[0:00] It's been a little while since we've been here, just to remind you all, if you're looking for Lamentations, you can find Isaiah and Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. So Lamentations is right there in the middle of those prophets. If you find those, you can find Lamentations.
[0:16] So we're looking at Lamentations chapter 3. And today we're toward the end, or at the end, of Lamentations chapter 3.
[0:27] We'll begin reading in verse 55 and read to verse 66. Lamentations 3, verse 55. I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit.
[0:42] You heard my plea. Do not close your ear to my cry for help. You came near when I called on you. You said, do not fear. You have taken up my calls, O Lord. You have redeemed my life.
[0:57] You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord. Judge my calls. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.
[1:12] The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. Behold, they're sitting and they're rising. I am the object of their taunts.
[1:24] You will repay them, O Lord, according to the work of their hands. You will give them dullness of heart. Your curse will be on them. You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens, O Lord.
[1:38] Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. The situation in Lamentations is very far removed from where we are, but Lord, we know your word is relevant.
[1:50] And so we pray that you would send your spirit, that you would open the text for us, that you would help us to understand it, that you would help to make its application to us plain. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.
[2:02] And just to remind you all, it has been a little while, so we're in the book of Lamentations. Lamentations is a communal or national lament.
[2:12] There's been a national tragedy, and we think it's probably Jeremiah has written this lament. It's really five poems that fit together for this lament.
[2:23] The situation was the destruction of Jerusalem and the people of Judah being carried off into captivity. So this is a major national disaster that he writes this lament in response to.
[2:35] And you may remember that as we looked at the dynamics, the structure of the book of Lamentations, we said Lamentations chapter 3 is a central chapter of these five chapters.
[2:46] And I tried to give you this picture of concentric circles working outward from the center. I said when we read English things, we always think of it in terms of it being linear, that we get to the conclusion at the end and we figure out the purpose at the end.
[3:00] And what I argue with Lamentations is that the point of the book is in the center of the book. And then we see parallels between chapter 4 and chapter 2, and chapter 5 and chapter 1. They're related to one another. You're working outward from the center.
[3:11] And what you're supposed to be reminded of over and over again is the hope that's presented to us in chapter 3, that's at the center of this. We can hope in God even in the midst of national disasters.
[3:22] Matthew Henry said the following. He said, And so let's look at the comfort that's here presented in the closing of chapter 3 in the book of Lamentations.
[3:58] So three points in my message. The first I want us to look at is that God hears prayer. So let's look at that in verses 55 through 57. I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit.
[4:14] You heard my plea. Do not close your ear to my cry for help. You came near when I called on you. You said, Do not fear. Now, this has been some time ago, but back in verse 44, the people had feared that prayer was useless.
[4:31] Look at verse 44. You have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. And we talked about it back then, but we can ask again, Do you guys ever feel like this? You ever find yourself in a spiritual condition where it seems like God's wrapped in a cloud and you just can't get your prayer to Him?
[4:48] I've heard people say things like, they feel like their prayer is bouncing off the ceiling. You pray and you think, God's not even hearing this. It's not making it to Him. There's no chance He's going to hear and answer this prayer. And so it feels as though it's going nowhere.
[5:00] And this is really where they are. Again, there's a national disaster. There's an enemy empire that's destroyed your city, killed most of the people. We've read about just how gruesome it has been with the siege on Jerusalem.
[5:14] And in the midst of that, they're crying out, and God, where's the deliverance? Where's the help? In Luke 18.1, we read, Jesus says, He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
[5:28] So Jesus even realizes this is a problem. When He encourages His disciples, He gives them a parable to encourage them, keep on praying, don't lose heart. Now why does He give that encouragement? Because our tendency is what?
[5:41] To stop praying and to lose heart. Right? To give up. To think it's not going to happen, God's not going to hear and answer. But we see as we come to the end of chapter 3, that they have persevered, and they have found God to be faithful.
[5:53] They have continued to pray, and God has heard, and He answers. So we see in verse 55, that the Lord hears our prayers, even in the most desperate of times and places.
[6:04] I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. Now this may very well be figurative. He may just be saying, at the lowest spot possible, the lowest place in my life, in light of all that's happened to Jerusalem, I cried to you from there, and you heard me.
