Before I forget about it, there's
some candy back there on the table. If your parents let you
have it, it's some Mexican candy. I didn't bring only the hot chili
pepper candy this time. I brought different kinds, so
just get you a piece of candy if you want it back there. All
right, Isaiah chapter 49. Now this chapter, it's been good,
hasn't it? He's been telling us all about
Christ and the successful Redeemer. About what He's done, what He's
going to do. It's good. How He came and He's
finished salvation for us. What He is to God and what He
is to us. That's what this chapter has
been about. Now, verse 8, let's review it a little bit. Verse
8 there, God says He preserved Christ, raised Christ from the
dead, and He's given Him a covenant of the people, of His elect.
He is a covenant of His people. I want you to get what that means.
I want you to understand that Christ is the covenant. We talk
about the everlasting covenant of grace. Christ is the sum and
substance of the covenant. When it says God's given Him
for a covenant of the people, it means that Christ as a man
is all of the covenant obligation. When you make a covenant, there's
two people agreeing on something, to do certain things with the
promise of certain rewards to be given when each one has fulfilled
their obligation. Well, God made a covenant with
man, but He didn't make it with His elect, He made it with Christ
representing His elect. And so Christ is to God the Father
all our covenant obligations for us to Him. Fully accomplished,
done in perfection, done perfectly. And God is to us, I mean Christ
is to us God's covenant to His elect people that we're accepted
in Christ. All is done. It's done. So Christ
is our covenant to God and Christ is God's covenant to us. You
see that? So that's what it means. All
who believe on Christ. We fulfilled everything required
in Christ, by Christ, by what He's done and are accepted by
Him. Christ is God's covenant to us
that it's so. And then verse 9 declares, Christ
is our covenant liberator, that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. There we sit in darkness, under
the bondage of sin, under the bondage of the law, in the bondage
of our sin nature, with as much freedom of will as a man in a
prison cell. We could do a lot of things bound
within the walls and limits of our nature. Couldn't submit to
God. Couldn't subject all to Him.
Couldn't declare that He's right, that we're guilty, hell-deserving
sinners. We couldn't cast all our care
into Christ's hand. We couldn't see the beauty of
the gospel. We were dead sinners. But Christ came to where we are,
and by His grace, speaking this gospel in power, He said, go
forth. He said, come out of the darkness
of your prison and show yourselves, and that's the only time that
a sinner will come to the light. And that's when we came to the
light. Then verse 9 through 12 declares Christ is our covenant
shepherd. We've been set free now. The
children of Israel were in bondage. They were in bondage in Babylon
when this was delivered. That's where it had its immediate
fulfillment. And whenever God delivered them out of that bondage,
now they had to go across all this wilderness of desert to
get back to Jerusalem, to get back to Zion. And so He said
to them now, This is what I'm going to do for you. And now
the spiritual fulfillment is here we are delivered out of
that prison. Now we're on our way to heaven's
Zion. And here He says what He'll do for us. He assures us He is
our provision in verse 9. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pasture shall be in all high places. They shall not
hunger nor thirst. Christ is that provision. We're
talking about spiritual food, spiritual water. We're talking
about spiritually being kept and seeing God as our all. That's
far more important than food and raiment. That's seeing Him. He assures us He's our shield
and defender. He's going to keep us from everything
that would separate us from Him. Look at verse 10. Neither shall
the heat nor sun smite them. That's a good shepherd. That's
a good shepherd that's keeping his sheep protected from the
sun and the heat. And then He assures us He'll
give us refreshment by His Spirit. He's going to keep this Word
alive in our hearts and keep us watered inwardly by grace. Verse 10, He that hath mercy
on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall
He guide them. Water in Scripture is always
a picture of the Holy Spirit. He's going to continue to lead
us. He led us to this spring in Isaiah
49. He's led us to springs in 2 Peter and 1 Peter and Romans,
and He's leading us to... His preachers are called wells
with water, unlike false teachers who are wells without water.
They're wells of water. He promised to flood us, to keep
us growing by His grace. He assures us that every trial
we come into, every mountain of trial is His mountain, and
He's going to show us He's the way through the mountain. Look
at verse 11. And I will make all my mountains away, and my
high waves shall be exalted." That's when we see Him high and
lifted up. That's when we see His ways the best way. When we
see His wisdom is when He brings us into the mountain of trial.
