Yeah. You. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good morning and welcome, welcome to all. It is good to be in God's house, to come before him, to worship him in spirit and in truth right here in Waupon. And so welcome to all, all visitors, all members, all from near, from far, all able to come physically, all joining us digitally. It is good to be in God's house. So people of God, As we come before the Creator of the heavens and the earth, let us begin with a moment of silent and reverent prayer. Amen. If you would stand for our call to worship coming from Psalm 66. Shout for joy to God, all the earth. Sing the glory of his name. Give to him glorious praise. Say to God, how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sing praises to you. They sing praises to your name. Indeed, directing your attention to the bulletin, I ask congregation, where does your help come from? Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heavens 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 in love. Amen. Let's open in song. From that 66th Psalm, let's sing 66B. 66B, let's sing all the stanzas together. bless our God and tell his glorious praise of God who holds our souls in high who never lets our feet be moved and though our faith be oft as proved God holds us in the strife He cometh ♪ To Him for all we dedicate ♪ To Him we wholly consecrate ♪ While life's His mercy's last ♪ Now hear all ye who hear the Lord ♪ While I with grateful heart record ♪ What God has done for me I cried to Him in deep distress, and now His wondrous grace I'm blessed, for He has set me free. The Lord who turns away the plea of those who love iniquity has answered. me. God Almighty, who is worthy of all praise and also speaks to us all truth. And so we hear God's will, God's perfect will for our lives, Exodus chapter 20. 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 committed altery. 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. shortly in summarizing the law, not in 10 parts, but in two parts. Our Savior said this, that the first and greatest commandment is that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And upon these laws hang or depend all of the law and the prophets, just as there's only one to depend on who fulfilled these things. So people of God, Since we are not the sinless Savior, but sinners in need of grace, let us come before our God in a prayer of confession this morning. Lord, our gracious God, we rejoice that you have spoken so plainly to us in your will, in your law. And Lord, we see that in our actions and our desires and that which we do and in that which we fail to do, which we ought to do, Lord, we fall far short of what you have commanded. Even as we are all conceived in iniquity, even as there is none that is righteous, no, not one. So, indeed, we stand, Lord God, in need of you. Help us to confess our sins week by week, day by day, to continually come before you, yes, in prayer on all matters, but may that prayer certainly include confession of sins. Impress this reality upon us day by day. Do not let us forget it But by it direct us always to you and forgiveness, which is found in you alone So we pray in the name of that one who was without sin because he was both man and God in the name of Jesus Christ Amen People of God, the Psalms also give us expression of our sinfulness, of our need for God. And so we sing from 51, 51c, God be merciful to me. We'll sing stanzas one, three, four, six, and eight. One, three, four, six, and eight of 51c. I'm. Oh my I. my tongue shall Oscars, I am in thy grace, and your broken walls replace. Then a righteous sacrifice shall be like thy holy eyes. Let us now hear a word of the assurance of God's pardon. We rejoice that God has spoken this so clearly in so many places. And so now we turn to 1 John. We'll return to the Old Testament. probably next week as we've been working through book by book, but now we turn to 1 John chapter 5. People of God hear words concerning life in Christ. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and obey His commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? How do we overcome people of God by faith? Where is the first place that we read the just shall live by faith? It's in the context of the exile. In Habakkuk chapter two, what are we working through in lamentation? Certainly we're working through that time of the destruction of God's people, of the exile. So the truth then is the same truth now. We overcome by our faith. We live by faith. Faith in whom? Faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. People of God, let us come then before our gracious God in a time of prayer this morning. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, be gracious to us. Bless us. Make your face to shine upon us. Make us in the light of who you are and what you have done to see the light of truth, to see who you are, who we are, to see what the world is. a world cursed by sin, a world in which there is no law, no order, in which there will always be wars and rumors of wars. Lord, you have given us many blessings in this nation. We still have comparatively a great amount of freedom. but even here we are seeing things that have not been seen in this land for a long time. We're seeing a crumbling of law and order. We're seeing a crumbling of any godly worldview. We're seeing a decay of truth. in our already decaying and groaning world. So Lord, fix our eyes upon you. Uphold us in whatever is upon each one of us at this time, and whatever may come upon