We're in the book of Lamentations, and we're going to be in chapter 2 tonight. And before we begin our study, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your inspired scriptures. We realize that all of these scriptures are needed by us. As Paul would say, even in the New Testament, we need these Old Testament scriptures for our instruction. And so I pray that as we even move through a book that is of the nature of lamentations, that it would minister to us and transform us, Lord, transform our thinking. And we'll thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen. There is a teaching in the Old Testament and the New Testament that most believers know, but I would say most probably ignore. In the Old Testament, Solomon taught his own son that God disciplines his people when they get out of line. And in the New Testament, Jesus Christ himself said, those whom I love I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent. So the key, obviously, to getting out of the disciplinary matter is to change course, change thinking, change life, be zealous to do that, be quick to do that. Now, many believers read that and they make no personal assessment of their own lives. It's like they're reading a box score at a sporting event. But these passages are real warnings that God gives to his own people. And he wants them to be able to spot and eliminate evil, sinful things. And he says, if they don't, I'll chastise my own people. God makes it very clear, I can make things very miserable for my own people. One of the saddest things to see in the Christian life are Christians who are miserable because they've chosen to sin and do nothing about it. They know what they're doing is wrong, but they don't do anything about it. They know what could have been, they know what should be, but they aren't gonna listen to the word of God. As a result, they find themselves in desperate times. That's the whole emphasis of this book of Lamentations. God's people were a disaster because God was causing a disaster because they would not turn away from evil. He tried to get their attention. He allowed them plenty of time to repent or to transform or to change, but they didn't do it. And even in the disaster, he gave them some hope that if you will turn to me in the middle of this judgmental disaster, I can lift things. So there is some hope even in a book like Lamentations. Now there are many people who take God's word and warnings lightly. They don't take them seriously, and the warnings about turning away from sin seems to be no threat to many people. They don't seem to sense the urgency of it. They don't seem to sense the misery of if they don't turn from the evil, and they don't seem to be convicted. They don't seem to want to do anything to get off the merry-go-round. But what you see when you go through this book of lamentations is when God's people anger God by their continual sin, he'll permit devastating judgment and destruction to hit his people. There'll be nothing they can do to stop it, but if they will turn to him and turn from the sin, he'll be gracious to them. Now what's described in this chapter is the total misery God sent against his own people because they refused to listen to his word, they refused to obey him. It's serious, it's sad, it's scary. Because what a chapter like this teaches us is it's possible for God's people to see the word, read the word, hear the word, not respond to the word. And I'll tell you this about the Lord. We never want to be people who view sin in a light way. We're all sinners. We all fail. And when we fail, we need to address it before God. I mean, I'll go so far tonight as to say we need to be sick of ourselves. We need to be sick of our failure. We need to come clean. We need to admit it. We need to admit we've been foolish, we need to be broken and sad about it, and in the context of that, facing up to what we've done or how we've failed, we need to cry out to the Lord. That's what God expects us to do. And if we don't do it, Sin can reach a point where it actually angers God, and when that happens, believe you me, God has an arsenal of things at His disposal. He can make a life fall apart physically. He can make, as you'll see tonight, a property fall apart. He has a whole arsenal of things that He can do to make His people's lives miserable. And I wanna make this observation before we tackle it. The only chance, if one of God's people is in this, or a nation's in this, that they have of getting out of this is to cry out to God. The only chance they have. There's no other way out of this. They have to do honest business with the Lord in order for him to lift the negative that he's actually causing. Now there are 17 facts I want to show you tonight. The chapter breaks down in the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We have 22 verses here. Each verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet in chronological order of the Hebrew alphabet. I've recorded them for you in your notes. The first fact is God was so angry with His people that He covers them and casts them into His angry judgment. He permits them to be trampled. Notice verse 1. How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger. He's