He doesn't take us around it, takes us right through it. He's
not going to take us around death. We're going to die. We're going
to go right through it. But He's our way right through it, just
like He has been through every trial from the beginning. And
when He does take us through that trial, we see Him high and
exalted and lifted up. His high ways are exalted. And
then he assures us of fellowship with those elect that he calls
by grace. Verse 12. Behold, these shall
come from far, and lo, these from the north, and from the
west, and these from the land of Sinai. Not any of his elect
are going to be lost. He's bringing them all in. And
so we rejoice. Here we are in the earth, just
this little group of folks, but we're not alone. We're rejoicing
in what Christ has done for us right here, but all of heaven
is rejoicing. The spirits of just men made
perfect, those that are already with Him, and all the heavenly
host of angels, they're rejoicing in what Christ has done and is
doing and shall do for His people. Verse 13, sing, O heavens, and
be joyful, O earth. Put a smile on your face. It's
done. We are saved. That's just how
it is, and we're going to be saved. and break forth into singing,
O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will
have mercy upon his afflicted. Our warfare is accomplished.
Christ, the King of our salvation, the captain of our warfare, has
come, and He's fought the battle, and He's won the victory, and
He's rewarded us double for all our sins. He's justified us and
made us the righteousness of God in Him, and it's eternal. Unlike what Adam had in the beginning,
what Christ has done for us is eternal. He offered Himself through
the eternal Spirit, so it can't be undone. It's unchangeable.
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And He
will have mercy on His afflicted. We will be afflicted. We will
suffer tribulation in this world. But He will have mercy on His
afflicted. We're His afflicted. We're His. So we just sing. We have reason
to sing. But. But. after all this, after
free, sovereign, distinguishing, particular, saving grace that
He's shown us so abundantly, so freely in Christ Jesus in
giving His own Son, even after calling us and setting us free
and showing us how He's led us this far, even after causing
us to rejoice so much in Him, this is where we come far too
often, and we do come here. We come here often. Verse 14,
but Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath
forgotten me. Zion's the church of God. Zion
is his elect. Zion is his people. He's done
all this far. But this is what he, you believer
in particular, this is what we find ourselves saying. The Lord
has forsaken me. The Lord's forgotten me. We don't
look at things as clearly as we can't see them
as clearly as they are. We see the waves, and we see
the troubles, and we see the earthly things, and we have on
dark glasses, and we're looking at these things, and we're not
seeing the truth of the matter. We're not seeing the light of
the matter, and we get troubled, and we get perplexed, and we
get to thinking we're forsaken. We get to thinking that the Lord's
forgotten about us. It could be in hard trials. It
could be in trials that aren't anything, really. It can be in
joyful times. Usually it's in joyful times.
When we've been far too, had it far too easy, then the least
little thing comes along and we think the Lord's forgotten
us. He's forsaken us. But this is the truth of the
matter. We don't necessarily say these things audibly. We
don't necessarily, you may not even think that you say this.
You may not think this is your heart towards God. I know there's believers who
would say, I don't ever have said the Lord's forgotten me,
the Lord's forsaken me. But our doubting and our unbelief,
and that's exactly what we're saying, that the Lord's forgotten
us, that he's forsaken us. Well, here's my title, and this
is the one thing I want you to get, all in one. It's what the
Lord says to you, believer. I will not forget you. That's what He said. I will not
forget you. Let's read the text, verse 15
through 17. 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. Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually
before me. Thy children shall make haste.
Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth
of thee. Now let's see what we can learn
from these words. The first thing I see here is
Christ's redeemed children are as precious to him as a newborn
baby is to his mother. Christ's redeemed child is as
precious to him as a newborn son is to his mother. Verse 15,
he says, can a woman forget her sucking child that she should
not have compassion on the son of her womb? You that are true
believers have been chosen of God. You've been born of God.
You've been born of the incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit of God
by the Word of God. And so you are sons of God. Sons of God. Look over at 1 John
chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. This is what John said about
that. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1, Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. God who owns everything,
God who made everything, God who controls everything, God
who's absolutely sovereign over everything, God who's ruling
everything for the good of His sons and daughters. That's your
Father. That's our Father. We are sons
of God. Look at verse 2. Beloved, now
are we the sons of God. Right now. It's not something
that's going to happen. It's now. It does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We're His sons
and His daughters. Christ is our everlasting Father.
