Oh, Robert, thank you for that.
Man, that just filled my heart with joy. Thank you. Let's turn to Isaiah
54. Isaiah chapter 54. Now we saw in Isaiah 53, the
Lord Jesus Christ victoriously accomplished His cross work.
And then being satisfied by the work of His Son, God the Father
promised to fulfill His covenant to His Son because of the faithfulness
and the finished work that His Son accomplished. He said in
Isaiah 53, 12, I will divide Him a portion with the great.
Raise Him and give Him a name above every name. He says, and
He shall divide the spoiled with the strong. He'll divide all
the spoils of mine elect from the strong man, from the devil,
from Satan. He'll deliver them out. This
is His resurrection glory. And He'll divide all the spoils
of victory to His spoils, to His people. Here's why He'll
do it. Because He's poured out His soul
unto death. And He was numbered with the
transgressors. And He bare the sin of many.
And He made intercession for the transgressors. And so with
Christ risen from the dead and God telling us now this is what
He's going to do with all certainty, with no uncertainty, He's going
to call out His people, He's going to save His people because
He's bought His people with His own blood. Then we open with
Isaiah 54. And He says to you and I, sing,
sing, sing. And He gives us three commands
here, not just sing. He gives us three commands here
and this is going to be our divisions and I'll give them to you as
we read. He says, Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break
forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with
child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children
of the married wife, saith the Lord. Here's the second command. Enlarge, he said. Enlarge the
place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of
thy inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords,
and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the
right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles. and make the desolate cities
to be inhabited. And here's the third command,
fear not, fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither
be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou
shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. Now, he tells us why
we can be sure to do all three of these things and that all
three of these promises shall come to pass. Verse 5, For thy
maker is thy husband, and the Lord of hosts is his name, and
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall he be called. I've titled this, Sing, Enlarge,
and Fear Not. First, he tells us to sing. Verse
1, he says, Sing, O barren, Thou that didst not bear, break forth
into singing and cry aloud, Thou that didst not travail with child,
for more are the children of the desolate wife than the children
of the married wife, saith the Lord. And here we've got a married
wife who appears fruitful. And here we've got a desolate
wife who's barren. But who God says shall be far
more fruitful than the married wife. Do you remember Panana
and Hannah? Panana had children. But Hannah
had no children. She was barren. And Pananah was
Hannah's adversary. The scripture says, Pananah provoked
Hannah's sword for to make Hannah fret, because the Lord had shut
up her womb. When she went up to the house
of the Lord, so Pananah provoked Hannah. And therefore Hannah
wept and she did not eat. You remember Hagar and Sarah?
Hagar had children, but Sarah had no children. Sarah was barren.
Hagar conceived a child by her own wisdom, by her own will,
and by her own works. And the Scripture says, And when
Hagar saw that she had conceived, her mistress Sarah was despised
in her eyes. God gave Sarah a child by promise. He gave Sarah a child just as
He said He would, by promise, by a miraculous work of His grace. And by that power and grace,
She brought forth a child named Isaac. But Hagar's son, Ishmael,
born forth by the will and working wisdom of her hand, he mocked
Isaac. He mocked Isaac. He transgressed.
He persecuted against Isaac. Turn over to Galatians 4. We
don't have to guess about who this married wife is and who
this barren wife is. We don't have to guess who Hagar
and Sarah pictured. The Scriptures tell us plainly.
God the Holy Spirit speaks it plainly to us. Galatians chapter
4 and verse 24. He says here, which things are an allegory?
They're a picture. They're a type. For these are
the two covenants. Only two. These are the two covenants.
The one from Mount Sinai. which gingereth to bondage, which
is Hagar. That's who Hagar pictures. That's
who she represents. The old covenant of works given
at Mount Sinai which gingers to bondage. It was meant to declare
us guilty. It was meant to bring us into bondage to sin, to drive
us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. And it says
for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. That's who she pictures.
