Chapter 49. And that thirteenth verse says, Sing,
O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing.
O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will
have mercy upon his afflicted. I told you the other night, many
are the afflictions of the righteous. Man is saved by the grace of
God. If he is not careful, trials
and troubles will come. And when they come, sometimes
if he is not watchful and alert and careful, and walking with
the Lord, he'll feel these sharp pricks to his conscience and
he'll question the Lord and wonder why these things happen to me. He becomes distressful and worried,
anxious, and his mind is not at peace. And he might even come
to the place where he'll say, The Lord hath forsaken me, and
my Lord hath forgotten me. to that frame of mind. Many are
the afflictions of the righteous. They think the warfare is over
once we see and know who God is in Christ and accomplished
our redemption. It's all done. It's forever settled. But the warfare comes. A loved one dies. A loved one
gets sick. Friends that once were friendly
are not friendly no more. They lose their job. They can't
pay their bills. Things of that nature. And we
say, The Lord hath forgotten me. He's forgotten me. He's forsaken
me. But Zion said, the Lord said
some things. He said, Sing, O heavens, and
be joyful, O earth. Break forth unto singing, the
mountains. For the Lord hath comforted his
people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said,
Zion is, well, it's another name for the people of God and the
church of God, Zion. But his people said, The Lord
hath forsaken me. The Lord hath forgotten me. So I am afraid that the Lord
has forgotten me, forsaken me, and my mind and my soul and my
heart is pained within me with these thoughts. The Lord has
forsaken me. This and this has taken place.
This has happened to me. My reputation has been destroyed.
My character's been attacked. I'm poor. I can't meet my bills,
and so forth. So, man gets upset with the thoughts
and, of course, the devil, which is man's chief enemy. And he's always there to probe
and probe. suggest and create doubts and
fears and so forth and make us unreliable. But all of these
things that to a believer is the afflictions of the righteous. They're godly sorrows. They're righteous
troubles we have. And I think I've found the answer
to this in the next verse, verse 15. This is the answer. Can't a woman forget her sucking
child? That's the child that's still
on her breast being nourished by her mother. Can a woman forget her sucking child that
she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee? This is the answer. Now you look
and imagine, if you will, Look at that woman that he refers
to here. Look at that woman with her smiling, cheerful, happy little baby at
her breast. And notice how delighted this
mother is with this baby. Number one, what gives her delight and what peace that comes over her in
this environment here? She looks upon this child as
the child nourishes, receives nourishment for its little body
from her. She knows that this baby is a
part of herself. It came from her. Will a mother forget her second
child? She looks down on this innocent-looking
baby, smiles, in her heart and rejoices. It's part of herself. She bore it with pains. There
was birth pains, with pain, like no other pain. She bore it with
pains and brought it into the world with labor. It's innocent look, though it's
not innocent. But it's innocent, innocent to
Mama. She looks at its innocence and
its helpless cry. And this look in this sweet baby
calls for her tender affection. Can she forget this baby? that
came forth from her, this helpless baby that depends upon her? Can she forget it? Can she refuse
to show compassion to this baby that lays here upon her breast
being nourished? Can she refuse to administer
to this baby's needs and this baby's wants? Can she do that? This baby needs her to preserve
her from danger. This dear child, this son of
her womb, can she forget him? Can a woman forget her sucking
child that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Oh, I tell you, is it possible? Is that possible for a woman
to do that? Well, this, I think, is a picture
or an image in nature when he talks about the woman. Can a
woman do this? Can a woman do that? Can a woman
forget? Can a woman not help this one
that's part of herself? Is it possible for her to do
that? Well, I say this is a picture
or an image of nature which touches one with the most tender affection,
this little baby. innocent as it appears to be
on its mother's breast. Well, it sets forth the love
and care of the Lord to His people. There is a lesson here that indicates
how strong and how great the love of Almighty God is to His
children, all of His children. all them that have been birthed
by God, that came out from God, how great His love is for them. But as strong as this image that's
painted here is, it fails. There have been such monsters,
we would call them in nature, who have had not compassion on
their suckling child, on the offspring of their womb. There's
been some in this life, monsters they must be, to look upon this
little helpless babe on their breast and forget her and forsake
her and not have compassion upon her. Well, in light of that, nature is so weak. And our Father
in heaven, he knows the fear and weakness of our natures,
the Father of love and the friend of sinners like you and I are.