And Adam was our first father, but he was not the everlasting
father of his elect. When Adam sinned, we sinned. When Adam was cast out of the
garden, we were cast out of the garden. Whenever Adam fell under
the curse, we fell under the curse. When Adam came under sin
and death, we came under sin and death. But thankfully, before
that ever happened, God gave His children to Christ. And Christ
is our everlasting Father. That's what Isaiah 7 tells us.
Therefore, He's going to be our Father for everlasting. He's
the second Adam. The first seed we're born of
is corruptible seed. That's everything we are in our
flesh. That's everything we are by our first birth. That man's
gonna die. He's corrupt, he's corrupted,
and he's corrupting, and he's gonna go back to the dust and
die. This new man, born of the incorruptible seed, is born of
the everlasting Father, and Christ will always be our Father. Everlasting. He'll never cease
being our Father. Never. There'll be no separation
here. Death will not separate this
union between Father and Son. This is a union that will never
be severed between Christ, our everlasting Father, and His Son. Now, will the Lord cast away
His own child? Will He not rather have compassion
on His child just like a mother will her newborn son? It's Christ's
will that all that the Father gave Him be with Him where He
is. It's the Father's will that Christ
not lose any that the Father gave to Christ. It's the Holy
Spirit's will as the third person of the Godhead that they all
be comforted and kept and brought to God. so that neither the Father,
nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit can deny themselves compassion
to one of God's children without denying the very glory of God. 1 Samuel 12, 22 says, The Lord
will not forsake you for His name's sake. for it pleased the
Lord to make you His people." See, He's showing His glory.
He's showing the perfections of who He is in saving His people
and not allowing one to be lost. And so if one is lost, after
He has satisfied justice for them and fulfilled the law for
them, God is unjust. and all his perfections are tainted
and ruined and his glory is diminished if just one of his children is
lost. So, God will not forsake you for his name's sake. That
doesn't make me want to sin. That makes me want to honor Him.
If I've made mistakes that I regret in my past, it doesn't make me
want to do them again. It makes me want to realize He
says, your sin and iniquity I remember no more. Now there's no more
offering for sin. It makes me want to forget those
things that are behind and press toward the mark of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus to be found in Him, not having mine
own righteousness which is of the law, but to be found in Christ
my righteousness. That's what it does. We care
for our children, don't we? The Lord said, if your children ask something
from you, they want a fish, you don't give them a serpent. And
He says, how much more you being evil do these things. We're full
of sin and we least have compassion on our children. How much more
shall the Father, who's perfect, whose gifts and calling are without
repentance, He's called us by His grace to put all our trust
in Him, given us faith to see Him and believe Him, and to take
everything that's most valuable to us, our whole eternal well-being,
and all our soul's value, and all our care in this world, and
put it all into Christ's hands. Christ's hands are God's hands.
And we put it all into His hands. And He didn't bring us to have
that trust in Him and to put our trust into His hands to turn
around then and betray our trust. You wouldn't do that to your
child. You've told your child, son, trust me, trust me. And
your son trusts you. And then do you turn around then
and betray his trust? Your wife, she trusts you. Your
wife trusts you to honor her and to care for her and to love
her, having her to put all that trust into you. You men wouldn't
turn around then and be unfaithful to her, betray her trust. thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee."
He trusts the Lord to do it. He trusts the Lord to keep him,
so God will keep him. He put all his trust in the Lord,
and God won't betray that trust. I wish y'all could have seen
Joe at that wedding, at the reception. You heard us saying, dance like
nobody's watching? He danced like nobody was watching.
That boy was so happy. He had Taryn there and he got
up and he danced. When he danced with her, he was
just cutting a rug. It was just like there was nobody
else around. That's what we did when God called
us in our heart. We danced. Our heart was just
thrilled and we were overjoyed with the love He had for us and
He showed us so freely by His grace. Well, it hadn't stopped. It hadn't changed. When we come
into some kind of providence that It seems dark to us and
it doesn't seem like the Lord is remembering us or that He's
forsaken us. It's not the Lord that's changed,
it's us that's changed. The darkness has clouded our
view from Him. He said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. That's a love that's lasting.
That's a love that don't change. That's why He called us in loving
kindness, I've drawn you. And He's not going to let us
go now that He's drawn us. Here's the second thing. First
thing is, God loves his child like a mother loves her newborn
baby. Here's the second thing. God's
love for his child is unconditional. It's unconditional. Now, you
listen to me. You probably love your children.
