Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. I want you to open your Bible in the Old Testament to the book of Lamentations, would you? To Lamentations chapter number three.
If you know Lamentations, the word literally means a lament. It is a funeral song. And we do mourn, praise God. God's people do not. Mourn as those who have no hope.
We have hope. This world is not our home. We're just passing through. But along the journey, there are moments where we grieve and we weep and we cry. Maybe you're there now.
Maybe you've been there at some point. If you've never been there, I promise you you will be there someday. Life is full of lamentations. Job, the oldest book in the Bible, said it this way: Man that is born of woman is a few days, say a church, and full of trouble.
So if you're full of trouble, you're going to be full of tears until the day that God wipes all tears from our eyes. And recently, I was reading through the book of Lamentations. You know, there's some scriptures you like to just camp in, live in, and then there's some scriptures you kind of try to read through and get on to the next place. Don't look at me so pious. You do the same thing in 1 Chronicles, isn't that right?
And you think, well, this is good, but let's get on to the good stuff. May I just remind you it's all good stuff because it's the Word of God? And I was reading their lamentations, and I was just kind of moving along, moving along, moving along, all the mourning, all the weeping, all the grieving, all the crying. And then I came to Lamentations chapter 3. And wouldn't it be just like the Lord?
Isn't it just like the Lord to put the brightest spot in the Bible in the midst of the darkest book? Right, now I use a good West Virginia theological term, right? Smack dab in the middle of. All of this mourning. One of the most hopeful passages in the whole Bible.
Look at Lamentations chapter 3, verse number 22. Jeremiah Through his tears. But by faith. Writes, it is of the Lord's mercies. That we are not Consumed.
Because His compassions. Fail not. They are new. Every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
Would you read those two verses out loud with me? Read it from your heart. Would you? It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness. If you've got a little Bible ribbon or Bible marker, I want you to mark Lamentations chapter 3 because. God helping us for the next three days we're going to live here. In this one chapter of the Bible. We're going to pitch our tent and drive our stakes in the ground, get our shovels and tools.
Just dig around in the soil here of Lamentations chapter 3 and see what little diamonds we can find. And I'm going to ask you to live in it. You may say, well, there's other books I'd like to live in. No, I'm going to ask you to live in Lamentations this week. It's only five chapters long.
You may want to read the whole little book out loud on your knees. That'd be good. But I want you to concentrate on Lamentations chapter number three because Lamentations chapter three is the pivotal point. It's the turning point. It is, in every way, the pinnacle of the book.
I'll show you that in just a moment. And I can't think of anything any grander, any greater, any more glorious. than to think of the mercy of our God. Robert Robinson was An awful sinful man. We're all awful sinful people, you know.
Some are just church sinners and others are worldly sinners, but all of us are sinners. And Robert Robinson went into a meeting one day where a man was preaching. Maybe you've heard of the man, his name was George Whitfield. He was. the great preacher of the great awakening and Robert Robinson sat in that meeting, came under conviction of the Holy Ghost.
and was gloriously saved. Robert Robinson took out a pen and a piece of paper one day after his conversion and wrote these words for the very first time. We sing them. I hope you know these words. Come, thou fount of every blessing.
Tune my heart to sing thy praise. I like this line. Streams of mercy. Never failing. Call for songs of loudest praise.
May I say to you, there is no song like a song about the mercy of God. There is no sermon like a sermon on the mercy of God. There is no thought in your mind like the thought of the mercy of God. Because it is the mercy of God that reminds us that we are black-hearted, hell-deserving sinners, and Jesus is a wonderful Savior. In fact, I think I can show you from the Bible that the message of Scripture is the message of mercy.
From start to finish. How did you get saved? If you are saved, let me tell you, I got saved. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. By the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
You say you want revival. How many of you want revival? You say you've been praying for revival. One of the greatest prayers in the Bible for revival is in another dark place in the book of Habakkuk. And Habakkuk prays that God will revive his work in the midst of the years.
