Isaiah chapter 49. The title of the message, God
will not forget you. God will not forget you. He said,
I will not. I will not forget thee. Isn't
that comforting? No matter how dark things may
seem to us, God says, I will not forget you. In the previous
chapter, 48, God had been speaking to Israel. He spoke to them, look over in
chapter 48 verse 1. Hear ye this, O house of Jacob,
which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth
out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord,
and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor
in righteousness. And he points out their sins
and their captivity in Babylon. And toward the end of the chapter,
he tells them how he's going to deliver them. He says, go
forth of Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans. Do it so with the
voice of singing, because I'm going to deliver you. You're
gonna come out of that captivity. And then here in chapter 49,
he turns and he speaks to us. He's speaking to us, Gentiles. And he says here in verse 1,
listen, I told you in the Bible class, listen. Are you interested? Did you come
here this morning with an interest in hearing from God? Did you? He says, listen. When we read
the Word of God, it is God speaking. I tell you this, there's no difference
in God speaking through His Word, through the reading of His Word
in God Himself, in Christ standing here speaking. When Christ was
in the flesh speaking, He's the Word of God. When He spoke, God
spoke. And when we read the Word of
God, it's like we were back in the study and Bill read from
Psalm 135. As he read from Psalm 135, verse
by verse, That's God speaking. It's not just Bill reading. It's
not just me reading. It's God speaking. I can't emphasize
that enough. That's why our Lord said, Take
heed how you hear. For with what measure you meet
it with, it shall be measured to you again. Listen. O Gentiles, unto me,
and hearken, give me your attention, you people from far, you who
were strangers and far off, as it says in Ephesians 2. The Lord
hath called me from the womb, this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. And He's telling us something here, us Gentiles. He's saying, the Lord Jehovah,
the self-existing One, hath called me from the womb, from the bowels
of my mother. Hath He made mention of my name? A virgin shall conceive. A child
shall be born. My name has been mentioned. Thou
shalt call His name Jesus. And here's what he's saying is,
listen, God's speaking good news to sinners. For 4,000 years this
wasn't preached to the Gentiles. Good news was not sent to the
Gentiles. But now he's saying it is, it's going to be sent
to the Gentiles. You know, we learn most when we listen. That's
why God said, be still and know that I'm God. this message of
salvation that shall be given to the Jews from Babylon, over
in chapter 48. He's speaking here that there's
going to be a far greater salvation than that, than just being delivered
from the Babylonians. He's speaking of their deliverance
from the Babylonians. He said, but there's a far greater...
Look at the big picture. There's a far greater, bigger
picture to look at in this matter of salvation. God's going to save sinners throughout
the whole world. He made it. You know, God created
man upon this earth. And from that man, Adam, came
the whole population of the earth. And God's going to save sinners
out of all nations and tongues and tribes He's going to save
sinners. God's purpose has always been
to save sinners in Christ throughout the whole world. That's always been His purpose.
And His commission here, listen, He called me. You know that Jesus
Christ is the first one called? He called me and He's called
us all you who believe. He's called us in Christ. He called us in Christ, but Christ
is the first called. God called Him to this work.
He's called us to salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus
Christ was called to the work, the Son of God. He was called
to accomplish a work. And He says, from the womb. Listen,
first of all, from the womb of eternity. We know eternity has
no beginning, that's why it's called eternity. Back there,
beyond any comprehension on our part, He says, I was called. I was set up from everlasting.
