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00:00:01 sing or baren woman you who never bore a child burst into song shock for Joy you who were never in labor because more of the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband says the Lord enlarge the place of your tent stretch your tent curtain white do not hold back lengthen your carts strengthen your Stakes for you will spread out to the right and to the left your descendants will dispossess Nations and settle in their desolate cities do not be afraid you will not suffer shame do not fear disgrace you
00:00:44 will not be humiliated you will forget the shame of your Youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood for your maker is your husband the Lord Almighty is his name the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer he is called the God of all the Earth the Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit a wife who married young only to be rejected says your God for a brief moment I abandon you but with deep compassion I'll bring you back in a search of anger I hid my face
00:01:23 from you for a moment but with Everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you says the Lord your Redeemer to me this is like the days of Noah when I swore that the Waters of Noah Will Never Again cover the Earth so now I have sworn not to be angry with you never to rebuke you again though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my Covenant of peace be removed says the Lord who has compassion on you this is the word of God once again it's my joy and privilege to
00:02:09 be standing here sharing with you from the word of God and thank you Nisha for reading today's scripture I think she did very well and Nisha has been with us uh for quite a while in our first light girls home and she's now in the from three it's quite tall uh going on to form four next year uh studying in the school just around the corner we have been looking at selected passages uh from the book of Isaiah as a leadup to Christmas and today we are at uh chapter 54: 1 to 10 and the sermon is entitled your maker is your
00:02:59 husband as you would agree the title is somewhat intriguing and the text fascinating the title itself is taken from U uh a phrase uh in verse 5 in the middle of the text your maker is your husband but what does it mean that God is our husband obviously the entire setting is highly metaphorical four Sundays ago uh when preaching on Isaiah 49 our associate Elder John Lee described God's ways as motherly but today we shall see God how God is likened to be husband in order to spice up our anticipation of what we can gleam from
00:03:49 the text the opening slide shows the picture of a woman in distress she's sobbing with with her face uh buried in one arm the T the painting is entitled The Abandoned woman what if I tell you that this is symbolic of our situation before we came to Faith you may ask how so well we shall see before we continue let's Commit This Time To God In Prayer Father in Heaven what exactly are The Marvelous Deeds that you have done for us may the the Holy Spirit lead us into deeper insights into the person of Jesus
00:04:34 Christ and what his substitutionary death has achieved for us as we dwell on these verses from Isaiah 54 may your word so touched us so overwhelm us that we may respond in a manner worthy of our calling as the bride of Christ and we ask this in the mighty name of your son amen first a quick look at the py lineup uh next Sunday Pastor palan will deliver a message I think related to missions um and followed by Elder Arnold who will preach from Isaiah 56 and then brother Alex from uh Isaiah 57 and after that we'll have our
00:05:23 Christmas week okay with this uh akand datang announcement done let's begin my wife and I today she decided to attend uh the English service she's usually at the canones I think she's wondering what husband would say my wife and I we we love to travel we've decided to do like three four three four trips a year during the the short time that we have before our legs become too weak to walk and as you might have already noticed I often relate to you what I observe overseas in small part it's to encourage
00:06:09 you all to go out to see the world to expand your horizon if you lack the resources to travel far even a chy chti Malaysia is good enough to get you out of the house but the bigger reason why I share my travel Tales is perhaps to illustrate something related to the tax in question to me travel is less about sightseeing but more about savoring the cultures of people who are different from us I like watching people I like going to their markets to taste the Myriad sounds and colors and smells last year in early August I had
00:06:55 to be in Jerusalem for a for an event or a meeting and it was exactly to the date exactly 2 months before the Hamas uh hideous attack on October 7 you talk about timing two months away anyway I went on this trip alone and I was there for a week one evening I decided to venture out of my hotel to this nearby Jewish neighborhood to have my dinner the residents there were mostly religious Jews and they look somewhat surprised to see me walking around this China man at the counter in this e where I