In the midst of the years, make known. And then here's his prayer: in wrath. Remember Mercy. I'm looking at some people.
Some of you have been in church a while. How many of you have known the Lord a long time? How many of you have been around church a good bit?
Some of you, not so much. Maybe this is your first time. Maybe you just walked in the place today. It's all brand new to you. But I'm going to tell you this morning, on the authority of the Word of God, I don't care who you are, if you've been around this for a long time and known Jesus for a long time, or if this is all new to you, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl in this room, in fact, every human on earth at this moment needs one thing: they need to experience the mercy of Almighty God.
In fact, in some way, you're already experiencing it. How many of you are breathing right now? Would you raise your hand? If your neighbor didn't raise her hand, check on them real quick, would you please? If you are breathing.
Guess what that is? Would you like to guess what that is? It's mercy. You woke up this morning, didn't you? Maybe you don't feel the best.
But you had enough strength to get out of bed and come to this place. You know what that is? That is. Mercy. And someday, what shall we experience in glory?
Oh, the greatest mercy of all, that we will enter into the presence of Almighty God, the thrice holy God, and live for eternity with Him. Look, there was mercy when you got up this morning. There was mercy on the day of your salvation. There will be mercy forever in the presence of God. But I'm going to tell you what all of us need today.
All of us need more mercy. Let me testify just a moment and tell you that the longer I live, The more I am coming to realize how wretched my heart is. You know you'd think over time it'd get better, wouldn't you? But the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
Oh, you can dress it up, you can put a suit on it, and give it a Bible, and you can let it even stand up and preach. I'm just telling you. After all these years of knowing Jesus and even preaching the Bible, I'm coming more and more to recognize what a sinful man I am. And by the way, I'm looking at a bunch of certified sinners right now, too. And you know what we need?
We need the mercy of God.
Somebody said, Preacher, preach to us. Preach to us on the issues of the day. I'm going to tell you what we need: we need a fresh glimpse of the mercy of God.
Somebody said, Well, talk to us about prophecy and show us some new thing. Look, Jesus is coming, but I'm going to tell you what we need today: we need a fresh glimpse of the mercy of God. And that's why Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, standing on the verge of the captivity, standing on the edge of Jerusalem, watching the city that he loves burn to smoldering ruins, and everything that is familiar comes crumbling down around him, goes back to one thought: it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. What do we know about the mercy of God?
Now let's just show a few few things. Look at the verses. Number one. It's divine in its nature. This is not man's mercies.
Look at it. It is the what? The Lord's mercies. How many of you, Lord's, is capitalized in your Bible? Would you stare just a minute?
How many of you say it's all capital letters, yes? Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital J. That's not just some Bible printer wanting to emphasize it. No, no. This is a unique name of our God.
This was the name when Moses said, I need to know your name so I can tell Pharaoh who sent me. And God said, just tell him I am sent you. This is the God of promise. This is the God of covenant. This is the God who never changes.
That's really important because I'm going to show you what the word mercy means in just a moment. This is the unchanging character of our Christ. Aren't you glad? In a changing world, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that every promise he makes, he always fulfills.
Look, I'm not asking you to trust me, I'm telling you, you better trust Jesus. Even good men will let you down. And even great churches are not perfect churches. But let me tell you something: we have a perfect Savior, and He is trustworthy because He is the Lord. He is not another God, He is the one and only.
And so it's divine in its nature. You don't get mercy because of something in you. You get mercy. Because of what's in him. See, some of you right now are living under guilt and condemnation and shame, and the devil's using your past like a club to beat you over the head because that's what he loves to do.
He's the accuser of the brethren. He's always beating a man down. Jesus doesn't do that, he comes and lifts us up. Why? Because you don't ever merit the mercy of God.
If you merit it, it's no longer mercy. It's like the mother that came before Napoleon one day and pleaded for the life of her son who had committed a heinous crime. And Napoleon said to this mother as she wept, Your son is worthy of justice. He's committed this twice now. He's worthy of punishment.
