All right, brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah chapter 49. Verse 13, the Lord 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. We saw through
this chapter how the Lord Jesus has accomplished the redemption
of his people. He came and accomplished the
redemption of his people. And as promised, God the Father
raised him to his right hand and gave him for a covenant of
the people, for a covenant of his chosen people. He gave Him
for a covenant. Christ has sent the gospel to
us and He's called us out of the prison and out of the darkness
into His light and into His liberty. And He's promised us as our shepherd
that He'll provide everything we need along the way and that
He will be our provision. This is what we've seen in these
verses leading up to this. And so God 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. And then we come to the next
verse. But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord
hath forgotten me. You know, after all the grace
the Lord's given us and all the sure promises he's given us in
Christ, isn't this just like us to where
we come into these times and these seasons where we think
in our hearts, the Lord's forsaken me, the Lord's forgotten me.
That's our sin nature. It overcomes us, we get overcome
with unbelief on occasion. We start judging by outward appearance
rather than faith. Start looking at things below
rather than having our hearts single, set on Christ above.
And it can be the slightest trial. That's so for me, it can be the
slightest thing that gets me feeling this way. Or it can be
no trial at all. It can be when things are good.
We have this tendency of if there's not a storm on the horizon, we
start looking for a storm on the horizon. What might be a
storm on the horizon? The next thing you know. We're
just cast down in unbelief saying, oh the Lord's forsaken me, He's
forgotten me. Now here's the word of our Lord
to you and me who He's sanctified. He says in verse 15, can a woman
forget her sucking child? She should not have compassion
on the son of her womb. It compares us to a sucking child. He says, yea, they may forget,
yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I've graven thee upon
the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. Thy
walls before me. That's our subject. Now you that
are born of God, try to always remember this, and I'll remind
you of it, you remind me of it. You're the child of God. You're
a child of God. He compares us here to a newborn
sucking child. He says, 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. We're certainly as helpless as
a newborn suckling child. When Sarah has her baby, and
you see that baby in arms, you remember, that's us. You and
me who are full grown, that's how helpless we are if left to
ourselves, like a suckling child. That's what our Lord said. He
said, without me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can
do nothing. Man, when y'all take care of
that baby and do everything for that child, you just remember,
that's what God's doing for you. He's doing everything for us.
We cannot do anything without Him. But, this is what He said
through John in 1 John 3, He said, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Behold the love of God in making
us to be sons of God. Behold everything that was involved
in making you a child of God. When we find ourselves in unbelief,
that's what we truly, that's what we should do. We should
go to the scriptures, we should go to the gospel and behold Behold,
look into the word and hear God speak and meditate on it and
think on it and look to what God has said. Behold, what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. We look everywhere into everything
when trouble comes or when we're down in the doldrums, we look
for every way to get out of it except this one simple way God
has told us. Behold, behold what I've done. Look to Christ, look and see
what he has done. This is what Peter said, and
I think we read this passage and we think about this is for
newborn believers. But no, this is for you if you've
been in the faith the longest. He says, lay aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby. If so be you've tasted, the Lord is gracious.
That's a word to every believer, no matter if you've just been
born again, or if you've been in the faith a long time. We're
still as newborn babes. It doesn't matter how long you've
been in the faith. Go to God's word and behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed on you to make you his
child. This is what Deuteronomy 7, 7
says. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, but because the Lord loved you. That's what the scripture
says. Behold what manner of love. He
chose and set his affection on you and loved you because He
would. He knows everything. He purposed
everything that comes to pass. So from eternity He knew we were
going to fall in sin. He knew we were going to transgress
against Him and rebel against Him. He knew that. God knew our carnal heart. We'd
come forth into this world enmity against Him. He knew that. He
knew that we wouldn't seek Him. He knew that. He knew there'd
be nothing we could give Him. And yet the Lord set His love
upon you and chose you, not because of anything in you, but because
the Lord would. As so of every elect child of
grace, God loved you because He would. He loved you because
He would. Go to God's Word and behold what
manner of love. It's just a cure for our unbelief
and all our being downcast. This is a cure for it. Behold
what manner of love. Malachi 1. Let's look there.
Malachi chapter 1. Here's His love. Malachi 1 verse
2. I have loved you, saith the Lord,
Yet you say, wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. That's the manner in which God
loved us. He loved us with a distinguishing
particular love. He doesn't love everybody. God
does not love everybody. He loves his elect, he loves
those he chose by his free and sovereign grace. The Lord trieth
the righteous. Are you chastened? Are you cast down? Are you in
a trial and in trouble? He only chastens those he loves.
