Bhanu Gadde: Good morning family.
Bhanu Gadde: I consider it a privilege, a tremendous privilege, to be able to stand before you to handle the Word of God.
Bhanu Gadde: And I stand here with much apprehension this morning, as it is always the case.
Bhanu Gadde: Because case because it's such a fearsome thing to be able to look at God's word and be able to bring the good things that is out of it.
Bhanu Gadde: Also, you know, each time I get notes from Pastor Doug.
Bhanu Gadde: This time also it was the same Pastor Doug sent me notes with a note saying if I study this passage anymore, I'm getting tempted to preach.
Bhanu Gadde: So I didn't ask him any more questions.
Bhanu Gadde: But as time went on, as fear started gripping me, there is always that temptation to give him a call at the 11th hour saying would you take it back?
Bhanu Gadde: But I didn't do that because, you know, for some reason I didn't think he was here in town, so he did not get my call.
Bhanu Gadde: So wonderful, it's so wonderful to be here to praise God and worship God.
Bhanu Gadde: Worship the Lord in his household.
Bhanu Gadde: And our scripture portion here comes from the book of Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 14, through chapter 50, verse 3.
Bhanu Gadde: That is in your Bible, pew Bibles.
Bhanu Gadde: It is on page 646 to 647.
Bhanu Gadde: Aduniram Judson was an American missionary to Burma, which is the current day Myanmar.
Bhanu Gadde: He was born in Massachusetts in 1788, and in 1812 he got married to Anne Hazeltine.
Bhanu Gadde: Just two weeks after his marriage they set sail to Calcutta, india, to be a missionary.
Bhanu Gadde: They arrived in Calcutta in June of 1812.
Bhanu Gadde: After reaching India he was ordered to leave by the British East India Company.
Bhanu Gadde: They did not take kindly to the missionaries during those days and they did not take kindly to British missionaries, let alone American missionaries.
Bhanu Gadde: And he moved to Burma a year later, in July of 1813.
Bhanu Gadde: And he was warned by William Carey to not to go into Burma because Burma is known as the graveyard of missionaries, see Adiniram.
Bhanu Gadde: Judson faced extreme challenges in Burma, including cultural resistance to Christianity, constant sickness and death, the imprisonment and torture of himself and his wife and death.
Bhanu Gadde: The imprisonment and torture of himself and his wife, the loss of three children and two wives to illness, and periods of deep personal grief and despair.
Bhanu Gadde: Despite these immense hardships, he persevered for decades, translating the entire Bible into Burmese and laying the groundwork for the first indigenous churches in the country.
Bhanu Gadde: It took three years of hard work of learning the language, translating portions of the scripture into their native language.
Bhanu Gadde: And then after that, he spent four years proclaiming the gospel on the roadside, inviting people into his Zayat, small shelter by the side of the road.
Bhanu Gadde: So he labored for four years like that in a country to whom he is a stranger, and it took four more years for him to see his first convert in 1819.
Bhanu Gadde: Over 200 years later, the Christian population in Burma is estimated to be around 3.5 to 4 million.
Bhanu Gadde: In fact, we have one of those believers from Burma in our midst.
Bhanu Gadde: His name is Brian, not Brian McLaughlin.
Bhanu Gadde: Brian McLaughlin is from Garden City.
Bhanu Gadde: Whether Garden City or Burma, it is in Christ Jesus we have hope.
Bhanu Gadde: The reason this story is relevant to our message today is the Father's proclamation.
Bhanu Gadde: We see in Isaiah 49, 5-7 verses that His servant will also be a light to the nations by virtue of this proclamation.
Bhanu Gadde: This chapter is a call to global missions and this chapter starts with coasts and islands.
Bhanu Gadde: Listen to me, distant peoples pay attention.
Bhanu Gadde: And it goes on, and we have heard Dr Grisanti teach and preach from it in such a wonderful manner.
Bhanu Gadde: I think we need to listen to that sermon again and again.
Bhanu Gadde: And then, in verse 8, it says I will answer you in the time of favor.
Bhanu Gadde: I will help you in the day of salvation.
Bhanu Gadde: From this Apostle Paul quotes this this is the time of favor and this is the day of salvation, in reference to proclamation of the gospel.