And she said, Sir, I know that's what justice says. I know that's what he's worthy of. I'm not asking for justice. I'm asking for mercy. And Napoleon said, Then I will pardon him.
See, as long as you think That you need to get what you deserve. Brother, you get what you deserve, you're going to hell forever. That's why the Bible says mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Where did mercy and truth meet?
Mercy and truth met in the person of Jesus Christ. Where did righteousness and peace make peace together and kiss one another? On the cross of Calvary. It is not because of us, it is all because of the mercy of our great God. Men's mercies come and go.
People are nice. And then they're not. People are forgiving. And then they're not. People are good and merciful and kind, and then they're not.
Listen to me, but God never changes. He is always the same. He is good and merciful and kind and long-suffering and loving and gracious and wonderful. This is divine mercy. It is the Lord's mercies.
That's not all. Look at the verse again. It's not only divine in nature, it's rooted in love. Because the Bible says it's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because His compassions fail not. Do you see the because?
What is the cause of the mercy? You ready for this? God can't help himself. He can't help himself. See, love is not something he does.
I love. But it's not who I am. God is love. It's not something He musters up or makes himself to do. It is who He is.
He loves you with an everlasting love. There was never a moment where He started loving you, He's always loved you. And there'll never be a moment when He stops loving you, He will always love you. He could never love you any more, and he will never love you any less. He does not love you because of who you are.
He loves you because of who He is, and because of His love, He shows His mercy. When was the last time you caught a good glimpse of the mercy of Jesus for you? Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
Lift your head up. Get your head up. Look to Jesus. Look at the cross. You want to see what love looks like?
You want to know what mercy sounds like? Hear Jesus cry from the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is the unfailing mercy of our great God. The word that's used here is an interesting word. It's the Hebrew word hased.
It's a unique word. In fact, through the Bible is Is given to us as goodness and as long-suffering and as kindness and as mercies. And somebody said, Why use so many words to describe one word? I'm going to tell you why. Because in our language, it is impossible with any word to fully describe the mercy of our great God.
This is the multifaceted character of our Lord, like diamonds, that every cut shows a new glimmer of light, and every angle reflects a little more beauty. Every time you look at the mercy of God at every stage, in every season, and every failure, and every need in your life, it is a reminder that God is great and greatly to be praised. This is the heart of our great God. It might interest you to know that the word here, mercies, is used. two hundred and fifty times.
in the Old Testament. I wish I had time to study all of them with you. I'm not going to do that, so relax. But let me show you the first one. Everybody, hold your place.
Don't lose Lamentations 3. We're coming right back. Run back in your Bible just for a moment to the book of Genesis, would you? Let's go to the book of beginnings. Because Genesis 19 is the first mention of Hesed.
It's the first use of the word. And I think it gives a little key that opens the truth. No, no, it opens the heart of God. Come on in. Come into the heart of God.
Because the word of God opens the heart of God. Literally, one word. God's mercy. Genesis 19 is the awful. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
How many of you know we're living in Sodom and Gomorrah right now? For the record, judgment is coming. Oh, but I love this. It is in the context of judgment that God still shows his mercy. God sent an angel and took Lot by the hand.
Do you remember? Say, come on, boy. Get out of this city. Get your family out of this city. Hurry up.
Matter of fact, in verse number 16, it says, The Lord being merciful unto him. There's that Lord again. But come to verse 19. Here's the first use, the first mention of Hased. Same word as Lamentations 3: Behold now.
Lot says. Thy servant has found grace in thy sight. Time out in just a second. You know who Lot's talking to? Tell me, who's Lot talking to?
He's finally talking to God. How many of you know it's a good thing when we finally start talking to God? This is crazy, but God's been talking to him for a long time. But it's a first mention that Lot responds to God.
