Our scripture reading is also from Lamentations chapter three as we hope to read verses one through 36. It is a portion that we began considering last Lord's Day and observing the Lord's Supper and we hope to continue and end in this sermon looking at this portion of Lamentations chapter three where we find Jeremiah not only speaking in behalf of himself and what he feels in affliction directly from the Lord toward him, but also as a representative. In a general way, the prophet here is explaining how all of Jerusalem has suffered the affliction from the hands of God because of their sins. But he points where hope can be found. Lamentations 3 verse 1. I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me as he turned, he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old, He hath broken My bones. He hath builded against Me, encompassed Me with gall and travail. He hath set Me in dark places, they that be dead of old. He hath hedged Me about, that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent His bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes. and Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity, and I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore, have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore, will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth His mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth His cheek to him that smiteth Him. He is filled full with reproach, for the Lord will not cast off forever. But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth, to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High, to subvert a man in his cause the Lord approveth not." this far in God's precious and infallible Word. We open God's Word to the third chapter in Lamentations. We hope to consider the portions that we did not consider last Lord's Day, but they're all interconnected all the way to verse 36. There's a beautiful division here. The beginning is the prophet setting forth that which hurts his heart and his body. He expresses in the first few verses in a general way. He understands that what he's suffering is discipline from the Lord. He calls it the rod of his wrath. He expresses as darkness in verse 2, "...and brought me into darkness, but not into light." He shows the personal nature of what he's suffering in verse 3, "...surely against me as he turned, he turneth his hand against me." And he explains how it's a constant thing all the day. He's experiencing discipline, darkness, it is personal and it is daily. When you continue to read all of what he says, we understand this is a man who's suffering deep bouts of depression. And we already explained how it's not just a personal thing that Jeremiah is feeling and going through, but he's also feeling and going through this as a mediator as it was, representing what the people are feeling, but also in a sense because of the people. The prophet would not be feeling all of this discipline from the Lord directly because of his gross sins. Although he understands that his sins are gross enough, but this happening to Jerusalem where Babylon has come and through three waves of great violence has arrived at the third and last. In each one of these waves, Nebuchadnezzar came and took many people captive. We believe that Daniel and his friends would have been in one of those first two waves. But Jerusalem was allowed to remain as long as the king would pay tribute and make all things fine and peaceful with Babylon. But on would come a king who would reject that and would cast that yoke and Nebuchadnezzar would send new armies and bring out more captives and subdue Israel again, Judah again. continue paying their taxes and submitting. And now was the third time where Israel rebelled. Jerusalem was resolute in not paying the taxes and being a free nation. Jeremiah was saying, you have to submit. This is from the Lord. It is disciplined because of the crass idolatry of Judah. Remember, we read the prophecies and the history how Judah had gone the way of her sister Israel. and was playing the harlot, was going after false gods. There was idolatry all over Jerusalem. And the worship of God was not pure and right. And God had said enough. I will send the rod of my wrath in the figure, in the very place of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon coming and destroying Jerusalem. In all those first comings and the captives that were taken, the first two, the temple was allowed to stay, the walls were allowed to stay, life was allowed to continue to a great degree, but in this third blow, the walls were devastated, the gates were burned, the temple was desolate. And so in Lamentations, when you read verses chapters 1 and on, what you find is Jeremiah lamenting and weeping because he walks about Jerusalem and all is rubble and all is smoke and there's a smell of dead people all over the place. And he takes it on very personally because he's representing the people. And he sees it as discipline from the Lord to the people, but he's part of the people. And so his heart is greatly despondent and full of anguish. And we saw how he speaks of physical pain in verse 4. He speaks of his flesh and skin having become old. He's aging, although he's younger. And then of breaking of his bones, and this speaks of pain all over his body. And then he goes on to express what would be really spiritual pain, a sense of opposition from the Lord. He uses several figures of speech, and one that is so... we can even imagine how can a person even... speak in this way where he really speaks in a figure of God as a bear and a lion and weight and destroying him into