The Lord trieth the righteous, those he's made righteous in
his Son. But the wicked in him that loveth violence, his soul
hateth. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. That settles the matter as to
whether or not God loves everybody. He's telling his child, Malachi's
word here would have no bearing on us whatsoever if God loved
everybody just indiscriminately. He's declaring, this is how I've
loved you. I loved you and hated Esau. I
laid his mountains bare, and yet I've given nations for you
and people for your life and my son for you. since He loved you simply because
He would, since He chose His people by His grace. Brethren,
there's nothing that will ever stop God from loving us or change
His grace toward His people. Nothing. There's no reason, no
reason for any child of God to say, the Lord's forsaken me,
the Lord's forgotten me. He never takes back His calling
and His gifts. That's grace. Grace is unchanging. Grace is unchangeable. Love is
everlasting with God. Who he loves, he loves forever.
Never stops loving his people. You go to God's word, behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Behold where we were when
he found us. Go to Ezekiel 16. Where were
we when he found us? We're talking about being a sucking
child. Here's where we were, Ezekiel 16 verse 1, verse 3. He says, Thus saith the Lord
God of Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of
Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother a Hittite. You were born of an illegitimate
birth, a birth against the law of God. He said, and as for thy
nativity and the day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut,
neither was thou washed in water to supple thee, thou was not
salted at all or swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to
do any of these unto thee to have compassion on thee. But
thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy
person in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee
and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee,
When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
When thou wast in thy blood, live. "'I have caused thee to
multiply as the bread of the field, "'and thou hast increased
in wax and grate, "'and thou art come to excellent ornaments.
"'Thy breasts are fashioned and thine hair is grown, "'whereas
thou was naked and bare when I found you. "'Now when I passed
by thee and looked upon thee, "'behold, thy time was the time
of love, "'and I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness.
"'Yea, I swore unto thee and entered into a covenant with
thee, "'saith the Lord God, and thou becameest mine. Then washed
I thee with water. That's sanctification. I did
it, he said, I did the washing. I thoroughly washed away thy
blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil, with the Holy
Spirit of God. I clothed thee also with watered
work, and shined thee with badger skin. I girded thee about with
fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also
with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on
thy neck. and I put a jewel on thy forehead
and earrings in thy ears and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
That's being clothed and adorned with the righteousness of Christ.
Those verses right there, that's sanctification and righteousness. Christ is all to us. He said, I did that to you. I
clothed you. I washed you. I sanctified you. I justified you. I did this for
you. We weren't seeking him. None
of us were seeking Him. There's none that seeketh after
God. We weren't seeking Him. He said, I'm found of them that
sought Me not. He sought us. We couldn't seek
Him. We had no ability to seek Him.
We didn't draw Him to us. He drew us to Him. We didn't love Him. He first
loved us. Jeremiah 31.3, the Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I've drawn thee. You get this,
but this is how we can be assured God's not going to forsake His
child or forget us. We weren't seeking Him. We didn't
do anything to make ourselves holy or righteous. He loved us. He chose us. He sought us. He drew us. He clothed us. He
sanctified us. He did it all for us. You think
He did that just to forsake you? It's us, if you go on and read
in Ezekiel, it's us that think we can stand and turn from him
and start to sin against him. But he does just what he did
in their day. He sends his gospel to us and
he reminds us, I did all this for you. You haven't done anything
for me, I've done it for you. And by that message, he again
washes us. and turns us to Him and brings
us, draws us back to Him. He keeps doing this over and
over and over. When you're in unbelief now and you think God's
forsaken you and He's forgotten you and He's not working judgment
for you in this world, you go to His Word and behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us. John went on to say
this, 1 John 4, 9, and this was manifested in the love of God
toward us. because that God sent his only begotten son into the
world that we might live through him here in his love. Not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to propitiation
for our sin. He just told us here in Isaiah,
Christ is our covenant. And in Him is all the promises
of God. Yes and Amen. In the Lord Jesus
to God's glory. Christ Jesus, well first of all,
just think of this. God gave His only begotten Son. And He finished the work God
gave Him to do. Do you think God's gonna dishonor
his son and just let one of his people, just forget one of his
people that he died for? Absolutely not. That's the reason
he won't forget you. He's gonna honor his son and
what his son accomplished. And then think of this, his only
begotten son poured out his precious blood for us. He laid down his
life for his people. and justified us. He bore the
wrath of God for us and justified us, made atonement to God for
all our sin, propitiation. He is the propitiation. And so Christ says to you, child
of God, in verse 16, Isaiah 49, 16, He says to you, child of
God, Behold what manner of love he's
bestowed upon you. He says, behold, I have graven
thee upon the palms of my hands. On the palms of my hands. Christ
says, reach hither thy finger, Thomas, and behold my hands. And be not faithless, but believing.
