A Tearless Church

Temple Baptist Church - 9-19-2010

Lamentations 3:42-54

Introduction: This message will be a tough one tonight because it will greatly touch each and every one of us in one area or the other, but I believe that it is a very necessary message.

A. We find in these verses the Prophet Jeremiah weeping over the condition of Israel. The people were gone into captivity and the city of Jerusalem lying in utter destruction as a result of the sinfulness of the nation.

B. His eye affected his heart and the result was manifested in brokenness and weeping. Tears are a result of a soul’s sensitivity toward the unsaved, an attitude of brokenness, a heart crushed by the plight of the unrepentant.

C. There is a great need in the Church for a revival of tears. When we become deeply enough burdened for lost men and women until we weep over the needs of men, we will begin to bring them in.

D. Tearlessness is a result of selfishness! Many times our thoughts are upon our lives and not upon the lives of others. We move through the mechanics of living for Christ and evangelism without a heart moved with a burden for the less fortunate. There needs to be a true revival of tears in our churches.

E. Jeremiah expressed a similar sentiment in the familiar passage: "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" (Jeremiah 9:1).

F. Tears are important to the Lord. Even our Lord wept over Jerusalem and at the tomb of Lazarus.

Psalm 30:5 Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. (Tears often precede joy. Burden often goes before blessing. Groaning before glory.)

1. God Sees Our Tears - Isaiah 38:5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

2. God Remembers Our Tears - Psalms 56:8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: [are they] not in thy book?

3. One Day God Will Wipe Away Our Tears - Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

1. We Should Weep For Our Sin – Ezra 9:15-10:1 O LORD God of Israel, thou [art] righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as [it is] this day: behold, we [are] before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this. Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

Matthew 26:75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

a. You see, sin isn’t really SIN anymore.
b. You see, the Bible isn’t really RIGHT anymore.
c. You see, men no longer “escheweth” evil!

Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

GOD, HELP US TO WEEP OVER OUR SIN!

2. We Should Weep For Our Children And Our Families - Luke 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

a. Because Of The Sinful Society That They Are Being Subjected To. (The days of both Noe and Lot simultaneously coupled with Laodicea and the falling away.)

b. Because Of The Lack Of Godly Examples Being Set Before Them. (They are choosing the role models of the world instead of men and women of God.)

c. Because Of The Lackadaisical, Lukewarm “Christians” In The Church. (By example, they are following the “do nothing of a spiritual nature” attitude of the church.)

GOD, HELP US TO WEEP OVER OUR FAMILIES!

3. We Should Weep For Our Brethren - Job 2:12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

a. We Should Weep Over The Fallen. (Those who are into gross sin and reproaching the cause of Christ. But for the grace of God go I!)

b. We Should Weep Over The Failing. (Those who are out of church, either hurt or disgruntled, and reproaching the cause of Christ. But for the grace of God go I!)

c. We Should Weep Over The Floundering. (Those who are still in the church but will soon be casualties and will be reproaching the cause of Christ. But for the grace of God go I!)

GOD, HELP US TO WEEP OVER OUR BRETHREN!

4. We Should Weep For Our Nation - Nehemiah 1:4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned [certain] days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,

a. We Need To Pray For Those In Authority Over Us. (Like them or not, they are our elected officials. Pray for them now and change them at the polls!)

b. We Need To Pray For The Sinfulness Of Our Nation. (God expelled and godlessness exalted for sea to sea. The Word of God rejected and Madonna “crucified!” May God help our country!)

c. We Need To Pray For The Innocents Who Are Suffering Because Of It All. (Both in the classrooms and in the womb!)

GOD, HELP US TO WEEP OVER OUR NATION!

5. We Should Weep For The Lost - Luke 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.

a. Because Hell Is Still A Real Place. (The liberals have not cooled it off by one degree with their denials.)

b. Because The Harvest Is Ripe For The Harvest. (The problem is still the lack of looking upon the harvest and the lack of laborers in the harvest.)

c. Because Sinners Still Die Without Christ Every Day. (They deserved to hear the truth and have it ringing in their ears as they live and die.)

A hundred thousand souls a day
Are passing one by one away
In Christless guilt and gloom.
O Church of Christ, what wilt thou say
When in the awful judgment day
They charge thee with their doom?

GOD, HELP US TO WEEP OVER THE LOST!