LAMENTATIONS 1-5 RESULTS OF SIN2013 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Lamentations 1-5 Results Of Sin

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2013.

The book of Jeremiah is the second of the major prophets and then Lamentations, which we'll get into, is the third of the major prophets. And then tomorrow we're going to start the book of Ezekiel. And so we're working our way through the major prophets and going to be looking at some interesting things over the next few weeks and months with Ezekiel and Daniel. Some exciting things in store for us.

Jeremiah was written by Jeremiah who ministered from about 626 to 586 BC or around that time frame. He ministered during the final days of the nation of Judah. In the last five kings, Jeremiah was able to minister to Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.

He also ministered alongside. There was other people that God was using to reach out to the nation as well. People like Zephaniah and Habakkuk, Ezekiel over in Babylon, as well as Daniel over in Babylon, were also ministering during the time that Jeremiah was ministering.

So Jeremiah began around 626 BC. It's about 300 years since the nation has split in two. At one time under King Saul and David and Solomon, the nation of Israel was united. It was one kingdom.

And so...

The northern kingdom was conquered in 722 BC. As they continued to rebel against God, God used Assyria to bring judgment upon them. And now it's Judah's turn. They've had some good kings and some revivals throughout their history. So they lasted a little bit longer. But now they have continued to rebel and God is bringing Babylon to bring judgment upon the nation of Judah.

And Babylon comes down into the land from the north and conquers not only Judah, but all the surrounding region as it comes against Jerusalem, the last stronghold of the nation of Judah.

Babylon actually conquers Judah three times. The first is in 605 BC where King Jehoiakim is defeated and he and some of the young men are taken captive and some of the temple treasures are taken to Babylon.

Then a little bit later on in 597, Jehoiachin, he was okay for a while, but then he rebelled against Babylon. And so Babylon came against it again and Jehoiachin surrendered and he was taken captive. Some more people were taken captive. Some more treasures were taken to Babylon as well.

And then Zedekiah was king. And he was a servant of Babylon for a while, but then he rebelled. And so Babylon comes for the third time. And in 586 B.C.,

He conquers Jerusalem for the third and final time, and they're not putting up with it anymore, not giving any more chances. They destroy the whole city. They leave it completely uninhabited and desolate, and take the rest of the people that survive captive back to Babylon.

So that brings us now to Jeremiah chapter 51. Now we're jumping in in chapter 51, kind of right in the middle of a prophecy against Babylon. We saw the first part of it in chapter 50 last week. That's what we ended with. And so now we're looking at the conclusion of that is God is pronouncing this message against Babylon. Although Babylon is God's instrument, and God said, I'm raising up Babylon. I'm using them as my tool to bring judgment upon Judah.

At the same time, God is announcing that Babylon will be judged as well because they did not just do what God asked them to do, but they went even beyond what God had asked and they attributed all their success to themselves and to their false gods instead of to God. And so Babylon as well is going to be judged

as a result of their sinfulness, just like Judah was judged as a result of its sinfulness. And so we see that here in the key verse, verse 24 of Jeremiah 51. It says,

God is announcing here in chapter 51 that he is going to bring judgment upon Babylon and he's going to repay Babylon. There's something that is owed. Because of Babylon's sin against God, they are owed judgment. And that is a theme that we are going to see throughout our chapters this evening as we finish up Jeremiah and go through the book of Lamentations. That there are results...

from sin. That sin brings serious consequences and there are consequences that we really don't want in our lives. And so the exhortation from that is to turn from sin, to repent of sin. Well, God speaks to his people in verses 1 through 10 and he tells them to flee from Babylon. Now,

Many of the people of Judah have been taken captive to Babylon. And they're captives there. They're not free to go.

But Babylon is going to be conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire, and they're going to be given the freedom to return to their land. And so God is addressing them in that context, saying, when you have the opportunity, get out of Babylon. Leave that nation. Leave that city. Don't stick around there, because they are going to be judged. I'm going to bring destruction to Babylon, and I don't want you to be there when that destruction comes.

He says in verse 5, God's saying, I want you to get out of Babylon because I

I've not forsaken you. Oh yes, I brought judgment. I brought chastening. But that doesn't mean I'm done with you. I still have a plan for you. I still want to bless you. So you didn't obey me before. That brought on this judgment. Now this judgment is coming upon Babylon. Now please listen to me, God says. And leave Babylon when you have that opportunity. Israel was disciplined but not forsaken.

Judah was judged but not forsaken. He's saying, I haven't given up on you. And that's an important lesson for us. Even when you and I experience the discipline of the Lord, it is not that God has given up on us. God has not given up on his children. Although we might feel that way, we might feel like, man, God's done with me. Look at this discipline, this judgment that I am experiencing.

But God is declaring here, even though you've experienced judgment, I'm not done with you. I haven't given up on you. And so now he's instructing his people to leave because he does not want them to experience Babylon's judgment. So he says in verse 6, flee from the midst of Babylon and everyone save his life. Do not be cut off in her iniquity. For this is the time of the Lord's vengeance. He shall recompense her.

So he tells his people, get out of there because I'm bringing judgment against them. And you have no part of that. You don't need to participate in that. You don't have to experience that. But notice what he says. It's the time of the Lord's vengeance and he's going to recompense Babylon. Again, there's this debt that is owed. It's a debt of judgment to Babylon for their sinfulness. Because sin brings those kinds of consequences.