Probably love your wife. Probably love your brothers and
sisters. But I'm sorry to tell you this. Our love is not unconditional. Our love is conditional. That's true. We love because
we get something in return. We're not giving God anything.
You and I aren't giving Him anything. There's nothing in us for Him
to love us. There's nothing that was in us
to cause Him to do it. God's love is unconditional.
His grace in choosing us was an unconditional choosing because
there was nothing lovable in us. That's what, look at verse
15. Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee? Now that's very sad. He said,
will a mother forget her child? And he turns around and says,
yea, they may forget, but I won't forget you. It's sad, but if
the conditions around a mother and her child doesn't suit that
mother for what's going to be comfortable to her, she'll forsake
that child. And if there's something in that
child, if it's going to be deformed, or it's going to come forth and
have some mental problem or whatever, and it doesn't suit her, she'll
forsake that child. See, we love conditionally. We
don't love unconditionally. Christ's love, we came forth
deformed. You and I came forth from our
mother's womb polluted and deformed and defiled. And it didn't change
God's love for His elect at all. Not at all. The Lord doesn't
love all men. He said, clearly, the wicked
I abhor, I hate them. And he said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. He doesn't love all men. If he
loved all men, why would you even speak about love? There
would be no point in him talking about the love of God. If he
loved everybody and yet men die, his love is saving love because
his love is in Christ Jesus. That's where His love is, and
that's where He loves us in Him. So who He loves, He's going to
save. But those He loves, He didn't
love them because of anything in them. Let me just read you
this, Deuteronomy 7, 7. This is speaking to Israel, but
this is true of His elect, spiritual Israel. The Lord did not set
His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in
number than any people. He's telling us there wasn't
anything about us that made Him choose us, but because the Lord
loved you. That's why. That's why. The cause
was in Him. So, the point I'm making to you,
the point the Lord's making here is, as bad as everything looks
around them, and it might look around us right now, know this. If God was going to reject us
later on because there was something in us that didn't measure up,
He would have never chosen us in the first place. Because there
wasn't anything about us in the first place that made us measure
up. You understand that? And our sin didn't surprise him. It's not like he didn't know
what we were going to be. It was all part of his purpose.
He knew how hard our heart was going to be. He knew what our
disposition was going to be. And yet he chose us to put us
in Christ and would make us accepted in Christ and what he did for
him. So the point I'm trying to make to you is, is though
a mother or We love conditionally, but never think God loves like
we love. God doesn't love like we love.
He loves unconditionally. Look over at Ezekiel 16. This
is how we were born. Ezekiel 16. Verse 3, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is
of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity in 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, nor
swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou was cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou was 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 blood of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned,
and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. 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 neckiness. Yea, I swore unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed
away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed
thee also with the broidered work, and shied thee with badger
skins, And I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered
thee with silk. I decked thee with ornaments,
and I put bracelets upon thy hand, and a chain upon thy neck."
You see what a... That's... No matter how loved
you were of your mother and your father, no matter how good the
house was you were born into, Before God, in our sin nature,
that was our condition. That we were like an aborted
child. We were like a child cast out
and polluted. And God came to where we were and spread the
garment of His righteousness over us and loved us. It was
a time of love. And He decked us with the riches
of His grace and the ornaments of His grace and made a covenant
with us. And that covenant was, in Christ
we're accepted by God because of what He's done for us. So,
if we didn't do anything to make Him accept us, and we didn't
do anything to make Him love us, and there was no condition
in us that made Him love us, there's no condition in us that's
going to make Him stop loving us. It's all by His grace. That's
the good news of the Gospel. Alright, let's look at this third
thing. And here's the best thing. Christ went to the cross for
us. He went to the cross for His elect. Look at verse 16.
Behold, I have graven Thee upon the palms of My hands. Now you
think about this ladies, let's say you spent all day long and
you went out to the nicest store you could find and you bought,
you've been saving up all by yourself and you went out and
you bought the biggest thickest steak you could find and you
went home and cooked it up just right you got the table all set
you got everything done you went bought a nice gift and you did
all this extra special spent all this time and money and labor
for your spouse you got everything ready and he come home and he
sits down and he eats it and he opens the gift and he likes
everything you've given him And then he starts saying, I'm just
not sure you love me. You'd think, what's wrong with
you, scoundrel? All this I've done for you and
you still don't, you don't think I love you? Think about what
Christ has done for us. Think about what he's done for
us. Think of what all he has given. Think of God the Father
gave his only son. He came to where we are in this
earth to save us. I was telling the brethren down
there that everywhere we go, there's a bad neighborhood. It
doesn't matter where you live, here, Mexico, north, south, east,
west, there's that neighborhood that you're scared of, that neighborhood
you're afraid to go in, that neighborhood that you're afraid
for your children to go into. that you want to stay away from.