00:07:40 ordered my shiaw now Shia is a is meat and onion stuff into this piece of pet bread super delicious I must tell you I know what you're going to say the coke is bad for you I know that but I had to drink it because Arnold collects where's Arnold aror collects Coca-Cola cans and this can had some Hebrew words and I knew that he would love to have this and so I endangered my health so I can bring back this empty can for him all the way from the Holy Land talk about sacrifice when I travel I drink Coca-Cola for his
00:08:35 sake now we will talk more about sacrifice later sorry for digressing at the counter where I ordered my shama I saw this family with four children I think two two boys and two girls and as I was having my meal in front of me was another family with three daughters and the mother was pregnant outside I bumped into couples strolling with four five or even six kids now what I observed in Jerusalem last year in August came to mind as I was reading the text preparing for this sermon I mean these people they have so
00:09:22 many kids especially the religious uh Jews we thought two is more than enough four five six I shall come back to this in the later part of the sermon and let's now dive into the text which opens with much exuberance and joy verse one addresses a barren woman one who has never uh born a child one who has never experienced labor or child birth she wants a baby but she can't have a baby now you may wonder why is that so is it because of medical reasons that she cannot have she cannot bear children apparently not and I will I
00:10:06 I'll tell you why shortly anyway this barren woman is now told to sing to shout for joy to celebrate why because she's now going to be so productive she's going to have so many kids exceeding that of her more fertile counterparts but surely it's impossible for a barren woman to conceive so how can this happen only if it's a miracle only if it is Supernatural now it's worthy of note that all 10 verses in our text are words spoken by God himself at the end of verse one says the Lord at the end of
00:10:48 verse six says your God also at the end of verse 8 says the Lord your Redeemer at the end of verse 10 says the Lord who has compassion on you in other words God is speaking directly to her as if telling her I'm going to perform a miracle to end your barrenness all the births that you will experience are going to be so miraculous and as if to lend excitement to to to to this joyous pronouncement from God in the next verse the baron woman is asked to enlarge the place of your tan stretch your tan curtains wide
00:11:21 lengthen your quarts strengthen your sticks the writer is using the imagery of a tent as a dwelling remembering when Israelite when the Israelites were wandering in the Sinai desert they lived in tense perhaps the writer is alluding her barrenness to be like being in the wilderness but God is now saying to the barren woman look you're going to have so many kids that your tent will be too small enlarge the space make it bigger to house all the little ones now the curtains here are possibly partitions uh within the tent uh so that
00:12:03 the inhabitants could have rooms of sorts and these curtains are tied by by carts or ropes to to these poles or or Stakes uh driven into the ground hence stretch your curtains wide lengthen your cords strengthen your stakes in the modern context it is to say go and renovate your house you know uh make extensions to your property to create more space but how can we uh interpret this as I said at the beginning all this is just metaphorical symbolic language God is Not addressing a particular particular woman here and
00:12:42 those of you who know your Bible well you're aware that the woman figure is sometimes used in scripture as a metaphor for the nation of Israel for example in Revelation 12 if Israel were a person the female pronoun she or her would be used in fact not only is the woman a symbol for Israel it goes even further as Israel is also likened to be God's wife or bride and God the husband of Israel remember all this is just metaphorical and there are numerous verses uh in the Bible that symbolically point to Israel as God's wife or bright
00:13:30 Jeremiah 31: 3132 Hosea 2: 19 and 20 Isaiah 6 625 to site a few but if Israel is uh God's metaphorical wife then why is she Barren and here I jump to verses 7 and 8 in the second half uh of the of the text here we see God speaking rather harshly to the woman namely Israel for a brief moment I abandon you in a surch of anger I hid my face from you for a moment what is happening here God sounds very angry but why you see despite all that God has done for the Israelites especially delivering them from bondage to slavery