Some of you, God's been speaking to you for a while. Don't you think it'd be nice if you started talking back to the one that's been talking to you? Stop walking past God when He speaks to your heart. Stop ignoring the voice of the Holy Spirit when He tugs on your soul. Respond to God.
Speak to the Lord. Pray to the God of all mercy. And look what he says, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. And thou, read it out loud with me, church, ready, hast magnified thy mercy. Can I tell you where God's mercy, His Hased, is magnified?
It is in contrast to our great sin. I'm going to tell you why I think we've not yet had a real spiritual awakening in our generation. It is because of our own stinking, foolish, rotten pride. We have forgotten what awful sinners we are, and that every good thing in our life is the mercy of God. We are comfortable, convenient Americans who are stuck in our ruts and happy to go through the religious routines, the motions, and mechanics of it all.
And we have forgotten the most basic premise of Scripture, and that is, we do not deserve anything. It is all the mercy of our great God. You want to have a great awakening? See what a great sinner you are. See yourself as Lot.
Sorry, you're not Abraham. You're Lot. I'm not Abraham. I'm Lot. Worldly-minded people surrounded by Sodom, and we've let too much of that carnality get into us, and suddenly God, in his great mercy, reaches out a nail-pierced hand and says, Come on now, get out of that.
What is that? That is the Lord magnifying his mercy in our lives. Go back with me to Lamentations 3. I'll show you a third thing. It's not only divine in its nature and rooted in love, but number three.
It's greater than your sin. In fact, it's greater than all. Remember, where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Where sin flows, grace overflows. Where the river of your failure flows, the streams of mercy are still overflowing the banks.
Look at verse number 22. It is of the Lord's. What's the next word, class? Would you notice, please, it's in the plural? Mercies.
Not in Mercy. Mercies In fact, look at verse number 23. Not it, they. Why is it in the plural, please? May I tell you?
Excuse me, kids, for having a grammar lesson in church. Pardon me. Why is it in the plural? Because it is not just experienced once, it's experienced over and over and over again. First day I ever experienced the mercy of God, I was a five-year-old boy.
And a lady told me about Jesus, and I bowed my head and I asked Christ to be my Savior. It was the first time I remember.
Now, I'd known God's mercy unconsciously prior to that. God had been very good to me and prepared my heart, but it's the first time I had a conscious experience of the mercy of God in my life, and I recognized God's mercy and received it. I acknowledged it and I accepted it. But I'm standing here now as a 47, almost 48-year-old man, testifying and telling you that all these years later, I am a recipient of the mercy of God, not once, but every day. Not a little of God's mercy, a whole lot of God's mercy.
And it is greater than all your sin. I don't care what you've done. I don't know what you've done. God knows everything we've done. And God's mercy is greater than all of that.
And God's mercy is greater than your sorrow, too. The burden and blot and blight on Jeremiah's soul, the weeping and the mourning, the light cuts through the darkness, the simplicity cuts through the complexity, the joy cuts through the sadness. What is that? That is the mercy of God that is greater than all. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
God's mercy is greater. In fact, come down to verse Number 32. But though he calls grief Yet will he have compassion? According to, would you mark it? The multitude of his what?
Mercies. I said Can't count them. Can't list them, can't name them, can't fathom them. Look, please, it's higher, it's greater, it's grander. You can't even wrap your little pea brain around how great the mercy of God is.
So suffice it to say, it's just greater than whatever you're dealing with right now. Remember, I said to you, this was the summit of the book? I live in the mountains. And we hail from West Virginia. Anyone here from West Virginia?
Raise your hand, please. Anyone? Good. A few fellow mountaineers. These are the spiritual people in your church right here, I want you to know.
How many of you have ever been to West Virginia? Would you raise your hand? How many of you know we're a state? Would you raise your hand, please? That's good.
I love the mountains. We live near a ski resort where At about 3,000, a little over 3,000. Feet above sea level, I guess, and I love the mountains, but there's always that one mountain. That stands above all the rest. It's the peak.