pieces. And he makes himself as if he were the bullseye of God who bends his bow and shot the arrow and has struck him. He's not mistaken. He's not saying all of this is a mistake and God is nowhere to be found. No. He understands all of this is under the mighty hand of God. And I have felt it within my very heart. I'm struck by all of this. In verse 5, he speaks of bitterness, of gall, encompassing me with gall. There's a sense of trouble in his heart. There's a sense of darkness. In verse 6, he brings that again. He has set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He says, it's like I'm living in a coffin. It's like I'm buried alive. Calvin says, it is not possible to set forth the greatness of that sorrow which the faithful feel when terrified by the wrath of God. He uses words that speak a sense of imprisonment, and here we know Jeremiah was physically imprisoned and thrown into the well. A sense of forsakenness. He says he cries, but his prayer is not heard. A sense of spiritual desertion. And now from verse 14 on is where we didn't go verse to verse, and this is where I hope to continue. And what we have here in a sense is a repetition of all that came, but what we have is in a sense the connection with all of this that I've been talking about, all this sense of trouble and darkness and sorrow and sadness. The way it connects in verse 14 is there's a little twist to it. There's a little difference in dimension that really increases the element of affliction when God does bring affliction upon us. In verse 14 he says, I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. Well, I've just finished saying that he's one who's representing the people. With that vision you imagine he's there almost like the leader of all this sorrow and everyone's behind him sorrowing the very same way. And there were those who were in that very same situation. The godly of the people would be like right along with Jeremiah, suffering with him and also decrying the idolatry that happened. But in this verse seven, he's speaking of all the people, as it were, on this side, taunting him and singing songs about him all the day. They're still angry at Jeremiah. See, the people are not now seeing the fact that God brought this discipline and saying, Jeremiah, you were right. We should have submitted. We should have repented. We should have paid our taxes because that would show we were submitting to this discipline of God. Instead, we didn't listen to what you said. We called you a tyrant. We thought you were on the side of the Babylonians and now this happened to us. Now we join your team. No. That was not happening in a numerous way. You can imagine that maybe this heart and that was broken. And they joined the mourning of Jeremiah. But when he describes the people at large, they are a people deriding him. They are a people singing songs about him. And so you look at this and the way you relate is here he gave a list of sufferings and now he starts another list of suffering and this list of sufferings are like a result of all this suffering. The people are seeing what Jeremiah is going through and what the people are going through. And instead of just joining him in his suffering, they add to his suffering. And beloved, maybe you have experienced this very thing. You are going through such bout of suffering and all of a sudden someone comes and says, I told you. Or they say, well, you're suffering that because of a lack of faith or because of this that you did. And instead of helping you and comforting you in your suffering, they're just adding to your suffering. And this is what they were doing to him. And see this is another suffering. This is another aspect of his affliction that they are now bringing this mockery upon him. They're mocking him. And then verse 15, He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. Here again the sense of bitterness, the sense of this pain that he's feeling inside. Calvin thinks that the word Wormwood is not the most appropriate word because the word wormwood is of a substance that can be used for something good. And what the prophet is here bringing is the reality of nothing good in what he's experiencing in terms of the pain. It's like he's tasted something that's not just bitter, it's poisonous too. And wormwood can be used in a way that's not poisonous. And so this word here, wormwood, envisioned It's poison. He's tasting poison. When he hears the jingles of these people, it just hurts his heart within, and he feels himself dying. It's what poison would do. This man is suffering. Enter into his suffering, beloved, so you can understand what's going on in this text. And I know some of you don't really need much help. You have your own set of afflictions. We'll see. Use in an application all of that affliction. Bring it before the Lord. Telling Him what it makes you feel. But understanding that only in Him you'll find hope. Because this is the second point. We're looking at our first. The suffering of the prophet. So I'm going on the other verses that spoke of his suffering, mockery, bitterness. In verse 17, we see him lacking peace. He says in verse 17, And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. It's like peace is something he can't remember. He knows he experienced it in days in the past. but he's got a fog in his mind. What did peace really look like? Have I really known such a thing? The Lord removed his soul far from peace. You notice, not that peace was removed from his soul, he was removed from peace. It's like peace is far away, a distant land, that he forgot the language they speak there. They forgot how the landscape