In Isaiah chapter 49, we'll just read a few verses and then
ask the Lord to be with us. Listen, O Isles, unto me, and
hearken, ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from
the womb. From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention
of my name, and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.
In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished
shaft. In his quiver hath he hid me,
and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I
will be glorified. And then I said, I have labored
in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain, yet
surely my judgment is with the Lord, in my work with my God. And now saith the Lord that formed
me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him,
though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the
eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he
said, it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved
of Israel. I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus
saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to
him whom man despiseth. To him whom the nation abhorreth.
To a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise. Princes
also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and
the Holy One of Israel. And he shall choose thee. I believe
that's as far as we'll get tonight. Let's ask the Lord to bless us.
Gracious Father, thank you for your word again, Lord, and thank
you for gathering your people together. Thank you for this
church and your many blessings upon us, Lord. May we never take
for granted the privilege it is and just what a blessing it
is to gather in your name and to hear your gospel and to know
the Savior, to have Him in all of the comfort and rest that
we enjoy in Him. Thank you for each other and
bless us, Lord, and use us for your glory. In Christ's name
we pray, amen. Now verse one, we're going to
just kind of make another run at it. I know we've looked at
verses one through three, and we've kind of stopped at words,
and sometimes you've got to do that. I honestly set out, I said,
OK, chapter 49, I'm going to go through the whole chapter
tonight and just say as much as I can about each verse. We've
done that before with some of the songs with as many verses
in them. And I just couldn't do it. I
couldn't do it. There's just so much in it, there
really is, and I really wanted to do it. But there's a lot in
here. Verse 1, listen to me. How many times has God said that?
Harken unto me. Ho, everyone. The Lord hath called me from
the womb, from the bowels of my mother. He made mention of
my name. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save.
His people from their sins and that's what this chapter is about
him saving his people from their sins verse 2 He is the personification
of the word He made my mouth like a sharp sword In the shadow
of his hand Hath he hid me and made me a polished shaft in his
quiver like an arrow and a sword. I We know the scripture talks
about how the word of God is sharp and quick and more powerful
than any two-edged sword. That's the gospel that our Savior
came preaching, the good news of himself and his kingdom. He
is a sword and an arrow, weapons. It's a warfare, isn't it? And
we lose in order that we might win. Remember when we talked
about Jacob? The Lord put him down and then
said, you've prevailed with God. That's how we win, with God,
by losing. By losing our fight, our enmity and hatred and our
warfare with God. We're gonna lose. But in his
mercy and his grace, when he brings us down into the dust,
vanquished, conquered, forced to submit, we thank him and praise
his name forever for bringing us down. A sword and an arrow. He's the one that pierces the
heart. When those wounds in Acts chapter
2, it says they were pricked in their heart. They were pierced
in their heart. They heard the gospel of the
Christ. And they said, men and brethren,
what are we going to do? What are we going to do? We've
killed God's Son. And we saw how he is hidden in this verse. He's hidden. We know that about
him, don't we? If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them who
are blinded. And he is hid. He's pleased to
reveal himself to babes while hiding himself from the wise
and the prudent. He's a sword, but not all are
going to be pierced, not every heart. He's an arrow, but not
all are smitten. by him. He's hidden in the hand
of God and he pierces only and all the hearts of those chosen
by God. He's that arrow shot at a venture
we saw in First Kings 22, 34. A man shot an arrow at a venture,
clearly having no idea, at a venture, no target in mind or in sight. And yet God directed that arrow
between the joints of the armor of the King of Israel and smote
him right in the heart and killed him. Christ is that arrow shot
at a venture. His preachers draw a bow at a
venture not knowing if any heart or who's perhaps will be struck. But God directs that arrow with
precision. and with power and it accomplishes
his sovereign purpose in the saving of his sheep. Verse three,
you're my servant, he said, you're my servant, oh Israel. We're called Israel, he's called
Israel, we're called the Lord our righteousness, he's called
the Lord our righteousness. Israel, prince with God. He is
the servant of God. Only Christ ever really served
God. And only Christ ever glorified
God really. In Him I will be glorified. In whom I will be glorified.