And she answers to, she pictures Jerusalem which now is. The Jerusalem
below. Jerusalem which is in bondage
with her children. She pictures those who are trying
to come to God. Christ had come and He had already
risen when Paul wrote this. She pictures those who are yet
trying to mix faith with works, grace with works, who are yet
trying to come to God by their will, their wisdom, the works
of the law. They are in bondage. They are in bondage. They are
in stroma. They can't ever do enough to just rest. Can't ever
do enough. It's biscuit-whipped religion,
as brother Tim James used to say. Here's what we read here
now. Verse 26. But Jerusalem which
is above, this is the true church of God's elect. This is those
Christ's redeemed by His blood. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all. She represented by
Sarah, the mother. And the barren wife in our text,
he says here, is the church. the true church of God. Look
at verse 27. For it is written, this is our text, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest
not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise, born of God's grace, born of
the married wife, born of the new covenant. And he says, but
as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that
was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Just like Hagar
persecuted Sarah, just like Hagar's children persecuted Sarah's children,
so it is now. So in our text, the married wife
represents the great harlot Babylon, mystical, mystery Babylon, that
false religion. It's not just papacy. It's all
false religion. Some, they call themselves Christians.
The Judaizers did. They came to Ellen of Galatians.
It didn't matter if you have faith in Christ. You just come
back under the law. The married wife's the self-made,
self-willed, self-righteous, self-sanctifying false church.
She appears to be fruitful. Her children walk on every side.
They're all around her. Because the scripture says, the
wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. You
want to build a church by the work of your hands? Just give
men something to do. Tell them salvation is by their
will, their work, their wisdom. They'll show up and do whatever
you have them to do. Yet the children of the married
wife are the works of her own hands. All her children are the
works of her hands. Works of her methods. Works of
her music. Works of her master. The converts
she made by her own wisdom. But the desolate wife is Christ's
true bride, the true church, God's elect for whom Christ gave
His life and redeemed us by His own blood. He said, We, brethren,
as Isaac were, are the children of promise. We, as Isaac were,
are the children of promise. We are the true children of Abraham
that come to God justified by faith alone. But as then He that
was born of the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
so it is now. Hannah, go back to Hannah, in
bitterness of soul, you know what Hannah did? She prayed unto
the Lord and she wept sore. She came to the Lord empty, totally
empty, totally barren, totally without any hope whatsoever except
God. And she cast herself entirely
on the mercy of God. And you know what He did? He
made her to miraculously conceive a child in her womb. This child
pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ came through the bride.
He came through the church. He came through this barren church.
That's who he came through. Through Abraham's true children. He came of the tribe of David.
Of the house of David. Of the tribe of Judah. God gave
her this son by a miraculous birth. He was a Nazarite from
his birth. He was consecrated to God from
His birth. He was favored of God with an extraordinary manner,
Peter and Christ. He went forth and He served God
in an ephod, like the priest, Peter and Christ, our high priest.
He was a prophet of God, like Christ, our prophet. He was a
judge in Israel, a king in Israel, like Christ, our king. And in
the end, you know what happened to Him? All the people said,
we don't want Samuel to be our king. We want a king like the
other nations have. We want one like they have, and
they rejected Him. Just like at the end of Christ's
days, all the hosts said, we have one King, Caesar. We don't
know Christ the King. He's not our King. And by that
same, by that one, for His sake, you know what God did? He made
Hannah fruitful. He made Hannah fruitful. Our
text says it's going to be the same for us, brethren. It's going
to be the same for us. For the sake of Christ Jesus,
God tells His universal church over all time. He tells the true
church sitting right here, right now, today. You who are the true
church of God. He says to you, Sing, O barren,
thou that didst not bear. Break forth in a singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not prevail with child. In ourselves,
we're like Sarah. You and I are barren. We can't make ourselves conceive
children. We can't conceive believers.
