THE SORROWFUL SICKNESS OF SIN

[This is a message I delivered yesterday. Some may not have been there to hear it. Some may have been and need to reflect on it again.]

“What can I say on your behalf? What can I compare you to, Daughter Jerusalem?
What can I liken you to, so that I may console you, Virgin Daughter Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea. Who can heal you?” (Lamentations 2:13 HCSB)

You have probably never met Monroe. He was a nice old fellow who attended a church I pastored years ago. He never had much to say. Monroe was just there. There is one thing I will always remember about him though. He washed his hands continually. One might think he was a germaphobe. Perhaps he was just cautious.

Disease is easily spread and some of those germs are lethal. It seems we hear about this sort of thing more and more—flesh-eating bacteria and such. I just read about how the National Institutes of Health are warning that while these “super bugs” are developing, the pharmaceutical industry is not developing new antibiotics to fight them. Scientists predict it is only a matter of time until we have a pandemic.

That’s bad enough, but such would only affect the body. I am more concerned about a disease that affects the soul. It is the sorrowful sickness of sin—highly contagious and extremely dangerous. Jeremiah saw it spread through an entire nation with devastating effect. The weeping prophet mourns the tragedy that could have been prevented.

This is what Lamentations is all about. You might have noticed the Hebrew letters inserted between each verse. This is an acrostic, as Jeremiah takes each of the twenty letters in the Hebrew alphabet and begins that section of Scripture with them. It was a means of aiding in memorizing the book, and the truths were that important to remember!

Jeremiah points first to THE SOURCE OF THE SORROWFUL SICKNESS OF SIN.

Speaking of the city of Jerusalem, the prophet personifies her and declares:

“She weeps aloud during the night, with tears on her cheeks. There is no one to offer her comfort, [not one] from all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.” (1:2)

Yahweh was to be the exclusive recipient of Judah’s affections. As such, she would be the chosen recipient of Yahweh’s attentions. Yet, they had become spiritual adulterers, giving their hearts to idols.

To be guilty once of infidelity would be serious, yet their scandalous behavior was persistent and plural—note the word, “lovers.”

Are we guilty? This is the sin of the divided heart. Scripture warns us about loving the world with its material possessions, carnal pleasures and even loving our own person—materialism, hedonism and egotism—an unholy trinity of idols supplanting the Triune God.

Unfaithfulness is unhealthy. As you know, a number of diseases, and some deadly, are sexually transmitted. Do you think God is trying to tell us something? Violating God’s laws brings dire consequences. Sin is disobedience to God and disobedience to God will bring sickness, sorrow and death.

Spiritual adultery is the source of the sorrowful sickness of sin. Jeremiah also detects THE SYMPTOMS OF THE SORROWFUL SICKNESS OF SIN. (1:1-16)

When you are sick and go to the doctor, one of the first things he or she does is find out the symptoms. That will enable him to make the proper diagnosis. There are clear symptoms to indicate that the virus of sin is ravaging us.

• EMPTINESS

“How she sits alone, the city [once] crowded with people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow. The princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor.” (1:1)

A city once full of life was now a ghost town. Sin had brought this solitude; iniquity had resulted in isolation. It was evil that yielded emptiness.

Do you remember a time when you were full of joy, full of faith, and full of the Holy Spirit? Now, there is emptiness. What happened? If our heart begins to fill up with the pursuit of the things of earth, it crowds out the passion for the things of eternity. We will eventually become full of sin or full of the Spirit—there is no room for both.

• LONELINESS

“She weeps aloud during the night, with tears on her cheeks. There is no one to offer her comfort, [not one] from all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.” (1:2)

There was none to comfort them. The Jews had abandoned God for their idols, so now in their time of trouble, He abandons them.

It is still the case, that sin puts us out of fellowship with God. Of course, He is there—He has promised to never leave us, nor forsake us. That is a theological truth. The experiential reality, however, is that we can lose the awareness of His presence.