And in Him we get in on that. but it's Christ. In verse 4,
this is I believe new territory here. Then I said, I have labored
in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain, yet
surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.
Now this is interesting because clearly Christ is speaking throughout
here. In my mother's womb, he called me. He's the one that
is the sharp sword. He's the word who was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And all through this chapter,
we'll see that it's clearly Christ. But how can we understand verse
four as coming from the Savior? Does he, can he ever do anything
in vain? The answer is yes, clearly. But for something to be in vain
does not mean that it's a failure. It comes up empty. The word vain
is empty. It comes up empty. But what if
God intended it to come up empty? What if that was God's purpose
from the start? You suspect that maybe that could be true? With
regard, clearly, and he's talking about Israel primarily there.
He came unto his own and his own received him not. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ saying, O Israel, Jerusalem, how oft
would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings. But you would not. You could
say he's come in vain in that sense. They're not coming. But this being in vain doesn't
mean it's a failure. Listen to the message of God
to Isaiah in Isaiah 6-9. He said, go and tell this people,
hear ye indeed but understand not. And see ye indeed, but perceive
not. You're going to know what I'm
saying, but you're not going to get it. You're not going to get
it. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert, and be healed. And then he said,
Lord, how long? That's a good question when God
just told you to go fail. Go preach in vain. How long,
Lord? Until the cities be wasted without
inhabitants, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly
desolate. That's a long time. That's longer
than I'd want to do that. But if the Lord sent you to do
that, you'd go do that. And the Lord have removed men
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land. But yet in it shall be a tenth. And that's in our verse
too, isn't it? Yet, my judgment is with the
Lord. My work is with my God. It may seem in vain, and in many
cases it is. It'll be an empty thing in many
cases. But God purposed it that way.
There's going to be that tent. Jerusalem wouldn't come to him. Oh, Jerusalem, I would have gathered
you. I would have taken you in. The song did come. There's a
tent in it. And it shall be eaten. It shall
return as a teal tree, as an oak whose substance is in them
when they cast their leaves. So the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof. The seed, that's what. We see
Paul talking about Abraham's seed. He said seed and not seeds
because that seed is Christ. The seed and it's those who are
in Christ. They're going to hear, they're
going to return, they're going to come and that purpose is in
the hand of God. That's what's hidden in his hand
now. It doesn't look like, it looks like a vain, who hath believed
I report. One or two. And that was his
purpose all along. In our text, as I said, he's
speaking of Israel in general. As a nation, they rejected Christ. And as a nation, they yet reject
Christ. He came into his own, they received
him not. But look at the last part of the verse again. The
deciding of the matter, the judgment. Whether this is truly vain or
not is with the Lord. Now think about this. You are not the one, and this
is important, because religion preaches, you know, that, oh,
God's done all he can do, but you have to give your stamp, you've got to
accept him for it to all work. The scriptures strongly deny
that. The work of it, the judgment
of it, the deciding of it is with the Lord. And whether you
believe it or not doesn't have anything to do with his purpose
succeeding or not succeeding. His purpose succeeds whether
you believe or not. Let me show you that here. The
deciding of the matter is with the Lord, maybe in vain in the
sense of some not profiting from the ministry of Christ, it not
being mixed with faith in them that heard it, but the judgment
of it is with the Lord. Listen to what Paul said in Romans
3.3. This is key to this now. For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? God forbid. Did he come in vain
because everybody rejects him except just a handful? No, that
was his purpose all along. That didn't make his faithfulness
without effect. That didn't thwart his purpose.
