Yeah. Yeah. Good morning and welcome, welcome to all. It is good to be in the house of the Lord, our God. It is good to come before him on this, his day, a day set apart to praise him, to worship him, to hear his word to us. So again, welcome to all young, all old, all visitors, all members. It is good to be in God's house. And so let us begin. Let's begin with a moment of silent reverent prayer before him. And if you would stand our call to worship coming from the Psalms from Psalm 22. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nation shall worship before you for kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. Indeed, directing your attention to the bulletin, I ask this, congregation, where does your help come from? Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Let us receive then God's greeting this morning. grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God, the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love. Amen. Let us, people of God, then open together in song our opening Psalm of Praise, 22D, from that 22nd Psalm, 22D. The ends of all the earth shall hear And turn unto the Lord in fear All kindreds of the earth worship him as God alone. All earth to him her homage raise, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. For he's the King of kings of right, he rules the nations is is shall worship Him on bended knee, and children's children shall proclaim the glorious honor of His name. ♪ The Lord, our Lord, the King of kings ♪ ♪ The Lord's unwavering righteousness ♪ ♪ All generations shall confess ♪ ♪ From age to age shall wealth be found ♪ The wondrous works the Lord hath wrought, All are new in her homage's ways, The Lord, our Lord, the King of kings. Amen. It is time now for the reading of God's perfect revealed will for our lives. 10 Commandments, Exodus chapter 20. Let us hear now the word of our God. And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant or your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's. This is the, we might say the 10 part summary and that there are certainly more to the law, mostly stated in terms of what we ought not to do and the Lord Jesus Christ gave the two part positive what you ought to do summary. When he said this, that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And so, people of God, we know what it is. We know what we ought not to do. We know what we ought to do. God has laid these things clearly before us. The path is lit by the word of God. We know what is right. And people of God, even as we know what is right, we know that we will all and all do each and every day fall short of these things. And so even now, let us come before our Lord in a prayer of confession this morning. Lord God Almighty, make your word to be the light on the path that we travel, on the path of our lives. As we go about our daily work, as our minds contemplate all day long, Lord, may your word direct us in how to think and how to act in our duty to worship you, to always be praising you, Lord God, we know that even as your law itself is perfect, that our way has been perfectly lit, yet our feet are wandering feet. Our hearts are wandering hearts. Lord, remind us of this. Let us not to be self-deceived, as the apostle says, is the state of all who would say they have no sin. But Lord, let us not to be overburdened by this, but rather in turning to you in confession of sins, leave our sins at your feet. And then may we go forth and grow in sanctification, in learning to be holy as you are always holy, holy, holy. So this, Lord, is our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. People of God, you may remain seated as we turn to number 177. Number 177, let us sing together the three stanzas. ♪ I was reborn ♪ ♪ I see my sins against thee, Lord ♪ ♪ The sins of God's unbeaten word ♪ ♪ Request peace, O right guide to me ♪ ♪ O God, in mercy grant me peace ♪ ♪ And I ask you with clear deep heart ♪ ♪ Confident, proud to be my heart ♪ ♪ That truly penitent I be ♪ ♪ All loving, merciful to thee ♪ All to Thy house and be strengthened, O God, be merciful to us. Amen. And now, people of God, let us hear a word concerning the assurance of pardon, the assurance of salvation for all those who come to the Lord God in true faith. And we come now to the book of Isaiah. We've been working book by book through the Old Testament. We'll spend more than one week in Isaiah, and we'll start this week with Isaiah chapter 12, the six verses You will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation and you will say in that day. Give thanks to the Lord. Call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples. Proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. People of God, how is the anger of God turned away that we can burst forth with joy at salvation of the salvation of God and the water of the wells of salvation found in God? It's anger which is turned away by His Son, Jesus Christ, who took that anger upon Himself. The New Testament speaks of this in no uncertain terms. We are sinners. God is righteously angry at sin. Jesus Christ has taken our sins upon himself. There is assurance of pardon. There is salvation in him, our savior. People of God, let us come before this God, seated upon the heavenly throne with Jesus Christ at his right hand, our mediator. This is where we come in prayer. And let us come before God in prayer this morning. Lord