The Assurance of Salvation that You Must Enjoy (Isaiah 49:14-17)
Rev. Myung-Sin Choi
“14 But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.' 15 '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. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. 17 Your sons shall make haste; Your destroyers and those who laid you waste Shall go away from you.' ”
Introduction
The remnants were able to participate in the World Remnant Conference (WRC) and received a lot of grace. It is so nice to see all of our remnants here. Our heart beats about 100,000 times a day, our body produces 2,000 gallons of blood per day, and we breathe 22,000 breaths a day. This is astounding. If our vital organs stop working then a detrimental thing will happen to our bodies and our lives. Our bodies use 7 million cells to carry out our daily lives. These are the astounding things that happen in our bodies. If any of our body functions work strangely and go into the wrong direction, then it will cause a problem in our daily lives and daily functioning. But all of this is possible and we are able to continue to live it all through God’s grace. Then, how does God allow us to breathe and allow the blood in our bodies to flow through our bodies? This is because there is a great plan of God that He has prepared for each one of us. For that special plan, God continues to give us His word through worship services. We have continued to look at Isaiah 49 and we were able to see the life span of Jesus from His birth to His death. Last week, we spoke about the three roles of Jesus Christ. Today’s message is about the blessing of salvation that we must enjoy that Jesus completed on the cross.
1. The Assurance of God's Love
1) Israel's resentment
Verse 14 - Zion is referring to the people of Israel and the background of this was spoken when Israel was in slavery. When they were taken as captives as slaves, this prophecy was speaking about what will happen to them when they become enslaved. God is saying that this prophecy will absolutely take place. The chosen people of Israel, they forgot everything and will lose everything. They did end up losing everything. They lost the temple of God, it got completely destroyed. After God’s temple was destroyed, they had no place to give worship to God. The promise between King David and God where God promised to protect His people, that promise was completely broken as well. It didn’t end there. The promise between Abraham and God where God promised them that they will leave their land and go to Canaan. But they were kicked out of Canaan. They lost hold of everything. They blamed this on how God forgot about them and resented God. Even if we are saved, there may be times where we can feel this way. This is what the Bible is telling us. Even if you are a child of God, you lose hold of everything. Even the curses that non-believers receive, we may receive worse. We may experience the same resentment that Israel had before God. We may think that God has left me and God has forgotten about me.
2) Yet I will not forget you
Verse 15 - From here, God is showing us that He remembers us like a nursing mother remembers her child. One of the greatest loves in this world is mother’s love. Many people talk about their mothers on TV but anybody who talks about their mothers, they always end up crying. They remember the love of their mother, and they end up crying. A mother’s love is unconditional love. Unconditional love is sacrificial love. Whenever I think about my mother, I also feel touched and get teary eyed. Within the hard times in my life, she would sacrifice many things to support and provide for my family, and remembering all of this, I get emotional. The common characteristic of any mother is that if their child does anything bad or their child makes them mad, they always love them. A mother of faith always prays for their child. This is the example that God used. God said that He will never forget us. A mother’s love that may seem like the greatest love, a greater love than a mother’s love is the love of God. Have you experienced the love of God? If you have experienced the love of God, then there is nothing for you to worry about. If God’s love is the greatest love then there is nothing for you to worry about. Even if everyone forgets about you, God said that He will never forget about us.
2. Assurance About Jesus' Sacrifice
1) I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands
Verse 16 - When we look in the Bible, it talks about the inscriptions written in people’s bodies and on slaves’ bodies. No master would never write the names of the slaves but the names of their masters. They would inscribe on them to show their ownership over their slaves and livestock. But God said that He has written our names on the palms of His hands. He has engraved our names on His hands. We have experienced the unconditional love of God that we should have never received or deserved has been given to us. “You” is referring to all of our bodies and everything of us is engraved on God’s hands. This means that God knows everything about us. What is important is not that God has written our names on His hands but it has been engraved. Engraved means that it has been permanently engraved and carved into His hands. This means that God will never forget us, He has promised us this. How has God engraved you on His hands? It was through the event of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Luke 23:34 “Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.' And they divided up His clothes by casting lots.” - When Jesus Christ was nailed onto the cross, on His hands, our names were engraved onto His hands. When Jesus Christ resurrected, He spoke for His disciples to look at His hands. If you look at this, many people speak about how His wrists were nailed onto the cross but it was actually Jesus’ hands were nailed on the cross. This means that the blood that Jesus shed on the cross, this was all for us and for the sake of engraving our names on His hands. This shows the great love of God for mankind.
