The Cry

Father, sometimes your word touches things in us that make us very, very worried and very much afraid.

And Father, we're going to be looking at a text today and over the next few days that would be one of those texts

that triggers within us deep worries and concerns and fears about ourselves, about you,

about, well, just about ourselves and about you and about the world.

And so, Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction upon us as we look at this text.

We thank you, Father, that you speak to us, that you love us, that you sent Jesus to die upon the cross for us,

that you desire that we be restored to you.

And so, Father, we thank you for this and bring your word and your gospel home to us very deeply today.

And we ask this in Jesus's name. Amen.

Amen. I have a bit of a tickle in my throat.

Hopefully I won't cough during this. You can pray that I won't.

I'm not sure if we did, in fact, disable the YouTube comments today.

We didn't. I don't know if we did or not.

We talked about it.

And one of the reasons we talked about it is that there was an attempt to have a social media mob against an organization that I'm involved with and actually against us.

And this sort of just erupted on Monday.

And, in fact, actually, it took a lot of my emotional and calendar time and prayer time this week.

I had to write the council and everything an email about it.

I'm the chair of an organization called Dig and Delve that does apologetics events.

And this past Friday we had a live apologetics event featuring Jojo Ruba.

And the original advertisement for the event was Finding a Better Sexual Identity.

Sorry.

Christian Reflections on Conversion Therapy and Sexual Identity.

And then after some conversations with Jojo, we changed the title to Finding a Better Sexual Identity, Gender, Sexuality in Jesus.

Because I don't know if all social media mobs work like this, but probably many of them lamentably do.

Some person decided he was going to stir up an attempt to stir up a cancel culture mob against us.

And as is often the case, he took sort of one or two words, built an entire narrative of his own that had nothing to do with what we were going to say or, in fact, did say since the event happened this past Friday.

In fact, I encourage you to Google, not stay with me for the sermon, but after the sermon, go to Dig and Delve and look up the talk and watch it.

Jojo Ruba did a spectacular job addressing this topic.

Anyway, he builds his own narrative about what's going on.

Very, very hostile.

We have blood on our hand.

We need to be ashamed of ourselves.

We're on the wrong side of history.

We tried to mobilize some other people.

Named the different sponsors.

Tried to get all of the sponsors, every one of the sponsors, to cancel the event.

And anyway, it was an interesting week.

On Monday, it sort of exploded in a small way.

And I wasn't sure if that was going to be something that would escalate and escalate or whether it would fizzle or whether it would stay around the same level.

You know, thanks be to God, it didn't escalate into the thousands or anything like that.

But it still is hard and was hard for some of the sponsors because they literally did want to punish and try to have people be maybe even businesses closed over it.

It was very, very serious.

And I mention this because it's not the case.

I mean, sometimes life can be very, very hard.

This ended up not being that hard.

And on the scale of things going on in the world, gosh, this is just like a teensy-weensy little thing in the scale of things that are going on in the world.

And maybe even in the scale of some of the things that are going on in your own lives, it's a very, very tiny thing.

We're thankful God answered prayer in this case and it just continued on, has caused some trouble.

You know, but, you know, we didn't cancel and we didn't withdraw our sponsorship and we're going to continue to speak about these types of issues.

But sometimes life can be very, very hard.

And how do you live, how do you pray in times when it is very, very hard?

We're going to walk through one of the most difficult books in the Bible, the book of Lamentations.

It's a very, very, very difficult book.

In fact, when I was looking at reading it very carefully now because I'm preaching on it, and I'll point this out one day.

It almost looks like a book that one of God's enemies wrote.

It sometimes feels, when you're reading it, as if you're reading a deconversion blog or story, if you know what those are.

How people have now seen the light, so to speak, and they've given up on the Christian faith.

And in some ways it almost sounds like one of those blogs, yet it's in the Bible.

And it talks about suffering.

It talks about very, very profound suffering.

And it will have, I don't think it is, some very disturbing images, even images of cannibalism, believe it or not, when we go through the five chapters.

We're just going to go through chapter one.

And here's one of the problems that we have when we approach this book.

And here we're going to have, Andrew's going to put up an image, so you'll hear my voice and you're going to see an image.

And here's one of the issues.

The book of Lamentations is actually most famous for a particular verse, a couple of verses.

It's, in fact, what Jono led us in singing.

Great is thy faithfulness.

Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord.

Your mercies are new every morning, new every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness.

The steadfast love of the Lord never faileth.

Your goodness never comes to an end.

That comes from the book of Lamentations.

And usually when you see that quote, you see it with an image, something like what you're seeing right here, hopefully on the screen right now.

