Therefore I Have Hope

Well, good morning, everyone. just a couple, items before our brother, Troy Lambert comes and brings, God's word to us, this morning. as Bill alluded to, just a few minutes ago, the SEP conference, that has been held here on some of the days of this past week is over, and so virtually all of our ministries are up and running again. so please look at your, bulletin, so that what the ministry schedule is, the men, forum and the men's leadership meetings are meeting on, Tuesday and also, Thursday night, and the Women's Bible studies are, are meeting, Ina, the youth ministry, I think just about everything's up and going again.

So check your bulletin for those ministries that you are involved with, this week. Also want to let that starting 2 weeks from today is the launch of our series through the Book of Genesis. So 2 weeks from today, we're going to open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 and we will begin working through this book verse by verse and the elders have given me this past week and, next week to be doing, some study and preparation for, this series through the book of, Genesis. we wanna let that, in connection with our pulpit series through Genesis that we will be providing you with some Bible study materials, that will coordinate with what we're covering from the pulpit on Sunday morning so that you can be doing some personal reading.

In the Book of Genesis and also some, personal Bible study, in advance of, what you'll be hearing in the Sunday sermon, and we're gonna provide this as a tool for you to get the most out of, the Book of Genesis, so that I or whoever is preaching is, are not the only ones that are, that are doing study that week, but that you can, study along with us and do some of the spadework as it were in the text itself. And not only will you learn much from doing that, but it'll, certainly enrich your capacity to get more even out of the pulpit, ministry.

It'll basically be a three-day study of materials that you can go as deep with or as shallow with as you would like, but we just want to provide this as a resource to you, and I believe next Sunday, we will be putting that into your hands so that you can be like reading and thinking. in preparation for our first sermon from Genesis on November.

the second. Does that make sense? OK, we're looking very much forward to All that God is going to show us from this new series that we'll be beginning. but we're, we're very happy this morning to have, in our service, with us, Troy Lambert.

Troy has been a member of the reformed. Baptist Church of Riverside over the last 13 years and that's a church that used to be across the street from us, if you'll recall when we were at Lindon Street, but they have moved and we have moved, but this is a sister church that is doing a wonderful work for the Lord and is centered in the gospel and all, that it does. Troy is married to Melissa. And has 3 children ages 3 to 7, I believe.

he is the executive producer for Haven today with Charles Morris, a program that is heard on over 600 radio stations across North America. He is also an adjunct professor at Cal Baptist and Providence Christian College, teaching film. He has been a co-producer and a co-writer for documentaries, one with Greg and Kathy Laurie, telling their story, as well as documentaries on human trafficking in the United States and on the orphan situation in India. Troy is a fascinating, guy, a fascinating speaker that I, I personally could listen to all day, but what I love most about him is that he is a capable expositor of God's word and his messages are centered on the gospel, and we love the gospel here at Cornerstone and we're blessed that, every time I've heard Troy, he centers all that he says and does.

on this great and glorious gospel that we treasure here. I highly commend him and his ministry to all of you today and I'm very blessed to share this pulpit, with him. So, Troy, we're happy to have you with us today. Why don't you come forward and share with us what the Lord has laid on your heart and let's give our brother a very warm cornerstone welcome.

Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

It's a, a, a real privilege to be here once again. I was here, I believe it was just shy of 2 years ago. I was, about ready to head out on a vacation, if any of you remember that. But, it's a privilege to be back.

I bring greetings from our church. for so many years we were right across the street from each other. It was wonderful to just see how God was using us in, in that neighborhood there in the corner of Blaine and Iowa and Linden. and yeah, in God's providence, he moved both of our churches within a year out of that neighborhood.

So we do continue to pray for the people there and, hopefully some are are coming here. We know there's still some coming to our church from that area, but, I bring greetings from our pastors in our church and, we love you in Christ. if you would turn to Lamentations chapter 3 this morning, that's where we're going to spend our time. If you've heard of the book but you can't quite remember, it's sandwiched right between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, two great prophets that are in the Old Testament there.

two great prophets that preached, repentance, but also preached grace. if you will turn from your sins, God will be merciful, God will, God will continue to, to abide with you. So we're gonna spend some time there in Lamentation chapter 3. Some of you may remember Corey Tinboone.

We recently on our radio program featured the DVD or the movie that was made about her life in the 70s called The Hiding Place and of course that was based on her autobiography about her experiences in World War Two. For those of you who perhaps don't remember her or have not heard of her, her, she was a she was Dutch. There's many ways to say that. She's a Nederlander.

she's from Holland, the Netherlands, and her family was a very devout Christian family, and there was quite a legacy there. and their view that all people were created in the image of God and deserve justice. as the Nazis occupied Holland, they saw that Jews were beginning to be rounded up and shipped off into concentration camps, and then the truth of what was going on became very clear that they were being murdered for the sake of just being Jewish. So the Tin Boone families could not stand by.