Bhanu Gadde: So later, our portion starts in 14.
Bhanu Gadde: It says Zion says the Lord has abandoned me.
Bhanu Gadde: See, we have seen this grand vision that unfolded in the first 13 verses.
Bhanu Gadde: We see the servant of the Lord and through whom God is unveiling his promise and his vision to bring his light into the entire world, to four corners of the world.
Bhanu Gadde: And first 13 verses it is.
Bhanu Gadde: And the 13th verse ends in shout for joy, you heavens, universal joy at what the Lord is doing in the world.
Bhanu Gadde: And then 14th verse starts with Zion says the Lord has abandoned me and God and the Lord has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: And it ends with in chapter 50, the Lord is recounting.
Bhanu Gadde: You know, I did not abandon you.
Bhanu Gadde: And here's the Lord is laying out the reason for their exile.
Bhanu Gadde: It is such a wonderful, wonderful portion of Scripture.
Bhanu Gadde: Before we look at it, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Bhanu Gadde: Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you this morning.
Bhanu Gadde: Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you this morning that you would consider us, that your light would shine upon us and bring us your salvation.
Bhanu Gadde: Oh, father, as we are studying about your servant and his ministry and your reassurance to your people, father, we pray that you would encourage each one of our hearts, father, in our anguish.
Bhanu Gadde: You provide us an answer.
Bhanu Gadde: Help us to receive that answer this morning and, father, fully grasp the magnitude of the consequences, magnitude of all the implications of that answer.
Bhanu Gadde: Father, be with your people as they hear.
Bhanu Gadde: Father, we pray that you be with me as I speak.
Bhanu Gadde: In Jesus' name, we pray and we look at the key historical events that led to this prophecy.
Bhanu Gadde: Dr Grisanti covered the first portion of this chapter last Sunday and has taken us through the ministry of the servant and how his ministry will not only deliver Israelites from the bondage, but he will be the light to the nations, the islands and the distant lands.
Bhanu Gadde: The nation of Israel was brought to the nations, the islands and the distant lands.
Bhanu Gadde: The nation of Israel was brought to the promised land by the divine hand from bondage in Egypt, israel living in the promised land, and they committed covenant treachery against God and suffered the covenant curse, in words of Dr Grisanti, and, as a result, god evicted from the land of promise, for which God used Babylon as a tool to achieve that purpose.
Bhanu Gadde: And that brings us to the Babylonian exile.
Bhanu Gadde: And we see the chronological list of key events.
Bhanu Gadde: In 605 BC, we see the first deportation from Jerusalem to Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar takes the first of captives, including young nobles such as Daniel.
Bhanu Gadde: And 597 BC, the second deportation King Jehoiakim and Ezekiel and many others are exiled when Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem for the second time.
Bhanu Gadde: And 586 BC, the third and the largest deportation.
Bhanu Gadde: Jerusalem is destroyed, including Solomon's temple.
Bhanu Gadde: The city is left desolate and the majority of the population is exiled to Babylon.
Bhanu Gadde: Exiled to Babylon.
Bhanu Gadde: And as this was going on, the Lord raised a deliverer from the pagan origin and calls him his anointed.
Bhanu Gadde: And we saw Pastor Doug preach from Isaiah 45, the first portion about Cyrus the Great, and we see that Isaiah prophesies about this king in chapter 45, some 150 years before his birth.
Bhanu Gadde: Babylon falls to Cyrus, the Great of Persia, ending the Babylonian Empire's direct rule over the exiles.
Bhanu Gadde: In 539 BC, as soon as he came into power, god kept his promise.
Bhanu Gadde: 538 and 537 BC, cyrus issues an edict allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
Bhanu Gadde: And 516 BC completion and dedication of the second temple in Jerusalem, marking roughly 70 years since the temple's destruction.
Bhanu Gadde: Marking roughly 70 years since the temple's destruction.
Bhanu Gadde: For the people in exile, irrespective of how hard it looks, and God is going to deliver them from Babylonian exile, despite all indications that it was not going to happen, god raises up his instrument, cyrus the Great, to defeat the Babylonians and delivers them out of Babylonian captivity.
