And the title of the message
this morning is The Song of the Barren. The Song of the Barren. The scripture says, Sing, O Barren,
thou that didst not bear, nor break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more are the children of
the desolate. than children of the married
wife, saith the Lord." Now, this call, this call to the barren,
is the same as every other call of God. It is the gospel. It
is the gospel. I want you to see this. Every
time I preach to you, I have this express purpose to find
the gospel of Jesus Christ and run as quickly as I can. I want
to run as quickly as I can because this is a gospel message. Now, this call to rejoice comes
immediately after the revelation of God's arm. You remember in
the previous chapter, he says, "...who hath believed our report,
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed." We know that that
arm is Christ. We know that the strength of
God's salvation rests on Jesus Christ alone. And that's what
the whole chapter is about in Isaiah 53. He is describing for
us, in prophetic terms, the Lord Jesus Christ. You can clearly
see this. It says that he shall grow up
as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He hath no
form or comeliness that we shall see him. There's no beauty that
we should desire him. He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Is that
not anybody but the Lord Jesus Christ? He came unto his own
and his own received him not. And look why He came. He said,
Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He became
a man. He bore our griefs. He carried
our sorrows as a high priest, as a faithful mediator between
us and God. He became bone of our bone, flesh
of our flesh. The Son of God became man. And why should He do that? Why
should He become man? Verse six, we all like sheep
have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way. Every man in
here by nature is turned to his own way. This is it. By nature,
we have all sought our own Christ. We've all sought our own God,
a God that's convenient, a God that we can understand. We sought
after our own righteousness. That's why he must come. He must
come, listen, The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He came to bear our sins in His
own body on the tree. And what was the result of that?
Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to crush
Him. That's what the word bruise means.
It means to crush. And I'll tell you, if you know
anything about crucifixion, that's exactly what it was. It was a
crushing down, but it was more than just a physical suffering. It was the crushing blow of God's
justice. God put our sins in Christ and
He bared the wrath of God alone. It pleased God. I'll tell you
what, why is hell forever? You ever thought of that? You
wonder why hell is forever? Because you can never satisfy
justice. Your death in hell will never
satisfy God. That's why it's forever. But
this one man, this one man, Jesus Christ, hath forever sanctified,
perfected, forever them that are chosen, sanctified, the elect. He's perfected forever all those
that He died for. He redeemed them by His blood
on that cursed tree. And the result of this was, look,
when He shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see
His seed. What do you think He was doing
on that cross? He was suffering for us and we who were in Him. God saw us in Him. You see, when He died, I died. When He suffered the wrath of
God, so did I. He shall see His seed and prolong
His days. What is He doing? He's risen
from the dead. God prolongs His days. And the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. The pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hands. What is the pleasure of
God? Our God is in the heavens and hath done what? What is God
doing? He's doing whatsoever he please.
That's what he's doing. Our God is in the heavens and
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. The pleasure of the
Lord is God's eternal decree. That's what God's pleasure is.
Whatever God purposed to do, God is doing. You and I purposed to do things,
and it never happens. And if it happens any way close,
we call that success. You know, I purpose to go out
to eat at a specific restaurant and my wife says, no, I don't
like that. Well, if I go to a restaurant, that's close enough. That's close
enough. I get to eat still. So that's
great for me. But God is nothing like you and
he's nothing like me. He is altogether by himself.
Whatever God purpose he is doing and he will do his good pleasure. So whatever is happening now
is God's good pleasure. God's good pleasure, whatever's happening. God says, I'm God, and there's
none else. It's as though God looked to
the right, and God looked to the left, and he looked up, and
he looked down, and he said, nope, there's nobody else but
me. I'm it. I am God, and there's none like
me. Declaring the end, when did God declare the end of this?