[6:21] You may remember Jonah. In Jonah chapter 2, verse 1, I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, or the grave, I cried, and you heard my voice.
[6:35] So we can think, it gets no lower than this. Here's Jonah in the well. He thinks he's been left to die. He sees himself as, when he says Sheol, he's literally saying, I'm in the grave.
[6:46] And I cried out to God from the very midst of death itself, and God delivered me out of, He's essentially saying, He resurrected me. And of course we know that, Jonah is a picture of Christ.
[6:57] He's in the belly of the well, and He's resurrected, as it were, from the depths of the earth. And so, He's saying, I cried out from God, even from death, as it were, and He heard and answered.
[7:09] And so we can be encouraged, that however extreme our suffering may be, our affliction, our depression, our persecution, even our tears, God delights to answer our prayers.
[7:23] Isaiah 65, verse 24, God says, before they call, I will answer. While they are yet speaking, I will hear. So they were encouraged, far from that picture that we sometimes have when we're discouraged, that we're praying and it's hitting the ceiling.
[7:39] God says, before they speak, I'm going to answer. Before the words have left their mouth, I'm hearing it already. So God's aware of our prayers before we can verbalize them. And He's eager to answer our prayers.
[7:51] So it's far from Him being unreachable. The perception of verse 44, you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through, is false. It's proven false in verse 55.
[8:03] God hears and He answers. And so God hasn't wrapped Himself in the cloud, even though God's Word is saying this. Jeremiah is saying, this is my experience. He may well be speaking communally for the people and saying, this is our experience.
[8:17] It seems as though God hasn't heard our prayer. Why? Because God hasn't delivered me. Now again, that's probably something none of us experiences. I shouldn't use sarcasm in the pulpit, should I? You ever feel like because the situation hasn't changed that God hasn't answered the prayer?
[8:33] Or God hasn't heard the prayer? I keep crying out and situation's not changing. Obviously God hasn't heard. But God did hear. He did answer. And so they're proven wrong in their assumptions about God in verse 55 as He answers prayer.
[8:49] In Ephesians 3.20, it says, To Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. So, not anywhere close to us crying out to God and Him being wrapped in a cloud and not able to hear us or answer us.
[9:04] to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. He can do far more than whatever we're asking, whatever we're thinking.
[9:16] He over exceeds. He excels beyond our expectations when we cry out to God in prayer. His answering prayer is described as drawing near in verse 57.
[9:26] He says, You came near when I called on you. You said, Do not fear. So He's cried out to God and the picture of God answering prayer is God drew near to them. God came to them and as it were, He whispers, He encourages them, Do not fear.
[9:43] You know, whatever that encouragement looked like, God encouraged them and said, Cry out to Him, Don't fear. James 4.8 says, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
[9:55] And we're encouraged in that way. That sometimes when we feel discouraged about our prayer, that our tendency is not to want to draw near to God. Sometimes when we're spiritually struggling, it seems like God's so far away and we don't realize that it's really us that's changed.
[10:10] And so we're less prone to go to God, but we're encouraged to draw near to God and He draws near to us. It's a beautiful picture of our communion with God in prayer. Our communion with God in prayer is us drawing near to God and God drawing near to us.
[10:26] He also comforts and encourages His saints with His words when He draws near. Do not fear, it says in verse 57. We see in this God's love, His compassion, His graciousness, His care, and His sweetness to His people.
[10:41] They're in the midst of all kind of disaster, but God's speaking to them. Do not fear. And we're not going to hear audible voices when we cry out to God where He's saying to us, do not fear, but we understand from our experience with the Word of God, even what we're seeing in Lamentations, what is God's message to us in the midst of suffering and hardship?
[11:00] Do not fear. God hasn't fallen asleep. He's not wrapped up in a cloud, unable to hear, unable to see, unable to answer.
[11:10] He hears, He answers, He cares, He loves. And so we're encouraged in the first part that God answers prayer. Secondly, we see in verses 58 through 63, God knows what you face and He redeems your life.
[11:23] Again, another encouragement for us. Let's read that through again. 58 through 63. You have taken up my calls, O Lord. You have redeemed my life.
[11:36] You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord. Judge my calls. You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me. You have heard their taunts, O Lord, all their plots against me.
[11:49] Their lips and thoughts, the lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long. Behold, they're sitting and they're rising. I am the object. of their taunts. It says, God's people have faced horrible treatment by their enemies.
