Isaiah 49 verses 13 through 16. Let's look at that this morning. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains. For the
Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his
afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my
Lord hath forgotten me. 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. Now I mentioned that the scripture
reading that John just read was a beautiful companion to these
short verses here. I will praise thee, though thou
wast angry with me, thy anger is turned away, and thou comfortest
me. And that's the charge in these
this first verse in verse 13 we see in these short verses
the unwavering grace of God in Christ the unwavering, unaltering
grace of God in Christ Jesus towards his church with short
verse of strong and wonderful words we see the blessings of
the church of God in the person of Jesus Christ in verse 13.
Then in verse 14, we see the church's response, which is doubt
and unbelief. And then verses 15 and 16, we
close out this section with divine, blessed reassurance that our
Lord gives his people. He gives his people. But I like
that passage in Isaiah 12 that John read, that his anger is
turned away from us and he comforts us. He comforts us, and we have
peace when we are comforted by Jehovah God. Well, let's look
at verse 13. And we see the heavens, the earth,
and the mountains are all told to sing aloud of the marvelous
grace of Christ the Lord towards His people. He says, Sing, O
heavens, be joyful, O earth, Break forth into singing O mountains
for this reason for this cause our Lord Tells the Heavens the
earth and the mountains he tells them to Rejoice and to sing break
forth into song for the Lord have comforted his people They
are told to sing of our eternal comfort by full and free pardon
and will have mercy upon his afflicted." Comfort. The Lord had comforted his people. The short one verse sonnet by
these inanimate things, heavens and earth, in the mountains because
the Lord in his free and unmerited favor shows comfort to his afflicted
people. Now this comfort is three-fold. It is God's comfort by design. It didn't just happen. that we
were afflicted people, wandering to and fro, and God decided,
as He looked down upon our situation and our condition, He decided,
those people need to be comforted. They're few in number, they're
hated by the world, the gospel is not believed by many, so I
think I'm just going to comfort. No, this comfort that This song
is about, this comfort is a comfort by design, by God's eternal purpose. From before the foundation of
the world, God by his own wise decree said that he was going
to comfort every single last one of his chosen race. It's
comfort by eternal design. He says, look at how it's worded
here again in this 13th verse of the 49th chapter of Isaiah. For the Lord hath comforted. That's past tense. That's past tense. Before we
drew our first breath, Before we thought our first sin, before
we held our fist in rebellion against the God of the universe,
He had designed, He had purposed, He had decreed our comfort in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we would have no
idea And no thought of this comfort
until the day of His grace came upon us through the preaching
of the gospel and showed us that the Lord Jesus Christ, that beloved
of the Father, hanging on the tree, bleeding, suffering and
dying for us, the Holy Spirit, taking these words of truth and
stamping them upon the heart in the fullness of time. Or as
Paul said in Galatians, when it pleased God to reveal His
Son in me. That's when we knew of this comfort. But I tell you that this comfort
was by design, eternal design, eternally purposed by God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit from before the foundation
of the world. Secondly, this is a comfort by determination. by determination. Turn to 1 Samuel
chapter 12. Sing, O heavens, be joyful, or
break forth into singing, O mountains, for this reason the Lord hath
comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
A comfort by design, a comfort by determination. Turn back to
1 Samuel chapter 12. This is absolutely remarkable. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and look at
verse 22. This is a comfort by design,
a comfort by determination. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake. Because it hath pleased the Lord
to make you his people." That is a great comfort to know that
it pleased the Lord. There's a few things that pleased
the Lord and this is one of them. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. So this comfort whereby we are
greatly comforted, and we encourage one another, and comfort one
another, and console one another, and this affords peace, and hope,
and joy. This is a comfort by determination
that we were His people, and He was pleased to make us in
covenantal mercy, in covenantal grace, to make us His people. So back to our text. Comfort. The Lord had comforted his people
by design, by determination. And by death. By death. Isaiah 53. We'll be here in maybe
a couple of months. Isaiah 53. We are comforted by God's design
and decree. We are comforted by His determination. We were made His people. He will
not forsake us. He will not leave us, which we
will find out later on in this same section in Isaiah, but we
saw that just briefly in 1 Samuel 12. But this is a comfort and
mercy by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
10 of Isaiah 53. Yet it pleased, it's another
one of those things that the Lord is pleased to do, pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. It is a comfort by death, death
of the testator. Turn to Hebrews chapter 9. In
order for us to be comforted, in order for us to experience
the peace and comfort and mercy and grace wherewith he talks
about in this 49th chapter and the 13th verse of Isaiah, there
must be the death of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn to Hebrews chapter 9 and look at verse 16, Hebrews
9 verse 16. For where a testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament, the testament
in his blood, isn't that what we say when we take the Lord's
Supper, this is a new testament, this is a new testament in his
blood. As often as you do this, we do this in remembrance of
Christ's death. The bread is his body. The wine
is his blood. One is broken for us, the other
one was shed for us. Sacrificed for us. For a testament,
verse 17, a testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise,
it is of no strength at all while the testator lives. So this is
comfort. that the mountains and the earth
and the heavens sing about and rejoice in this comfort that
the Lord has given His people. It's a comfort by design, by
determination, and by death. But look at, in concluding this
verse, look at what he says, and will have mercy. They're
also singing about the mercy of the Lord upon his afflicted. The church is styled in this
verse as afflicted. Which means a couple things.
