Sunday Morning, June 28, 2020, AM

All right, good morning, everyone.

Believe it's time to start yet. 1045. All right. Welcome to Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning.

We're glad that you can be here with us today. A couple of announcements to get to you before we get started this morning.

This week's opportunities this evening, evening service, but there's also a truth group for the young adults.

You guys had kind of an assignment last truth group to bring a Babylon B article so that you guys could look at the worldview, maybe behind that and also laugh a little bit, too.

So don't forget to bring that tonight if you're coming for truth group. Also, Wednesday, Bible study and prayer.

No meal, no nursery. That starts at 630. This week's fighter verse comes from the psalm.

Psalm 34, one through three. I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the

Lord. But the humble here and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

Few more reminders just as we continue kind of social distancing stuff. Try not to linger too much in the building.

You're welcome to have as much conversation and fellowship in kind of the parking lot and on the porch area after after service.

Offering plate is still on the back table nursery availability and then also on the back table church directories.

And I believe we're going to hopefully have the Lord's Supper next week if we have kind of the supplies in for that little individual communion servings for that.

All right. Any other announcements that I'm missing? I saw them come in last, but it's good to see

Jason and Rebecca and their kids joining us this morning for worship. All right.

We're going to prepare our hearts for worship. And then after Randy, we'll pray for us. Father, it's truly good to be here today and to worship.

And we're so thankful for the many blessings, Father, that you just give us so graciously each day.

I pray that you would just prepare our hearts to hear from you today from your word. I pray that we'd take that word and we'd apply it.

And Father, pray that the challenges that we might face this week, that we would honor you and just ask for your help and your strength and that you would just be willing to to receive glory because of our obedience to you.

Father, I pray that we would be a faithful witness to the many people around us.

I pray that we might show them the hope that we have in Christ. And I pray that that you would encourage our hearts today as we meet together.

Thank you for each one here. Just thank you for this body of believers. And I pray that you would encourage our hearts today.

I pray that you'd speak through Brother Michael as he comes and shares the word with us. And we ask these things in Jesus name.

Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship together?

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 43. We'll be reading verse five.

You can find the scripture in your bulletin if you have that. Read with me together.

Psalm 43 verse five. Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul.

And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him.

My salvation and my God. Lord, from sorrows deep,

I call. When the bars have all grown cold.

Sing, oh sing through the raging storm.

You're still my God, my salvation.

And then if you would turn in your little black hymnals to page 133, it's the very last song in the hymnal.

And we're going to sing, you are the Lord. I'd like to just summarize some of the words in this next song for us.

We're singing about the God who is eternal. He's the first and the last.

He is holy. He's unchanging. He's our creator. He's the creator.

He created everything. He is our loving redeemer.

He is gracious and merciful. We should exalt him and praise him because he is worthy and glorious.

There is none like him. Let's sing, you are the Lord. You are the

Lord. You are gracious and merciful.

There is none like you. Praise to all nations.

Praise to the

Son and Spirit. If you have your

Bibles, turn to the book of Deuteronomy. Our scripture reading this morning is

Deuteronomy chapter 10 the whole chapter verses 1 through 22. This is the word of the

Lord. At that time the Lord said to me, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke and you shall put them in the ark.

So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut two tablets of stone like the first and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand and he wrote on the tablets in the same writing as before the ten commandments that the

Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly and the

Lord gave them to me. Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made and there they are as the

Lord commanded me. The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth -Benejakin to Moserah from there

Aaron died and there he was buried and his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place.

From there they journeyed to Gouda and from Gouda to Jot -Bathah a land with brooks of water.

At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the

Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name to this day.

Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers the Lord is his inheritance as the

Lord your God said to him. I myself stayed on the mountain as at the first time forty days and forty nights and the

Lord listened to me that time also the Lord was unwilling to destroy you and the

Lord said to me arise go on your journey at the head of the people so that they may go in and possess the land which

I swore to their fathers to give them. And now Israel what does the

Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God to walk in all his ways to love him to serve the

Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to keep the commandments and statutes of the

Lord which I am commanding you today for your good. Behold to the

Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens the earth with all that is in it yet the

Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them you above all peoples as you are this day.

