Once again the help of God would
like us to turn together to the chapter that we read, Isaiah
49, reading from verse 14 to 16. But Zion said, The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 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. So we get to the end of the Book
of Isaiah. The Prophet begins to bring about
those comforting words to the people of Israel as they come
to the end of their period of captivity, having been in Babylon
for those 70 years. and then the Lord begins that
process of bringing them out and to encourage them that the
time is nearly there for their for their deliverance that he
was going to make a way for them to come out of Babylon and head
back into to Israel and we know how he raises up the Nehemiah
and Ezra as they begin to build the temple and they begin to
build the the walls of Jerusalem and that the Lord says that he
is going to make this way for them. Also, as with the Book
of Isaiah, there is that constant thread of the encouragement of
the coming servant of the Lord, the coming Messiah, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the entwining of these great promises that
were to the people of Israel and God's great deliverance to
them, to their ultimate delivery of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the coming of that great deliverance that would
be from sin and that would be able to span not just to Israel,
to the people of God, but to spread over the whole earth. There would be no bounds to or
boundaries to this kingdom. Behold, in verse 12, behold,
these shall come from far and lo, these shall come from the
north and from the west, these from the land of Sinim. And so there was going to be
this great spread of the gospel as the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ as he came. And as the prophets began to
prophesy regarding this deliverance from Babylon and so there was
that beautiful flowing together of that greater prophet, that
greater deliverance with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they
began to be encouraged by that. Christ was going to to come in
verse one. Listen O Isles unto me and hearken
ye people from far the Lord has called me from the womb from
the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name he has
made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand has
he hid me and made me a polished shaft and his quiver hath he
had he hid me thou art my servant o israel in whom i will be glorified
and so the lord jesus was going to come and his word was going
to be as the word of a sharp sword and that the word of the
lord is as a sharp sword able to divide the soul asunder and
so the word of the lord jesus christ was going to come and
it was going to be the word of god as he speaks we see that
his speaking as God, he is God, and that his word was going to
be a powerful word. But as the prophets prophesied,
the people were still in captivity. As they heard about this great
deliverance, yet they are still They are still under the yoke
of bondage, yoke of slavery. And so they're hearing these
beautiful promises that are happening and yet they are not seeing anything
take place. They're hearing of this one that
is going to come, this great deliverer. It's one that's going
to remove the boundaries. The one who's going to have this
powerful word. The one who is going to be the
light. And yet they're waiting and they're
waiting and they're waiting and nothing seems to happen. And
how often that is with us in prolonged trial and prolonged
difficulties. We have the word. We hear it
preached, we may read books and read of the different experiences
of others and yet we look at our own lives and we see well
it's not happening. It's just dragging out and dragging
out and dragging out. I'm hearing these beautiful promises
of that the Lord's people are not to fear. That the Lord is
a God who is near at hand. That he is a deliverer. He is
all mighty. He is all powerful. He is able
to deliver. Yet in my own life I'm not experiencing,
I'm not seeing it. And we come like the people of
Israel and we say that God's forgotten us. But Zion says, the Lord has forsaken
me and my Lord has forgotten me. In response to verse 13,
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. Sometimes when you are in deep
experiences of life. And people come to you and they
say, you know, draw near to the Lord and you'll have joy. Lay hold of the promises of God
and you'll experience a peace. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding. Think of heaven
Try and imagine how it would be. And they try and lift you
up out of the situation that you are in. But nothing seems to happen.
Rather the situation seems darker. They're trying to encourage you.
They're trying to help you along the way and yet they seem to
be making matters worse. seem to be putting obstacles
in your way and Satan comes and says well why aren't you feeling
like this? Why don't you have any joy? Why
don't you have any comfort? Why don't you have any peace?