00:14:25 in Egypt despite all the love and care and blessings that he has poured on his people they turn against him generation after generation they engage in idolatry worshiping the gods of the Canaanites in other words they have committed spiritual adultery guilty of spiritual infidelity like a wife offering her body to other men and hence as we piece together the bigger picture we see that the barren woman in verse one is also an adulterous woman an Unfaithful wife and this God cannot tolerate for in Exodus 34:14 it
00:15:12 says do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is jealousy is a jealous God and this explains God's WTH in verse 8 continue because of your transgressions your mother was sent away and with this verse six in our text uh starts to make sense as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit a wife married young only to be rejected this bad woman has been rejected and sent Away by her husband she's now a deserted a deserted or abandoned wife for she has no husband now which explains her distressed spirit because h
00:15:59 husband doesn't want over her anymore which also surprisingly explains her barness in verse one that she's Barren is not because of medical reasons she's Barren because she's now left alone with no husband with whom to start a family and again this has already been described in an earlier chapter in Isaiah 49: 211 and in this verse Israel is speaking I was beriev and barren I was exiled and rejected I was left all alone and now you can see why I use the picture of a sobbing abandoned women in distress in my opening
00:16:45 slide but our text doesn't sound all that depressing nor Bleak as you already a notice is actually rather uplifting and upbeat as we saw earlier our text opens with with much exuberance and joy in verses 1 and two and in the rest of the the verses we notice the language that is rather positive and buoyant what happens is that amazingly wonderfully the husband reaches out to this disloyal two-timing wife to bring her back to his embrace it says in verse in verse 7B but with deep compassion I will bring you
00:17:34 back this tender loving husband is saying to his Unfaithful wife I still love you I love you so much I forgive you and let's resume our marriage also it says in verse 6A the Lord will call you back no earthly husband could say could ever say this but Isaiah 54 paints God as a compassionate God towards his people can you see the word compassion appearing three times in our text compassion compassion compassion it also appears three times in Isaiah 49 which John Lee elaborated in his sermon and further along this theme of
00:18:22 reconciliation as a further Assurance to the wife the husband tells her in verse verse 4 A do not be afraid you will not be put to shame do not fear disgrace you will not be humiliated four related words are lined up here one after another fear shame disgrace humiliation meaning you need not fret about these things but why the need to give her all these assurances you see in ancient Biblical Times Bar baren women or married women who are who were unable to Bear children they bear an enormous load of Shame and
00:19:05 disgrace in those days a woman's primary role was birthing and raising children the pressure to produce children was so great and a woman who couldn't fulfill that role was looked down upon and despised in the Old Testament there are several prominent uh women who were Barren you know some of them Sarah the wife of Abraham and also Leah and the Rachel two of the four wives of Jacob and the shame and disgrace of an unproductive uh womb was so great that each of them had to resort to Desperate Measures and what is that that is to use
00:19:50 their their female uh uh servants as substitutes Sarah used haga Le used Zila and Rachel used bilha I want you to note this idea of substitution now in the case of the woman our text on top of the shame and disgrace p on her for being bar Barren she also has to carry the humiliation and dishonor of being a dous and Unfaithful now it's interesting that this this verse about her her shame and disgrace and humiliation it is sandwiched between the first part about her barrenness and the second part about
00:20:32 her infidelity this is called a technically called a chastic Arrangement God is telling his people the Israelites that despite what you have done in my compassion and loving kindness I shall blot out all these stigmas I shall erase all these stains all this will be in the past and this is the tone of the of the second part of verse four you will forget for get the shame of your Youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood now this needs a bit of explanation your youth here refers to a time when she was young
00:21:08 your widowhood here points to the time when she was much older when the husband has passed away leaving her as a widow in those days women also lived longer than men as they do today so this verse is a poetic way of saying whatever mistakes you have made in your entire life from young to old they'll all be forgotten they'll they all be a thing of the past because God and his people are going to start over as they renew their marriage but why does why does God do all this we know that just now the Deep