We can't make believers. There's nothing we can do to
make believers. Those who make believers, make
believe. We can't make believers. We just can't do that. We have
no ability to bring children to the birth by our travailing.
It's impossible. Yet, just as God promised Sarah,
God promises us. You're going to have children.
You're going to have children. And God's promise is sure because
Christ shed His blood. He poured out His blood. He purchased
these children. He justified these children.
He reconciled these children. And now the justice of God demands
that these children be brought to life. It demands they be brought
to life. In fact, the promise of God is
so certain that every one of them shall be born again, that
He doesn't say you shall have children. He doesn't say that.
Read it again. He says, More are the children
of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. He speaks in present tense. More are the children of the
desolate than the married wife. God our Father and Christ our
Husband see His seed already. They see His children already.
Look back up at chapter 53 verse 10. He said there, When thou
shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He tells us when. When
He shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed.
You ladies, when you travailed in birth, you didn't have a child
travailing in birth like Christ did on the cross, and then when
you got finished, you waited to see your child. Most all of
you, they brought your child right to you. You saw your child
immediately. Well, Christ saw His children.
He shall save the travail of His soul and be satisfied. When
He poured out His soul, He saw His seed. And He's already prolonged
their days. Look at verse 10. When thou shalt
make His soul an offering of sin, He shall prolong His days.
When He poured out His soul, that was giving us life. That
was bringing us to the birth. That was bringing all His children
to spiritual life in Him. And nothing shall hinder Him
from bringing them to life the first time, to make them reborn
again, and to keep them and bring them to glory with them. Nothing
will, because verse 10 says, the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in Christ's hand. When Sarah heard the promise
of God, you know what she did? Now, when Sarai heard it, you
know what she did? She laughed in derision. She
laughed in unbelief. But when God gave her faith and
made her Sarah, you know what she did when she heard this good
news? She laughed with joy. She laughed with joy. She named
her son Laughter. You know what God's telling us
here to do? Sing and laugh. He's saying, Sing, O barren,
break forth into singing and cry aloud for more of the children
of the desolate than the children of the married wild. Now, you
look around with your natural eye and it doesn't appear this
way, does it? You that have spiritual sight, spiritual understanding,
you look around and you say it doesn't appear this way. Here
we are, we're few in number, and we know a few scattered throughout
this world, to the four corners of this world, that God is called
by His grace. But you know what the truth is? Every age and every generation,
God's true church has always been a remnant. Always been a
remnant. They've always been a remnant.
The true church of our Lord Jesus Christ is a remnant in comparison
with the great harlot Babylon, which always has been. How many
was in Noah's day, how many was worshipping Cain's religion and
the religions of the world and how many was worshipping God?
One was worshipping God. Noah found grace and I was the
Lord. He's the only one we read about. Whenever all through the
old covenant wilderness journey, out of all those people, those
that came out of Egypt, out of all those that came out of Egypt,
how many, when they got to the wilderness, how many believed
God? Caleb and Joshua and Moses. Aaron. Aaron believed. That's
it. That's it. Marry Him maybe, but
that's it. That's it. You remember when
our Lord walked this earth? At the end of His earthly ministry,
He had very few. He had 120. And you looked around
Him, and if you would have talked to anybody, they would have said,
Oh, God's church is flourishing. It's flourishing. It was flourishing.
