This morning, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 43, a portion of which you have already heard in our assurance of pardon, you've heard it read and you've heard it sung already this morning, but a most comforting portion of Scripture, Isaiah 43, as we read together the first seven verses and consider the same portion for the text this morning. Hear now the Word of God. But now this is what the Lord says. He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and people in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west, I will say to the north, give them up, and to the south, do not hold them back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Beloved in Christ the Lord, we have just come through that season of the year once again in which we have been reminded why it is we can say with confidence that I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death unto my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And that is because of His death and resurrection. True comfort, as the Catechism reminds us, is to belong to Jesus Christ. To be His possession. You see, beloved, we all have a need to belong. Whether you are willing to admit that or not, we all have a need to belong, at least to someone. Now, boys and girls, the thought of being lost and being separated from your parents can be scary. And maybe some of you have gone through that if you've gotten lost, maybe at the beach or in the mall or at SeaWorld or at Disneyland or some other very busy place. Maybe you got lost and you find out that to be lost is a terrible feeling. But when your parents found you back, when you were back where you belonged, how great that was. That's comforting. In this text, Isaiah prophesied to Israel in the context of captivity. A captivity still to come. In a time when they would feel like they didn't belong. In a time when it would seem that they were all alone, Isaiah prophesied, you see, that God, the Heavenly Father, would punish His covenant people because they had not obeyed Him. They had forsaken the covenant that God had established with them. They had not acted like, nor had they really been, His people. And therefore God would allow them to be taken into exile, into captivity. He would allow them to be removed from the land of their comfort. The land flowing with milk and honey. His anger burned against them and it looked like nothing but complete destruction in the end of God's covenant people. They would feel alone. They would feel forsaken. They would feel like they didn't belong anymore. And then God speaks a word of comfort and assurance through Isaiah. In this portion of Scripture, God comforts His chosen people with His announcement of restoration. And in a small way, though, we as parents do the same thing, don't we? After we have punished our children for something they may have done wrong and maybe even sent them to their rooms for a little while to sit and think about whatever it was they did. After a while, we bring them back. We don't leave them there to sit indefinitely. We might forget about them once in a while, but we remember sooner or later. And instead, because we love them, in essence, We restore them to their place in the family. And that's what God announces in this text as He gives the comforting announcement of restoration. And first of all, God restores them because of whose they are. He reminds them of this very fact, who they belong to in verse 1. But now this is what the Lord says, He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name. You are mine. See, there are no more comforting words than these. As God says, you are mine. There's nothing more comforting than that unless you don't know God. Unless you don't know Him and all of His majesty and being. But if you do, there's nothing more comforting that you could hear than for Him to say to you, you are mine. And again, Israel in exile must have felt that they no longer belonged, but that they were lost and they were abandoned with no hope. But they still belonged. They belonged to God. Why? Well, certainly not because of anything they had done. They deserved to be abandoned. But they belonged to God because He created them. He formed them. He made them into what they were, a nation and a covenant people of His. And just as God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning out of nothing, really in the same way, He literally created a people for Himself out of nothing. He didn't take an existing heathen nation of the world and say, okay, now you are my people, I'm taking you for my very own, and I give you my rules to live by. That's not what He did. Instead, God created this nation in essence out of nothing, beginning with one man, Abraham. God alone is the very foundation, the only foundation of our existence as his people. And God's people can never be destroyed because they are his workmanship. He created, he formed them, but he also says, I have redeemed you. Boys and girls, to redeem means to buy back, And the situation of captivity that God's covenant people would find themselves in must have seemed all too familiar to them, because they were familiar with their past. The stories had been handed down from generation to generation from the fathers, from the fathers to the sons, telling about the days of captivity in Egypt. And God's Word here reminds them of the past, but at the very same time, it points them to the future. God had redeemed them He, as it were, bought them back when He brought them out of Egypt and now God promises to redeem them again to deliver them once again from their coming captivity but we know that ultimately this points to God's redemption of His people in Jesus Christ the one about whom Isaiah