God Almighty, in you we find the one who has the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and truth. Lord, our Lord, you are righteousness. You are truth. And you are the one who lifts up those who are oppressed. You are the one who judges rightly by the poor. Lord, oppression is so common in the history of man. And it is the weakest who are the most vulnerable, who are the most often taken advantage of. And yet, Lord God, you are the equalizer. In you, everything is seen. Every motive of the heart is known. Every side of the case is heard. And for all who would plead upon your name, for all who would in truth come before you, you are. the paraclete, the one who comes alongside, the advocate, the one who declares the case, and you are the one who has yourself stepped in and become our righteousness. For Lord, we are all sinners. Those who are physically poor are sinners and must be poor in heart before you. Those who for which external oppression is easily seen. Lord, they too are sinners and stand in need of being humbled and made poor before you, poor in spirit, poor in acknowledging who they are, who we are before you. Lord, as we think of oppressions and chaos, we think of brothers and sisters around the world who suffer from severe persecutions. And we think of the rising chaos of our own nation. We pray that you would restore justice, that this would be done in wisdom, in accordance with your laws, which, Lord God, that is the law which brings freedom. That is the law by which we all should live. And so Lord, we pray that you would be with our nation, especially in this time of division and vitriol, when those who disagree can barely speak a sentence to each other, whether that's at the highest levels of authority and power, or whether that's two neighbors living across the street. Lord, make us to be those who would speak with salt and light, make us to be those who would speak graciously, but yes, truthfully. Lord, we pray that you would be with us as we think of the need of truth. We know that this is centered not merely upon knowing your laws and upon the right desire for peace, But more essentially, this is found in the need for eternal peace and the need for hearing the very good news and who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. Lord, we think of those who would labor, even very particularly in this task. We think of those such as Reverend Brian Zegers and the Outreach Ministry to Muslims in Ontario. We think of each one of us, Lord God. Make us all to remember that it is our task to speak the good news, the reason why we have a hope, and that our hope is in Jesus. Lord God, give us the opportunities and open our mouths when the opportunities come. Lord, we think also of your local church, that all of your local churches would be those who would speak the truth week by week within the congregation and within the walls of the church and also would be avenues of salt and light in their respective communities. So we think of sister churches such as Redeemer URC in St. John, Indiana within our classes, not too far from us. We think of Reverend Roots and the brothers and sisters in Christ there. We think of how Reverend Roots has been faithfully serving there for many years and now has a brief sabbatical. We pray that he would be refreshed in that time. We pray that you would be also with Reverend Coleman, and we think of the many needs which a church plant has, and this is one of the church plants among our sister churches, and we pray that you would be with those who are gathering there in Vancouver, Washington. We pray that you would provide a place for them to worship. We pray that you would provide elders, Lord, that you would raise up faithful shepherds and leaders of this fledgling flock. And we pray that you would then grow them, grow them through new members, through unbelievers coming to faith in Christ. And Lord God, may all of this done, may it be done in this particular church plant and local church and outreach ministry. May this be done here, may this be done Among all those who call upon the name of the Lord, may there be faithful teaching, according to your word, faithful preaching of the good news of Jesus. Lord, this is our prayer for us, even this very morning, and the very opening and preaching of your word this morning. Lord, be with your people. We think of those who are elderly, especially Cal and Bernie, of those ongoing battles with disease. We think of Keith, continue to uphold him, Dee by his side. We think of more acute health needs, we give thanks for a successful surgery for Amy Vandenberg, and we pray that you would be with her recovery and the physical therapy now. We think of those who are far from us, such as Andre and Thomas and Francois and Melissa. Lord God, strengthen and sustain each one of them. And thinking of strengthening and sustaining, we think also of the harvest season ongoing. Lord God, give strength to each one who labors in such a season and give both safety and good harvest to those labors. Lord, our Lord, this is our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Let us, people of God, stand and sing our psalm of preparation, 80B, 1, 2, 5, and 6. Stanzas 1, 2, 5, and 6 of 80B. in love, midshare of indwelling, shine thou from above. Rejoice, O Israel, thy people restored, and we shall be saved. you I was Amen people of God let us turn then to the reading Lamentations chapter 5 we come to the close of this little book Lamentations Chapter 5, that's page 876 in most of the Pew Bibles. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. The broader scope doesn't bring about Anything new, we're still in that same situation. There are some new details, and that will be our focus here in the fifth chapter. Lamentations chapter five. Let us hear the word of God. Remember, O Lord, what has befallen us. Look and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans, fatherless. Our mothers are like widows. We must pay for the water we drink. The wood we get must be bought. Our pursuers are at our necks. We are weary. We are given no rest. We have given the hand to Egypt and to Assyria to get enough bread. Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their iniquities. Slaves rule over us. There is none to deliver us from their hand. We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. Our skin is hot as an oven with the burning heat of famine. Women are raped in Zion. Young women in the towns of Judah. Princes are hung up by their hands. No respect is shown to the elders. Young men are compelled to grind at the mill, and boys stagger under loads of wood. The old men have left the city gate. The young men, their music. The joy of our hearts has ceased. Our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned. For this, our heart has become sick. For these things, our eyes have grown dim. For Mount Zion, which lies desolate, jackals prowl over it. But you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so many days? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored. Renew our days as of old, unless you have utterly rejected us and you remain exceedingly angry with us. So far the reading of God's word. The grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is sin everywhere in this passage. There is the sin of the Babylonians, the foreigners who are now in power and are using that power in oppressive, in unjust ways. There is the sins of the people of Judah. And there is also reference to past sins, the sins of their forefathers. In short, commentator Paul House, looking at chapter five, summarized it this way, quote, it has taken many years and many sins to arrive at this situation, end of quote. Certainly all this sin has led to much brokenness, brokenness, physical brokenness in a land full of oppression and a broken relationship, the broken relationship between God and His rebellious covenant people. But God can renew the relationship, can't He? We know this answer already. We've been here, some of us through the whole series, for Lamentations 3. We know that God is faithful. God can restore. And so we see this pattern again with some new details in the fifth chapter. God alone can renew broken generations. And there is a focus on generations and things ongoing, reference back to the past, reference to the future. And so those are our three points this morning. Generations ruined, generations responsible, and generations restored. So first generations ruined, and we see the ruin so starkly. We've seen it already in Lamentations. There is one detail which has not been a focus. It's been, we might say, mentioned in the background, and now it comes to the foreground. And it is this reality, the reality of verse 2, that our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners. You see, there were some who were not brought directly into exile. There were some who were allowed to stay in Judea. But is this land theirs anymore? No, it's not. The land belongs to another. They still live in the same city, the few who were left behind, but it's not theirs. My home is no longer mine, even if I'm one of the people of Judea who's actually living in the home I used to live in, and I'm not living in the ash sheep, as we've seen described in the first four chapters. Even if I'm one who, my home wasn't destroyed, my home wasn't occupied by these new rulers, these new governors, these new officers of the land. Even then, even if I am still living in my old home, it's no longer mine. It's no longer mine. See, personal property was very carefully detailed out in Levitical law. You had personal family property and it went from one family to the next. That's a big one of the things which the genealogies show us, for example, and there are many details in the law for how if a family loses its land, you ought to restore that land to them. There are details about what you do with the orphans and the widows who have lost their land and how a family kinsmen redeemer is to come alongside. We see that, of course, in the Book of Ruth. We'll see that again in actually our text tonight from Proverbs 23. All of these things, personal property, you own the land that you were on. And it was protected very specifically, even in Levitical laws. Well, now what's happened? That's all gone. That's all gone. My inheritance is no longer mine. All of the Levitical protections now mean nothing because our elders have been pushed out of the city gate, verse 14. What does that mean? That means that they don't listen to those who used to rule us. They are completely shut out. Some of our leaders have even been killed, verse 12. Princes have been hung up. We have no more leadership. We have no more say. The land no longer belongs to us. complete loss of personal property, complete loss of self-rule. We