Bhanu Gadde: And in verses 5 through 7, we see, you know God address the glory of Christ in bringing salvation of God to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: He says it is not just enough for the house of Jacob to come to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: He says it is not just enough for the house of Jacob to come to the salvation it is.
Bhanu Gadde: I think that does not bring Christ enough glory.
Bhanu Gadde: And his servant will also be a light to the nations.
Bhanu Gadde: This is the expansion of this vision to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: And the glory God gets, the Lord His servant gets, is not enough by saving only the Jewish nation.
Bhanu Gadde: And that's exactly what the Lord says.
Bhanu Gadde: The Father says to the Son by doing so, christ will get far greater glory.
Bhanu Gadde: That is the Father says to the Son by doing so, christ will get far greater glory.
Bhanu Gadde: That is what the Father declared once for all in these verses Restoration of Israel points to a greater restoration and hope for, not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well.
Bhanu Gadde: Well, on the heels of this grand vision that unfolded in these 13 verses, we enter this section.
Bhanu Gadde: 49, 14 to 23 present us with Israel's complaint in one verse and God's gracious and glorious response in the next nine verses.
Bhanu Gadde: We all know what anguish feels like, don't we?
Bhanu Gadde: Whether from personal loss, regret, injustice or uncertainty about the future, those are the days when even God seems silent.
Bhanu Gadde: Israel felt this deeply during the exile.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: But the brilliant message of this text is that God not only hears the cry of the anguish, he answers in surprising and compassionate and redemptive ways.
Bhanu Gadde: This lament is a raw lament, echoing the pain of exile and the sense of silence from heaven.
Bhanu Gadde: But beneath that sorrow lies a deeper truth.
Bhanu Gadde: The anguish that they endure is not random.
Bhanu Gadde: It is the fruit of their rebellion.
Bhanu Gadde: The covenant treachery has consequences, and yet they cry out as though God has failed them.
Bhanu Gadde: Israel's complaint is not the cry of innocence, but it is rooted in their iniquity, and we see in Lamentations 3.39,.
Bhanu Gadde: Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?
Bhanu Gadde: Hosea 13, 6.
Bhanu Gadde: When they had pasture, they became satisfied.
Bhanu Gadde: They were satisfied and their hearts became proud, and they forgot me.
Bhanu Gadde: In Hosea, this portion, god is leveling a complaint against Israelites how their prosperity and satisfaction led to spiritual pride, causing people to forget God who provided for them.
Bhanu Gadde: This verse uses the metaphor of a flock of sheep fed in rich pastures until they become satisfied and complacent, then forgetting their shepherd.
Bhanu Gadde: To show how Israel's material abundance led them to believe they were self-sufficient and forget their reliance on God.
Bhanu Gadde: This pride and forgetting God as seen as a rejection of His goodness and a precursor to His judgment, as they attribute their well-being to themselves rather than to God's grace.
Bhanu Gadde: Prosperity led to pride and pride led to forgetfulness.
Bhanu Gadde: Throughout Israel's history we see this pattern.
Bhanu Gadde: When prosperity abounds, god is forgotten.
Bhanu Gadde: When hardship strikes, god is forgotten.
Bhanu Gadde: When hardship strikes, god is blamed.
Bhanu Gadde: Isn't that the basic, fundamental human experience?
Bhanu Gadde: Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 14,.
Bhanu Gadde: Be careful that you don't forget the Lord, your God.
Bhanu Gadde: When you eat and are full and your heart becomes proud, then you will forget the Lord, your God, and your heart becomes proud.
Bhanu Gadde: Then you will forget the Lord, your God.
Bhanu Gadde: The spiritual amnesia is not unique to Israel.
Bhanu Gadde: It is endemic to the human heart.
Bhanu Gadde: We want God's blessings, but not His Lordship.
Bhanu Gadde: We cry out in pain, yet rarely in repentance.
Bhanu Gadde: God warned them but, like many in our day, they remembered Him only when things went wrong.
Bhanu Gadde: The pridefulness led to covenant treachery against God and consequently, their eviction from the land.
Bhanu Gadde: In exile they're complaining God has forgotten me, dear ones.
Bhanu Gadde: This carries a resemblance to the words of Jesus on the cross, matthew 27, 46 says my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Bhanu Gadde: Jesus, hanging on the cross, utters the same lament, but the difference is staggering.
