In Scott Brown's sermon 'I Will Not Forget You,' he explores Isaiah 49:14-26, focusing on God's assurances to the Israelites that He has not forsaken them, even during their Babylonian captivity. Brown highlights 11 arguments or illustrations God provides through Isaiah to demonstrate His unfailing love and remembrance, notably using the analogy of a mother's love for her child. The sermon's central theme is the enduring faithfulness of God, expressed through various metaphors including God inscribing His people on His hands, the rebuilding of walls symbolizing spiritual renewal, and the concept of revival and awakening in the New Covenant era. Brown emphasizes that these messages are not only historical but also applicable to the church and individuals today, urging believers to recognize God's persistent presence and call for spiritual renewal. The sermon highlights the importance of understanding these biblical illustrations as expressions of God's enduring compassion and commitment to His people.

Well, I study this week we continue in the book of Isaiah chapter 49 and I'll be reading verses 14 through 26 or to the end of the chapter. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

Your walls are continually before me. Your sons shall make haste. Your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you. Lift up your eyes, look around, and see. All these gather together and come to you.

As I live, says the Lord, you shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does. For your waste in desolate places in the land of your destruction will even now be too small for the inhabitants. And those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children you will have after you have lost the others will say again in your ears the place is too small for me give me a place where I may dwell. Then you will say to your heart in your heart who has begotten these for me since I have lost my children and am desolate a captive and wandering to and fro and who has brought these up?

There I was, left alone, but these, where were they? Thus says the Lord God, behold, I will lift up my hand in an oath to the nations and set up my standard for the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers and their queens your nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick up the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered? But thus says the Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible be delivered for I will contend with him who contends with you and I will save your children I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Father, we come boldly before you today ask that you would increase our understanding, increase Lord our comprehension and increase our usefulness in your kingdom that we would be fed this word, that we would understand it and then go out and apply it and seek your face more and more.

Thank you Lord. I pray that you would give Scott what he needs to bring this word clearly and That we would learn much from it today. Thank you Lord for your word Isaiah 49 14 through 26 brings us into a situation into a moment in the lives of the people of Israel where they're languishing they They feel like they've been forgotten and they they say that they had been forgotten by God And this is happening during the Babylonian captivity and the people of God are saying that God has forsaken and he has forgotten them. Of course they are in a time of chastisement, of judgment. The judgment of God has fallen upon his people and they're now captives in Babylon.

And God has sent them into the Babylonian captivity to turn their heads toward him so that they would stop disregarding him, But they would turn to him with all of their hearts and so he sends this judgment upon them to turn their heads and and at the same time they're feeling forsaken by God and What Isaiah is saying is that's not true, and he gives argument after argument I've listed 11 arguments that I've identified here in this passage that the Lord brings to Judah to tell them that he has not forgotten them. And he's prophesying of the New Covenant. He's talking about the power of Jesus Christ at work in his church. It's so powerful that the most pagan of the pagan, the Gentiles from all over the world come to Christ. Their whole lives are changed and and and Isaiah's saying no You will you you are not forsaken but he's prophesying of the power of the Holy Spirit in the days of the New Covenant and how in the days of the New Covenant there's a way that God does not forget his people that is that it goes far above and beyond the ways that he has not ever forgotten his people in all of history that as we as we see the truth of Scripture God continues to give the best wine last.

He always does things in a greater way as history charges on. He adds more blessing from one generation to the next, from one dispensation to the next. We live now in the dispensation of the new covenant and so this is a prophecy of the power of the spirit of God in the new covenant and the fact that that he will awaken his people. You know I've seen times in my own life when God has awakened his people. It's very clear.

He turns people from Babylon and he turns them to himself and they flee Babylon And Isaiah has been talking about this and now he's speaking about his power and how he how he rests his people from Babylon and he and he brings them into this place and When he Does it we find the conclusion of it in verse 26 all flesh shall know that I am the Lord I Am your Savior and your Redeemer the mighty one of? Jacob so Isaiah 49 is is a message to Israel saying even though it might look like you're forsaken, you are not forsaken. And this comes on the heels of the previous section. They really are connected. They're not two separate things.

In the first 13 verses of Isaiah 49, What we see is this remarkable sort of interaction between God the Father and God the Son. How God the Father and God the Son, they conspire on how they're going to have mercy upon sinners, upon Gentiles, upon the filthiest of the filthiest, the most pagan of the pagan, the ones who are just lost without any knowledge of God. He changes their whole disposition toward God and he moves them and and he does it out of his mercy and his gentleness and there's this remarkable statement of what God does to them he says they shall neither hunger nor thirst neither heat nor sun shall strike them, for he who has mercy on them shall lead them. Even by the springs of water he will guide them." You have this picture of this merciful shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. He who has mercy on them shall lead them.