As Christians, they knew their calling was to help rescue these people and they built within their home a hiding place. Literally this little small closet hidden behind a fake, a fake faux wall. and for a couple of years we were able to rescue literally hundreds of Jewish people, babies, professors, all different people who they had, had some. they were just part, they were, they were fellow Dutch people, and yet they happen to be Jewish and they were targeted for execution.

Well, in the midst of their rescue, rescuing all these people, they eventually were caught as a family. and Corey's brother, sister, and father and herself were all taken off to concentration camps. Her entire family died in those camps but her. and in the midst of what we probably in our lifetime would consider one of the worst atrocities, one of the most catastrophic human events, the Holocaust.

Cory came out of that, not jaded, not as many who unfortunately came out, declared there is no God. Why would God allow this to happen? Corey came out with a newfound faith and hope in God. In fact, her quote just stuns me.

She says the circumstances that they were in were not good. And there were, the, the, the, there were times when she could literally do nothing. It was only the Lord who carried me through. And it's God that I have and, and it's good that I have experienced that.

For I have always believed and now I know from experience that Jesus' light is stronger than the deepest darkness, and a child of God cannot go so deep, always deeper are the everlasting arms that carry you. And she would also, one of her most famous lines is that Jesus' light is brighter than the deepest darkness. So I commend Cory to you this morning as we begin to look at another really horrible situation in scripture here. and I'll, I'll explain to you in just a moment here how bad, how bad the situation was for Jeremiah.

But here's a modern person who went through a horrible event and yet came out saying, God is good as we just saying a moment ago. And I think it's only in those times of true testing that a true faith really echoes that truth, right? God is good. When times are, are pleasant and going well and we have prosperity, it's easy to go, God's good.

But it's when the trials, the, the temptations, the pain of life comes in, it really echoes what it, what is in our heart. Do we really believe that God is good or is that just a, some trite expression that we often use to encourage others? And yet we, we don't necessarily believe it. How is it that in the midst of some of the most horrible experiences that we face in our lifetime, in your own personal life, difficult relationships, co-workers that are hard to deal with, families that are difficult to deal with, your health is failing, you lose a job.

We face difficult situations, not Holocaust level situations, but we face real trials, really horrible situations at times in our own lives. And yet many of us can still say God is good. What gives us this hope? How is it in the face of Ebola and ISIS and moral decay in our own country, can we say God is still good, he's still on his throne?

Well, I think here in Lamentations, particularly chapter 3. We're given a wonderful scriptural example of how God can be proclaimed good. If you look right at the very first verse there in chapter 3, we see Jeremiah proclaiming, I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath, under God's wrath. If I can remind you real briefly, Jeremiah was called by God to go out to the people of Israel and to call them back, to, to call them into repentance for their detestable sins, and we're not just talking, all sin is horrible, right?

But we're not just talking about the daily like oh I forgot to, to spend time with you, Lord, or I yelled at my wife or those sins that we easily brush aside and say well those aren't the worst sins. those are bad in the sight of God, but we're talking like horrible. God, in fact, God calling Israel a whore, a prostitute, because they have forgotten, they have been unfaithful to him, and they've gone out to idols and, and done horrible things for these idols, gross, moral, immoral things for these idols.

And Jeremiah standing saying, You need to repent.

God is going to judge us for this. And what they did, they laughed at him. God's not gonna judge us. He doesn't, it's not that big a deal.

We could continue doing what we're gonna do. And Jeremiah's prophecies were so specific, he was literally saying, you are going to be judged and taken away into exile for 70 years. It wasn't just like God one day is gonna, spank you. It was, here's what's going to happen.

It's gonna be the Babylonians that come in. He, it was, God was so specific and yet they just laughed it off. They shrugged it off. They didn't care.

And so here we are in Lamentations, 5 chapter poem. We don't have the privilege, I don't have the ability to read in Hebrew. I, I would assume most of us don't hear, but if you were to read it in the original Hebrew, it's a, it's a, it's a poem. First two chapters are the letters of, of the Hebrew alphabet A through Z, for lack of better expression.

going through how bad it was and just crying out to God. Chapter 2, same thing, crying out to God. In chapter 3, he goes through the Hebrew alphabet 3 times and it's right here in the middle, that we'll see a very sweet moment. So God has brought judgment and Jeremiah has seen this judgment.

We're talking Israel lay or Jerusalem laid low. For those of you who enjoy movies, picture Lord of the Rings moments where these cities are just laid asunder. And you're walking through it and there's some fire and coal and, a brick or a stone building just collapsed over and there's nobody there because they're all either killed or taken away into slavery. It was a horrible situation.

On top of Babylon, not only wiping out Jerusalem, they laid siege for well over a year. People starved to death, people ate their babies. We're talking horrible. We can't even begin to imagine, end of the world situation.