That's according to his purpose. God forbid, yea, let God be true,
but every man a liar. As it is written, that thou mightest
be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art
judged. That's why he sends the gospel
to those in judgment. Nobody's going to be able to
blame God in the judgment. He sent his word to you. Jerusalem will not be able to
say, well, you only came for your elect. He said, how often
would I have gathered you? But you would not. Your problem is your will, not
God's. All right, so verse 5. And this
all kind of goes together. I could stop there for a good
while. But I mean, we're going to see
more of that as we go along. Verse 5, and now saith the Lord
that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob
again to him, though Israel be not gathered. That's referring
back to verse 4. It's in vain. It's in vain. Well
in the sense of Israel not being gathered you could say that But
it was his purpose To bring Jacob again to him though
Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of
the Lord you see how that also refers to back to my judgment
is with him whether this thing is a success or failure or is
up to God and I did exactly what He sent me to do. I'm gonna be
glorious in His eyes. And my God shall be my strength.
So though the earthly nation of Israel be not gathered, the
Lord's work is perfect and successful and complete and the Father is
well pleased with His Son. You think God's up there wringing
his hands because the whole nation of Israel thumbed their nose
at his son? When they murdered him on a cross,
they did exactly what God's hand and counsel determined before
to be done. God's purpose stands. It's accomplished. He said, I've
spoken it, shall I not do it? You're not going to thwart God's
purpose by opposing him and setting yourself up in opposition against
him. He is satisfied with the travail
of his soul. He accomplished exactly what
he came. Well, but Israel is not saved. Well, you know what?
He didn't come to save them then. Everybody he came to save is
saved. He has redeemed all for whom
he suffered. That is the effect of his precious
blood. He obtained eternal redemption
with it for his people. Now verse six And he said You
see I've tried to get farther y'all I could have stopped that
verse four and preached a whole message on that just like in
Proverbs one message on one verse There's a lot there in there.
We could talk about that for a while. I tried He said it is a light thing that
thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the preserved of Israel. Ah, now we see what
he came to do. He didn't come to save Israel.
Not the nation. But he came to save the preserved
ones of Israel. So in vain? I've stretched out
my arms in vain? Yeah. But it's exactly according
to his purpose. He came to save that remnant,
didn't he? And he saved every one of them.
so that thou shouldest be my son to raise up and then look
he said that's a small that's a light thing that's just part
of it that's just that's just the beginning in other words
it's kind of what he's saying there is to say it's a light
thing obviously that's a big thing he came to save some people
if God saved anybody that's a big thing but he's saying I'm gonna
send you to the Gentiles too I'm gonna make you a light to
the Gentiles I'm glad for that aren't you that thou mayest be my salvation
unto the end of the earth. The Savior of the whole world,
in a sense, right? You're not going to save everybody
in the world, but He's the Savior to the end of this earth. You
can't go anywhere in this world and find a place where He's not
the Savior. My I'm gonna be glorious in the
eyes of the Lord he said and boy he is he's even glorious
in our eyes And we can't have see Think about how his father
looks upon him We're gonna get in on that a
little bit better one of these days I So we see the judgment of God.
The judgment of this is with the Lord. My work is with the
Lord. This is God's judgment and work behind all of this.
It's not that he was trying to save Israel at all from the start.
That was in vain in a sense, but it was in vain on purpose.
God was never trying to save the nation of Israel. He's not
trying to save them now. He doesn't never try to do anything.
That's the thing about God. He just don't try. He just does. He does or He don't do. He reveals
or He hides. He saves or He damns. But the preserved of Israel,
He came for them now. And they are and shall be saved. The preserved. Isn't that a blessing
that we're called that? The preserved. We couldn't be
lost if we wanted to. Aren't you glad about that? Because
we'd unsave ourselves in a minute if we possibly could. The preserved. I have reserved myself, we read
this morning, I have reserved for myself seven thousand. Have
not bowed their knee to bail nor kissed his mouth. That's
why they haven't bowed to Baal. Baal, that's the only reason.
Peter, I've prayed for you that your faith fail not. What does
that tell you about old Simon if the Lord didn't pray for him?