This is your God. Behold the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who rescues his people. What is he like? He leads you gently. He's merciful upon you.

So after the Father and the Son explain the depths of their love and how they're going to exercise it in the first 13 verses. Remarkably, the people of God still feel let down. They're despondent. They're grumbling. And They're unfulfilled and they say, God has forsaken me.

Have you ever said that? Have you ever thought that God had abandoned you? Have you ever thought that you were just hanging out there all alone and He'd removed all of His blessings from you? That you know that you're depraved, but now you see that you're deprived, and you don't have everything that you want, and everything isn't turning out exactly like you thought it would be. This is the situation of the people of Judah.

And So there is this declaration of the love of God here in this chapter. There are many illustrations given to demonstrate how God does not forget his people and therefore he's not forgotten you. He's not forsaken you either. The Babylonian captivity is a picture. It's in the same way that God dealt with his people Judah through the Babylonian captivity.

He does the same with his church today. He also does with individuals today. These great scenes, these epic moments in the lives of the children of Israel, what they are, they're pictures for today. They are for you today. The deliverance from Egypt is for you today as you realize that Pharaoh, the abuser of your soul, you can be delivered.

And now the Babylonian captivity serves as a very similar picture. Look at the Babylonian captivity and see the salvation of God. And that's what this whole thing is about. And we see that God does not forget. But in verse 14, we find what is really kind of the heart of this entire section, and that is Zion feels forsaken.

If you have an outline in front of you You'll see this is the very first point and it's the primary point in verse 14 Zion feels forsaken everything else is an argument against that God is arguing with his people He's trying to argue them off the ledge of this ridiculous proposition that they have swimming in their minds that God has forgotten them, that they're all alone, that He's depriving them, and they have no hope. And He's going to prove that that is not true. In verse 14 we read these three words, but Zion said, now what is Zion? Zion is the people of God who have been taken into captivity, absolutely literally. But Zion is also figurative of the people of God, and it is also figurative of the Church of God.

Read the New Testament, you'll see how that's true. The Zion of the Old Testament is the Church of the New Testament, is the believer in the days of the New Covenant. So We have to first sort of calibrate ourselves about who he's speaking of here. And what we find here is those who in Zion have found that captivity was a hard pill to swallow. Their most gifted young people were taken from them and they were deprived of many of the blessings of Israel.

And there are two things that they are accusing God of. And when you find a people making an accusation, you should always ask, am I making a similar kind of accusation? Is there anything in my mind, is there anything in my heart that would make the same accusation? Maybe in different words, maybe you don't use these exact words. He uses two words here, forsaken.

They're accusing God of forsaking them, and that means to leave them behind, to neglect them, to desert them, to not be there in their time of time of need and so they're accusing God of this and they're accusing God of saying I've had it with you And they're also accusing God of forgetting. In other words, to just leave mentally, to cease to care. They're accusing God of not caring about what they're going through and how they're being affected. Somehow God is too preoccupied. Job said this about his friends in Job 1914.

He said, my friends have forgotten me. He uses the same word that Isaiah uses here. My friends have forgotten me. In other words, God has forgotten me. Job leaves this remarkable illustration of forgetting and just how terrible it is.

And he gives the illustration of the ostrich in Job 39, verse 15. The Ostrich forgets her young. Here's the deal on ostriches. Ostriches are immeasurably stupid. They are.

They're so stupid that they lay an egg and they forget that they have an egg on the ground. And so this whole illustration that Isaiah is bringing that his people are accusing him that God has forgotten them. That God has somehow said, forget you. Forget you. You've gone too far.

Forget you. So that's the accusation. And there are times when we feel that God is not there, where there's more pain and less of his presence, where his consolations have seemed to evaporate. And you feel overwhelmed. You feel overwhelmed with the disappointments, with the things that didn't happen that you thought would happen, with things maybe happening in your family or your work or something like that and you you thought more highly of your future than you're experiencing now and so you feel forgotten and and This this this happens, you know sometimes it happens because there are troubles in the church.

There are scandals. There's sin that's revealed. And people look at that and say, has God forgotten us? Look, there's sin here. There's sin there.

What has happened to us when In fact, God actually is using those things to cleanse, to heal. He's causing sin to come to the surface so that all might say, how have I sinned in that same way? God is being merciful in doing so. He does it both to separate His people from those who are not His people and also to take those who have fallen into sin and redeem them. To bring them back.

To help them. To love them. So, you know, often This happens when you see sin in the church and you get so disappointed about it. Maybe that's happened to you. You've seen things that are so disappointing, even in this church.

