Isaiah 54

[0:00] If you'll turn to Isaiah chapter number 54, we're in Isaiah chapter 54 tonight. I love that song. Thank you. As you know, Tracy and Kristen always sang from their heart to the Lord with pure motives.

[0:12] But tonight they also sung for tacos because I said if anybody would sing the song tonight, I would buy them tacos. So if you want to know how you get your favorite song sung here at church, if it's church appropriate, you have to buy tacos for the people, okay?

[0:24] And so I owe them some tacos and I'm glad I did. I love that. And I thought about it as I was reading Isaiah 54. Or we should have known in advance, you know, that 53 was going to be a great chapter. And it really was.

[0:35] I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've shared this story with many of you before how one night I was on a college campus and I stood up, a guy was talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls and I stood up to ask some questions.

[0:46] Afterwards, these bikers came to me and they said, are you a preacher? I said, yeah. I said, and they said, what kind? I said, a Baptist preacher. I said, well, that'll do. Will you come tomorrow and preach to us? So I went to this place and they had a converted a trailer into a church and I was the only person in a car, in a minivan and everybody else was on a motorcycle and it was something biker, something Baptist church.

[1:08] And I went in there and I preached. Well, I was probably 21. So I got done preaching about a 20 minute sermon. When I got done, they said, do that again. I'm like, what? They're like, preach again.

[1:19] I'm like, you want like a different message? They're like, no, preach the same message again. We really liked it. And so people came in late. So I'm like, all right, from the top point number one. And I went through it. And I feel like that about Isaiah chapter number 53.

[1:32] I would not do any of us an injustice if I did not just go right back through Isaiah chapter number 53 and told you exactly what we saw. We're not doing it, Jen's, but we could do that. Okay. Tonight.

[1:42] But I believe pastor is going to park there for a little bit and spend some time in it. Cause there's so many messages and so many truths as it's quoted all throughout the new Testament. And, uh, but we're gonna look at 54 and I did not have the anticipation about 54 that I do have, uh, have about it now.

[1:58] It's just a great chapter. And we shouldn't be surprised that when God writes to us that it's wonderful, but I really enjoyed chapter number 54. And I want to read it to you before I pray for our response to the word of God tonight.

[2:10] Also, I will pray for our other part of our church family. That's meeting at the couple's retreat. Isaiah chapter 54. It's a response to chapter number 53. What should we do with the truth that we have heard?

[2:21] How shall we live according to this good news that we have heard? Isaiah 54 verse one saying, Oh, barren that, that thou did us not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud that thou did us not travail with child for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife.

[2:39] Sayeth the Lord enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations. Spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen my 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 that have inhabited.

[2:57] Fear not for thou shall 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.

[3:09] I wish we could have all felt and experienced what they felt when they said that the shame would be removed upon them as a people. Hope you'll experience it here today. If you carry it with you.

[3:19] Verse five for that maker is that husband, the Lord of hosts is his name and our redeemer, the Holy one of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall be called. The Lord called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife of youth, when thou was refused, saith when thou was refused, saith thy God for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee and a little wrath.

[3:42] I've hid my faith from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer. For this has the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee.

[3:59] For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but thy kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that has mercy on thee. O thou afflicted, tossed with the tempest and not comforted.

[4:11] And behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay the foundation with sapphires, and I will make the windows of gates and the gates of comercals and all the borders of pleasant stones. And all the children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.

[4:25] And righteousness shall thou be established, thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror shall not come thee. Behold, thou shalt gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall thy sake.

[4:38] Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in fire and bringeth forth an instrument for his work. I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment shall not condemn.

[4:51] This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. So, in the millennial kingdom, no nation will be allowed to defeat Israel because of this decree that God had made.

[5:05] Nations will rise and they'll fall based on his word. But he allowed the destroyer in times past Babylon to overcome his people, but this will not occur. But it said at the end here that peace and safety are a heritage to those that trust in the Lord.