Well, that neighborhood is this earth. That neighborhood is where
we live all over, good, bad, and ugly. That's where we live.
And God sent His own Son into this neighborhood to live for
us, to work out a righteousness for His people, to lay down His
life for us, and to purge us of all our sin. Considering Him
that endured such a contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. That's what the Hebrew
writer said. He was tempted in all points
like as we are so that he can comfort us and like only a tender,
loving father can. Act like as a father pitieth
his children, so he pitieth us. And then he says here, I engraved
you on my hands. Think about that. Our name was
written in His book before the world began. God wrote the name
of all His elect in the Lamb's book of life before the world
began. And when Christ entered into covenant agreement with
God the Father, He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. All spiritual blessings were given to His people. We
were justified in eternity whenever Christ agreed to lay down His
life for us. But He came and in time He went
to the cross and He had nails hammered through His literal,
physical hands. And He suffered in body, being
made the sins of His people in body. Why did He have a body
made? Why did He have to come in a
body? If it was just that God could
just declare us just and righteous, then why couldn't He just declare
us just and righteous? Something had to happen. He had
to have a body made and he had to come and he had to be made
sin for us. He had to be made the guilty
one. He had to become the guilty sinner standing in the room of
every one of his elect people. And then God's just to pour out
wrath upon him, to pour out punishment upon him, justice upon him, justly,
because he's the one that's guilty now. And he did that, and when
he suffered on that cross, he cried out, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And because he cried that out,
brethren, you and I will never be forsaken of God Almighty,
because he forsook his son. That's why Christ was sweating
great drops of blood in the garden. Oh, imputation is so real. It's
so real that Christ was the guilty sinner standing before God. You go with him there to Gethsemane's
garden and you see him there sweating those great drops of
blood. You see him there in agony of soul with his heart broken
within him because he's about to go before the father of his
love and be made a wretched, defiled, putrid thing in the
eyes of his father. Then you follow him to Pilate's
hall and see him there in charge of everything. He told Peter,
when Peter drew that sword, cut off that soldier's ear, he said,
Peter, put your sword up. If I wanted to call, if I wanted
to call right now on the Father, he'd give me, he'd give me a,
I forget how many he said, but a bunch of legions of angels.
I think he said ten or something like that. He'd give me a thousand
angels if I wanted them. And he said, If you live by the
sword, you're going to die by the sword. If you try to make
your life by the strength of your hand and by the act of your
will and by the saving of your own hand, by the heaping up treasures
for yourself and works for yourself and looking to yourself and how
you're going to clothe and provide shelter and food and raiment
for yourself, you'll die by that sword. Because God won't have
it. He just won't have us coming
into His presence trying to earn salvation by the work of our
hand. And that's all it is. That's why covetousness is idolatry. It's man worship. But there He is, this One who's
in charge of everything and He goes to Pilate's hall and He
gave His back to the smiters. He gave His face to them to pluck
off the hairs of His beard. He gave Himself to endure that
suffering. And there they are thinking,
we've got him now. We've got him right where we want him now.
We're fixing to nail him to the cross and get rid of him so we
can go on with our charade of religion and keeping God's law. And so they took the lawgiver,
they took the judge, they took God, they took the prince of
life, and they took him to the cross and they nailed him to
the cross, doing exactly what he purposed before to be done
and exactly what he was orchestrating as they were doing it. and then
go there to that cross and see Him sitting there on that cross
and see Him, wrinkles in His body, see Him
bearing the agony, see Him bearing the wrath, see Him bearing in
His soul the very forsaking of God in eternal justice. and see
that sun blotted out, see that darkness over the face of the
earth, and see that veil split right in two, and see that there's
no ark in there, there's no mercy seat in there, there's no high
priest in there, there's no lamb in there, there's no blood in
there, there's no incense in there, there's no cloud in there,
because He's the one that pictured all of that. And the law's done,
the law's accomplished. He satisfied everything and quit
looking at the law. Men quit talking about trying
to save ourselves by the law. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. What do I have to have to enter
glory? Righteousness. Christ is that righteousness.