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” - The blood that Jesus shed on the cross, this symbolized the process of our names being engraved on God’s hands.
Verse 16 - God will never forget us. This was all spoken when the temple of God was destroyed. This means that even though the temple of God was collapsed, this means the temple of God lives inside us. We may not have the temple of God constructed and the walls may have collapsed but the temple of God is inside of us. This means that no trace of the temple of God is seen but God is promising that He will restore the temple of God. What does it mean that He will restore the temple of God? It wasn’t speaking about the construction of the temple of God in Israel. This means that God will restore the image of God within mankind. The temple of God and the image of God that was lost, God is promising that He will restore all of that. For us, we may seem so lacking but God continues to speak. We possess the image of God. God will show us the restored and healed image of us. The value of our lives and how precious we are, God promised that He will show us this. Through the cross, this was fulfilled.
2) The restoration of the Temple
Verse 17 - This is talking about your children walking hastily. If you look in other versions of the Bible, it speaks about “builders” not your sons. This means that God will restore His temple hastily. God will bring back the Israelites out of slavery quickly and have them rebuild the temple of God hastily. This was because this showed how important it was for His children and people to restore worship. The first thing that we must restore in our lives is worship. We have to restore worship in order to receive all blessings and answers. What the Israelites needed the most was a place of worship. This verse was also prophesying how Babylon will be destroyed through Cyrus. “Go away from you” is not talking about Babylon departing from Israel and how Babylon will be destroyed but it is talking about how the problem for darkness that mankind cannot solve, that will be solved and destroyed. When you give worship to God, what happens first? Our fundamental problems and the state of darkness that we are in, all of that is being pulled out when we give worship. In other words, darkness will depart from our bodies and God will send us the Holy Spirit to reside in our bodies. What used to reside in the bodies of Israel was Babylon but now God will reside in your heart. It is not Babylon controlling them but it is now God who is the master of their lives. They are able to live a life being led by the Holy Spirit.
3. The Assurance of the Working of the Holy Spirit
1) Enjoy the uniqueness of Christ
As children of God, what we must enjoy first is the uniqueness of Christ. Acts 17:3 “Explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. 'This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,' he said.” - What we must hold onto absolutely is Christ. Why? This is because the only way for the Triune God to come upon us. This is the way for the power of the Triune God and heavenly throne to come upon us. This is the only way to solve our past, present, and future problems. The only way to break down darkness is through Christ alone. This is the only way to enjoy the 5 powers is through Christ. If we enjoy Christ every single day, then it is all finished.
2) Hold onto the five covenant journeys.
Acts 18:4 “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.” - Through the WRC, God has given us His covenant continually. We must raise up the bartizan of God’s covenant in our lives. Within our studies and occupation, we must raise up the bartizan. We must hold onto the vision that blocks disasters. We have to hold onto the eternal dream. We must build up the bartizan to possess the power of the meta-verse to block darkness. We must enjoy the blessing of the heavenly throne. We need to restore all of this through scheduled prayer.
Conclusion: Relay the kingdom of God
Acts 19:8 “And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. ” - We must raise the bartizan but what is the content of the bartizan? We must hold onto that. The power of the Triune God is upon us. This must become our platform. We must enjoy the power of the throne. This is our watchtower. We just become the antenna to save the 237 nations and 5,000 tribes. We can do all of this through 24 hour prayer. If we enter into prayer and hold onto God’s covenant, then all of this will happen in our lives. Rev. Kwang-Su Ryu said we just need to think about this. I think this is true. We are always wasting our thoughts on useless things. We are always thinking about what we need to eat or drink. We need to think about that of course but we must take the time to think about this. If we just think about this briefly then God will give us tremendous answers. May we receive answers in the name of Jesus Christ.
Comments