That's what He says in Proverbs 8. I was set up from everlasting. Set up to be the Redeemer, the
Mediator, the Surety, the Savior of sinners. called from the womb
of eternity, called to be the servant of God. Jesus Christ
came into this world, the Son of God came into this world,
took upon Him flesh, and He became God's servant. He served God. He's the perfect servant. He
served Him willingly. Our will is not perfect. If our
will was perfect, we wouldn't be disappointed when things don't
go our way. We make plans and they don't
go our way, and we're upset, and we're just frustrated. Our
Lord was never that way, because He perfectly submitted to the
will of God. I wish we were, and someday we
will be when sin is gone. But He's the perfect servant,
and He's God's servant. He came to serve. He said He
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
His life a ransom for many. That's what He came to do. And then He says there in verse
2, And He hath made My mouth like a sharp sword. and the shadow of his hand hath
he hid me, and made me a polished shaft, and his quiver hath he
hid me." They said, never a man speak like this man. They said, he doesn't speak like
one of the scribes, he speaks with authority. Jesus Christ is the Word of God. He's the Word of God. in the flesh, but He's God's
Word. And when He spoke, He spoke with
authority. And when His Word went forth
from His mouth, hearts were pierced. My words can affect you. My words can affect you. You
know, words can be powerful. Sticks and stones may break my
bones, but words won't hurt me. Oh, they hurt more than sticks
and stones. I'm telling you, words hurt far
more than sticks and stones. You can get over a bruise. A
broken arm can be healed by someone hit you with a stick, but a word
spoken with evil intent, a word spoken in harshness can never
be forgotten, except by the grace of God. It
cuts to the heart. But now when our Lord speaks,
He can pierce the heart and lay it wide open. He can reveal what's
going on in the heart, that you and I can't see each other's
heart, but He sees it. You know, the Scripture says
over in Hebrews that His word is sharper than any two-edged
sword, dividing asunder. Dividing asunder. And He says here, He hid me.
In the shadow of His hand, He hid me. Our Lord was hid in types and
in pictures for a long time. He was hid. We looked at Ephesians,
I believe, last week. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ was hid, He says, from ages. It was hid from ages. He hid me in types and pictures,
and he protected me with his hand. In the shadow of his hand,
I was protected. Herod tried to kill him. He killed,
listen, all the two-year-olds. There were two-year-olds and
under. He had him killed. Can you imagine that? He didn't
realize it, and it was painful. And they wept, and there was
a great lament that went up. But you know, those two-year-olds,
they went to glory. He killed them because he was
trying to get to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then many of the Jews tried
to kill him along the way, but they couldn't do it because he
said, my hour hasn't yet come. My hour has not yet come. He
hid me and He protected me. And He said to me, Thou art my
servant, O Israel. And He's speaking here to the
Lord. You know what? Israel means Prince of God. That's
who Jesus is. He is the Prince of God. He's
it. O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. He's God's servant. And like
Israel, He hath power with God. He said, Father, I know you always
hear me. I know you always hear me. In Christ, God the Father will
be glorified in his life of obedience, in his death. their satisfaction,
and in His final glory, every knee is going to bow to Him,
and every tongue is going to confess that He is Lord to the
glory of God the Father. And this seems out of place,
but it's not. He said, I've labored in vain. He said, I've labored in vain.
I've spent my strength for nothing. It's all in vain. But yet, he
said, yet surely my judgment's with the Lord and my work is
with my God, but I've labored in vain. Is this the Lord speaking?
Is this the Lord? If you take his time on earth,
you take his ministry there in Jerusalem, very few believed, very few believed. The most of them stood there
in that crowd saying, crucify him, crucify him. They all turned on him. He wept
over Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And
he wept over Jerusalem. Outward appearance, it looked
that way. But he says, that's not the way it is. That's not
the way it is. My judgment's with the Lord and
my work is with my God. I'm successful. My work is successful. God will vindicate me. God will
be the judge of His work and He will vindicate me. Our
work in the Lord and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is never
ever in vain. Never in vain. You know, if I
was to go somewhere, let's say I was called as a missionary
to go to Africa or China or North Korea or someplace, and one person,
God saved one person, what a successful ministry. What
a successful ministry. What if you're that one person?
I wonder if you were that one person, you'd say, it was a success
because God saved me. And now saith the Lord that formed
me from the womb. The manhood, the human nature
of Jesus Christ was formed of God. The Son was given, it says in
Isaiah, The Son was given, the Child was born. There's a time
when the manhood of Christ did not exist, but there's never
a time that Christ, the Son of God, did not exist. That's so. But He formed me in
the womb to be His servant, right from the beginning to be His
servant. No greater station in life, no
greater position in life was ever honored than when Jesus
Christ was made a servant of God. That's the greatest honor
ever put upon any position and station in life, to be as the
servant of God, is when the Lord Jesus Christ became a servant. 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. For the most part, as I said,
when he was on this earth, most of Israel was lost. You know,
when they came out of Egypt, how many went into the promised
land from the original group? Two, just two. Those 20 years
old and younger went into the Promised Land. But Joshua and
Caleb were the only two of that original group that went in.