In fact, very similar to some of the cities in northern Iraq right now in Syria, particularly where the Christians are. But Jeremiah sees this, and his heart is heavy. In fact, if you look at verse 14 here in chapter 3, you can hear just a little bit about what Jeremiah is talking about. I became the, the laughing stock of all the people, the objects of their taunts day, all day long.

He's filled me with bitterness and he's sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth to grind and gravel, made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace. I've forgotten what happiness is.

So I say, my endurance has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord. If we were to end there, we would think, whoa, Jeremiah, you're saying your hope in God is beginning to perish, it's beginning to, to disappear. Where are you, man? You were a great man of God.

You, you called people out to, to return to God. And here you are, losing hope. It's a good reminder for us today that Jeremiah was a man just like us. He was a man saved by grace.

We know that it's by faith that Jeremiah was saved. It wasn't by any good thing that Jeremiah did. It was simple faith in a good God. And here is a moment where Jeremiah is so overwhelmed by his circumstances.

He just sees the, the utter destruction of his people. Worse yet, he sees the temple of God. Solomon in all his glory built this temple to God. And it's wiped out.

Think about all of the utensils that are used in the temple ceremonies being taken back to Babylon and and used in horrific idolatrous worship. He sees, if you will, his people and his God. and, and he's very concerned. His heart is broken.

However, however, Something happens. Jeremiah is just working through this and just really lamenting what's going on. Something changes. In fact, let's read with me in the beginning in verse 19.

Jeremiah says, I remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall. My soul continually remembers it and it's bowed down within me. Verse 21, but this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. What is it?

What does he call to mind? Where does Jeremiah go in the worst of situations? Does he go to Barnes and Nobles to the self-help section? Does he turn on Oprah Winfrey?

No, of course not. They didn't have TV back then. Does he go do some really good things so that God would be happy with him? No, he does what every follower of God should do in the worst of situations and in the best of situations.

Verse 21, but this I call the mind and therefore I have hope, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, says my soul, and therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him, it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Jeremiah reminds himself about the very God he serves. The very God who Jeremiah would not disagree with.

These people deserved God's wrath. They had rebelled against God, and they had profaned his name. Jeremiah would not disagree with that. And yet, he's still a human being.

He still feels pain and suffering, especially when he sees it amongst his people. So he reminds himself of 4 truths here. There are many more that we can, God is infinite. We could spend all day long reminding ourselves about who God is.

But right here in verses 22 and 23, Jeremiah reminds himself of 4 truths that I'd like to look at this morning. That these truths are what bring him hope, is that God has a steadfast love for his people, that God is a merciful God. And not only that, he is a faithful God. And finally, the fourth one we'll look at is that God is our portion.

We'll look at that and why that brought him great hope. But before I continue, let's pray together. Let's go to this great God and ask him for help. Father God, we come to you this morning, we're so grateful that we do have the freedom to assemble.

We know many of our brothers and sisters around the world don't have that freedom. They're persecuted for gathering in your name. They're taken away to prison, some even beheaded Lord God. And yet here we are in, in such a, a blessed place, not because it's America, not because we have democracy, but because we have the freedom to gather and proclaim your name boldly.

And really without much fear of persecution. Sure, some might laugh at us, some might call us silly and old, old fashioned. But Lord, we do not neglect this precious gift that you've given us to gather on your day, to hear your word and to proclaim your goodness. Lord, come and aid us, Holy Spirit, come and speak to us.

Lord, I'm weak and I'm frail, but your word lasts forever. And your word is able to teach, to convict, and to encourage. So would you come and minister to us today for the glory of your name, and we pray this in Jesus' great name. Amen.

So the first truth that Jeremiah turns to here, And literally that word turn is that it, it, it is literally a turning. It is a repositioning of itself. A modern, a modern way we might put it for those of you who have computers is he reboots himself. This isn't working.

I'm gonna restart my computer here. For those of you have Max and then it comes on and OK, maybe it's gonna work now. He is turning to God. You could even say it's a spirit of repentance.

He spent time lamenting and saying woe is me. Now, I want to point out to you, it's a controlled lament. He's writing in a poetic form. It's not just like he's just just vomiting all of this horribleness towards God, but he's being very honest before God.

And yet, at the right moment, at the Spirit's prompting, he turns to God. And the first thing that he remembers about God there in verse 22. Is that the Lord's love is steadfast. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

Now if you're reading the King James, it'll literally say that God's mercy is not consumed. The same idea, it is steadfast. The Hebrew word here and I, I once again I wanna say I'm not a Hebrew scholar, I have great wonderful aids that I can go to, I have great men who can read the Hebrew that I talked to. but you'll find time and time again this word Hasid, or if you want to try to put a little Jewish, Hebrew emphasis on it, Hasid.

And it's a great word. It's a word we should all remember when we're singing steadfast, we should say, what we're really saying here is heed because it's deep. It's not just I'm steadfast and I'm not moving. It is full of love and commitment.