I agree it was flourishing. It was flourishing just as God
would have it to flourish. But it was flourishing with those
120. It wasn't flourishing in that lie that was trying to come
to God by the law and crucify Christ. And so it is today, brethren. Now you think about it. You say
you have a tendency to get discouraged. We have a tendency to get discouraged
about things. But you think about this. Think
if you lived in Christ's day. If you lived in Christ's day
and there you are 120 people, 120 brethren, And one night you hear that your
savior has been betrayed to the enemy. That the government is
coming to arrest your savior. And that they're coming to take
him, to nail him to a cursory tree. And when this happens,
the men who've been preaching the gospel to you faithfully
throw up their hands and say, we're done with this and we're
going back fishing. Peter, John, the apostles. And then you behold your Savior
on that cursed tree. And you behold the whole world
dancing around Him and saying, we're doing this in the name
of God. We're doing this to please God. We're the true church. This bunch of blasphemous rebels,
this bunch of infidels that come into our camp and try to pollute
the true gospel with their talk of free grace and sovereign grace
and salvation by this imposter. And they locked hands together
and danced around that cross and sang the praises of their
God. Bail. A stop. They're a vain
God of their imagination. And yet Christ, He went forth,
He rose from the dead. And when He arose from the dead,
He showed us in that time before He ascended, He showed us then
what He is doing right now. He gathered His true preachers
together. He gathered them back together and He declared the
truth to them, His apostles. He showed them His hand, showed
them His side. And then He used them. He said,
now you go forth and tell those others I'm risen. And they went
forth and they told the others and the others gathered up. Gathered
them up through the gospel. And gathered up these 120 and
He said, now you wait on My promise. You wait on My promise. You're going to be fruitful.
you're going to be fruitful. You got no reason to be crying,
you're going to be fruitful. And they watched him ascend back
to the right hand of the Father, and they were at Pentecost, and
here comes a rushing mighty wind. And just as he promised, Christ
baptized his whole church in the Holy Ghost. That one time
act at Pentecost. He baptized His church in the
Holy Ghost. And you know what Peter said?
He called out 3,000. He called out 3,000 right there. He showed them, I'm going to
make good on this. He called out 3,000. A little later he
called out another great multitude. And Peter said this, Therefore,
being at the right hand of God exalted, and having received
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, our Savior has
shed forth this which you now see and hear." He's done this.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God has made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, Lord and
Christ. That's who He is. That's who
He is. And He won't fail. That's what
He's saying. He won't fail. He won't fail. In every dark age since then,
brethren, Christ is... When the church has been brought
down to nothing, He's been brought down to nothing because He wouldn't
have it to be brought down to nothing. But He always assembles
His preachers. He always sends them forth with
His Word. And He always calls out His people and makes His
church fruitful, His bride fruitful. And He continues to do that right
now in this day. That's what He's doing. And we're
going to see more dark days before this is over. But you know what?
That's alright because He's told us we will. He's faithfully told
us we will. And so we know Him that declares
the end from the beginning is true. And it will, we will. Just like in the days He came,
that's how it's going to be when He comes back a second time.
There is going to be a famine of bread, but it's going to look
like that religion is flourishing. But it's the religion of the
world. Just like it was then. It's how it's going to be when
He comes back a second time. But you don't have anything to
worry about, anything to doubt, because just like it has always
been, the success of the Gospel is not dependent upon God's preachers,
it's not dependent upon God's people, it's dependent upon Christ
our Head. And we can be sure that He shall
not fail. He will be successful. He's going
to do what He says He's going to do. By His faithfulness, by
His power, and not by our doing. So brethren, though you're barren,
sing. Rejoice, sing. It's going to
be so. Now here's the second command.
He says enlarge. Enlarge. Verse 2. Enlarge the
place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of
thine habitations. He doesn't say enlarge your tent,
Stretch forth your curtains after they come. He says to you and I right now
who are here. He says to us. You enlarge. You enlarge. See, this is an
act of faith. You enlarge. Why? Verse 3. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left. Now He doesn't say here, look
to your barrenness. He doesn't say do that. You know
what Sarai did when she looked to her baroness? What Sarai did
when she looked to her baroness? She laughed God in the face and
said it's impossible. But when He gave her faith, she
looked to her God and her Savior. And you know what she did then?
She believed Him. She believed Him. He says look
to Him. Look back up at Isaiah 53.11.
He says, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and he shall
be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. Verse 12 says, he shall divide
the spoil with the strong. It says, he has poured out his
soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors.