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn for the

Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords the great the mighty and the awesome

God who is not partial and takes no bribe he executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner giving him food and clothing love the sojourner therefore for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt you shall fear the

Lord your God you shall serve him and hold fast to him and by his name you shall swear he is your praise he is your

God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons and now the

Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven would you pray with me father we thank you for these words marked by your everlasting faithfulness how you called out a people to be set apart and father through the blood of Christ we are a people who are set apart we are in the world but father we are not of the world we are here to share your truth that though the peoples rage and the nations rebel father your truth stands forever father we ask for your blessing on the preaching of your word this morning and on the worship that we give to you today father help us to be a people who are marked by love and not fear unless it be the fear of you we ask all these things in the name of our lord and savior

Jesus Christ amen you may be seated our next two songs will be in our blue hymnals so if you would turn to pages fifty -eight and thirty -five we'll sing this is my fathers world and then we'll sing the majesty and the glory of your name greens and brown trees this is my home, trees of skies and seas and everything that's right beside us father

I thank you for gathering us here today thank you for the opportunity to hear your word to pray together brothers and sisters in christ to sing, to instruct and edify one another, and to give you praise and worship.

What a joy this is that we who have been made in your image and renewed according to Christ would find in celebration of His resurrection from the dead, not merely recreation but recreation, being made new and a renewal to bring glory to you.

Help us now as we look at your Word, as we consider the meaning of your text, help us to see

Christ. We ask that you would give us a clearer view of our

Savior Jesus Christ, that as we look at Him in this Word, we will look like Him in this world, and pray these things for His sake.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Jeremiah 45. We come back to our study in Jeremiah after eight weeks in Romans 14 and 15, considering the instructions about how we are to accept one another as those ruled and redeemed in Christ.

So now coming back to Jeremiah chapter 45. You ever get lost in the forest for the trees in Jeremiah?

It's very simple to reorient yourself. You go back to chapter 1, everything you need to know about the entire book is there in the first chapter.

All the themes, all the characters, the whole point of the book, very nicely laid out for you in chapter 1.

In that chapter, we learn that God sent His Word to Jeremiah and through Jeremiah concerning the building up and the tearing down of nations, including

His own nation. And although His message would be very unpopular, God promised,

I will make you, Jeremiah, like a bronze city, a city with bronze walls before them, and they will not overcome you.

He would not fall before His opponents. Now, the first section of Jeremiah, many messages that He preached in their full content.

The second section of the book, we have many narrative, historical narratives interspersed, giving us the context for the messages that He preached.

And we just finished up a section of importance wherein Jerusalem has been destroyed.

The remaining Jews, although they had been instructed to remain at Mitzpah, some of them assassinated their leader, and some of them were hauled off towards Ammon, and there was another fight, and that broke out, and then they decided they're going to go down to Egypt, even though God said, don't go down to Egypt, they went down to Egypt.

And they hauled Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch with them to that country.

In that location, Jeremiah preached to them and said, God is going to judge Egypt ever as much as He judged

Judea, and so you have not escaped His punishment. And that's where we left off many moons ago.

Chapter 45, we have a little interlude, a word for Baruch.

We are no longer in 586 BC, we have gone back in time a few years to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, somewhere around 606

BC, and that's where chapter 45, the events of chapter 45 occur.

So I invite you to stand with me as I read the words of our Lord. Here is the word of the

Lord, the words of the Spirit of Christ through His prophet. This is the message which

Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah's dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, To you, O Baruch, you said,

Ah, woe is me, for the Lord has added sorrow to my pain.

I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.

Thus you are to say to him, Thus says the Lord, Behold, what

I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot.

That is, the whole land but you. Are you seeking great things for yourself?

Do not seek them. For behold, I am going to bring disaster on all flesh, declares the

Lord. But I will give your life to you as booty in all the places where you may go.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. It's been a long time since the turn of the year.

It seems like five years ago we were all suffering through those awful puns about how we were going to be seeing 2020.

Those seem massively ironic now. It's been a year of crises and confusion, catastrophes and collapse, and we're not a full halfway through.

A blitzkrieg of false teaching, which has been arming for the last six decades, has overrun our civil institutions, our seminaries, our churches.

And why has it unraveled so fast? The judgment of God has that effect.

Leaving our first love, compromising upon compromises, and taking a limp -wristed approach of preaching from the pulpit has its consequences.