are now ruled by slaves, verse eight. Slaves rule over us. That could be referenced to a couple of different things there. Could be referenced to the fact that the Edomites now have a position of authority over them. The Edomites who used to be the slaves of Israel because they had been part of the opposition to their coming into the promised land so many centuries before. They're under the rule of slaves in the sense that they're no longer ruled by their own king sitting on the seat in Jerusalem No, they're now ruled over by underlings of the Babylonian Empire Emperor who's far away Rule by slaves. We're not ruled by our own king. We don't own our own land And This foreign rule is oppressive rule water and wood verse 4 essential things essential things basic things that if you own the land you have access to the wood if you own the land you have access to the water but that's no longer true it's no longer true the land is no longer mine so I now must pay exorbitant prices and in fact I cannot afford these things I can't afford the water I can't afford the wood now water is still pretty basic to our needs. We still know that. Would, we perhaps don't think about as being as important as it used to be, but we can think of it this way. All of your drinks are gone. You can hardly afford to drink water or maybe you don't drink that much water, but your basic drink that you need, still hopefully water for many of us, and your basic, well, what is wood? What is wood? Wood is so basic, it's how you have fuel for the fire to cook your food, to keep your house warm. In other words, we could just use 21st century language and look at verse four and two and the surrounding verses and it's saying, look, I have no personal property, I have no fuel. I can't run my car. I can't run my machines. I can't heat my house. I can't cook my dinner. None of these things. This is the state now. This is the state even for those who are still in Jerusalem. Even for those who are not literally dragged off into the exile, they still live under a state of slavery. Verse five is the picture we get there in verse five. New rulers, new owners, the land is not ours. The land is in turmoil, all of the land. It's not just in the city. It's even when I venture out into the wilderness. Now, verse nine. If you're like me, the first time you read that, it's one of those Old Testament verses where we're like, what's going on here? Get bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness? What does the sword in the wilderness have to do with getting bread? I don't get the connection. I didn't get the connection either. But a very common practice in ancient times helps us to understand what's going on there in verse nine. It used to be very common practice that when an invading army was coming, a mighty army, such as the Assyrians who were then overthrown by the Babylonians, and then, of course, the Babylonians are the mighty army, they're coming, you would set up food caches because you knew that the incoming power was going to take everything. They were going to take everything they could see. And so it was common practice to find a hiding place, some kind of cellar, and put essential foods and maybe some valuable possessions in there, and then hide it and hope that they wouldn't find it. So now read verse nine. and in light of, right, they're living in this city, they can't afford the wood and the water, so now they're gonna try to go back out to their cachets, right? They're gonna try to go find their cachets, because now the siege is over. So now they can go find their valuable possessions that they stashed away before the armies came. And what's it saying? It's saying, look, it's such a lawless society that even when we get outside of the city gates, there's just bandits everywhere. It's a lawless society, that's the picture we have. It doesn't matter if I'm in the city or outside of it. I'm trying to find my hidden cache to see if the Babylonians found it or not, if it's still there. I don't even care about the valuable possessions. I just want the bread that I put there because I'm still hungry. Oh, wait. The land is in so much chaos. Just venturing outside of the city, I go from terrible oppression to murdering bandits. This is the state now of Judea. And then, of course, it doesn't matter if you get outside of the city. The most, single most horrible thing is happening in what? All the towns of Judea, verse 11. It doesn't matter where I go. If I'm in the wilderness, if I'm in the city of Jerusalem, if I'm in the smaller towns of Judea, I can't get away from this. It is a new rule, a rule that doesn't care for law and order. It's a rule of oppression. It's a rule which has taken away the personal property of all the people of Judea, and it is a land in turmoil under the foreign power. Every age group, the young women, verse 11, the young men and boys, verse 13. Do you remember that they couldn't afford their own wood and water in verse four? So what's going on in verse 13? Young boys are being put to labor carrying bundles of sticks too big for them to the house of their oppressors in order to burn fuel in their kitchens and in their homes. I can no longer carry it to my own home. It's overburdening me and I'm carrying it to my new rulers. This is the picture of the land, even for those who have remained in the land. It is an oppressive mess. Young women, young