And if I turn my hand again to the law, I'm saying, no, he's
not enough. I don't believe he's enough.
I believe I can do something to bring myself to God and God'll
cast us off into hell forever. and go with Him from the cross
and go with Him to the tomb and look in that empty tomb and see,
look all around it, go from one side of it to the other and look
all around in that tomb and you'll find out there's not a body in
that tomb. Because He satisfied justice
for His people. He fulfilled the covenant for
His people before God Almighty and God in covenant faithfulness
raised Him from the dead just as He promised and didn't suffer
His soul to see corruption. And He gave Him a covenant of
the people, setting Him at the right hand of the Father, declaring
that He's satisfied with His Son, that all His children are
just in His Son. And when you don't see Christ's
body in that tomb, don't see your own body in that tomb, because
it's not going to stay there either. Our spirit's going to
go to be with him immediately when we die. And when he returns,
our bodies are going to be raised from the grave and we're going
to have a perfect body. In fact, when we get there, we'll
all already be there in body, soul and spirit. It'll be done.
He's eternal. He don't work on time. That's
just all our, our realm of understanding. When we get there, it'll be done. Everybody will be there. We'll
all be there. And then you go with Him to the
right hand of the Father. And you see Him seated there
at the right hand of the Father. And you see the everlasting,
eternal, never-changing smile of God the Father looking upon
His Son with delight and with acceptance. You see all the host
of angels gather around praising Him and rejoicing in Him and
all the spirits of just men made perfect there rejoicing over
Him and praising Him for how righteous and holy and perfect
and and praiseworthy of all the righteous praise of God. And
see yourself sitting right there with Him. And hear God saying,
well done, my good and faithful servant. Because God's elect
people right now in this earth where we are, even though we
dwell in a body of sin, even though we have sin mixed with
all we do, even though we're full of this unbelief, even when
we're sitting here saying, the Lord's forgotten me, the Lord's
forsaken me, By what Christ has done in Christ Jesus, we are
righteous and holy as God's own Son. That's right. God remembers
the sin no more. There's no record of it, period.
To where if it was sought for, you couldn't find it. That's
right. So see yourself sitting there
with Him, with that same smile of God toward you, and hear Him
say this, now, after I've done all this for you, after I've
given the ultimate sacrifice for you, after I've come and
done all the work that was required to do so that I could save you
and do it in a manner that's just and holy and right, after
I've done all this, do you really think I'm going to forsake you
and forget you? Your sins, your iniquities, this
ungodly, hell-deserving doubt and unbelief? Yes, I forget all
that. Your sins and iniquities, I remember
no more. But you? No way. I'll never forget you. That's
what God says. I will never forget you. I will
keep you. I will never forget you. And
so look at those nail-pierced hands. Look at those nail-pierced
hands. And when you see those pierced
hands, you see that's what God's done for you. And he says, now,
when you're doubting, you're sitting there and you're saying,
well, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make ends meet.
I don't know if we're going to be able to do this and that and
keep the house going and provide and all these things and promote
the gospel and what have you. Stop just a minute. Stop just
a minute and reach out your fingers and touch him in those holes
and stretch forth your hand and put them into his pierced side.
Be not faithless, but believing. And know that if he's provided
himself for you, he will provide everything else for you. I'm so thankful for everything
that my earthly father provided for me. I'm so thankful we didn't
have everything, but we didn't lack anything. But it was because
he worked seven days a week on a cold, hard cement floor cutting
meat in a meat market. Seven days a week, all the time.
And I wouldn't take away one minute for what he did for me
and for my sister and my mother at all. I'll tell you the one
thing I wish I would have had. I wish I had a father that gave
more time to the gospel and taught me the gospel and spent more
time with me. I'd have traded everything else
for that. Don't let those things be your
life. Christ is our life. He's the one thing needful. You
know what I'm saying. I'm saying don't neglect those
things, but I'm saying don't make those things your preeminent
concern. Christ is One, we gotta have
Christ as the bread we gotta give our children. Christ is
the robe of righteousness we gotta clothe our children with.
And I know we can't do it, but we can walk in the light he's
given us and teach him what he's taught us. And by his grace,
maybe he'll teach them in heart and spirit and truth. And you
understand what I'm saying? So here's what He says to you,
if you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on this earth, for you're dead.
You're dead. You already died. You already
died. Your life's here with God in
Christ. And when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then
shall you also appear with Him in glory. Christ is our life.
All right, here's the fourth thing. This is the last thing.