But it will be to the glory of God, and it will be to the good of the church, that we have to divide again from false teachers and their teaching, that we have to fight again for the very meaning of the gospel itself, and that we will not be allowed to sleepwalk through the next two decades.

It's a good thing. We will wonder if it's worth it. We will wonder if we are doing the right thing.

But at the end of it all, we will wonder at the righteousness, peace, and joy of Christ, vindicated in the expansion of his kingdom through the faithful preaching of his gospel.

In the meantime, some of us, like a lot of us, many a day find ourselves saying, ah, woe is me.

Woe is me to have lived to see such times. Ah, woe is me to have to live through the coming struggle.

But we are to take heart. Hebrews tells us there is a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

We have brothers and sisters waiting for the resurrection in heaven, and they have given their lives and sacrificed their bodies and forfeited their freedoms and lost their families.

They have suffered without friends, without homes, without basic necessities, all for their love of Jesus Christ, for their love of his gospel, for their love of his bride.

So can we so easily throw up our hands, grow weary, and lose heart?

Let's consider Christ together this morning. There's a good theme for this text.

I think it's from Hebrews 12, 28 through 29. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, let us show gratitude by which we may, here it is, offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe.

Let us offer to God in our thanksgiving an acceptable service with reverence in awe.

Why? For our God is a consuming fire. Our God is a consuming fire.

The title of this morning's sermon is taken from the old spiritual, Nobody Knows the

Trouble I've Seen. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, so saith

Baruch, so saith many of us. There was a pastor, just read his recent lament, a pastor lamenting the sexual immorality and the degradation of the family in the times.

First two sections are sarcasm. I'll tell you when it ends. Liberation must be the watchword.

The state and the church must retreat entirely from this arena. No law, no rule, no bond, no impediment pertaining to marriage any longer.

Let the entire business be left to human inclination. Let them unite together freely according to passion, to whimsy in love.

Children provide no obstacle to this ideal, for if there's no other arrangement available, let them be taken care of by the state.

There are also those who cast the blame for all sin and organization of society, especially on capitalism and the unequal distribution of goods.

Poverty is seen as the cause of every malady, of prostitution, of drunkenness, of robbery, of murder.

Suppose society were organized in such a way that everyone received from the public treasury an equal wage or subsidy equal to their needs, then the reason for all envy and hatred, for all sin and wickedness would disappear.

People would live together like brothers and sisters. Complete equality would be the guarantor of harmonious brotherhood.

The freedom of individuals and of families would indeed suffer some damage. Perhaps parents would have to hand over their children soon after birth to the state for communal education, but the equality and fraternity are well worth this small sacrifice of freedom in sarcasm.

He continues, in this way there is no lack of proposed remedies for the maladies of modern society, but the remedies being proposed are for the most part just as damaging for marriage and family life as the maladies themselves.

There has never been a time when the family faced so severe a crisis as the time in which we are now living.

Many are not satisfied with remodeling. They want to tear things down to the foundation. Herman Bavinck, The Christian Family, published 1912,

Amsterdam. Nobody knows the trouble

I've seen, except for folks like a hundred years ago in different places. Over a hundred years ago,

Bavinck wrote words that are immediately transferable to our own day, which reminds us that we are not the only generation under fire, and although we are tempted to only lament the wickedness of our lifetime, we should also take up the promises of God, encourage, and make our advance under fire.

The first step to that is to remember the sovereignty of God. Your lifetime is in the hands of God. This is what verse one tells us.

Your lifetime is in the hands of God. This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah's dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying.

I think it's really interesting to trace how the word of God is composed.

That's especially the case in the book of Jeremiah. The word of the Lord comes to Jeremiah, and the word of the

Lord speaks to Jeremiah, and he tells Jeremiah to speak to Baruch, thus saith the

Lord. And Jeremiah, having thus spoke to Baruch God's words delivered by the word of the

Lord in person, then watches Baruch write down all of those words on a scroll, because Baruch is

Jeremiah's scribe, who was Baruch. Baruch was mildly important.

He was the son of Neriah. If he was very important, he would have been the son of the son of. If you get two generations past your name, then you're very important in Israel, but he only gets one, so he's mildly important.

But he is educated. He would have been taught at the feet of the Levites. Jeremiah himself is from a

Levitical family in Anathoth, just north of Jerusalem at some point. These two joined together in their work for the

Lord. Jeremiah trusted Baruch. We find him giving messages to Baruch to give to other people.

We find him sending Baruch to go purchase land from his cousin. Baruch had some kind of position of importance and influence among the people there in Jerusalem.

In chapter 43, we find the leaders of the remnant accusing Baruch of turning Jeremiah against them, which means that they think

Baruch has a very important position and some influence. We cannot verify if the

Jewish historian Josephus was correct, but he tells us that Baruch was a Jewish aristocrat, that he was the son of Neriah, the brother of Sariah ben

Neriah, who was the chamberlain of King Zedekiah of Judah. In other words, he had some connections. So this is

Baruch. But what were his times? The fourth year of Jehoiakim. The fourth year of Jehoiakim is one of the most significant years in all of Jeremiah's ministry.

This was a critical moment for the king, for the nation, and for God's message to be heard. And Baruch was going to play a very important role in the word of the

Lord being heard by the people of God. Here's some background of the dark times of Baruch and giving you the reason why he's bemoaning the days that he now lives.

Josiah died. Good King Josiah died in the battle with Theronico. People then put

Josiah's son, Joahaz, onto the throne, even though Eliakim, Jehoahaz's brother, was two years older than he was.

He's like, no, we're going to bypass you. They didn't like him very much. We're going to put Joahaz on the throne. He lasted just a few months before Nico finally made his way to the capital city of Jerusalem.

He immediately deposed Joahaz and put Eliakim on the throne and renamed him

Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim's first royal act was to tax all the land of their gold and silver and give it all to Pharaoh.

And he did this while engaging in a self -aggrandizing building campaign in which he used forced labor, unpaid labor of his own people.

No wonder the folks didn't like Eliakim and preferred Joahaz. But now he's king.

His name is now Jehoiakim. And while he's busy building up many monuments to himself on the empty stomachs of his people, the political winds shift and no longer is

Theronico in charge of the area, but Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, comes sweeping through, defeats in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, defeats

Theronico, and claims lordship over all these lands. Therefore, the tribute payment stops being made to Egypt and now is being made to Babylon.

This is all happening in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim did this for three years until he got tired of the pinch to his purse, and then he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.

And then Nebuchadnezzar, with his mercenary allies of the Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites, pillaged and plundered the land until finally he captured

Jehoiakim and hauled him off to Babylon where he died. It was at that time that he also,

Nebuchadnezzar, plundered all the golden artifacts out of the temple. There went the Ark of the Covenant.

So the fourth year of Jehoiakim was a transitional year. Nebuchadnezzar is now lord,

Theronico has been defeated. This was the year that chapter 25 of Jeremiah was first proclaimed.

Chapter 25 of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and said, go to the people and say, thus saith the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar is in charge.

Get along with him and things will go well, rebel against him, and I personally, the Lord, will punish you with famine, pestilence, and the sword until you die.

That was the word of the Lord, Jeremiah 25. And he said, this is going to happen for 70 years until finally

I judge Babylon for all their wickedness. So in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the word of the

Lord comes to Jeremiah. Chapter 25 is proclaimed to him and it is written down by the hand of Baruch the scribe.

At this point, Jeremiah has been outlawed from the temple courts. He is not allowed to show up to the temple courts to read the word of the

Lord anymore. If he shows up, he'll get killed. So guess who he sends with this very unpopular message to the temple courts?

Baruch. Baruch has to go. He has to wait for a national fast day when maximum amount of people are going to be there in Jerusalem at the temple, and he's going to read this very unpopular message.

Here's how it concludes, just to give you a taste of the prophecy from Jeremiah 25.

Verse 33, those slain by the Lord on that day, speaking of the judgment of Jerusalem in 586

BC, those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other.

They will not be lamented, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung on the face of the ground.

Wail, you shepherds, and cry, and wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come, and you will fall like a choice vessel.

Flight will perish from the shepherds and escape from the masters of the flock. Hear the sound of the cry of the shepherds and the wailing of the masters of the flock.

For the Lord is destroying their pasture, and the peaceful foals are made silent.