cast from heaven to earth the glory of Israel and has not remembered His footstool on the day of His anger. I want you to notice how, and I believe Jeremiah is writing this, the first word of verse 1, how. How? I honestly think what Jeremiah is doing is, how in the world did all of this happen? How in the world did this happen to the people of God? Now, when it comes to God, what we want is to be covered by God's grace. You don't want to start reading in verse 1 that we're covered by God's anger. I mean, God's anger and judgment covered his own people. And I want you to notice, he calls his people, in verse one, the daughter of Zion. He calls them, in verse two, the daughter of Judah. I mean, that is a prestigious relationship that those people had with the Lord. And this anger of God was so intense that he's covering them with everything that has to do with his anger. It's coming straight out of heaven aimed straight at them on earth. You'll notice as we go through the chapter tonight, there are two nouns used for the Lord. Capital L, small case O-R-D, that's Adonai. The Lord is the sovereign controller of everything. And then you'll notice capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's Jehovah, which means the Lord is the sovereign covenant God of Israel. So what he's basically saying is, I am the sovereign God over all the earth, and what I'm doing with my own people is I'm covering them with my anger. Instead of Israel being a glorious reflection of His grace, He allowed them to be trampled. And during the tribulation, which will be the ultimate day of His anger, He's going to permit two-thirds of Israel to die. It's possible to live life under the umbrella of God's grace. That's what we want. We wanna live our lives under the umbrella of God's grace. But in order to have that grace constantly over us and protecting us, we have to be honest about things, but it's also possible to come under an umbrella of God's anger. God is sovereign over everything. David wrote in Psalm 32 that if we're willing to deal with sin, His mercy will cover us. His mercy will cover us. But if you don't deal with sin, it can anger God. Now the second fact is God is so angry with his people that he has torn down and thrown down his people and his kingdom. Verse two says, the Lord has swallowed up. He's not spared all the inhabitants of Jacob. In his wrath, he's thrown down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He's brought them down to the ground. He has profaned the kingdom and its princes. God was so angry with his people that he's torn them down, he's thrown them down. The proud, arrogant people of God were torn down and ripped to shreds. And when people would look at Israel, they did not see a strong kingdom. They don't see it tonight. When you look at Israel tonight, you don't say, there's the nation of God. You don't even think in those terms. They saw a kingdom that had been torn down, and God had sovereignly orchestrated and managed all of this destruction. You know, sometimes you'll hear somebody say, in almost a mockery of the existence of God, well, why would God allow these bad things to happen? Judgment. There's one answer. Judgment. Don't kid yourself. He's behind the bad things. That's what he's saying here to his own people. The third fact is God is so angry with his people that he's taken all strength away from them and he's removed his right hand of protection and blessings. Notice what is stated in verse 3, and in fierce anger he's cut off all the strength of Israel, he's drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire consuming round about. I can just speak to this personally. When you are out of fellowship with God, you don't feel strong. And you don't feel protected. In fact, you're scared. Because you don't exactly know what the Lord might do. Instead of God coming to help and defend his people, he completely withdrew from his people and he let them be destroyed. Now the thing that got God's people in this situation is that they refused to deal with sin, they refused to turn away from sin. And if a child of God, this is national Israel, but it also is individual, if a child of God refuses to turn from sin, God can take away that sense of strength and protection and blessings. I've seen him do it in people's lives. I've seen him take away the blessings and strength of God so that a believer who is one time a strong believer doesn't even know if they're saved. I've seen it. They don't even have the confidence they're saved. God just like removed that confidence from them. You move away from the Lord and this is where it'll lead. You'll feel weak and sick and anemic. In fact, it was David who actually described his own life when he had sinned against the Lord before he confessed it. I mean, David said in that 32nd Psalm, when I did not confess my sin, I was wasting away. I was groaning. I was drained of strength. I had no strength in me at all So when someone doesn't deal with sin before the Lord, they're not gonna feel good about themselves And they're not gonna feel good about their relationship with God The fourth fact is God is so angry with his people that he's become their enemy. I I want you to notice verses four