00:21:44 compassion of God he further says in the last verse that even though the mountains might be shaken and the hills removed God's unfailing love for his wife will not be diminished his Covenant of peace with her will not be repealed they will be more enduring than the mountains and the hills God speaks in Jeremiah 31:3 I've loved you my people with an everlasting love with unfailing love I've drawn you to myself I've drawn you to myself and this squares with verse six in our text the Lord God will call you
00:22:33 back okay I think I've uh covered the BL of the 10 verses in our text although I think I was jumping all over now time and again I've pointed out that the whole thing is just one big metaphor The Narrative itself is a is a kind of stuff that one might use for a romantic movie to recap we have a angry husband who has been betrayed by his adulterous and Unfaithful wife yet in his deep compassion and unfailing love he brings her back it's an El elaborate metaphor of how a compassionate and loving God reaches out to his people the
00:23:10 Israelites who have turned against him and brought them back the whole metaphor turns around verse 5 for your for your maker is your husband which is the title of today's sermon if you have not realized it this phrase is dynamite in other words your maker who is your maker your creator the Creator God the Lord Almighty the Holy One the God of all the Earth he loves his people so much that he wants them back despite what they have done now this is part one of the sermon The Narrative as a metaphor we now move
00:23:54 to part two where we shall dive deeper what what I didn't tell you is that more than just a metaphor the text is also a prophecy and later in part three we shall di even deeper to uncover the underlying gospel message of Jesus Christ so part two let's now see the text as a prophecy there are Bible scholars who interpret Isaiah 54 as a prophecy of the return of the Israelites from Exile in Babylon let me explain now because of the Israelites continual sin and Rebellion God finally had enough and
00:24:37 allowed the Babylonians to invade the southern Kingdom of Judah starting with The Siege of Jerusalem in 597 BC earlier 124 years earlier in 721 BC the Assyrians had already captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel so Israel is almost was almost going to fall this is a bit of Bible History For You 11 years after the siege of uh Jerusalem began in 11 years later in 586 BC a very important date the city finally fell to the army of Nebuchadnezzar and here in this French painting from 18 96 you can visualize
00:25:31 the Israelites being forced into exile to Babylon under captivity you can see the Babylonian soldiers while Jerusalem burned in the background you know it's so educational to visit Jerusalem with all its years of History anyway this squares with Isaiah 50:1 which I cited earlier which prophesied how God divorced his wife and sent her away the people of God were sent away banish far away into Exile and this squares with with verse six in our text as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit a wife who married
00:26:16 young only to be rejected the distressed and rejected Israelites were in Exile in Babylon for 70 years it was a period of Shame and disgrace which ties with the baroness of the woman in verse one of our text many of you know the song by bonam by the Rivers of Babylon if you don't know you are too young okay and this song If you if you not if you don't already know is based on Psalm 137 by the re I'm not going to sing this okay spare me by the Rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remember Zion they our captiv
00:27:06 ask us for songs they said sing us one of the songs of Zion but how can we sing the song of the Lord while in a foreign land or in a Strange Land I heard people mumbling uh you know the song now this is important if if you truly love someone if you love the person deeply it doesn't matter what he or she has done you get distressed when he or she gets distressed you understand this not if you truly love the person by the Rivers of Babylon they sat and wept you know what God was moved by their tears in his deep compassion and
00:28:08 unfailing love his heart was not at rest to see his people weing and so after 70 years of Exile he allowed them to return now according to some Bible scholars verses 1 and two in our text are about the people of God coming back to their land we saw how the the barren woman is is now so productive barrenness gives way to astounding fertility the many children she now has is a description of the Israelites repopulating the land the land that has been desolate for decades is now teeming with people not unlike what I saw in
00:28:51 Jerusalem last year families with five four five six kids and to share some statistics the population of Israel in 1948 when she was founded was just 800,000 today is close to 10 million a 12.5-fold increase and something akin to this might have taken place when the Jewish Exiles return starting from 518 BC now we knowe that the book of Isaiah was written between 740 to 700 BC now let's take the middle date of 720 BC hence what what is prophesied in our text was fulfilled about 200 years later and this is according to to the