us, Lord, again, you have richly blessed us in this nation. We can freely proclaim the truth of your word this day. But Lord, bless those around the world who have suffered greater persecution, who have seen greater chaos than this for their whole lives. And Lord, be with us as we see these things descending now upon our own nation to the extent that it has. And now it's not, It seems not to be, oh, we hear of this city and we know it. No, it's just that the list of cities grows and the list of burning buildings grows. The list of chaos in our very own state grows, Lord. May we, in the midst of this, be reminded of our constant need for you. And Lord, be with our nation. Be with the leaders of our nation. Be with those who would go to the polls. May they vote for law and order starting in the womb, that there would be protection of the life in the womb and extending out from there to all people. Lord, it is the explicitly commanded duty of our nations to uphold the sword, to uphold justice, and we know that that stands for life at every point. Lord, we pray that you would be with your church, your church which is found throughout this world. We think of our sister churches, we think of our sister churches such as RCUS in Oconomowoc, such as our OPC brothers and sisters which surround us east, west, north, and south, such as our brothers and sisters in the Randolph-B.R. Brothers and sisters in which we have close relations, fraternal relations. We think of also how with Randolph Church we've been able to uh... start and counseling class we pray that you would less that and uh... we give thanks that it is and off the ground and is now up and running lord we think of of not just these sister churches closer to us but as we think of of how we were blessed by uh... faithful preaching uh... in uh... this past sunday by reverend conda and faithful exhortation by brother castro then we think also of of these men So we think of Brother Castro and studies for the ministry. We pray that you would bless him, bless his family, and that you would bless the work being done in mid-america including his studies and the seminary as a whole and then we think also where he's from in california and our brothers and sisters there too how we can receive a greeting from uh... illinois and indiana and california all at the same time and be reminded of uh... the far reaching impact of the truth of your word and then we think of reverend condon his ministry and and uh... his congregation where he serves in Florida. So Lord bless also our brothers and sisters there and Reverend Conda and his family in a particular way. Lord, what a joy to see these these men and Miraconda's family, Lord, we are strengthened as a family of faith when we are reminded that we are not alone and when we hear the faithful proclamation of your word. And as we think of your word of truth, may it indeed be faithfully proclaimed this very day. We pray that there would be teaching in accordance with what your word has said, that there would be diligent hearing and that your word would be impressed upon your hearts. Lord God, it is your spirit which works these things effectively. And when we worship, when we worship you, we worship in the presence of angels. Lord God, certainly make us to serve you each and every day, but make us to follow not only the pattern of the sun going up and going down of each day which you have given us, but also this special weekly pattern which you have given to us, a day set apart in a particular way for you. This, Lord God, is our prayer. In Jesus' name, amen. People of God, as we prepare to hear our text and passage for this morning, let us stand and sing in preparation 531. 531, let us stand and sing. So near and close to thy heart, for I ♪ Shelter me safe in that female breast ♪ ♪ Shelter me safe in that female breast ♪ ♪ Nearer, still nearer, God, may I pray ♪ ♪ God, as an offering to Jesus my King ♪ ♪ Contrite heart ♪ ♪ Grant me the cleansing ♪ ♪ Thy blood doth impart ♪ ♪ Grant me the cleansing ♪ ♪ Thy blood doth impart ♪ ♪ Mirrors shall mirror ♪ ♪ Born to be thine ♪ All of its pleasures, all of its heart Give me my Jesus, my Lord crucified I. Mirror, my Savior, still mirror to me. Mirror, my Savior, still mirror to me. Amen. Let us turn now then to Lamentations chapter 3. Lamentations, which we can rightly call five separate poems. There's no debate about where the verse and chapter division should be here. Chapter 3, you'll notice, has 66 shorter verses. Whereas the other four chapters all have 22 verses, which are a little bit longer. Why is that? Well, I spoke about how chapter one and two were acrostics. You know, when the first verse starts with A, second with B, third with C, of course the Hebrew equivalents of that. And now we have another acrostic, but now there's three lines for each. So verse one starts with A, two with A, three A, four B, five B, six B. so on so now we have 66 shorter lines and of course in the midst of this we have the We can rightly say some of the central words the central and the central themes the central truths of this book including the last verses of our reading this morning and Lamentations three, verse one to 24. I think we'll be able to get through Lamentations three in two weeks and then back to chapter per week. So now let us hear people of God, the word of God, Lamentations chapter three, verses one through 24. I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath. He has driven me and brought me into darkness without any light. Surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away. He has broken my bones. He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation. He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape. He has made my chains heavy. Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones. He has made my paths crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding. He turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces. He has made me desolate. He bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow. He drove it into my kidneys, the arrows of his quiver. I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is. So I say my endurance has perished. So has my hope from the Lord. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. 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, does remembering that God is faithful stop the pain of suffering? No, it does not. While the last verses of our scripture reading can rightly be called the thematic center of the book of Lamentations, or at least part of the central theme, this will continue on into the following verses, this is not where Lamentations as a whole ends. We're gonna have more words about the struggle, we're gonna have more words about the pain, we're gonna have more words about the tears, and even right here, Even in the context of these verses, he is telling us that his pain is ongoing. Why is this, people of God? Why is this? Well, there is a great theme here, which has been weaved into the hearts and minds of many of God's people, partly through a very familiar song, Great is Thy Faithfulness. And it is good for us to not merely sing that song, but to see these words, not in isolation, but in this context. to be reminded that our sufferings do not necessarily come to an end when we remember God is faithful. And so the title of our sermon is that amid my afflictions, great is thy faithfulness. And our theme is simply restating that in longer form. In the midst of my afflictions, God's faithfulness is great. And so our points, our points first, hope forgotten, and then points two and three really go together. You can think of them as 2A and 2B, hope remembered and hope seen. Well, what is this hope forgotten? Let us note, people of God, now, and we'll make reference to this throughout this chapter, that unlike chapters one and two, where it's not always easy to figure out who's speaking, you remember that? It's something which the text itself makes us wrestle with. It's not like the Song of Songs, for example, where there's three main voices and it's always very clear which one is speaking, when the man is speaking, when the daughters of Jerusalem is speaking, when the woman is speaking. No, instead we have a few different voices. We have the city speaking as a personified voice, we have the narrator breaking in, we have other voices breaking in, and we have to kind of wrestle with it. Well, we don't have that wrestling in chapter three, and that's important. That actually brings a simplicity to what's going on as we come to these central declarations and the central theme of the Book of Lamentations. He says in verse one of chapter three, I am the man, and there's no indication that we have any other speaker. Here is a chapter where it's the same voice speaking all the way through. In other words, again, we'll refer to this as we go throughout, but just keep this in mind. When we come to the declarations of the great faithfulness of God, it's not being said by a voice different from the voice that's saying, I'm eating dirt. which is essentially the image of eating gravel, which we have in our text. No, it's the same voice. The same voice which says in verse 16, he's made my teeth grind on gravel, or to simply restate that, as we would more likely say it today, I'm eating dirt. The same voice is saying God's faithfulness. It's great, his mercies are new every morning. So this is something to keep in mind all throughout this chapter. Here we have the same speaker, the same voice through all 66 verses. And it is the hand of God against him. This is something seen again throughout. We have, he has done it, he has done it, he has done it. And it says that again and again, especially through the first 13 voices. through the first 13 verses. It is verse 1, the rod of God's wrath which the man is under. The word there for man, let's focus on man and rod. The word for man is a little, not quite the usual word for man. It's a word which refers to a strong man, often strong either physically or spiritually, and is probably being used in both of those senses here. I'm a strong man. I have strength. I'm a strong man spiritually. And now what is coming upon me? God's rod, the rod of his wrath. And rod is a word which can also have two senses. And as so often happens in the Psalms and the Prophets, we have two senses of word being used at the same time. You've heard me say that before. And so that's what we have here going on. It's the rod. What does that refer to? Well, it refers to God bringing the rod in wrath and in discipline, and it refers to the fact that God has a rod, a scepter, it's sometimes translated, of ruling authority. In other words, God is doing this. He's sovereign over all, and it's His hand which has brought destruction against Jerusalem and has brought affliction upon me. Sovereignty of God in all things. And so the man is suffering. Surely it is his hand which is turned against me, God's hand. He is the one driving me. He is sovereign over all. And then we see in verse four through six that this