[12:05] They're the laughing stock. They're the taunt. When they, it says, when they rise up and when they sit. Either way, I am the object of their taunts. The lips and thoughts of my assailants are against me all the day long.
[12:19] There's no ceasing to it. Their whole occupation is to ridicule me, to make fun of me. Really, really, the book of Lamentations itself is a response to this.
[12:30] I mean, it counts much of what they had to face. And I know sometimes life seems so hard for us, but I cannot imagine what they faced in the siege on Jerusalem, in the conquering of Jerusalem, and then even in being carried off into exile.
[12:46] I have a strong feeling that there's not any of us in this room who's experienced anything quite to that level. And then to have their enemies ridicule them about it. And we see examples in the psalm, I think it's psalm 42 and 43, where the psalmist is suffering, he's in a low spot in his life, and the taunts of his enemy are what?
[13:06] They say to me all the day long, where is your God? And so the ridicule is really, where's your God? I mean, can you imagine Babylon with their gods coming in and conquering Jerusalem and ridiculing God's people?
[13:23] Is your God so big and bad? Where's he at now? We've conquered you. And so part of the ridicule probably to some extent is ridiculing their faith, their religion, their God.
[13:33] We see multiple references in this section to what they faced. We see verse 59 says, the wrong done to me. You've seen the wrong done to me.
[13:45] He doesn't elaborate on what that was. Again, he may be speaking communally of all the wrongs that were done. He says in verse 60, all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
[13:57] Verse 61, their taunts and their plots against me. And then, as I've said already, in verse 62, he reiterates that this is all without ceasing. There's no end to it. It's day and night. It's continual.
[14:08] All the day long. But I think one of the encouragements that we see in this is that God has seen and heard this. Our God is not ignorant. He's not distracted, ceasing to pay attention, asleep, unaware.
[14:26] He hasn't been conquered temporarily. He's not trying to win back the upper hand against the gods of this world. behold, he's not ignorant of the abuses that we face. We see in verse 59, it says, you have seen.
[14:40] Verse 60 says, you have seen. Verse 61, you have heard. And then verse 63, behold. Or we could read it as look at them.
[14:51] And so, he looks upon them, he's seen them, he's seen them, he's heard them. He knows what's going on. And this is really four times in this short group of verses here. He reiterates that God has seen and God has heard.
[15:05] And so, while there may be times that it seems that God has forgotten you or that God's forgotten his church, nothing escapes his notice. God's not entering into anything.
[15:15] He's omniscient. He knows all things. He sees and hears all that we face in life. He's aware of it. God does not leave any of us at the mercy of our oppressors or enemies.
[15:28] I think we see in the book of Job such a great illustration of this. I mean, maybe it's not all that encouraging when you consider all that Job faces. But never once is Satan free to do as he pleases apart from God's restraining influence, God's sovereign will.
[15:44] And so, we can be encouraged that God doesn't leave us in the hands of our oppressors or enemies. They're not the ones who are ultimately in control. They haven't gained the upper hand against God. God still rules. God's still in control.
[15:55] He knows all the pain that we endure and he will come to our aid at the right time. By his judgment, not by our judgment. Right? Our judgment for the right time is oftentimes way earlier than his.
[16:08] But God will come at the right time to our aid. And so, God's knowledge of what we endure and his hearing our prayer and drawing near to us results in his taking up our calls and redeeming our life.
[16:23] Look at verse 58. You have taken up my calls, O Lord. You have redeemed my life. Think of the idea of God taking up your calls. Maybe an example of this might be you can picture kids in the schoolyard and the bully comes along and he's messing with you.
[16:44] And there's not much hope against the bully until the bigger older guy comes along. I think I've told you guys one time I had to do this one time for my younger brother. My younger brother now is way bigger than I am, but there's a time at least in which I was bigger than him.
[16:59] And this older guy, this bigger guy, he comes and he takes up your calls. You don't have to fear anymore. But we're not just referring to a physical fight or an older brother or a bigger guy.
[17:12] God, the creator of the universe, of all things that are in existence, has taken up your calls. I mean, we could probably stop there in terms of encouragement.