He bare the sin of many. He made intercession for the
transgressors. And because this is certain and
so and finished work, he says, therefore you can sing. And he
says, and while you're singing, Enlarge your tent. Enlarge your
tent while you're doing it. While you're doing it. Stretch
forth the curtains of your habitation, because you shall break forth
on the right hand and on the left. And thy seed shall inherit
the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. And God
even tells us how we're to do this. He tells us how. Look at
verse 2. He commands us, spare not. Spare
not. Lengthen thy cords and strengthen
thy stakes. You know what? He's telling us
here, expect great things from God. Expect great things from
God. So spare not. Spare not. Notice here, our habitation in
this earth is only a tent. It's only a tent. We're not staying
here. that the church of God here can
be moved from place to place. It can be one place in one age,
and another place in another age, and where it was before,
it won't even be there anymore. You can't find Ephesus, you can't
find Smyrna, it's gone. But it's somewhere else now.
It's a tent, it's movable, it moves around. Our habitation
is with God. Our habitation is with Him forever,
wherever He is. And so, the point being, don't
get too attached to the tent. Don't get too attached to, you
know, I like to preach the gospel, but I'll be glad one day when
it's over. There'll be no more preaching. That'll be fine with
me. I don't want to be so attached to preaching that I say, well,
I want to keep on preaching. And He is saying to you, now faith
is a good thing, but one day faith is going to be gone. And
you are going to have sight. And so is all the other stuff
that He gives us to minister in the church for the calling
out of His sheep. All this stuff is temporary.
And so He says, He is telling us here, don't get carried away
with this stuff. Spare not. Don't deal sparingly
in anything. What would I spare? Think about
this. What would I spare if my child
was laying in a hospital bed on the edge of death. I would spare not. No expense
would be too great. That's exactly how God our Father
deals for his lost, needy, dead, and dying children. He spares
not. He spared not his only begotten
son. his only begotten son. The only way justice could be
satisfied, the only way His holy character could be upheld, and
Him still show mercy to His people, was to send forth His Son. And
for His Son to finish the work, and His Son to redeem us, and
His Son to justify us, and His Son to call us out, and His Son
to quicken us, and His Son to give us grace, and His Son to
keep us, and His Son to preserve us, and His Son to bring us home.
The only way God could get all the glory was for His Son to
do it. He spared not His only begotten Son. He spared him not. And his son gave his soul. He
poured out his soul unto death. Christ spared not. He spared
not. And this thing was so troublesome
to him, he said, now is my soul trouble. It's trouble. And what
shall I say? Father, forgive, save me from
this hour. This hour is the reason I came. I came here. I live to die. That my people that are dead
might live. I came to pour out my soul unto
death that I might pour out eternal life to my people and they might
live. He gave, He spared not. And God
gave spiritual life and faith to a people and He poured out
His grace in their hearts and He used them and they spared
not to come to our sickbed, brethren. They came to our sickbed with
the Gospel and they declared the Gospel to us. They spared
not. They lengthened their cords.
They strengthened their stakes. They spread forth their tent.
And the Gospel came to us because of it, right here, right now.
That's right. And so He says to us now, spare
not. Don't hold back. Now God promises
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? God
gave his son. He spared not his own son. He
spared not to pour out wrath on him in our room instead. He
spared not to satisfy justice by putting his own son to death.