Christ does that, you know, men want to be difficult, want to
be tough on Thomas. The Lord does that to me and
you all the time, does he not? Does he not come to you through
this gospel by his spirit throughout your day in that still small
voice and when you're down and looking away and troubled by
the waves and say to you, reach here to your finger, into my
hands. and He strengthens you in faith
and He restores faith to you. And then, when He does this now,
as you behold Christ, and you hear God our Father promise,
you hear Christ our Redeemer promise, here's His promise.
He says there in our text, I will have compassion on thee. I will have compassion on thee.
Like a woman has compassion on the son of her womb, He will
have compassion on thee. Psalmist said in Psalm 103, 13,
he said, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers
where it does. Job asked this question. Job
said, will thou break a leaf driven to and fro? He said, will
thou pursue the dry stubble? Job had a pretty good understanding
of what he was. I'm a dry leaf tossed to and
fro. I'm just stubble. God says, nope,
I won't. He said, I'll have compassion.
I remember your dust. I remember your dust. This union,
brethren, between God the Father and His elect in Christ shall
never be severed. He made this union. He made it. And it's sealed up in the blood
of His Son. And He says, I'll never ever
permit anybody to sever this union. I will have compassion
on you. I'll have compassion on you.
He's our everlasting Father. That's who Christ is. The first
Adam is not our everlasting Father. The last Adam is our everlasting
Father. That's His name. And so God promises,
though a woman may forget her newborn child, if circumstances
don't suit her just right, she'll leave him abandoned in the field.
God says, I won't, I won't. There's nothing about your conditions
that's gonna change God's love toward his child, nothing, nothing. Your sins, Yeah, he'll forget
those. He has forgotten those. But he
won't forget you. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgression for mine own sake and will not remember
thy sin. He said, I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will
I remember no more. But you, he said, I will not
forget you. That's a, I like that memory,
don't you? Forget my sins, but don't forget
me. That's who God is, that's what
he said. You know why? You know what he said just before
he said he'll pity his child like a father pities his children?
The verse before it, in Psalm 103, 12 says, as far as the east
is from the west, so forth he removed our transgressions from
us. That's why he said, like a father pities his child, I'll
pity you, I'll have compassion on you. I won't forget you. God
our Father has a continual, perpetual reminder before him at all times. At his right hand, he looks to
his only begotten son with whom he's well pleased. And there
he sees each of his children graven on the palms of his hands,
in the nail prints in his hands. This is how he strengthens you
and me in faith. Christ comes through this gospel
and he speaks to the heart and he says to you, now you behold,
I've graven thee on the palms of my hand. That's what God the
Father is looking to. He's looking to his son. He's
looking at those wounded hands and that wounded side and there's
your security and now he comes to you and he says, now you behold.
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that
we should be called sons of God. Behold, I've graven you on the
palms of my hand. God promises he's forgotten our
sins, but he promises I will not forget thee. The Lord will
not forsake you for his name's sake, for it pleased the Lord
to make you his people. That's 1 Samuel 12, 22. The Lord
will not forsake you for His name's sake, for it pleased the
Lord to make you His people. But He promises you more than
that. That's not all He promises us. Then He promises us this
in verse 16, at the end of Isaiah 49, 16. He says, Thy walls are
continually before Me. That word continually means in
perpetuity. Thy walls in perpetuity are before
me, God said. Now I want you to notice some
wording in some scripture. Go with me to Isaiah 26. Isaiah
26. And take out the italicized words
and read verse one. In that day, speaking of the
day which Christ has accomplished his work, the day which he's
revealed himself to us, In that day shall this song be sung in
the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation
will appoint walls and bulwarks. Salvation will do the appointing.
He will appoint walls and bulwarks. Now go with me to Isaiah 60 and
later verse 18. Isaiah 60 and verse 18. Violence shall no more be heard
in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou
shalt call thy walls Salvation, capital S, and thy gates Praise,
capital P. John saw the heavenly city, that's
the church, that's all Christ's redeemed called people his church,
his assembly that he's assembled together, united together, that's
each and every individual redeemed child of God that he sanctified.