It's the pinnacle. From it, you see everything. I was driving home a few nights ago by myself, and I came up to the interstate here in North Carolina, and there was Pilot Mountain in the distance, and it's so recognizable, so unmistakable. There's a pinnacle there. Oh, let me show you God's pinnacle.
Can we go to the heights today? Get out of the valley, get out of the lowlands, get up on higher ground. What's the higher ground? It's the mountain of mercy. Let me prove it to you.
Look at chapter one. Tell me, please. How many verses in chapter one?
Sorry, I didn't hear you. How many verses? 22. Chapter 2. How many verses in chapter 2, please?
Mm-hmm. Chapter four, how many verses? Chapter five. How many verses? Anybody notice that a pattern?
Chapter 3, how many verses? Hold up just a second. Time out.
Somebody said, Oh, that's interesting. No, no, that's not interesting. Do you understand that the method is a message? Do you understand Lamentations was not written in normal form? Lamentations was actually written in acrostic format.
There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. 22 letters? Aleph, bet, gimel, dollat, hey, 22 letters, just like us saying, A to Z. Watch this, please. And in chapter 1, and chapter 2, and chapter 4, and chapter 5, doesn't do it exactly as an across it, but it stays with a 22-verse pattern.
It follows the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Let me tell you what Jeremiah is doing. He is weeping from A to Z. He is mourning from A to Z. He is revealing a complete brokenness over the sin and destruction of his people.
If somebody says they're opening a garage and it's A to Z garage, what does that mean? They can fix everything. They open a convenience store grocery and they call it A to Z grocery. What do they imply by that? Everything you need, you can find there.
Watch this, please. Jesus Christ is our Greek alpha and omega. What is that? He's the first and he's the last. He is A to Z.
Jesus is everything that you need. Wait a minute. Psalm 119, the great psalm of the scriptures, is written in the acrostic format. What is the word of God? God's word is all-sufficient.
It is A to Z. Everything that you need. And when you come to Lamentations chapter 3, oh, I love this. Oh, praise God for this. Lamentations 3 is written in triplets.
The first three verses are letter A. The next three verses are B. The next three verses are C. It still follows the acrostic. It still goes from A to Z.
But blessed be the Lord God Almighty. There is more of God's mercy in Lamentations chapter 3 than there is all the sin, sorrow, and sadness in every other chapter in the book. There is always more mercy for God's people. I'm telling you on the authority of the Word of God. There is mercy for you today.
There is mercy for you. One of the greatest revivals in history on the Isle of Lewis. Duncan Campbell was preaching. He stood on the front steps of the church that night and spoke to a bunch of young people, teenagers, who had been in a dance hall down the street and got under conviction of sin and wandered down to the church building in the middle of the night and he preached the gospel to them. And then he said, at about 11 o'clock at night, If you want to, we'll go inside and have a meeting.
And 500 teenagers packed into that church building. It lasted until three or four o'clock in the morning and set in motion a mighty move of God that lasted for three years till the bars closed and the prisons were empty and the churches were full. And a whole generation on that island came to know who Jesus was. And on that first night, as Duncan Campbell made his way up the aisle through the masses back to the platform, he said he stepped over a girl who was kneeling in the altar and she was sobbing. And all he could hear was her say, Oh Lord.
Is there mercy for me? I want to tell you this morning, there is mercy for you. There is mercy for your family. There is mercy for this community. There is mercy for your lost loved ones.
Dear God, give us a passion for more of God's mercy. Sure, a couple other things quickly. Look at our verses again. Not only is it divine in nature and rooted in love and greater than our sin, it's new every day. Anyone glad it's new every day?
The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this to-day? Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that sin carries the penalty of death. Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life for the through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept Him as our Savior. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt. The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ.
by faith as your Saviour. Romans 10.9 says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way. and calling upon his name.
Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this. Would you accept Christ as your Saviour? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Crowin Baptist Church.
Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day. God bless you. Mm-hmm.