And you think, has God left us? Has God forsaken us? Has God forgotten about us? And the truth is that that idea is a lie. God has not forgotten.

God is faithful and He deals with His people very, very personally and He deals with things that matter because God matters. Because God matters, He reveals sin so that He might cleanse His people and help them. And so, you know, everything, you know, from verse 15 on is an argument. God is arguing with His people. And, you know, I guess one of the questions I've had in my mind as I was getting ready to come here and speak about this is to ask you know has God ever argued with you like this?

Or how about this is he arguing with you now? Are you here today because God wants to argue with you about your idea that somehow you've been forsaken? That you've been forgotten? Did you come here today, perhaps, because God has an argument with your proposition in your mind, and He wants to correct your thinking, He wants to cleanse your mind, He wants to renew your mind, He wants to help you think rightly now about everything, He wants to argue you off the ledge that you're standing upon right now and he's going to give you many many arguments for it. You know this is so characteristic of God.

God is so kind. He doesn't want to leave his people in a disconsolant place. He always wants to comfort his people. He does it in so many ways. He's always trying to argue his people off the ledge.

He's so kind. It's such an act of kindness, you know, when you see someone on the 14th floor on the ledge getting ready to jump off, and someone goes and risks his own life and gets on that ledge. And that's what we see here. God wants to argue with anyone who's thinking that God has forgotten them or has forsaken them. This is such a blessing of being part of the people of God.

That God provides his own people to help with this whole matter and to say and and to say to one another what God has already said I will never leave you or forsake you well that's the whole message that's here this pattern in scripture is everywhere So the first argument is the argument of a mother's love verse 15 Can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely They may forget but or yet. I will not Forget you So you can see here in this verse that there are two distinct illustrations. They're kind of related. They have to do with motherhood.

But these illustrations are designed to prove that God has not forsaken his people. And even though they might feel forsaken and abandoned, it's not true. And so in this verse, there are two illustrations of himself. Two illustrations of himself in the way that he has actually planted himself in the bosom of a woman, in the heart of a woman. It's such a remarkable image here.

These two illustrations of the way he made women. And the first is the woman with a nursing child. That's the first illustration. And the second is a mother's womb. Those two things he brings as an illustration of the fact that he does not forget nor forsake his people.

So let's examine this first image of the woman with a nursing child because God is saying, no, I have not forgotten or forsaken you. I am like a mother and her nursing child, and you cannot forget or forsake the child that you are nursing. You cannot do that." Well, he does qualify. He says, it is possible that it can happen, but it's so rare. And I'm not like that at all.

And then there's the second image of the woman who has compassion on a child in her womb. The very language that God uses here is, and not have compassion on the son of her womb and The word in Isaiah is the word that means interior womb a belly the The son inside the belly of a mother he's speaking of this this place of protection but I think that he's speaking of something far broader than that because it is the Sun that comes out of the womb Not only is this compassion for the son in the womb, which is such a remarkable, unalterably close relationship of compassion of a child in a womb, it goes beyond them because once that son goes out of the womb, the mother still has compassion. It's almost impossible to erase God's compassion for his people in the same way that it's almost impossible for a mother to erase the compassion that she has for her son. She'll always have compassion on her son if she is in any way like God at all. And the womb is a place of protection.

It's a safe place. And mothers naturally have compassion on the children in their wombs. They take care of themselves. They watch what they eat. They watch where they go.

They're careful with themselves. They're very mindful of the baby inside of them. And they have compassion on the son of their wombs. It's interesting the word compassion here which is connected with the womb. The word is actually the word cuddle, you know, to you know to hold to hold on closely to cuddle.

This is the kind of love that God has for his people there. This is a picture of his people being hidden inside the body of a mother. And this great compassion and attention upon them is there. And you know, here we learn something about God. We learn that the womb is created as an illustration of the compassion of God.

The nursing mother is used as an illustration of the impossibility of God to forget his children in the same way that a nursing mother cannot forget, particularly while she's nursing. God created motherhood to express different attributes of himself. We have to recognize that. There's such a glory in motherhood. There's such a dramatic and beautiful expression of God, of God the Father in the way of a mother.

Isn't that amazing how God expresses himself? He made man as male and female and he expresses his glory in both male and female. And how could you possibly denigrate or think lightly of the glory and the beauty of motherhood when you read a passage like this? And how could you diminish the value of womanhood in the world when you read something like this. But here, you know, motherhood is exalted.

