GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

ENGRAVED!

God's Engraving of His Elect Upon His Hands
Isaiah 49:16

Don Fortner

My conversation with David Adkins – "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people!" (Isa. 40:1-2).

• "Her warfare is accomplished!"


• "Her iniquity is pardoned!"


• "She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." – Pardon! – Reward!

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.

1. What Does the Lord God say In This Text?
2. What Does This text Teach Us?
3. What Should Our Response Be To This Word From God?

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.

1. That is a Word of Wonder (I John 3:1).
2. It is a Word Signaling Special Attention.
3. It is a Word Calling for Detailed Study.

1. The Engraver is God Himself.
2. The Engraving, or Inscribing of A People Upon The Palms of His Hands is an Act of Sovereign Election. (John 15:16). "The Lamb's Book of Life!"
3. This work of Election is God's Work (Rom. 9:16- "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious!"
4. God's works of grace are works in which he takes a very personal interest (Zeph. 3:14-17).

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).

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 – Calvary!


• Engraving is Perpetual.

• 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.

• A Union of Grace!


• A Union of His Making!

• 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).

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."

Illus: Big Jake– #318

If this word from God is not a promise you can rightfully claim, your mouth ought to water for it. (Matt. 11:28-30).

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