In verses 11 through 23, God declares that he has raised up the Medes. Now it's the Medes and the Persians who join together to defeat Babylon. And in 539, Cyrus conquers Babylon. It's an interesting, you know, conquering because he does so without a battle. He's able to enter in through the open gates. And so the nation of Babylon is overthrown without really a battle. The

The battle actually comes later on. In 521 BC, the Babylonians rebel against the Medes and the Persians. They appoint their own king and they try to, you know, overthrow and become their own nation once again. But the Medes defeat that army. They kill that king and they, uh,

do some destruction to the city of Babylon at that time. But then a little bit later on in 482 BC, the Babylonians rebel again. And another time the Medes come and defeat them. They completely destroy the temples. They break down the walls of Babylon. And from that time on, Babylon has become less and less important as a city. And it has been destroyed. And so God says in verses 24 through 33, I will repay Babylon.

Again, there's this idea of repayment. There's this debt that is owed. It's a debt of judgment as a result of their sinfulness. He says, I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea. Why? For all the evil they have done in Zion in your sight, says the Lord. And so this repayment of evil is what God is bringing upon them with this destruction.

In verses 34 through 44, he declares that Babylon has become a desolation. It hasn't happened yet, but he's speaking the future in past tense because it assuredly will happen. It will become a heap, he says in verse 37, a dwelling place for jackals. And

an astonishment and a hissing without an inhabitant. Now this would have been hard to imagine because Babylon was, you know, the biggest city of the day. It was the capital of this impressive nation and it was thought to be, well, the walls were so thick, it was so strong, it was thought to be impossible to defeat Babylon. But God says, I'm going to leave this city without an inhabitant.

And so again, God tells his people, verses 45 through 58, get out of the midst of her. Get out of there, he says in verse 45. Let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord. He says in verse 50, you who have escaped the sword, get away. Do not stand still. Remember the Lord afar off and let Jerusalem come to your mind. He says, you guys survived the sword in Jerusalem.

And that's why you're still alive in Babylon. So you've survived that. Don't stand still. Don't just sit there. Get out of Babylon. Let Jerusalem come back to your mind. Let that place where God brought you out of, let it come back to your mind that you would desire to go there again. And so he's calling his people out of Babylon because of this destruction.

In verses 59 through 64, we have the instruction to Sariah, the chief priest, to read these words in Babylon. And then he was to cast the scroll into the sea. And so these words that Jeremiah is speaking forth are being written down to be read and delivered to the city of Babylon as the captives are taken there once the city of Jerusalem is conquered.

Moving on now to chapter 52, verse 30 is the key verse. It says, Here as we go into chapter 52, it's kind of a summary, a recap of the final destruction of Jerusalem.

So he's dealt with Babylon. He's prophesied against many other nations in the prior chapters. But he closes the book with a summary and a reminder of what took place in the final days of the nation of Judah. And so we see here that Zedekiah rebelled against Babylon in verses 1 through 3. Zedekiah was the final king of the nation of Judah.

He became king at 21 years old and he reigned for about nine years. But in his ninth year, he rebelled against Babylon. And so Babylon came against Jerusalem. In verses 4 through 7, you see that Babylon besieges Jerusalem. The siege began in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign on the 10th month, on the 10th day.

And that siege lasted until the 11th year. So about two years later, or actually a year and a half later, on the fourth month, in the ninth day, then the siege ended with Babylon breaking and penetrating the walls of Jerusalem. And so they conquered Jerusalem by manner of siege.

And siege was a, well, it was very difficult and hideous conditions as we will see as Jeremiah gives us some insight into what was going on as we go through the book of Lamentations. In verse 6, it's described as severe famine. And that is an apt description, but there's much more details that we will see as we go forward this evening.

In verses 8 through 11, we see Zedekiah captured. So when Babylon breaks through the walls, Zedekiah and some of his men, they make a run for it. They try to escape, but Babylon catches up with them. Zedekiah is taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, and King Nebuchadnezzar puts Zedekiah's sons to death in front of him.

And then takes out his eyes. So that was the last thing that he saw. His own sons being put to death. Now again, these are the results of sin.

Zedekiah was told by Jeremiah over and over and over again, just like the kings before him, that he was to surrender to Babylon and submit to Babylon. That God was using Babylon to bring this discipline and so not fight, not rebel against Babylon. But Zedekiah insisted on doing what he wanted to do and experienced the results of that here as his sons are put to death and his eyes are put out.

Well then verses 12 through 23, Jerusalem is destroyed. Verse 13, we see the temple is burned. The king's house is burned. All the great houses are burned to the ground. In verse 14, it tells us that the walls are broken down. In verse 15, all of the rest of the people are carried away except for, verse 16, there's a few of the poor people that are left in the land. Then in verse 16, it also talks about the temple treasures. You might remember the bronze pillars.

That were there at the temple.

They were huge. They were about 27 feet high. And the circumference was about 18 feet. These huge bronze pillars. And then also there was the carts. And remember the great sea. The bronze sea that was there. It had the 12 bulls underneath it carrying it. And it was all made of bronze. And so those were kind of the last of the treasures that were left at the temple. And at this time those are broken up and taken to Babylon.

In verses 24 through 30, he records that the captives were taken to Babylon. He kind of looks back at some of the previous conquerings. You know, in the seventh year of King Nebuchadnezzar, there was 3,000 Jews who were taken. In the 18th year, there was another 800. In the 23rd year, there was a

700 Jews who were taken to Babylon. And so it's talking about these specific people who were taken to Babylon into captivity from, you know, King Nebuchadnezzar.

And then in verses 31 through 34, we have the closing of the book with an account of Jehoiachin, who was one of the earlier kings of Judah. And he was taken captive to Babylon. But one of the later kings of Babylon liked Jehoiachin. And so he released him from prison and treated him kindly, even though he didn't deserve it.

And that's the end of the book of Jeremiah. And that brings us to, it's really a good setup for the book of Lamentations, which we head into now. Lamentations is also believed to be written by Jeremiah. It doesn't actually have his name in it, but that's what the Jewish tradition holds, that Jeremiah is the one who wrote these things. And it makes sense. It goes right along with, as I said, where we left off in chapter 52.

So if Jeremiah wrote it, it was probably written right around 586, maybe as late as 575 BC, just after the destruction of Jerusalem had taken place.

And the purpose of this book is that of mourning. It's a mourning of the fall of Jerusalem. It also offers reproof or correction and instruction and hope to the survivors from the city of Jerusalem.

So on the timeline, the book of Lamentations would be right at the end of Jeremiah's ministry after Jerusalem is conquered. All those things in chapter 52 of Jeremiah, we just read it just happened. And now Jeremiah looks at the city of Jerusalem and expresses great sorrow over the destruction that has taken place.

Here's what it looks like on the timeline. Again, you have the prophet Jeremiah there in the green. And the nation has been conquered at this time, the nation of Judah, the southern kingdom, and has been taken into captivity. And there's a period of 70 years of captivity from the first time Babylon conquered Jerusalem. And so in this time of captivity,

Jeremiah is looking at the city, looking at what has happened, reflecting on all the events that took place leading up to that final destruction and is lamenting or sorrowing and mourning over those things that have taken place. Now the book of Lamentations is interesting because there's a couple features or aspects of the book of Lamentations that make it unique. First of all, it's a funeral song.

The word lament means to cry aloud. And it's not just that, you know, he was crying aloud and so he wrote these words, but there's thought behind the words that he is putting down here. In those days, and I think maybe in some contexts, in some cultures, and maybe in some families today, there was a purposeful lamentation whenever there was an occasion for sorrow.

There was a purposeful mourning. I think, you know, from what I've experienced in life, which isn't a whole lot, but, you know, when we attend funerals, a lot of times there's this like suppression of, you know, emotion. Like don't try to show too much emotion, don't cry too much. And there's like this suppression of it. But in their culture...

I think even to this day, and it's probably a little bit more healthy approach, there's an encouragement to express emotion. And so they would do these lamentations or these funeral songs that would kind of provoke and stir up these emotions so that it wouldn't just be, you know, a little bit of tears of sorrow, but that there would be great weeping aloud and lamentation and wailing and

And they would stir up. In fact, they would even hire mourners. These professional mourners. You know how you laugh, you know, when certain people laugh because of the way they laugh, even if you don't even know what the joke is. You're laughing because they're laughing. In the same way, they would have these professional mourners. And they would be so good at mourning and wailing that it would automatically start stirring up within the people those same emotions and expressions. And they would begin to lament and mourn as well.

Maybe for you, you could relate to it this way. Do you ever watch a sad movie? You know, some people say, you know, I just really need to get a good cry. So I'm going to go watch a sad movie. I don't really understand that. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I don't like that at all. I remember Kim and I watched that movie. I don't know, maybe you've seen it. Everybody's Fine.

Oh, I hated that movie. That's a horrible movie. I mean, it's fine. It's a good movie. But, oh man, it's just like, it's just as painful. I don't want to feel like that. I don't want to go through those emotions. That's not enjoyable for me. I want to escape reality. I don't want to face it, right? But that's what this is all about. It's facing reality. It's intended. The book of Lamentations is intended to be sad. It's a funeral song to stir up

emotion, woe, sorrow, remorse. We like to deflect and avoid dealing with those things, especially deep emotion. But this book is intended to stir up those things, to face them directly. And so what we see through this is a very clear picture of the destruction that sin brings. And

And Jeremiah is bringing us face to face with it. Deal with it. This is the result of sin. And we must consider it. We need to consider it. And to help us understand that a little bit, there's some structure to the book of Lamentations. It's called an acrostic. There's 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

And what it means that it's acrostic is that each line of a chapter begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So chapter 1 has 22 verses. Each verse in Hebrew begins with a letter of acrostic.

the Hebrew alphabet in succession. For us, it would be, you know, the first verse starts with the letter A. The second verse starts with the letter B. The third verse starts with the letter C. We saw this as well in Psalm 119, as well as some of the other Psalms. This was a common, you know, practice for them. And so they would construct the literature this way. It's very purposeful. Can you imagine, you know, writing...

a chapter, you know, a verse, a lamentation, a woe, and beginning each line with the next letter of our alphabet. It would take some thinking, some preparation, some planning. So this book is not a flurry of emotions at the moment of tragedy, like all this just spills out from Jeremiah. This is well constructed, thought through, inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that we can

could face and have a serious understanding of the results of sin. So chapter 1 has one verse per letter. Chapter 2 has one verse per letter. It follows the same pattern. Chapter 3 switches it up a little bit. And so there's...

Three times the number of verses. Chapter 1 has 22, chapter 2 has 22, chapter 3 has 66 verses. Because instead of one verse or one line per letter, there's three lines. So the first three verses of chapter 3 begin with the Hebrew letter Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Then the next three, the next letter, the next three, the next letter, and so on and so forth.

Chapter 4 goes back to the normal pattern, one verse per letter. Chapter 5 is a little bit different. It has a similar pattern, 22 verses, but the letters are not in order and it's not exactly an acrostic. And so it's a little bit different in chapter 5. But the point is, there's structure here. This is well thought out. It's strategically designed for

So that we would lament, that we would sorrow, that we would recognize the results of sin. And so this is not, you know, the most popular book of the Bible. It's not probably the most teaching, the most popular teaching, you know, that you'll ever have or hear. But this is what we need. And so let's allow God to help us be stirred up.

And to face the reality of what sin brings. So we start in Lamentations chapter 1, verse 3 is the key verse. It tells us, Judah has gone into captivity under affliction and hard servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no rest. All her persecutors overtake her in dire straits.