Because of the fierce anger of the Lord, he has left his hiding place like the lion, for their land has become a horror because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword and because of his fierce anger."

And Baruch says, nobody knows the trouble we're going to see.

So understanding Baruch in his times helps us to make sense of his lament that is recorded here in verse 3.

Baruch grew up under Josiah and then got stuck with Jehoiakim. He grew up under national reformation and soon found himself in a world falling apart.

He now faces the prospect of delivering a message which would earn him the deadly animosity of the state.

He's going to be breaking ties simply to be faithful to his duties. He saw his beloved nation, which was forged in fidelity to God, which knew the heights of David and Solomon and Hezekiah and Josiah.

Now he sees his nation in freefall, hurtling towards destruction. Not only does he have the pain of losing his culture and his land, but now he is tasked with declaring the coming judgment and accelerating his isolation from all he loves.

A costly faithfulness in a wicked culture, collapsing under the judgment of God is the calling on Baruch.

A costly faithfulness in a wicked culture, collapsing under the judgment of God.

And thus Baruch says, ah, woe is me.

It makes sense that Baruch would feel sorry for himself. I think it makes sense for Christians today, weighing all that we have lost and all that we will lose in our faithful adherence to Christ, that we might feel a little sorry for ourselves and lament the coming desolation to which our children and grandchildren must square their faces.

But remember the sovereignty of God. Remember the sovereignty of God. Our lifetimes are in the hand of God.

He sovereignly guides and directs. And as he declared hope to the exiles who are already in Babylon, as he declares hope to those going into exile, what did he say?

A future of being fruitful and multiplying so that they will return to the land with a new covenant anticipation.

There's such hope for those who have already been taken into exile. They are not to decrease, but to increase.

They are to build homes and live in them, plant gardens and harvest from them, get married, have children, make sure that their children get married and have children, to increase, to pray for the prosperity of even their oppressors, because in their prosperity they would find prosperity.

This is the plan. This is the plan for all those taken into exile, and then they're coming back to the land someday with hope of the new covenant.

This is the message that Jeremiah has been preaching. This is the message that Baruch has even himself written down.

God also has plans for us, which will prove the increase of his glory, the advancement of Christ's kingdom, and the beautification of his church.

Let us not forget our captain who has blazed the trail from suffering to glory. We worship a

Savior who suffered the darkest day on the verge of the brightest morning. It's in the heart of the gospel itself that we would live with hope and not despair.

So remember that your times are in the hands of God and that your lament is before the face of God, verses 2 and 3.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch, you said, Ah, woe is me! For the

Lord has added sorrow to my pain, and I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.

So God heard Baruch's lamenting. He hears all of our laments. Baruch's name means blessing, but he figured he was cursed.

He says, Oh, woe is me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.

God corrects his lament. So we have to think about what a correct lament looks like.

First of all, a lament corrected. He says, Everything that is going on in my sorrow, in my groaning, in my weariness, and I have no rest,

God has just piled on more. That's his lament. God just keeps piling it on.

Now, I am tempted to conclude that, you know, as Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, he has a pouting scribe, that in this relationship,

Jeremiah is Eor and Baruch is his hapless tale, but really the sense of loss for Baruch is too serious for that.

He is truly grieved, and what honest, God -fearing man would not lament the wickedness and idolatry and atrocities of times such as these?

But at the same time, what honest, God -fearing man would not also confess his thoughts and feelings are but a myopic swirl gazing at a fading horizon?

Do you think you can accurately predict how things are going? Do you think you can really see 2020? Surely Baruch was right in calling out to God and his sorrow while confessing the sovereignty of God, but we have the idea today that anybody expressing any kind of sorrow should be automatically validated because sorrow is sorrow, and you can't argue with sorrow.

Emotion is emotion, and you can't deny emotions, but here is Baruch. He's just expressing his emotion.

He's in sorrow. He's lost so much. He's under such oppression. He laments. God should surely accept whatever comes out of his mouth, right?

Well, God corrects him. God corrects him. It was not wrong to cry out in sorrow before the

Lord, but it matters to God the motive and the meaning of our laments. Baruch desired great things for himself, and the

Lord corrects that. The Lord looks upon the heart, not the outward. God looks upon the heart. He saw

Baruch desiring great things for himself, and so God corrects

Baruch in his lament. Since he desired great things for himself, we may then surmise that lamenting in this regard is not a correct lament.