Bhanu Gadde: Here the Israel laments because of the consequences of their own sin.
Bhanu Gadde: Jesus laments because he is bearing the consequences of our sin.
Bhanu Gadde: Isaiah 53, 5-6,.
Bhanu Gadde: He was pierced because of our rebellion and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
Bhanu Gadde: Jesus suffers not for his owniquity of us all.
Bhanu Gadde: Jesus suffers not for his own sin, but for ours.
Bhanu Gadde: His abandonment is substitutionary, not punitive, not disciplinary.
Bhanu Gadde: 2 Corinthians 5.21 says this he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Bhanu Gadde: Christ bore the silence of heaven so we could hear the voice of grace.
Bhanu Gadde: Hebrews 13.5,.
Bhanu Gadde: I will never leave you nor abandon you, because Jesus was forsaken.
Bhanu Gadde: We never truly are.
Bhanu Gadde: Zion complains.
Bhanu Gadde: God has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: Now.
Bhanu Gadde: To that, god has forgotten me Now.
Bhanu Gadde: To that God responds this way In verses 15 and 16, god's unfailing compassion is expressed like this.
Bhanu Gadde: God responds, not with rebuke, but with stunning reassurance.
Bhanu Gadde: God uses parental care imagery here.
Bhanu Gadde: Isaiah 49, 15.
Bhanu Gadde: Can a woman forget her nursing child or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Bhanu Gadde: Even if they forget, yet, I will not forget you, amen.
Bhanu Gadde: He was not saying it is because of your rebellion you were cast out of the land, but he is responding with wonderful reassurance.
Bhanu Gadde: This verse begins by comparing God's faithfulness to a mother's bond with her nursing child, a relationship that is so intimate it is considered unforgettable.
Bhanu Gadde: God then declares his commitment.
Bhanu Gadde: That is considered unforgettable.
Bhanu Gadde: God then declares His commitment that is even stronger he will never forget His people.
Bhanu Gadde: Deuteronomy 32, 18.
Bhanu Gadde: You ignored the rock who gave you birth.
Bhanu Gadde: You forgot the God who gave birth to you.
Bhanu Gadde: Hosea 11, 3-4.
Bhanu Gadde: It was I who taught Ephraim to walk.
Bhanu Gadde: Taking them by the hand, I led them with cords of kindness.
Bhanu Gadde: Isaiah 49, 16,.
Bhanu Gadde: Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
Bhanu Gadde: Your walls are continually before me.
Bhanu Gadde: You know, in the ancient world, including the Old Testament period, branding was a practice used on slaves to signify their ownership, A sign of property.
Bhanu Gadde: A slave was the property of their master.
Bhanu Gadde: Their brand marked them as belonging to their owner, often with the master's name or a symbol, and it represented humiliation, though it is temporary while brutal.
Bhanu Gadde: You know, slavery in the Old Testament was not a permanent condition for Israelites and offered certain protections.
Bhanu Gadde: In other cultures, however, the branding was permanent sign of property.
Bhanu Gadde: And here the Lord is using this language, engraving the covenant and remembrance.
Bhanu Gadde: In contrast, god's promise to his people is an act of loving, commitment and constant remembrance.
Bhanu Gadde: This passage features wonderful elements that stand in direct opposition to the concept of branding.
Bhanu Gadde: It is a permanent reminder for God, not us.
Bhanu Gadde: Unlike a brand meant to remind the slave of their master, god's engraving is a reminder for himself.
Bhanu Gadde: He intentionally makes his people part of his being, so they are always before him.
Bhanu Gadde: He does not need a reminder, but the image powerfully demonstrates his devotion.
Bhanu Gadde: And second aspect is master as servant.
Bhanu Gadde: This imagery creates a beautiful role reversal where master bears the mark of his servants.
Bhanu Gadde: Think about it the master is branded for the servants, for Christians.
Bhanu Gadde: This foreshadows the nail marks on Jesus' hands which become the ultimate and eternal testament to his sacrificial love for humanity.
Bhanu Gadde: And through that, he, not us.
Bhanu Gadde: He became our everlasting position, not as he became our everlasting position.
Bhanu Gadde: And Exodus 2, 8, 9 through 12, engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones and Malachi 3, 16,.
