The book of Lamentations serves as a profound call to repentance, urging individuals and nations to acknowledge their sins and turn back to God. The sermon highlights how God's judgment, as depicted in Lamentations chapter one, is a consequence of sin and a means to bring people to a place of genuine sorrow and confession. Through examples like the brothers of Joseph and the nation of Israel, the message illustrates that true repentance involves recognizing guilt, remembering past actions, and using reason to understand the distress caused by sin. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes that God desires repentance and offers forgiveness and restoration to those who turn to Him, as seen in His dealings with Jacob and the future hope for Israel.
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Again, I invite you to turn to the book of Lamentations, chapter one. Lamentations, chapter one. While you're turning, let me say that I'm looking forward to next Lord's day with our brother Tom Taylor. I remember the second time he ever came to Burlington. I remember the first time, well, and I still remember what he preached on. He's on Isaiah chapter ten, our God is king. I was the first year that I was in Burlington. And he came as he was visiting schools in the south for a faith theological seminary.
The second time he came, and whenever I see A.G. Sutton, Jr., and we talk about it, we laugh about it because he spoke to the young people that night down in the basement at Arlen Street Chapel. And he was describing his ice skating. He said, they call me creeping tongue. And anyone who knows Tom Taylor. And I tell you, A.G., he started to laugh. And we often talk about creeping tongue when we talk about Tom Taylor. But that man knows the word. And he's one of the, he's my favorite theologian. And I say that.
And I'll say that here. I wouldn't say it next Sunday. But His wife says he never forgets anything. And he has the fastest mind of any man I've ever been around. And it's good to see that man and to listen to that man expound the word of God. And his wife, by the way, when the sisters got together a few years ago when Tom was here and had a noon meeting, the men were done. Tom wasn't here. Thomas in Durham. But Dr. Dunbar was here, his boss. He was his boss then. And we had a meeting that Quincy, the man, and his wife addressed the women up at the...
It had been poor folks since, and it's something else now. But anyway, that was a restaurant they used, and I just remember putting a banner up there for that, because it was Mrs. Taylor's birthday and someone else's birthday who's here this morning. I won't say who, but she's married to Jack Peterson. I won't say her name. But her birthday and Ruth Taylor's birthday is at the same time, and I had a banner up there for them. Anyway, when we come to the book of lamentations, the book of lamentations is a call to repentance.
This is the third message on this book. I have called these messages a call to repentance, for that is what God is doing through the prophets. We began in chapter three, you'll remember, and in verse forty of chapter three, the verses that are known best from chapter three is verses twenty-two and twenty-three, because of that great hymn by T.O. Chisholm. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion still not. They are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. But when you look down at verse forty, you read, Let us search and try our ways that we may turn again to the Lord. That's repentance. That's repentance.
Verse forty one, let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. So the whole of the book is a call to repentance. So let's pray it again. Oh God our Father. We thank you for those you have called into the fellowship of thy dear son. And we thank you for men whom you have gifted to teach. And we're looking forward to thy servant, Brother Tom. Bless him abundantly. Bring him in our midst in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. And cause thy name to be glorified through him. And we pray, O God, that you will revive us.
and bring us to a place of genuine repentance before these. That we try our hearts and our ways and we're not ashamed to do it. We do it with a desire to please these. Oh, that we might honor these and walk worthily of these. And we pray our Father that as thy word goes forth this morning, it will go forth in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance for Jesus' sake. Amen. The importance of the doctrine of repentance and the importance of repentance in itself can be seen when you examine the ministry of our Lord.
Our Lord in his public ministry, like the ministry of John the Baptist before him, gave that urgent imperative for repentance. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Furthermore, when our Lord spoke in Acts chapter, not Acts, but Luke chapter thirteen, he said to the people, except you repent, you will all likewise perish. And before ascending to the Father, his closing word to his disciples was in Luke chapter twenty four, verse forty seven, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem in other words part of that message of the gospel is a call to repentance someone has said and I fully agree with them repentance is as old as sin and it is as imperative as sin is damning it is the only alternative to perishing there is no middle ground
and the message of the book of lamentation from beginning to end is a call to repentance the method the method that God used with Israel of all in the past is the method that he's using today among the nation it's the same method and it's a method that he will use again when he restores Israel as a nation among a nation. Until Israel acknowledges their sin, they will not turn to the Lord. And I want to give you two Old Testament passages that are not in the book of Lamentations in just a moment.