[17:24] What else do we need to fear? I mean, how else do we need God to whisper, do not fear? When he takes up our calls, what do we have to worry about? He's fighting for us. We don't have to be concerned about the fight ourself.
[17:37] He's taking up our calls and the result of that is he redeems our life. this idea of redeeming our life. The life, your life is on the line and God's bought it back as a price.
[17:49] He's redeemed it. He's brought it, even as we see praying there, out of the pit. So, what in your life are you facing that may seem overwhelming but you need to be encouraged that the Lord's on your side?
[18:03] That he's taken up your calls? He knows what you're facing and he has drawn near to you through prayer or I can encourage you, he will draw near to you through prayer if he has not already.
[18:18] He is taking up your calls and to me the most encouraging thing about God taking up our calls is that the fight is no longer ours. We don't have to fight the battle anymore. I think sometimes we get overwhelmed just with the battle psychologically, mentally.
[18:34] We feel overwhelmed with the situations that we face in life. How often do we need to draw near to God in prayer, to cry out to him from the depths of the pit and then to find that he has taken up our calls.
[18:46] He's redeemed our life when our life seemed like it was beyond redemption, that we could do nothing. Romans 12, 19, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves but give place to wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord.
[19:04] Vengeance is the prerogative of God alone. It's not ours in the first place and so we're encouraged here you don't have to avenge yourselves. In particular, I think as Christians we need to be encouraged to this because God's taking up our calls.
[19:19] We don't have to avenge ourselves against our enemies. It's not our place to do so. We don't return evil for evil. We leave ourselves in the hands of a good God who's taking up our calls and it's better even than bringing in your big brother.
[19:34] I've got God on my side. He's got my back. Right? You really want to mess with me? Look, I'm not even in this fight. God's taking up my calls and so we defer to him. 1 Peter 2.23 tells us that when Jesus was reviled he did not revile in return.
[19:53] When he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. There too we're encouraged. We can follow in Christ's example. When we're reviled we don't revile in return.
[20:07] When we suffer we don't threaten. We don't have to. Why? Because we're entrusting ourselves to God's care. God's taking up our calls.
[20:18] Do we really believe that he's going to take care of us and deliver us? And I think we really even have to understand that this doesn't preclude martyrdom. God's delivering us may not mean he saves our life here and now.
[20:33] But do we trust that what God's going to do is going to be best? Do we believe that? Can we leave it in God's hands? Or do we feel that anxiety of I've got to make this right myself.
[20:44] I've got to fix the situation. I've got to correct this. I need to threaten back. I need to get vengeance upon my enemies. And the encouragement to us in verse 58 really is when we entrust our situation to God he redeems our life.
[21:00] he redeems our life. Others will fail us but God will never fail us. He will redeem our life. And again that is a plea that we can carry with us even if it's to the cross or to the chopping block as martyrs.
[21:18] He redeems my life even if it's through death. Thirdly we see that God will vindicate his calls. Let's look at the last three verses of our passage. You will repay them O Lord according to the work of their hands.
[21:37] You will give them dullness of heart. Your curse will be on them. You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under your heavens O Lord. Now just to go back to earlier Matthew Henry was talking about chapter 3 but faith gets the last word and comes off a conqueror for in these verses he concludes with some comfort.
[21:59] I don't know what your thoughts are on the last three verses they're pretty grim aren't they? But I think Matthew Henry's right that he concludes his chapter with some last words of encouragement.
[22:12] This great central chapter of the book of Lamentations is a chapter of hope and it ends with an affirmation of God's justice in their situation. Now consider why that's important.