He'd be worshiping in idol before the day was out and you would
too. Thank God. He keeps us kept by the power
of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
They are saved, those preserved ones, his elect. Now listen to
Romans 11.1. I say then, hath God...turn over
there with me because I want to look at several things in
Romans 11. I hope we have time to. I say then,
he said, hath God cast away his people? Has God just given up
on Israel? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew." Now, he goes
on in Romans 11 and talks about how Israel is estranged from
God, the nation of Israel. They are cast off. He compares
them to being cut off of the tree or the vine, and the Gentiles
grafted in. That doesn't sound good, does
it, to be cut off? They are, they were as a nation.
But God has not cast away those that he foreknew. There's your
Israel right there. And that's what he goes on to
say. And I'm in verse 2, the middle of verse 2. What ye not
what the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed your prophets.
and dig down your altars. They don't want anything to do
with you. They've destroyed everything that has anything to do with
you. And I'm left alone, and they seek my life. But what sayeth
the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so
then, at this present time also, there is a remnant." In other
words, Paul is saying, yeah, it looks like Israel. I mean,
they're lost. My prayer to God, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that God would save them. They have a
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They're going to
hell. They don't know God. They don't
know God. They don't know Christ. And my
heart goes out to them. But I tell you, who does know
him? Just like in Elijah's day. There's a remnant. Just like
in Elijah's day, there's a handful. There's a few that have not bowed
to an idol, to a false Christ. There's a remnant according to
the, you know that word election just means choice. Election according
to the choosing of grace. That's what that says. Because
God chose some and has reserved them. Even now there are some
that believe on him. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work.
So what then? What are we going to say about
that? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. It
was in vain as far as they're concerned. God's preachers preached
in vain. They still do in that regard. But the election hath obtained
it. And the rest were blinded. It
wasn't in vain because God tried and it just didn't work out God's
way. It was in vain because God blinded them. Because it wasn't
according to his purpose to save them. God doesn't have to save
anybody. Does that shock anybody here?
I doubt it. Not here. If that shocks you, I haven't
done my job very well over the years. God doesn't have to save
anybody. What a miracle of grace that
he saves anybody. And of course the Gentiles were
brought in. What a beautiful thing. And all
of that's explained clearly in Romans chapter 11. That's such
a beautiful chapter. We won't take time to read a
lot of that tonight. But God deliberately cut off
the Jews that he might graft in the Gentiles. He says they're
falling away was to provoke the Gentiles to jealousy in a sense.
There's a lot of analogies going on in there. But you'll see that
the conclusion of the whole thing is simple. All Israel shall be
saved. Paul said in verse 26 of Romans
chapter 11. Wait a minute, he just got through
saying most of Israel going to hell. All Israel. All of God's spiritual Israel. Everybody that God promised would
be saved. They saved. They saved. They shall be saved. And notice
in verse 6 of our text that Christ is God's salvation. That thou mayest be my salvation. That's what old Simeon said,
wasn't it? My eyes, Lord, have seen your salvation. I'm ready to go. Anybody who
has seen God's salvation is ready to depart, aren't they? You're
ready. You're ready. That's what being ready is. Knowing
God, knowing His Son, knowing forgiveness through the precious
blood of Christ. Mine eyes have seen that salvation.
Thank God. He said, listen, O owls, and
hearken, you people from afar. He came a long way from me. He came a long way. In verse 7, we'll look at verse
7. We've got a little bit more time.
Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel. Boy, you know, we
overlook language like that and just, He's the Redeemer of Israel.
He redeemed them. He redeemed Israel. That's who
He is. His name is Jesus for He shall
save. He's not Israel's best chance. He's not Israel's opportunity. He's Israel's Redeemer. And His Holy One, THE Holy One,
His Holy One, That ain't you, that ain't me, that's Christ.