He immediately corrects himself, and this is what he says. He
says, Yea, they may forget. They may forget, yet will I not
forget thee. He said it's entirely possible. It's possible that that mother who brought that baby who is
part of her. She may forget and she may forsake
that suffering child. But he says, yet will I not forget
thee. A lot of hope there, a lot of
comfort. I won't forget you. I won't forget
you. of what happens from here on
in, regardless, I won't forget you. He says, Behold, I have graven
thee upon the palms of my hand, and the walls are continually
before me. It was a custom, maybe still
is in some places, for people to put a string on their finger
to remind them of something important to them, something they must
do or not do. put something on their fingers
to remind them of that. That's what he alludes to here
in this 16th verse. He said, Behold, I have graven
thee. I put your name on the palms
of my hand. And he said, The walls of this
hand are before my eyes, and before my ears always. Your mama might forsake you. Your daddy might forsake you.
They might forget you." But he said, yet. That's possible, he
said, yet. Will I not forget thee? Father
of love. friend of sinners, the true and
the living God. What he says, he says forever.
Make no mistake about it. Every word that cometh forth
from the Father's mouth is true. Every promise of the Father he
will make good on, every one of them, in spite of our anxieties
and our fears and our worries in spite of our sins. He'll make good on every one
of his promises. Your mama might forget you. She
might forsake you. She might sell you. She might
give you away. She might put you up for adoption.
You may never hear of her again. She might do that. Yeah, she
might forget. But I won't. I won't do this. I wrote your name right down
there. I wrote it right down in the
palms of my hand and there before my eyes and before my ears continually. Think of that! All the sheep of God, all these
poor sinners that have no hope but hope in Him, there before
Him, Men may not care much about you, your mother may not care
much about you, even your father may not care much about you.
You may not have no friends, but you've got a friend who is
the friend of sinners, and your name is engraved in the palms
of his hand, and his eye is upon you, and his ears are open to
you, and he's going to protect you and keep you unto the end,
and present you unto the Father spotless, without fault and without
blemish." Oh, what a picture! Is it possible? Is it possible? It's possible. It's possible,
but it's not possible for the Lord. to forget you. No, sir. When he says, This yea, I will
not forget you, when he talks about the palms of his hands,
it is as if he had said, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. I have saved thee with an everlasting
salvation. I have called thee by my grace. I have made thee to know thy
poverty and thy vileness, thy hopelessness and thy helplessness. I have made thee to know that
you cannot be saved, you cannot be rescued, you cannot be delivered
by anything that you do or say or think. You cannot gain favor
with me by your works. He hath made us to know that. And in making us to know that
which is true, he says, Shall I be unmindful of your distresses
and your trials and your troubles? Will I be unmindful of that?
Shall I be deaf to your cry? Shall I stop my ears when you
cry unto me? Shall I do that? Shall I be unwilling
to relieve you of your distresses, your needs, and your wants? Is this tender baby that we talked
about, is it part of its mother? Yes, it is. that we are members of his body. We are members of Christ's body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. Look at this verse here with
me in the book of Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Listen to what it says. This
19th verse. He says here that we are, Wives,
submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. He is the
Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.