From the beginning. From ancient times of things
that were, listen, not yet done. Saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do what? All my pleasure. That's what God's doing, all
his pleasure. And because Jesus Christ has
been victorious, in this work of salvation because He has done
the will of God. God therefore raises Him up to
do His pleasure. And all things in heaven and
earth, all men and spirits, all events of time and eternity are
not random. They're not left to chance. They're
not left to you. They're not left to me. They
are in the hands of God. Everything is done according
to His will. everything Everything is happening
in perfect sequence as God ordained it everything Nations rise and fall According
to the decree of God Listen in him you live and move and have
your being Your day of your birth was determined all that's in
the middle is determined and the day of your death is determined You got that? I want to let you
know that this book plainly teaches God is in absolute control of
all things. You ever open up a watch and
watch it work? You see the cogs ticking together in sequence
and time. That is exactly how things are
in the eyes of God. They are moving exactly. Only
the clock doesn't wind itself. God is actually turning every
dial at every time and every second. He does everything according
to His will. Listen to what He says in Deuteronomy
32, 39. He said, I am God. I kill. And I make alive. Who does the killing? And who does the quickening?
I wound and I heal, neither can any deliver out of my hand. Were
you supposed to deliver yourself out of his hand? Were you supposed
to do anything outside of his sovereign decree? No, you won't.
Well, you move to the right or to the left. That's of the Lord.
Now, you're determined to do it, but really, it's of God. And listen to what God says in
Deuteronomy 32. At the end of this, He says,
I lift up My hand to heaven. What does that mean? God lifts
up His hand. Well, you know, when you go to court, what do
you do? You lift up your hand. You're swearing. So God says,
I swear. This is true. I swear, I live
forever and this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to have
vengeance on my enemies and mercy on my people. You read the end
of that chapter in Deuteronomy 32, you'll see exactly what God
is doing right now. He is going to have vengeance
on His enemies and He is going to have mercy on His people.
That's what He's doing. And see then that even now the
eternal counsel and decree of God is being accomplished as
we speak. Now it is given, it's not given
to men to know the future of God's divine providence, but
it is given to us to know this, that all those that the Father
chose, Christ redeemed. And all those that Christ redeemed,
He will call, and He will save them. Now, if you're confused
about what's going on, I just told you. If you get in trouble
and you just don't know what's happening, I just told you what's
happening. I told you what God is doing.
And he'll use men and people and events and he will use it
all for that purpose. And that's what God's doing. And all of this is being done
by the hand of Jesus Christ. Now, believer, I know we do get
confused as to what God's doing, and that's why we have preaching,
to recenter our minds on what's really happening. We see things
not how they really are. God's Word tells us how things
really are, and this is what God's doing. And He does this
how? He does this by the preaching of the gospel, the preaching
of the gospel. And that's what's taking place
in our text this morning. He says this in our text after
describing Jesus Christ, what He came to do, what His will
is. He says this, seeing O barren. He's calling to the barren. This, if we want to look at this
in a prophetical sense, it is speaking of the Gentile world. Remember, the world was divided
into two groups of people at this time. There were Jews and
everybody else. Jews and Gentiles. And at this
time, only the Jews were given the covenant promises. They were the only people in
all the world that God gave the law and the prophets. But he's
prophesying here of a time to come when this gospel is going
to expand. It's not going to be just isolated. It's going to encompass another
group of people, which is the Gentiles. The Gentiles will be
brought into this covenant. And so this is a promise and
a prophetic covenant of bringing in the Gentiles. And that did
happen at the apostles. Paul, when he came, he says,
this is prophesied that we should go into the Gentiles, which is
you. And I want you to know that none
of you are Jews. And if you are, you really can't trace your lineage
anyway, so what does it matter? So this gospel is to go out.
But I want us to see what the Holy Spirit truly intended as
regards not to our race, but rather to spiritual matters,
because this is a very spiritual text, as all scripture is, given
by inspiration of God. It's spiritual. These words are
spiritual. Now, at this time, to be a barren
woman was a curse. Now, listen, in our day, it's
flopped, isn't it? In our day, a woman that's barren,
everybody's happy that she doesn't have any children. I mean, that's
what this world's come to. They're pretty much killing their
children. I mean, that's where we're at. But in this time, it
was a curse for a woman to be barren. It was a curse of God. And so see this as it is in a
spiritual condition that all of us by nature are barren, cursed
of God. When you're born into this world,
you bear a curse. You're barren. And what does
that mean? Well, when Adam was in the garden,
our father, he was perfect and upright before God, and he was
very fruitful in righteousness. Adam was righteous. He was holy. He was without sin. And so long as he obeyed God,
he would maintain that righteousness. And so he pleased God. Consider
what God gave him to do. He gave him the whole garden.