But what's on my mind is this. At the close of Matthew chapter twenty three. Our Lord said to the nation of Israel who had rejected him, he said, You will not see me henceforth until you say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. In other words, they will not see the Lord until they repent of their sin. Turn back in your Bibles to the prophecy of Hosea. Hosea chapter five. I want you to notice the repentance that Israel is going to manifest in that day.
Did I say go backwards? I meant go forward. Hosea is forward from lamentations. You turn right. And I had you turning left. In the first chapter of Hosea in verse fourteen we read, For I will be unto Ephraim. Ephraim is another term for the ten tribe nation of Israel to the north to whom Hosea ministered for I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the house of Judah I even I will tear and go away I will take away and none shall rescue him I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense that's repentance and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early come let us return unto the Lord for he has torn and he will heal us he has smitten and he will bind us up after two days he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight then shall we know if we follow along to know
the Lord so the coming of the Lord And the repentance of Israel go hand in hand. His coming in power and great glory. Turn over to the second last book of the Old Testament. The book of Zechariah. Zechariah chapter twelve. And verse eight. We want to read through verse ten. Zechariah. Ten verses. In that day the Lord shall defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is people among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God and the angel of the Lord before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. the spirit of grace and of supplication. That is repentance. Remember when the Gospel first went out, they said in the book of Acts that God has granted to the Gentiles repentance. God grants repentance. And repentance is that sorrow for sin. Not sorrow that we got caught.
but sorrow for sin that leads to a godly acknowledging of God and a genuine turning to God. Many times it takes a definite dealing with God. God has to deal with it like a farmer who had to hit his mule over the head with a two by four to get his attention. God often has to hit us over the head with a two by four to get our attention and that's what he's doing. that we read about in the book of Lamentations. But in that day when our Lord returned, as we read in Hosea chapter five and chapter six, and here in Zechariah chapter twelve, verse ten, and notice the end of the verse that we haven't finished.
And they shall look upon me whom they appear, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son. and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Here we see genuine repentance on the part of Israel. Now there are two things that are linked together in the word of God in prophecy. Those two things are, number one, return from captivity is always linked. With a future return of Israel, they return from captivity in Babylon to the northwest. northeast, excuse me, in the northeast.
They return from captivity in Babylon. But linked with their return from captivity in Babylon, we have the, that's the near view, but there's always that far view when they return from their captivity among the nations of the world at the return of the Lord. Turn with me, if you will, to Jeremiah. Now that's right before lamentation. To Jeremiah chapter thirty-two. And I just want to show this truth to you in order that you can rejoice that there is indeed a future for Israel determined by the Lord. Jeremiah thirty-two, verse thirty-six, where we read, And now therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence.
Behold, I will gather them out of all countries. Here we are looking beyond the return from captivity to all the countries where I have driven them in mine anger and in my fury and in great wrath. And I will bring them again unto this place and I will cause them to dwell in safety. And they shall be my people and I will be their God and I will give them one heart in one way. That they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them. So we see that the coming of the Lord, which is still future for Israel, when he will gather them from all the nations, it calls for something, it calls for repentance.
And just as he deals with us, he calls men to repentance. Repentance is to be preached among all nations for his name's sake. And we learn something of what it means to preach repentance when we see the awful condition of the judgment of God that he's laid before us in the book of Lamentations. And we're going to turn to Lamentations one in a moment. I've said it and I've heard other people say it. The reason that God has not judged America for her sin is is there still a good number of God's people in America.
And it's out of America where the money comes that supports the missionary enterprise around the world. And it's because of this that God has had mercy or has mercy on America still. But we need to keep in mind that when you read the book of Lamentations, especially the verses that we read for two Sundays, the first three verses of chapter one, These people over whom Jeremiah is reaping and over whom he is writing five funeral dirges, they were the people of God. They had the temple in their midst.
God dwelt among them, and yet he judged them severely. Let us note chapter one of Jeremiah, our lamentations, excuse me. Therefore... There are two themes that we find in chapter one of lamentation. In verses one through eleven, we have his lament over Jerusalem and their desolation. Jeremiah, in the first eleven verses, is lamenting over Jerusalem's desolation. And then in verses twelve through twenty-two, we have Jerusalem's plea for mercy. God is calling them to repent them.
And when you look at the first three verses, you find that the population of Jerusalem has been decimated. You find that our economic position has changed. The city was now deserted. What's great among the nations is now reduced to the status of a widow. The queen, Israel, has become a slave. She needed the comfort of her lovers and her friends, but they deserted her. Beloved, what a picture of the judgment of God. We have in Lamentations chapter one, verses one, two, three. Judgment. Now the enemies of God are the enemies of Jerusalem and the enemies of Judah are the very ones that they loved and were her friends.
Then when you get to verse six, you learn that Jerusalem and the people of Jerusalem are hunted like a deer. We read in verse six. And from the daughter of Zion, all her beauty is departed. Her princes are become like hearts or deers that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. In verse six, her leaders are hunted like a hunter hunted deer. When you come to verse seven, Jerusalem remembered all her treasures that were hers in days of old. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction.
her miseries, all her pleasant things. There are three things that every person possesses that these three things could cause that person to experience a hell without ever being there. And I want you to turn, I want to prove that statement to you. I want you to turn to the book of Genesis, chapter forty-two and verse twenty-one. In Genesis forty-two, Joseph is now the prime minister of the land of Egypt.
And Joseph's brothers, who wanted to kill him but didn't, they sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites, who in turn sold him as a slave in Egypt, and through his righteous life in the house of Potiphar, he ended in prison. He was placed in prison on what we would call prejudicial evidence. That's what he was in prison. But while there, God raised him up. God brought him forth out of prison. And in due time, Joseph's brothers had to come to Egypt.
They didn't recognize Joseph, but he recognized them. And Joseph is going to bring those brothers of his who sold him into captivity. He's going to bring them to repentance. And beloved, there are three things that every one of us possesses. That if God activates them, it can produce a hell for anybody without ever being in the lake of fire. God is the inescapable God. And we find Israel in this position. Israel remembers. And that's one of them.
In Genesis chapter forty-two, verse twenty-one, God excites the memory of the brothers. Now remember, Joseph had not pointed his finger at any of them. They don't know Joseph. They don't know who Joseph is. As far as they're concerned, he's the ruler of Egypt. But as far as Joseph is concerned, he's their brother, and he wants their welfare. But they have to come to repentance. And there are multitudes who know not the Savior. And he isn't pointing his finger at them, as it were. But he's calling them to repentance.
And that's what's happening to these brothers. The verse twenty-one we read, and they said one to another. We are verily guilty concerning our brother. They're talking about Joseph. He's listening into what they say. And what are they doing? What genuine repentance does. It pronounces sentence upon yourself. That's repentance. They said we are verily guilty. And every one of us has that mechanism within us we call conscience. And then God excites the conscience. that accusing conscience. Remember Herod that our Lord said, Herod the Fox?
Herod had John the Baptist beheaded because he loved to watch some woman dance. Oh, he loved what that reminded him of. At the time came when he heard about the fame of the Lord Jesus. And the first thing that happened, he said, Ooh, John the Baptist is risen from the dead. He gave him grief. John the Baptist is risen from the dead. Huh. It wasn't John the Baptist. But you see, conscience was awakened. And the brothers of Joseph, their conscience is awakened. And now they say, we are verily guilty. And they add, look, we concerning our brother and not, we saw the anguish of his soul.
That's the second thing. That's memory. They remember what it was like when they told him he begged his brothers not to. But they wouldn't listen. It's just like many people today. They won't listen. They're going to have their own way regardless. They saw the anguish of his soul. And then they added the third thing. They added the third thing, reason. When God created man, he created man with reason. Man is able to reason things out. And you see, and they say it, and we would not hear, therefore, here's reason, therefore this distress is upon us.