First, wounded, helpless, and dying. That's what we are. That's
what we are. So we heard this morning in Bible
class out of Romans chapter 10. We have no righteousness, even
though we might try to go about ignorantly establishing our righteousness. There is a righteousness which
is by faith in Christ, of Christ, but we know nothing about. The
church is styled in this verse as afflicted. Afflicted with
sin. We're wounded. We cannot come
to him on our own we cannot bow to his lordship on our own we
cannot worship him aright because we're afflicted we have a disease
this is true of us but we see in verse 14 a horrible affliction that you
and I are still very prone to here is the answer to the church
in verse 14, but Zion said, but Zion said, that's the church,
that's you and I, that's those who God has called by His grace,
the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Even though the preceding verse
plainly declares That the Lord comforts His people and has mercy
upon His afflicted. We know that we're incapable
of saving ourselves, coming to Christ. We have no free will. We do not understand the things
of the Spirit, of grace, and the nature of God by birth. Because we're born contrary to
Him. We understand that. We've been
taught that. We believe that. And yet I think, though those
afflictions are very true, I think perhaps one of our worst afflictions
is stated here in verse 14 is the affliction of unbelief and
doubt. Unbelief and doubt. We say this, oh how often I wish
it was not so, but I am very frail and weak and I am still
full of sin and doubt, so much so that even after I stand up
here before you and proclaim the glorious, comforting gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ to His people, I step down out of this pulpit
and am hit with things that concern me and trouble me And oh, I might
not use this exact language. But how often I have experienced
doubt and unbelief. The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me. I asked myself this when I was
writing this up last night. Why? Why do you and I, why are
we so afflicted? with unbelief and doubt, even
after we know, as Bruce said, even after we know the things
that the Father put the Son through on our behalf. the misery and the punishment
and the wrath and all the physical things were terrible, yes, but
nothing compared to the soul agony that the Lord went through
for us. We understand that and we know that. And we're like
Peter, we say, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. So I ask
myself, why? Why are you and I still so full
of unbelief and doubt why do we echo the thought whether we
echo the exact phraseology but the thought of this verse 14
right in the middle of this glorious four verse passage well one is
obvious because sin is still present with you and I that old
man is still in you and he's still in me and he will not get
any better to the day we die from this world and go to the
next. That old flesh, that old flesh
is still present with the believer. John Newton had an article called
Evil Present with the Believer. It's a good short article, two
or three pages. It's very well written. I highly
recommend it to anybody. It doesn't excuse our sin, but
we know that it's still there. We can't pray as we would. We
would be worse than the disciples who went with Christ and the
night of his agony as he was praying in the garden, he said,
come with me, stay awake with me. And they couldn't even pray
for one hour. We don't even know what that's
like. And they fell asleep. Sin is still present with the
believer. Secondly, Satan often hinders. And I'm not going to go on this
big spiel about like the religious world does, but it is true that
Satan often hinders the elect as he did Job. He hinders the
elect. Thirdly, Perhaps this is, the
first one is probably predominant, but this third one here is very
predominant in us. Why we cry, the Lord hath forsaken
me and my Lord hath forgotten me, I would say thirdly is because
we are still too much in love with this world. We are still
too much in love. with this world. And I don't
know why I didn't write it in my sermon notes here. I wrote
it down at home as I was preparing this and looking over other writers.
One of the writers had a really good statement and I wrote it
down. And it's something to the effect
that if we would love the reason why we complain so much about
the thing that happened to us in this world is because we're
still too much in love with this world. But that is a reason why we think
at times the Lord forsakes us and the Lord forgets us is that
we are still too much in love with this world. Fourthly, physical
weariness, sickness, health. When you're constantly physically
unable to do the things you want to do, it often plays on our
mind and plays on our heart. And we say, forsaken me, Lord,
you forgot me. Because we're constantly, we
have constant struggles and difficulties. And fifthly, just day to day
struggles. Just getting up in the morning
and there's the world. Right smack dab in our face. These are just, it's part of
life. It's part of the struggles. It's
part of our pilgrimage as we go through here. We are not of
this world. We're in the world, but we're
not of the world. And it's just part of the believer's
struggles and daily situations and the things that we must go
through as he weans us from this world. Like the one who sifts
the gold, works the gold, he heats that gold, that he might
purify it. We are growing in grace, but
we've got a lot of things that must... One preacher said we've
got a lot of baggage, a lot of luggage. And these are five things
that I see often why we are so full of unbelief and doubt. But my question is then right
on the heels of that, why we're that way. My next question is,
will He, our Father, the Beloved Son, and the Spirit, will they
truly forget us or forsake us, His Beloved Bride, the Church
of His Calling? The answer is found beautifully
in verses 15 and 16. No, He will not. No, He will
not. Though sin is present with us,
though Satan hinder, though we still are in this world
and have too much of this world in us, though we often physically
are beat down, and though we often have day-to-day struggles,
He will not forsake us, and He will not forget us. That's verse
15 and 16. We see blessed reassurance given. He says, can a woman, her suckling
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Now our Lord uses the most tender, compassionate illustration.