He beheld the city and he said, and I beheld a wall great and
high all the way around that city. That wall is Christ our
salvation. That wall is Christ our salvation.
God our Father says to you, his child, thy walls, your salvation,
Christ Jesus his son, and all his righteousness, and all his
holiness, and all his, why is it in the plural? Because there's
a lot about Christ. His person and His work and His
character and everything He accomplished for us is before me in perpetuity,
God said. He satisfied justice, He fulfilled
the law for us, He made us perfect in Him, and He will have compassion
on us because Christ is before the Father continually. That's
why He won't forget us. And that's why no enemy can harm
us. That's why nobody can separate
us from God or nothing because Christ is surrounding his people,
the wall, our salvation. God's continually looking on
his son and so he commands you, behold. He tells you of me, now
you behold. He's looking to his son. He says
to us, now you look to my son. Behold Christ. That's how we
behold God's love bestowed upon us. It's in Christ. You look
to Christ. Don't look to yourself. Don't
look to yourself. Well, I just don't feel. Don't
look to your feelings. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Don't look to things below. Well,
everything is just so messed up in my life. Don't look at
the things in your life. Look to Christ. Can you look
at those nail-pierced hands and really and truly believe that
God's indifferent to you? Can you look at those nail-pierced
hands and really believe God's forgotten you? Now, when the Lord does this
in spirit and in truth, and He blesses this word through this
gospel, and He causes you to behold by faith and behold the
Lord Jesus, here's what's going to happen. Here's what's going
to happen. This is what's going to happen
to you personally. This is what's going to happen. He said in verse
17, Thy children shall make haste. This was His promise to Christ.
Thy children shall make haste. And here's what's going to happen.
This will happen to you personally. You're going to make haste. into
Christ the refuge. When he makes you behold him,
you sit there, you cast down, you say, the Lord's forgot me,
the Lord's forsaken me, and when he makes you behold him, you're
gonna make haste and you're gonna enter into Christ in spirit and
in truth through faith. You're gonna enter into the refuge
and the wall's all about you. And when that happens, all the
waves and the wind and the trouble, whether it's your sinful flesh
and your sins and all the troubles in your life, or whatever it
is, whatever enemies it is that's been causing you to have this
unbelief and this doubt and this trouble, when God makes you behold
Christ and you see these things that I'm declaring to you right
here, here's the second thing that's gonna happen. Thy destroyers
and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. That's
what's going to happen. You're going to flee into Christ,
and the wind and the waves are going to cease, and all your
enemies are going to be put down, and you're going to have peace,
and you know, the Lord's not going to leave me. You know what
He's done? He's shown you, right there by
that, by doing that for you, in your life, today, He's shown
you, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I won't
forget you. I'll have compassion on you.
I'll keep you looking to my son. And I'll keep him surrounding
you and protecting you. He shows you that. And you know,
the more he shows us that, that's really what it is to grow in
the grace of our Lord Jesus and to grow in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus. is Him showing you these little
salvations day by day, every day, to show you He's your everlasting,
eternal salvation. And He's growing you more and
more, more and more, to trust Him and to know, He'll never
leave me. He'll never forget me. He saved
me. And He is saving me, and He shall
save me. That's what He's teaching you.
That's what He's teaching you. That's the gospel. That's our salvation. Let's go
to the Lord. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We pray, Lord, that You would turn our hearts and our
minds to Christ above and set our affection on Him make us to know that we indeed
are seated there with Him, safe and secure, accepted, never to
be forgotten by you, always under your eternal eye, always surrounded
by Christ, our wall of salvation. and thereby, Lord, mortify our
flesh. Make the enemies of this flesh
go forth and leave us alone. Make our faith to be strengthened
and solely relying upon Christ only. Lord, we need You to do
this for us every day. We need this sincere milk of
Your Word. We need You to feed us and clothe
us and wash us and protect us. We're just babies, Lord. We're
just babies. We can do nothing without You.
We pray that You do this for us. Keep doing it for us. Keep
making this Word life in our hearts. Lord, whoever is sitting
here, whoever hears this and doesn't know You, we pray, Lord,
You'd be pleased to call them, speak and deliver them out of
prison. Bring them into Your light. And
all Your people that are suffering and cast down, Lord, we pray
You'd have compassion on them. Make them to know You're their
salvation. Give them assurance in their
heart that everything is well. Lord, this is our need. Our need
is you. And we're thankful for this promise. You'll never leave us. You'll
never forget us. Oh Lord, thank you for your grace.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.