looks. Lack of peace. In verse 18, it's lack of hope. Remember we saw that verse 18 is like the, it's not the climax, it's the deepest depth of his affliction. Because it's really that which border with despair. He says in verse 18, and I said my strength and my hope, see two things, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. The word perished means dies. He's saying my hope has died. I don't see the landscape of peace and in my own heart I don't find any hope, any expectation of change. They're all singing these songs, and it's hurting within me. It is bitter. It is dark. It is hurting. My bones are as broken. My skin is all wrinkly. I have no more strength. I have no more hope. You see, this is the greatest depth of all. And now, beloved, this is where you have to understand how our whole studies about faith in the afternoon is of utmost, utmost importance. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, is the key that divides everything. Because if you do not have faith in Jesus, even though you don't sense this very reality of the suffering of the prophet, you ought to feel it. And the reality is that that's where you would stay and that's where you would go without Christ. But this prophet has Jesus. And so he experiences this lack of hope and this lack of strength, but it's not true that he has no hope and has no strength. Even in his describing his heart and saying that his hope has perished, it hasn't. This is the tension in the heart of a true believer. You might experience that. You might experience that everything is so dark and gloomy that there's no more hope. But if you're a true believer, down, down deep inside you know there is hope. And I'm not just saying all of this. It is the text. It is what God did in the heart of Jeremiah. Because in verse 19, he says, remembering mine affliction and my misery, the worm would end the gall, my soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. You see, he can't remember peace anymore, and all he remembers are all the gall and all the sadness. That's the only memory he has. But verse 21, this is the pinnacle. In the very depth of it all, there's still a climax of it all. He says, this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. A few verses back, his hope died. But right here, it's there. And he has not gone one month or another after one verse. He's pinning this down. He's saying, Lord, I feel like my hope is dead. After all, he's God's prophet. Even as he's speaking this, it is the Spirit who's inspiring him to do so. And it's a prayer before the Lord. He's declaring what he's going through. He has hope. And so you could add this to the pain. There's more physical pain. Verse 16, He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones. I didn't cover that verse as we were going through. That's the physical pain that He brings back. Hath covered me with ashes. He's feeling physical pain. There's even a social pain. The ashes would be just as if walking along with dirt. People look at Him and say, He's covered in dirt. He's as one who mourns. And he has all that inside pain, the mockery from the people, the bitterness, the lack of peace, the lack of hope, the sad memories. But then we have our second point. And the third, and the fourth. Our three next points, beloved, is the hope for the hopeless. It is what we find the prophet being directed to do that really shows where his hope comes from. And so in verse 21, after he says, this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope, he says in verse 22, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. That's the first thing we saw under this first point of hope. And so this first point of hope is the love of God. The prophet goes right to God and primarily to His love. And notice what's happening in the midst of all the suffering and so much hatred for the people. Not only hatred from Babylon, but hatred from His own people who are deriding Him and singing songs about Him. He's in an ocean of hate. Remember, Jesus said, the world will hate you. And then remember what Jesus says, that we're to love one another. Because that's the only love you'll ever know here on earth, from people. It's from God's people. Because of God's love. And so He remembers God's love. And remember those five points that we saw. This is what we did cover last Lord's Day. I'll just bring the words briefly. The mercy of God in verse 22. Also in verse 22, the compassions of God. He says, thy compassions, his compassions fail not. And then verse 23, the faithfulness of God. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. And then verse 24, the Lord is my portion. We said this is not really an attribute of God. This is God himself. He's saying, God is my possession. I am his and he is mine. He's my portion. He's my inheritance. If I have God, I have everything. He says, therefore will I hope in Him. In verse 25, the Lord is good unto them that wait for Him. The mercy of God, the compassion of God, the faithfulness of God, God and the goodness of God. And so we put all of these attributes in this reality under this theme of the love of God. Beloved, see this as a recipe that God gives you. As soon as you are hit with affliction of any kind, if you are at this very moment experiencing affliction of any kind, fly to the love of God. And not just the love or goodness or mercy, but God himself. That's who God is. God is a God of mercy. And this is where we have to understand this maxim. It is, I know that people can say, and we ought to be very careful never to do this. It can be said so flippantly when somebody is suffering and in bed or with some kind of