He said, Adam, I'm bringing you the animals, you name them. Consider
that. What great privileges our father
had. And as long as he was obedient,
he could maintain these privileges. But when he sinned, when he sinned,
he lost all ability to obey God. He lost all desire to obey God,
and he lost all knowledge as to how to obey God. When he sinned, darkness of death
consumed his spirit, and he became barren in righteousness. He was
cursed and could by no means yield any goodness to God. He could never by any efforts
of the flesh or inventions of his mind become fruitful again.
Now would you expect a woman who is without a husband to be
fruitful? Is that possible? There was only
one to do that, and that was the Virgin Mary, who had the
Holy Spirit to conceive in her the body of Christ. But you would
never expect a woman without a man to conceive. And yet here
we are, by nature we have been divorced from God. By nature
we have been cursed into widowhood. And we could never by our works
produce righteousness. You and I are barren. No amount of religious zeal or
sincere works or feel-good religion could ever produce righteousness. You and I are barren. Do you know that? Do you know
that? I'll ask you again. Have you
experienced it? Now, because everybody here I
know could understand that, what I just said. So you can get it
up here. Do you know that about yourself? Have you experienced the barrenness
and depravity of your own nature, that in your flesh dwelleth no
good faith? Well, no preacher, I've got some
goodness, then you don't have any idea what I'm talking about.
You have no cause to sing at all because you're not barren.
Remember, this scripture is only to barren people. Only to those
who have not bare any righteousness. Only to those who have not travailed
or satisfied God in any way. That's what this song's to. It's
only to the barren. Are you barren of righteousness? You see, I know who I am. I know what I am. I know that I am incapable of
pleasing God in any way in this flesh. I know that. I see very clearly that righteousness
must come from another man. If I'm ever to have righteousness,
it must come outside of me. The Catholics have a sense of
this, don't they? In their religion, they know
righteousness can't come within them. They know it's got to come
from somebody else. The problem is they choose wicked
men to try to give it to them. See, I know they're just as wicked
as I am, so they can't give me righteousness. Therefore, I know
this, the only one who can give me righteousness is Christ. He's
the only one, the man Jesus Christ. Now, are you barren? If you are,
then I've got a good message for you. If you have no goodness,
I got a good message for you. God says to you, you should sing
if you have no righteousness. You should sing and rejoice.
I like that song that Joseph Hart wrote. He said, A sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
one. If a man ever knows his sin, if he ever knows the barrenness
of his nature, that is a revelation of God. A revelation of God. And he said, you should sing
because you're going to have more righteous than, you're going
to have more than the married woman. Isn't that what he said?
He said, you that didn't break forth, you that didn't have any
righteousness, you're going to have more than the married wife. What does that mean? Well, this has reference to those
who are under the law. To those who are under the law. Those who are under the weight
and travail to obey the law of God, they shall not bear any
acceptable righteousness. You remember the Pharisees in
Jesus' day? We look at them with contempt.
But I tell you, they weren't looked at contemptibly by those
people in their day. They were the most zealous and
religious people that ever lived, the Pharisees. They were so zealous
that they were willing to lay down their lives for that law
and that temple. Matter of fact, many of them
did in front of Pilate. Pilate wanted to put that statue
in the temple, and many of those Jews said, you'll have to kill
us all. And some of them died in their
zeal for their religion. But what did Jesus say about
these zealous people, these religious moral people? He said, except
your righteousness super exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of God. How righteous do you have to
be? How good do you have to be? You have to be as good as God, otherwise you will in no wise
enter the kingdom of heaven. Accept your righteousness, be
as righteous as God himself, you shall in no wise enter the
kingdom of heaven. And I tell you, many will say
in the day of judgment, Lord, Lord, have we not preached? You
see, is preaching righteousness? Is this meriting me anything
with God, what I'm doing? Do you think it is? Do you think
this is making me closer to God, making me better? No. No, there
are many men that preach that are in hell right now. They'll
say, Lord, have we not preached in thy name? Have we not cast
out devils? Oh, look at all these miracles
we did. Isn't that righteousness? No. No. And many wonderful works. Didn't
we feed the hungry? Didn't we clothe the naked? Didn't
we build houses in Somalia? Didn't we go out into Africa?