I'll be brief here. But remember this. It's not our
assurance that saves us. Christ is the one who saves us.
Look at verse 16. Now watch this. He says, Thy
walls are continually before me. His people are living stones
that He's built up into His walls, that He's making up into a wall.
This body right here is a wall. That church in Cancun is a wall. That church in Merida is a wall.
That church in Danville is a wall. And all thy walls, all your churches,
they're continually before me. And all your protection, Him
guarding us round about and protecting us, hedging us about like a wall.
Our walls are before Him. In other words, He's the one
that's continually protecting us. Even when you have no assurance,
even when you think the walls are broke down, even when you
and I think that we can't even hold our head up because we're
so full of doubt and unbelief. It changed the fact He's the
one keeping us and protecting us and doing the whole work.
Our walls are before Him continually. Our assurance don't save us,
Christ does. And then he says here, thy children shall make
haste. You know how many times I walk
around in pace and preach to Melinda and the kids and thinking,
oh, it's just all going to just fold up and fade away into nothing. Nobody's coming. Folks come.
They don't come and stay. Next thing you know, they act
like the first time they ever heard what you're saying, they
walk out and leave. But this is what he said. He said there
before when Christ walked this earth, he said, I've labored
in vain, I've done all this for naught. And he said, but my judgment's
with the Father. And he says here to us now, don't
you worry, your children, my elect, your children, your brothers
and sisters, those I'm going to call out, they're going to
make haste. They're going to come. Whenever God speaks the
Word, He's going to draw them. He gives them a heart for some
reason you don't even know and they just come and then they
start hearing the gospel and He's working all of it together
to bring them under the sound of the gospel And then he'll
speak into their heart and he'll teach him and when he does they'll
make haste they'll come quickly They won't tarry when he speaks
in power and that way I don't have to sit up at night and wring
my hands and worry about it He's the head of the church. He's
the head of the house. He's the head of the family He's the one
planting the stones in this wall and all our children are gonna
come when he brings them And I know where they are. I trust
Him. But I stand there all the time
thinking all those things and what all I'm doing when I'm thinking
those things is thinking He's forsaken me and He's forgotten
me. And He said, it don't matter if you think I've forsaken you
or forgotten you. You're not. I'm bringing them when I bring
them. And they're coming when I tell them to come. And then
look at verse 17. He says, and thy destroyers and
they that made thee waste, they're going to tuck tail and run. when
I send them out. And that's true. Folks that would destroy you,
folks that just are like chihuahuas nipping at your heels all the
time and would destroy you and would break you down and break
down these walls and break up the church and divide the brethren
and cause you all kind of trouble. If they're around, therefore
you're good. They teach you to cling to Christ. But Christ says,
but all your destroyers, the Satan and his accusations, all
the powers and principalities and rulers of the darkness and
high places that you wrestle against, all of the civil corruption,
all of the corruption of men that come and sneak into the
church and would do damage to the church. He said, when I speak,
they're going to go, they're going to tell and run. So it
doesn't really matter, brethren, whether you have great assurance
in what God's doing or not. It don't change the fact God's
doing it for his people. So get this settled. Christ says,
I will not forget you. I will not forget you. If our
acceptance with God was determined by the quality of our faith,
we would perish. We would perish. But thanks be
to God, our acceptance is in the object of our faith, Christ
Jesus. And he has spent too much on
his work to stop now. So, look away from yourself.
Look away from your doubting. Look away from your not doubting. Look away from your confidence
and look away from your lack of confidence. It never fails
when somebody's a doubter. If their spouse is not and doesn't
doubt, spouse walks around with a chest poked out, proud that
they don't doubt. And I'm just so sure I'm going
to be saved. Well, they need to look away from that
too. Look away from the doubting and from the not doubting. Away
from the confidence and the lack of confidence. Look to Christ.
Rest in Christ only and leave it all in his hands. All Christ's
virtues are our virtues. Faithfulness, holiness, righteousness,
perfection. They're ours. And Christ is our
covenant to God. Our acceptance and God, Christ
is God's covenant to us that we're accepted in Him. So rest
in Christ. The calling and the gifts of
God are, He doesn't change them. He doesn't give them and then
take them back. They're without dependence. So just trust Him
because Christ says, I will not forget you. I will not forget
you. Even when you've forgotten Him,
even when you've forgotten that He said, I will not forget you,
He still will not forget you. That's right. And just rest there. Amen.