And he says, and Christ spared not. And so he says, how shall
he, how shall God with Christ also not freely give us all things. He won't spare, brethren. He
will not spare. And so He makes the most reasonable
demand of us that can be made. Out of all that He's done for
us, He makes the most reasonable demand that can be made. He says
to you and I, spare not. Spare not. Yeah, but things are
tight. Would you look at God? Things
are not tight. Things are wide and broad and
deep and high and long. They're not tight. They're not
tight. He brings us to have things tight
in our estimation of things, in our daily lives, every day,
where we are, so we quit looking at them things that we're trying
to trust in and we look to Him in whose all fullness. And we see then, things aren't
really tight. There's a deepness of grace as
deep as God is. That's right. He's done far too
much freely for us and continues to do so far as to be miserly
toward us in any regard. You can bank that. You take that
to the bank. In the early days, the church didn't spread their
curtains. They didn't. Sinners are sinners. Sinners
saved by grace are sinners still. And they're just like we are,
brethren. They hung around Jerusalem. They hung around and hung around
and just kept preaching and kept making excuses and doing this
and that. And so what did God do? Christ
sent persecution to them. He sent persecution to them and
bitter persecution to them and forced them out. Forced them
curtains out. And they went forth preaching.
And you know what though? As He did that, He did not spare. He did not spare. He didn't spare
in sending them persecution. That was for their good. And
sending them forth, He didn't spare a thing. They had everything
they needed constantly. And then God says here to us
too, He says, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. Lengthen
your cords and strengthen your stakes. We're looking at a tent.
Here's a tent. And you spread out the curtains
of it. And you got the cords. The cords on the tabernacle and
the wilderness went over the whole top of the tabernacle.
And those cords went out like this. And then they fastened
with brass stakes. Brass pins. God doesn't command
us anything that Christ doesn't give us the strength to do. That
Christ himself is the strength to do. He is the strength. We
won't compromise. We're not going to compromise
the message. He's not saying that. He's not telling us to
compromise our music. He's not saying compromise your
message, your methods. He's not saying compromise on
our master. But He is telling us here that there's no excuse
to sit around. He's saying there's no excuse
for laziness. There's no excuse for anybody in God's house not
to be serving God. Chords. What are these chords?
Chords reach out far and wide on every side of the tent. And
chords connect the stakes to the tent. The stakes to the tent. Christ Jesus has saved us with
the chords of love. He's drawn us with chords of
love. He's bound us in peace with chords
of love. And He holds all His people,
His church, His tabernacle together in this earth. Christ does so
through the gospel of Christ. And we can do nothing better
to express our feeble love for Christ and our brethren than
spreading the good news of the cord of His love by spreading
forth the gospel that declares it. You want to spread forth
your cord? Spread forth the gospel. We ought
to always be looking for every opportunity that God gives us
to serve the Lord. I love how that, I was thinking
about this, is how that, you know, when we first started here,
you know, I can remember having folks on me all the time to want
to do this and that and this other thing and pushing to do
this and that, whatever. And I kept thinking, we need
to get this foundation laid. We need to hear this gospel and
Christ lay us on this firm foundation is what we need. Before we can
do anything, that's what's got to happen. And we just kept preaching
the gospel, preaching the gospel, hearing the gospel, hearing the
gospel. And a little bit, God opened up an avenue to where
we could have sermons out on the internet. And we did it. We did it. Was it hard? It wasn't
hard to do it. He's provided, never missed a
payment on it at all. And then a little bit longer
came by, we're going to start videoing the services. When it
came time, when the door opened to video the services and He
put it in our heart that you can do this, was it hard to do?
It's just a matter of getting equipment. God went out and got
the equipment we needed, hooked everything up, and we put it
on the internet. We didn't miss the payment on
that either. It's all there. Now we're starting to make DVDs
and put them up on the internet, on YouTube. We're going to have
DVDs available for other churches that don't have a pastor where
they can watch DVDs and have that sort of thing. You see what
I'm saying is as God opens the door, He gives the substance,
He gives the ability, He gives the heart, He gives everything
needed and He just gently hedges us about so we go through that
door. And we do it and there's no problem with it, no problem
whatsoever. And so He encourages us here
and He says spread that gospel in every direction. And then
He says strengthen your stakes. The stakes here, they strengthen
the whole tent. They're connected by cords. that
go back, the cords go to the stakes and they go back to the
tent, they connect and they hold the whole thing together. And
those stakes have got to be driven deep in the earth. They've got
to be founded. They've got to be deep in the earth. Christ
is our nail in a sure place. He's our nail in a sure place.