Bhanu Gadde: At the time, those who feared the Lord spoke to one another.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord took notice and listened, so a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name.
Bhanu Gadde: For the Christian, these words take on new depth.
Bhanu Gadde: Christ's hands, the servant's hands wounded at Calvary, forever declare his love.
Bhanu Gadde: The marks are proof.
Bhanu Gadde: God has not forgotten or forsaken anyone who is his.
Bhanu Gadde: And in verses 17 to 23, we see Zion's restoration and enlargement.
Bhanu Gadde: God will reverse Zion's barrenness.
Bhanu Gadde: The exile will not be permanent.
Bhanu Gadde: The images of large families are given as signs and symbols of spiritual blessing and fruitfulness.
Bhanu Gadde: Here God's mission extends to the nations.
Bhanu Gadde: Gentile kings are seen as people laboring and bringing Jewish people back towards the nations.
Bhanu Gadde: Gentile kings are seen as people laboring and bringing Jewish people back towards the Lord.
Bhanu Gadde: This signals their inclusion in the promises and plan of God and carries echoes of revelations, kings bringing Him glory.
Bhanu Gadde: God's compassion is not a mere sentiment.
Bhanu Gadde: It propels action.
Bhanu Gadde: He promises restoration so vast that Zion, once barren and broken, will overflow with returning children from every corner of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: God's grace will surprise those who had given up hope.
Bhanu Gadde: This vision reaches beyond Israel to include children from afar and nations serving in this blessing.
Bhanu Gadde: This sets the stage for the church's mission.
Bhanu Gadde: God's family will one day include Jew and Gentile, near and far.
Bhanu Gadde: That is fulfilled in Christ Jesus 49.18.
Bhanu Gadde: Look up and look around.
Bhanu Gadde: They all gather together, they come to you.
Bhanu Gadde: As I live.
Bhanu Gadde: This is the Lord's declaration.
Bhanu Gadde: You will wear all your children as jewelry and put them on as a bride does.
Bhanu Gadde: Look up and look around.
Bhanu Gadde: They all gather together, they come to you, it says.
Bhanu Gadde: Look up.
Bhanu Gadde: This is a command to change the perspective from one of despair and self-pity to one of hope.
Bhanu Gadde: God calls Zion to lift her gaze from her past, ruin and laws to behold the glorious future he is bringing about.
Bhanu Gadde: Look around.
Bhanu Gadde: This is an instruction to actively observe the fulfillment of God's promise.
Bhanu Gadde: Focus is no longer on her desolation but on the gathering of a multitude of her children.
Bhanu Gadde: Dispersed exiles returning home.
Bhanu Gadde: They all gather together, they come to you.
Bhanu Gadde: This describes the immense scope of the promised return.
Bhanu Gadde: It refers to the physical return of the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity, but points ultimately to a greater, final, universal spiritual restoration.
Bhanu Gadde: That is the mission of the servant.
Bhanu Gadde: This gathering includes believers from all nations who come to acknowledge and worship the Lord.
Bhanu Gadde: He says, as I live, this is the Lord's declaration you will wear your children as jewelry and put them on as a bride does, as I live.
Bhanu Gadde: This is a powerful, solemn oath from God himself, signifying the absolute certainty of this promise.
Bhanu Gadde: It emphasizes that this divine assurance is as real as God's own existence.
Bhanu Gadde: He is swearing by His own name.
Bhanu Gadde: You will wear all your children as jewelry.
Bhanu Gadde: This imagery of children as precious ornaments is a powerful reversal of Zion's previous state of barrenness and bereavement.
Bhanu Gadde: One day, you see, all the streets are desolate, the temple is desolate and out of that, god is promising this fruitfulness.
Bhanu Gadde: In ancient cultures, jewelry symbolized honor, status and wealth.
Bhanu Gadde: For Zion, her true splendor is not in material riches but in the vast number of people, both returning exiles and new converts, who became part of her restored community.
Bhanu Gadde: This metaphor echoes a similar image in Jeremiah 2.32, where Israel is rebuked for forgetting God.
Bhanu Gadde: Like a bride forgets her ornaments, isaiah's use of the same imagery here transforms it into a symbol of forgiveness and glorious restoration.
