God Centered Podcast - Episode 23 - Our Sin Will Leave Us Defeated And Alone - Lamentations 1:19-22

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Hello and welcome back to the God -Centered Podcast. This is Andy Cain of God -Centered Theology, and it's a joy to be back with you once again.

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Today we are continuing on in our study of the book of Lamentations, and today we are going to be covering verses 19 through 22.

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And the title of today's study is, Our Sin Will Leave Us Defeated and Alone.

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Our sin will leave us defeated and alone. We are coming off the heels of verse 18 where we have one of our many turns from despair to hope where he writes that Yahweh is righteous,

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I have rebelled against His command, hear now all peoples and behold my pain. We talked about how the proper response to sin begins with declaring that God is righteous and we have sinned and going from there.

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And now we pick up here in verse 19, it says, I called to my lovers, but they deceived me.

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My priest and my elders breathed their last in the city. Now we've got two groups of people here who should have helped, but did not or would not.

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Their lovers deceived and the priest and elders died. So you know, you think of lovers, this would be the group of people that would claim to be like a spouse or be like a girlfriend or a wife, you know, a lover, someone that would claim to be there with you through thick and thin.

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And this is the personification of Jerusalem basically saying, you know, I'm calling out to my lovers,

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I'm calling out to the ones that should be there for me, but they ultimately have deceived me because they are not coming to help.

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And then the priest and the elders breathing their last in the city while they sought food for themselves in order to restore their souls.

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This is a fulfillment of the prophecy in Jeremiah where this was talked about.

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And in Jeremiah, it is predicted that the elders and priests would die in the city.

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They wouldn't be taken off into captivity. They would be killed by the sword. And so we see that happen here.

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So the ones who should or claim to be on their side, they can, they left them deserted and either can't help or won't help in this prophecy we find in Jeremiah 14, 15, where the lying prophets and priests died because of their sin.

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And this is because God takes his word very seriously. If you claim to speak for God, you better make sure you are actually speaking for God.

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Because if you claim to speak for God and it turns out you prophesying falsely, which

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God makes us very clear in Jeremiah 14, he says, you know, they claim to speak for me. They do not. I have not sent them nor have

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I commissioned them and they don't. And because of that, they're going to die in the streets, die while seeking food.

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And this is the fulfillment. This is after Babylon has come and taken them off. And the writer here is saying the priest and elders breathed their last in the city.

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They were killed by the sword. They sought food for themselves and could not find it. They had the famine that was involved here.

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And so you could see already where sin will leave you defeated and alone. Verse 20 says,

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See O Yahweh, for I am in distress. This word distress is one that means anguish, affliction.

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Notice all the different things we're going to see here in verse 20. That is a direct result of not just the sin of the people, but the consequences that came as a result.

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They are said to be in distress, anguish, affliction. My inmost being is greatly disturbed.

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This means trouble boiled up. Think of like a big old pot of water and you're waiting for it to boil and eventually reach the right temperature and then it boils over.

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My heart is overturned within me. This means sort of the same thing is like turning over a bed.

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If you think about if you were to take your mattress of your bed and swiftly flip it over, their hearts are overturned within them.

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For why? For I have been very rebellious.

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The repeat here of what was said in verse 18, for I have rebelled against his command.

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God doesn't sin. He doesn't cause us to sin. God's word makes it clear that sin is on the behalf of the one sinning.

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Satan can't make you sin. God can't make you sin. You sin when you give into your own desires and your sinful flesh and your sinful desires and you act on the temptation.

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And so it says, I have been rebellious, meaning disobedient. In the street, the sword bereaves or makes childless.

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In the house, it is like death. And so sin promises you everything, but it leaves you distressed and anguished, afflicted, disturbed, troubled, boiled up, overturned.

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But you are not a victim. This is not something happening to an innocent victim.

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This is happening because of rebellion. When you look at a country, if you look at ours and all the things that we see around us, it is because of rebellion.

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Countries go under the judgment of God because of their rebellion, because of their sin.

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And so when you see certain things happening, you know it's a consequence of rebellion. And so yes, he's lamenting here.

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He's crying out about this. He's certainly sorrowful over this. And if you're going through it, just because you know it's because of rebellion doesn't make it any less hard or make it any less discomforting or sad or tragic, suffering.

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It's very real. But there's the recognition here that the reason their heart's overturned, the reason they're greatly disturbed, the reason they are in distress, it's because of rebellion, because of sin.

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So he says, they have heard that I am sighing, groaning, mourning.

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There's no one to comfort me. And I'm sure you've been in a place in your life where you've probably felt this way.

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It's a sad place to be, to feel like there's no one to comfort you. There's no one there that hears your groaning or your mourning or your sighing.

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All my enemies have heard of the evil done to me. News has gotten out. News has gotten out and everybody knows what's going on.

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Everybody knows that Babylon has come and they've destroyed the city, destroyed the temple and have taken off the people and killed the priests and elders.

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And it's been a complete decimation. And it's no secret. The word has gotten out and all the enemies are having a field day.

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They're enjoying knowing about all this evil done to me. And it says that they rejoice that you have done it.

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So they rejoice in the fact that God has brought this judgment. The same people that are enemies of God, enemies of his people that don't believe in God will suddenly be very interested and happy when

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God brings certain judgment. And you see this, you know, it's sort of similar in life where you get the hardcore atheists and the second they're in a great bit of trouble, the first thing they say is, you know,

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Oh God, please help me. Please, Lord, help me. And you're like, but I thought you didn't believe in God.

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What is this? And so people love to see

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God's people brought low. So they're rejoicing that this has occurred.

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Says you have brought the day which you have proclaimed or announced. This is the day of judgment that has come because God said it was going to come.

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This is not a surprise. This is not something God learned about. This was prophesied.

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This was said, God said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to say Babylon, you've sinned and now you're going to pay the price.

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And Jeremiah recognizes that here as he's speaking here on behalf of the people.

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And he's in a sense, repenting on behalf of them. It's amazing.

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You say, well, you know, if I knew what coming, I knew what was coming. I'd avoid it. I'll make sure I, you know, didn't do what

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I had, you know, do something that would bring that kind of stuff. Well, I don't know. Cause these people certainly knew they were told their so -called priest and elders that lied to them and told them peace and safety and Jeremiah's tell them, no, it's not going to be, you have sinned and sin and broken the covenant disobeyed and the judgment's coming.

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And now it's come and their enemies are rejoicing. And it's the day that God proclaimed and announced would come.

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So, so that they would become like me, verse 22, let all their evil come before you and deal severely with them.

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As you have dealt severely with me for all my transgressions for my groans are great and my heart is faint.

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God does not punish unwarrantedly. If we suffer consequences because of our sin, we have no one to blame, but ourselves, sin not repented of and dealt with will be a bill that will come due.

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You know, rents do it the first month, right? So that bill is going to come due. Your sin will find you out.

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He says, deal severely with them. As you have dealt severely with me for all my transgressions,

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God was bringing deserved judgment. He was bringing the severe pain and consequences for their actions.

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Since consequences should never come as a surprise to us. And yet they do. So he says, my, my groans are great and my heart is faint.

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Sin will do that to you. It will leave you defeated and alone.

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It will leave you in anguish, afflicted, disturbed. This is not who we should be as children of God, children of light.

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As Paul says in Ephesians five, we were formerly darkness.

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Now children of light, first John one in five through 10, it talks about how we're children of light.

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We have fellowship with him. He cleanses us from sin. We are to be reducing and sinning less and less as we mature and become increasingly holy and righteous.

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God's people should never be in a place where their sin has so overwhelmed their life that they become, they're in distress, they're disturbed, they're overturned, they're bereaved, they're sighing, they're groaning because judgments come and so many people lie to themselves as these people did here in Jeremiah's day and say, well, you know,

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God's a busy guy. I'm sure he's got plenty to attend to.

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He's not worried about, you know, what I got going on over here. Never make the mistake of forgetting the fact that every one of your sins was enough to put

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God on the cross. So don't make that mistake, my friend. So your sin will find you out.

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Your sin will have consequences. You say, well, I thought we were saved and you're going to heaven.

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And yeah, that's true. You're justified. If you're saved, you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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You're fully justified before the father. Romans five is clear about this as well as other places. But this does not mean there can't be temporal consequences for sin.

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If you could be, you could be as saved as anyone. If you go out there and start lying to everyone, you know, there's going to be consequences for that.

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There's going to be a judgment that comes from that. Now, ultimately in the terms of our eternal destiny, our sin is paid for and forgiven, but in terms of the natural, in terms of our lives and in terms of what

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God uses to test us and then also suffering that can come because of sin, these things just haven't magically gone away.

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So if you're sinning as a Christian, God's going to chastise you and correct you up to and including whatever means he needs to, to get your attention.

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And when we stand before God, yes, spiritually speaking, we'll stand perfectly righteous before him and we will receive new bodies one day that will be fitted for eternity that won't be capable of sin anymore.

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But as we remain in sinful flesh, there's the war going on between our spirit and our flesh.

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And if you give in and don't carry out the fruits of the spirit, but carry out the fruits of the flesh, those actions are going to have consequences.

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And so that's the message here. You know, sin will be dealt with. You don't want to see sin's judgment come knocking at your door.

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Ultimately, because we're children of light and that's not who we are. It's not what your identity is.

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So you need to be focused on living righteously, living under God's law, under his direction, obeying him and learning all that God has commanded, all that Christ has commanded and carrying that out and don't live under the example of these people that sinned and sinned and disobeyed and disobeyed and was rebellious and then

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God brought judgment just because we're forgiven and we're saved and we're made righteous in Christ in terms of our account and standing before God doesn't mean that God's going to let us just go sin in our flesh while we remain in it.

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This is, this is what Paul dealt with in Romans six, where they were saying, well, you know, for under grace and we're saved and God is graceful.

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I guess we can just go on sinning because after all his grace is abundant. And Paul says, yes, his grace is abundant to cover all sin.

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There's no sin that God can't save you from, but that doesn't give you a license to go out and sin in any way you want in any quantity or quality of sin that you choose, because that's not who you are, that's who you used to be.

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That's who you were formally, but now you're righteous.

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You're a child of light. You're expected to live that way. Amen. Well, I hope you're enjoying this study through the book of lamentations.

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This was a, certainly a book that has a little bit more sadness and depression to it, but I promise that you will see in this book, there's the turn, there's the going from lamenting to hope.

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And it begins with the proper response to sin, which begins with the recognition of who God is and that we have sinned.

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Amen. So I want to thank you for joining me on this God -centered podcast episode in our

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God -centered Bible study, going through the book of lamentations, and we will be back again with you next time.