He uses a woman. The most tender. Our race. Excluding
all this equal rights stuff. There's a difference and I'm
thankful there's a difference between men and women. He uses
this illustration. Women. A woman. The most tender
of our race. A mother. Not just a woman. A mother. Can a woman forget
her suffering child? A mother. The most experiences.
And then a nurser. Of all bonding. And all nurturing
situations. He uses this illustration. Can
a woman who loves a mother and is nursing that child, that bond,
that intimate relationship that those fathers can never ever
know. They forget or not have compassion
on the son. There was probably the zenith
of an example that he could give. It was humankind, that beautiful
relationship between that newborn and its mother. Fathers are not
mothers. Mothers are mothers. Women are
women. And he said, even in that illustration,
he said, they may forget. They may. And there's through
various causes that has happened. As horrible as that is. But he
says, but I will not forget you. It has happened where a mother,
a newborn infant, she's forgotten that child. It's not common,
even as vile and despicable as this world is today, you don't
hear a lot of that. But he says, you know what? As
tender as that illustration is, and nurturing and the bond is
as glorious as that illustration is. Even above all that, he says,
no, I won't. I will not. So he deals with
the negative thought. It's already covered. No, not
I. I will not forget thee. That's
the negative. Anything negative that can happen, I'm not going
to forget thee. But then he goes to the positive thought or action
and that's secured. I have graven thee, but verse
16, he covers the negative. Our mind goes in two extremes.
One extreme, he covers that. The other extreme, he says, I'm
not only would I not forget you, but I'm going to think about
you all the time. Jehovah God. We're not talking about anyone
other than the reigning, ruling, majestic sovereign of the universe. okay look at how this is stated behold positively I have graven
thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls the walls of the church
his people are continually before me graven thee graven thee thy
name Thy name, thy person, thy total
person. It's as though he's saying in
this text that you, beloved, are the only one in all of his
kingdom. Though there's a multitude that
know all the lex throughout all the time, it's like he singles
out Betty Sebaugh and says, you, you're right here. That's absolutely incredible.
So, look at it again. I have graven thee upon the palms
of my hand. Now, you know, I haven't frequented
too many tattoo parlors, but I've seen many, you know, they've
got the people that they love on their shoulder or on a plate
that everybody can see. you know, mom, you know. And
then there's I think a Norman Rockwell drawing where a sailor
got like six people's names and he's given the tattoo artist
his crossed out name on there. But up until how many years ago
tattooing was permanent. Right? You couldn't remove it. I've graven with the finger of
all love preciousness of free and full forgiveness I've put
your name graven it permanent cannot be erased It cannot be
taken out of the Lamb's Book of Life. But this is in his palm of his
hand. Word I understand is God does not have hands, but worded
in such a tender way. Graven. Permanent. Permanent
as grace. Second thing about graven, I
had the pleasure of having a tattoo, but I'm told it's painful. He died on the cross. great agony of body and soul. He did it himself. Yes, by men,
wicked hearts, and wicked hands. It had to be done by God the
Father to his own son to satisfy that law and all of God's righteous
decrees. He had no righteous given and
made the very righteousness of God in Christ. Graven. As in covenantal permanency,
Painful, as in painful and ca- And third, in the palm, not in
the back of his hand, not in the inside of the forearm, not
on the back, on the shoulder, on the calf, but in the palm. Very sensitive. But, what do
you do that you don't do with the palm of your hand? You work. You grab. You've got to open
your hand. That preciousness. In the palm
of his hand where he won't lose sight. He always remembers like
he says in the verse, later on in his verse. Most people don't
go like that. Because they're going to show
you their palms. Their palms are facing inward. They're facing
their eyes. Zion said, the Lord has my Lord. He says, I will not forget thee,
that positively, through actions, gratuitous, unsought for favor, upon the
palms of my hands, and thy walls are continually before me. Are you a member of Zion? If
so, You read these verses. By God's total commitment to
you. It just almost does it right,
does it? God's commitment to us. Endure to the end. Why? Because he's committed.