Weep for Sin

​Lamentations 3:49-51 ~ “My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees; my eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the daughters of my city.”
 
Let us depart from wickedness lest the LORD Almighty sends His rebuke into our lives and we suffer at the hand of God’s indignation. For those who do not know the LORD Jesus as Savior, I would plead with you even now to repent of your unbelief and trust in the LORD. For all who are separated from Christ will experience His wrath in full measure at the time of judgment. If you are a Christian reading this and have a sin which you love, I would urge you to cry out to the LORD for mercy before His discipline comes down.
 
There are many today who will weep because the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them in their iniquity. It is right that they are so grieved, for the sorrow that comes from God is meant to deliver the individual to repentance. Paul said as much in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” Yet the question I want to offer you today is not just the weeping over sin and God’s discipline in your own life, but do you weep over the sins that you see happening around you? The book of Lamentations is, for the most part, the weeping prophet, Jeremiah, laying his tears before the LORD over the wickedness of the people of Israel. Their rebellion was bringing God’s punishment for they refused to repent.
 
As Jeremiah writes, he beholds the children of Israel departing into the darkness of sin. They rejected the warnings he pronounced and refused to heed his instructions. Yet we encounter his deep distress and his desire to see Israel repent. For the first statement of our text today says, “My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite.” He would not cease from prayer and weeping over the nation, pleading with the Almighty for His mercy. Jesus, our LORD, wept over Jerusalem for their rejection of Him. We read in Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Let your heart, dear Christian, be moved to tears when you see the wickedness of the world around you. And do not yield up your grief when the church herself is plagued with rebellion against the LORD. There are those who will not weep. They see the sins committed and are indifferent to the condition. Paul chastised the church in Corinth for this. 1 Corinthians 5:2 declares, “And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?” Let us take our clue from Paul and do no less than he instructs the church at Corinth.
 
Consider this as well: the lamentations of Jeremiah, his weeping over the people of Israel, was also a prayer unto the LORD. For our text continues with this statement, “until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees.” Jeremiah looked to the LORD, for He alone can deliver a people from their sins. It is through His grace and mercy that we have come to know salvation through Christ and it is by His Spirit that people will be convicted of their sins unto repentance. The LORD Jesus spoke of the work of the Spirit in John 16:8, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” Pray then, beloved, and weep for those who are caught in the snares of sin. Weep and pray until the LORD from heaven looks down. He is mighty to save! Jeremiah understood this, for in the verses just before our text the prophet declares, “For the LORD will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:31-33).
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There are those who struggle to persist in prayer. They have prayed and now they walk away from their cause or their grief as if it had no real effect upon their heart. Then there are others who, with deep affection for those who are trapped in sin, give no end to their crying out for the LORD to have mercy. And, dear Christian, it is in the very nature of God to have mercy. In Exodus 34:6-7 He declared it in His own name, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”
 
Let us continually pray, and even with tears, when we consider the sins that separate people from God. Let us pray for God’s mercy and grace, for His conviction of sin and their repentance unto salvation and restoration. All of this for the glory of God. And when He has answered our prayers, our weeping will be turned to joy.
 
In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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