The God of Israel is a title that is repeated 49 times in Jeremiah. The God of Israel is reminding

Baruch, Israel is mine. I've made covenant with her. I set before her blessing and cursing, life and death, and they chose cursing and death, and I'm going to be faithful to my promises and bring judgment upon them.

And that their wickedness spoils Baruch's big plans for himself is not a great reason to lament, to begin to, you know, saying nobody knows the trouble

I've seen. Baruch really doesn't have time to waste lamenting the unlamentable.

Every once in a while you read about the kings dying and how they were buried, and sometimes the king was just so wicked that they didn't even bother lamenting for him, just tossed him out with the garbage.

No time to waste lamenting the unlamentable. Baruch's too busy to spend time wasting on lamenting things that he shouldn't lament.

He's got work to do. He's got scribing to do, heralding to do, errand running to do for the glory of God.

And he's got to get busy on what God has called him to. Lamentation is certainly a right response to wickedness and judgment, but the correct lament leads us to the gospel of Jesus Christ, not the blind alley of self -pity and what -ifs or intersectional purgatory.

What is a correct lament? Well, you can read the book of Lamentations, five chapters of a biblical lament.

In fact, Baruch, I mean, he's Jeremiah's scribe. He probably wrote down these organized words of lament in the book we call

Lamentations. And Lamentations does express deep sorrow over the sin and wickedness of all the people while affirming the righteousness of God and so thoroughly judging their horrendous sins.

And Lamentations focuses on the compassion, the loving -kindness, and the faithfulness of God.

At the very heart of Lamentations, we have the gospel of Jesus Christ. But Baruch's lament focused on himself and what he had lost, and that's why he got corrected.

Daniel 9 is another great example of a lament. You can read that for yourself. It entails a fair amount of recognizing what has been lost.

It also confesses the wickedness as God defines it, and this is an important part of a biblical lament.

Confession of sin, by definition, means agreeing with God about sin.

That's what confession means. It means to agree with, to say along with. So confession means to agree with God about the nature of our sins, and confession precedes

God's forgiveness and his cleansing of our sins through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Any lament that confesses sin that God does not call sin and then does not lead to the absolute forgiveness and justification of the sinner is not a biblical lament.

It's important to consider that as Baruch was misguided in lamenting because of his selfish focus, we could also be misguided in lamenting by confessing sins that don't agree with God's own definitions.

A correct lament will be one which deals with matters as God sees it. Now listen to this.

We ought to lament what God laments, but not what just any

God laments. We should lament what

God laments, but not just what any God laments. It's easy to get caught up in the games of our generation.

John the Baptist and Jesus Christ did not play the games of their generation, and neither should we.

Matthew 11, 16 through 19, Jesus says, but to what shall I compare this generation?

It is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to other children and say, we played the flute for you, and you did not dance.

We sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. They're playing wedding and funeral. For John did not come either eating or drinking, and they say, he is a demon.

Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. We don't have to celebrate what our generation celebrates, and we don't have to mourn what our generation mourns.

We have zero mandate to dance and mourn according to the tunes played for us in the public square.

Zero. If you would lament, then do it biblically. And while the pagans rejoice in sexual liberation, mourn the millions of the fatherless.

And while pagans chant for the empowerment of women, mourn the butchery of the unborn innocent.

And while pagans rejoice in the spread of their intersectional religion, mourn the fecklessness of the righteous.

Jezebel in our seminaries and Baal in our pulpits. That's a godly lament.

Why do we lament? Why do we say, oh woe is me? Why do we say nobody knows the trouble?

Maybe it's because of our expectations. Maybe it's because of the way we have framed our desires.

This may sound heretical, but here goes. You cannot be whatever you want to be. I know that doesn't bode well for me being a script writer for Disney or writing songs for K -Fluff, but you cannot be whatever you want to be.

If you follow your heart and let no one stop you, your dreams will not come true. Why?

There are limitations on our longings, because we are creatures mortal and finite.

We have been created by a sovereign God, and he's the one who always gets his way. So if our expectations are out of sort, out of order, not biblical, and those expectations are then disappointed, why waste time singing the blues about it?