sorrow, and we say, you know, don't worry, it could be worse. It is a sin to be flippant when somebody is suffering that way. But God, in the most precious and most careful of ways, does bring that very maxim. In these beautiful words, look how amazing it is. It's not at all like that flippant way. Don't worry, it could be worse. But we find this in the text in a biblical way. He says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed We have to really understand what the prophet is saying. He's saying, all this suffering that I am going through is less than being consumed. It's one thing to have broken bones and aged skin, but if I'm consumed, it's all gone. It's one thing to have my teeth with a sense of being broken and people singing those ditties about me, but it's another to be consumed. Because you see, under the theme of being consumed, it means you are dead and buried and it is over. And it is not that you go to heaven, it is that you go to hell. Because see, the word is mercies. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Has that mathematical equation in a spiritual way entered your soul? If it were not for the Lord's mercies, there would be no Jesus to die for sinner. There would be no forgiveness to be extended to any. There would be no patience. There would be no kindness. There would be nothing. And we would have our sins upon us. And we would have to taste the wrath of God upon our souls. And it would not be just a day, it would be eternity. That's what he means by consumed. And that's where this maxim comes, that whatever affliction we're under, we need to understand it could be worse. It could be that I was without Jesus. And it could be that I was a pagan out in the world where I had never heard the gospel. It could be where I would be in church but the Lord had never had mercy on me and I'd never repent and believe and I would be utterly lost. And then if I died, I'd be consumed. So in essence, he's beginning to think, wait, I'm a believer. I'm saved. The Lord had mercy on me. And so there's hope. You understand that, beloved? Now this, again, I go back to the very one. Beloved, if there's one or two or three or more, however many there would be in our congregation who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior personally, that your life is regenerated. See, you are in the category of those who are about to be consumed. There's that state upon you if you're unsaved and without Jesus. The only certainty you would have, in essence, is consuming, condemnation. Yes, you can have hope that the Lord would save you, but you don't know when would be the last breath that you would take. You don't know how long you will live. You don't know how many sermons you will hear. You don't know how much of the words you will hear so that faith would be created in the heart. We'll see there's this urgency as you read God's word that today is the day of salvation, that you would live with this hope in Him and serve Him and obey Him and follow Him. And so the mercies of God, And then he remembers the compassions of God, the faithfulness, that he's his portion, that he is good. And so the love of God is a second point. But the third thing that we see in our text, and it's really the second go-to recourse that Jeremiah goes to. He goes to the love of God in these general headings that we saw. And then he goes to this one element about affliction. He looks at God, and then he looks at what's about him. Regarding God, he says, God is a God of love, so I have hope. But then beginning in verse 27, he says what we could put under the heading of the good of affliction. He looks at the affliction that he's going to, and there's one word that he connects with it. It's good. There's a good about it. It is not good that I'm suffering. It is not good that I'm feeling so sad. It is not good all this death that I see around me. It's never meaning good in that sense, but it's good in that sense of what God will use that affliction for. And notice the series of good that he says in verse 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Why? Well, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence. People say, I don't want to be alone. I don't want to stay silent. He's saying it's good. It's good that you would have some time alone, that you would be silent because he hath borne it upon him. And still verse 29, he put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach. From verse 26 to verse 30 is this theme of the good of affliction. And I'll just make a list. There are six things he's saying. that affliction can be used for good. The first is that word, waiting. In verse 25, even when he says, the Lord is good unto them that wait for him, he says, for the soul that seeketh him, waiting. Waiting is good. Afflictions come, we immediately only have one thing to do, which is go to the Lord and wait for him to help. And what the prophet is saying is that that is good for you. That will make you look to Him. It'll make you speak to Him. It'll make you depend upon Him. It'll make you realize there's nothing in this world beside Him who can help you. You know, the whole idea of affliction is there's no use going to Egypt because God said not to. We don't want to go to Babylon because there we're going to be slaves. If I stay here, everyone's dying and everything's in smoke. That's a great affliction. Where can you turn? And he's saying, see, this is what's good about affliction because now you will finally go to God. You will finally wait upon Him. and listen to what he would say and see if he brings help in his way. And so waiting is the first thing that is