men and boys, verse 11 to 13. The elderly, verse 12 and 14. In a society without law and order, the stronger party will put their strength to all kinds of evil ends. That has happened time and time again in the history of the world. When the sinful nature of man is not controlled, When those in power have no care for those under them, and when they have absolute power, abusive and harmful chaos follows, especially against those such as the young women and the elderly, who cannot fight back. And this is the state throughout all of Judea. The very family structure is broken, verses three and five. It might say that they are like widows, at the end of verse three, because maybe they're not literally widows. Maybe they just dragged their husbands off to Babylon. Similar to the way many slave operations of the world have been, whether it was the African slave trade of the Muslim nations for centuries or the transatlantic one that followed that. What did they do? They broke up families. They broke up families. So now the widows left in verse three. They're not literally widows. Their husband is maybe still alive, but he's been dragged off to Babylon. Families are broken. There are orphans, widows, those who are like widows. Now, let's step back and remember that for a thousand years, it was not like this. For a thousand years, they were living in the promised land. It was their own land. For nearly half of that time, they were under one Davidic dynasty. And for most of that dynasty, they ruled from one city. There was great continuity. Even when they were at weak points and they were kind of vassals underneath more powerful nations, they still owned their own nation. They had to pay tribute, but they weren't owned by those nations. Now, something new is brought on by the exile. And this is not going to end. The Babylonians are gonna be replaced by the Persians, but if we read in Ezra and Nehemiah, even when they're rebuilding the temple, they have to constantly make appeal to this new emperor. They're still not ruling themselves sovereignly. Now, people of God, we just went through the book of Mark not too long ago, didn't we? Do we have some almost sympathy for the people who longed for Jesus to be a literal king and overthrowing all these powers? Do you hear how we got there? This is a new oppression. Our inheritance of a thousand years. This land has been in my family for a thousand years. Can you imagine? I mean, five generations is a long time. Some of you maybe are on fifth generation farms. A thousand years and now it's taken away. It's gone. What can we do? We need a new king to stand up with a sword and take it all back, right? This is just complete awfulness. Well, you know what? It is awfulness. But what's going to happen? What's going to happen when Jesus does come? He's not going to bring the sword, is he? When we talk about the need for physical bread, that's a real need, that's a real work of mercy. But whether we're bringing bread to the hungry or whether a sword is delivering the oppressed, neither of those is the greatest help, neither of those is the greatest deliverance. No, God's plan for deliverance was always something better, wasn't it? This was a picture of what sin brings, and there was literal sin. We're almost to our second point, which will be briefer. But there was the real deliverance, the greatest deliverance, was always going to be one who came with a kingdom that was not of this earth. Because you know what? If Jesus had brought the sword, Even though that thousand years and the 500 years of the reign of the Kings of David was better. It still wasn't great It was still far from it. There was constantly unrighteous Kings among those Kings There were still all kinds of problems The only way to really remove the problems is to have a king with a kingdom not of this world who will bring salvation through his death on the cross, repenting of sins and looking to him for life. And yes, he will, when he comes a second time, restore all things, and then the entire kingdom will be a kingdom of peace. But the first time he came, he had to deliver from sins. He did not bring the sword, even though we might understand why they longed for the sword, right? They went from the Babylonians, the Persians, and then the Romans, and never really ruling themselves. Of course they wanted a king with a sword, but God had an even greater, more eternal, plan. And may we never make the error of thinking that the sword itself, that the bread itself, even though Jesus did heal, he did those things too. But that's never going to bring permanent deliverance. Only Jesus Christ and what, remember Isaiah 12, the waters of the wells of salvation, that water. That's more important than owning your own water. It's a good thing to own your own water, but the water of salvation is the one we all must long for, much more than the water under our feet or the water in our faucets to speak of it in today's terms. Now, we might Restate the first point as brokenness because Babylon was a sinful executioner. They were an agent of God to bring judgment against sin, but they've completely overstepped their bounds. They've brought all kinds of oppression with it. So there's sins of the Babylonians, but why did this come? Well, it came because of the sins of the people. The sins of past generations verse seven, and the sins of the people within this generation, verse 