You see something of which is somewhere we'd all like to go.

First of all, we'd maybe like it to not be snow and winter right now.

But even if we had a winter version of this, it would be a cabin with snow, a roaring fire, you know, maybe a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, a nice meal.

And this text goes along with it.

And some of you might even have images like that to go along with the verse.

Now, I'm not going to say that you should get rid of those things.

If those verses and those images help you, thanks be to God.

That's all I want to say.

Thanks be to God.

But part of the problem is that for most of us, life isn't like that all of the time.

And it can almost create a type of a romanticism about a romantic spirit.

Like, and I'm using it not in terms of romantic love, but that the movement of romanticism is if everything can be good and well in the world.

And there's a way to manage the world and control the world and wrestle and tackle the world so that everything is just hunky-dory.

And there's just pleasure.

There's just peace.

There's just contentment.

And that verse looks as if it just fits right into it.

But Andrew's going to put up another image right now.

And this is really the image you need to have in your mind when you read the book of Lamentations.

In fact, it might even be helpful because I'm going to encourage you to read all five chapters over this coming week.

In fact, one of the things I really love is when you read the five chapters, if you have questions, comments, things you'd like me to address, send me an email.

I can't promise that I'm going to eat.

And I'll try to see if I can weave those comments and questions, objections into the course of the sermons over the next few weeks.

I can't promise I'm going to deal with all of them.

It depends how many come.

But I will try to.

But if you are reading it, it might be very helpful if you had an image like this before you as you read.

A city in ruins.

Because the fact of the matter is, that is really how that would actually be a far better thing to have.

The steadfast love of the Lord never faileth.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning, new every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness.

This image that you're seeing right now is actually what should go with the text.

Because that's what the book of Lamentations is about.

So, in Jewish tradition, it was written by Jeremiah the prophet after the destruction of Jerusalem.

The temple's destroyed.

The people are destroyed.

They're carried away.

Hardly anybody is left.

The city is in complete and utter ruins.

Complete and utter ruins.

And throughout this, I'm not going to refer to the author as Jeremiah because it's actually an anonymous book.

Jewish tradition gives it to Jeremiah.

I'll probably refer to the poet or the prophet as the writer of this book.

But this book is written after the destruction of Jerusalem amidst the ruins.

And by the end of the poem, the poet is still in the ruins.

And it's talking to God in the midst of ruins.

That's what this book is about.

Talking to God in the midst of ruins.

So, let's look at the text.

And it's Lamentations chapter 1.

Lamentations 1 · chapter mention

It's sort of almost immediately in the beginning at the middle of your Bibles.

Just slightly to the right of the middle of your Bibles.

And here's how it goes.

We're going to read through it.

It's 22 verses.

And we'll read it.

I'll make a couple little comments as I read it.

And then we're going to just sort of try to reflect upon it a little bit.

And here's how it goes.

How lonely sits the city that was full of people.

How like a widow has she become.

She who was great among the nations.

She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.

Now, just before I read any farther, our Jewish friends.

This is a very important book to our Jewish friends.

I'll talk about this more in one of the following weeks.

But the Jewish people believe that the first and second temples were destroyed on the same day.

Obviously separated by about 600, 650 years.

And that not only that, there's several other key things in Jewish history that all got destroyed on the same day.

And in the month of July is a day in the Jewish liturgical calendar to remember these acts of destruction.

And it's a day of fasting for Jewish people.

And in that day of fasting, they recite the entire book of Lamentations.

For those of you who are from a bit of a more traditional Anglican background,

the Jewish people actually do something very similar to what Christians do on Maundy Thursday.

I found it very odd at first, but after a while, the Maundy Thursday service,

back when we still owned a church building, was my favorite church service of the year in an odd way.

But what happens is Maundy Thursday is the day that Jesus institutes the Last Supper.

And after the Last Supper, he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane.

And in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays, of course, with his disciples.

And then the soldiers come and capture him.

The next day, he dies on the cross.

And that day, Maundy Thursday, in the service in the evening,

we remember both the institution of the Lord's Supper and we remember Jesus' capture.

That's how the service ends.

And the way the service ends is that while usually something like Psalm 22 or Psalm 51

or some other lament psalm is being read slowly,

all of the decorations of the church are removed.

All of the decorations, anything that looks nice, is removed from the church, the worship area.

And as the articles that look nice and fine and beautiful are removed,

the church gets darker and darker and darker,

and the service ends in complete and utter darkness and silence.

And it symbolizes or tries to help us to enter into this,

the darkness having now got hold of Jesus in its attempt to extinguish the light.