We see here in verses 1 through 4 that Judah has gone into captivity. Now I already said this book gives us a clear picture of the results of sin. And we see that here in verses 1 through 4. This is repayment for evil. Just like Babylon was going to be repaid for evil by the Lord, Judah was repaid for evil by the Lord.

And when you and I ignore God's warnings and continue to practice sin, we will experience similar things to what the nation of Judah experienced. Because as Paul says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. And we need this dose of reality because we easily forget how bad sin is.

We need to know how awful, how bad sin is, the results that it brings. We need to know what Christ has saved us from and delivered us from that we could rejoice and praise Him. But we also need to know so that we repent and don't continue to live in sin. We also need to know so that we will pass on the warning to people around us so that they don't experience these things if they do not repent. You remember in the book of Jonah, Jonah...

Went to Nineveh reluctantly and announced this judgment. But Jonah's heart was, yes, God, judge them. I'm so excited about this. He even tells God, I didn't want to go to Nineveh because I knew you're going to be gracious and merciful if they repented.

And so Jonah announces the judgment. Then he goes up on the hill, overlooks the city. He's like, all right, God, I'm going to watch the show. I got front row seats. Bring on the destruction. He wants God to bring judgment. But because the city repented, God did not bring the destruction. And Jonah mourned because he wanted God to destroy them. This is the other side of that or the opposite of that. Jeremiah overlooks the city that was destroyed and

And mourns over this destruction. Jonah would have rejoiced. But Jeremiah, he mourns, he laments. And so he says in verse 1, How lonely sits the city that was full of people. How like a widow is she who is great among the nations. The princes among the provinces has become a slave. He's looking at the city and he's saying, How lonely.

This city used to be full of people. There was the hustle and the bustle. There was the commerce. There was great things going on. There was joy and laughter. But now it's there desolate. It's lonely like a widow. This city was once great among the nations. But now it's desolate and lonely. The princes of this city...

Had high honor in the surrounding areas. But now the princes are slaves. The contrast is clear. And again as we see the effects of their rebellion against God. There's going to be things I'll be highlighting about sin for us to reflect on. Because we need to look it square in the face and realize what sin brings. And what we see here in verse 1 is that sin turns fullness into.

into emptiness for you and i we need to understand as we look at verse one this city was full of people but now it is empty and our lives listen i'm not just saying this because this is what the book of lamentation says as i look through these things i can clearly remember very specific times in my life where i have experienced the results of sin and i can remember times of fullness

That we're turned into times of emptiness. As a result of my disregard of God's word. Sin turns fullness into emptiness. It also turns power into slavery. These princes who had power, they are now enslaved. And where we think we are strong, where we think we have power. Sin will turn those areas of our lives into bondage. Into slavery.

And so we become empty and enslaved as a result of sin. In verse 4, Jeremiah continues, Here he's thinking about all the times...

There was feasts throughout the year. Israel would come. The people would come. They would celebrate together, sacrifice together at those appointed feasts. But now nobody comes. The roads are desolate. The roads mourn. And she is in bitterness. We see that sin turns feasts into bitterness. You know, the Bible tells us that sin is fun for a season. And some people enjoy sin for a season. But those feasts will become bitterness.

It's the result of sin. Now we'll go on into the rest of chapter 1. But I wanted to just give you a little bit of insight into what we're talking about when we talk about the acrostic here in Lamentations chapter 1. So here's the first five verses. On the right hand side in the green you have the Hebrew words. And those Hebrew words are the first word of each verse or each line. And so those are in green. Now the

Hebrew is from right to left. So the far right letter is the Hebrew letter Aleph on the top right in verse 1. And then the next letter on the far right, that's Beth and then Gimel and Dalet and then He. And if you want the correct pronunciations, you can talk to Jake after the service. Then the verses, as it has the quotation there, the words that are in green, they're in English.

are the translation, the English translation of those Hebrew words. And so in Hebrew, the verses begin with those words and with those particular letters, but because of the translation, they fall in various places. But that's what it means when we're talking about an acrostic. And so again, it's well thought out. It's a difficult thing to do as they make the first word or first letter of the first word of each line, the successive letter of the alphabet.

Alright, continuing on in chapter 1 verses 5 through 9, we see that Jerusalem has sinned gravely. Verse 5 says, And here we learn that sin turns enemies into masters.

Sin turns our enemies into our masters. Not just the feasts and the things that we enjoy do we become enslaved to, but even the things that we're against, they become masters in our lives. We become in bondage to them as a result of sin.

We also see in verses, or in verse 5 here, that sin turns children into captives. Notice, because of the multitude of her transgressions, at the end of verse 5, her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. Now, please listen to this. Please hear what's going on here. The adults of Judah, the adults of Jerusalem,

are disregarding God's word. They're disregarding his warnings. They're refusing to come back to him. And the adults are judged. But their children suffer too. Their children are taken captive as well. Many times the children, well they lose their parents as they're put to death or they die in the famine. And then on top of that, the children go into captivity.

The enemy does a really good job convincing us. We do a really good job convincing ourselves that our sin only affects us. But that is not the truth. Sin turns children into captives. Your sin affects your children. It affects the people around you. And they hurt as a result of sin.

In verse 8, he says, Jerusalem has sinned gravely. Therefore, she has become vile. All who honored her despise her because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs and turns away. Sin turns honor into despising. At one time, Jerusalem was honored. High place. But now she is despised. Why? Because she has sinned gravely.

Sin turns honor into despising. Those areas of your life that people esteem. Those things in you that people honor. If we allow sin to continue, that honor will not continue. It will be turned into despising. Jeremiah goes on in verses 10 through 17. Is any sorrow like my sorrow? He's lamenting greatly. He says, is there any sorrow like what I'm experiencing? This is the greatest of sorrows.