00:29:36 inter interpretation of some Bible scholars except except that there's a small problem it's not as simple as it sounds I'm only sharing with you what you might GA if you were to read some article or hear some sermons on Isaiah 54 but there's more than what they usually teach or preach meaning if you approach the text the way I just presented if you interpret Isaiah 54 the way I just described you will hit an obstacle in verse three verse three will become a problem how so for you were spread to
00:30:17 the right and to the left your descendants were dispossessed Nations you see when the Jewish ex Exiles return from Babylon they might have spread to the left towards the Mediterranean but not to the right to the east of River Jordan spread out to the right and to the left in this verse really means in all directions this they didn't do further it says your descendants will dispossess Nations nations in plural this also they never did in fact their descendants were the ones dispossessed by other nations throughout
00:30:53 history so you see the idea of uh the idea that Isaiah 54 is a prophecy of the Jewish return from Exile has only limited validity something deeper is going on in the text perhaps this is a a two-stage prophecy now the key to unlock this is two verses from one of Paul's letters that is in Galatians 2 27 and 28 the church in galatia located in modern turkey compris both Jewish and Gentile Believers it is a church with a mixed congregation and it's in this letter to them Paul quoted from Isaiah 54:1 the first verse in our text be glad
00:31:34 Mar woman you who never bore a child shout for Joy cry aloud you who were never in in labor because more are the children of the desolate woman than that of her who has a husband and this we already familiar and then he wrote now you brothers and sisters members of the galatian church like Isaac are children of promise and this is key Paul is saying that the many children born by the barren woman in the text verse one are the Believers in the church the Church of Jesus including First Baptist Church the church is the Fulfillment of
00:32:17 the prophecy in Isaiah 54 the church today comprises millions of Believers symbolized by the many many many children that she has verse three in our text makes more sense now for you will spread out to the right and to the left so over the past 2,000 years the church has spread in all Direction north south east west we have churches in in Europe in in in Africa in China in America north south east west and further in verse three your descendants will dispossessed Nations well although the church has not exactly
00:32:56 dispossessed Nations but today she's she's in almost every country in the world including Malaysia you'll be hard pressed to find a country without at least a group of Believers now having said that I also hasten to add that the day will come when the Church of Jesus will indeed dispossess Nations and that will happen during the millennial rule of Christ the 10,000 year rule of Christ in the near future from that angle you you might say that uh our text from Isaiah 54 is a is a three-stage prophecy but that's
00:33:32 another discussion for another time and so as we move from the Old Testament to the new we find that the metaphor of the wife for the nation of Israel is has now transition to a metaphor for the church Paul wrote in uh to the church in Ephesus also in modern day Turkey in Ephesians 523 for the husband is the head of the wife as C Christ is the head of the church husband wife Christ Church so the relationship between Jesus and the church is likened to that between husband and wife Paul also wrote to the
00:34:11 church in Corinth located in modern Greece in the 2 Corinthians 11:2 I promised you to one husband to Christ so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him so it's also clear here that Jesus is the me met metaphorical husband and the church his wife indeed this this uh particular verse the imagery of the church being presented as a virgin to Christ will one day be fulfilled in heaven during the marriage supper of the lamb as Illustrated in Revelation 19 let us rejoice and give him the glory for the
00:34:52 marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride who is his bride his bride has made herself ready he was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous Deeds of the Saints notice here the Saints or the church given the metaphor of a bride his bride the Saints okay so far we have examined the narrative as a metaphor we've also scrutinized the text as a two stage or even three- stage prophecy but what can these 10 verses mean to us at a at a at a personal level how can we