We're hanging on Him. Everything's hung on Him. The
strength of His whole church is Him. Christ firmly secures
all the eternal counsels of love, mercy and grace and blessing
of the triune God in the hearts of His people in the earth. Christ
is that nail that firmly secures us. And by Christ dwelling in
His people, He's our strength. He makes us faithful. He secures
us as stakes in the earth, strengthening His church. He's the strength
of it. If you'll notice there when you
read that verse, He says, enlarge the place of thy tent. Now watch
this, it's almost like He's speaking to Christ here. And I think He
is. Look, let them stretch forth
the curtains of thine habitation. God the Father is speaking to
His Son. You let your people stretch forth the curtains of
your habitation. Spare not, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes,
for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left.
Thy seed, Christ, your seed, your children shall inherit the
Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. The words
to Christ first and then Christ comes forth and He makes the
word effectual in our hearts and so the stakes are strengthened. You know what? If our young people,
if God blesses our young people, if Christ is pleased to enter
into our young people and make Himself their strength, they're
going to be the strength of His church in the future. They're
going to be. And so He says, strengthen my
stakes. Strengthen these stakes. Strengthen
with the gospel every opportunity you can. Every fellow believer
right here is the strength of these stakes, the strengths of
this church. Exhort one another daily, the more so as you see
the day approaching with the gospel of Christ. He's our strength.
And then our missionaries and our pastors, that's how we... These are the stakes whereby
our cords are being spread forth into all the world. You're going
to meet one of those April the 22nd on a Tuesday night right
here, 7.30, Brother Cody Groover from Mexico. So He says to us
here, and I'm thankful, God's given you hearts to strengthen
these days. Our children, our brethren, and
our missionaries and pastors, He's given you hearts to do that.
I'm thankful for that. And He says here, don't hold
back, keep doing that. Strengthen, spread out. This
is how He's going to birth His children. Look at this third
thing. He says, fear not. Fear not. There's two things
that we fear that are listed right here. There's two things
that are the basic fears of a believer. They're right here. This is what
will freeze us in our tracks. This is what will make us inactive
right here. The first thing is being ashamed
in ourselves by our own sin and unfaithfulness. That's the first
thing we're afraid of. I'm afraid my own sin and my
own unfaithfulness, I'm going to fail in this work Christ has
given me to do. And here's the second thing we're
afraid of. Being put to shame by the reproach of our enemies.
Well, they started building, but they couldn't come to the
end. That's what we're afraid of. And that will cause us, both
these fears will cause us to stop in our tracks. But God says,
fear not. And he addresses these two fears,
showing us that we don't have anything to fear as we give ourselves
to Christ and giving ourselves to this work. Verse 4, he says,
Thou shalt not be ashamed. This is that shame in us, in
our own hearts. We won't be ashamed because of
our sin and our unfaithfulness. We will not. He says we won't.
He's reminding us this, our hope and our faith and our confidence
is not in us, it's Christ. Christ. So fear not, thou shalt
not be ashamed. Look down now at this part right
here where he says, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy
youth. You see that? That's dealing
with the same thing. Our sin, the shame of our youth.
He says, you're going to forget that. You're going to forget
all your sins, forget it, forget it. Forget what's behind you. So you're not going to be ashamed. You're going to forget all the
shame of your youth. Alright? And then look, here's the next
fear. Verse 4, neither be thou confounded. Don't be ashamed. Don't let the reproach from others
make you ashamed. Don't let them mock you saying
that you appear barren and unfruitful. Verse 4, for thou shalt not be
put to shame. You see that? You're not going
to be ashamed and you're not going to be put to shame by others
either. Now look on through that verse
where it says, and you shall not remember the reproach of
thy widowhood anymore. What do they reproach us about?