16. Now, if you would turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 18, it's only a few pages over. Lamentations, Ezekiel, very next book, Ezekiel chapter 18. I'm gonna read verse 20, and note as you're turning there, if you look at the context, this is not like one verse taken out of context. This is one verse summarizing a chapter-long argument against an error in teaching. And that error was that you could be responsible for the sins of your fathers. That's the language, for example, in verses one and two. But the correction to this comes, and here's, we might say, a summary of what's going on in this chapter. Ezekiel 18, verse 20, the soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. In other words, when we're talking about responsibility, when we're talking about that for which there must be personal confession, it does not cross generations. Not necessarily. Now, sometimes the sins of your fathers is still the same sin that you're sinning. right then for example we can read this Jeremiah 14 verse 20 we acknowledge our wickedness Lord and the guilt of our ancestors we have indeed sinned against you in other words what the sins of our fathers is our sin too it's all sin it's in when they send it it's in when we send it and we're sending the same sin now that's So what's going on in Lamentations 5? In fact, if we read the context, if the people would have repented, the judgment would have been delayed. But no, the sins of our fathers has something which comes to bear in this judgment, but it is not as though we are guilty. No, also the generation upon which the exile actually came was a sinful generation, which says in verse 16, woe to us for we have sinned. Now, we have to We could go on this for a long time because there's some very, there's a lot of misconceptions on this very point that are around us today. And there are some details that make this not the easiest discussion. So let us just, we can't get too deep into this. We spoke about this for some time at just men's Bible study this last week, Wednesday. But let's just take one part of this bigger picture. Now, when is the time when we can say that we have sinned under another person? There's only one time we can say that. It's Romans 5. We have all sinned under Adam. We've all sinned under the federal headship of Adam. Now, one of the ways that this conversation gets very confusing today and very messed up theologically is people start to say, Well, I'm not only a sinner under the federal headship of Adam, I'm a sinner under the iniquities of my fathers. And I'm not just burying them, which is a consequences thing, right? I mean, that's the language of even Exodus 20, verse 5, which we read in the reading of the law. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents of the third and the fourth generation. Punishing, as some other older translations say, bearing the iniquity of, right? Sin has consequences that carry over to the next generation. But does it have responsibility? Well, no. Ezekiel 18 is the clear passage says no the responsibility is not transferred when is the only time when responsibility is transferred under the federal headship of Adam in one man we have all sinned Romans 5 but how do we get all messed up well nowadays people say we have all kinds of federal heads right federal heads of people who send under the same zip code as you and did really sinful things in the South in the past. Federal sins of people who have the same skin color as you and now you're responsible for what they did in the past. Do you see where the bait and switch came in? Do you see where all kinds of confused thinking has just crept in? We can bear the consequences, bear the iniquity in that sense of of previous generations' sins. So that can have a real impact, but we are not responsible for those sins unless we have also sinned them, which is what's going on in Lamentations 5. We have also sinned, verse 16. Jeremiah 14, we have sinned the same sin as our fathers. If you have not sinned the same sin, you are not responsible with the lone exception of the federal headship of Adam. We have a federal headship in him, not in people with the same skin color as you, not in people with the same zip code as you, not with people with the same blood type as you or whatever you want to say. Generations are responsible because in this case, both generations previous and this generation have sinned. So what does this come down to? Well, it comes down to this. Confess your sins, but confess your sins. You don't confess the sins of another person. Confess your sins, and if you're confessing under the sins of another, make sure that's only Adam, because he's the only federal head you have. That was a lot of theology going on there. There's a lot of messed up thinking on this today. A lot of it. But the we bear their iniquities of verse seven must be read in the context of all of the Old Testament, including verse 16 of this same chapter, we have sinned. There are some things that we could say about the covenant community, but I've already gone long enough on this for this morning. What it comes down to is we must confess our own sins. 