[22:24] I think we've spoken before in our study of Lamentations about the book of Habakkuk you may remember Habakkuk cries out to God and he's in the time just before Jerusalem falls and he cries out to God about the sin that he sees in Judah and the people of God and he says basically he's crying out God judge it judge these people and bring repentance and God says I will I'm going to send the Babylonians against you you know you guys ever done this you pray a prayer and God answers you like that's not exactly what I meant you know you answered it but that's not what I was implying that's what Habakkuk's like whoa whoa God no no no you don't understand the Babylonians are worse than we are like judge them okay but judge us differently and God says no I'm going to use the Babylonians judge no no no no they're not your people we're your people don't forget now we see the reality of that taking place and we can imagine that the cry of
[23:30] God's people is very similar to this God what have they done they're not just taunting us they're taunting you they've killed people I mean maybe even millions of people they've killed thousands of people they've carried us off the slaves in exile they have the holy place how will God allow that to go on will God judge them and so the encouragement for us is yes now I think as we apply that to us the message that's being communicated is God allows no injustice to happen in the world that does not fall under his judgment every injustice will be judged that ought to encourage us again it isn't always in our hands to bring about judgment or justice even right justice is a noble cause we want wrongdoers to be rightly punished but we may not always have the ability to bring that about
[24:44] God unjust I think the encouragement for us at the end of the chapter is God is just and so he's going to judge every injustice now what is that going to look like well unfortunately it's going to look like some people are going to get away with it their entire lives it's never going to be known they're going to die without anyone knowing they're going to profit from their own injustice their own sin but we have to understand that again God's not ignorant of what's happened God's aware of it he will bring it into judgment but I think also you know when we think of injustice we always think of someone else right I mean when I said that about every injustice will be judged maybe some of you but my guess is not many of you were quaking in your boots thinking oh no that thing I did the other day God's going to judge our tendency is always to think of good someone did something to me I hope they get it right but I want to encourage you especially if you're a
[25:45] Christian today if you're trusting in Jesus Christ when I say every injustice will be judged it will either be judged eternally in hell or it's judged in the person of Jesus Christ Christ takes upon himself the punishment that we deserve for our injustices our sins he becomes both just and a justifier what before Christ is completely impossible either God judges sin or he lets us go free but if he judges sin then he's completely just but if he lets us go free then he's not just at all he's only a justifier but God's both he's completely just in that every sin is punished every injustice is punished but because Christ takes upon himself that punishment for those who trust in him he can also justify those who by faith in Christ have been declared righteous and so we're encouraged as we come to the end of this chapter that
[26:45] God's not ignorant of what they have faced and God will bring justice about it may be in this lifetime it may not be we know in particular that Babylon did fall and that the Persian empire eventually allowed God's people to return 70 years later some of them died never being able to return probably most of them died without returning a few who were younger may have been able to come back we read they did come back we read in Ezra and Nehemiah that they return and when the temple is rebuilt you may remember they cry because they remember what the temple used to be like so there are some who are committed these horrific crimes face the punishment in their own life but do we still trust that what God's word says here you will repay them oh Lord according to the work of their hands you will give them dullness of heart your curse will be on them
[27:48] I may be getting off my notes a little bit but I just want to point out to you in light of what we saw this morning in the sermon in Matthew where I was saying that the reason why the people of Nazareth were rejecting Jesus was because of the hardness of their hearts and notice here what Jeremiah writes you will give them dullness of heart I think again of the spiritual reality he's saying they'll be unresponsive to you the punishment for their turning against God's people may be that there's no repentance for them that God's going to judge them eternally I think it's I find it very hard to pray in precatory prayers or think along these lines but I think to some extent he's acknowledging that God's going to damn them he's going to judge them for their sins and that as hard as it is for us to comprehend that actually works out to be a comfort for God's people in this situation now I'm not encouraging you to be comfort with the damnation of any sinners but in light of their situation what they faced to know that
[28:53] God's just that God will not let the injustice go unpunished so God's people face horrible treatment by the Babylonians but God will judge them for their sin even as he judged Judah for theirs God's already proved himself just but Judah hasn't he God's brought Babylon against Judah and God saying Babylon too will be judged Psalm 37 verses 5 through 7 says commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will act he will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices and so we're encouraged not to fret ourselves to worry ourselves but rather commit your way to the Lord trust in him and he will act God will repay them justly look at verse 64 you will repay them
[29:55] O Lord according to the work of their hands according to in proportion to the work of their hands it's another reason why we're not good at being judges are we because we don't really know what the punishment ought to be I think our tendency is to grade ourselves very graciously and grade others very harshly but God will judge in accordance to in proper proportion to what they've done the punishment will be at the hand of the righteous judge and he will repay them rightly proportionally and fairly according to divine justice so he's calling for them to receive what they deserve all sin must be dealt with so how does this apply to us just a few final points in application God's answering prayer and drawing near to them is an encouragement to them to hope that he would yet further hear and answer their prayers and so likewise it's an encouragement to us sometimes