You look barren. You look like you don't have...
You look like you're just a widow. You don't look like you're Christ's
bride. You don't call yourself Christ's bride. I get so sick of hearing
these fellas now and that Founders Conference movement. Southern
Baptists are calling themselves Sovereign Free Grace and all
they're doing is going around talking about churches who are
unhealthy and dying and wilting and dead churches and churches
that don't... Fruit inspectors. Fruit inspectors. God said, you're
not going to be put to shame. You're not going to remember
the shame of your widowhood. You're not going to remember the shame
of your barrenness anymore. Christ is going to make us fruitful
in these good works. He's going to bring forth the
children. He's going to make it so that we're not ashamed
in ourselves and we're not ashamed of those to be reproached or
going to be reproached. We're not going to be ashamed
in any way. Now, here's the last thing. Here's
why these things are going to be so. He gave us three commands
here. Three commands. He said, Sing,
O barren, you that have no children, you that did not prevail, sing
because you're going to bring forth a lot of children. How
do I know that's certain? Verse 5, For thy maker is thine
husband. He's your husband, the one who
made you righteous, the one who made you to be redeemed from
the curse of the law, the one who made you to be without sin,
the one who made you a believer, made you filled with the spirit,
made you a new creation. The one who's made you is your
husband. And he's going to bring forth
children through you. He's going to use you and he's
going to bring forth children. You can be sure of it. Here's
the second command He said to us was, enlarge the place of
your tent, spare not, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
My people are coming from the north, south, east and west.
There are people chosen out from among every tribe, kindred, tongue
and nation among this earth. They're coming from all over
the place and there are going to be many of them, a number
that no man can number. How do I know that's going to
come to pass? The one who's telling us this, verse 5, is the Lord
of hosts. That's His name. It means the
Lord of many. It means the Lord of a host,
the Lord of a number no man can number. He says, therefore you
can enlarge your tent. And then He tells us this, fear
not, you are going to forget the shame of your youth, you
are not going to remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. How
so? How can I know that is coming to pass? My sin is a terrible
thing. Because He says, your husband
is also thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. You're a Redeemer
of the whole. You see how those three names
apply to these three commands He gives us? He's the one that's
bought us. The Holy Ghost is a witness to
us. He says, I'm going to put my law in their hearts. And he
says, and I'm going to make my covenant with them, and he says,
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. When he purges your conscience,
he makes you, you remember your sins so that you know you don't
want to fall back into them anymore. But he doesn't make you to remember
them so that you're terrified and ashamed to the point of this
legal terror. because He's put them away and
He says He doesn't remember them anymore. Now, by this work the
Lord Jesus Christ is going to do, by this work of making His
barren bride to bear children, By this work of calling out every
last one into His church from the four corners of the earth.
By this work of making it so that we won't be ashamed or be
put to shame. By finishing this work, this
is what's resting on this right here. This is how we can be certain. What's resting on this is His
name. His name. And here's what's resting
on this. Verse 5. The God of the whole
earth shall He be called. God's very name. God's very character. If he fails in one promise, he
ceases to be God. You think he's going to fail?
Not going to fail. You see, my God doesn't speak
in maybes. My God speaks in shalls because
my God is God. He's God. And I can lay down
at night and rest, and rest good. I can stretch out in that bed
because The bed of grace He's put me in is large and wide and
I've got plenty of cover and I'm safe and secure. Oh, that's
a good place to rest. So believers, sing. Sing. Sing. And whistle while you work.
Enlarge. Sing and enlarge. Sing. Be spreading
out this gospel far and wide. And don't fear. Just don't fear. Don't fear anything. Christ Jesus
is able to do as God says He will because He's thy maker.
He's your husband. He's the Lord of hosts. He's
your Redeemer. He's the Holy One of Israel.
He's the God of the whole earth. Amen. All right, Brother Eric, if you'll
come lead us in a closing hymn.