And our Jewish friends have a similar type of thing for those in their synagogue services

for this very solemn day in the Jewish calendar,

where they remember these many acts of destruction.

And for our Jewish friends, we of course call this book Lamentations as part of the Old Testament.

Our Jewish friends would refer to it as the Tanakh or the Torah.

And it has a different name in the Jewish Bible, so to speak.

And that actually is, the name of the book is How,

from the very first word that appears in the book.

And this word how is used at times of great lament, great mourning, great tragedy.

How could this happen?

How could this happen with God?

How could this happen to us?

How is this possible?

And many of the Psalms, almost a third of the Psalter, the book of Psalms, deals with laments.

And often this word in Hebrew will appear at key moments throughout it.

And that's the name of the book in what our friends call the Tanakh,

our Jewish friends, and what we call the Old Testament.

So we have a different name.

But it's a valid name.

How, as a book title in English, just wouldn't have the same resonance or power that it would

for those for whom Hebrew is their heart language and the language that they know.

But you see right off the bat, it's talking about destruction.

And it's giving us these contrasts between a full city and a lonely city,

a great to nothing, princess to slave.

Verse 2, it continues.

She, now referring to the city, weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks.

Among all her lovers, she has none to comfort her.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her.

They have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude.

She dwells now among the nations but finds no resting place.

Her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

Now just sort of pause here, just to make sure you understand the great tragedy which is being

described, to go among the nations.

I mean, I jokingly say, I mean, I'm looking forward to being able to travel.

I'm looking forward to maybe being able to go across the border or go somewhere else,

to go among the nations.

This is describing homelessness.

This is describing the fact that the people have now scattered.

It would be, not to make it too scary for you, but for those who have families,

it's as if some great tragedy happens.

Imagine a movie and in the midst of the movie, one child goes somewhere else, another child

goes somewhere else, the wife goes somewhere else, the husband goes somewhere else, the

entire family is scattered and you don't know where they are.

And all around you is ruins and around the ruins are enemies.

And your lovers and your counselors and your strong towers of defense are all now ignoring you or in fact

gloating over you and are being revealed as having never loved you or cared for you,

that they've always just used you.

Verse 4, the roads to Zion.

This is another name.

I'll talk about this probably in one of the next sermons about the significance of some of these names.

But we're once again still talking about the same group of people, the same city.

The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival.

All her gates are desolate, her priests groan, her virgins have been afflicted,

and she herself suffers bitterly.

Her foes have become the head, her enemies prosper.

Because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.

Now this is a gobsmacking statement.

And for many Canadian Christians, maybe every single Canadian Christian,

this creates a high amount of anxiety.

And you can see, when I said at the beginning that in some ways the book of Lamentations

sounds like a book written by the triune God's enemies,

you can start to see why I said that.

When I said that in many ways this looks exactly like a blog

written by those deconversion blog sites,

you can start to see why I said that.

For a Christian who accepts that Jesus is their Savior and their Lord,

and accepts how Jesus understood the Bible,

then I have to accept the Bible the same way Jesus does,

and that is that this is actually, God caused this to be written.

Not his enemies, but the triune God caused this to be written.

Now, this aspect here, which is very difficult,

I am going to talk about this a little bit after I finish reading chapter one of Lamentations,

but some of you are going to be a little bit dissatisfied.

I hope none of you will be dissatisfied.

I hope we'll all be challenged by this text in a way which is very, very good.

But because this theme, this idea, recurs in every one of the five chapters,

I'm going to sort of look at little bits of aspects of this particular thing

every week over the five chapters.

But I want to make sure you noticed it.

You see, one of the things, those of you who might be chancing to watch this,

at the Church of the Messiah, we believe that it's wisest to read through books of the Bible.

The Bible is written as books.

In fact, the book of Lamentations is one of the most ornately,

carefully structured books of the Bible.

It's very, very, each one of the, I'll talk about it more in another week,

but the structure is actually very, very intricate.

Five separate poems, but they're all linked.

And the themes are linked, and some of them develop over time.

So I will talk a little bit about this at the end of the text,

and I'll talk a little bit about it every week.

And that's one of the things you can do, is you can pray for me,

and pray for yourselves as you read this text.

I'll read it again, verse five again.

Her foes have become the head, her enemies prosper,

because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.

Her children have gone astray, captive before the foe.

In fact, just before I go anything farther,

it's as if it goes, on one hand, it's given the type of thing

that a poet or a journalist would talk about if they went to Aleppo,

if they went to some place that had been destroyed.