It's so exalted that the images of motherhood really are images that point to the love of God the Father. As God the Father takes His love and He implants it in the bosom of a woman. And He shows the world what His love is like. Isaiah chapter 66 verse 13 speaks of this consolation of motherhood. He says, As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem." It's the way that a mother comforts.

Have you ever noticed how different fathers comfort their children compared to mothers? Like have you ever noticed that? You know, fathers tend to say, hey, get your act together. Mothers tend to say, come tell me about what you're thinking. You know, mothers and fathers just operate different.

There is a glory of fatherhood. There's a glory of the discipline and the truth and the goodness of fatherhood and saying what is true and what is right, but there's a beauty of motherhood that says, let me come for you. If you've had sons, you probably have noticed this, your wife is more tender. Not exclusively, but typically this is how it falls. The father is going to be more didactic.

The father is going to have more discipline in his mind. He knows we don't do stuff like that. A mother says, come let me hear about it. And she comforts her son and tries to lead him in a different way. Children need both.

They absolutely need both. But there's this glory of motherhood that is here. The term Raham, it's a word meaning console, as a woman has compassion. You know, it's really figurative of the God of all comfort. It is God's disposition toward His people to comfort them.

Even when their problem was brought on by themselves, God will comfort His people. Even when His people sin, even when they're experiencing the results of their rebellion, God still comes in and comforts. He will tell you the truth of it, but He will come back around and He will comfort. God is saying, I've not forgotten or forsaken you. I'm like a mother who has a baby in her womb.

I'm like a mother who is nursing her child. And you cannot forsake the baby in your belly or the child on your breast. A woman just cannot do that. So motherhood is a picture, it has meaning and God is speaking of how he brings his character to earth in the visualization of the way that a mother operates and what happens to her when she's nursing her child. Whenever there's a woman nursing her child whenever a woman goes back to the nursing mother's room Recognize what is happening.

There's a picture. There's a picture of God the father and his love Whenever you see a pregnant woman recognize something is happening here. You know everything is a picture. Everything points to God. Everything in nature points to God.

You can't look at anything and not find a trail back to God and His glory and His character. This is why it's so wonderful to raise your children seeing the beauty of nature. Okay, so like I'm a grandfather now, right? And I'm becoming very well aware of this. I'm buying books with pictures of animals and mountains and trees and foliage.

I want, you know, why? Because God declares His glory in all the things that He's made. And He's declared His glory in motherhood. What a wonderful thing it is to see that. There's so many ways that God declares his glory through motherhood.

Now we're too ready to think that God has forsaken us. And when we do, we've forgotten about motherhood. We've forgotten what happens to God with his people. Now it is possible that a woman could forget her nursing child and the child and the baby in her womb. It's a most unlikely thing when a woman would disregard this.

It has happened in history. It happened as recorded in Lamentations 410. With her own hands, compassionate women have cooked their own children who became their food when my people were destroyed so it can happen a woman can lose compassion for children you've seen it but it doesn't happen very often And what God is saying here is, even if this could happen with a mother, it will never happen with me. That's what God is saying there in this verse. The New Testament picks up this very same doctrine in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 12 where interestingly enough the Apostle Paul, he's speaking of the way that the ministers acted in Thessalonica and he was saying, yes we ministers, we who have been shipwrecked, we have been beaten, we have been almost killed, we've been slandered, we are manly men, but when we go into Thessalonica, he says, but we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children, so affectionately longing for you.

We were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. This is the way of God in His church. God sees His church through the lens of compassion. And this is why in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 through 5 we read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ." And so here you have this whole idea that God will not forget.

Can a woman forget her nursing child? Can a woman not have compassion on the baby in her womb? And the answer of God is no. May it never be. It will never happen.

The second argument has to do with being inscribed on his hands, verse 16. The second proof of his mindfulness is in this next dramatic illustration. I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. What does it mean to inscribe? It means to cut an image.

The words most typically used for the cutting into a rock, to making an unfading image into a rock, to carve it in there and there it is. And here the idea is that you are inscribed on God's hand. Whenever God extends his hand, there he sees. He sees you. He sees your image that has been inscribed on your hands, not like a tattoo that fades, not like something that goes away at all, but you are inscribed like cut into a rock.

It doesn't wash away, it doesn't fade away. God does not wash his hands of his people. And you know, we sang this song this morning before the throne, my name is graven on his hands, I am written on his heart. You know, you you write down the things that you don't want to forget and that's exactly what we see here. He says, See, do you see that?

The beginning of this verse, see. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands." It's as if he's saying, look, look at my hands. In the very same way that the Lord Jesus Christ said to Thomas, who was doubting, He said, look, see my hands. They're inscribed. But here it's a different image.