good. The second, in verse two, he says, it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. So he brings wait again, but he adds hope. It is good to hope. It seems so contrary. Here's a great affliction. The very thing that starts working in my heart to feel there's no hope. And the prophet is saying, when you have affliction, it makes you wait upon the Lord. But see, it's a connectedness to the waiting. You're saying, what will God say? How will He help? I know He will. He never left me alone. That's hope. And the prophet is saying, it's good to hope. You're not the first thing getting a phone and trying to ask someone to help you as if seeking hope from a person or from a doctor or from a government. See, all those things are not wrong, but if that's your only go-to, then you're not going to the Lord. So the waiting on the Lord and hoping in the Lord is what He wants you to do And then the third thing in verse 27, it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. It's the word bearing, to bear the yoke. Calvin looks at this word and he says it's hard to understand if this yoke is simply the afflictions that he's receiving from the people, all the hatred and the malice, or if it's a yoke in the sense of putting on the yoke of the Lord to obey him no matter what he gives you to do. It's hard to understand what this yoke would be. It clearly goes under this whole umbrella of here's the prophet with everything coming upon his shoulder and it's very heavy. It's the discipline from the Lord. It's the anger from the people which is under the realm of the discipline of the Lord. And he's saying it's good for you to have that yoke in your youth. There's a principle here and this goes to the youth. This goes to the young people. There's a maxim here that's connected to the whole reality of yoke. You do not train a seven-year-old or eight-year-old oxen to wear the yoke and to carry anything. Give up your hopes that that oxen will help you in any way. You have to start putting the yoke upon them when they're young, and they'll learn how to handle that, and they'll be of service the rest of their life. And the prophet is basically saying this, when afflictions come upon you, even though you might be even in your older years, it's not so much connected with your age, but there is this reality to it. The younger you are and you start acknowledging that whatever the Lord sends you, you better learn to carry it. You better accept it and bear it. The better you'll be when you're older. If you have a 70-year-old man who's never been under the yoke of Christ, and all of a sudden they become a Christian, you can't expect from that 70-year-old the same submission, the same tenderness, the same desire to follow. It'll be harder for him. But if you begin now, when you're 7, 10, 15, or 20, and the Lord brings an affliction, And you say, God will see me through. Lord, help me. I will wait upon you. I will hope and I will bear. Lord, help me to bear. And when you're older, there might be heavier things to bear. And you know what? You'll be ready for it because you started young. But the same dimension, think of it, you're 30 and 40, even if you're in your 70s and the Lord is bringing all this, think of it also, okay, the Lord might have me 20 more years to live. It's in my youth spiritually, Lord, help me to bear it. So that when I'm 90 and some affliction comes, I'll be better at bearing it because I'm bearing it now. See, there's not exactly an age to this, but there is a spiritual lesson. Whenever it is that the Lord brings that that you must bear, it's good. He's teaching you to bear it. Very likely, He might have a heavier load. It's not something we know for sure, but He says it is good. for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. And so waiting, hoping, bearing, all those things are good. And then the fourth thing is being alone. In verse 28, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence. Just put that under the heading of being alone. Often the great sense that people have in affliction is precisely this, I'm so alone. And you try to explain what you're feeling and it's like nobody in the world can understand. You use many words, you use many expressions, you use many tears and still the person in front of you seems oblivious to the hurt. Well, one reason is because it's impossible for anyone to step into your experience precisely the way you are, because you're the one experiencing that from the Lord. And this is what's encouraging. The very thing in our despondency, I'm so lonely and nobody can understand. What the prophet is saying is, that's good. It is good that you are alone. And in that silence that you explain, and there's silence because a person doesn't know what to say, just think of it this way, Lord, this is in thy sovereignty. And in this loneliness, in this silence, one good thing is this, and the text doesn't bring this directly, but we know this. If no one else can say the words you need precisely because no one is feeling the hurt that you are, guess what? Your heart is made completely attuned to the only one who could speak that you know for sure knows what you're going through with a passion. Because He's the only one who could say, my dear child, I not only know everything of what you're experiencing, I know the gall, I know the darkness, I know the hurt, I know the songs that they sing. And I know more because when I did that on the cross, I did it for you so that your sins that could relinquish you to hell forever and ever will not. I suffered all of that so that you will know my mercy and not be consumed. Beloved, that's why Jeremiah