And we were just talking about things naturalistically,

what happened, what didn't happen.

And now all of a sudden there's this profound theological part of the whole discussion.

Verse six,

From the daughter of Zion all her majesty has departed.

Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture.

In other words, they're starving to death, they're doomed.

They fled without strength before the pursuer.

In other words, the pursuer will capture them.

And by the way, this actually is what happened.

One of the things that happens when Nebuchadnezzar is responsible for the fall of Jerusalem,

one of the horrific things that he did is he captures the final king.

And then he has the final king,

and I guess they must have forced his eyes open and his head in one position.

And one by one, all of his friends and all of his children are killed.

And when they kill the final one of his friends and the final one of his children and family,

then they blind him so that the very last things he ever sees

is the death of his loved ones and his advisors and his family.

They don't kill him.

They want to torment him and torture him.

Verse seven,

Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering

all the precious things that were hers from days of old

when her people fell into the hand of the foe

and there was none to help her.

Her foes gloated over her.

They mocked at her downfall.

Jerusalem sinned grievously.

Therefore, she became filthy.

All who honored her despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness.

She herself groans and turns her face away.

I just want to notice what's been said here.

In verse five is this shocking idea that God is responsible

at some real level for the destruction and the ruin of Jerusalem.

And now we see here something which is actually also quite shocking.

The poet acknowledges that they have sinned.

There's going to be complaints before God,

cries of anguish before God about what has gone on,

puzzlement before God as to why this has befallen her and not her enemies as well.

Like why, how come her?

How come them?

But one of the things which is quite shocking and striking here,

and you will see it continually throughout the book,

if you read it carefully,

if you, in a sense, overcome your fear,

and you read the text,

you'll see that there's an acknowledgement of guilt on their part.

Verse eight,

Jerusalem sinned grievously.

Therefore, she became filthy.

All who honored her despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness.

She herself groans and turns her face away.

That's what I just read.

Verse nine,

her uncleanness was in her skirts.

She took no thought of her future.

Therefore, her fall is terrible.

She has no comforter.

Oh, Lord, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed.

Two things here.

First of all,

she acknowledges that she took no sense of the consequences of her action.

And now the consequences have come.

And in verse nine,

this last little third bit,

Oh, Lord, behold my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed.

For the first time,

now there's going to be different things in the Hebrew.

I might or might not tell you about it.

Part of the ornateness about second voice and third voice and all of that stuff.

But here is the first time now that the poet addresses the Lord,

the triune God.

It's a prayer.

It's going to happen again in verse 11,

and it's going to end versus the last few verses are going to end in prayer as well.

And here's that little arrow prayer,

so to speak,

not a long ornate prayer,

but just this quick little arrow prayer.

Oh, Lord,

behold,

my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed.

And by the way,

in the original language,

it's actually,

and it's captured quite well here with the enemy.

The implication is that it's not only the enemy of Jerusalem,

but it's the enemy of God.

That these people who have triumphed

and brought about the ruin of this man's life

and the ruin of the city,

that they're also God's enemies.

You see,

this text is so nuanced in terms of reflecting upon life.

But let's continue on in verse 10.

The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things,

for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary,

those whom you forbade to enter your congregation.

In other words,

they've entered by force to destroy.

Haven't entered by faith to worship.

They haven't entered by faith to seek,

to seek him,

to know him,

to enter into relationship with them,

but they've entered as enemies to destroy.

Verse 11,

all her people groan as they search for bread.

They trade their treasures for food to revive their strength.

And here's now the second prayer.

It's a little arrow prayer.

I use it in terms of it's just this quick one shot up to God,

looking to the Lord,

talking now not to people around,

not to himself or herself,

could have been written by a woman,

but looking right to God and says,

Lord,

O Lord,

look,

O Lord,

and see,

for I am despised.

Verse 12,

is it nothing to you,

all you who pass by,

look and see,

is,

if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

which is brought,

which was brought upon me,

which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

From on high,

he sent fire into my bones.

He made it descend.

He spread a net for my feet.

He turned me back.

He has left me stunned,

faint all the day long.

My transgressions were bound into a yoke.

By his hand,

they were fastened together.

They were set upon my neck.

He caused my strength to fail.

The Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand.

The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst.

He summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men.

The Lord has trodden as in a winepress,

the virgin daughter of Judah.

For these things I weep.

My eyes flow with tears.

For a comforter is far from me,

one to revive my spirit.

My children are desolate,

for the enemy has prevailed.

It does sound a little bit,

doesn't it,

apart from the prayers,

as if it's written by one of the Lord's enemies,

rather than the Lord.