While the nails in the hands of Jesus Christ are images of his loving kindness, that he would take your sin upon him, that he would see you in all of your unrighteousness and know you had no hope, and he would take your sin upon him, that he would receive the wrath of God for your sins on the cross as an expression of his love. He says to Thomas, see, see my hands. Here, in a different way, God says, see my hands, you are inscribed on my hands. And I take that to be both you the people of God corporately and you individually. Because God speaks this way, fluidly, back and forth.

What applies to the nation also applies to the individual. The way that God deals with individuals, he deals with his people. You see this in Scripture. So you can think of this both ways. You can see all the living stones engraved in God's hands.

And you can see your own image engraved on the hands of God. And He will not forget you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Can a woman forget her nursing child Can God forget the one who has has an image? Inscribed on his hand for every time he stretches out his hand he sees the image.

It's there. Argument number three, the third proof of his mindfulness, our walls are under his watchful eye. So we move from mothers in nursing to mothers with babies in their rooms to a God who has an image inscribed on his hands. Now the image is a wall. You know, God is so gracious to just elaborate and to give one illustration after another, to just pile up evidences, to show you in a thousand different ways His love for you and how He's not forgotten you.

Again, He's arguing you off the ledge. He's giving you one argument after another to abandon the whole idea that God has forgotten you. He's not forgotten you at all. Argument number three, our walls are under his watchful eye. Your walls are continually before me, he says.

Now what are walls? In the context, we're talking about the walls of Jerusalem and these are, he's both speaking about literal walls, the walls of Jerusalem that Nebuchadnezzar destroys. He levels the walls of Jerusalem, But he's also speaking of people's lives. The walls are not simply physical walls. They are the walls of people's lives and God uses this illustrative graphic imagery in order to speak of your life in other places in scripture.

Nebuchadnezzar came in and destroyed Jerusalem a little over a hundred years after this prophecy. And then the children of Israel had 70 years of captivity having been deported from the place where their walls had been broken down. And the survivors are going to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. In Nehemiah chapter 13 we read, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire." Walls, gates, these physical things are pictures of spiritual things.

The walls are the walls of the people of God and the individuals of the people of God. In Isaiah chapter 44, the prophet has already prophesied that the walls will be built. He says, you shall be inhabited in chapter 44, verse 26. You shall be built. I will raise up her waste places verse 28 who says of Cyrus he is my shepherd He shall perform all my pleasure saying to Jerusalem you shall be built and the temple your foundations laid So the people will come back Cyrus will be used of the Lord the kings of the earth or at least that king Is going to have favor on the people of God and they'll go back and they will rebuild the walls.

And the wall will really, it'll be miraculously repaired. The wall will be miraculously repaired. It will be astonishing to see what happens to the walls. Two miles of wall get repaired in 52 days. It's recorded in Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 15.

And all the people acknowledge the miraculous nature of it, how God helped his people to repair such walls. In Isaiah 26 we see the same imagery that God will appoint salvation as walls. Not only are there physical walls of Jerusalem, but salvation is like a wall in your life. He says in that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city.

God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. And so there's this compassion that God has and he's saying your life is always before me your walls are always before me I always see your walls and I'm repairing your walls I've not forgotten about you the fourth proof of his mindfulness is found in the in the illustration at the end of verse 17. And this is a prophecy of awakening. This is what happens in the New Covenant. This is critical.

Your sons shall make haste. The word sons is also the word for builders. In the Dead Sea Scrolls the word was builders. So sons, builders, they are synonymous. The people of God turning to God and they're moving quickly and you know I and again I think the the physical literal bears witness to the spiritual and the personal the the walls are rebuilt the sons make haste to rebuild but this is this is a promise of revival this is this is a picture of awakening.

This is the new birth. This is a revival that takes place where the destroyers of the temple of God become the builders of the temple of God. And I think this is one of the hearts of this whole passage. The people who are working for themselves, for their own glory, they change and their labors turn to please Jesus Christ. This is a picture of awakening that takes place.

I don't know if you've ever been in a time of awakening, in a large scale. Awakening's happen in different places. I grew up in a season of awakening. It was a dramatic awakening in Southern California. Thousands, I think hundreds of thousands of young people came to the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the 1960s and throughout the 70s.

It was a revival that rolled for about a decade. It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen. I'm here as a result of that revival. The Spirit of God fell down and thousands were converted and the passion and the joy of the people of God was remarkable. You know, in the past eight years here, I believe we've seen two awakenings in our church, two of them.

You know sometimes awakenings happen on a broad scale. They can happen in whole churches, they can happen in whole cities, They can happen in whole regions of the country. Interestingly enough, in the revival that I experienced, there were places that the revival seemed to pass over. Like it hardly happened in San Diego, but it did happen in the Orange County, in the LA basin, like it didn't happen anywhere else in California. It was really interesting.