00:35:35 relate to them and here we come to the last and more important part of the sermon uncovering the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to shape the the understanding of our faith and to deepen its foundation now let me begin part three by recalling the story of another another adulterous woman in the Bible in John 8 I can almost draw a line between Isaiah 54 to John 8 and I once preach on this back in I think 2018 the teachers of the law and the Pharisees paraded before Jesus this unnamed woman caught in adultery you
00:36:24 know the story well they wanted to apply the law of Moses on her and have her stoned to death in those days the sin of adultery was punishable by Death from Leviticus 20:1 and this is a passage where Jesus uttered the famous line let he who is without sin cast the first stone whereupon the hostile crowd started to disperse leaving Jesus alone with a woman he said to her where are those accusers of yours has no one condemn you she said no one Lord and Jesus said to her neither do I condemn you go and sin no
00:37:08 more now one can easily find numerous sermons on Jesus and the and the adulterous woman from John 8 many preachers who preach this emphasize its message of compassion and mercy others use it to to teach the lesson of judge not lest ye be judged I'm not saying that they are wrong but if you come from these angles then you would have completely missed the most important uh point of the passage it's not so much about compassion Mercy it's not so much about judging others to understand what this narrative is really about we need to ask
00:37:54 this question could Jesus Jesus just let her off could Jesus simply forgive her and brush away the law of Moses neither do I condemn you go and see no more and here we need to discuss the consequence of sin you see sin has a cost it exacts a cost every time a sin is committed a cost is incurred someone has to pay there's a price there's always a price attached to sin now to illustrate this say you you knock into my car and causing serious damage it will cause a big sum of money to repair the car and since you're my
00:38:45 good friend I may say it's okay I'll take care of it although after the accident I may no longer be a friend or you may insist oh no no no no let me pay for it or the insurance company will pay someone has to pay and sin is akin to that once a sin is committed a cost is incurred but it gets more serious than that although I may forgive you for a sin committed against me a cost is still incurred because ultimately all sins are an offense to God himself after David committed the sin of adultery and murder
00:39:30 he cried out to God in Psalm 51 against you against you you only even though he committed a sin against basiba and Ura you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight let me add that the the death sentence on the woman in in John 8 for adultery it points to the fact that the wages of sin is death as as Paul wrote in Romans 62 meaning the cost of sin against God is death all sins any sin not just adultery and death is not just physical death but also what is called the second death or
00:40:11 Eternal separation from God because he's a holy God and if you have sinned you cannot be with him for eternity now the baffling thing about the the ad adulterous woman in John 8 once again is is how could Jesus just let her off what about the cost of a sin since we've discussed the cost of sin someone has to pay she was supposed to be stoned to death you see what happened is that although not recorded in John 8 as the woman was leaving the scene I can imagine Jesus thinking to himself woman you are supposed to die
00:40:53 today according to the law of Moses but in sick months time in 6 months time I shall die for you on the cross so that you might live because that incident occurred 6 months before the crucifixion but on the cross Jesus died not just for the adulterous woman in in in John 8 but also for you and me so don't you see we are the adulterous woman in John 8 who was supposed to die we too are supposed to die but we live because Jesus Paid the price for us for us with his life on the cross and that is the gospel message in John 8 it's not
00:41:33 about Compassion or Mercy what I'm trying to put across to you is that the same gospel message is also embedded in our Isaiah 54 you see we are also the adulterous woman in Isaiah 54 as we saw earlier she's a metaphor for the nation of Israel who had committed a spiritual adultery but turning away from God by worshiping Idols so we too have turned away from God and we worship all sorts of Idols especially material things we are no different from the adulterous women in John 8 or Isaiah 54 but God the metaphorical husband
00:42:19 reached out to his Unfaithful wife Israel and brought her back in the same way God reached out to us and brought us back and each of us have our own account of how we met Jesus of how we came to Salvation each of us experience in our special way God's uh compassion and love when he accepted us once again we ask the same question as we did in John 8 to drive the point home that is how could the husband just let the adulterous wife back how could God just accept us what about her infidelity what about our sin and here's the bottom line