I mean the poet,

and now included by the Lord in his word.

The Lord being the ultimate writer of the scripture.

Verse 17,

Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is none to comfort her.

The Lord has commanded against Jacob

that his neighbors should be his foes.

Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them.

The Lord is in the right.

Isn't that shocking?

Is this so that the writer is a bit of a masochist?

I mean,

I guess some might say that.

It shows a type of masochism,

a type of doormat type of mentality.

One of those types of ideas that we rebel against in our culture,

because we are to be the master of our fate,

we are to be the master of our castle,

we are to be the master of our circumstances,

and anything which does not encourage us to be the master of our karma,

the master of our destiny,

the master of our salvation,

the master of our marriages,

the master of our wealth,

is looked down upon.

It's to deny this idea that there's these techniques,

these ways of handling and managing yourself,

your emotions,

your fears,

your vision of the future,

your children,

your family,

your job,

your neighborhood,

your country,

the weather,

the movement of the stars.

Oh,

one moment.

As soon as I say that,

we start to realize,

maybe there's a problem with this view.

And maybe part of the problem,

you see,

here's one of the things which I'm going to suggest.

The problem we have with the Bible is that it's too realistic.

We think we are realistic,

and that when we read the Bible,

we're reading something which is unrealistic.

But what actually is the case is that the Bible is too realistic for us

who dwell amongst delusions and illusions and fantasies of our greatness and of our mastery.

And because we constantly are consumed with illusions, delusions, and lies,

we, in our arrogance,

think that when we come upon the Bible,

we are reading something which is not in the real world.

But the fact of the matter is,

is that the Bible is vastly too realistic for most of us to handle,

including myself.

See, that's one of the reasons, friends,

that, you know, for me,

you begin with the gospel,

you begin with Jesus and what he has done for you

and how he gripped,

how he has dealt with that which keeps you far from him,

and he has done that which makes you right with him.

And it's, in a sense,

in a very, very real and powerful sense

that it's the gospel which is to grip us

and to start to give us a bit of a comfort

to go and look at these very, very difficult texts

which describe the reality of who we are at the level of our heart.

In the context of the triune God and the real world,

not the fantasy world

that we keep trying to impose upon the real world.

Verse 18 again,

The Lord is in the right,

for I have rebelled against his word.

But hear, all you peoples,

and see my suffering.

My young women and my young men have gone into captivity.

I called to my lovers,

but they deceived me.

My priests and elders perished in the city

while they sought food to revive their strength.

This poem closes with prayer.

Verses 20, 21, and 22 closes with prayer.

Look, O Lord, for I am in distress.

My stomach churns.

My heart is wrung within me

because I have been very rebellious.

In the streets, the sword bereaves.

In the house, it is like death.

They heard my groaning,

yet there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble.

They are glad that you have done it.

You have brought the day you announced.

Now let them be as I am.

Let all their evil doing come before you

and deal with them as you have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions.

For my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.

And Christians say,

this is the word of the Lord,

and we try to respond,

thanks be to God.

Now, just a couple of things

as we reflect upon this.

The first thing is,

if maybe all of a sudden

I could ask Andrew

to put up that very, very first image.

The steadfast love of the Lord

never faileth.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning,

new every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness.

That's actually as we're going to see,

and actually I'll just read it right now

because we'll come back to it.

If you go to,

it's not going to be on your text.

I should have had that.

You just have to read the Bible.

Trust me that it's there.

And next week,

I'll make sure I have Andrew

have it up on the screen or whoever.

The steadfast,

chapter 3, verse 22,

to sort of the very center

of the entire book

is this part of the book

which is radically different

than the rest.

I'll talk about it more in a moment,

but here's how it goes.

The steadfast love of the Lord

never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

But you can see

that to have this text read

with the image,

which I think is still in front of you,

is not to actually understand

where the book,

where that verse comes from.

So, Andrew,

if you could put up the other image,

the image of the ruined city,

or Claire,

I think it's Claire

putting up the images.

This,

the book of Lamentations,

the poet writes it

amidst the rubble.

And by the end of the book,

he's still in the rubble.

And in the very middle

of the whole,

of the five prayers,

the five laments,

is this profound text.

The steadfast love of the Lord

never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

And there's other texts

along that same line

that come after it

that we'll look at more

when we come to chapter three.

So, here's just a couple of ways

to try to get our minds

around what's happening.

By the way,

I really understand

that my primary job

is to hopefully be one with you

as you,

to help you read the text

for yourself.

Because God wrote this text

for you and I

to read it and to pray it.