But God chooses these times of awakening. I think there had been two awakenings right here in our midst in this church over the last few years. The first took place in the lives of many young people in our church. The second took place in the lives of many adults in the church. The first one happened when we were going through the book of Deuteronomy.

I believe we had revival conditions. We had many, many young people's lives changed. And they hungered for the Word of God. They wanted to talk about the Bible. They wanted to discuss the details of doctrine.

They wanted to know more about the love of God and the power of God, the truth of His Word. They wanted it so badly. I was talking to one of them yesterday, and she said that it was a time when she cared nothing for this world, but she wanted to live for heaven. She wanted to prepare herself for heaven. And it was during that time, the young people in this church, they wanted to meet, but they wanted to meet around the Word of God and they wanted to sing and they wanted to study doctrine and we had a revival among many of our young people when we were going through the book of Deuteronomy.

They were very inquisitive and they had penetrating questions And they also wanted to go beyond their parents. Their doctrine became clearer than many of their parents. It was very interesting. And they actually took positions stronger than their parents on particular matters like the Sabbath and those those young people who were there remember that remember you remember the changes that took place in the joy that it was in the way that God gripped your soul And there was a sense of the presence of God and you know these those from those days they've they've continued in the faith Some of them got married and they have established marriages on on solid foundations. One of them got married yesterday.

In any awakening though, you have some who seem to turn to the Lord, and there are dramatic commitments made, and some of those fall away. I didn't see much of that in that awakening that we had. But like, for example, in the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards writes about it, how there were many manifestations of God's glory and truth in people's lives, but with some of them it did not continue. It was like Matthew 13, the parable of the soils, where they received it with joy but it did not take root in their soul. The second awakening was experienced by many adults in our church.

It took place when we were going through the Gospel of Matthew. Interestingly enough, the revival started with the young people. It often happens that way. And when we came to the Sermon on the Mount, God and His providence, as we were just doing our regular preaching, nothing, we weren't doing anything to incite a revival. But it happened.

And people were pierced to the heart by the Word of God as we just repeated the words of God. And we had, and many adults in this church were brought to faith. And what happened with the adults is that they saw the difference between outward appearances and the inward work of the Holy Spirit of God. With the young people, they saw the beauty of the Lord. With the old people, they saw their decrepit formalism.

And many of them were stricken with this thought am I really a Christian or am I simply going through the motions particularly when we were in In the part of the Gospel of Matthew where the Lord Jesus Christ says, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, Cast out demons in your name, done many wonders in your name? Yet I will declare to them, depart from me. You who practice lawlessness, I never knew you." And that phraseology and many of the other phrases there in Matthew pierced people to the heart because the Word of God is mighty, it's powerful, and it does pierce to the heart. And in general, not not exclusively with every single one, but in general there was a realization that they had an outward religion without power. One man wrote this, in, but I never had fruits of a Christian man, because I was not a Christian and I was not saved.

I was good at following man-made traditions and I knew how to talk and dress and act like a Christian, but I was not a son of God. I was convinced that I was blind and deceived. Another man said that he came to church and he began to turn from his sinful habits and He started cleaning up his life, but he said he called it just self-work a fog that draped over the mountains of my sin and hid them from my sight he was cleaning up his life But there wasn't really a true hatred of sin or a heartfelt repentance the desire for the beauty and the holiness of God it wasn't that he just wanted a better life and he got he became a theology expert and became a debater of theology and he became fluent he says in the language of orthodox Christianity and then finally he saw the mercy of God. God showed him who he really was And he was reading something one day. And just a phrase broke his whole soul.

And he actually came to Jesus Christ. And instead of just a debater of theology, he became a lover of Jesus Christ. Well this was a second revival that took place. There's a new hope, there's a new hunger, there's a new recognition of the reality of sin, the greatness of their sin, but the super abounding greatness of the mercy of God. That God was love.

And so there's, that was a picture of verse 17, your sons shall make haste. Your sons shall make haste. They'll want to run to the Lord. They'll want the things of God. They'll want to hear the word of God.

They'll want to pray. They'll want to sing. And they'll put aside their foolish, unprofitable things. Their hunger is for holy things. And that's what happened.

We've had, I believe, two awakenings in this church and it remains to be seen what will happen with the young people in our church now because those young people have moved on and now there's a whole new set And as people are added to the church, there's a whole new set of older people as well. What will happen? Will God fall down upon the young people now? Will He do it again? I pray that He'll do it again.