Maybe as you consider this symptom of the sorrowful sickness of sin, you can recall a time when you felt God so near, but now He seems a million light years away. What happened? God didn’t leave you, but you walked step by step away from Him.

• RESTLESSNESS

“Judah has gone into exile following affliction and harsh slavery; she lives among the nations but finds no place to rest. All her pursuers have overtaken her in narrow places.” (1:3).

Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Another prophet, Isaiah, pictures the wicked as a restless sea—the force of a storm turning it into a foaming, frothing cauldron of water whipped by winds.

At the moment I type these words, there is a storm named Isaac, churning in the Gulf of Mexico. You do not want to be at sea in such a storm. I have experienced four hurricanes up close and personal—having to evacuate the beach twice, another time sleeping uneasily while one skirted the coast, and then having one roar across our home like a beast. If you have not had that experience, you have likely witnessed the windswept waves in television images. It is also a description of the soul in turmoil. Would that describe your restless heart?

• BITTERNESS

“The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the appointed festivals. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her young women grieve, and she herself is bitter.” (1:4).

You encounter bitter believers all the time. Once they were joyful, but now they are surly. The Word of God that used to taste so sweet to hear and read, now has become bitter to swallow. Such sour saints have been pickled in the vinegar of disobedience.

• WEAKNESS

“Her adversaries have become [her] masters; her enemies are at ease, for the Lord has made her suffer because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the adversary. All her splendor has vanished from Daughter Zion. Her leaders are like stags that find no pasture; they walk away exhausted before the hunter. During the days of her affliction and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious belongings that were [hers] in days of old. When her people fell into the adversary's hand, she had no one to help. The adversaries looked at her, laughing over her downfall.” (1:5-7).

Instead of being victorious over evil, they were vanquished by it. Deliberate, determined disobedience short-circuits our spiritual power and we dwell in defeat.

There is more, but time would fail us to examine all the symptoms listed here. It is an extensive list. I think you get the idea. From diagnosis, we turn to prognosis. Understanding the source, and the symptoms, it is crucial that we find THE SOLUTION TO THE SORROWFUL SICKNESS OF SIN.

“Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and [our] hands to God in heaven: We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.” (3:40-41)

What we need most is a cure! The prescription is given by the Great Physician. This is nothing more, nothing less and nothing else than repentance! It is when we turn back to the God whom we have turned our back upon. There had been no forgiveness experienced because there had been no repentance expressed.

The church corporately and the church member individually needs to seek the Lord—“let us” is twice used to convey this. Let us—each one of us—conduct a spiritual examination with a view of taking our medicine—whatever God should diagnose. Let us—every one of us together—lift hearts and hands to God in sincere petition for His mercy.

That mercy is available. In the midst of a book about the punishment of unfaithfulness in God’s people, there is also the promise of the faithfulness of God Himself. These verses are the literal center of Lamentations:

“Because of the Lord's faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say: The Lord is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in Him.” (3:22-24)

You may find them familiar for they are conveyed in the lyrics of the grand old hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” It is something to sing about—such a precious truth—God’s prescription for the sorrowful sickness of sin!

Imagine with me that you have gone to your doctor. He or she tells you that the disease you have is terminal—if left untreated. But, the physician goes on to say there is a cure for what afflicts you. You leave with a prescription for a life-giving medication. Yet, you go home and put it on the shelf, never taking it, and you die.

What killed you? Was it the disease? More than the sickness, it was the stubborn refusal to take the medicine.

Repentance is the cure for the sorrowful sickness of sin. The unbeliever is dying in sin and will find themselves in a state of separation from God called the Second Death, if they refuse to repent. The backslider who is saved but sin-sick will know the death of their testimony for God, their intimacy with God, their joy in God, and the like as did the Jews, if they do not repent. A family, a church, and a nation can die from sin-sickness.

Take your medicine!