[5:18] Lord, this passage also is written to all of us who have felt abandoned, who feel living alone, cared by no one, going through the storms of life as if God has left us.

[5:30] This passage is beautifully written for us as a response of what we have learned in chapter 53. Heavenly Father, I ask that you'll be with us tonight, Lord. Lord, I ask that you would allow me the opportunity to be a voice through your text, that your word would have the desired effect in the heart of every believer and unbeliever in here tonight.

[5:50] Lord, we pray for our church family. Lord, as they're down the road and they're studying your word, I pray that as they meet, Lord, for the purpose of growing in their marriage, that you will bless this weekend.

[6:02] Lord, I ask that you'll be with us now. Give me clarity of speech and give my brothers and sisters, Lord, a place in their heart to receive your word. And we will leave here rejoicing, knowing something wonderful about you and our salvation.

[6:14] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So the tagline for the book of Isaiah has been the gospel according to Isaiah. And it was very clear last week when we looked at it, how we were sheep that had been gone astray and that Christ came and he found us and that he took our place and he suffered afflictions.

[6:32] And then what was the response of it? It was very much the gospel, the good news, the bad news of our position in this world and the good news that he died in our place. Josh, if you wouldn't mind helping me, I want to show you how many of you are familiar with this thing called one verse evangelism.

[6:48] Taking one verse, I learned about this from the Navigators. But as we think about chapter number 53 and we look at all the things being taught and just think about the gospel that we share today, how every part of it was there.

[6:59] So you know the verse here, Romans 3, 24 to 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so first, next slide here, you'll show us.

[7:11] And so we see the separation. I learned in college, I never tell, we were told not to tell anybody to write in their Bibles because that's between you and God if you want to write in your copy of the Bible. However, there's a blank piece of paper in the back of your Bible typically and I would like for you to write on that.

[7:25] Okay. You might want to draw this up and to use this as you go through this verse. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we see the separation that is there between us and God.

[7:40] So you might draw this on a napkin for somebody. And then the next verse or the next slide you'll see there. And so as you look at it, you can circle some things. You can circle wages, sin, and death.

[7:51] And we talk about what wages are. Nobody would like for their boss not to give them their full wage. If you know what is coming to you at the end of the week, I remember my first job being so surprised at how little of the money I got that I thought I was going to get.

[8:05] You know, I took, this is how much I make an hour. I multiply that by 40 hours. This should be the number I get. And it wasn't the number that I was expecting. All right. And I remember being upset about that. You have a desired wage that you want to get.

[8:18] But we realize in all of our lives that the wage that we've deserved in our own sin is not something that we want to pay for. It's not something that we would look forward to. And then we draw a circle around sin here, and we talk about what that is.

[8:31] And we know that we had been far from God, and that we, because of this, we had forsaken him, that we had walked away from him. We were sheep that had gone astray, and we had gone our own way.

[8:43] As the people of Israel had forsaken him and went their own way and worshiped other idols, we have been people that have chosen creation over the creator. We have chosen lesser things to worship because we were made to worship.

[8:55] We're always going about worshiping, and so we find ourselves sin. Then that leads us to the word death because that's what sin will bring upon our lives. We learned that all the way back in Genesis.

[9:06] So wages of sin and death. Next slide here, which says this is the great transition that will take place. But even though that's the negative side of the gospel that we'd hear in Isaiah, saw in Isaiah chapter number 53 and throughout the entire Bible, but now we get to the great side of this, and that is the gift of God that was given to us.

[9:26] If wages are what a person earns, then what is a gift? Oh, every gift that's free for a person to receive it, someone still had to purchase it. Somebody had to purchase this gift from us, and we learned that that gift was of God, and it was eternal life.

[9:41] This is life eternal that you would know Christ. You know Jesus and that he was the son of God, John chapter number 17. And so he wants to offer us not death and not the wages of our sin, but he offers us a gift of God, which is eternal life.

[9:57] And then the next slide here, which leads us to how we would receive that is that we would trust in him that through Jesus Christ, we can go from wages of sin and death to this gift of God, eternal life.