It's the sweetest thing. And for the young people, it provided such a foundation, and God has blessed them enormously in so many ways. You know, it was such a happiness for me to perform the wedding of one of those yesterday. A young man rescued like a firebrand out of the fire. Coming into the church of Jesus Christ, learning from Christ, submitting himself to the instruction and the ordinances of the church and being hungry and day by day, year by year, being sanctified.

And starting out as nothing, less than nothing. And then becoming a man. There's a song that I have loved to sing to my children. It goes like this, I will serve you because I love you. You've given life to me.

I was nothing until you found me. You've given life to me." Well that's what happened and that's what happens. That's what's happening in verse 17, it's the New Covenant. And then The fifth argument of God's mindfulness is that enemies are routed, verses 17 and 18. Your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you.

And this has to do with the destroyers of the soul, the Babylonian things that we find ourselves attracted to. You know, the enemy which is Babylon is thrown aside, he's routed. The destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go away from you." There's an unraveling of the destruction of the devil in the days of the new covenant. Your destroyers will go away. The power of sin will be broken.

The truth shall make you free and you shall be free indeed. You're set free, you're not perfect. You have not finished your struggle with sin, but you see the progress that's there, very much like I saw the progress in that young man who got married yesterday. Physical Zion will be in disrepair until Christ comes and brings his new covenant. They will be desolate, but they're not forgotten because God will come.

The sixth argument, the sixth proof of his mindfulness is another illustration in verse 18. Beautified companions, I love this one. We could pause on this one a long time, but we won't. Lift up your eyes, look around and see. All these gather together and come to you.

As I live, says the Lord, you shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament and bind them on you as a bride does." This is a picture of new converts. John Gill says, These young converts are the crown, the glory, and the ornament of the church, even such as are beautified with the graces of the Spirit. It's the people coming out of the world, people coming out of Babylon, throwing Babylon, being so ashamed of their idols, throwing them down, they're being sanctified, they're being beautified by God, and they become ornaments, they become your ornaments. Isn't that wonderful? We've seen it here, absolutely.

We've seen the ornaments getting more and more beautiful only as they obey the Lord though. If not, they become uglier and more worldly. But these are the ornaments of God. Psalm 45 speaks of it, Kings and daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand stands the Queen in gold from Ophir.

The king will greatly desire your beauty because he is your Lord Worship him it speaks of this the beautiful array This is a picture of people coming to Jesus Christ and they're being beautified and they become part of the ornamentation the beautiful the beautiful jewels the the riches of the kingdom of God in the church, and how God restores. Hey, think about that. Think about what you were like. What has happened? An ornament is being formed by God.

The seventh proof is an increase of the church. These are the conditions of the New Covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ will not forget his people. He will increase his church. The old waste places will be too small for the numbers that will be added.

Verse 19 says it, for your waste and desolate places and the land of your destruction will even now be too small for the inhabitants and those who swallowed you up will be far away. You know in times of awakening you'll be astonished at the expansion. Now if you if you think in terms of the historical progress of Christianity you have to recognize that Christianity has has expanded at astonishing rates and there are there are hundreds and hundreds of millions of true believers in the world today. And it says you'll be surrounded by lots of new children in verse 20. The children you will have after you have lost the others will say again in your ears, the place is too small for me.

Give me a place where I may dwell. Now the question is who are the lost children? It's a good question. Are they the apostate Jews who fell away? Are they the righteous who perished at the hands of the persecutors in Babylon and in other places?

I tend to think, and I'm not sure, that they are the children lost in the persecution. And these children, though, they will become so numerous that we'll say, the place is too small for us. It's a picture of the expansion of the church. The Lord Jesus Christ in John 4 35 said the fields are white under harvest. There's a harvest out there and it will be gathered in.

In verse 21 he continues and he says, Then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me, Since I lost my children and am desolate, A captive and wandering to and fro and who has brought these up there I was left alone but these where are they well he says who has begotten these for me in other words it is God who gives birth to them. It's a picture of people coming to Christ. It's the people who are born not of blood nor of the will of man or the will of flesh but of God. That God will raise up sons and daughters in his new covenant era and the people will be stunned to see it. This is code for church growth that God is going to restore from the captivity in that way.

And there'll be such an expansion when we're in Bible study on Tuesday, somebody brought up Mark 10, where the Lord Jesus Christ says, there is none who has left fathers and mothers and who will not receive a hundredfold in the kingdom. It's a picture of expansion. And then the eighth argument, the eighth proof of his mindfulness is found in the next illustration in verses 22 to 26. Thus says the Lord God, behold I will lift my hand in an oath to the nations and set up my standard for the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders." Now the word nations here it's the word for Gentiles.