In verse 14 he says, The yoke of my transgression was bound. They were woven together by his hands and thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail. The Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand. Jeremiah is speaking on behalf of the nation. And he says, The yoke of my transgression. It's thrust upon my neck. I couldn't escape it.

The yoke of my sin. The result of my sin. And so he made my strength fail. Sin turns strength into failure. Turns strength into failure. Isn't it interesting that a lot of times as we see the biblical accounts of men who fell, it was where we would think they are the strongest. Think about Samson. He had great strength, but sin turned his strength into failure.

He became weak. Paul tells us, beware of your strengths. He says, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall because sin reverses those strengths. And what we, once we're strong in, becomes a great weakness and vulnerability for us. And that's what happened to the nation of Judah. So Jeremiah says in verse 16, for these things I weep. My eye weeps.

Jeremiah says,

In verse 18 through 22, again, he's speaking on behalf of the nation of Judah. He says, I have been very rebellious. He concludes in verse 18, the Lord is righteous in this judgment that he brought, for I rebelled against his commandment. He says, hear now all peoples and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity. He says, God is righteous because

I rebelled. Judah rebelled. Judah disregarded God's word. And when you ignore God's warning and continue to practice sin, this is the result. This is the result when you practice sin. Now, as I'm talking about sin kind of in general terms this evening, I'm not saying that every time you sin, that all of these things are the results. I'm speaking primarily about looking at the example of Judah. When God's speaking to you and calling you out of sin...

And you say, no, I'm going to continue to do what I want to do. It's the disregard of God's warnings and the continuing to practice sin. And notice what Jeremiah says in verse 18. He says, hear now all peoples. This is not just his lamentation. He's just, you know, mourning and he just wants us to read his poem that he wrote because he was sad. No, this is something that we all need to pay attention to. He says, behold my sorrow.

You need to consider this. You need to consider. I know it's hard. I know we don't like to look lamentation in the face. But you need to know how awful sin is. How devastating the results are. You need to know what Christ has saved us from.

So that you do not continue to practice it. So that you praise him for his salvation. But that also that you extend the message to those around you. So that they will not experience these results of sin. So let me sum up some of the results of sin here in chapter 1. Sin turns fullness into emptiness.

Sin turns power into slavery. Sin turns feasts into bitterness. Sin turns children into captives. Sin turns enemies into masters. Sin turns children into captives. Sin turns honor into despising. Sin turns strength into failure. This book is a clear picture of the results of sin.

This is what will happen in your life, in my life, if I practice sin. God's patient. He's gracious. He's merciful. Yes. But if I continue to practice sin, this will be the result in my life. You need to know how awful sin is and the results that it brings. Well, now in chapter 2, verse 21 is the key verse.

He says, And verses 1 through 4, he says that the Lord covered Zion, that is Jerusalem, with anger. He says it's God who's done this and he's brought anger, this covering of anger upon the city.

In verse 4, he's describing God. He says he's standing like an enemy. And he's bent his bow with his right hand. He has slain all who are pleasing to his eye. These are his people, his children. He slain them on the tent of the daughter of Zion. He has poured out his fury like fire. The Lord has covered Zion with anger. And here we continue to learn some insight about sin.

Sin turns God's favor into anger. Jerusalem was the site of God's favor. The Jews were the people of God's favor. But their rebellion turned that favor now into anger. So that God himself is shooting the arrows. He is the one who's bringing this destruction. And it's described as we go on in verses 5 through 10. He says he's done violence to his sanctuary.

In verse 5, he says the strongholds are destroyed. In verse 6, he says the temple is destroyed. In verse 6, he also says the feasts are forgotten. In verse 8, he says the walls are destroyed. The walls are destroyed. Here we learn another aspect of sin. Sin turns God's protection into destruction. The walls are removed.

God was protecting Jerusalem. He had this promise of protection upon the city, upon the nation. But their rebellion well resulted in the destruction of God's protection. Verse 9 says, Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations. The law is no more and her prophets find no vision from the Lord.

As he's looking at all of the effects of the city, the desolation that is there, he's also lamenting that the voice of God is no more in this place. He says, the law is no more. Her prophets find no vision from the Lord. This is another result of sin. Sin silences God's voice.

Sin silences God's voice. We think, hey, I can handle it. I can continue on in sin. And then we wonder, why isn't God speaking to me? I have to make this decision. I need this help. I need this. Sin silences God's voice. In verse 10, the elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground and keep silence. They throw dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.

It's this picture of the people mourning. The elders of the city, they're sitting on the ground silently, throwing dust on their heads. They're lamenting, they're sorrowing. The virgins of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground. There's this great sorrow upon the people. Again, great bitterness has come as a result of sin. In verse 11 through 17, he asks the question, how shall I console you? How can I bring comfort to you?

Verse 11, he says, my eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. How can I comfort you? How can I help you? I'm overwhelmed with emotion, with sorrow. So much so, he says, my bile is poured on the ground. This lamentation is so great. He's vomiting. He's throwing up to the point that there's nothing left. And it's just bile that is coming out, being poured out upon the ground. Why? Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city. He's looking at the siege. He's looking at what has happened. The destruction of the people. It's tragic. It's sorrowful for the adults. But the children and the infants, they're suffering as a result of this sin. And they faint in the streets of the city. We'll see more of that later on. Verse 13. He says, your ruin is spread wide. Who can heal you?

Your destruction is so great. The result of sin is so terrible. The question has to be asked, who can heal you? Now, of course, we know God can heal you, but they were not turning to God. In verse 14, he talks about the false prophets and he talks and declares that they've seen deceptive visions. They've been prophesying lies. We dealt with that all the time in the book of Jeremiah.