says, it's good that you're alone and you're silent. You will listen to God because after all, he's the only one who can say what you need. And even as I'm saying this, the only reason there's perhaps in a heart or another thinking, that is true, then Lord, open my heart. Well, what's been happening? I have not been preaching psychology of the world. Not a single point of this has come from a textbook of the world. It's from God's Word, you see. It is He who is saying, go to Him and His love. It is He who is saying, look at that affliction and understand. It is good to wait. It is good to hope. It is good to bear. It is good to be alone. My heart is saying, I don't want to be alone. But God's Word is saying, you do. It's good. Yes, you'll be in silence and I will speak and you will listen and see who's been speaking. It is Jesus. It is God. This is from God's Word to you, not from any man. We need, of course, His help to then be silent to say, Lord, speak to me. I want to listen what Thou would have me hear. And it's not just that. In verse 29, it says how it's good to be humble. That's the fifth thing that shows the good of affliction. In verse 29, think of that young man who is bearing that yoke. He's all alone. and he's bearing it upon him, and verse 28 speaks, look, because he hath borne it upon him. Now verse 29, it says, he putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. You see, under the weight of that burden, this young man, and think then of any one of us who would receive this affliction from the Lord. Well, it does this. It kind of drives us to our knees. We can't stand anymore. We kneel by our bed. We begin to pray. Maybe you fall upon the ground. And if you were somewhere else that had no floor that's wood, it would be dust, and you'd be just like this person, where your mouth would be upon the dust. And Jeremiah is saying, that is good. And there's only one word I can speak of this. If you see somebody on the ground kissing the dirt, that's humiliation. It is humbleness. That's what you and I need, beloved. We need to be crushed to the ground. We need to kiss the dust and feel what it tastes. We're too proud. We're too arrogant. Everything has to be our way. We're so offended. The slightest remark, we're offended and I'm out of here. It can't go that way. It's not my way. Why is it that there's so much turmoil in God's church so often? It's only because of pride. I will be the last one to die. It has to be the way I see it to be. And there's only one cure to pride and it's humility. And when we kiss that dirt, because there's nowhere else to turn, there's no one to talk to, they don't say the things I need to hear, I'm not gonna listen to that, I'll listen to God. But see, people bring the word of God, so listen to that. You're listening to God, like this sermon, it's from Jeremiah 3, it is God speaking these words, and you're there with that dust thinking, Lord, this is humbling, it's good. This is what God is saying. When you feel humiliated, it is good. It is what God uses to break our pride. You know how we need our pride broken? Because every single sin has a direct connection to that root of pride in the heart. Every sin of anger, it is because of pride. A lie that you tell, it's pride. A lustful thought, it is pride. a lack of patience with one another. It is pride. It always goes back to that sense of, I am king and my laws are these, not those ten. And we need that pride broken. We need to feel the dust. He putteth His mouth in the dust. If so be, there may be hope. The world is telling you and me, stand up firm, don't let other people beat you, and tell them who you are. You can do it. Self, self, self-help, and all of that, all of that is a lie, beloved. You will have no help if you go to self-help. You're the last person whom you should trust to help yourself. We need to go outside of ourselves. And you see the person who's kissing the dust, that's now where there's hope because he's acknowledging, if I can't even stand up, if I'm all dusty and if I'm all heavy from this burden I carry, if there's no one to go because I can't hear the things I want and I'm in silence, I'm in waiting, well, there is hope because now you will look up. Now you will listen to God and you will say, Lord, speak for thy servant heareth. And I need to hear every vowel that comes, every syllable from thy word. And then there'll be hope. It is good to wait, to hope, to bear, to be alone, to be humbled. And there's one more in verse 30. You think that going to the dirt is the climax of humility, but there's one step deeper. Verse 30, he giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach. It's still under the whole theme that this is good. It is good to give your cheek for others to smite. Our natures are so contrary to this. But this is nothing than what the Lord Jesus explained, that if someone strikes your cheek to give him the other. And you notice what happened. The moment this is who you are, Someone can really say you are just like Jesus. Is he not the one whom scripture speaks of when he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. That means they retaliated, he did not retaliate back. And in Isaiah 56 it says, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. And so this sixth point is being meek. You're to be humble, but you're also to be meek. And meek is not just a synonym of humility. Meek is when you really bow your head and say, whatever, Lord, I'm ready. And if it is a smiting, then you say, whatever, Lord, I'll obey. I'll give my other cheek. This is the proof that humility is there. Anybody can put dust on the face. And anybody