[10:09] And every bit of that was found in Isaiah chapter number 53. You could take somebody right through that and show them we were people that had gone astray from him, and we are now people that have been invited back to him, and that this is through Jesus Christ that we will leave this life of sin and death, where we will spend eternity separated from God.

[10:30] And now by Jesus Christ, we can have this incredible gift, and it's wonderful. And in a world that we live in that is so complicated, and you've got so many things going on, so much information is thrown at you.

[10:42] All of us this week have seen what everybody would look like old, okay? That was a trend that took place out there. There's an app for everything. There's an article for everything. Everybody gets to write. Everybody gets to fill up your email.

[10:52] There's so much complication. Let's be reminded of the fact that the gospel is not complicated. It's a very simple message that we teach and that we see.

[11:03] And those that saw it in Isaiah chapter number 53, and they did not see it, they did not see it because they did not desire to see it, because they had said in their heart there was no God, because they had said in their heart that Jesus is not the Messiah.

[11:16] So we ought to be able to explain the gospel to people in simple terms. And so we see that in Isaiah chapter number 53. We see it throughout the Bible. And then tonight, we talk about how we respond to this.

[11:28] Verse number one through three, we've already read, but let me remind this of you. Sing, O barren thou didst not bear, break forth in the singing. His love is peace to the broken.

[11:39] That was a song that was sung so well tonight. And so here's this barren woman, and that now she is told to sing in her barrenness. There's many examples throughout the Bible of the heartache that people felt in barrenness.

[11:53] We do not really know all the misery that would have been felt by these people that would have been childless and despised. Yet God tells them the same. The nation of Israel was called barren, but God told them the same.

[12:06] And all throughout the Bible, we see people taking incredible and crazy steps at times so that they could have children. We find in 1 Samuel chapter number one and verse number 13, what I want you to really see is the emotion and what's being felt by these people.

[12:21] Because you could say that's not you in here, but you felt the same feeling before. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken.

[12:34] She was there praying. She said, God, if you give me a child, I would give one back to him. I remember she was mocked for that. And they said that her prayer, she seemed to be like a drunk woman, but she was just broken hearted.

[12:44] She wanted the God to give her a child. And she felt that emotion and that feeling of barrenness and of not being able to produce and have what you'd want to have. That is not just in that scenario there, but it's something that we have all felt, something that we have all experienced in our lives.

[13:01] So my wife has been gone for a few days. And so I've been really looking forward to preaching. All week has been my job to make people go to sleep. And tonight I only have to keep you awake, which is equally difficult, but it's a little mix up from the routine.

[13:13] But in being Stephanie for the last few days, one of the places I had to go today was to go sit with somebody. I went to court and she told me I was there to sit with somebody. And I sat with a woman who, though she was not barren, she felt alone.

[13:27] She felt as she couldn't do anything to get the happiness and satisfaction that she needed. And I asked Stephanie for something to do. And she told me I was just supposed to sit there. All right, men, any of y'all see the problem with that?

[13:40] We want to do something, right? Give us a birdhouse to build while we sit here, right? But my job, and I'm glad that it was given to me, was just to sit there with somebody and their loneliness. And so that person wasn't quite as lonely because I was sitting there.

[13:53] But I wasn't able to meet the deepest needs. I wasn't able to really feel like somebody was there that could really change the situation. I wasn't able to provide for them only what God could provide.

[14:04] So here God is speaking to a group of people that had felt that. They had felt the rejection. They had felt the barrenness. They had felt forsaken. And then he came to them and he said, oh, but things are not as you think they are. Verses 4 through 10 speaks about an abandoned wife.

[14:18] And as I've read it to you, but we'll look at it here still. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither thou be confounded, for thou shalt not be put the shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth. This wife that had been separated, that had been put away.

[14:32] God is not condoning this. He's not saying that's the kind of person he is. But this is the feeling that they would have. They had been separated. And we know from the Bible, we've already been through just a few weeks ago, what had happened with these people.