And so the result is in verse 15, all who pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem. Here's what they say. Is this the city that is called the perfection of beauty? The joy of the whole earth? Is this the city? Sin turns beauty into shame. People used to say, Jerusalem is the perfection of beauty. It's the joy of the whole earth. But now they say,

and shake their heads. Their beauty has been turned to shame. You know, we call Disneyland the happiest place on earth. I'm not prophesying anything, okay? But if Disneyland was destroyed and in place, it was now just a dump. That would be the contrast here. It was the place of beauty. Sin turns beauty into shame.

And if you and I persist in sin, if we ignore God's warnings and continue to rebel, this will be the result. Those things of beauty in my life will be turned to shame. Verses 18 through 22, he says, Arise, cry out in the night. He's calling for appropriate mourning. And as he does so, he gives a glimpse of the siege conditions.

Now again, these are the results of rebellion. So we have to consider these things. But they're not pleasant. Verse 20. See, O Lord, and consider, to whom have you done this? Should the women eat their offspring, the children they have cuddled? Should the priest and prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? Here he gives us a little bit of a glimpse. And this is just a little glimpse of the things that would happen in siege conditions.

This is why lamentation is appropriate. He says, God, think about this. These are your people. And they've come to the point now that women are eating their offspring. The children that they cuddled, they're now eating to survive. I mean, this, moms, how bad would things have to be? I mean, maybe some kids you want to get rid of, right? No, I'm just kidding. No, I just had to lighten it a little bit because it's heavy. I know it's heavy.

How bad would it have to be for you to eat your child? I mean, seriously, think about that. How bad would it have to be to consume the one that you cuddled? Sin turns you against yourself. It turns you against those things that you value most. The thing that you cuddled, the thing that you held so precious and valuable to you. Sin will turn you against that.

And cause you to consume that. And destroy that. As he's considering these siege conditions. He says in verse 21. Young and old lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered and not pitied. It doesn't affect only certain age groups. It's young and old. It doesn't only affect certain types of people or groups of people. This is the result of sin for all people.

What are these results? Well, let me just recap them for you once again. Sin turns fullness into emptiness. It turns power into slavery. Feasts into bitterness. Children into captives. Enemies into masters.

Children into captives once again. Honor into despising. Strength into failure. It turns God's favor into anger. God's protection into destruction. It silences God's voice. It turns beauty into shame. And it turns you against yourself. This is the result of sin. This is why God says don't do it. This is why God says repent of sin and stop. But if we ignore God's warnings and continue in sin, this will be the result of

For us. For me. For you. This will be the result. The wages of sin is death. And if you want to see your children in captivity and destroyed, then by all means, go ahead and keep on disregarding God's word. If you want to see your life just completely destroyed, go ahead. Test God on this. And continue in sin. And you will see

That the wages of sin is death. And you will write your own book of lamentations. Lamentations chapter 3 now verse 32. Though he causes grief. Yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. Chapter 3 is like a breath of fresh air. It's like there's a little bit of relief in here. Where he gives now some insight into the mercies of God. And into how we should respond now.

As a result of the judgment of God. In verses 1 through 18. He says he has turned his hand against me. So before he gets to the good part. He continues on. He says in verse 3. Surely he has turned his hand against me. Time and time again throughout the day. Here's the next thing that sin does. Sin turns God against you. You know Paul said. Hey if God is for you. Who can be against you? But by sin. When we continue in it. We turn God against us. And if God is against you.

Who can be for you? There's no good coming out of that. Sin turns God against you. Notice what he says in verse 5. He besieged me. In verse 6, he says he set me in dark places. In verse 8, he shuts out my prayer. In verse 12, he set me up as a target, shooting arrows at me. In verse 16, he's broken my teeth with gravel. That's an interesting one to think about. He's broken. How does God break teeth with gravel?

It's not, you know, a fistful of gravel. It's taking your head and smashing it into the ground. That's how your teeth are broken with gravel. God is against them because of their sin. That's what sin does. He says in verse 17, Here's the next thing. Sin removes peace.

You wonder, why am I always stressed? Why don't I have peace? Why am I so miserable? Why am I so empty? Sin removes peace. God declares very clearly, we'll see it throughout the book of Ezekiel, there is no peace for the wicked. If you want peace, listen to what Peter said in Acts chapter 3 verse 19.

He says, repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. It's that repentance, that turning from sin that brings refreshing and the restoration of peace. Well, verses 19 through 42, he says, through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed. Even in the midst of the terrible results of sin, there is reason to have hope.

He says in verse 21, this I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Now thinking about moms eating their children, what possible thing could bring hope to that situation? Verse 22, through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. In the middle of his lamentation, he begins to look at the Lord. And there's a little bit of hope. When you look to the Lord, there's going to be hope.

No matter how bad things are, Jeremiah is recognizing we deserve worse. That's what he's declaring here. No matter how bad things are in your life, listen, you deserve worse. But through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed. He hasn't wiped us out completely because he's merciful. Even in the midst of judgment, God is merciful and he's not giving us the entirety of what we deserve. As long as we still have breath.

His mercies are the reason why we are not consumed. Verse 24, he says, The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Jeremiah is saying the fact that you still have breath means that God loves you and He's showing you mercy and so there's still time to turn to Him. So wait on the Lord. Look to the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Turn to the Lord and receive His correction. Receive His correction? Yeah, look at verse 28. Let him sit alone and keep silent because God has laid this correction on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust.

There may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him and be full of reproach. He says, receive God's instruction. Don't fight against it. Trying to keep your head up. No, don't try to keep your head up. Put your face in the ground. Eat the dirt. You need to repent. There's hope in the Lord, but you must repent.