and five. He has bent his bow like an enemy. He has set his right hand like an adversary and slain all that were pleasant to the eye. In the tent of the daughter of Zion, he's poured out his wrath like fire. The Lord has become like an enemy. He's swallowed up Israel. He's swallowed up all the palaces. He's destroyed its strongholds and multiplied in the daughter of Judah, mourning and moaning. Verse 4 says, God shoots destructive things at his own people. I mean, they had reached the point where God was so angry, he's not fighting for his people, he's fighting against them. And according to verse five, he says their enemy had brought this entire nation to mourning, even though there were enemies that were being used against Israel, like Babylon. Babylon was the one that had gone in there and actually leveled Jerusalem. It was God who directed Babylon to do it. It was God who was permitting them to have victory over his own people. And I just want you to see this point. Don't miss this point in the United States of America. God is completely sovereign over what is happening to his own people, even when he allows people that are godless political powers to govern. He's sovereign over them. Babylon was not the enemy. God was the enemy. God was mad. God was mad at his own people. The political power is not causing the destruction. God's causing the destruction. He was directing political powers to go in there and destroy his own people because they wouldn't turn from their sin. The fifth fact is God is so angry with his people that he's rejected their worship place and their worship services. We read in verse 6, and he has violently treated his tabernacle like a garden booth. He's destroyed his appointed meeting place. The Lord has caused to be forgotten the appointed feast and sabbath in zion and he's despised king and priest in the indignation of his anger the lord has rejected his altar he's abandoned his sanctuary he's delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces they have made a noise in the house of the lord as in the day of an appointed feast god says their religious stuff's nothing but noise i don't accept it In fact, in verse 6, he said, I destroyed the temple. I allowed it to be destroyed. I caused that place to be wiped out. I was behind every bit of it. That's what God's taking credit for. I put my own temple out of business. I turned the property over to the enemies of the people of God. They can go through all their religious rituals they want. They're not going to stop that from happening because God did it. The temple represented the place where God's people could go and do business with the Lord. I mean, it was a sacred place. The temple represented a place where God's people could go and they could resolve sin issues. They could go there and make things right with the Lord. They could enter into fellowship with God. God said, I got so angry with my people, I allow those places to be destroyed. And basically, he says, you really don't have any contact with me anymore. A place that once was sacred, can become secular. I've seen that in Grand Rapids at the Grand Rapids School of the Bible and Music. It was once dedicated to the Lord. Those buildings were sacred. You used to sense the presence of God when you walked on that campus. Not anymore. Secular education is there. It's sad sometimes, you'll go by a church that at one time was a wonderful place of worship, but not anymore. It's just a place of secular religious mumbo-jumbo. God said, I'm behind that. That's what I've allowed to happen in Jerusalem. And tonight, when you look at Jerusalem, you don't think, wow, there's the place where we go to worship God. I mean, nobody even thinks in those terms now. Why? Because God was angry. Why? Because his people wouldn't deal with sin. Now the sixth fact is God is so angry with his people that he destroyed their city. I want you to notice in verse eight we read, the Lord determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line. He's not restrained his hand from destroying. He has caused rampart and wall to lament. They have languished together. Her gates have sunk to the ground. He's destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations. The law is no more. Also her prophets find no vision from the Lord. Now, the text says in verse 8, and I find this fascinating, the Lord has stretched out a line. What that tells us is, when God moves into an angry judgment mode, it has precise measurement to it. precise measurement to it. He knows exactly what he's doing. He knows exactly the judgment. And it was God, again, the Lord, who determined that his city and his temple would be knocked down, walls would be knocked down. According to verse 90, he permitted the city and the temple to be smashed to bits. These were, by the way, the very places that Nehemiah rebuilt when the Persians permitted Israel to go back to the land years later. He allowed them to go back and rebuild the walls of the city and also the temple of the city. But what these verses teach us is that God is the one who deliberately planned and carried out this severe judgment. You know, when someone questions you or me about why would God permit this to happen, say, I