can really go down on the ground. And it can be the most hypocritical thing you do because you just want to look humble. But the moment someone strikes your cheek and you give the other, that's the final proof that you really are a humble man or woman. Beloved, may God help us to be among us. See, this is not talking about thieves that come and steal. It's not talking about judicial situations. There's all of that domain. And a thief should be in prison. It's not saying, come and rob my house the next day. No, this is all about relationships and how we relate to one another. May God help us to be this humble, beloved. And there will be a church, not just a person who looks like Jesus, it'll be a church that looks like Jesus. And so, the good of affliction and the love of God. And we will leave the dynamics of affliction for next time. There are a few more verses to look at that are very important. It's not just the element of it being good itself as we've seen, but the element of, like a law of gravity, there's also a law of affliction that brings a lot of hope to the heart of the afflicted that we need to look at, Lord willing. And so we hope to do so in the future. But just in closing, Where's your strength for all of this? How can you really look at the... at a city that's all broken down. Imagine us waking up, beloved, and going down through Wayne and seeing just fire, and seeing that a foreign kingdom has come and dominated us, and half of the population of this whole area has been taken and shipped to another country. We're talking about that level of affliction, and looking around and seeing dead bodies everywhere. And whoever has some kind of strength is digging a coffin, digging a grave. How can we find strength to even look upon all that and say, wait, there's something good about it? There's only one way, and this is understanding that not only is this part of history and the experience of Jeremiah, but he is as a type of Christ, like we did see last Lord's Day, and I end here pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the man of sorrows more than Jeremiah was and more than you and I ever will be. And the reason Jesus experienced all of these pains and more, and even the closeness to His hope never perished, but He did say from the cross, which theologians and pastors have never been able to finish preaching, where He said, My God, who was His Father forever and never separated from Him, but He did say from the cross, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? I'm your son eternally, but I feel forsaken. The sun has stopped shining and he was feeling wrath upon him. You see, it's literally the type of this passage. He begins a text saying, what I'm feeling is the rod of the wrath of God. What is it that Jesus felt on the cross? He felt the rod of the wrath of God because of your sin and mine. If you are a true believer, you need to look to the Lord Jesus and say, Lord, all of my afflictions then finally have this twirling into a sink and go away when I look to the Lord Jesus and His affliction in my place. And you see, and this is where we ought to go in that affliction thinking, in this hurt and sorrow, I'm giving this little bit to feel what my Savior felt for me. He wants me to know what He went through. Not that He needs my pity, but He wants my worship. He wants my love. And, beloved, when you can experience that, you can then fly, as it were, spiritually to the very feet of the cross and say, Lord, how I thank Thee for going through all of that for me, even me. All my hope is regained. All my joy, now I see peace because I see Jesus. So beloved, let your affliction cause you to go to Jesus. He was afflicted precisely as these words describe and infinitely more than what words can describe. And he did it for his own. When you see it that way, you will be able to say, this I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. because of Christ. Let us close in prayer. Our gracious and heavenly Father, we thank thee for thy word. And Lord, one dimension we have not spoken into is how sadly so often, as these very people were the ones who caused so much of Jeremiah's affliction, We're reminded that we're the ones who caused Christ's. Lord, we don't stop doing it, even as we sin against one another. Lord, as believers, sin against believers. Lord, we pray, forgive us. Help us to understand that our sin against our loved ones are the very arrows that come and pierce the heart. They are part of the darkness that the others would feel. They add to the brokenness of the bone and teeth. They are parts of the evil ditties and songs that they hear. Lord, help us to know we are the very ones who, through our sins, add to the afflictions of others, or even, sadly, would be the very affliction of others. There may be those who have no sickness and no disease and no loss of job and nothing that they've ever experienced that was sad, only others who have sinned against them. Lord, help us. Forgive us, Lord, for being the very ones who would afflict thy children. And help us, Lord, to live such holy lives among one another. Help us to see one another as believers, Lord, as thou does see us, as little precious babies who are so in need of care and love that we would literally tiptoe around one another in delicateness and respect and honor, in love, in mercy. Lord, help us to do so. Help us to minimize other people's sins, and have our own truly enlarged in our own eyes, that we would be a humble people, a loving people, and a people who in our own afflictions, we flee to thy love and thy goodness. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.