There must be repentance from sin. Give your cheek to the one who strikes you. Receive the correction. Recognize I need correction because of my sin. So surrender to it. As I've been sharing all throughout Jeremiah, right? Be broken or you will be broken. It's still the same issue. Even in the midst of the judgment, they're resisting God. No, I'm not going to give in. I'm not going to receive this correction. But God's saying, no, receive it.

There's hope in me, but you got to receive the correction. You have to humble yourself. Now, all of this might give you the impression that God is, you know, enjoying this, but God does not want to bring judgment. He says in verse 31, the Lord will not cast off forever. Though he causes grief, yet he will show compassion according to the, notice, multitude of his mercies. For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

He doesn't do this willingly. This isn't his plan or purpose. This is what he's always dreamed about doing is bringing great judgment and discipline upon people. No. And so recognize that about God and the multitude of his mercies. He's loving. He's compassionate. He's merciful. So receive the correction. Take it. Yeah, it hurts. Yes, it does. It's painful. It's difficult. It's hard. But receive it.

Lean into it. Don't try to run away from it. Receive the correction from God because then he will show the multitude of his mercies. Verse 39, why should a living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sins. Boy, we like to complain about the punishment of our sins, don't we? What should we do instead though? Verse 40, let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and hands to the God of heaven. What should we do?

Repent. What's the call for? Repentance. Search out and examine your ways. And then turn back to the Lord. The idea is, find out. You probably don't have to search very hard. But maybe you do. Search out. Find out. Lord, where am I off? Where am I not listening to you? Where am I disregarding your word? And turn back to the Lord. Repent. Verses 43 through 66 now, he says, Do not hide your ear from my sighing.

He kind of goes back to the effects of sin. He says in verse 44, you've covered yourself with a cloud that prayer should not pass through. Here's another result of sin. Sin hinders prayer. If your prayer life is dead and you're living in sin, that's no surprise. Prayer is hindered by sin. How can this be resolved? By repentance. Verse 49, my eyes flow and do not cease without interruption till the Lord from heaven looks down and sees. I'm in a sorrow. I'm in a repentance.

Until God sees. Until God responds. There's this persistence. Sometimes we try to repent, you know, alright God, I give you five minutes. I repent for this five minutes. You didn't answer in that time frame? Sorry God. I'm going to keep on doing what I want to do then. No. Repent and hold to that repentance. Even if it hurts, lean into the correction. Just receive it. Take it until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.

The results of sin are terrible. They're devastating. What are they? Sin turns fullness into emptiness. It turns power into slavery. Feasts into bitterness. Children into captives. Enemies into masters. Honor into despising. Strength into failure. It turns God's favor into anger. God's protection into destruction. It silences God's voice. It turns beauty into shame. It turns you against yourself. It turns God against you. It removes peace and it hinders prayer.

Who wants to sign up for sin? Hopefully nobody, but it's a great temptation for us. And that's why we need to know the results of sin. All right, let's hit these last two chapters pretty quickly. Chapter 4, verse 6. The punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment with no hand to help her. Man, this is crazy. Verses 1 through 5. Children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them.

Here again he's considering the siege conditions. He says in verse 2, Sin turns valuables into worthlessness or worthless things. Those things which were once valuable, sin removes the value. They become worthless.

Verse 4, the tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst. The young children ask for bread, but no one breaks it for them. The conditions in the siege were terrible. This is the result of sin. And the children suffer. The children are hungry. They're asking for bread, but nobody's breaking bread to give to the child. This is what sin will bring. So that the tongue of the infant clings to the roof of its mouth for thirst.

I mean, this is agonizing stuff. If you begin to like play it through in your head, the child saying, I'm thirsty and there's nothing you can do. This is what sin will bring. Verses 6 through 10, those slain by the sword are better than those who die of hunger. He says in verse 6, this is a greater punishment than Sodom because Sodom was wiped out quickly. There was no suffering. There was no dying of hunger and thirst. It was just destruction. This is worse than what Sodom experienced.

And rightly so. Why? Because these were God's people who had God's word. They had greater knowledge, a greater accountability, greater blessings. And so the suffering was greater. In the same way, listen, you guys, we have great and awesome privileges as Christians today in the nation where we live. Do not think that the results of sin will be as comfortable as, well, what we would like to think or would expect.

Our disregard of God and His Word is worse because we have a greater, greater knowledge and access into the presence of God by Jesus Christ. Notice verse 10. The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children. They became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people. Who's the most delicate woman you could think of? And in these conditions, she's cooked her children.

That's the extent. That's, you know, there's that saying, sin, what is it? It will take you farther than you want to go. It'll keep you there longer than you want to stay. And it will cost you more than you're willing to pay. That, I mean, that's verse 10 right there. No one would want to come to that point. But that is where sin will take you. Verses 11 through 20, the Lord fulfilled sin.

He's focusing on the spiritual leaders here, the prophets and the priests. They've been scattered. No one regards them. There's no respect for them in verse 16. And so we learn that sin turns respect into disregard. Verse 17, still our eyes failed us, watching vainly for our help. In our watching, we watched for a nation that could not save us. Amazing. They were watching for a nation that could not save them.

There's so many parallels here. In the midst of judgment, in the midst of discipline from the Lord, where we need to look is to the Lord. But where we often look is to things that can't save us. Oh, I'm going to get this new credit card. It has a higher limit. And so I'll be able to endure. I'll be able to get through. But that can't save you. Oh, I have this 401k. I can borrow against it. I can move into this place. I can get it, you know, hook up with that girl, that guy. I can resolve this. I have this

And we're looking for all these places for help. And then we realize, we learn, they can't save us. Where we need to look is to the Lord. Well, he addresses Edom in verse 21 and 22. And he says, he will punish your iniquity, O Edom. Edom was rejoicing at what was happening in Jerusalem. Can you imagine that? Moms are eating their children and Edom's like snickering and laughing. Ha, ha, ha.