Bhanu Gadde: And put them on as a bride does.
Bhanu Gadde: This metaphor adds to a joyous celebration and relational intimacy to the image of restoration.
Bhanu Gadde: A bride's ornaments represents purity, new beginnings and the festive nature of a covenant relationship.
Bhanu Gadde: This foreshadows the ultimate fulfillment of God's covenant with His people, often depicted in Scripture through bridal imagery, culminating in New Testament with the church as the bride of Christ, revelation 21.2.
Bhanu Gadde: And this restoration, romans 9.25-26, describes like this I will call quotes, not my people, my people and she who is unloved, beloved you are not my people.
Bhanu Gadde: They there, they will be called the sons of the living God.
Bhanu Gadde: And if we look at this God's restoration and we see it gloriously manifest in its conclusion in Isaiah 60 and Revelation, 21 and 22,.
Bhanu Gadde: We see this, you know.
Bhanu Gadde: Let me read this, these verses Isaiah 60, 11 through 22.
Bhanu Gadde: Your city gates will always be open.
Bhanu Gadde: They will never be shut, day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought into you, with their kings being led in procession For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve.
Bhanu Gadde: You will perish.
Bhanu Gadde: These nations will be annihilated.
Bhanu Gadde: The glory of Lebanon will come to you, its pine, elm, cypress together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will glorify my dwelling place.
Bhanu Gadde: The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you.
Bhanu Gadde: All who reviled you will fall face down at your feet.
Bhanu Gadde: They will call you the city of the Lord, a Zion of the Holy, one of Israel.
Bhanu Gadde: Instead, you're being deserted and hated, with no one passing through.
Bhanu Gadde: I will make you an object of eternal pride, a joy from age to age.
Bhanu Gadde: You will nurse on the milk of nations and nurse at the breasts of kings.
Bhanu Gadde: You will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.
Bhanu Gadde: I will bring gold instead of bronze.
Bhanu Gadde: I will bring silver instead of iron, bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.
Bhanu Gadde: I will appoint peace as your government and righteousness as your overseers.
Bhanu Gadde: Violence will never again be heard of in your land.
Bhanu Gadde: Devastation and destruction will be gone from your borders.
Bhanu Gadde: You will call your walls salvation and your city gates praise.
Bhanu Gadde: The sun will no longer be your light by day and brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord will be your everlasting light and your God will be your splendor.
Bhanu Gadde: The sun will no longer set, the moon will not fade, for the Lord will be your everlasting light and the days of your sorrow will be over.
Bhanu Gadde: And your people, all your people, will be righteous and they will possess the land forever.
Bhanu Gadde: They are the branch I planted, the work of my hands so that I may be glorified.
Bhanu Gadde: The least will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation.
Bhanu Gadde: I am the Lord.
Bhanu Gadde: I will accomplish it quickly, in its time.
Bhanu Gadde: What a promise.
Bhanu Gadde: And in Revelation, similar things are expressed.
Bhanu Gadde: See, showing that this is.
Bhanu Gadde: You know, this goes beyond the house of Jacob.
Bhanu Gadde: This is to the ends of the earth, the Lord's salvation being revealed to the ends of the earth Revelation 21, 22 to 27.
Bhanu Gadde: I did not see a temple in it because the Lord, god Almighty and the Lamb of the earth Revelation 21, 22 to 27.
Bhanu Gadde: I did not see a temple in it because the Lord, god Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Bhanu Gadde: The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, as its lamp is the Lamb.
Bhanu Gadde: The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
Bhanu Gadde: Its gates will never close by day, because it will never be night there.
Bhanu Gadde: They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.
Bhanu Gadde: Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb's Book of Life, revelation 22, 1-5.
Bhanu Gadde: Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city's main street.
Bhanu Gadde: The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month.
Bhanu Gadde: The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations and there will no longer be any curse.
Bhanu Gadde: The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city and His servants will worship Him.
Bhanu Gadde: They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.
Bhanu Gadde: Night will be no more.
Bhanu Gadde: People will not need light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.
Bhanu Gadde: Such is the restoration that God is planning Now.
Bhanu Gadde: Verses Isaiah 49, 6 and verses 22 to 23 says this Christ's salvation for all nations.
