00:24:13,640 now I want you to notice one more thing here that is very very important today 225 00:24:13,760 –> 00:24:21,260 these people have been able to pray they do indeed have faith and hope but they 226 00:24:21,260 –> 00:24:25,859 still have questions and that’s very significant at the end of this book 227 00:24:25,859 –> 00:24:35,400 notice what it says verse 22, renew our days as of old unless you have utterly 228 00:24:35,400 –> 00:24:42,760 rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry with us and that’s where the book 229 00:24:42,760 –> 00:24:51,060 ends, that’s the last verse, now when you read that you may find yourself thinking 230 00:24:51,060 –> 00:24:56,439 that lamentations would have had a better ending if it stopped at verse 21 231 00:24:56,439 –> 00:25:01,060 I mean look at verse 21 restore us to yourself O Lord and we will be restored 232 00:25:01,380 –> 00:25:15,640 Isn’t that a great ending? Why spoil it by adding verse 22? Well God makes no 233 00:25:15,640 –> 00:25:23,760 mistakes and verse 22 is exactly the right ending for two reasons, number one 234 00:25:23,880 –> 00:25:33,119 Grief is never neat and tidy. People who pray, people who are established in faith, 235 00:25:33,119 –> 00:25:39,280 people who have hope because of the counselor still have questions. Very 236 00:25:39,280 –> 00:25:47,819 important to say that. We walk by faith not by sight and Lamentations chapter 5 237 00:25:48,140 –> 00:25:53,719 verse 22 guards against premature closure. The kind of spirit that says 238 00:25:53,719 –> 00:25:57,000 okay so everything’s all right now then isn’t it. 239 00:25:57,000 –> 00:26:02,260 C.S. Lewis speaks in his marvelous book grief observed about how folks sometime 240 00:26:02,260 –> 00:26:08,760 after his wife died began to use the language of getting over it. He said 241 00:26:08,760 –> 00:26:13,000 well that language may be fine if you’re having an operation for appendicitis get 242 00:26:13,000 –> 00:26:24,780 over it you know. But he says think of it this way if a man loses a leg he may be 243 00:26:24,780 –> 00:26:30,520 able to adjust to life as a one-legged man but his life will never be the same. 244 00:26:30,520 –> 00:26:40,540 It is changed forever. Lamentations ends in a way that recognizes the ongoing 245 00:26:40,540 –> 00:26:47,280 questions and the ongoing pain and the ongoing turmoil that one who prays and 246 00:26:47,280 –> 00:26:53,079 one who believes and one who hopes may yet experience. Very, very important to 247 00:26:53,079 –> 00:26:59,040 say that. The second reason that this is exactly the right ending is that of 248 00:26:59,040 –> 00:27:04,719 course the question at the end of Lamentations is not answered definitively 249 00:27:05,060 –> 00:27:08,780 until many years later. Look at the question again. 250 00:27:23,060 –> 00:27:27,040 You see what the question here is. God’s people are saying, Lord are You done with 251 00:27:27,040 –> 00:27:34,040 us? Is this really the end for us? God’s people knew that He could restore Jerusalem. 252 00:27:40,160 –> 00:27:46,239 At this point they just didn’t know if He would. They knew what God could do, and that 253 00:27:46,239 –> 00:27:52,880 is why they had hope. But they did not at that point know what He would do. And so the 254 00:27:53,339 –> 00:27:58,719 question hangs there. Are you done with us God? 255 00:27:58,719 –> 00:28:04,280 Now to get the definitive answer to that questioning of course we need to roll the bible story 256 00:28:04,280 –> 00:28:11,280 forward nearly 600 years after the book of Lamentations, and the Counselor who’s ministry 257 00:28:13,880 –> 00:28:20,880 is whispered in the pages of Lamentations takes flesh. Jesus Christ is a man of the 258 00:28:23,180 –> 00:28:30,180 kids, our wonderful counselor, and it is Jesus Christ who answers the final question of the 259 00:28:32,000 –> 00:28:36,319 book of Lamentations, and he answered that question at the cross. Are you going to be 260 00:28:36,319 –> 00:28:43,319 angry with us, oh God, forever? Are you done with us? Well God answered that question definitively 261 00:28:45,699 –> 00:28:52,699 by sending his son. He became the man of Lamentations chapter three and verse seven. 262 00:28:53,719 –> 00:29:00,719 Just as he became the servant of Isaiah in chapter 53. And because of the man who suffered 263 00:29:05,239 –> 00:29:12,239 affliction under the rod of God’s wrath the last question of Lamentations in chapter five 264 00:29:14,640 –> 00:29:21,020 is wonderfully, gloriously answered, No, God has not sent his son into the world to condemn 265 00:29:21,260 –> 00:29:24,839 the world but that the world through him might be saved. 266 00:29:24,839 –> 00:29:31,839 God is not done with his people. God will not be angry with his own forever. Why? Because 267 00:29:33,160 –> 00:29:40,160 he himself became the man and endured the wrath, the rod, the anger in himself, in his 268 00:29:40,880 –> 00:29:47,319 body, on the tree. I don’t know if you ever thought about this but it’s made this phrase 269 00:29:47,380 –> 00:29:50,680 just come to me with a whole new sense of meaning. 