prophesied when he said, for unto us a child is born Unto us a son is given. The one whom Isaiah describes as being a shoot from the stump of Jesse. And the one who was despised and rejected of men. God had indeed redeemed His people physically, but also spiritually. You see, beloved, even though Jesus Christ had not yet come, and not yet died on the cross and rose again and ascended into heaven, even though that great redemption event had not yet taken place God had already redeemed those he had chosen including you and me from before the foundation of the earth redeemed us through his promise it was as if their redemption through the blood of Christ had already taken place because God's promises are sure in Christ they are yes and amen our redemption was sure the moment our God chose us. And God confirms this close relationship with his people by saying, I have summoned you by name. Now normally when you're on a first name basis with someone, that means that you know them well. Normally. You know them well. And one day God will say to those who do not belong to him, he will say, I never knew you. Away from me. But for those who are called by God's name, as verse 7 says. They are called the Lords. The Lords, as chapter 44, verse 5 says. We are the Lords. Let that sink in for a moment. The Lords. At a time in history, in Israel's history, when it looked to them like God was nowhere to be found, and it looked like He was going to forget all about His covenant promises, He says to them, Fear not. You are Mine. You are the Lord's. I have created you, formed you, and redeemed you. You don't have anything to be afraid of. And because they belong to Him, God says in verse 2, He confirms that they have nothing to be afraid of as He says, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. Again, it is as if God is reminding them of the past. You remember their past? He led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. He led them through the scorching heat of the desert and took care of them. And God would be with them when they experienced these things again. We think especially of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel's three friends, and how God spared them from the fire so that they didn't even smell like fire or smoke when they came out of the furnace. And notice though, God doesn't say, I have redeemed you to a life of ease with no suffering and no trials and no persecutions. You will be healthy, wealthy, and wise from this day forward. He doesn't say that. Instead, he says, when? Not if. But when you experience these troubles of life, I will be with you because you are mine. You are the Lord's. And that very fact, beloved, makes these troubles more than simply bearable. But we are more than conquerors, you see. Beloved, God's Word through Isaiah, we can be sure, gave comfort to His people because they knew firsthand, again, through their fathers, as it was passed on from generation to generation, they knew firsthand through their fathers many years before what God could do and what He would do for His people. But this Word of God is also for us today. In fact, this Word of God must be more of a comfort to God's people because we have seen firsthand through His inscripturated Word by the Holy Spirit, we have seen what God has done for His people through Jesus Christ. Boys and girls, it's as if we, along with Isaiah, we pick up a pair of binoculars and he looks forward through those binoculars and we look back. And he looks forward to the promised Messiah who would bring salvation and we look back at the Messiah who has come and who has accomplished the very same salvation that Isaiah looked forward to. And those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are not and never will be alone. But we belong to Him because He has purchased us. When you purchase something, when you pay out your own money, it belongs to you. When you make that final payment on your house or on your car. You receive the title, the deed to that house or that car. It belongs to you. Jesus Christ has purchased us. He paid out His own precious blood for us. God has redeemed us through the blood of the Lamb that we might be brought back into a right relationship with God. And God calls believers by name. The Lord's. as his adopted sons and daughters. Even as Christians, we may have to go through the fire and the water. You say, no kidding, I have. Many of us have gone through the fire and the water in different ways, whether it be by persecution, suffering for the faith, whether it be suffering death, disease, hardships, ridicule, financial difficulties. problems in relationships, you name it. Somebody here has gone through it. And it's interesting that God uses the two most destructive elements of nature, fire and water, to make the point that indeed His grace is sufficient for us in any and every circumstance of life. Really, the idea being in the most difficult, in the worst situation you can imagine. And of course, if it's sufficient for us in the most difficult, then even the less difficult, it's sufficient. But water destroys and wipes out anything in its way. Think back to that image you have of the video footage of the tsunami not so long ago. As we saw it over and over again as the wave hits the land and grabs anything in its path, whether it's furniture or people or automobiles or houses or trees. mixes everything together, churns it all up, and carries it down the path of least resistance. And fire consumes, we know, we were reminded as well in this area about a year and a half ago, fire consumes anything in its way. And a forest fire, or a fire that rips through a housing development, leaves acres and acres, we might say, really with only black soot and ashes to remind us that it was there. God's people will go through the fire and the water. Indeed, persecution, that's what the Bible says. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.12, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And Peter says it is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. But as long as we remain in this life, we will suffer as well the effects of sin, the misery of sin. all these other things that we've mentioned, and anything you can add to it. But our Lord Jesus Christ says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Because I will be with you. I paid for you. Free and clear. You are mine. John Calvin says, we are tried by afflictions, but at length delivered. We are baffled by the billows, but not swallowed up. We are scorched by the flames, but not consumed. And no doubt those words may sound familiar as Paul said something similar in 2 Corinthians 4, but we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. Believers and unbelievers alike suffer. In some ways we suffer the same way as believers, in some ways not. Sometimes we suffer at their hands, but at other times it seems to us that they get the better end of the deal. That was Asaph's complaint in Psalm 73. The grass looked greener on the other side of the fence. The heathen, they blaspheme God, yet they are healthy, wealthy, and wise. What's wrong with me then, he says? but when we suffer, you see, those who believe are supported by God's grace, the only sure refuge and strength. But notice that God also restores His chosen people because of what He has done. Talking beyond now of the fact that He has created, formed, and redeemed them, you see God directs their attention to the past only this time so that they might realize what God has done for them in relation to other people and nations of the world. As parents, when our children are small, quite young and small, we are very protective of them. And if our child, if our young child is playing with another child and all of a sudden our child is crying, we're right there by their side to comfort them. But at the same time, we kind of look at the other child and wonder, well, what did you do to my child to make my kid cry? Because that's the only logical explanation. We give up on the other child. We ransom the other child, as it were, for the sake of our own. Now the text says, beginning in verse 3, For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. And that means, I believe, that God is assuring them that He is their covenant God and it supports what He had just said before, I created, formed, and redeemed you, and you are mine because I am your covenant God and I am faithful to my covenant with you. And then it connects to what he is about to say when he goes on, I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. And again, Bible history tells us that after the Lord led His people through the Red Sea safely, then he wiped out Pharaoh's army with the very same walls of water. Those very same walls of water which provided safe passage for God's people were used to destroy Pharaoh's army. But also later in their history, especially while Hezekiah was king over Judah, God gave. He gave, handed over some of the other nations as a ransom, as a substitute for his people. You may remember Sennacherib, king of Assyria. He was gaining in power and he was conquering the land. He had his sights set on Jerusalem and he was making his way there. And what does good king Hezekiah do? He prayed to God for deliverance and God heard his prayer and God turned Sennacherib's attention away from Israel towards some of the other nations. and delivered them, substituted them into the enemy's hands instead of his people. God chose his people. And at the same time, he has passed by others. He allows those who are not his people, as he did in the day we were just talking about, to be destroyed in order that his chosen people might live. Why does he do this? Because God's people are precious and honored in His sight and because He loves them with a redeeming love. However, beloved, that is not to make us boastful and to think, ah, I'm pretty special, you see. As God's people, we are not precious and we are not honored because of anything in and of ourselves or because we deserve it. That's not it at all. It's only because of God's love for His own and because of what He has done. He created, He formed, He redeemed. He has made His own precious and honored for His glory. God's people are a sparkle in His eye because He first loved us, not because we first loved Him. We need to remember always that God graciously chooses us, chose us and at the same time did not choose others who are no different than we are. You see, we all bear the same simple nature. We all deserve the very same condemnation. In His love for His people, God gave His one and only Son to take our place as a ransom for you and me. That was, He was exchanged for you and me. That was, as we've talked about in recent weeks, the ultimate exchange, the great exchange. And think about that again. He took our sin and its curse from us upon His sinless perfection and holiness and gave us freely His perfect righteousness. Beloved, if that isn't love, then we really do not know what love is. We deserve eternal death just like all of mankind. But Paul tells us that we have eternal life through Christ. And Paul speaks of Jesus Christ to the Galatians when he says, Who gave Himself for our sins. Why? To rescue us from the present evil age. And in Ephesians 2 we read, But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. God comforts His chosen with His announcement of restoration. He reminds them that they are not their own, but belong body and soul to their faithful Savior, and He reminds them of His faithfulness to them in the past. But finally, He also directs their attention to the future and what He will do. Verses 5 and 6. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, give them up, and to the south, do not hold them back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. You see, as if what God has done for his people in the past is still not enough to convince them. If his record still isn't enough to give them the proof they need, God tells them exactly what he is going to do. He says again, don't be afraid because I am with you and I will bring you out of captivity. I will bring you home. And again, Bible history tells us that God did bring a remnant home in 538 B.C. just as Isaiah foretold in Isaiah chapter 10 when he said, a remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the mighty God. But we also see here just how far reaching this restoration is to be. God is going to bring them back from the far reaches of the four corners of the earth, north, south, east, and west. You see, beloved, God has power and authority over the whole earth. And just as he commanded Pharaoh to give up what he unjustly held captive, God would command the whole earth to give up the sons and daughters that belong to him and him alone, those who have been bought with a price. Beloved God has begun to gather His people. His chosen who have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ continues to gather His church today as His command is carried out to go and make disciples of all nations. And today, in essence, we are just like Isaiah's audience. The church is, we might say, in captivity of sorts in a place that is not our home. In this life, surrounded by sin. Peter says believers are pilgrims. And we know that a pilgrim is one who is not at home. A pilgrim is one who is traveling through to a better place. This world is not our home. No matter how comfortable with this life we might get, we need to remember that. This world is not our home. God's people are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. and God is in the process of restoring, of gathering together His chosen people. Those who belong to their faithful Savior Jesus Christ are headed for the new Jerusalem on the new earth. And Paul says in Ephesians 2, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. And therefore our comfort as those who are the Lord's is that in this life he says I will be with you and that in death he says I will bring you home. And those who are being restored are as God says in verse 7 everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory whom I formed and made. Why did God form and create and make a people for himself? Not so that we might receive the glory. But so that He would receive the glory. He would be glorified. And congregation, is that your comfort this morning? Is it? Do you have the comfort that you have been restored to a saving relationship with God because and only because of the work of Jesus Christ? Do you belong to Him? And have you experienced already the comfort of belonging to Him as you may have already faced various trials and temptations, knowing that even over those times, those circumstances, God is in control and that He uses all of these things to prepare us for heaven? We ought to remember that when we suffer the difficulties of life. God is using that for me to prepare me for glory, to pound me. to shape me to chip away at the rough edges to polish me to prepare me for glory. Those who don't belong to the faithful Savior Jesus Christ belong to someone His enemy the father of lies the devil. And those who belong to the devil will not find the Heavenly Father's house with the streets of gold the gates of pearl and the sea of crystal instead their eternal home will be the lake of fire. But all those, yet only those, but all those who look to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, those whom He has purchased, theirs is the comfort of having their names carved on the palms of His hand, as Isaiah says, and recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. And we can say with confidence, I am the Lord's. Ours is the comfort that those who belong to Jesus will never, ever, ever be separated from Him and His love. And beloved, may that give us confidence for today. That each and every day we might wake to a new day. And as we do, as we wake up to a new day, may our first thought be, whether as a boy, young boy, girl, and girl, young person, all of us as believers, that we are to remember to whom we belong, that you wake up tomorrow and you smile and you say, I belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And may that truth, beloved, govern every single detail of our daily lives. He is our firm foundation, and his promise to us is don't be afraid. Because I am with you always to the very end. of the age. You belong to me. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for the precious truth of your word. That we must confess we often fail to think about. We often go through our daily lives forgetting who it is that we belong to. But from this day forward, may we never forget again that no matter what, whatever situation of life we face, whatever temptation we face, that you bring to our minds that we might remember that we are the Lord's. We belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. It may be our desire, Heavenly Father, to live in such a way that you be glorified and not shamed on our account. Father, strengthen our faith. Strengthen our service to you. Increase that service. And may you, O Lord, indeed be glorified and praised. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.