But he says here, "...Yet, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall
I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord." Because that's His
Son. That's God's Son. Don't judge His work by feeble
sense. or outward appearance, He's glorious
in the eyes of the Lord. And I tell you what, when this
is all over, there's going to be a multitude there in heaven
saved by Jesus, saved by that one man, Jesus Christ, that no
man can number. No man can number. And He said here in verse 6,
now this is God speaking to Him, speaking to Christ, God the Father
speaking to Him. 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'll give thee for
a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be my salvation until
the end of the earth. What does he mean it's a light
thing? He's saying here, God, the Father
speaking to his servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a light
thing. that Israel should be delivered
from the Babylonians. It's a light thing for God to
deliver me out of any trouble on this earth. It's a light thing
for God to deliver Israel from a bunch of clay pots. That's
all they are. They're just men. That's all
they are, they're just men. It's not a difficult matter for
God to deliver us out of earthly troubles. But now he's going
to lift our sights above this earth. And he's saying it's a light
thing. It's an easy thing just to deliver from temporal troubles. But here's the great thing. Here's the greatness of salvation. He's going to deliver men and
women all over this earth from the wrath of God, from the hands
of justice. You know, God's law got you.
It's got me. It had us. It legally had us. We were criminals. We were born
criminals. You know that? People try to,
you try to teach your kids to not do this, do that, to keep
them on this side of the law so they'll stay out of trouble,
stay out of jail. But we're born criminals against
God. We're born with a natural enmity
against God. We have a natural aversion to
God, a natural hatred of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
saved us from God. by saving us from our sins, our death, and our natural hatred
of God. Isn't that sad that we are such
a mess? That God himself, and he's the
only one, he's the only one who could save us from himself and
ourself. God's the only one that can do
that. And then He says here, I'll give
thee for a light to the Gentiles. He is the light of God's glory. We see it when we see Him. We
don't see God's glory, we don't understand salvation until we
really see Jesus Christ. We do not see God's righteousness
until we see Him. We don't see sin until we see
Him. You can't understand sin until you have some understanding
of who God is. You can't do it. No more than you can see what's
in a room when the lights are turned off, when it's pitch dark,
and the lights are completely turned off. You can't see what's
in that room, but when the light is turned
on, you can see all the furniture, you can see the dust on the furniture,
you can see that somebody hasn't cleaned the house. You can see all of that. You
can see it. And that's what happens when God saves you. You see. You see sin. You see sin as sin. You don't see sin as mistakes.
You don't see it as bad habits. You see sin as an evil. You see, sin, this is what I
am. Don't just say, Lord, don't just
save me from what I have done, but from what I am. You know,
I ask God all the time, I do. I ask the Lord to forgive me
of my sins and to enable me to overcome this sinful nature that
I still have. Indwelling sin, overcome indwelling
sin. It's one thing to be forgiven
of sins, but it's another thing to overcome indwelling sin. And that takes the power of God.
And when did you see that? When you looked into the face
of Jesus Christ, who is the light. He's the light. In thy light
shall we see light. It's scriptural. He that walks
in the light shall not walk in darkness. If you walk in the
light, you walk in the light of God's Word, you walk in the
light of Revelation, you are not going to walk in darkness.
You're not going to do it. It is totally impossible. It
is impossible to walk in darkness with your eyes open and the light
shining. You go outside right now, your eyes, you've got sight.