270 00:29:50,680 –> 00:29:57,680 Could Pontius Pilate, when he had Jesus scourged and then when he had that awful crown of thorns 271 00:30:00,040 –> 00:30:06,760 placed upon the head of Jesus and he brings Jesus out bleeding, beating, and bruised to 272 00:30:06,760 –> 00:30:12,800 mock him before the crowd? And you remember what he said announcing the title of Jesus? 273 00:30:12,800 –> 00:30:19,800 He said, Behold the man! Could he have had any idea that in that moment that he was fulfilling 274 00:30:20,439 –> 00:30:27,439 the prophecy of Lamentations chapter 3 in Verse 1? Jesus Christ is the man. He is the 275 00:30:31,219 –> 00:30:37,160 wonderful counselor who not only sits beside his people in our sorrow and in our loss. 276 00:30:37,180 –> 00:30:43,739 He speaks to his people, making himself known to us. And he is supremely the one who suffers 277 00:30:43,739 –> 00:30:50,500 for his people. And that goes beyond anything that Jeremiah could ever have fulfilled. 278 00:30:50,500 –> 00:30:55,579 The good news of the gospel is that the wonderful counselor who answers the final question of 279 00:30:55,579 –> 00:31:02,579 Lamentations in Chapter 5 has come. He, God, became the man. And when he did he went to 280 00:31:03,219 –> 00:31:10,219 the lowest point, to the darkest place. And that is so important because grieving people 281 00:31:11,939 –> 00:31:18,939 need a savior who knows what it is to suffer. And Jesus Christ knows what it is to suffer. 282 00:31:22,140 –> 00:31:29,140 Edward Schiletto, again, who had experienced all kinds of horrors in the trenches of the 283 00:31:29,260 –> 00:31:36,260 First World War, looked at the world of religion across the globe and he was not impressed. 284 00:31:38,780 –> 00:31:45,780 What he saw in religion was aloofness, remoteness, people worshiping gods who did not seem to 285 00:31:48,380 –> 00:31:55,380 care. And then he discovered Jesus Christ. And he came to believe that God, the God who 286 00:31:55,880 –> 00:32:02,880 is, knows what it is to suffer. And he wrote these words, to our wounds, only God’s wounds 287 00:32:08,119 –> 00:32:15,119 can speak, and not a god has wounds but you alone. 288 00:32:16,119 –> 00:32:23,119 But you alone. A suffering world friends needs a suffering saviour, but we also need a saviour 289 00:32:26,520 –> 00:32:33,520 who has triumphed over his own suffering. So thank God that suffering was not the end 290 00:32:34,599 –> 00:32:40,839 for Jesus Christ. He went into it, but he came through it and he came out of it in 291 00:32:40,859 –> 00:32:47,520 the triumph of his resurrection and this saviour offers himself to every one of us today. In 292 00:32:47,520 –> 00:32:54,520 every circumstance of life including our greatest pain, grief, sorrow and loss. He is the wonderful 293 00:32:54,880 –> 00:32:58,479 counsellor to whom you can come. 294 00:32:58,479 –> 00:33:05,479 I want to end simply by saying this today, if you could see all that there is in Jesus 295 00:33:11,439 –> 00:33:18,439 you would have no more fear and no more doubt. Now none of us is there now. None of us right 296 00:33:19,719 –> 00:33:26,719 now sees all that there is in Jesus, though one day if we are his we will. One day faith 297 00:33:27,680 –> 00:33:34,680 will be turned to sight and when you see all that is in Jesus, all fear will be gone. All 298 00:33:35,560 –> 00:33:42,560 doubt will be gone. Every tear will be wiped from your eye. Your joy will be complete and 299 00:33:45,540 –> 00:33:52,540 it will never end. Until then we walk by faith and not by sight and here is what that means. 300 00:33:53,180 –> 00:34:00,180 The more you see of Jesus, the more you will be able to pray, the more you 301 00:34:08,300 –> 00:34:15,300 will be established in faith and the more you will be restored to hope because that’s 302 00:34:15,719 –> 00:34:22,719 where the ministry of the wonderful Counselor brings the people of God. 303 00:34:26,540 –> 00:34:33,540 Father, we pray that you would take the healing balm of your word and the ministry of our 304 00:34:34,540 –> 00:34:41,540 ministry of our glorious and wonderful Counselor, Jesus Christ, and apply these truths into 305 00:34:46,939 –> 00:34:53,939 the deepest and most wounded places of our hearts, that we, by the work and the ministry 306 00:34:55,760 –> 00:35:02,760 of the Savior, may be brought to a place where we, too, are able to pray – where we, too, 307 00:35:03,919 –> 00:35:10,919 are established in faith – where we, too, are restored to hope. Grant that we may come 308 00:35:11,979 –> 00:35:18,979 to see more and more of what is in Jesus – the One who comes and sits with us and speaks 309 00:35:20,919 –> 00:35:27,919 to us, and through His ministry bring us more and more, to the place where healing begins 310 00:35:28,199 –> 00:35:35,199 – until, one day, faith is gloriously turned to sight, and we shall be with our Lord, and 311 00:35:38,260 –> 00:35:45,260 all tears wipe from our eyes, forever and forever. And we pray these things in His name 312 00:35:45,679 –> 00:35:52,679 and God’s people together said – Amen. 313 00:35:57,919 –> 00:36:05,860 To contact us call us at 1-877-OPEN-365 or visit our website at OpenTheBible.org