Didn't we do all these wonderful things for you? And He will say
to them, depart from Me. I never knew you, you that work
iniquity. What did He say about all their
good deeds? He said they're nothing but iniquity. That's your best
things that you've ever done is nothing but iniquity. I want you to see that all the
sons of your work, all the travail of your goodness are nothing
but bastard sons. Unacceptable. Unacceptable. Go ahead, think
of your best. Claim it. God says unacceptable. Why? You're barren. You're barren. Are you barren? Good. I pray
that God would put you in the dust for this purpose, because
the gospel is only preached to the barren, to the poor sinners
who cannot bear any righteousness on their own. And notice this,
God doubles down on this. He says in verse 2, "...enlarge
the place of thy tent, and let it stretch forth the curtains
of thy inhabitations, Spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen
thy states for thou shall break forth on the right hand and on
the left hand In other words, he's saying look, you know, if
you're gonna have more kids, you're gonna have to have a bigger
place Isn't that so? He said you're gonna have to
have a lot more room You who are buried You should rejoice because there
is one who has fulfilled all righteousness for you. There's one. And his righteousness
is so vast, so high, so deep, so long, so wide, that you can't
lengthen your mind enough to fit around it. What do you think
about righteousness? How deep is it? How good is it? Whatever you
just thought is not enough. It's bigger. So you need to lengthen
your cords and expand your stakes. Because you barren, I will give
you righteousness, even the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. How can this be? How can we who
are barren be filled with righteousness, even by the imputed and imparted
righteousness of Jesus Christ? Believer, what we perceive as
righteousness is far more expansive than we think. Yet, this is God's
requirement for all men, that they be as holy as He is. But I tell you this, He alone
pleased God. Christ alone pleased God. He
alone ascended, who first descended into the lower parts of the earth.
The Lord descended as a man to do for us what we could not do
for ourselves. Look at Isaiah 43. 42. 42. Look
what He did. Isaiah 42 and verse 20, talking
about His servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I'm sorry, verse
21. It says, the Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. However righteous we think Christ
is, we should expand that tent and lengthen that cord, because
His righteousness was so perfect, God says, I love it. I accept
it. It's perfect. That righteousness
you and I could never bear. Behold, He's born it all Himself. He did it all Himself. Oh, bear and sing, for Jesus
hath fulfilled all the righteousness God requires of you, and God
is pleased in him. This morning I was preaching
in the Sunday school time of that word in being very important.
God is well pleased in him. Isn't that what he said? He said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now, is that
how you talk? Is that how we speak? Now, Andrew
does something, I say, you know what, I'm real pleased with my
son. Isn't that how we say it? I'm
well pleased with you. I'm well pleased with you. I'm
well pleased with you. We never say I'm well pleased
in you. But this is very important. He
was well pleased in Christ because we were in Christ when he was
performing all this righteousness. That's how God can be pleased
with you. That's how you can have righteousness
only if you were in Him when He performed righteousness. Go
over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1,
we can read, There's therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. Verse 2, For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh. What could the law not
do? The law was perfect. Nothing
wrong with the law of God. What was wrong was you. What
was wrong was me. We couldn't do it. God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled,
listen, here's that word again, in us, in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit. All of you who believe on Christ,
listen, you have the righteousness of God. Because the Lord was well-pleased
in Christ, He is well-pleased with us who are in Him. And so Jesus fulfilled all the
righteousness of God, so all of His people are pleasing to
Him. You barren, you that can perform
no righteousness, you should sing because Christ has fulfilled
all righteousness. Your tent is full of righteousness. Full. Now then, I ask you, O barren
souls, why will you continue to labor and look and seek for
that which never satisfies the justice of God? If I'm preaching to you who are
barren, why would you look anywhere else for righteousness? Have
you ever found it in yourself? I know you haven't because you
won't. You won't ever be satisfied. Isn't that why works religion's
always doing? Because they're never finished.
They're never satisfied. Well, you know, JD, you just
hadn't been here enough. You know, you need to come more.