It is a duty bound, committed love. In fact, I love how Sally Lloyd Jones in her Jesus storybook Bible puts it. It is a it is a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love. It's not just based on a momentary feeling towards somebody.

It is fixed. It's unchanging. And it's striking. It's so not who we are as human beings, right?

We love people who love us, and if they don't love us, we don't love them. That's just who we are by nature. I'm trying to teach my kids this because my goodness, 20 times a day, they're loving and hating each other. And, and it's a great gospel moment.

You just don't have the ability. That's why you need Jesus. We are so deserving of hell. We're so deserving of wrath.

And yet here is God's steadfast love fixed upon his people. Why? Why is God this way? Australian theologian Graham Goldsworthy writes this, steadfast love translates the Hebrew word Hasid, which links God's love to his covenant faithfulness.

This covenant was never conditioned on human faithfulness, and it leads straight to the new covenant established solely by the sovereign mercy of God. And ultimately sealed in Jesus' blood. God will never cast his people off because he did cast off his own Son in their place. That's meaty.

We, we, we need time to chew on that and to digest what that theologian said. If I can quickly put it in other words, the reality is, That God's fixed steadfast love on his people, it never ends. Now you might think, well, I don't quite understand that, that didn't God cast off his people into exile. But Paul helps us understand this because what we're dealing with here is a physical nation of Israel, and then the spiritual remnant of Israel.

And those who are truly gods, those who are truly the remnant of God within Israel, that steadfast love never ended in the worst of the judgment that was poured out on physical Israel there. That's why Jeremiah can say, I know that God still loves me. I know that he is still standing by his covenant, though we have broken it as a national people. God has not broken his covenant, His promise to us.

It's astonishing, this covenant that God created with Abraham. You can read about it in your own time in Genesis chapter 17 and, and onward. But God calling Abraham and saying, I will be your God and your descendants, which will be innumerable, you will be the father of many nations, not just the Hebrew nation, that the promise from the very beginning, the covenant from the very beginning was everlasting. In fact, you can read as the people came back into The promised land, led by Moses, of course, Moses didn't get to lead them in.

Joshua did. But in Deuteronomy chapter 7, it says the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, known therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments to 1000 generations. So the real question is, why? Why does God stay faithful in the midst of unfaithfulness?

The Puritans were often helpful when it comes to this. Thomas Brooks wrote in 1662 that the free favor and love of God, the good will and pleasure of God is the true ground and bottom of God, of God's bestowing of himself as a portion unto his people. There was no loveliness or desirableness about us or about Israel. That should move him to bestow himself upon them.

They had neither portion nor proportion, and therefore, there was no cause in them why God should bestows himself as a portion upon them. God, for the glory of his own free grace and love, has bestowed Himself as a portion upon people who deserved his wrath. The simple answer. is that it pleases God to redeem sinners.

Many have tried to look into why. But Paul even helps us, Romans 8, Romans 9. It pleases God to save sinners, to redeem people out of the most destitute situations in their lives, lost and astray, it pleases God to save sinners. And once he has fixed his steadfast love, once he has brought you into that covenant, nothing can break it.

He's steadfast in it. And it's because of his good and holy nature that he did have to judge the nation of Israel. Now we don't have time to dig into it this morning. We really don't.

To look at the time and time again that Israel breaks this covenant with God. Times of, of repentance and coming back and then falling into horrible sin, repenting and coming back horrible. it's just a horrible pattern, isn't it? It's an abusive domestic situation.

Why does God stay faithful in this horrible situation? Jeremiah describes that it's because they were broken cisterns, that they had sold themselves and, and that they had committed adultery and that they had entrusted themselves to idols. And yet in all of this, Jeremiah knows that God is working towards something. Far greater.

In fact, remember, Jeremiah is one of the first prophets that God used to proclaim a new covenant. God told Jeremiah that he would judge his people, but that he would restore them, bring them back into the land, eventually create this new covenant. If you wanna keep your finger right here in lamentations, turn to Jeremiah 31 real quick and let's just remind ourselves about this promise of this new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31.

God through Jeremiah says, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant in the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by their hand to bring them into the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. Though I was their husband, declares the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make when the house of Israel, this is verse 33, when the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord, I will put my law within them.

I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, and each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This must have caused Jeremiah to go, what? How will you not remember our sins anymore? We're continually having to make sacrifice.

It's not perfect atonement, but it's appeasement, and it brings for just a time, a little bit of, of, of communion between us. How is it that you're, you're gonna wipe away our sins forever? How is that you're gonna be our people? Well, Hebrews chapter 7 is extremely helpful in this.

And we know this. We get to live in the time when we know how God did this. He sent a Messiah, the Messiah, Jesus, Jehovah Himself became, as Hebrews 7 says, the guarantor of a better covenant. Another way to translate that, he became our sponsor.