Our Jewish friends

pray this text

as part of their synagogue worship

when they remember

these acts of destruction

that have befallen their people.

And obviously,

it's had a very special poignancy

since the Holocaust

happened to them.

But here's the first thing.

Many of us have a very,

very, very hard trouble

with this whole idea

that God could be involved

in their punishment.

But here's the fact,

the matter is,

and here's where I say

the text,

if we get beyond

our just childish response,

our unreflective response,

and in our age of social media,

unreflective responses

is primarily what we see

in social media

and lots of the world.

And it reflects just who we are.

That we take the Bible

after it's read that

and we throw it away.

How dare you?

I hate that.

And we stomp

and we just sort of say,

that's one of the reasons

I'm not a Christian.

That's one of the reasons

I hate Christianity.

That's one of the reasons

I hate Christians.

But let's just pause

for a moment

and just ask ourselves,

this is the first

of five separate questions

that we'll look at,

at least five,

over the next few weeks.

In the real world,

you always have consequences,

don't you?

You think about it

for a second.

I'm getting older.

The other day,

I was,

somebody who was 30

said that they were

already entering middle age.

And I said that

I planned to live

to over 120,

so I've just entered middle age.

And they hadn't

entered middle age,

yet not even clear

at the quarter age.

Of course,

I won't live to 120.

But you know what?

If in the real world,

nature has consequences.

I mean,

if all of a sudden

I was to decide

that from now on

I'm going to have

a cheese omelet

with sausage

and bacon

and white toast

with lots of butter,

and that would be

my breakfast every day,

and the rest of the day

it would be alternating

between extra cheesy,

meaty pizza,

Big Macs,

and poutine,

and that's all I ate,

well,

you would expect me

to have particular consequences

from that.

They wouldn't be good.

I wouldn't end up

looking like the rock

by the end of it.

And I wouldn't live

to be 120.

Nature has its consequences.

You drink too much alcohol,

you often have liver problems,

you smoke cigarettes,

the odds are going up

of you having cancer.

You go on and on and on.

The fact of the matter is

that's separate from the fact

that if you ever watch the movie,

it's a really funny movie

with Will Ferrell

and I should have,

and Mark Wahlberg.

I think it's called

The Other Guys,

and at the beginning

of the movie

they have these macho cops

that you see.

In fact,

I think it's acted by The Rock,

and I can't remember

who the other,

oh, maybe Samuel L. Jackson,

and it's really funny.

At the beginning of the movie,

you know,

they're invincible, etc.,

and there's this time

when the bad guys

sort of are all surrounding them,

and they're at the top

of a 20-story building,

and they decide

their way to escape

is to jump off it,

and of course in movies

people survive these falls

all the time,

but of course in this movie

they die,

because if you jump off

a 20-story building,

you die.

Like, nature has consequences.

So if nature punishes

things against nature,

why can't God?

In fact,

think about it more.

You punish other people.

You punish other people.

You do.

If they do something against you,

you try to punish them.

If you can't punish them

because they're more powerful

than you,

then often you deal

with revenge fantasies

where you enter into depression.

But the fact of the matter

is you punish people

when they go wrong against you,

so why can't God?

The fact of the matter is,

if the government punishes people,

I mean,

one of the things

which is going on

with this lockdown right now,

those of you

who are watching this live,

is that two things.

First of all,

I don't care what the polls say,

most people are in some ways

breaking the protocols.

You know,

they give themselves

mulligans and passes

for small infringements,

and one of the things

which is keeping them

from bigger doing it

is in many cases

that they're afraid

that their neighbors

will tattle on them

and have huge fines.

But the government

punishes people.

Why can't the triune God?

You punish yourself.

Why can't the triune God

punish you?

And in a sense,

and this, by the way,

is a problem

in all of our relationships,

if we're just very,

very honest about it.

Because, you see,

the fact of the matter is

is that we feel

quite self-righteous

and justified

in punishing other people.

Like this attempt

by the person

to create the social media storm.

There were attempts

to reach out to him

very early on

just to clarify

what we were

and were not doing,

and in fact,

what he said we were doing

was not at all

what we were doing.

What we were proposing

was not at all

what we were proposing.

But the fact of the matter

is that was irrelevant.

They just wanted to punish.

And that's a very real thing

for many of us as well

that we just want to punish.

But one of the main problems,

whether it's with friends,

whether it's in families,

whether it's in workplaces,

whether it's in societies,

that we want to have

a different standard

applied to ourselves

or our buddies

than we apply to our enemies

or those who are standing

in the way of what we want.

But isn't that

what really happens?

