Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20050313.htm

LAMENTATIONS: EFFECTIVELY FACING SINFUL FAILURE
Part I: Diagnosing Sin Through Personal Suffering
(Lamentations 1:1-22)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

One afternoon as I watched Judge Judy on her afternoon television show, she begin to chuckle uncontrollably along with her bailiff at the testimony of a defendant in a court case.

The defendant had become annoyed in a highway incident by the aggressive moves of the prosecuting party who had driven up along side him in an expensive sports car. The defendant had responded by darting his less-expensive passenger car in front of the sports car, leading to a minor collision of the two cars. The sports car driver was in court suing this man for repair costs to his expensive sports car.

The defendant attempted to explain how he was not at fault simply because he was trying to "teach" the suing party to be humble! He was convinced that just because the prosecuting party drove an expensive sports car, he did not have the right to be so arrogant that he could drive aggressively as though he owned the whole road!

Judge Judy cleverly but calmly asked the defendant, "Would you say you experienced a little bit of 'road rage' in order to teach the other driver a lesson?"

The defendant replied affirmatively, "Yeah, yeah -- you might say that -- a little bit of road rage!"

At that, the shoulders of both Judge Judy and her bailiff began to heave up and down as they tried to control their laughter.

To his surprise, the defendant soundly lost his case and was required to fork out hundreds of dollars to repair the sports car! Judge Judy in her very humbling manner proclaimed to the defendant that road rage was an evil, that no driver had the right to exact revenge on any other driver so as to teach them humility by doing what he had!

The defendant left the court a bit unnerved and possibly thinking life was unfair and full of senseless trials!



When many trials of this sort arise in our lives, HOW are we to DISCERN what they MEAN, and HOW are we to ADJUST?!



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "I or a friend has been HIT with a SERIES of TROUBLING TRIALS! What would GOD have me do NOW, and WHY?!"
  1. God's prophet, Jeremiah noted Jerusalem suffered deep trials in the Babylonian invasion as judgment for SIN, Lam. 1:1-9a, 9d-20d:
    1. The book of Lamentations is composed of five poetic funeral dirges, each a chapter in length, and they were penned by Jeremiah when the city of Jerusalem fell to Babylon, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1207.
    2. The first dirge, Lamentations 1, reveals Jerusalem's suffering the Babylonian invasion was God's judgment for her SINS:
      1. Jerusalem suffered due to her many transgressions of God's commands, Lamentations 1:1-5b:
        1. Jeremiah detailed various sufferings his people had in their fall to Babylon: (1) they knew loneliness (1:1a), (2) loss of prestige (1:1b), (3) grief (1:2a), (4) revulsion by friends (1:2b), (4) exile (1:3a-4) and (5) their enemies' prosperity at their expense (1:5a).
        2. The suffering came for their many transgressions against God's commands, Lamentations 1:5b.
      2. Jerusalem suffered due to the greatness of her sins, Lam. 1:5c-8a:
        1. Jeremiah continued to detail the sufferings of Jerusalem: (1) she saw her children taken captive (1:5c), (2) her princes flounder without hope (1:6) and (2) the loss of former, happy times to the gloat of her enemies (1:7).
        2. The suffering came for the greatness of her sins, Lam. 1:8a.
      3. Jerusalem suffered for rebelling against God, Lam. 1:8b-18b:
        1. Jeremiah continue to detail the sufferings of Jerusalem: (1) the people were despised (1:8b-9a), (2) they had lost their privacy and possessions to the enemy (1:10-11), (3) they lost comforters (1:9d) and had (4) grief (1:12, 16) and (5) destruction (1:13-17).
        2. The suffering came for rebelling against God, Lam. 1:18a,b.
      4. Jerusalem suffered for greatly rebelling against God, 1:18c-20d,e:
        1. Jeremiah continued to detail Jerusalem's sufferings: (1) she saw her promising youths taken captive (1:18c), (2) her leaders fail in the city's fall (1:19) with (3) resulting distress (1:20:a,b,c,e).
        2. The suffering came for greatly rebelling against God, 1:20d.
  2. The FORCE that PRODUCED this sinfulness in Jerusalem's people that led to such judgment was the FAILURE of these people to REGARD their ACCOUNTABILITY to GOD, Lam. 1:9b,c:
    1. In the midst of the Lamentations 1 poetic dirge, Jeremiah observed that the people of Jerusalem had failed to consider the end result of their decisions to go ahead and sin against God and to violate His commandments, Lamentations 1:9b.
    2. That end result was divine judgment for choosing to SIN, so the people had failed to recall their accountability to a sovereign God in their choice to go down the path of sin and rebellion!
    3. Consequently, Jerusalem suffered a great fall in God's discipline when God arranged for Babylon to invade her, Lamentations 1:9c.
  3. In hope, Jeremiah asked God to take vengeance on the enemies of Jerusalem who had mercilessly abused her in her fall, 1:21-22:
    1. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the fact that though the Gentile nations witnessing Jerusalem's troubles witnessed her suffering, none of them helped her, but rather they rejoiced, Lamentations 1:21a.
    2. Accordingly, Jeremiah called in hope upon God Who is just and good to deal justly with those enemies as He had dealt with Jerusalem for their sin, Lamentations 1:21b: he urged the Lord to keep a record of their evil doings against Jerusalem and to deal in judgment with them as God had justly dealt with Jerusalem for her sins, Lam. 1:22.
Application: (1) If we suffer extensive trials, though there MAY be OTHER explanations for them, we must FIRST check to see IF we need to REPENT, and, IF so, either (a) trust in Christ for salvation from sin (John 3:16) to be saved or (b) confess needed post-salvation sins as believers (1 John 1:9). (2) If realize we have sinned but God has not yet punished us for doing so, let us NOT WAIT for His PUNISHMENT, but repent BEFORE He disciplines us! (3) If TEMPTED to sin, let us RECALL how accountable we are to ALMIGHTY GOD and REFRAIN from sinning. (4) If we see OTHERS sin and suffer God's discipline for it, let us consider OUR OWN status lest we ALSO sin, cf. 1 Corinthians 10:5-12! (5) If we have felt the brunt of God's discipline and have confessed it, we can TRUST God to be JUST AS just toward those who wrong US and to handle them!