It's no longer conditional the way that it was with the nation of Israel. It's permanent and guaranteed by Jesus himself. Now it doesn't mean that when we fail and make mistakes, that Hebrews also says God is good to chastise us. He's good to correct us.

But there's no more wrath, Romans said, no more condemnation. This is why Hebrew says it is a new and better covenant. Christ himself is God's pledge that Christian Israel can never break the new covenant, the way that Hebrew Israel broke the old covenant. I hope that brings you some encouragement today, Christians.

And the reality is that for Jeremiah, he knew this about God, though he didn't quite know how God was going to do it. Jesus talks about this in, in Luke chapter 10. Peter talks about it in 1 Peter chapter 1, that the prophets just yearn to see how are you going to do it, God? How are you going to once and for all, atone for sins, redeem the people to yourselves that you will always be their God.

We're, we're in the same already and not yet, but different. Because we're, we're looking, we've seen how the redeemer came. We see how God did it. We have this word that tells us how Jesus did it.

And we can come to our Savior. Isn't that wonderful? We can boldly come before our Father because of our Savior, and yet we're in a not an already but not yet moment. Because we know one day he's gonna come and redeem the world.

He's gonna come, the consummation of all things as theologians love to put it. He's gonna come and make everything right. Think about the end of Revelation, those promises that no more tears, no more crying, no more death, no more pain. Cause see just like Jeremiah, we feel it.

Oh we feel our brokenness at times. We see the brokenness around us. Now I'll be dead honest, earlier this week, I was afraid of Ebola. Only 2 people in America have caught it.

Only one has died of it. I heard last night 53,000 will die from the flu this year. We should be really afraid of the flu, but we got flu shots. But the reality is there's a lot to be scared of.

There's a lot to be afraid of in this world. It's broken. But there's a great promise, a great promise. God will one day redeem all things.

The world will be new, will be as it was. And what? That's a great promise, but the greatest of all the promises is right here what he told Jeremiah, I will be their God. I will be in their midst.

They will commune with me. The way it was supposed to be. Hm. You think of Adam and Eve, walking with God in the garden.

Hm, that's, that's that Romans 8 yearning. Oh Lord, come quickly. So the prophecy that Jeremiah is looking to hear that he's banking on, he knows God is good. He knows that God is steadfast to his promises and his covenant.

Surely, Surely, God will continue to do good. God will continue to provide even when it looks dire, even when it looks horrible. This is exactly what David is talking about in Psalm 23. We can quote it because many of us memorize it since we were kids, but we're almost robotic.

But if you take a moment to chew on it, yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. That's not just like, I'm a strong man of faith. No, no, no. It's like Corey Tinboon, she often said, I did not have a strong faith, but I had a strong God.

And so we're in that valley. It's not like God says, walk through it on the other side and I'll meet you there. He's walking with us through the valley. And then the promise at the end of, of Psalm 23.

Is that surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. In the worst of situations and in the best of situations, mercy, because we deserve nothing. So I try to teach my kids. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

So if I die, if I get Ebola, if ISIS sends terrorists here to blow up churches, if my wife cheats on me and leaves me, if I lose my job, if I get that call from the doctor and I've got cancer, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And if I die, I will dwell in the house of God forever. How does it get any better than that? I'm preaching to myself, brother and sister, because I am a fearful person.

And Jeremiah says, I know this for a fact because God's love is steadfast. That has to love, that fixed and committed love towards his people. The second truth that Jeremiah moves to here is that his mercies, and I just touched on it there a moment, his mercies are new each morning, verse 22 and verse 23. His mercies are new each morning.

Now we sing that a lot here in Southern California because we have wonderful mornings. Blue skies, chirping birds. Butterflies, fresh squeezed orange juice. The steadfast love of the Lord, oh, yes, Lord, you're so merciful this morning.

But Jeremiah singing this as he sees his world collapsed. Corey Tin Boones saying this in the midst of a concentration camp. And that is what I'm trying to preach to myself here. How is it that we can see mercy in the worst of circumstances?

Well, two things I want to look at here with the word mercy. In English, we, we can also call it compassion. But this Hebrew word is literally a woman's womb. It's a derivative of that.

Isn't that interesting? So Jeremiah is using a word here to describe a cherished, caring for an unborn child, if you would. Think about a mother's tender touch. That's why some of the translations called tender mercies.

In fact, Louis Berkoff, the great systematic theologian says, it may be defined as the goodness or love of God shown to those who are in misery or distress, irrespective of their desserts. In his mercy, God reveals Himself as a compassionate God who pities those who are in misery and ever, it is ever ready to relieve their distresses. It is a very personal, close, caring. Exodus chapter 33 verse 19, God talking to Moses says, I will make all of my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I'm gracious, and I will be merciful to whom I am merciful.

What does that remind us of? Romans chapter 9, right? Paul is quoting. Moses here.