So what happens

in your friendship

and your friend says to you

that it's obvious

you think there's

a different standard

that should be applied to you

than is applied

to everybody else,

but why do you get that pass?

Why do you get that mulligan?

Why do you get it

and nobody else gets it?

Like, isn't that just

part of the normal life?

And if that's what

normal life is,

in fact,

if you think about it

for a second,

we in fact encourage people

to punish.

That, in fact,

if one of you said something

like if one of you came

and your husband,

it was fun that your husband

had cheated on you

and you told people

and you said,

I don't think I'm going

to do anything about it,

they'd say,

what are you thinking?

What are you thinking?

You're going to let him do that

and not have him

have any consequences?

So if it's all right

for us to think

and talk that way,

why is it not right

for God,

the triune God?

Why is it that you think

you get a pass?

But you think about it

for a second.

By the way,

this goes on with,

in Islam,

in all of the Eastern religions,

in paganism,

there's always consequences.

So whether you're a naturalist

and just think there's

the natural order

and nothing else,

whether you believe

there is some type

of Eastern religion

and there's karma

and consequences,

whether you're a Muslim

and you believe

there's some type of,

you know,

in that particular case,

Allah can just sort of

do whatever Allah wants.

There doesn't even have

to be a reason.

You can just do it.

But that leads us

to our second thing.

What do you do

in the midst

of these consequences?

Where can you go?

Now,

what are the things

that we,

yeah,

where do you go?

Like,

if you think about it,

there's nothing I can do

when nature,

and when I violate things,

if I jump off a building,

there's nowhere

I can appeal to

in terms of having violated it.

And if it turns out

that five years

after my diet

of extra cheesy omelets

with lots of bacon

and sausage

and white toast buttered

and a diet

of extra cheesy

meat lovers pizza,

Big Macs,

double Big Macs

or even better,

and poutine,

I,

like,

I can't,

can I appeal to biology

for,

like,

there's nothing I can do.

There's nowhere

that I can appeal

to the natural order.

Excuse me.

In a sense,

there's nowhere

to appeal with karma.

There's nowhere

to appeal even with Allah.

Where do you go?

See,

the fact of the matter is,

is that what is,

one of the things

which we find

so surprising

about the text

is that not only

have they admitted

that

they have done wrong

and they are experiencing

God's punishment

and they're admitting

this in the midst

of the ruins,

they didn't admit it

while they thought

they could get by

with no consequences,

they didn't admit it

when they thought

that their solution

was to go to more lovers

or more idols.

But now that everything

has been destroyed,

they cry out to God

and they realize

that where else

can you go?

You see,

the fact of the matter

is,

is that the,

in the biblical worldview,

the rightness of God

is both the source

of punishment,

but also is their only hope,

our only hope

in the midst

of the ruins.

Think about it

for a second.

You can't appeal to nature,

you can't appeal to Allah,

you can't appeal to,

at the end of the day,

in Eastern religions

or in Buddhism,

there's nowhere

to appeal to.

There's not even a God.

And at the end of the day,

even within Hinduism,

I mean,

obviously in lived Hinduism,

because it's too hard

for us to live this

emotionally and psychologically,

you can appeal

to the different gods

and goddesses

within the broader,

more popular type

of Hinduism.

But at a philosophical level,

in a sense,

there is no one

to appeal to.

But in Christianity,

in the triune God,

the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit,

love and goodness

from all eternity,

other,

the other

from all eternity,

yet just one God.

the very,

very rightness

and justice

and goodness

of God,

which is the source,

ultimately,

of us ignoring

his warnings,

thinking there are

no consequences

and someday

there finally is

consequences,

that very same

God's character

is also the source

of our hope.

See,

that's why

the poet can pray,

you know,

Lord,

look,

Lord,

remember,

Lord,

note.

they are

in the midst

of the ruins,

both not hiding

at all

or pretending

that the real world

isn't the real world.

They are fully

and utterly

in the real world

and in the real world

there is,

in fact,

a God

who is just

and right

and desires

rightness

and is the only one

who can restore

rightness.

And that's why

it's part of the wonder

of the whole book

is that

it's the importance

of the story.

One of the problems

that Christians have

is that we read

the Bible

as if it's just

a series of quotes.

But in fact,

it's not

that the steadfast love

of the Lord

never faileth.

It's not just a quote

to put on our fridge.

It's part of the middle

of the whole book.

It's as the poet

is beginning

to call out

to the Lord,

remembering who

the Lord is,

that he is the one.

Only he is right.

He tolerates no evil.

He tolerates no injustice.

He tolerates none of that.

He is only good.

He has punished us

because we have violated that.