don't know, but I'll tell you this, what God decides to do is always right. It's always right. Including if he decides to do something with me or you. Whatever he decides to do, it's always the right thing to do. I mean, he was fed up with these people. He gave them time and time to repent and to get things resolved with them. They wouldn't do it. So he said, I've had enough. I'm pulling the plug. Now the seventh fact is God was so angry that he removed her political leaders. That's what he says there in verse 9. Her king and her princes are among the nations. The political leaders were wicked. They had led God's people straight into judgment. This is something to see here. When God is judging a nation, he removes godly leadership, and he permits that nation to be dominated by ungodly leadership. And you cannot turn to the government to get any help to get out of this. These people could not turn to the leaders and say, get us out of this mess. They can't do it. God was the one causing it. So no political leader is going to get them out of it. The eighth fact is God is so angry with his people that he removed his word. Verse 9, the text says in verse 9, the law is no more. The law is no more. One of the most horrific judgments of God is when he takes away the possibility of growing in knowledge accurately of the word of God. It is a judgment of God. And the people who didn't respond to the word of God reached a point where God got so angry with them that he just said, I'm taking away my word. I won't even let you have it, I won't let you hear it, I won't let you respond to it. And I think we would be well to do a little personal analysis in light of that statement, the law is no more in our own lives, and answer this question, would you say that the word of God has more of my life or less of my life right now? What would you say? Don't answer me, that's just an introspective question to ask yourself. Is the word of God more in my life now than it was, or is it less in my life now than it was? Because I'll tell you what, if it's not more, it is less, and if it's less, it's serious. Because it can reach a point where God says, I'm taking it away. We want to continue to grow and understand more and more of the Word of God, the doctrines of God, the books of the Bible. That's a blessing of God when we have that. Now the ninth fact is God is so angry with his people that he removed his prophets. That's what he says there in verse 9. Also the prophets find no vision from the Lord. God said, I stopped speaking through my men. I stopped speaking through prophets. I didn't give them any visions. I didn't give them any more messages for them to communicate to the people. I mean, ignorance of the Word of God, ignorance of the will of God, is in fact a judgment of God. And when you see a judgment of God that's like that, it's coming because God is fed up with people who will not turn from sin. The 10th fact is God is so angry with his people that all the elders can do is mourn. Notice verse 10, the elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground and they are silent. They have thrown dust on their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. The elders have nothing to say. They're silent. They're totally humiliated. These were the religious leaders who were giving positive messages to the people, you remember, when we went through Jeremiah. These were the religious leaders who were telling the people, you're okay, everything's just fine. Now, now that God has sent this judgment, they have nothing to say. What they should have been saying to the people is, look, we've brought this on. We need to get out of this right now. We need to turn back to the Lord right now. But they're not even saying that. They're just sitting there silent. The 11th fact is God is so angry with His people that the virgins are mourning. There's no hope of having a good, normal life here. All the people were under the judgment of God. It didn't matter if you were a man or woman. There was nothing there that was positive in any way, shape, or form. And it was all a measured judgment from God because people refused to deal with sin. The 12th fact is God was so angry that His people, His godly people, were weeping and sad. Notice verse 11. My eyes fail because of tears. My spirit is greatly troubled. My heart is poured out on the earth because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. When little ones and infants faint in the streets of the city, they say to their mothers, where is grain and wine? As they faint like a wounded man in the streets of the city as their life is poured out on their mother's bosom. I mean, when God judges people, it's not a happy time. It's serious. People die when God pronounces judgments. People die. And godly people certainly are not happy to see this. Jeremiah cried, his stomach was in knots. He was sick about this. And you see, if the people would have been sick about their own sin, If the people would have had their stomach in knots because they were out of fellowship with God, it wouldn't have happened. But they didn't. They didn't ever get sick of their sin and failure. They never did honest business with the Lord. When faithful