You see, mercy is undeserved. Pity towards people who deserve wrath. And it's greater than that as we saw this word here, there's a tenderness here. It's not just, there's a moment in Schindler's List when Oscar Schindler's trying to convince just this horrible concentration camp SS guard who loved to just shoot people out of his window.

He tried to convince them that mercy is actually more powerful than what you think as you have power by condemning people to death. I think for a moment the SS guard tried. I I have mercy on you. He, he tried it one time and he didn't enjoy it.

He was an unregenerate man. Mercy is not just, OK, I'm gonna let you off here. Mercy is this tenderness. God choosing people and calling them, people who were meant, who are deserved wrath as Paul says, and yet God chose them to be vessels of mercy, not only from the Jews but from Gentiles.

Paul says, in order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared before beforehand for glory. Isn't that amazing? It is amazing. Now for some of you, it might still strike you, Romans 9 is hard.

We often think of it as like the speed bump in the midst of a great book. Oh, hold on a second here, God, what are you talking about here? But if you take it for what it is, then none of us deserved anything from God. That's hard as Americans because we all deserve something, right?

By God we're America. We don't deserve anything. All we deserve is his wrath, and yet in God's steadfast, merciful love, he has chosen, many become vessels of mercy. To, to take these horrible earthen, as, as Paul says to the, to the Corinthians, these jars of clay cracked, Jeremiah called them cisterns, and reworking them as a potter would into these amazing vessels, not that we're amazing, it's his work that's amazing.

And he pours that mercy back to Psalm 23, this overflowing mercy, and it's spewing out of us. And we're merciful towards each other because he's merciful towards us. The point is that when God chooses someone, To be that object, that vessel of his abundant mercy. It is unbelievably stunning to us, isn't it?

Each one of us can think of it, time in our lives when we really began to see that God was saving us and he was changing us and he was pouring mercy on us. Our relationships changed, the way we looked, the world changed, the way we looked at work changed, all of a sudden, I don't deserve this book. This is so rich and so good. And so that mercy that he's pouring out on his people, Jeremiah says in the worst situation possible, that they are new every single morning.

It's not just a one time dose. It is every single day, mercy. And sometimes for me, I have to go. dig it up a little bit, because I'll wake up cold, I'll wake up dead.

I'll wake up thinking, fearful, and I start just like Jeremiah having to go, OK, Lord, I know you're there. I know you care. Help me, my heart's cold, my heart's fearful. I, I, I need your help.

Please this morning, pour out your mercy on me. We cannot overlook the similarity to God's provision for his people in the wilderness as they headed to the promised land, can we? That every morning God provided real food for his people in a supernatural way, manna from heaven. And it was only for that day.

You couldn't store it in a little Tupperware container for the next day cause I don't know if God's gonna be there for me tomorrow, so I better save it. If you saved it, the Bible is very descriptive. It doesn't just say it was spoiled, it's like worms grew in it. And so that manna every single day was being provided for the people there.

You can read about it in Exodus chapter 16. Morning by morning. He provided for his people. And of course, this reminds me of the way Jesus addresses his followers.

When he says that In Matthew chapter 6, do you not know that your father knows what you need? Why are you worrying? Why are you so anxious? Don't worry about tomorrow.

Tomorrow has enough worries for itself. Look at today. Trust that God knows. Trust that God is providing exactly what you need to face today.

I like how John Piper puts this. He puts it, this is why we tend to despair when we think that we may have to bear tomorrow's load on today's resources. God wants us to know we won't need to do that. Tomorrow's are today's mercies are today's troubles.

Tomorrow's mercies are for tomorrow's troubles. We have to preach that to ourselves all the time, don't we? Because I'm constantly thinking about tomorrow. and, and this isn't saying just throw caution to the wind, don't don't plan your retirement, don't, don't plan your week, don't, this, this's not talking about practical, things that we have to do on a day to day basis, but it's that what I find myself, oh, what if I lose my job or if my job gets stressful or, what if my kids die.

I've thought that many times. Parents, I, I hope you can relate to that. OK, maybe I'm the only one morbid here. What if I get that call that that weird pain in my back, actually, it's cancer.

How am I going to face that? Sorry. What if my timer goes off? I thought I put it on silent and it goes.

No, I need to worry about that right now. We're not called to worry. Or to see how God will care for us because his promises that today he's giving us mercy to face what we're facing today. I met a guy many years ago, my wife and I were traveling in Northern Ireland.

And he's a friend of a friend. We were in his home, just, just travelers, the Northern Irish, the Scottish, so hospitable. If you ever get a chance just to sit in their home, they're gonna bring out a tray with tea and biscuits and. There, it's as good as you think.

It's, it's cold outside, you're sipping and eating. It's just, just, I don't know, we're such British files over here, like, oh wow. but this guy, wonderful sweet man, loved Jesus, became a Christian later in life, but at the right time, God used it. His whole family, his kids were saved.