[14:44] Isaiah chapter number 50, verses 1 through 3. Thus saith the Lord, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away, of which my creditors is to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

[14:57] Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none? The answer, is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem or have no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke, I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness.

[15:09] Their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. And so they were just people that are fruitless and barren, and that God is now, they feel like they've been abandoned completely.

[15:20] But we learn that they had turned away from God, that they had forsaken him. 1 Kings 18, 18. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, for they have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Balaam.

[15:35] So their sin here is that they have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and they have followed after God. They said, God, we feel like you're so, oh, they followed after Balaam. Thank you for that head movement there, David.

[15:45] He saved me there. They had followed after a false God. They had, so they had forsaken his commandments, and had went this other way. And now they said, God, I feel like you're so far away from me, and I feel so forsaken. But we saw it time and time again.

[15:57] They had a choice, and they chose the things of this world, and to leave. Verse 11 says, oh, thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted. Some of you, these feelings are not far away.

[16:09] Some of you, gratefully, you're past them. But there's this time that we just live, where you feel abandoned, you feel forsaken, you feel like you've been tossed to and fro, and that's where the children of Israel found themselves, and this was us.

[16:22] Israel was the barren when the flick the woman tossed by the storm without anyone to comfort. Ephesians 2, 12, and 13 tells us there was a time that we were without Christ, being aliens of the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers of the covenant of promise, with no hope, without God in the world.

[16:37] But now in Christ Jesus, you were sometimes afar off, and made nigh by the blood of Christ. Do you ever look back to that time? I know some of you were saved at a young age. You became a Christian at a young age, but you were completely there.

[16:51] I mean, you were aliens. You would have died and went to a place that was never prepared for you. You were once far off, and outside of Jesus, that's all there is. There's this brokenness and peace.

[17:02] Maybe some of you are still there today, being thirsty in a dry land, that you feel forsaken, you feel abandoned, you do not feel connected with your maker.

[17:13] But verse 7 and 8 said, But for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. And a little wrath have I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness shall I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

[17:28] Going back to the chart we saw before with the wrath and the death that was there, but because of the gift of God through Jesus Christ on the cross, his moment was small. It was just a little wrath was hid from his face because God was not, it's not eternal for us, but for a moment.

[17:44] Psalm 35, for his anger endureth, but for a moment his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. His anger was for a moment, but his favor is life.

[17:55] We're no longer forsaken. And Ezekiel 37, Moreover, I make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them, and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.

[18:07] My tabernacle also shall be with them. Yeh, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. That he was going to place himself right there among them, no longer feeling forsaken.

[18:19] In his wrath that they prayed in Habakkuk 2, 3, 2, that in wrath he would remember mercy. And that's what he's telling them as a commentary of chapter number 53. He says, O barren ones, those that feel forsaken, you should sing unto the Lord because he is going to redeem us.

[18:35] Our maker will become our husband is what he told them. You're no longer alone. And how can this be true? How can it be? How can such a thing change? Psalm 22, verse 1, you're familiar with it.

[18:47] It's also said upon the cross, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why are they so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? So how would he remain holy but still show mercy?

[18:59] You know the answer to that question, right? Is that he took all that upon us. That God did that. Someone had to pay, and he did. The suffering servant, verse 10, surely I have borne our griefs, 53 teen, and griefs and sorrows.

[19:12] And yet you did esteem of stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He bore them. He took all of that, those feelings that was talked about, all that loneliness that was there, and he took it with him to the cross.

[19:24] Galatians 3, 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessings of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

[19:40] He became cursed for us and died on a cross. So all those emotions that we were talking about here, he took upon himself. And because of that, Jesus was forsaken.

[19:51] And because of that, God hid his face from his son. And because of that, Jesus felt the wrath of God. And now we don't have to. And so we know the truth. I hope you do. If you're a believer in here, you know the truth.

[20:03] But do you feel the truth as what it has done for you? As you walk through chapter number 53, you should not still be walking around feeling barren and fruitless. You shouldn't be walking around feeling filled and forsaken because he came to us.

[20:17] He came and he died and he took upon our sins. Verse 5, for thy maker is thine husband. So this person was being shamed in her youth. Her husband had left her and nobody was there to help her.

[20:27] And she was shamed because she had nobody. And he said, your husband is your maker, is your God. People say, you ain't got nobody. I use that for emphasis and because I use the word ain't a lot, right?

[20:39] You ain't got nobody. You don't have anybody. There's nobody in your corner. There's nobody that cares about you. And God says, your maker is your husband to the children of Israel.

[20:50] You're not alone. We saw him as, in verse number 5, we see him. The maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. And thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall be called. In this one verse, we see him.

[21:02] We see him as holy and powerful. He's the maker, Lord of hosts, Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth. But also, he is the restoring husband and he is the redeemer.

[21:14] In verse number 10, it says he is committed to us. So strong. And how can it be both these things? Chapter number 53. He came here and he died for us.

[21:25] And that's how he can be that for us, is that Jesus died in our place. Which means that the death of Christ has ramifications upon your life today. You know that God can take care of your eternity.

[21:36] You knew that as a young kid. But your God can take care of your week. And your God can take care of the feelings that you're feeling right now. And your God can take care of any loneliness that you're dealing with. Or any of those other emotions that we should not be living in.

[21:51] And he's helping them to live it out. Isaiah 62, verse 4. We're no longer forsaken or desolate. The children of Israel are no longer forsaken. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken.

[22:01] Just plain and simple. You should no longer be termed forsaken. That's not me. All right? Neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate. But thou shalt be called Hesaba and thy land Beulah.

[22:15] For the land delighteth in thee and thy land shall be married. They wouldn't have a hard time pronouncing those words. And they wouldn't even have a hard time understanding what they mean. But I needed help with both of them.

[22:25] He said to them, thou shalt no longer be termed forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate. But thou shalt be called, my delights are in her. And thy land Beulah, the married one.

[22:37] For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. You should no longer feel like a forsaken people. You should no longer feel like a people that were abandoned. You should no longer feel that shame that was there.

[22:50] Remember the wife that was left in the youth and she felt that shame? He says you shouldn't feel that way anymore. I am your God. And in my wrath, I remembered mercy.

[23:00] And that applies to every one of us in here as well. That term, thou shalt no more be termed forsaken. So when you begin to look at your life and you begin to say, I'm alone.

[23:11] I am forsaken. I'm barren. I'm not. My life doesn't matter. Matter in anybody. Does it matter to anybody? You ought to know those are not the words of God. And those are the words that God would have for you is, no more shall you be termed forsaken.

[23:25] That is not who you are. He gives a promise. He said, remember the promise to give to Noah, verse 9, for this is the waters of Noah unto me. I have sworn the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth.

[23:36] So I have sworn I will not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. Similarly, in the same fashion here, he said, I will, and there's a time coming where I will not have to rebuke Israel anymore.

[23:47] It is coming. We see the future. They will not be sad. Their children will have peace. Their maker will be their teacher. They'll be safe. They're no longer going to be terrorized. It's a wonderful promise. I love this promise in verse number 10.

[23:58] Look at this. Circle this. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee. Neither shall thy covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that has mercy on thee.

[24:12] When we talk about something being unmovable, we say that's unmovable like a mountain. That's unshakable like a mountain. Those mountains are easier to move than his loving kindness upon our lives. The greatest expression, if you say my kid's being unmovable, unshaken, he's being unstubborn, it's not like a mountain or any other expression.

[24:29] He's not moving like God's loving kindness upon my life. Have you ever felt like you lost it? Have you ever felt like you shook them, you know? Maybe you were driving. Somebody tells you, you're going to follow me somewhere, and then they take off like you're in a race.