people of God see God allowing horrible things to happen to their nation, it makes us sick. Makes us sick. And the blessings of the grain and the wine were gone. I mean, these people were under the judgment of God. They didn't even have food and drink for the day. God said, you're under my judgment. My anger is covering you. I'm allowing every one of these things to happen. The 13th fact is God is so angry with his people that their ruin is not comparable or healable. Notice verse 13. How shall I admonish you? What shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you? Now God has made his people miserable and there was no one on this earth who could turn this around except God. That point I'm gonna stress in a minute. But the people of the United States need to realize this. There's no politician that can turn the judgment of God off. I don't care who the politician is. You can promise this and you can promise that, you're not going to be able to do it. If a nation comes under the judgment of God, there's no politician that can get them out of it. There's only one person who can get them out of it, and that is God. And people, God's people, the only chance they have is to turn to the Lord. Because God is making His people miserable. He's the only one who can get them out of the misery. And God is still the one, I think that's a fascinating thing that's said there in verse 13, who's the one who can heal you? You see, God is still the one who can comfort His people, and God is still the one who can heal His people. So He's the one that the people need to be turning to. I'll tell you what, spend less time watching news, spend more time talking to God. I'll tell you, that's far more powerful in turning things around in this nation. Spend a lot less time watching news, spend a lot more time talking to God, asking God to lift the negative things that are happening. And if you can't see negative things that are happening in this country, you're as blind as a bat. Something's not clicking with you. Now the 14th fact is God is angry with His people because they've listened to false prophets who've misled them. Verse 14, your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions, and they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity, but they've seen for you false and misleading oracles. I mean, false prophets were one of the main reasons God's people were being led astray. They were telling people false things. They were telling people that they were right with God. They're the people of God. God was going to prosper them. It didn't matter if they dealt with their sin. They weren't even telling them they had to confront their iniquity. They weren't even pointing out their iniquity. I mean, they were telling everybody, you're just okay. What these false prophets didn't tell them is if you don't obey the word of God, and if you don't turn from sin, you're going to suffer some serious consequences and chastisements. And I believe, ladies and gentlemen, there are a group of ministers today leading congregations right away from God. They're leading them away from true worship. They're leading them away from a study of the Word of God. And they're telling the people, God loves you just the way you are. You're just fine. You never need to face anything. Don't ever respond to conviction because you are just A-OK with the Lord. What God's ministers have a responsibility to do is to warn people if you get involved in something sinful, God's not going to put up with it forever. If you don't face it, if you don't get sick about it, if you don't go to God and honestly deal with it, you just think that God's a God of toleration and you don't have to face anything. You're just fine the way you are. You will be accountable for leading people astray. Which brings us to the 15th fact. God is so angry with his people that enemies see them and talk about them. Notice verse 15, all who pass along the way clap their hands in derision at you. They hiss, they shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, in this the city of which they said the perfection of beauty adjoined to all the earth. All your enemies have opened their mouths wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, we've swallowed her up. Surely this is the day for which we've waited. We've reached it. We've seen it. According to verse 15, there were people that were looking at Israel and they're going, they're supposed to be the people of God. What a joke. They're supposed to be the people who worship the Lord and have the power of God. This is the people that God parted the sea for? These people don't even care about their sin. They don't care if they're pleasing this God. And ultimately, they would look at this city that was once a beautiful city that reflected the glory of God. They didn't see that anymore. I mean, this whole thing was just a joke. And according to verse 16, the enemies were gloating over the fact that they seemed to win. You know, there's nothing worse than when you see a believer who at one time seemed to be going somewhere for the Lord and they turn out to be a loser. It's heart-wrenching to watch, and you say, where did they go wrong? Well, there was a pride in them