They loved Jesus, but he had terminal cancer. And I remember sitting there with him, just talking. And it's, isn't it so wonderful just to sit down with a kindred spirit who loves Jesus. You don't know them, but you do because they're a brother, a sister.

And we're just talking about God and his kindness, our travels, his mercy. And he shares with Melissa and I, my wife, they said, If you'd asked me before I had cancer, how would I face this, I would have said, I don't know. I don't know how I would face it. It bothers me.

It bothers all of us. But he said, I can honestly tell you, Troy right now that I am OK with whatever God has for me. I'm OK today, because I have Jesus and I'm OK tomorrow if I die because I have Jesus. And I remember sitting there listening to him thinking, wow, Lord, help me to be OK.

When I'm in my day of trial, I, I use that as an example, because he was facing that day with God's mercy. And I have pondered that conversation many times like how could I do that? Would I be able to face that? Whether it's cancer or concentration camps or, just the, the trials of interpersonal communication with people.

How do I face the day? We cling to that promise that God will give us the mercy, the power to face that day for His glory, for our good, because his mercies are new each morning. The third thing, I'll move quickly here, is that the the third truth that Jeremiah says that not only is God's love steadfast, and that it never ceases, not only is God's, are God's mercies new to us each and every day. Jeremiah makes a shift here, notice he's talking in verse 22 and part of 23 about God.

And then all of a sudden here, he turns and says, great is your faithfulness. He moves from, if you will, the doctrinal, which is very important. We need to know who our God is. But all of a sudden that knowing who he is becomes experiential.

It turns and he says, oh Lord, your faithfulness is so great. He is talking with God now. I think it's an important point to, to point out there. When we're in the midst of the most overwhelming circumstances, we need to remember that God's faithfulness is great.

Now you might think steadfast love, faithfulness, we can kinda misconstrue them as, as very similar. But there, there, there are a couple of things here. Great, overwhelming, exceedingly, but that faithfulness is fidelity, is steadiness, it is firmness and all through the Old Testament, that's used as complimentary terms. In fact, Psalm 100:5 is a great example, for the Lord is good.

His steadfast love, his hased love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. From Genesis, all the way through the Old Testament, you will find God's has said love and his faithfulness is great. Over and over the the Old Testament proclaims this. John Gill, another Puritan, says that God's promises never fail.

That's what he's, so we're remembering God is covenantal. He's fixed. His love is, is never ending, never changing, always set on his people. And yet, the reality is he never breaks his promise.

He's always faithful. God is faithful to himself and cannot deny himself. He is faithful to his counsels and purposes, which shall be truly accomplished and to his covenant and promises. Which shall be fulfilled, and to his son, the surety and savior of his people.

So once again we see here how the Messiah, how Christ is the guarantor, the surety, the sponsor of his people. All of a sudden when God is looking at us, he's really seeing Christ. He's seeing Christ's righteousness, and he can't deny himself anymore. That's deep.

It's hard to understand. Another another John Piper illustration is that he talks about it is that it's like Christ is our asbestos vest, that, that absorbs all the wrath. And, and, and even greater. His righteousness is imputed on our behalf.

So when God sees us, he sees a faithful son, he sees a faithful daughter, even when we are unfaithful. God promised to show His glory and power by saving broken people just like the Jews, and he's doing the same today. He's saving sinners, he's calling us out of our own sinful Babylonian exile and bringing us back to himself. He's doing the redeeming so that he gets all the glory, and yet we get the benefit of this wonderful relationship.

We must never misconstrue God's faithfulness and his commitment to weakness. I think sometimes I hear that in the evangelical world, there was a video of a wife, well-known pastor going around just a couple of months ago, talking about oh, the happiness is our goal and that, that's all God wants. There's a, there's an element of truth there, but the reality is God is not some dog that is abused that just keeps coming back to us for scraps. Will you worship me?

OK, please worship me. He doesn't need us. He does not need us. The scriptures declare that often that the, the very trees and rocks would proclaim his glory.

He's not dependent upon us, but rather his faithfulness shows his power to take broken vessels like many of us who deserve nothing but wrath and give us new hearts and turn us into true worshippers who demonstrate his own glory. So because he has given us his promise through the guarantee of a son and everything we have is mercy and not earned, we worship Him. Because his faithfulness is exceedingly abundant. It is great.

So don't get bored when you sing the old hymn. Great is thy faithfulness. Sometimes we, I, I guess I'm commit, I'm confessing, I just sing it. I'm not thinking about it.

Great, overwhelmingly, exceedingly, abundantly is your fidelity, commitment to your people, you're unchanging, never breaking a promise, faithfulness. So through God's covenant and promises, His love and mercy is sweet, it is God Himself that provides this true hope and this is where we'll conclude our service, looking at this 4th and final truth that Jeremiah reminds himself here, that God is our portion. Jeremiah has hope in the worst of situations because the Lord has given himself as his portion, as his treasure, as his inheritance.