Self -promotion is a pitiful longing. Verse 5 begins this way, but you, are you seeking great things for yourself?

Do not seek them. Behold, I'm going to bring disaster in all flesh, declares the

Lord. So apparently Baruch had big plans. He sought great things. I mean, great things had been promised to Abraham and to his seed, but that greatness was to be realized in Jesus Christ.

Great things, of course, are always tempting, but we would do better to number our days and recognize our limitations before the face of a sovereign

God. Consider back in the Garden of Eden, the eating of the fruit. The serpent tempted

Adam and Eve with greatness, did he not? Greatness. He promised them more than just being made in the image of God is fine.

It's good. But what would that mean? It would mean that you would spend your life mediating God's goodness so as to manifest

God's glory, and that would leave God determining authority, holiness, truth, and wisdom. But why shouldn't

Adam and Eve determine these values for themselves? Why should they not aspire to be like God and go for greatness and define the knowledge of good and evil for themselves?

Well, what did Adam and Eve receive for their efforts to promote themselves to God's status and change the definitions of good and evil for themselves?

Death and exile, curse and shame. That's what they got. Baruch should not forget his name, which means blessing, and he should be seeking to use whatever

God has given to him to be a blessing for God to others. If he's self -focused, he's no better than Jehoiakim and the people who sought great things for themselves.

Self -promotion is a pitiful longing. Do not desire great things for yourself, God says to Baruch, and he says,

I'm going to bring disaster upon all flesh. Look, you can't be going around trying to promote yourself.

There's a wave of death coming. You've got to get yourself oriented how quickly flesh passes from the face of the earth.

We are like vapors that appear for a little while and then vanish away. Isaiah 40, 7 -8, the grass withers, the flower fades.

When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever.

Baruch's bones are all dust and gone, but the words that he wrote down, the very words breathed out by God's spirit and declared by God's man, they remain.

They remain. They'll seek greatness for ourselves, seek greatness for God.

Would we desire great things for ourselves? We weren't made for that. We were made to desire great things for God.

We were made in His image, thus we were made for His glory. So while there are limitations for the longing that we have for ourselves, consider that when we long for the greatness of God, when we long for the greatness of God, there's a notion of joy that awaits us.

There's a notion of joy that awaits us when our longings are for the greatness of God.

Self -promotion is a pitiful longing, and God's sovereignty places our limits. Verse 4, thus you are to say to him, thus says the

Lord, behold, what I have built, I am about to tear down. What I have planted, I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.

This was the plan from the beginning, the uprooting and the tearing up.

I mean, that's straight from Jeremiah 1. That was the defining declaration of Jeremiah.

It was going to be that God would give a message through his prophet for 40 years.

Jeremiah would be preaching this message. God is going to rip everything up, and he's going to start over.

That's what he was saying all through his 40 years of ministry. And why isn't

Baruch's desires, why aren't his desires in line with the message? No wonder he's disappointed.

No wonder he's bemoaning himself. We can understand why

Baruch lamented and said, oh, woe is me. We've done enough ourselves. The sovereign plan of God had placed limitations on Baruch, what he would be able to experience, what he would be able to achieve in his lifetime.

It just wasn't an open -ended realm of possibilities for Baruch. Why? Because God is sovereign.

Would Baruch marry and have 10 sons, and each of them have 10 sons and daughters? Would Baruch sit in the city gates in the morning and under his fig tree in the evening?

Would Baruch worship amongst those pure -hearted worshippers in the temple courts? No, he would not.

All those desires were good. All those desires were good, but that he would not have them was no reason to pity himself.

What God had for him to do in his time was important. It was meaningful, and there were limits on what

Baruch could desire for himself. He needed to desire what God had for him, which was this, a costly faithfulness in a wicked culture collapsing under the judgment of God.

Now, we don't like to believe we have limitations in an age of air travel and internet commerce.

We've got to remember this. God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,

Acts 17 26. So there are naturally then, according to the design and the providence and the sovereignty of God, limitations on what we can achieve in our desires.

God is in charge, not us. And it brings to mind this question, what are we longing for?

What are our desires? If we're, woe is me, right? If it's, oh, woe is me, nobody knows the trouble

I've seen. Why is that? Is it because our desires have been so severely disappointed?