that wouldn't submit to the Word of God, and there was a pride in them that they didn't think they needed to change. They didn't respond to what the Holy Spirit was convicting them of. They dug their heels in, and it went on and on and on, and that's where they end up. Which brings us to the 16th fact, God is so angry that he causes enemies to rejoice and succeed. Verse 17, the Lord has done what he purposed. He's accomplished his word, which he commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing. He's caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the might of your adversaries. You see, God said, I'm the one controlling these powers. You think these powers are just operating by their own leaders? No, no, I'm controlling them. I'm moving them where I want them to go. I gave my people plenty of time. I gave my people plenty of warning. They wouldn't repent, so I pulled the plug on my blessings. And I'm actually allowing adversaries to be in power over my own people. I'm causing that. But then you come to this 17th fact. that is God is so angry with his people that even though they cried out to him he allowed them to be slaughtered but there's things to see in verses 18 to 22 their heart cried out to the lord oh wall of the daughter of zion let your tears run down like a river day and night give yourself no relief let your eyes have no rest arise cry aloud in the night At the beginning of the night, watch as you pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the life of your little ones who are faint because of hunger at the head of every street. See, O Lord, and look with whom you have dealt thus. Should women eat their offspring, the little ones who are born healthy? Should the priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? on the ground in the streets lie young and old my virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword you've slain them in the day of your anger you've slaughtered and not sparing you called as in the day of an appointed feast my terrors on every side and there was no one who escaped or survived in the day of the lord's anger those whom i bore and reared my enemy annihilated them Jeremiah presents a subtle message here in the midst of what was happening by the anger of God. And verses 18 and 22 present the only hope that God's people have for reversing things when God is angry. It's the only hope people have when God is angry. Verse 18 says, the people need to cry out to Him. I mean, let's face it, if God is in fact sending judgment, who can you cry out to to get the judgment gone? Who do you have to turn to? The Lord. In verse 19 says, get up and cry out day and night. Seek the face of the Lord, lift up your hands, cry out to him, get down on your knees, lift up your hands and pray to God. In verse 20, ask God, is this the way it's supposed to be? Appeal to God. Describe the truth. Admit that God has done it. Admit that you deserve it. Admit that what God has done, He was right to do. Admit all of that. Come to terms with it. In verse 21, admit what God has done is deserved and call out to Him because, as we will see, just as God has an angry side, He always has a grace side. But that grace will only be implemented, as David said in Psalm 32, if you address the sin, if you address the sin. It's just like the song says, oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. I wanna leave us with three parting thoughts tonight from this second chapter of the Book of Lamentations. Number one, God does judge people who refuse to honor him, who refuse to deal with sin. He'll judge a nation who refuse to honor him and refuses to deal with sin, and he will judge an individual. And we're talking about in his own family. They're part of his family. Israel was the family of God. He will judge an individual who refuses to honor him and refuses to deal with sin. So if you know that there's something sinful in the spirit of God's convicted you, my goodness, deal with it. Deal with it. That's what this book of Lamentations is trying to communicate. Secondly, God's people need to realize the only chance a nation or individual has when it's being judged by God is to cry out to God. The only chance that a nation or individual has when it's being judged by God is to cry out to God. I'm telling you right now, you can elect whomever you want into office, and if this nation is under the judgment of God, it isn't gonna work. I don't care who's in office. It isn't going to work. They're not going to be able to lift it. God can lift it. God is the one who sends judgment. God is the one who can lift judgment. Now, he can certainly move different political players into position who he can use to help lift the judgment, but in fact, it's going to start with going to God, not a political party. And thirdly, And this is so critical to this chapter. When we sin, own it. Own it. When we sin, go to God. Confess it. Be sick about it. Be angry with yourself about it. And in that process, turn from it. And you'll never be covered by God's anger. You'll always be covered by God's grace. That is Lamentations chapter 2. Well, our time is long gone tonight. I want to thank you for coming. Drive careful. Good night. The Lord bless you.