Now us in the Western world, we don't really understand this.

Not too many of us come from landowners. Maybe if you're from Texas. Son, I bequeath this land to thee. This shall be your inheritance.

But in, in the world that Jeremiah lived in, they understood exactly what he's talking about. There's the promise of the promised land as being an inheritance for his people to go into. But then we just have, all these landowners and they handed it down to the first born son and that first born handed to his first born son. The idea of an inheritance of a portion.

Something that was tangible, that was yours. God now makes himself his people's portion. Old Testament scholar Trimper Longman up at Westmont says that this noun comes from a verb that means to divide up and is often used of land or plunder that is divided up in a portion. Someone's portion becomes their possession.

That's what I like. Thus, God gives himself to his people. It's amazing, isn't it? It's absolutely unbelievable.

The God of all the universe. The God who is present at this very moment on what we call a planetoid now, Pluto, who knows a dust storm on Mars, who can actually tell you every single star and planet and solar system and galaxy out there by name. That's the macro. The God who created the atoms that hold all of us together, the electrons, the protons that keep those atoms together, all of that micro universe that we just can't even begin to fathom.

The God who created us in His image, and yet we rebelled against him. This great imaginative, creative, holy, righteous God gives himself to us. It's astonishing. This is why the psalmist can say in Psalm 16:5, Lord, you alone are my portion, my cup, you make my lot secure.

In, in Psalm 73, my flesh and my heart might fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. So you see here that the, the similarity of what we heard back in Hebrews 7 of Christ being our guarantor. of God being our portion. You see, what we have is not based on what we do, because we would break it.

We would constantly break it. And so that's why God gives himself, because he is sure, he is steadfast, he is able. Matthew Henry wrote, when I have lost all, I have been, when I have lost all in this world, liberty and livelihood and almost life itself, yet I have not lost my interest in God. See, portions on earth are perishing.

Everything that we see is perishing. But God is portion forever. And so this is where Jeremiah is at. This is where Jeremiah comes in, in, in a horrible, lamentable moment feeling downtrodden and beaten and as if God perhaps might have rejected him.

He might not be there for him anymore. He turns, he reboots, he repents and says, oh Lord God, you are steadfast. This is one truth I know. Secondly, I know that you are merciful.

And I see mercies even today. The fact that I'm not in hell right now is a mercy. Thirdly, I know you are faithful. I know it's great faithfulness.

And what can I say that I've lost if I have you as my portion? Dear Christian, As I said earlier, we're in a very similar but yet different situation. If you're in Christ today, You have been redeemed. Your sins have been wiped away.

We've experienced saving grace and we, we're trusting in Christ alone. We know that the mercies we have each morning are from him. We can look at bad situations in our lives and actually and reflect and go, That was a merciful moment. Thank you Lord that I didn't go to that school, or thank you Lord that I got in that car crash or thank you Lord that I didn't marry that person.

Not that we can do that every single thing in our life, but we can look back and go, you were merciful, and you continue to be mer merciful. Our faith is built up and we realize that it is a gift from God alone. Christ is ours as much as we are his people. Christ is our mediator and because of this, we can cry out even closer than Jeremiah, Abba, Father, we can come to him boldly.

When we see sin in our lives, we can repent without fear that he might smite us. That he would forgive us. that he would continue to be our Father. When we have needs and concerns, we can come to him because he is our Father and we know that he will never reject us.

There's no more condemnation. So we turn to God just as Jeremiah did. And as verse 25 and 26, we won't go into it there, but we seek Him, and we wait on him. This is the new covenant promise.

He has written his law on our hearts. He's turned our hearts from stone to flesh and he abides with us daily. So no matter the circumstances, As Paul even told the Philippians, we can praise God in all circumstances. And when we forget and we become fearful like I did earlier this week, we repent.

Lord, I'm sorry. I took my eyes off you like Peter walking on the water. I saw the storm and I forgot you were there with me and I was actually walking on the water which doesn't happen often. So I should have trusted that you were doing that anyways.

We recall who God is. We repent of our silliness, our sinfulness at times, and we trust that He will forgive us. I'll end with Corey Timboon as I began with her. She says, the Bible says we will suffer, but we have nothing to fear because Jesus is our victor, and he will never let us down.

With Jesus, even in the darkest moments, the best remains. And the very best is yet to be. Praise God. Let's pray.

Father God, we come to you. This is needy. There's a lot here as we talk about you, our great God. But Lord, would you continue to minister through your word, Holy Spirit, continue to come.

And convict us from the times that we forget you. And Lord, yet continue to abide with us, bringing us into your presence, daily pouring your mercies out upon us. Thank you that your faithfulness is great. Thank you that your love is fixed.

We praise you for this. You are worthy of our praise. We lift this to you in our most precious Savior's name, Jesus Christ. Amen.