I Never will Forget

August 23, 2014

Isaiah 51:9-16

It is not God who needs to awake, but you and I, for God has stated, in Psalm 121:3–4, “He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”  Could it be we need to sing the old hymns, “I never will forget what He has done for me.” Could it be you have no history with God, could it be you cannot go back to a time when you recall what God has done for you?  Hymns of my father come back to me and remind me of whose I am, such songs as “I know whom I have Believed” do you recall that song? “I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me he hath made known, Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love Re-deemed me for his own.  But “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.”  I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart, nor how believing in his Word wrought peace within my heart.  But “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.”  I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing men of sin, Revealing Jesus thro’ the Word, creating faith in him.  But “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.” 

If you have come to read this today and it is clear you have no history of God’s wonderful grace and love for you, it’s time to address it now.  First, be reminded that He has stated in John 3:16, God loves you and gave His Son Jesus to pay your price for sin.  Also awake to this fact, God sent His Son not to condemn you but to save you from the grasp sin has on you.  If you choose not to receive His gift of love, it is a choice you have made, and you will receive condemnation for not believing in the gift of life found in Jesus Christ.  Many years ago in a hotel in Victoria, Texas, I acted on Romans 10:9-10, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Isaiah is telling the people to recall what God has done for them, how He delivered them from bondage in Egypt, and how He will once more free them from Babylonian captivity.  Many a Christian spends more time fearing what evil men will do to them, men both in and out of government, than what God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever can do for them.  Folks, all men die, but our great and mighty God has no beginning and no end, should you not fear Him, and is that not what He is saying in verse 12? 

Be an encouraged follower of Christ by these words in Isaiah 13-16, for we who were once far off, have been grafted into the vine, which is Christ.  “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor?  He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.  I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of hosts is his name.  And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice