I ask that you turn with me this morning to Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49 as we read together verses 8 through 21. And we want to consider specifically verse 16. And even more specifically than that, the first half of verse 16. Isaiah 49 beginning in verse 8 as we give our attention to the Word of God. This is what the Lord says. In the time of my favor, I will answer you. And in the day of salvation, I will help you. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, come out, and to those in darkness, be free. They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar, some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan. Shout for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains, for the Lord comforts His people. and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me. Your sons hasten back. And those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around. All your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live, declares the Lord, you will wear them all as ornaments. You will put them on like a bride. Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people. And those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, This place is too small for us. Give us more space to live in. then you will say in your heart, Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren. I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone. But these, where have they come from? Again, verse 16. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, It's true, isn't it, that as believers, even though we confess our faith in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we have all questioned at times God's presence or His nearness, or maybe better said, His lack of presence or lack of nearness, as we might perceive it. And I'm sure that's not something that we like to admit at all, because that's also perceived by our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as a weakness in our faith. But it's true. Whether we have faced sickness or death or financial difficulty or temptations of some kind, we have all said with our mouths or we have groaned from deep down inside, God, why have You forgotten me? Why have You left me? There have been times, beloved, when we have taken our eyes, our eyes which are supposed to be fixed on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, as the writer of Hebrews says, we have taken our eyes off of Him. And we have closed our eyes to our Lord's loving kindness and tender mercies. We have forgotten that He is our refuge and our strength. He is our fortress, especially in time of need. There have been times when we have closed our ears to His promises to be with us even to the end of the age. And then what's worse, we have blamed God. Why have you forgotten me? And it's then, beloved, that we need to be reminded to remember. We need to be reminded to remember. And that's why our Lord said, Do this in remembrance of Me. Celebrate My supper till I come again in remembrance of Me. And as we do this, not only are we reminded of Christ's death and resurrection, and not only do our souls feast on the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but at the same time, We are reminded of God's thoughts toward His people. The text before us, especially the first part of 16, overflows with comfort, especially in the midst of such faithlessness. And therefore, I preach to you this Word of God, the Lord's response to the faithless accusation. As we consider, first of all, the challenge to the charge of forgetfulness. And then secondly, the proof of never-ending thoughtfulness. Isaiah 49 begins with the second servant song, which is recorded in the book of Isaiah. We didn't read that part, but it's there. It's a clear reference again to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, talking specifically about what He will do. His work of restoring God's people, as well as His work of being a light to the Gentiles. And then in verses 8-13, these verses talk specifically about that restoration of Israel. They will be saved. They will be restored to their land. They will be fed with abundance. And then they are called to worship as creation is called to worship in verse 13. Shout for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! And then we are given the reason for the Lord comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones. Beautiful words of comfort. And that's why then it's hard to believe the response of God's people as we find it in verse 14. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me. Now it's true that this lament or this complaint comes in the midst of a period of suffering. A period of captivity and exile. And the captives knew that Zion was their rightful home. Jerusalem is where God dwelt in His holy temple. They knew very well that they were a long, long away from Jerusalem. And we too must admit that when we cry out to God, sometimes for days, sometimes for years, and there is no evidence that He hears us, when we just don't see it the way we would like to, then we think that He's turned away. Or we think that He is too preoccupied with something else. Or maybe we think that our problem is just too small for Him to worry about. And therefore, unbelief sets in and we doubt the promises of God. And notice from verse 14 that the complaint includes that God has forsaken them outwardly. In the sense that He has turned His back on them. They didn't believe that He was present with them. But also that He had forsaken them inwardly. Oh Lord, You don't think about us anymore. You have forgotten us. But you see, beloved, that's nothing short of a faithless accusation. God's people doubted the very Word of God. They doubted the coming of the servant of the Lord, the Messiah, which was spoken of in the beginning of the chapter. They doubted the redemption and restoration which the Lord's prophet prophesied to them. They doubted His Word even earlier than that, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. They doubted what He said in chapter 40, Comfort ye, comfort My people, says your God, and all the wonderful things of comfort spoken of there. They doubted what He said in Isaiah chapter 43, You are Mine, I have redeemed you, and therefore when you go through difficult times, I will be with you. They doubted the very Word of God. Yet in the midst of this faithless accusation, when they deserved to have the Lord rebuke them, instead the Lord's loving kindness and tender mercies are illumined as He challenges the charge of forgetfulness with illustrations of comfort. First, He gives His people an everyday example of what they mean to Him. Notice verse 15. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you. Now I think, beloved, that we would all understand if we said, That mother love for her children, especially an infant, a nursing child, is in some respects the highest form of human love that exists. In some respects that's true. Now fathers, of course, it's not that saying that we don't love our children. We do. We love our children deeply. We would give our lives for them. But even as fathers, we know that there is a bond so strong between a mother and a child, even when that child is still in the womb. And especially a nursing child, which depends upon his mother for his food and therefore for his very existence, is always in the mother's thoughts. Her life revolves around the life of the child. Her schedule revolves around the schedule of the child. The Lord places before His children the situation in which the child needs the constant attention of his mother. And the Lord's question here, can a mother forget? in the Hebrew language, expects the answer, no. No. A mother cannot forget. And this situation is virtually impossible. As I said in the earlier service, we live in a day of virtual reality. Here, too, it's virtually impossible. It's not totally or completely impossible, humanly speaking. You may remember of the mother who left her children in the car this past summer and they died because of the heat, she said she forgot them. Because of the stress of her life and the busyness, she forgot her children. So we have to say, yes, it is possible. It's not impossible that a mother would forget her children. And therefore the Lord adds, though she may forget, I will not forget you. You say I have forgotten you. Yet the Lord explains that His love is as inalienable, as a mother's love. In fact, it's even greater than maternal love. Even if a mother forgets which seems like a highly unlikely situation, God never will. Jeremiah 31 verse 20 says, Is not Ephraim of my dear son the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I have great compassion for him, declares the Lord. And David says in Psalm 103, this time concerning fathers. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on all those who fear Him. Joshua 1, verse 5 says, the Lord will never leave you or forsake you. And there is no sweeter consolation or comfort than this, beloved. But God's love is so strong for His own. And therefore, He says at the beginning of verse 16, see? See? First, He gives them the situation. And then He says, see, to call their attention to something. Now, this may not seem like a very important word. Grammatically speaking, it's simply what we call an interjection. It can also be translated as, behold, or take notice, see. But with one simple little word, the Lord is calling His faithless people to take their eyes off of themselves and look above. They were called to look to Him and remember His faithfulness throughout the generations. With one little word, He was calling their attention to a fact upon which they were to take action. That action was to trust, to believe, to be confident. That action was to be because of what it was they were to see. Again, our text says, See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands. This is the proof of never-ending thoughtfulness. The word engraved is talking about cutting into something, inscribing or carving into something. It's talking about a permanent marking. In Ezekiel 4, verse 1, we read, Now, Son of Man, take a clay tablet, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. And now that language really is a little bit misleading because that verse isn't simply talking about making an artist's sketch on a piece of paper with a pencil. The idea there is to cut into, to engrave into the clay tablets the map of Jerusalem. In the same way, our Lord carved His Ten Commandments with His very finger into the stone tablets. I have engraved you, carved you in the palms of My hands. This is how deeply and how fully God's people are fixed in His memory. And it's not simply the name of His children engraved there. Not simply the names. But we must understand that what is engraved there is the very fullness of His children. Everything about them is engraved in the Lord's hands. Our joys, our sorrows, our strengths and weaknesses, our needs, our concerns, our sins, our temptations. Absolutely everything that concerns us concerns our God and is engraved in the palms of His hands. And notice also that all of this is engraved in both of His hands. Our hands are always before us, aren't they? That is, in front of us. We work with our hands. We make gestures with our hands. We communicate with our hands. And we could say that in some sense, our hands are the busiest parts of our bodies. God is always at work on behalf of His people. And every time He lifts His hands, His church is lifted before His face and before His eyes. And God cannot look at His hands without beholding His church. She is such a part of Him that He cannot forget her unless He forgets Himself. And beloved, that won't happen. Boys and girls, of course, we know that God doesn't really have hands and feet and a mouth and a head and eyes like we do. God does not have a body, flesh and blood like we do, except for our Lord Jesus Christ. But God speaks to us in the Bible in a way that we can understand. And we can understand this kind of talk. In the Bible, God describes Himself for us using what is called anthropomorphic language. And therefore, he describes himself as having hands and feet, a mouth that speaks, and eyes that see, and ears that hear, and a nose that smells, so that we can better understand what he does for his people and who he is for his people. But the point is, his church and all believers are always in his thoughts. His church is the apple of his eye. In Psalm 139, David talks about God's thoughts toward his people. And he says, how precious are your thoughts, to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. And in Psalm 121, we read that the Lord never slumbers nor sleeps. And that means that He constantly watches over His people. You recall that we have considered recently in our study of the Catechism, We've considered that God's people live out of our Heavenly Father's hand. That's providence. And now here we are being taught that not only are we inside of His hands, but we never have to worry about being dropped by Him. God's people are forever etched in His palms. That's security. The same security and protection that Moses enjoyed so that he would not be destroyed by the brightness of God's glory. The Lord says in Exodus 33, verse 22, When My glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. The word there and in our text is talking about the flat of the hand, the palm of the hand, the protective security of God's hand covering Moses. The text also says, there the Lord says, Your walls are ever before Me. Now we know that walls are a picture of strength and stability, a fortress, and the Lord is the rock and fortress of His church, as Psalm 71 verse 3 says. Walls point to the peace and prosperity of His church, and He constantly watches over her walls and keeps her in the palms of His hands. His church engraved on the palms of His hands is proof of His never-ending thoughtfulness toward His people. It's more than simply constant thoughtfulness, uninterrupted thoughtfulness, but never-ending eternal care. And congregation, as His people, we are called to remember this always. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Our Lord Jesus Christ has secured His church forever. In His Father's hands. He has won the victory. The penalty has been paid. Satan, sin, and the grave have been defeated. He lives never more to die and nothing can separate us from His Father's love. How do we know? Well, consider the hands of Jesus. He said to Thomas, Put your finger here. See my hands? Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting. and believe. As the nails were pounded into His hands and feet and as He hung on the cross, all of the sins of His people were laid upon Him for which He suffered hellish agony to pay the ransom price for our eternal security. Our comfort is that Jesus Christ has secured a place in God's heart and in His house forever for those who believe on Him. And if this isn't your comfort today as you sit here, it can be. It can be. Look to Jesus Christ and His scarred hands. Those scars which remind you and me of the Father's deep and eternal lasting love on our behalf. And repent of your sins, believe on Him, and you will own the promise of being engraved in the palms of the Lord's hands. Guaranteed. This table before us is to remind us constantly it is proof of the Lord's never-ending thoughtfulness and faithfulness toward His people. And beloved, there's only one response for us to make and that is to shout with Thomas, My Lord and my God. Beloved, come, for the Lord's feast is spread.