Why? Because they have to fulfill
all their quotas. They have to fulfill righteousness
still. I don't have to do it. Christ has fulfilled all righteousness. I stopped looking for righteousness
in me. And I found it in Him. And God is satisfied with me
because of Him. Because of Him. Why will you
continue to drink from broken cisterns when there's a river
of water full of life? And listen, all who drink by
faith in Jesus Christ, you who are barren, are now made fruitful. And we that have no righteousness
are full of righteousness. Are you in Christ? Are you in
Christ? Behold now that we are by grace
bursting with righteousness. You who believe in Christ, you're
bursting with righteousness. You need to expand your tents
and strengthen your stakes. You need to get a better hold
of this, that you are completely, absolutely, perfectly accepted
in Christ Jesus your Lord. He has perfectly provided all
righteousness and He has suffered and satisfied God's justice against
you forever. He has. And so what does He tell
you? Look at this. Fear not. He just told you, barren, that
you should have children, that you should be full. Why then would He tell you to
not be afraid? Didn't He just tell you you have
it? But yet, knowing our nature, God would put this for our comfort. Knowing we still have the old
nature of sin, The best illustration of that
was what Paul said. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? The Romans used to sew a corpse
around the face of a criminal. And he would carry that corpse
until it rotted off. that is exactly how the believer
feels about his old nature his sin it's a rotting corpse it's
stench fills my nostrils every single day of my life but this
I know that I have no righteousness in that flesh and all my righteousness
is in Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ. That's who's delivering
me. I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And he says
this to you, believer. You who are in Christ now, this
is to you. Fear not. For thou shall not
be ashamed. But preacher, I am ashamed. In
your sight you are ashamed. Matter of fact, God says you
would be. You shall loathe yourselves, is what he says. in your own
sight." That's very important. You'll loathe yourselves in your
own sight, but in my sight, you shall not be ashamed. Why? Christ bore our shame. He bore
our shame. You shall not be ashamed. He says, neither shall thou be
confounded. What is this confounded? It means
taunted. You ever been picked on by a
bully? That's what it means. It means
to be taunted or accused. Thou shalt not be taunted by
your enemies. Why? He says, I am a wall of
fire round about you. I am a refuge over your head
and a foundation under your feet. And not one accusation of the
enemy shall fly over me. You see, Satan comes and he says,
how in the world could you ever claim that? And Christ says, shut up. He's
mine. I plucked him as a bran from
the burning. And I've given him my righteousness. You see, God has made in us a
new creation Paul says we are his workmanship,
his creation, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And so then you should not be
afraid nor confounded, neither shall you be put to shame, for
you shall forget the shame of your youth and not remember your
reproach any more. This reminds me of what he says
in Zechariah. He said, Thy judgments are passed. Believer, do you condemn yourselves?
Who are you to condemn what God justifies? God's justified you. And he said
that your judgment is passed. The King of glory dwells in you. You shall not see evil any more. Is what is happening to you,
believer, is it evil? Is it evil? No. It's for your good, whatever
it is. Your judgment's passed. God's
not judging you. He chastens you. As a father,
chasten his children. He does it out of love, but he
never condemns you. Why? You're a tense fool. The Lord is thy husband, thy
redeemer. the God of the whole earth. For
the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved
in spirit." This is what He did for us. We were a woman abused. We were a woman left as a harlot
woman, as a disgraced woman. And yet God says, I've only forsaken
you for a little while. J.D., what was it? Sixty-six
years. The Lord had only forsaken you for a little while. But then
what does He say? He says to his bride, In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with lovingkindness
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. And listen
to how God says about your sins and about his salvation. He said,
For this is as the waters of Noah to me. For as I have sworn
that the waters of Noah should go no more over the earth, So
have I sworn that I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee." How long has it been since the
Lord promised that there would be no more flood? Has there been
a flood like the Noah flood? No. He said, I swore that that
won't happen. And you know what he says about
the judgment of his elect? I swear that judgment will never
touch you. He says, for the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed. In other words, there's going
to be change in this world. There's going to be trouble in
this world. All those things that you stand on are going to
crumble underneath you. This world is fleeting. This
flesh is dying. And though these things be removed,
even though these things crumble, my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord. Even though you're tossed, even
though you're troubled, even though you have difficulties,
he said, I swear, I swear, I swear by my name that you shall not
be touched. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night, not without his divine express
permission for your good. Why? You're tenseful. You crab hold to this and you
hang on tight. Listen. You, believer, are complete. in Him. You're complete. You're whole. He is my righteousness. Christ
is my peace. He is my husband. And we are His bride. This is the song the barren sing. Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all. Pray that God bless this to your
hearts. Stand will be dismissed in prayer.