Bhanu Gadde: It is the servant.
Bhanu Gadde: Isaiah's servant is appointed not only for Israel but as a light of the nations.
Bhanu Gadde: Through the gospel, god's comfort and rescue go out to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: Christ's work on the cross breaks the ultimate bonds and welcomes home spiritual exiles from every culture, every nation, every tongue and tribe.
Bhanu Gadde: And towards the chapter ends with both a promise and a warning to the nations on the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: God will lift up his hand to the nations and raise his banner commanding the Gentiles to assist him in gathering his scattered people and returning them to Zion.
Bhanu Gadde: The ones who are journeying with them to Zion will carry the sons and daughters.
Bhanu Gadde: The Persian sub-rulers are the people called on to help with the restoration and resettlement of Jerusalem.
Bhanu Gadde: In the same way, gentiles who benefited from the ministry of servant Jesus Christ are called to evangelize the unreached people.
Bhanu Gadde: Groups giving special attention to the lost among the house of Jacob and believing kings will aid in the proclamation of the gospel.
Bhanu Gadde: And in verses 24-26, we see the plight of the tyrants who hold the exiles captive.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord proclaims that they will be crushed in order to let the children of God go free.
Bhanu Gadde: Either they will aid in bringing back the exiles and be blessed, or will resist and be destroyed.
Bhanu Gadde: And what a response of God to their complaint.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: And here, in the first three verses of Isaiah 50, the Lord addresses Judah.
Bhanu Gadde: Here he was preparing his people for the consequences of their covenant, treachery and idolatry through the prophecy.
Bhanu Gadde: This prophecy ahead of time that he has given is to strengthen them and their faith when they needed it the most, when they are in exile, lest they think that their God has completely abandoned them and cast them off completely or divorced them.
Bhanu Gadde: In these verses, the Lord answers them and gives them the reason for their exile, which is the exile is temporary.
Bhanu Gadde: The Israel was sent away because of their iniquity.
Bhanu Gadde: Even then, as soon as they complained about the Lord abandoning them iniquity Even then, as soon as they complained about the Lord abandoning them, he reassured them and promised them that, despite all appearances, the exiles will return and that His plan of redeeming them encompasses the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: The anguish is the consequence of disobedience and God's answer to His people's.
Bhanu Gadde: Anguish is the consequence of disobedience, and God's answer to his people's anguish is salvation, not only to the house of Jacob, but to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord is true to his promise.
Bhanu Gadde: He delivered Israel out of their anguish Through their anguish, though their anguish is due to their own covenant rebellion.
Bhanu Gadde: God in his mercy and the covenant he made to Abraham.
Bhanu Gadde: He delivered them when His people were helpless and despondent.
Bhanu Gadde: He raised His anointed Cyrus the Great to achieve that purpose.
Bhanu Gadde: This portion talks about a greater servant, jesus Christ, who not only restores Israel but would extend the Lord's salvation to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: This God, who is gracious, is ready to comfort those who are afflicted and oppressed by the bondage of sin.
Bhanu Gadde: Dear ones, whether it is your children that you are recognizing over or your relatives that you are recognizing over the salvation when you think, there may be times when you think the heaven is silent and the Lord is silent, to your plight, remember, can a woman forget her nursing child or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Bhanu Gadde: Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you.
Bhanu Gadde: Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
Bhanu Gadde: Your walls are continually before me.
Bhanu Gadde: What a wonderful promise, what a wonderful assurance In God's redemptive history.
Bhanu Gadde: God has, in His graciousness, in His mercy, he expanded that vision to the Gentiles so that we all can come and experience His wonderful restoration.
Bhanu Gadde: We are the beneficiaries of that grace.
Bhanu Gadde: What should our response be?
Bhanu Gadde: This chapter is the greatest missionary call to bring his salvation to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: In 2 Corinthians 6-2, apostle Paul says Now is the season of God's grace.
Bhanu Gadde: Today is the day of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: In 2 Corinthians 6 2, apostle Paul says Now is the season of God's grace, today is the day of salvation, drawing from verse 8 of this chapter the day of salvation, the servant's mission to liberate captives and bring light to the world.
Bhanu Gadde: Apostle Paul will later highlight this.