Lesson: (1) For not considering their ACCOUNTABILITY to GOD, the people of Jerusalem went down the path of sin against God only to end up suffering great divine punishment by way of the Babylonian invasion. (2) However, as God had proved Himself to be RELIABLE in JUSTLY JUDGING His OWN, Jeremiah asked Him to apply His JUSTICE to the enemies who wronged JERUSALEM and to PUNISH THEM as WELL!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 If we return to the incident with which we began this sermon, we can see how much better the defendant before Judge Judy would have fared were we to have been in his shoes and applied this message:

(1) When the man had been aggravated by the driver in the fancy sports car who darted up alongside him and passed him, he should have recalled his accountability as a Christian to God to obey all traffic laws of man in accord with the teaching of 1 Peter 2:13; that would have led him to continue to drive safely in his lane.

(3) Then, as a Christian, this a driver should have recognized the man in the sports car was self-centered as evidenced by his driving. So, he should have gone to prayer that the other man might come to faith in Christ and/or confess his carnality of self-centeredness as a believer and not experience God's discipline in his life!

(4) Also, the defendant should have considered if he himself was driving in a way that might aggravate other drivers around himself! Maybe he had also cut in front of a car a few miles back, and thus he needed to correct his own driving habits!

(5) Finally, when this driver eventually might have passed the sports car that is parked beside side the highway with a patrol car behind him all because God's judgment had caught up with the sports car driver, instead of sticking his head out at the sports car driver and yelling, "Serves you right!" the Christian should have continued in prayer for the sports car driver's spiritual welfare and kept reviewing his own driving habits to make improvements if need be!

In any event, the believer could thus finish his trip in a closer walk with God, having saved himself a whole lot of time, embarrassment and money from NOT having had to stand in front of Judge Judy and have her and the bailiff laugh at his unwise words and pay hundreds of dollars to fix the sports car diver's expensive dent!



Hard trials SOMETIMES indicate GOD is DISCIPLINING US: when they arise, let us START to RESPOND to them by EVALUATING our relationship with GOD, and REPENT if SIN is the cause.

Then, when we see such trials arise in OTHERS, may we consider our OWN ways that we may ADJUST OURSELVES if necessary!