Whom man despiseth. He just got through saying that
he's going to be glorious in the eyes of the Lord. But he
wasn't glorious in the eyes of men. Whom man despiseth. To him whom
the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and
arise. Princes also shall worship. He is the king of kings. Think about that. When you're
a king, that means you're at the top. Everybody looks up to
you. It says here the kings are going
to look up to him and worship him. Not all of them, but some
of them will. Every one of them is going to
bow one of these days. Because of the Lord that is faithful,
and the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose thee. That's
how He's going to save you. That's how He's going to redeem
you. He's going to pick you out and
then give Himself a sacrifice for your sins. Well, a couple
of things stand out in this verse. Again, it's a whole message.
We could be in Isaiah from now on, wouldn't we? And I go back
to chapter 49 when I'm studying, and I say, are we still in chapter
49? Yeah, we're still in verse 3. And I say, well, you know,
Dad, I'm just going to touch on every verse. We're going to
get through this chapter. No, we're not. You see all of that,
though? What a word. God opens his mouth. And immediately you realize you're
in over your head, but it's a wonderful place to be. It's a wonderful
place to be. He whom man despiseth. You ever think about that? He
who is glorious in the eyes of the Lord. He who the one who
can see every spot and every stain looks at him and says,
Oh, he's altogether lovely. And yet man looks at him and
can't see any beauty in him that we should desire him. What a
bunch of blind idiots we are. He went about doing nothing but
always only good. And we murdered him for it. Do
you see that every day? Do you look at society and see
that happening? I do. We're that messed up. We're that messed up every day,
aren't we? Every day. That's how blind this
world is. To see in Him who is altogether
lovely, no beauty. For the gospel now of free grace
to be infuriating to you. How messed up do you have to
be? How messed up do you have to be? for just free grace to
be a problem for you. It's astonishing, isn't it? And
yet, it's me. That's me. That's me by nature. We just sang, Man of Sorrows,
what a name. He whom man despiseth. What a name. What a name for
the Son of God who came. ruined sinners to reclaim. What a Savior. And yet we hated
him without a cause. And this is our root problem,
isn't it? Boy, this goes all the way back to the garden. This
is our problem. We hate God. We hate God. Our problem is not
that we like apples better than bananas. We hate God. That's what our problem is. Satan
didn't say, look at this. This tastes a whole lot better
than that. He said, you shall be as gods. God has slighted you. Has God
said you shall not eat? Well, don't you want to be God? Don't you want to determine what's
good and evil for yourself? That's our problem. We express
our hatred for God by opposing Him, torturing Him, killing Him
in the most shameful and painful and degrading way that we could
think of to kill Him. That's what we did. And this is the birthplace of
sin right here. This is the birthplace of sin.
It grows out of contempt for the person of God. That's where
sin grows. It grows out of that bad ground,
that corrupt evil ground that is the heart of contempt and
enmity against the God that made us and gave us everything we
have. In spite of the fact that he made us and gave us everything
we have, we cannot stand him. We refuse to glorify him as God. There's only one conclusion,
isn't there? We ought to go to hell. Boy, you think about it
now. How richly we deserve hell. How
richly for hating God and murdering his son. Him whom man despises
is the altogether lovely one. Paul said, if you don't love
the Lord Jesus Christ, you ought to go straight to hell. I'm not
paraphrasing that much, am I? I might be paraphrasing that
just a little bit. First Corinthians 16, 22, if
any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema,
accursed, maranatha, when the Lord comes. May God may the Lord
send his son down here to put them in hell And that's how lovely he is now
If any man love not it doesn't say if any man hate There's a
reason for that if any man love him up. He's so lovely He is
so worthy to be loved there is absolutely There's nothing that
can be done with you if you don't love him except put you in hell,
that's just all there is to do And it speaks to his loveliness.
You see how it's worded. We can say amen to that, can't we?