is physical and emotional suffering. It is physical and emotional. There's bitterness, there's tribulation, there's a description of the flesh itself being wasted, and these things are mixed together. Physical, emotional suffering. Then we have in verses seven through nine, and again, remember, kind of this three verse, three verse, three verse. So we'll see, for the most part, three verses will kind of carry an idea together. That rule is sometimes broken, it's merely a poetic rule. But we see that, we now have a new image in verses seven through nine. And what's the image there? Well, it's an image of being in a maze. In a maze from which you cannot escape. in a maze from which you cannot escape, such that you are a prisoner in the maze. Do you see that? And what kind of maze is it? This is important, people of God. It is not a haphazard maze. You see that in verse nine? What kind of maze is it? What kind of stones make up the walls of the maze that the man is walking into? Cut stones. intentionally made stones. Do you see that? It's not just chaotic rubble that's falling in his way and stopping him. It's intentionally built walls. He's wandering around in this maze. It's not a corn maze. Sometimes you get frustrated in a corn maze and you say, well, I'm just going to sneak through this because it's not an impenetrable wall. I'm going to sneak through these corn stalks and get to the end of the corn maze a little quicker. No, no, no. inescapable maze of stone and it's not just haphazard there's rubble here there's rubble there it's not like I'm trying to get out of a cave and and and it just so happens that that that there was a that there was a crash in the cave and now I've got rubble in my way no it's an intentionally built wall people have gone why is this important remember God is sovereign over all Your maze is inescapable, it's a prison. It's not where you want to be, that's not a good image. But God is sovereign even over this. Those walls are not chaotic, they're made out of cut stones. And the context here is, again, he has, he has, he has. People of God, in the midst of your inescapable mazes of this life, when you are lost in confusion, physically and emotionally suffering in every way, God still knows what's going on. He still knows how those walls got there. In fact, he placed them there. We do not deny God's hand in all things. We see an image which is perhaps clearer than we would want it to be, which speaks of that truth. But it is as clear as we want it to be, isn't it? Because wouldn't it be much worse if you were in a cave? and the roadblocks you were running into were just cracked stones falling from the ceiling and blocking your path in apparent randomness? Wouldn't that be a worse image? I submit to you that when we know we are in the hands of God, that is a much worse image. To know that our suffering is that which God still has control over. When we remember who God is, and that's what we're coming to, It can give us strength in the midst of the struggles. It can give us a measure of peace even when we're trapped in the maze. Then there's another image. Now again, it's a poetic rule that everything has to go in threes. And so 10 and 11 go together. What's the image there? It's the image of being so close to death, it's like you've been mauled by a bear. Have you ever seen those videos? Sometimes people survive dramatic things in nature, right? And then they post a video about it. So I've seen a video of a guy, right? He had just been mauled by a bear. And it wasn't so gruesome that you couldn't look at it, but you could see he was very much messed up. He's taking like a 45-second video of himself, like, look, I've been mauled by a bear. I'm driving to the hospital. Basically, if I pass out on the way here, this is what happened. Again, it wasn't so gruesome that it couldn't go viral. This was maybe a few years ago. Maybe you saw the same video, right? But what's the point? The point is this is an image which we perhaps have some idea of, that it's possible to even be mauled by a wild animal and to be so close to death but not yet dead yet. That's the image we have in 10 and 11. And again, who has done it? God is the bear. God is the bear, God is the lion. He's in control, always. Then we move to the image of the bow and the arrow. The arrow which goes into my kidneys. Kidneys which is something which can refer literally to one's kidneys or to inner turmoil, inner strife. And so again, It's appropriate to think of the double meaning. And who put the arrow on the string and targeted at me? He drove it. He's the one who bent the bow. He's the one who drove the arrow. The arrow of his quiver. physical, emotional, spiritual struggling. All of these things. We have all of these images. The spiritual struggling is especially clear in verse 20. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Images of all kinds of suffering worked through these verses. not only inner turmoils, but inner turmoils that are also coming, there's also things coming from the outside which are building upon the difficulties. Right? Because in verse 14, there's words coming from outside which are adding to the strife. I have become a laughingstock of all peoples. The voices around me are mocking me. All peoples. It should perhaps be translated my peoples. But either way, it includes my own people. There we can think of the image of Habakkuk chapter 1 and what's the description of the state of the people of God before the judgment of the Chaldeans the Babylonians comes upon them. There are a few righteous ones surrounded by their rebellious brethren is that's the image of Habakkuk 1 and you know what God's judgment coming upon Jerusalem hasn't changed that image. What does this mean? It means that there are some people sitting in destroyed Jerusalem and they're saying, we blame God for this. We're not repenting because of this. No, I'm going to make a laughing stock of the strong spiritual person who's going through all this struggle and will yet say those great things which we're coming to in verses 22 to 24, right? I become a laughing stock of all peoples. The Babylonians mocked me because they just treaded all over me and they destroyed my house. We're coming to the image of homelessness. He's also homeless. They're laughing at me. They're mocking at me. And yes, all peoples, even especially my own peoples, which is again, probably, perhaps it would be translated, they're mocking me too. Because they don't want to hear me talk about the faithfulness of God and the actions of God upon me. when such things happen. Either they don't like to hear either of those things, or maybe they want to hear one but not the other, right? Maybe they want me to say, God is faithful, but he's not the one that has done this. Or maybe they're okay with me saying, God has done this, but if I say, God has done this, they'll say, how dare you say that God has done this and that he's faithful, right? We can see how this verse fits right here, don't we? We see how this verse fits right here. There's nothing new under the sun. And so he is taunted. He is filled then with bitterness, sated with wormwood. Bitterness can refer to some of these shrubs that are bitter shrubs. Most likely it's referring to one which you can eat in small doses, but if you eat a lot of it, it's poisonous. I'm not exactly sure which plant he's talking about, but almost certainly that's the plant he's talking about. And certainly that makes sense of what's going on here, right? You don't want to be filled with this bitter food that has a poisonous aspect when you have too much of it. And that's what we should think of when we see Wormwood. He sated me with Wormwood. I can have a little bit of Wormwood, that would be okay, although it tastes bad, so I don't even want a little bit. But to be sated with Wormwood, that's something which only someone in a state of near starvation would do. So again, all these pictures of emotional, physical, health-related, spiritually-related, all of these struggles have come upon this man. He is filled with wormwood. He's in a state of eating dirt. He's made my teeth grind on gravel, verse 16. He's homeless. He's made me cower in the ashes. Basically, that's an image of living in the dumps. Why? Because most of Jerusalem was destroyed, including people's homes. All of these things, all of these things at the same time, So he says, my soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is, or it could be translated goodness. I've forgotten happiness, I've forgotten goodness. I have no more endurance, I have no more strength to face these things. Putting it all together, homeless, hungry, emotionally oppressed, physically weak, confused, spiritually feeling far from God, almost certainly suffering from physical illness as well. That's the picture we have of verses one through 18. And at the end of verse 18, if he stopped there, he would have gone too far. If he stopped there, he would have gone too far. My endurance has perished, so has my hope from the Lord." Well, if that was the end, if that was the end, we would have to say he recognizes the sovereignty of God, but he is still lost. Because as the psalmist says in Psalm 66, if I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But we're gonna see that as he comes to the end of verse 18, when for one second he moves from speaking about how God has done these things to for one moment saying that he has no hope in God, as he moves into the end of verse 18 and starts to say something which is truly wrong, Even in the midst of that statement at the end of verse 18, he will use the word Lord, Yahweh, the covenant name of God, and he will immediately come out of that error. And again, remember, it's the same voice speaking. So we can rightly say that in the verses following this, he is self-correcting himself. Verses one through 17, he's recognizing the sovereignty of God. There's nothing wrong with that. At the end of verse 18, now he's starting to slip into serious error. And he will immediately self-correct because it's the same voice that speaks. And so that brings us into point two. That brings us into point two because now he's going to say, or into our second point beginning at verse 19. Notice he's not denying the fact that he's going through pain. He's not trying to somehow enjoy pain and make it go away in that way. He's not a pain denier. He's not a masochist. He says, remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood, the gall, this stuff which shouldn't be consumed hardly at all, and I've had to eat it in mass. And it's also a picture of my inner turmoil and my very soul. Remember, I'm even spiritually struggling. Remember all these things. Don't forget it. Don't turn your eyes away from it. Don't pretend it's not happening. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. My hope is not gone, I do have hope." What is he calling to mind? He's calling to mind two things, right? The promises of God, the character of God. You say that doesn't sound that complicated. I think I've even heard you say that before, Pastor, that we ought to reflect on the character of God and the promises of God. Well, it's not complicated. It's hard to do. I mean, who knows of anybody that's suffered from all of these things at the same time? I mean, maybe I've read a description of someone who's gone through all these things at the same time, like a Christian coming out of a war-torn and Christian-persecuting nation, but I don't personally know anyone that's gone through all of these things at the same time. Homelessness, physical, emotional, spiritual suffering. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's not complicated. Do you see the distinction? Remember your hope and what in God's character and God's promises. Remember, we might say it this way, that Deuteronomy 30 comes after Deuteronomy 28 and 29. For those who were with us a couple weeks ago, do you remember we, I think it was in Lamentations 2, not Lamentations 1, we kind of went through select verses of Deuteronomy 29, which is what? Deuteronomy 28 and 29 are a prophecy and a warning about what will happen when God's people reject his law and rebel against his covenant. And Deuteronomy 28 and 29 is full of very specific prophecies about what will happen when that occurs. And we went through like five or six or seven or so points of very specific things spoken of in Deuteronomy 29, which we see in Lamentations. Well, Deuteronomy 28 and 29 don't stand by themselves. They're followed by Deuteronomy chapter 30. If you turn there with me, I'll read some verses from there shortly. It's followed by Deuteronomy 30. We could have... like a three-part series on those three chapters, and we could call it this, The Exile and Restoration in Bullet Point Summary, 1,000 Years Before It Happens. That's what Deuteronomy 28, 29, and 30 are. And what, after all these Details about what the curse will entail details, which we see fulfilled in the historical narrative and then spoken of and lamentations and the prophets as well after all that detail now we get detail beginning in chapter 30 about restoration Deuteronomy chapter 30 We'll read verses 1 to 10. And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice and all that I command you today, What is the word return? Repentance. It's referring to repentance, right? Looking to God, repenting, trusting in Him alone. When you do this and obey His voice, all that I commanded you today with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you. And He will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heaven from there the Lord your God will gather you and from there he will take you and the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your father's possessed that you may possess it and he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your father's and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and that you may live and the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and your enemies who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers when you obey the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in the book of the law when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. People of God, is that not the language which anticipates our last point, verses 22 and 24? We even hear some of the same words and so calling to mind verse 21 or. New King James, King James NASB. Recall, when I remember, when I recall this to my mind, and therefore I have hope, what do I say? I say this, that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Do you see the place? where these verses have come. Their placement is no accident. You know, sometimes in the Psalms, we see Psalms that have a pattern of, I'm suffering, I'm suffering, I have called to God, and he has restored me. And sometimes that's true, especially if our suffering is purely of a spiritual nature, which not very often, but sometimes happens. If our suffering is purely of a spiritual nature and it's not all of these physical and external and emotional things added on top of it, then repentance can lead to very quick restoration, can lead to peace very quickly. And that can be the last word of the psalm. But sometimes there's all kinds of things going on. And it's a word in the midst of the suffering, while the suffering is still ongoing. And sometimes then, it's something which, when we get to that most beautiful kernel, maybe it shouldn't even be stated in too many words. Maybe the person is suffering so much, they only have space in their minds to hear 15 words about God's truth. If you were to speak 500 words, you would lose them. This is what we have. Now, there's a fancy word for talking about why this is in the middle, concentric analysis of poems. And some might say, well, maybe these aren't the thematic center of lamentations because they're not exactly in the middle, right? That'd be like another 12 verses down. Well, People of God, there's usually things going in threes, like I said, because of the structure of this chapter. But those are just poetic rules. Sometimes they're broken. And so, yes, the seven and nine very clearly go together. But 12 and 13 kind of break that pattern, and they clearly go together. And you know what? This is close enough to the middle for me. This is the center of lamentations, isn't it? Suffering is still ongoing. There's going to be more words about that. But let us say these words and say them again and remember where they are. Remember that it's not spoken in a vacuum. But remember them and say them and sing them. All of our lives. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will have hope in Him. Now, let's not let the beauty of verse 22 and 23 overwhelm us that we miss what's going on in verse 24, right? Because that's not in that song that we all know. But what's going on here in verse 24, something very beautiful as well. It does require a little more reflection, understanding the history of people of God, but there's something very important here as well. You remember some of those very long descriptions of of the inheritance of the people of God, such as Deuteronomy 17, name after name, after name, after name. They shall have this, they shall have this, they shall have this. And the daughters of Zerubbabel say, why don't we have anything? And then they get that, and that's it, right? Just all this stuff. Then what does it say in Numbers 18? Did I say Deuteronomy? Numbers, we're talking about numbers. Then we get to Numbers, 18 verse 20 and the Lord says to Aaron the priest You shall have no inheritance in the land Well, that's different I just read 100 plus names and all these inheritances and all these cities and and now we get to Aaron the priest and it says you shall have no inheritance in the land what's going on here and nor will you have any share among them." Okay, so he's saying it twice so that Aaron gets it. I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites. Numbers 18, 20, I am your portion. Now, There are a number of things that that teaches us. But particular to this context, what does it teach us? It teaches us that it's possible to not have a physical part of the land that you own, and yet to still have a portion which is in God himself. Now I've mentioned we don't know if Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. If Jeremiah did, he was priestly. He was of a priestly line, a priestly family. But whether it was written by a priest or not, let's just say for a minute, because we don't know if it was written by Jeremiah, let's just say it wasn't written by a priest, because most of the people weren't priests, right? Let's say it wasn't written by a priest. If it wasn't written by a priest, he's just lost his family inheritance that has been his for a millennium. His portion is gone. But he says, wait, I remember that it's possible to have a portion, even if I don't have a physical portion, even if I have nothing physically, even if all of my wealth, all of my land, all of my external blessings have been taken away from me, it's always been possible. And it's always been part of the language of scripture, to have a portion in the Lord himself. Do you see what's going on there? It's not quite as straightforward as verses 22 and 23, but it's getting at a beautiful truth, isn't it? Verse 24, my portion is gone, but I still have a portion. I still have an inheritance. Lord God, it is in you. Now, I've referenced Habakkuk a few times. Let the last verses of Habakkuk 3 bring our sermon to an end this morning. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food. the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God the Lord is my strength. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on my high places. My strength, my portion, my salvation, He has given me His very Son for my salvation. He forgives my very sins. I have a portion in Him, in the work which He has done. I have strength in Him, I have life in Him, and in what His Son, Jesus Christ, has done for me. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, may we, in seeing your sovereign hand upon even the most confusing days of our lives, be reminded that you control all things such that your son died on a very particular day. for a very specific purpose. And that even as you intentionally build the walls which hem us in, so you intentionally give us the way of life. Lord set these truths always before us. Set these truths before us every day. before the suffering comes, when the suffering comes, if we are not physically suffering because we are always under the influence, struggling against our sins. Lord, Lord, remind us of this every day. Great is thy faithfulness. Our portion is in you. Amen. Let us, people of God, stand and sing. Great is thy faithfulness, number 245. Let's stand and sing all the stanzas together. There is no shadow of turning to Thee Thou changest not the compassions they fail not As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness. ♪ And springtime at our rest ♪ ♪ Sun, moon and stars in their courses above ♪ ♪ Joined with all nature in merriful witness ♪ ♪ To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love ♪ ♪ Mercies I see ♪ All I have been and I can't have provided ♪ Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me ♪ Heart and portion and the peace that endures to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. All I have need in thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness for unto me Maybe I was being a little bit unfair to one of the great hymns of the Christian faith. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Maybe verse 24 is in view a little bit. People of God, let us come now for our morning gifts and offerings. This morning that's for the building fund, then standing for the parting blessing, and then our doxology. Notice we're switching to new doxologies for some time. So it's Glory Be to the Father, 571. If you would stand for the blessing of our God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. And it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. Amen. Yeah.