Bhanu Gadde: Behold.
Bhanu Gadde: So in 6 2 we already said this God's answer to anguish is both immediate and global, and His favor is available now to all.
Bhanu Gadde: If we are despondent with the things that are going on in our society, in your life, in your children, in your family, in your children in your family.
Bhanu Gadde: Look at this grand vision of restoration and what God is planning, which is foretold in Isaiah 60 and in Revelation.
Bhanu Gadde: Tell your soul arise, my soul arise, shake off thy guilty fears.
Bhanu Gadde: The bleeding sacrifice in your behalf appears Before the throne.
Bhanu Gadde: My surety stands Before the throne.
Bhanu Gadde: My surety stands.
Bhanu Gadde: My name is written on his hands and the word says he lives to intercede for us.
Bhanu Gadde: He ever lives above for me to intercede.
Bhanu Gadde: His all-redeeming love, his precious blood to plead.
Bhanu Gadde: His blood atone for all our race and sprinkles now the throne of grace.
Bhanu Gadde: I just cannot get over this hymn.
Bhanu Gadde: Each time it is sung.
Bhanu Gadde: Five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary.
Bhanu Gadde: They pour effectual prayers.
Bhanu Gadde: They strongly plead for me and forgive him or forgive, they cry.
Bhanu Gadde: Nor let that ransomed sinner die.
Bhanu Gadde: This is the mission and ministry of the servant through which God's vision is unfolded to the ends of the earth, not only to the house of Jacob, to people who are in anguish, thinking that the Lord has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: No such thing.
Bhanu Gadde: The father hears him pray his dear anointed one.
Bhanu Gadde: He cannot turn away the presence of his son.
Bhanu Gadde: His spirit answers to the blood and tells me that I am born of God and the final verse says we are reconciled to a holy God through the ministry of his servant, jesus Christ.
Bhanu Gadde: Adoniram, judson or any number of missionaries might have thought the Lord has forgotten them in a foreign country because when he is burying his children and he's burying his wives.
Bhanu Gadde: He must have thought the Lord has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: And when he is going on the streets and calling people to listen to the gospel for four years the streets and calling people to listen to the gospel For four years, no response the Lord has forgotten me.
Bhanu Gadde: He might have thought.
Bhanu Gadde: And eventually he himself was buried at the sea.
Bhanu Gadde: The Lord never forgets his promise.
Bhanu Gadde: As we sing, christ will have the prize for which he died an inheritance of nations.
Bhanu Gadde: Four million plus believers in Burma is a testament to the effectiveness of the gospel that adds to the servant's glory.
Bhanu Gadde: God's answer to our anguish is ultimately the glory of His Son, jesus Christ, who will be the light of the nations.
Bhanu Gadde: What a wonderful promise.
Bhanu Gadde: What a wonderful answer to our anguish.
Bhanu Gadde: May God be glorified.
Bhanu Gadde: See, the thing is, when we think about this grand vision of the servant, we must not forget the global missions, dear ones.
Bhanu Gadde: No, we need to.
Bhanu Gadde: Each time we think about our missionaries, kevin Cooney and Kevin and Sarah and Driscoll's, we need to pray.
Bhanu Gadde: Please make it a point every day to lift them up so that they will not feel that the heaven is silent and they will be confirmed in the vision, this grand vision, of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Bhanu Gadde: Amen.
Bhanu Gadde: I'd like to just say a few words Before closing.
Bhanu Gadde: I want to address the last week's tragic events in our country.
Bhanu Gadde: The loss of young lives, including Charlie Kirk, deeply affected us all.
Bhanu Gadde: We in the US and around the world felt as though we lost our own family members, one of our own family members.
Bhanu Gadde: Though we need not agree with him on everything, it is inspiring to see a young man testify to the power of the gospel in venues that are hostile to the gospel and he practiced 1 Peter 3.15,.
Bhanu Gadde: But in your hearts, regard Christ, the Lord, as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is in you.
Bhanu Gadde: Through his ministry, the Lord brought countless young people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Bhanu Gadde: As we remember him, let's pray for his wife, his children and mostly for our nation, that the gospel will be proclaimed in much power and that our nation, even though this anguish, through this anguish, would see in Jesus Christ who is the light of the nations.