Well it's because you're not truly one of the Lord's people. If you were one of the Lord's
you could pass through all manner of difficulty and it wouldn't
have any effect upon you, you'd be so close to God. You would
experience that joy, you'd just be like the Apostle Paul who
was able to experience great hardship and difficulty and yet
he had such peace and faith in God. And so instead of the encouragements
you feel, it seems to make you harder and harder and you begin
to think that God has forgotten you. the prophets come to Israel and
they say the time's nearly nearly over it's going to finish soon
they look at the situation that they're in and they say well
it doesn't look like it I don't seem to be feeling the message
that you're saying. It seems to us that God has forgotten
us. It seems to us that God has abandoned
us, that we're just left here in this isolated, hostile land,
in captivity. And to them, what they saw was
that they were forsaken. and forgotten about. They complained. Now 70 years
is a long time isn't it to go through a trial. Some people you know those with
bodily weaknesses carry that body their whole life.
It's a trial. Israel 70 years. 400 years in Egypt. Slavery. You know the longer
a trial goes on the more difficult it is to believe that it will
ever end. We think maybe it's coming to
a close and then something else comes in and it ignites it all
again. And it just seems to go on and
on and on. And we begin to think, well,
God, it doesn't seem to be hearing my prayers. Satan says, well,
just give up praying. Stop praying. What's the point?
He's forgotten all about you. He doesn't even know you exist. He doesn't hear your prayers
because you're not one of his people. He hears the prayers
of the righteous. You're not righteous so he's
not going to listen to you. And so you come to the conclusion
he's forgotten you. He's abandoned you. The trial's
too long. If God was a God of love he would
have delivered you already. But the trial goes on. The trial went on for Babylon.
for the people of Israel in Babylon. There was a time set that God
would deliver them. His purposes would come about.
His plans were already in place. That he had his men that he was
raising up for the very purpose of deliverance. That he was going
to bring them out. We cannot see the hidden will
of God. We have the promises of God.
We know that all things work together for good but we cannot
see how God works out his purposes underneath the hidden situations
of people's lives that he's working everything for the good of his
individual people. And just because we cannot see
the hidden cogs working does not mean that God's will is not
progressing in our lives. You think of a car engine. You
see the movement. Inside of that engine there's
lots of things going on that are unseen. And God's will is
like that. He has his hidden will, multiple
cogs all working together in different places to bring about
the ultimate revealed purpose of his will in the lives of his
people. And so as the prophets are prophesying,
this is going to take place. This is going to happen. You're
going to be delivered. There's going to be a greater
deliverer, the servant of the Lord who is going to come. What
they see is not what they are hearing. And so they are discouraged. We don't see that. We don't feel
like singing because we are still prisoners. We are still slaves.
God has forgotten us. It can be like that in our own
lives in deep trials. Providential things that we don't
understand. God moves in a mysterious way
we sing and when we are trying to live a life where we want
to understand all that is going on we don't like the mystery
of God's will. The mystery of God's will makes
us think that God has forgotten all about us and we have to walk by faith
and not by sight. We think well God has forgotten
me. It's very easy to trust God when everything is going smoothly,
when all the way is mapped out and planned. Well, this is what
I'm doing tomorrow. This is what I'm doing the next
day. This is what I'm doing the next day. I've ordered everything
as it is going to be. And then God says, well, no. And then you have to walk in
the darkness. You have to grope in the darkness. We don't like groping in the
darkness. We don't like walking by faith.
The flesh does not like walking by faith. We think that God has forgotten
us. The flesh seems to think that we deserve something from
God, clarity. But the clarity that we have
is here, written in the Word of God. All of God's will is
written here and recorded here for the good of his dear people. And it was all laid out before
Israel. This is what's going to happen. But because they couldn't
see it, because they couldn't feel it, they said, God's forgotten us. It's too mysterious for us, we
don't understand. Also spiritually. Sometimes we can be praying for
things when we don't get an answer immediately.