Even if it's me. Even if it's me. Amen. Let him
be anathema maranatha. Well, the one other thing there
in verse 7. He shall choose thee. Boy, election,
you're here again now. The altogether lovely one is
he whom man despiseth. And the most beautiful truth
is the electing love of God. You think about that. What could
possibly be more wonderful than that God looked down here, fell
in love with a nasty worm like you, and said, that one's going
to be mine, and I'm going to make him beautiful. I'm going
to bring him to live with me forever and I'm going to bless
him with everything I can possibly bless somebody with. I'm going to put him in my son
and my son in you and he's going to have every blessing that can
be had. Me? He shall choose thee. He said to his disciples in John
15 15 Henceforth, I call you not servants." There's a lot to that. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only servant anyway, right? If you're going
to call me a servant, you're going to have to just call me
a bad one. You could call me Some things just in temporal
matters you could say, you know, I've worked on my car before,
you know, so you could say Chris is an auto mechanic. Well, not
a good one. If you're going to call me that,
you better just say he's a bad one. You know, you see what I'm
saying? You can't call us servants. He
can't call us servants really anyway. But you know what he
does call us? My friends. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth." He's just there,
you know, to accomplish a purpose. You could say maybe that the
lost in this world kind of fit that bill, don't they? They're
just going to do exactly what God moves them to do, and that's
all they're ever going to be to God. But he said, I've called you
my friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I've
made known unto you. You remember in John 17, when
he's praying to the Father, he said, I've made it known. I've
made your will known unto them. I've taught them. And then he
said to them, you've not chosen me. And think of the context
here. You've heard that verse before.
You've not chosen me, but I have chosen you. In what context? You are my friends. I love you. I tell you everything
you need to know. Servants don't get that. You're
my friends. And the reason you are is because
I wanted you to be. It don't get much better than that.
I have chosen you. and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
and that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name,
he may give it you. I chose you to receive all good things, all blessings. He picked us out to be his friends. I've never seen that in that
context before. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians
2.11, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that
they should believe a lie. Now I'm getting to a certain
verse here. He said in the end of this verse
in our text, he shall choose thee. That's what I'm getting
to, but I've deliberately read a few verses before because this
talks about the first part. Why didn't Israel believe? Why
is it in vain? Because God purposed it. And God shall send them strong
delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be
damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks
all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. We just read over, I read over
things like that and just miss it most of the time. What's the
difference between them who are under strong delusion and believe
in a lie and gonna suffer forever for it now. They had no pleasure. They had pleasure in unrighteousness.
What's the difference? God loves you. Beloved of the
Lord. There's the difference. Beloved
of the Lord, we're bound to give thanks to God always for you.
Brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. Where unto he called you by our
gospel. That's why we preach. That's
why we're here. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. In some sense, if you've
believed on Christ, in some sense you have obtained the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's going to get better now.
It's already pretty good, isn't it? Oh man. You know, in closing,
I just want to read A few more verses. Listen to this. This
is what I've got to look into for next time. And how am I going
to preach one message on this? You look at it. Verse 8. Thus
saith the Lord. In an acceptable time have I
heard thee. And in a day of salvation have
I helped thee. And I will preserve thee. And
give thee for a covenant of the people. To establish the earth. The cause to inherit the desolate
heritages. that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth. Has Christ said that to you?
Has he swung open the prison door and said, go forth? To them
that are in darkness, show yourselves. Come out from that darkness and
come before me. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not
hunger nor thirst. He said, I'm going to give you
some bread, and you're never going to be hungry again. Neither shall the heat nor sun
smite them, for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them,
even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will
make all my mountains away. and my highways shall be exalted.
Behold, these shall come from far and low, these from the north
and from the west and from the land of Sinai. 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. But Zion said, the Lord hath
forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me. We're always woe
is me, aren't we? You read the Psalms and David's
all, Lord, how long you gonna forget me, you know? And then
he asked this question, 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 you. I'm gonna try to preach on that,
Lord willing. a week from now. What a wonderful
passage of scripture. We are saved to the uttermost,
aren't we? We're finding out how saved we
are tonight. It's a whole bunch. He's able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth. Uttermost is a simple word. You
know what it means? Completely and perfectly. That's
what we're seeing in this passage of scripture. What a blessing.