[24:42] And you say, I thought you wanted me to follow you somewhere. Have you ever felt like you've taken off in life and you just lost God? You lost his loving kindness towards you. You lost his mercy towards you. You found yourself at a place and he's no longer there.

[24:53] You didn't lose him. He's unshakable. It's unmovable here is what he says. His kindness shall not depart from thee. He looks down. It's upon us today. As believers, New Testament, Ephesians 1, 14, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase of possession, until the praise of his glory.

[25:11] The Holy Spirit indwells every one of us. And we're not, it's not moving. His loving kindness is placed upon us because of what he has done, that suffering servant, what he did upon the cross as he came and he took our place.

[25:25] It feels good to be a Christian. It's a wonderful thing to be a Christian. So here's our response. Just a few minutes left. Here's our response. Verse 6. For the Lord has called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit.

[25:38] For the Lord has called thee. We should turn to a loving God. When you share the gospel with people, you should tell them to turn to a loving God that knows them and loves them.

[25:49] He is calling them back to them. We need to recognize there is something that they love more than they love God. Jeremiah 14 says you have committed two evils. What are the two evils? You have forsaken the fountain of the living water, but you have also went to other cisterns and broken cisterns.

[26:04] In sharing the gospel with people, we need to let them know that in telling God no, it's because you have said yes to other things in your life. You are worshiping. You have fallen down.

[26:15] We were talking in the Desi Bible class how we need somebody on the night, we're going to have somebody share the gospel that was a Hindu convert. And I told them, I said, you know, I wasn't a Hindu convert, but every one of us was worshiping something that was false before we worshiped God ourselves or something else.

[26:33] And so in sharing the gospel, we got to help people understand that's what they have done. Verse number 4, we got to forget the shame. Fear not, thou shalt not be ashamed, neither thou be confounded. Thou shalt not be put the shame.

[26:44] The pastor mentioned last time about the scarlet letter, that wearing that shame upon them. If anybody should have ever felt that, it would be Peter in Mark chapter number 14. But he's going to learn there's no longer any condemnation, that God gives forgiveness unto us there, that God had a plan for them.

[27:01] And then he tells them in the beginning of this passage, he says, thou shalt not. He says, you should expand your tents. Telling a person who's barren and has no children, you guys need to expand your tent. They're traveling around nomadic people.

[27:13] They feel like there's enough room, you know. They had, I read somebody said two rooms and a path. Instead of a bath, they had two rooms and a path to the outhouse or wherever they were going, right? And so they already had enough room for everybody that was there.

[27:23] But they said, expand your tent. More people are coming in. God had given that. I read something in a book called The Great Divorce. And it's in heaven. It's not an actual story.

[27:34] And those books that you read where somebody went to heaven for a little bit, you should try to get your money back. All right. And so they go to heaven and they walk around. They see this woman and there's all these people around them. And they say, who is that person? She must have been famous on earth.

[27:45] And they said her name is Jang Smith. She lived in Atlanta, Georgia. And you never heard of her. They said, what is all these people around them? They said she had given her whole life to raise up people and disciple them.

[27:58] And it says this. It says in that book, it says, we live in a time when the importance of, nope, that is not what was said. It said that her children, oh my, I can't make this up for you here.

[28:11] Oh, here we go. No, there are those that steal other people's children, but her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents, loving them. Saying this woman did not bear children in that sense, but she discipled people.

[28:25] And their love for their parents grew. And their love for their husband grew. And their love for their wife grew. Because she had people around them that she just raised up. God gave her fruit. God gave her children. God's going to know the nation of Israel, many children, you know.

[28:38] And we're going to see that throughout the Bible. It's going to spread. But he gives us also. He allows us to have many children in the ministry. This is the passage that William Carey preached when he said, expect great things from God.

[28:48] And to attempt great things from God. He said, why can't we expand our tent and not just be here in England? Let's spread it out to the nations. Why can't we expand our tents and ask God to give us fruit and help us raise up people and to disciple people here and not live as barren people?