And now we call out to him

because he is the only hope

we have in the midst of it,

but he is a God

who hears.

And for us as Christians,

we see this

because the book

of Lamentations

is part of a bigger story.

For us,

we see that

in the bigger story

that this true

and greater mercy,

the steadfast love

of the Lord

never faileth.

His mercies

never come to an end.

They are new every morning.

They are new every morning.

And this great promise

in the middle

of the book

of Lamentations,

we,

for the writer,

all he could do

is two types of things.

The poet could both

look back at the Exodus

and about God's defeat

of Midian

and God's defeat

of the Persian Empire.

And at the same time,

I guess that's sort of

the future.

He hasn't defeated

the Persian Empire

when this is being written.

I got that out of order.

You also think

you can just sort of

look forward

to all those prophecies

and Isaiah and Jeremiah

and Ezekiel,

contemporaries of the poet

of some day

in the future.

And we can look at it

and understand how

the ruin,

he was ruined

in my place

that I

restored

will stand.

He was ruined

in my place

that I

restored

will stand.

That that

is preparing us

to understand

the great

punishment

that I deserve

that falls

on him

that I

can stand

before him

righteous

and right

with God.

And that

in the overarching

story,

there's this

constant understanding

that all have

sinned and fall

short of the glory

of God.

And we're going to

look at this

in the future,

that there's none

that are righteous,

not one,

including especially

me.

But in the overarching

story of the Bible,

God creates

everything good,

human beings

desiring to be

like God,

to give

themselves

passes,

to take

his place.

They bring

evil and

destruction and

ruin into the

world.

And then God

begins to

promise that

he will

restore what

human beings

cannot restore.

And this

book of

Lamentations

comes within

that part,

looking to

Jesus.

And Jesus

has come and

the ruin that

I deserve and

you deserve is

laid on him

so that I

restored to

God might

stand.

And now we

live in the

already not yet,

that on one

level this is

true of everyone

who puts their

faith and

trust in

Jesus,

that Jesus

will never

let you

go.

That your

faith,

your hope,

is not how

strong your

grip is on

him,

because your

grip, if it's

all like me,

there will be

times your

grip completely

and utterly

lets go,

but he will

never lose

his grip of

you.

Even if you

are hearing

this in the

midst of the

ruins of your

finances, the

ruins of your

family, the

ruins of your

emotions, the

fact of the

matter is,

as at some

point in time

the final

word, earthly

word about

you, will

be ruined,

because you

will die, as

will I.

But the

story continues,

which is why

we had the

book of

Revelation read,

is at the

end, there

will be a

new heaven and

a new earth,

all tears

will be wiped

away, all

justice will

be final, and

we will stand

before the

throne, not

because we

were particularly

righteous

ourselves, but

because of the

lamb who was

slain, who

has made us

righteous, because

the ruin that I

deserved was

laid on him,

that I in

him restored

might be to

stand before the

presence of the

triune God for

all eternity.

And that can be

the final word

about you.

If you are in

Christ, that is

the final word

about you.

If you are not

yet in Christ,

that can be the

final word about

you.

So just as we

close, I've

already gone

longer than I

intended.

One of the

wonderful things,

we'll look at

this every week,

is you can say

this to God.

God.

That's one of

the hopeful

things that you

can have by the

book of

Lamentations.

It's one of the

reasons why it's

not helpful for

us to only have

the pleasant

images on the

magnets.

And then you

almost feel as

if you can't

bring this

complaint and

anger and

puzzlement to

God, like

where can you

go?

But Lamentations

shows you that

you can say

this to God.

Pour out your

heart to him.

And we'll look

at more of that

in the weeks to

come.

Let's close

our eyes in

prayer.

Lord, we ask

that you bring

your word home

to us.

We ask that you

bring the

gospel home to

us.

If there are

any here who

have not yet

given their

lives to

Jesus, we ask

that this would

be the day that

they call out to

you and say,

Lord, be my

savior.

I thank you that

the ruin that I

deserved has been

laid upon you.

All the ruin,

all the ruin of

my past, my

present, my

future has been

laid on you,

that I might be

restored to you

and stand before

you forever as

your child, your

loved and beloved

child.

And so, Father,

we ask that you

help us to be more

gripped with the

gospel, that you

help us to be more

honest in our

prayers.

And we ask,

Father, that you

help us to pray for

our city and for

the world, to not

look down upon the

world as we pray,

but as we see the

hard parts of the

world, that that

would cause us to

call out in prayer

for them.

And all these

things we ask in

the name of Jesus,

your son and our

savior.

Amen.