We become discouraged. We give up. We don't see something happening
straight away. We say well God's ear is deaf
unto me. Those things that I once enjoyed
were just like false comforts but now God
has forgotten all about me. We lack assurance of our salvation. We're filled with doubts. We
look at our self, our flesh, and we think, well, these thoughts,
these actions, this coldness, this hard-heartedness, this anger,
this whatever it is that's indwelling within us, this sin. And we think, well, this is the
reason that God's not answering. If only I was a bit more zealous,
if only I was a bit more not lukewarm or if only I was a bit
more earnest in prayer then God would hear me. We become discouraged and we
abandon the throne of grace. We say God has forgotten me. In Psalm 13. The psalmist says, how long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long will I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God. Lighten my eyes lest I sleep
the sleep of death. The psalmist there is in a similar
situation to the people of Israel and in a similar situation to
many of the Lord's people. How long? How long will thou
forget me forever? What a dark place it is when
we feel like the Lord has forgotten us, abandoned us. It just seemed
to get consumed with darkness. We look through the word of God
and we see a promise and we think well that's not for me. That's
for somebody else. That'll do somebody else good
but that doesn't seem to do me any good. It brings no comfort.
There's no faith attached to that. And we say, will you forget
me forever? Will you hide your face from
me? How long am I going to have to
continue praying? And how long is it going to be
until I receive the answer that I so desire? Consider and hear me, O Lord,
my God. Put some light upon the situation. And as time progresses. They become
impatient. Very dangerous isn't it to think
that we deserve an answer. The only reason we are able to
receive any answers from God is because of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the promises of God are yes and amen in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the only reason we can receive
anything at the hand of God is because of Christ. All blessings
and graces flow through him. And when we begin to think that
we deserve this and we deserve that we've stepped out of our
right place. We no longer believe that we
should experience grace and mercy but we believe that we experience
things that we deserve. Maybe that's why our prayers
are not being hurt. Maybe that's
why the Lord is delaying because we are asking amiss. We're requesting
things that he doesn't want us to have. We're thinking that we deserve
when we don't deserve. In anger remember mercy. How long, O Lord? If you remember Moses, when Moses
went up into the mountain to get the Ten Commandments,
it took a long time. The people began to grumble and
to complain. As for this Moses, we don't know
what's become of him. And so they turned to idols which they had been forbidden
to have. And when we are unpatient it can cause us to sin. It can cause us to grumble and
complain about present situations. It can cause us to be uncontent. It can cause us to doubt the
goodness of God. When we feel that we deserve
an answer right away. We have need of patience, the
scripture says. The fruit of the Spirit, love,
joy and patience. Waiting upon God is proof that
we are willing to sit under his feet and to continue petitioning
him at the throne of grace until we receive the answers to our
requests. But when we petition and we storm
off because God hasn't done what we want to do We're in sin. They complained against God. He gave them a promise. And they
said, well, we don't see these things happening. So God has
forgotten us. God can't lie. You know when
we come to a point in our life and we say God has forgotten
us we're going against the Word
of God. When we begin to grumble and
complain because of the situations of
life we're ultimately complaining to God. because it's God that's
brought us into the pathway that we're walking. And he does all
things good for his people. If we begin to rebel and we're
rebelling against his goodness just because we don't understand
exactly what he is doing. Just like these, they didn't
understand. They didn't understand the prophet's
words. So they said, well, God's forgotten
us. Doesn't feel like he's delivering
us. But he was going to. Our feelings can cause us great problems. This is why we are told to walk
by faith and not by sight. Walk by faith in the Word of
God and not by sight or by feeling. I think it's Martin Luther who
wrote the hymn, Feelings come and feelings go and feelings
are deceitful. You think how often your feelings
alter throughout the day. Up and down, cold and hot, constantly
changing. Now our love to God is constantly
varied. Our faith is up and down. Even
our prayers are inconsistent. And so we're told to walk by
faith. And here's where faith comes
in. Faith doesn't look at the situation. Faith looks to God
who is unchanging. And God uses this tender image which we all know,
of a woman feeding her baby. Can a woman forget her sucking
child that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Yea, they may forget. Raising children, babies, is hard work. Feeding in the night, every two
or three hours. Women forget. Women fall asleep. Think of Solomon with those two
ladies who were brought before him. One of those ladies had
overlaid her child. Of course she would have loved
that child just as much as the other lady. Yet in the night
she laid on it and it died. Even in our most closest relationships
on earth we're able to forget. There are ladies that have left
their children in the shops. There are ladies who have left
their children in the car. The closest bond there is, that
bond can be forgotten about. Maybe something distracts them.