So he addresses them and God addresses them later on in the minor prophets as well. They're going to experience the judgment of God. All right, chapter 5 now, verse 21. Turn us back to you, O Lord, and we will be restored. Renew our days as of old. In verses 1 through 9, he says that servants rule over us. In verse 2, he says our inheritance has been turned over to aliens and our houses to foreigners.

Here we learn a couple more things about sin. Sin forfeits inheritance. All the blessings that God has for you, practicing sin forfeits all of that. Our inheritance is given over to aliens. But sin also brings, the next thing is, sin brings heavy oppression. So that in verse 4, water and wood are costly. They're incredibly expensive. The cost of living is way high. In verse 5 we see it costs an arm and a leg.

It costs our hand, he says. In verse 9, we get bread at the risk of our lives. There's this heavy oppression, this great cost to just continue to survive because sin brings this heavy oppression. Verses 10 through 14, he says that the elders were not respected. Again, he's walking through the results of sin. In verse 10, there's famine. In verse 11, the women are ravished. They're raped. Verse 12, the princes are hung up.

The elders are not respected. Verse 13, it pictures these little boys being burdened with great weights and great burdens. So their legs are tottering. They're not able to carry the burden. This is the result of sin. If you want famine, if you want the ladies in your life to be ravished, if you want the princes to be hung up and the elders disregarded, if you want little boys to be burdened, then by all means continue to practice sin because that's what it will bring.

Verses 15 through 18. Speaking of little boys. Verses 15 through 18. The joy of our heart has ceased. The joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance has turned into mourning. Sin turns dancing into mourning. That's what it does. Now he concludes in verses 19 through 22 saying, Turn us back to you and we will be restored. In the midst of all this desolation and the result of sin,

He then comes back to God there's still hope as we look to you. Verse 21. Turn us back to you O Lord and we will be restored. Renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are very angry with us. He calls God to turn them back to him.

Tough book, Lamentations. Now, tomorrow we start the book of Ezekiel. I just want to give you a couple of insights real quick about Ezekiel. Written by Ezekiel. Written...

From Babylon, Ezekiel is one of the captives in Babylon. And he has a threefold purpose. To declare the fall of Jerusalem. So we're kind of rewinding a little bit before Jerusalem fell. He's pronouncing judgment on the nations. So some of the surrounding peoples like Jeremiah did. But then most importantly in chapter 33 through 48, he's giving hope of restoration and telling God's people it's not over. Even though you're in captivity, God's not done anything.

Now Ezekiel says,

Was taken captive in the second round of captivities. So in 605, when Babylon first conquered Jerusalem. People were taken to Babylon. Daniel in their midst was taken to Babylon. The second time in 597, when Babylon conquered Jerusalem again. It was during that time when Ezekiel was taken to Babylon. And so he's ministering from Babylon at that point. To the people in Babylon. And giving them the words of the Lord.

But I want to end. I think it's important to end. This is what this is all about. The results of sin. Sin turns fullness into emptiness. If you continue to practice sin, this will be the result. The fullness where there was great activity, great things, there will be emptiness. Power will be turned into slavery. Feasts, maybe Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas, maybe your birthday,

I don't know. Feasts will be turned into bitterness. Your children will be turned into captives. Your enemies will become your masters. Honor will be turned into despising. Strength into failure. God's favor will be turned into anger. God's protection will be removed and result in destruction.

Sin silences God's voice. It turns beauty into shame. It turns you against yourself and God against you. It removes peace. It hinders prayer. It turns valuables to worthlessness. It turns respect into disregard. It forfeits your inheritance. And it brings heavy oppression. This is why God says, don't live in sin.

This is why God calls it sin. And he says repent of it. Because he does not want you to experience these things. Yet I have experienced these things. Because I have lived in sin. And I don't ever want to go back there. And the book of Lamentations is a reminder to me. How important it is to be broken. Or I will be broken. Because I don't want to go back. I don't want to bring these things upon my life. The wages of sin is death.

And that's kind of been the theme throughout the book of Jeremiah and now in Lamentations. And so as we finish up this evening, this book, it's a call to you. God's calling you. Like he sent Jeremiah to the nation, he's been sending me to you Wednesday after Wednesday saying, be broken. Stop fighting it. Stop resisting it. But surrender to God. If he's bringing correction, receive it. Surrender to it. If he's bringing warnings, heed them.

while you still have opportunity, before you experience all of these results of sin. It doesn't mean you won't have any consequences, but you can have much worse consequences and you don't want to explore the limits of that. This is the result of sin. Flee from it. Run from it. Repent of it. Don't say, hey, there's grace in Christ Jesus. There is grace in Christ Jesus.

But the wages of sin is death. And if you continue to live in sin, this will be the result. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us to learn to lament, to have godly sorrow, which causes us to turn from sin and to turn to you. God, I pray that you would allow the truth of these things to be established deeply in our hearts. Lord, that when that temptation comes,

Lord, that we would be reminded of the results that sin will bring. God, that we might fear you, that we might seek you, that we might run from sin. And God, if there's anyone who's in sin, who's disregarding your word, and maybe they think it's a minor issue, maybe they think they've got plenty of time to deal with it. Lord, there's an urgency as you present these things to us. The time is now. God, I pray that they would hear your call out of sin.

that they would hear your call to repentance. And I pray, God, that they would turn to you with a whole heart and wait upon you and look to you and surrender to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.