[29:05] And then it says that we should sing. Sing, oh, barren. We should sing together. In a book called Sing by the Gettys, I think maybe Brother Morgan gave it to me. It says, we live in a time when the importance of music in church has been elevated greatly, not at least because it's become commercially lucrative.

[29:22] But at the same time, we're in danger of lowering the importance we place on singing together. Listening to each other, mumbling quietly along as a band performs brilliantly on stage in a church building is not the same as singing together as a congregation.

[29:37] We are a choir. Mark Hoffman had somebody in South Africa. And she's in her late 30s and she hadn't been married. And she said that every time somebody tells her that she ought to meet somebody in the church, she says she sings in the church choir.

[29:49] And while she's up there, she notices that these men in the church that people want to set her up with, they're not singing congregationally. And she says, I have no interest in a man who cannot sing congregationally.

[30:02] All right. Some of you single men may start singing louder now. Okay. Because good Christian ladies are looking for that. You ought to come together and sing congregationally. And you ought to notice when the person beside you is not singing.

[30:14] Because even those of us that can't sing ought to do our best and sing the truths together. And so it's one of those ways that we can notice what's happening around us. And we should sing here together. And as we ought to sing, let the word of Christ dwell in us.

[30:28] It helps us meditate on his word. And verse 17, the weapon is formed against thee shall prosper. And every tongue shall rise against thee in judgment. This absolute security that they felt.

[30:38] Romans 8, 38, I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers could separate us from the love of God. Nor are those things. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

[30:50] Do you know that? Do you know that's what happened on the cross? Do we know that's what the suffering servant did for us in chapter number 53? Do you reckon that to be true in your life? Do you help your emotions come under control when you feel all left alone?

[31:03] I read a story about a Scottish chaplain and his friend. They both get captive in jail. And while they're in jail, the British and the Americans are separated. But every day they come together and they speak at a fence together.

[31:14] And they speak in some kind of Irish Gaelic language that the people holding the Germans couldn't understand. One day as they're meeting at the fence, the American said, hey, we have a radio. And we learned that the war is over.

[31:25] So he tells his friend that. And so his friend goes back and waves at the guard, smiles at the dog, walks into the dorm. And he tells everybody, hey, guys, our captors don't know this, but the war is over.

[31:39] And they sang and they rejoice. And it's two days later before their captors realize that the war is over. The truth that they knew was a reality to them.

[31:50] And they lived upon it. I have no doubt that people that come here on a Thursday night, you've heard the gospel. And I believe that most of you accepted the gospel. But I know these aren't words we often say, but we ought to feel and experience how wonderful that is upon our lives.

[32:05] Because I feel forsaken and I feel abandoned. And it's not even by you. You're there for me, but I don't think you are. And my wife's there for me, but it isn't enough. And my kids, I don't want to talk about them right now, okay.

[32:16] And the kids are there for me, but it's just not enough. And we're not meeting each other's needs as we can. But our God is there. And we're not abandoned and we're not forsaken.

[32:27] And so if you feel those ways today, look to the gospel. Look to the gospel truth and say, I'm living on the right side. I'm not living on the left side. I'm living in life. I'm living not in death. I'm not living on the wrath. I'm living on their loving kindness.

[32:38] All this has been made possible because the suffering servant came and he died for us. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for an opportunity to see your word here tonight with my brothers and sisters.

[32:52] Lord, I pray that it spoke into the hearts of somebody in here that was feeling rejected or shamed. Lord, I pray that they would recognize what the gospel has done for their day, not just for their eternity, but for their day.

[33:05] And Heavenly Father, I pray for anyone in here, Lord, that doesn't know the gospel and how simple it is and how this gift is extended unto them. Christians are going to play on the piano.

[33:16] I won't ask Chris to sing, but I want to give an opportunity. Christians, you can most certainly find a place at the altar or pray at your seat. But if you came here tonight and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you're living underneath that sin curse, and you haven't received the gift that is made possible by Jesus, I want you to receive that gift tonight.