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Now let's move on to Generations Restored, our third point. If you would turn with me to the Psalms. The Psalms help us bring everything into focus. for what's going on, how God is king, and how God can rule and restore. I'm gonna read two verses, one from Psalm 9 and one from Psalm 11. Psalm 9, one verse, and Psalm 11, one verse. As you're turning there, I'm going to read Lamentations 5 verse 18 and 19. For Mount Zion, which lies desolate, jackals prowl over it. In other words, it's now taken over by wild animals. It's lost all of its glory. It's destroyed. People don't live there anymore. Animals do that used to live in the wild. But verse 19, but you, O Lord, reign forever. Your throne endures to all generations. Now, why is Mount Zion and a language about God's eternal throne and rule put together in lamentations while we read in Psalm 9 verse 11 that Zion was an earthly picture, an earthly manifestation of the Lord's rule, and he even sat there and ruled there in certainly a sense. And so we read in Psalm 9 verse 11, seeing praises to the Lord who sits enthroned in Zion, tell among the peoples his deeds. There was a real presence of God in the temple on Mount Zion. But, but, Is that his only throne? No, not at all. Not at all. And so, for example, we also read in Psalm 11, verse four, the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. Zion was a dwelling place of God upon earth, but it was not his eternal throne. That is in heaven. That's where the Lord sat enthroned at the flood, Psalm 29. That's where the Lord sat enthroned at creation on the seventh day. That's where the Lord sits enthroned every day. That's where the Lord still is. Even though the jackals are prowling on Mount Zion, you, Lord, still have a throne. Did you hear the movement? Because he always had, he always had, he always has, and he always will have. And this gives the people of God strength. Though the covenant community is crumbling, though the very nation is falling apart, your throne hasn't changed, God. Your throne hasn't changed. Don't we also read this then in the context of Lamentations 3? Has God's character changed? No. His faithfulness is new every morning. He is always faithful. He is always ruling. He is always king. He is always able to restore. And when we put this back together and and bring it back to confession. Who makes confession possible? Who makes repentance possible? Well, it's a gift which God gives. Acts 11, verse 17, and then into Acts 11, verse 18, when they heard this, they made no further objection and praised God, saying, so then, even to Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. And certainly, that's all part of the greater grander plan in which we read the context of the sufferings of lamentations and the crumbling of Judea. We read it in the context of that. We read it in the context of that son who came, who had a kingdom not of this earth, and who brought salvation, not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. In other words, when we think of God's power of restoration, And even though Lamentations ends with what we might call a very negative question in the last verse, verse 22, we read Lamentations 5 in the light of Lamentations 3. and we read it in light of the fact that this is not the only book of the Bible. We read it in the light of Jesus coming, and we read it in light of the final words of all of Scripture. It's no accident that Revelation is the end, not Lamentations. And what do we see there? We see, Lord, come quickly. Not only the salvation that you brought at the first coming, but restoring all things in your second coming. Because oppression is not good. It is not how things should be. First, bring us to the wells of the water of salvation, and then bring us to the water, the sea of crystal, the calm waters of the new heavens and the new earth. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, though your covenant promises appeared to be nothing for a time, there was still hope for salvation not cut off. There was still hope that remained. There was hope for all who sought you. in true repentance and faith. And Lord, this is the same to this day. Whatever external circumstances you bring your people through, even though words about your great faithfulness may be followed by still words of suffering, Even though the last verse of Lamentations is a question, yet we know the answer. Even though the suffering is ongoing, we know the answer. For those who have put their trust in you, there is both life and life eternal. Lord God, bring us all to you. Bring us before your throne. Lord, that heavenly throne is where The Ascended Son now sits. It was unchanged between the time of the king's ruling in Jerusalem and the crumbling of Jerusalem. The only time it changed is that now it is greater. It has the risen Lord sitting there. And Lord, before that throne, we plead your mercy and your grace and your faithfulness. Amen. Let us, people of God, stand and sing 130A. 130A, let's stand to sing. I'll dance to you, I cry. O Lord, to me give ear. And give attention to my voice, my cry for mercy near. you. Yes. His redemption He will save, His Israel from all sin. People of God, it's time now for our morning gifts and offerings. This morning, that's for the church plant in Chicago Heights, Illinois. Following this, our benediction and the doxology, 571. so If you would stand for our parting blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. ♪ Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost ♪ And it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen. so so