Maybe they're tired and they fall asleep. And so God says, can a woman
forget her sucking child? Yes, she is able to do that.
Even though the bond is so great, even so the love is so great,
even the dependency is so great, yet they can forget. But, or
yet, I will not forget thee. Their accusation to God was that
God had forgotten them. But it was them who had forgotten
him. They had forgotten who he was.
They had forgotten his covenant. They had forgotten his nature,
his character, his attributes. And he is a God who is slow to
anger, plenteous in mercy, full of compassion, abounding in love
towards the people of Israel. They were there because of discipline.
God was going to bring them out it was them who had forgotten
the goodness of God and not God who had forgotten about them.
He says you even forget your children you even forget those
things that are so close to you I will never forget you. He can't. God cannot forget Scripture tells us that we were
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. God knew his people
before they even were born, before their parents were born, grandparents.
Right down to Adam God knew exactly who his people would be chosen
before the foundation of the world. How could he forget? He could never forget. Goes against
his nature, his attributes of all-knowing. But more than that,
he says, not that I will not forget you. You are actually
engraven upon the palms of my hands. Engraven. Permanently. infixed into the
palms of my hands. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What did he say to Thomas? Reach hither your finger and
put them into the palms of my hands. Thrust them into my side. That is how God knows his people. because he died for his people. We may forget him. We may forget
his goodness, his mercy, his love, his past deliverances,
his past loving cares, his past providential blessings. We may
forget all of that. Yet he will never forget you. Why? you're engraven into the
palms of his hands because he died upon the cross at Calvary
for every single one of his people and he knows them who they are
and he knows exactly their names. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. They are permanently held in
his knowledge He put Israel in Babylon because of their sin
and he was going to deliver them. He gave his people to the Lord
Jesus Christ to deliver them from the captivity
of sin and of Satan from the kingdom of darkness. He knows
each of his people, they are graven upon the palms of his
hands. And then he says, thy walls are
continually before me. For the people of Israel, that
wall of Jerusalem which had been broken down, God was going to
send Nehemiah and the other Jews there to restore it all again. And their continued boundary
was ever before God. With Christ that boundary, the
boundary of the heavenly Jerusalem is without bounds. It is a worldwide movement we can say. And that
gospel goes forth to gather in all nations. He says, I will
build my church. and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Even today he is still building
his church. He is still adding to that number
of those people, those heavenly, lively, living stones. And his people, Jerusalem, the
heavenly Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the bride, they are continually before God. Do not think that
God doesn't know where you are. Do not think that what you are
passing through at this present time the Lord doesn't know what
you are passing through. It may look like that to you
with your eyes but when you put on your eyes of faith then you
will see that he loved you before the foundation of the world.
You may forget things but God will never ever forget you. Why? Because he gave you to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ still today at the right
hand of the Father bears the marks of those nails in his hands. He stands there as his people's
great high priest ever interceding for his people. and all of the
Lord's people, they are continually before Almighty God. But Zion said, The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget
her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yea, or yes, they may forget,
yet will I not forget thee. Behold, look at this. I have
graven thee on the palms of my hands, and thy walls are continually
before me. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Our final hymn this evening is
from Hymns for Worship, number 176, to the tune 758. 176. Abide with me, fast falls
the eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord, with
me abide. Whenever helpers fail and comforts
flee, help of the helpless. O abide with me. 176. ? Hearts close in and tight ? ?
The darkness deepens ? ? Lord, with me abide ? ? When other
helpers fail and comforts flee ? and so am I with thee. Faith to its clouds raise the
blind's little gaze, let your whispered hymns' glories pass
away. Change and decay in all the world
I see. Thou who changest not, abide
with me. For the tempter's power. Moon, hide thyself. Mind, guidance take a beat. With thee I've come to bless,
ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness. Where is this thing? Where, grave, thy victory? Before my closing eyes, He jive
through the earth, and by three to the sky. May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us each now and forevermore.
Amen.