It is an impossibility to walk in darkness. The light's shining
and you can see. You've got to be blind, you've
got to be completely blind to walk in darkness. And spiritually,
that's how we are until God gives us light, until we see. And He said, I'll give you as
a light to the Gentiles that thou mayest be, listen, My salvation,
not just salvation, you are My salvation to My people. This is so clear that my salvation
is a person. My salvation is Jesus Christ. God has become my salvation in
the person of His Son. And that man, Jesus Christ, God's
become my salvation. He is salvation itself. He bought
it. He gives it. It's all in Him. All of it. And it's far-reaching. It's far reaching unto the end
of the earth. Unto the end of the earth. There's
no place on this globe that's not going to be unaffected by the gospel. God's going to send it everywhere. The good news is going to go
out. It's going to go over this whole world. I mean, there's people, and I've
told you this before, but there's people from China, and I've sat
with North Korea, listen to the message that you're listening
to this morning. People in all different countries listen to
the message that you're listening to this morning when it goes
on the internet. All over the world, all over
the world. There's no part of this earth
that is too dark where God's grace can't reach,
can't penetrate. You know it says, the light shineth
in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. You know
what that means? The darkness overcame it not. It did not overcome the light.
There's never been an instance where darkness actually overcame
light. Light overcomes darkness. Darkness is the absence of light,
but as soon as the light turns on, darkness is gone. And when
God sends the gospel in power, darkness has to flee. It has
to. I don't want to be guilty of
trying to limit God. There's no one that God can't
save, if he were purposed to save. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and His Holy One," there in verse 7, "...and the Holy One, to Him
whom man despises," this is the Lord Jesus Christ, He was despised,
He's hated and despised of men, "...to Him whom the nations abhor,
to a servant of rulers," what do you mean servant of rulers? He, when he came into this world,
he's God's servant. But remember when they came and
said, does your master pay taxes? What did he do? He paid taxes. He actually bowed to the rules
of Pilate and that Roman Empire. He was a servant to them. In
other words, he obeyed those civil laws. Kings shall see and
arise. Princes also shall worship because
of the Lord that's faithful and the Holy One of Israel. He shall
choose thee. That One who was despised and
rejected of men, He submitted to Pilate. He shall rule, He
shall rule and be mighty on the earth." It looks pretty bleak
right now, doesn't it? When you look out over the landscape of this earth,
and you see what goes on, it looks pretty bleak. But we have
God's Word on it, that the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign, He
is reigning, He shall reign, and all are going to bow to Him. even the kings of the earth,
the mighty men. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable
time have I heard thee, in the day of salvation have I helped
thee. When our Lord prayed, He was heard. In the garden of Gethsemane,
He was heard. God sent angels to minister to
Him. In the wilderness, He was heard. He was heard. He said, I'll preserve
thee, I'll keep thee. God kept that man, Jesus Christ. I thought that man's God. He
is. He's God of man. But that man was kept of God.
And listen, I'll give you for a covenant of the people. You
know, we think of a covenant, what do we normally think of?
We think of a document, don't we? We think of a written document. I can tell you something. The
covenant of grace with God's people is Jesus Christ. And that
document is written on his heart. It's written on his heart. I'll
give thee as a covenant of the people. And not only will I give thee
as a covenant of the people, I'll give thee a covenant of
the people to establish the earth. This earth would have been gone
a long time ago if it were not for this covenant that God made
with Christ concerning the people. And our cause to inherit the
desolate heritages. And what he's saying, his work
will be successful. Nobody's going to perish for
whom Jesus Christ died for. That's not even possible. God
will not condemn an innocent man or an innocent woman. In
Christ, you're innocent. All for whom He died, they're
innocent. And that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth,
and to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed
in the ways, in the ways of God, and their pasture shall be in
all high places. The great liberator, is Jesus
Christ. We value freedom very highly,
I know we do. But there is none free, truly
free, except those whom the Son sets free. Now you're free. Now you're free. I don't think
we've ever really grabbed hold of that. I don't know that we've
ever really grabbed hold of what it is to be free from condemnation. from the power of sin, free to
go into the presence of God. We're free. He's the great liberator. And they shall not hunger nor
thirst, neither shall he, the son, smite them. For he that
hath mercy on them, he'll lead them like a shepherd, he'll lead
them. He said, my blood is drink indeed,
and my body is food indeed. I'm the bread of life. I'm the
bread of life. He's the water of life. We can drink water today for
our bodies. We can eat today. We're still
going to die. Eat healthy. Eat healthy as you
can. You're still going to die. I want to eat healthy. I'm trying
to. It's not easy. It's not easy. No more than it is easy to walk
the life of a believer because we still have a sinful appetite
that's with us. I was thinking this morning,
you know, how our natural appetite is like our sinful appetite. It always goes after the sweet
stuff. It goes after the Twinkies. It doesn't go after the broccoli.