When a person is lost in a lake of fire, can you imagine a man throughout eternity with his conscience awakened and quickened? With his reason operating, I had the opportunities to be saved, but I wouldn't listen. and he remembers the past. This is the position of Israel in Lamentations chapter one. In other words, they remember their treasures that they had in days of old, or how they were blessed to God in the land, and they thought the temple is here, and God will never, never destroy the temple, and we can never go into captivity.
I think it is. Because God, as we noted last week from Deuteronomy twenty-eight, there are fifteen things. There are many more. But we took a look at fifteen things that were predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy twenty-eight that is spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet that came to pass because of Israel's sin. A call to repentance. You see, Judah had sinned greatly. Verses eight and nine. gets in grievously. But the problem was Judah did not consider her future. Notice verse nine.
Her filthiness is in her skirt. She remembereth not her last end. Oh, how foolish it is to live for the here and now and not consider eternity. Israel considered not her last sin. She didn't consider her future. The Word of God declares so vividly. In Ezekiel chapter eighteen in verse four, the soul that sinners shall die. And Romans six verse twenty three says, the wages of sin is death. Not to consider the future. Sin can only lead one way to death.
You see, pagan nations entered her sanctuary in verses ten and eleven. And then because of sin, there was famine, and Jerusalem now has to barter the very treasures that they remembered in order to get food to keep their soul alive. Can you imagine having to sell the boat or the car? or something else that you really treasure in order to keep your soul alive in order to have something to eat. And that's the picture you have in verses one to eleven of Lamentations one.
But now let's look at Jerusalem's plea for mercy in verses twelve through twenty two. The big change in this chapter is in verses one to eleven Jeremiah is standing on the offside And he's looking in. But now beginning in verse twelve to the end of the chapter, Jeremiah is standing on the inside. And he's looking up. And Jerusalem is here calling to those who are passing by. Just take a look at me. Look at my condition. In verses twelve through seventeen she's focusing on God's judgment. And then she explained that the judgment of God is a judgment.
that is deserved. He describes the attack of God upon the people, the judgment of God that was falling. He describes it as being like fire in verse thirteen. In verse thirteen, he describes it also as a net that is spread for the feet of an animal. And then he describes it as a yoke that is put upon the neck. In other words, their sin produced a yoke of judgment. And she is now bound to serve Babylon. And you have that in verse fourteen. Oh, what a picture we have here of the judgment of God.
It reminds me of a sermon I preached years ago. Long before I ever heard of Burlington, North Carolina, I preached a sermon called Grinding Corn Meal for the Devil. Samson had his eyes put out, and the scripture says he was grinding in the prison house. They had him tied like an animal, and he had to push the heavy stone over the mill, over the corn, and he was grinding corn meal, boom, for the enemies of God. And that's a picture of the yoke here.
They're going to serve. the king of Babylon. You see, their sins produced the yoke of judgment, and she was now bound to serve. And then in verse fifteen, God's attack, his judgment is pictured. You have the metaphor of a man who has to tread grace. The grace were put in a big vat, and to get the juice out of the grace, they got in the vat, and they tread the grace with their feet. And this is an expression of judgment that he found in the Old Testament, and it's also found in the New Testament. Isaiah sixty-one, he treadeth the winepress of the pierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And in the book of the Revelation, we read the same thing. But Jerusalem has an explanation. In verses sixteen and seventeen, there were no hands to comfort. They were all unclean. In verses eighteen and nineteen, In Judah's confession of guilt, she acknowledged that the judgment that was upon her was righteous, and it was God's discipline upon an unrighteous people. Notice verses eighteen and nineteen. The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment. Here I pray you, all people, and behold, my sorrow. My virgins and my young men are gone in the captivity.