Giving thanks always for all things unto God. and the Father
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourself to
one another in the fear of God. Submit yourself unto your husband
as unto the Lord. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
the two shall be one flesh. This is the great mystery that
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. We are one with him,
one with his body. Just as that baby is part of
its mother, we are part of Christ, members of His body, of His flesh
and His bones. You see, in pain and in sorrow
did this mother bring forth that baby. Labor pains and in sorrow
she brought forth this baby. Oh, what agonies and sufferings
and pains did it cost our Lord Jesus Christ to redeem us. He suffered, was despised and
rejected of men. He left his glory. glory of the Father, he left
heaven and come down upon this earth and became a man and joined
himself with our humanity. And as a man, from the manger
to the cross, from the cross to the crown, all he did, he
did for us. our substitute, all that God
required, this dear man, a man called Jesus, became our representative. All that God required of us,
our Lord Jesus Christ did perfectly. Every sigh, every groan, every
thought, every step, every tear was all for his people. so that
he could make atonement for his people, so he could present us
faultless before the throne. What sorrow and pain! He knew
nothing but pain and anxieties and sorrow while he was in this
as a man. He came into his own, but his
own said, We won't have you. We don't want you. We don't want
you. He came to this world, and this world cast him out. He didn't
even have a place. Didn't even have any shelter
for his head to keep the rain off of him. He said birds have
nests, foxes have holes, but he said the Son of Man got nowhere
to lay his head. All of that he endured without
the least murmur. Never murmured, never complained,
never questioned, submitted himself. all this shame and grief in order
that he might work a perfect righteousness for you and I that
will entitle us to all the blessings of heaven and all the blessings
of God. What agony and what suffering
that he experienced to bring forth this salvation that we
experience and enjoy. Just as that woman suffered these
labor pains in bringing forth this child. And this child, who
was the darling of her bosom, son of her womb, but yet there
come a time that she forsook him. She forgot him. But he said,
I'm not like that. I'll never forsake you. Yea, I'll never forget you, and
I'll never forsake you. Come thick or thin, hell or high
water, I'll never forsake you. And I'll be a comfort to you.
He'll never forsake you. He won't do it. God will not
go back on his word. What he says, he says forever.
That will never change. That will never change. He'll
never forsake us. He so emphasizes that through
the Lord Jesus who said, I go away. He said, I'm not going to leave
you as if you had no father. I'm going away. I'm not going
to leave you as an orphan. You have no father to depend
upon. No, He said, I'm going to leave
one with you, the Holy Spirit. He'll lead you and guide you
in all truth. But He said, Don't despair. If
I go, I'll come again. And I'll receive you unto myself,
that where I am there, you might be forever and forever and forever. I say that's a pretty
good deal, wouldn't you? What makes it so good? It's all free. That's what makes
it so good. It's a free gift. The salvation
of God is a free gift. But man, by nature, is so sinful,
he despises the gift. He despises the gift. I read a verse here. I don't
know whether I can remember where it's at or not. Over in the book of Hebrews,
I believe. Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 16, he says, said that the Holy Spirit is
a witness to us, for after that he had said before, This is the
covenant that I will make with them, with his people, after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins,
and their iniquities, will I remember no more. And in the eighth chapter
and the twelfth verse, he said, For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Isn't that something? Well, that ought to be a comfort
to you, a help to me, I'll tell you that. He ain't going to forsake
me. I may feel like He's forsaken
me. I may feel like He's forgotten me, but He hasn't. I may forget
Him, but He'll never forget me. A woman might forget you. Your
mother might forget you. God won't. You can count on that. That's one thing you can be sure
of. God will never leave you forsaken. If you're in Him, if
you're in Christ, He'll never leave you, no forsake you. Through
thick or thin, hell or high water, He'll be with you. The psalmist said, He'd go down
into the valley of the shadow of death. Yay! He's not with me! I just have
to come with Him. He'll be with us. We're spatial people. We're a
privileged people. How many people in this world? Eight, ten billion people or
more, I don't know how many. How many of them in this world
can say with confidence, He's with me, God's with me, He won't
forsake me, He won't forget me? When I go down into the valley
of the shadow of death, He's my rod, my staff to come
to me. He makes me to lay down green
pastures, spatial, peculiar, and a particular people, the
people of God. Well, if you didn't have this,
what would you have? You'd just be like this frantic,
unmindful world that runs hither and thither, seeking this and
seeking that, having no place to put their feet as a place
of security, but to believe as God's Christ. We've got Him who, as much as told us as if
He was standing here in His He said, your mother might forsake
you, it's possible, yet I will not. It won't do it. When you're laying there in the
hospital, on your sick bed at home, and the sweat of death
is on your brow, Though there may not be any hope
whatsoever for those around you, yet in your heart and soul you've
got a good hope because it's built and founded on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when you begin to take that
last breath in your mind, you say, Here it is. I'm ready to
leap out. But I know that He's with me. He'll not forsake us. He won't
forget us. All right.