Okay, well, what are we desiring? What are our desires?

What do we long for? Rosy days of yester -yore, healthfully sanitized by the tricks of failing memories.

What do we long for? What's our desire? Utopian bliss in which we all as comrades suck from the engorged udder of the golden state.

What are we longing for? What's our desire? What are we after? Let us receive from our

Lord the day he has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Let us do what we can to know what is pleasing to him and be faithful to him.

God's will has not changed concerning your responsibilities in the way that you pursue

Christ and worship God as one made in his image. God's will has not changed for you in the way that you relate to your family, the way that you love and lead and submit and follow and provide and protect.

Your responsibilities concerning the church has not changed simply because we've had a year with virus and riots and Sahara dust.

Things have not changed in our responsibilities and our calling to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world in a city set on a hill.

And what is the encouragement for us to continue on? The life -saving grace of our Lord. Notice the promise

God gives to Baruch at the end of verse 5. But I will give your life to you as booty in all the places where you may go.

You know, Baruch was not going to have any spoils of the war except just his life.

God says, I'm guaranteeing you your life no matter where you go. That's a great encouragement to Baruch.

He was about to make a whole lot of enemies going to the temple. He was about to go into the temple courts.

He was about to go into hiding. He was about to go with Jeremiah into various imprisonments. He would go with the captives out of Jerusalem.

He would go back to to Mitzpah with Jeremiah. He would be taken captive by Ishmael, rescued by Johanan, forced down to Egypt, and then at the end of it marched all the way from Egypt to Babylon.

And God kept him alive in all those places. And every time Baruch found himself on his way to a new place, he would have this promise of God to encourage him, guaranteeing his life no matter where he went.

He may have lamented the loss of his expectations. He may have lamented how his life turned out.

But according to this promise, he could say with a fresh sense of gratitude that his life was a gift from God over and over and over in every new peril.

And at the end, he was a walking, talking testimony of the life -saving grace of God. And we've got a better promise.

We've got a better promise. Remember what Jesus said to Martha? She was mourning, lamenting her dead brother

Lazarus and doing it quite rightly so. John 11, 25, and 26,

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this? And if you believe that, if you believe that, you have a promise which proves a soft landing and a firm answer for all of your lamentations, for all of your sorrowful questions.

In this promise of this Savior, you can find rest for your weary soul and comfort for your grieving heart.

And wherever we go, through whatever times we live, we have this promise, everlasting life in Jesus Christ.

And it makes all the difference. In Paul's summation of his majestic chapter on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1

Corinthians 15, very last verse, therefore, because of all these glorious truths of the resurrection, therefore, my beloved brethren, here's our word based on the promise of our life in Christ, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

That is a promise for our prayers, that is a promise for our advance, that is the promise for our sleeping, for our waking, for everything.

Jesus says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Baruch's going to end up back in Babylon, back where he had chapter 29 of Jeremiah.

Of course, they didn't call it that. But there it is in chapter 29, be fruitful, multiply, increase, don't decrease, get busy with your work, and that's where Baruch's going to end up.

And he's going to contribute to that exiled society as they build and grow and multiply in hopes of the coming new covenant.

He's going to be a part of that. Let us be rebuilding the

God -honoring culture that we have outlined for us in the Scriptures. Let us be doing the things that are not in vain in the

Lord. Others may set things on fire and pull it down over their heads, but if we build with gold and silver and precious stones, it will always remain.

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Well, actually, our Savior was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

He bore our griefs and our sorrows, and he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

And all of this in the third day, he rose from the grave. Glory, hallelujah, as the spiritual says.

Rather than the sackcloth of, ah, woe is me, let us put on the garments of praise.

Oh, yes, Lord. Oh, yes, Lord. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe, for our

God is a consuming fire. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the time we've had in your

Word. We thank you for your correction of Baruch and your correction of us. Lord, we know there are many things worth lamenting and grieving and being sorrowful over in this world, and yet we do not grieve as those without hope, for you have given us all the hope we need in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So I pray that you would help us to have courage, and I pray that you would help us to be a people that are known for their praise and not for their complaints.

We ask these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well -pleased.

Amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?

We're going to sing, You are the Lord, again, but we'll sing verses one and verse four. In the place of the