[30:57] I think it's helpful for us to we go to God's word even for historical examples what have God's people who have experienced suffering and hardship in the past what have they done well they cried out to God God heard and answered God drew near to them God took up their calls he defended them we've seen God answer prayers in the past and that ought to encourage us in those situations where do we go well we don't go to seeking vengeance of our own we go to God we commit our calls to him we cry out to him and trust that he will draw near and answer us secondly I want to encourage you that we can experience God's goodness even in our affliction we're coming to the end of chapter 3 there's been some time that we've gone through it the worst affliction that God's people Israel or Judah faced probably even worse than the Egyptian captivity slavery this is the worst that they faced and yet
[32:00] God draws near to them and gives them hope and so too we can be encouraged that even in the worst of our affliction we can experience God's goodness we can know his presence near to us thirdly this is another quote from Matthew Henry he says the most secret contrivances of the church's enemies are perfectly known to the church's God from whom they can hide nothing that ought to encourage us maybe I can say it in modern English maybe I can make it relevant some of our kids have gotten into spies lately and the idea with the spy if I comprehend spies correctly is that spies want to figure out what's going on even if we rightly understand spies are they infiltrate the enemy to figure out the enemy's plans well guess what it's almost saying like God's a spy he's more than that but our enemies are against us and God already knows their plans before they do it God knows exactly what they're doing and more than that he's going to make it right he's not just a spy he's an avenger of those who are right those who hold to
[33:09] God and so we're encouraged that our enemies can hide nothing from God the one who's taking up our calls he knows what they're up to and he's still in control I want to take just a moment to flip over to Psalm 34 if you have your Bibles you can turn there with me Psalm 34 I probably could have read the entire Psalm I'm going to read a good portion of it but I find it very relevant to what we've talked about Psalm 34 verse 1 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul makes its boast in the Lord let the humble hear and be glad oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together
[34:12] I sought the Lord and he answered me and he delivered me from all my fears those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles the angel the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them oh taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man who takes refuge in him oh fear the Lord you his saints for those who fear him have no lack the young lion suffers want and hunger but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing skip ahead we'll look at verse 15 the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ear toward their cry the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth when the righteous cry for help the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles the
[35:14] Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushing spirit many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all he keeps all his bones not one of them is broken affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned the Lord redeems the life of his servants none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned that's really I think a great summary written beforehand but a great I was writing about what I thought really the theme of those lines but we see that same theme taken up in Psalm 34 the Lord redeems the life of his servants none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned do you believe that do you really believe that he redeems the life of those who trust in him I think if we did will we not be more trusting in our
[36:17] God will we not be more quick to run to him to redeem our lives instead of trying to take it in our own hands or maybe even worrying about it to the extent that we do do we desire that blessing well then we need to take refuge in God finally I want to encourage you that God has not only seen and heard the reproaches of our enemies he has experienced him and felt the full force of our enemies at the cross so God is not just theoretically on our side he doesn't just relate to us vicariously he's experienced the reproach of our enemies he's faced the full wrath that they've offered at the cross so he ultimately redeemed our life how does God ultimately redeem our life through Christ it's through the son it's through Christ taking upon himself the our sins that's what redeems our life it's not even ultimately being saved out of any individual situation that we face in life our redemption is through the blood of
[37:26] Jesus Christ who takes upon himself our punishment not even the punishment of others our redemption isn't primarily that God is going to punish our enemies but that God is going to punish our sin on his son and in that way he redeems our life and so it's not merely a hypothetical deliverance but God has entered into our brokenness to redeem us from that brokenness through the cross let's pray together generally father we thank you that you redeem our life and that you vindicate your cause even at the cost of the life of your own son and so we thank you for Christ our redeemer Lord help us to commit our cause to you to put our trust in you and Lord we pray that you forgive us for the ways we think that we need to take care of the situation ourselves that we need to execute justice or even vengeance that we stew and hate and worry when all along you're there that if we draw near to you you draw near to us that you whisper do not fear that you would redeem our lives from the pit so
[38:46] Lord make us those who readily go to you who cry out to you for help that we would believe and know that there's blessing in that and that we would cry out to you knowing that you hear and answer our prayers and we thank you for the way that you have heard and answered our prayers in Christ may our hope and trust be in him we pray this in his name amen moon in in the anticipate Amen.
[39:56] Amen.