There's this picture of the dramatic spread of the gospel throughout the whole earth and these will be carried on in the arms, be carried on shoulders. There's this expansion of the kingdom of heaven. The Gentiles will be brought in, like in the previous section in Isaiah 49. You shall be a light to the Gentiles and the Gentiles will come and they'll be they'll be carried carried on on the shoulders and they'll Verse 22 they shall be your sons in their arms and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders." You know, somebody, I think it was Jonathan Sides, he said that on Tuesday, he said that this is what happens every Sunday, that the people of God, they carry their children on their shoulders and they bring them in. Every week on Sunday people gather, they leave their houses and they bring their children sort of on their shoulders and they bring them here.

And it's a picture of this fact that God has not forsaken his people. When you find people gathering together and bringing their children on their shoulders, it's a sign that God has not forsaken as people. He has not forgotten you. The ninth argument, the ninth proof that God is mindful of his people as in verse 23 Governments bowing down now. This one's very interesting Kings shall be your foster fathers and their queens your nursing mothers They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick up the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall be ashamed who wait for me." Now, notice the respect they're bowing down with their faces to the earth. Notice the gratitude, for they shall not be ashamed. Now, again, I rather take this as following the same pattern as the literal historical speaking of the spiritual and the personal at the same time. And also, it's eschatological in terms of, it speaks of the things to come and the progression of things. And I believe he's speaking of Cyrus and Hazurus and Esther and maybe even Constantine, people who had favor on the church, definitely Cyrus who had favor on the church and deployed and opened the door for the church to expand and for the walls to be rebuilt.

And it's a picture of transfer of wealth from the Gentiles. You'll read about this in Isaiah 60. By the way, this afternoon, read Isaiah 60, because it's a picture of this whole thing. It's a picture of victory. It's not a picture that the church is destroyed and then goes away at the end of the age.

It's actually a picture that the kings of the earth will respect and bow down before the church. That's the picture that's here. It's an undeniable picture. And you see four tastes of it in history like with Cyrus and Isaiah 60 as I said speaks of it and Then the tenth argument the tenth proof of his mindfulness is found in another illustration He uses the illustration of prey You know someone who is being preyed upon somebody who's being devoured someone who's a target for destruction That's what prey is Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered? And the answer is yes, absolutely yes.

Because there is one who is more mighty, and he's spoken of in verse 26. There are the mighty of this earth who are seeking those whom they devour. There's the devil who's seeking those whom he may devour because he's like a roaring lion looking for the vulnerable to come and devour them. The people of God were made prey as they were at different times in history. But the captives will be delivered, verse 25, but thus says the Lord even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away and the prey of the terrible be delivered for I will contend with him who contends with you I will save your children this again is a picture of the power of God in the new covenant he snatches the prey from the jaws of the devil he takes them he you know there's so much imagery and Psalm 18 it's the the imagery is He took me out of the mighty waters.

I could not resist my strong enemy, but He took me out. That's the whole picture that's here. Jeremiah speaks of it in Jeremiah 31 verses 11 being rescued from a strong hand like the hand was just pried open and he was delivered. That's the picture that's here. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of it in Luke 11 where he says that a strong man is in the house and he is stronger than Satan himself.

The eleventh argument, the proof of God's mindfulness that he's not forsaken you. It's an illustration of oppressors. And it's oppressors who actually destroy themselves, they eat themselves up. Verse 26, I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. So he's going to he's going to destroy the oppressors and you know they'll be drunk with the blood of the martyrs, but they will be destroyed.

And then there's the fruit of it all. All flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. So what we have here is a picture of the Babylonian captivity, the people in the Babylonian captivity saying God has forsaken us and God says, no, I have not forsaken you. I'm going to pour out my spirit. I'm going to have mercy upon you.

And I'm going to tell you what my mercy is like. It's like a mother's love. It's like a mother Holding her baby and nursing the baby. It's like a mother who has a baby in her belly in her womb It's like being inscribed on the palm of your hands It's like having your walls always being seen by me. I will never leave you or forsake you I think the Apostle Paul gives the fulfillment of it in Romans 8.31.

And I'll conclude with this. What then shall we say of these things? If God is for us who can be against us, He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

It is He who condemns. It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written? For your sake we are killed all day long.

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor Any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And that is why we ought to cry out to God for awakening, for more awakening, for more outpourings of the Holy Spirit of God in this day of the new covenant that we shouldn't rest our prayers for these awakenings of the soul. Would you pray with me?

Lord we thank you for your your faithfulness that you do not forget your people, that you have not forgotten your people, and that you do visit them. And oh God, visit us again, Visit us over and over again with your mercies. Amen.