Does it? It doesn't go after broccoli
and carrots. It goes after the candy bars
and the sweet stuff and the junk food and the Pepsis. And I was
thinking this morning, you know, how that is so much like our
spiritual, like our life here spiritually. We still have that
nature, that appetite that wants all that junk stuff. But our Lord said that you'll not hunger nor thirst.
That is, you won't die of hunger and thirst. Spiritually, you'll
never die. You will not die. You're going
to go be with the Lord, who's our meat and our drink. And I'll make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. No temptation will overtake
you. I'll make all my mountains..." The walk of faith is never going
to be easy. It's never going to be easy.
You see these TV preachers living the victorious life, just speak
the life, just tell the devil to be gone. Yeah, right. You don't realize he's got you. The walk of faith is never easy,
but God says this, I'll make all my mountains away. Did He
not say that with every temptation I will, with that temptation,
make a way out? I'll make a way through the mountain,
around the mountain, over the mountain, or I'll remove the
mountain. And my highway shall be exalted. Behold, He said, these shall
come from afar, they'll come to Christ, they'll come from
the north, from the west, they'll come from all over. God's going
to gather His people from all parts of this globe. He's going
to gather them. Not one will be forgotten. He said, I will
not forget you. You know, one time when I was
a little boy, we'd been to church and mom and dad, they got home
with, you know, they started with seven kids. They got home
with six. They left me. They forgot me. They forgot they
had seven. It didn't take a head count when
we got in the car. And they had to go back and get
me. God said, I will not forget you.
I'll not forget you. David said, his thoughts of us
cannot be reckoned up in order. And here's such good news, and
I'll hurry up here. "'Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth! Break
forth into singing, O mountains! For the Lord hath comforted His
people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted from all over the
world.'" All over the world. God's people have a reason to
be happy. Creation has a reason to be happy because God is going
to save them. God's going to save them. Zion said, the Lord's forsaken
me. Isn't that amazing? God says,
sing. We said, what do we have to sing
about? I'm in trouble. I lost my job. I'm sick. I've got a real sickness. I've
got real heartaches going on right now. What do I have to
sing about? Well, first of all, they're temporary.
Every trial has an end. Every trial has an end. And he says here, or it says
here, Zion says, the Lord's forsaken me. My Lord's forgotten me. No,
he hasn't. No, he hasn't. The very fact you have trials
is evident that he hasn't forgotten you. He chastens those whom he
loves. Can a woman forget her sucking
child as she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Yes, they have been found in trash cans. That is human nature. They have been left on doorsteps
and found in trash cans, but God said, that won't happen with
you. No matter how far we may fall,
like a David with a Bathsheba and the murdering of her husband,
God said, I will not forsake you. Like that baby that was
cast into a field, it grew up and she became a harlot. God
didn't forsake her. He said, I made a covenant with
you and I won't break it. I won't forsake you. It says in the Scriptures, having
loved his own, he loved them To the end. To the end. Behold, he said, I've graven
you upon the palms of my hand. You know what that is? That's
those nail holes. Right there in his hands. This
is for you. This is for you. This hole here
on my side, this is for you. I'll not forget you. You think
if I did that, you think if I had two holes in my hand, and, because
he told Thomas, here, put your hand, finger, put it into my
side. It was still open. It was still open. I don't believe there's scars
there. I don't believe there's scars.
I believe they're open. He said, put your hand in there.
and to my side. Put your hand in the holes of
my hand, your fingers. I have engraven you upon the
palms of my hand, thy walls are continually before me. Let me close with verse 26. that I'll feed them that oppress
thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their
own blood as with sweet wine, and all flesh shall know that
I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty one
of Jacob." I'm your Lord, and I'll not forget you. I've redeemed
you. I died for you. I live for you. I'm coming for you. And I'm sure not going to forget
you. All right.