Sermon
# 153 Series: Isaiah
Title: Engraved!
Text: Isaiah 49:16
Subject: God’s Engraving of His Elect
Upon His Hands
Date: Sunday Evening – June 13, 1993
Introduction:
My
conversation with David Adkins – “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people!” (Isa.
40:1-2).
Tonight,
I want you to look with me at another of those matters of great consolation in
Isaiah 49:16. The Person speaking is
the Lord God himself. He is speaking to
his despondent, unbelieving, fearful people, who have said, “The Lord hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.”
And this is what he says, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of
my hands.”
Proposition: With these astonishing words, The Lord God assures us
of his constant faithfulness to us, his often unbelieving and fearful people.
Divisions:
I. What Does The Lord God Say In
This Text?
Every word in this golden sentence deserves to be emphasized and amplified. So let me simply take the sentence, a word or two at a time and squeeze all the juice I can out of this cluster of grapes from the land of promise.
A. “Behold!”
1. That is a Word of Wonder (I John 3:1).
B. “Behold, I!”
1. The Engraver is God Himself.
C. “Behold, I Have!”
The word is in the past tense. This is a work performed by God before the worlds were made. Way back in eternity, when this universe slept in the mind of God like a forest in an ocean, before anything was made, when God dwelt alone in the ineffable glory of his Triune Being, he says, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands!” (Eph. 1:4-6; II Thess. 2:13).
D. “Behold, I Have Graven…”
What a word! In ancient times, in certain oriental countries, men tattooed images of their loved ones on the palms of their hands.
· Engraving is Permanent.
· Engraving is Painful – Calvery!
· Engraving is Perpetual.
“If Jesus is ours we have a true Friend,
Whose goodness endures the same to the end;
Our comforts may vary, our frames may decline;
(But) we cannot miscarry, our Aid is Divine.
The hills may depart and the mountains remove,
But faithful Thou Art, O Fountain of love!
The Father has graven our names on Thy hands;
Our record in heaven eternally stands!”
E. “Behold, I have graven Thee!”
· Me! Not my name only, but me!
· All that I am!
· All that concerns me!
Try to get hold of this – Our great God thinks as much of you who are his, and focuses his attention as fully and completely upon you as if there were nothing and no one else in the universe but you and him!
F. Now look at the rest of the sentence – “Behold,
I have engraven thee Upon The Palms of
My Hands.”
· The Most Tender Part.
· The Softest Place.
· Both His Hands – The Right Hand of Blessing and The Left Hand of Judgment – The Right Hand of Grace and The Left Hand of Wrath.
II. What Does This Text Teach Us?
A. We have with our God an Eternal, Indissolvable union.
· A Union of Grace!
· A Union of His Making!
B. Our God’s Remembrance of Us Is Constant.
C. Everything that is In God’s Hands is For His People.
· Everything he touches for us!
· Everything he does he does for us!
D. Our union with our God is an Everlasting Union – Blessed Security! (John 10:28-30).
“Once in Christ, in Christ forever,
Nothing from His love can sever!”
Toplady wrote-
“My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace;
Yes, I to the end shall endure
As sure as the Earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven!”
E. How tenderly and completely loved of God we are!
Illus: An Eastern Queen – “I will drink my beloved husband’s ashes a little at a time, day by day, that my body may become his living sepulcher.”
III. What Should Our Response Be To This Word
From Our God?
A. Contentment (Phil. 4:12).
B. Courage
C. Comfort (John 14:1-3).
D. Carelessness – “Casting all your care upon him.”
E. Confidence – (Rom. 8:28-39).
F. Consecration.
G. Communion.
Illus: Big Jake- #318
“I need Thee every hour,
Most gracious, Lord;
No tender voice like thine
Can Peace afford!
I need Thee every hour,
Stay Thou near by’
Temptations lose their power
When thou art nigh!”
Application:
If this word from God is not a promise you can rightfully claim, your mouth ought to water for it. (Matt. 11:28-30).