I called for my lovers. but they deceived me. My priests and my elders gave up the ghosts in the city while they sought their meat to revive their souls. Oh, how true that is. What a picture of the man in sin. The man who God is calling to repent him. Those who he thought were his friends have deserted him. And now that Jerusalem is done under the judgment of God, they don't even turn the heads. as they call. And God now, or Jerusalem now, calls on God to extend his judgment upon those who have afflicted them.
And they call for the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord is a time when God is going to judge the nations, and he's going to bring our Lord Jesus back to the nation of Israel, and he's going to bring Israel out of all the countries where he's driven them. This first chapter of Jeremiah is a vivid call to repentance. And then we see what God's judgment did to these people, for God brought them back from captivity in due time. They were in Babylon for only seventy years, but a person who refuses to repent is going to be lost forever. And God's call is always to repentance, for man has to bow the knee.
to the rule of God, to the kingship of Jesus Christ. And that's the message of the gospel. And that brings us to application number one this morning. God's dealings are to bring people to repentance. I've said that time and again. The ways of Israel as a nation can be seen in the way in which God dealt with Jacob. God had dealt with Jacob at a place called Penel. Genesis chapter thirty-two. Jacob was a heel catcher.
When he was born, he took hold of his brother's heel. Then he bargained for his brother's birthright and he got it. Then he stole his brother's blessing and then he had a run from home. And God promised he's going to make of Jacob a great nation. But in bringing Jacob to the place of blessing, he first of all has to bring him to repentance. And in Genesis thirty-two at Tana'el, he brings Jacob to a place where Jacob will submit to him. And there's an Old Testament commentary on it. And I want you to turn to that. I want you to turn to Hosea. Turn right in your Bible to the prophecy of Hosea, chapter twelve.
And here's the commentary. on what took place there. Hosea twelve and verse twenty four. No, excuse me. Hosea twelve, verse three through verse five, where we read, he took hold, he took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God. Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed. He wept. and made supplication unto him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us. Here's the Old Testament commentary.
It speaks of what Jacob did when he was born, but it speaks of what he did when he met God face to face at Penel, and God met Jacob there in order that he might call him to repentance and that Jacob would claim reliance upon him. And that's what Jacob did. And therefore he was able to teach the children of Israel at Bethel. And when you read the book of Judges, it was so there. Israel would drift into sin. And God would raise up a judge. And he would deliver the people of Israel out of affliction. And so it will be when our Lord returns in power and great glory.
As we read this morning, they shall look unto him. They're not going to look to their armament. They're not going to look to their lovers in the nations round about. God's going to make it that they have none. They're going to look unto him whom they are pierced. And we invite you to look to him today. The one who was pierced on Calvary's cross is the answer for the nations of the world. It is the answer for the nation of Israel. It's the only answer for the individual who needs to be saved. Application number two. something we must ever keep before us. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.
God calls the wicked to repent him. I want you to turn ahead to the book of Ezekiel chapter thirty-three and verse eleven. Ezekiel thirty-three, verse eleven. Where we read, say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. You know that some people may think that God does. But he doesn't. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that a wicked turn from his way and live. And then God calls, here's a call of repentance.
Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why should you die? Oh, how could he do? Through the prophet Isaiah says, Come now, and let us read them together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as strong, they shall be as wide as you know. I tell you, the person who turns to the Lord in repentance can say with David in the thirtieth psalm, Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. There's a morning of joy for everyone who turns. There's a morning of joy for Israel.
There yet be a morning of joy when he gathers him from the nation, and is a morning of joy for everyone who trusts Christ himself. Let's pray again. Our Father, we commend to thee thy word. We thank you for the scope of divine prophecy. We thank you for the knowledge that you've given us of your desire. You want to forgive men. You long to see men repent. You have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And, O God, our Father, I just praise you this morning that you had mercy on my soul. We pray, O God, that there are those who are here today who also will cry for mercy and know the mercy of the Lord, which is new every morning because of thy faithfulness.
May there be a turning to these. From sin to salvation. From misery to the joy of the Lord. Now we commend ourselves to you. And we thank you. That we can commend this company to you. And to your grace. The word of your grace. Which is able to build them up. And give them an inheritance. Among all that are sanctified. Through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.