00:43:04 as we get to the focal point of the text you see it is no accident that Isaiah 54 comes on the hills of Isaiah 53 there is a reason why Isaiah 54 is gapos next to Isaiah 53 they come together Isaiah 50 chapter 5 three which Dr Peter preached on last Sunday is about the suffering servant how how Jesus suffered and died on the cross for our sake as our substitute in our place let me show you just two verses from Isaiah 53: 5 and 6 but he was pierced for our Rebellion Crush for our sins he was beaten so that we could be
00:43:56 whole he was whipped so that we could be healed all of us like sheep have strayed away we have left God's path to follow our own and yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all and this is how we should read our text that is in the shadow of the previous chapter now to drive this home I want to highlight some something interesting in our text I'm going to zoom into just one single word in our text to show how Jesus Paid the high cost of our sin on our behalf and that is in verse uh seven I want to focus on the word
00:44:41 abandon as in I abandon you now if you want a deeper sense of this word abandon here you can check other translations many translations render it as I forsook you or I forsaken you some translation have it as I deserted you or or even I rejected you now the remarkable thing is that the Hebrew word used here for abandon or forsaken is the same Hebrew word that appears in Psalm 22:1 Psalm 22:1 remember this in Psalm 22:1 David cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me sounds familiar while dying on the cross Jesus
00:45:24 also cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me or this could be translated as why have you abandoned me since both words came from the same Hebrew word the implication here is clear the husband in our text abandoned his faithful wife when Jesus was dying on the cross with all our sins laid upon him God abandoned him Jesus so that God could Now take us back since the cost of our sins have now been fully paid so let me put it this way Jesus was a abandoned so that we wouldn't be abandoned the key to all this the door
00:46:04 to our Redemption is the cross and I shall end this sermon the way I begin at the beginning we talk about the baren woman about how she was unable to Bear any children and then all of a sudden she was producing so many kids and she was told to enlarge the her living space from verses 1 and two we also note that the the for a barren woman to give birth to a baby let alone so many babies is nothing short of a of of a miracle these births were Supernatural now to conclude the sermon what I wish to alert you is that
00:46:45 hundreds of years after Isaiah was written another miraculous birth took place one that we all know so well that was when a virgin girl bore a baby who was conceived by the holy spirit in a supernatural way one Silent Night One Holy Night in Bethlehem Infant Jesus was born hey this one looks very familiar hello I took a picture of the wall on this side I've never stopped admiring this lovely woodwork illustrating the birth of Jesus go find out who made this okay anyway in a month's time we'll commemorate the the day Jesus was born
00:47:34 and we will celebrate Christmas and when we do let's be reminded that it was a momentous day in human history word became flesh God took the form of a man and as we just sang how can this be and as Christmas approaches let us also take in and grasp its gravity and impact what is the impact Jesus was born to face the cross he came to die for us and to use the language of of Isaiah 54 that we have examined on the cross Jesus was abandoned so that we wouldn't be abandoned by God verse 7 he was disgraced and shamed so that we need not
00:48:17 face disgrace and shame verse four he was humiliated so that we wouldn't be humiliated also verse four his crucifixion sets the stage for us to be brought back to God verses 6 and 7 so that now we may enjoy a covenant of peace with God verse 10 this is the gospel message hidden within our text waiting to be uncovered the shadow of the Cross Cuts deeply across uh uh the verses It's My Hope and prayer that the shadow of the Cross also cuts deep into your hearts May the gospel message so permeates our souls that will cause a
00:49:05 shift in our perspective in our the way we look at life and people Etc when we are fully embrace the meaning of the Cross if we have really understood the the the lessons in our text I can tell you that two things will happen immediately although this is not exactly from the text there will be two quick implications for us in our lives I just want to share something practical firstly we will become more acutely aware of our sins we remember what we were before we came to Faith that we were wretched and
00:49:43 condemned sinners like the barren woman the rejected woman the distressed woman yes we still sin but because of a greater awareness of sin it will make us more repentant more confessional and that will draw us closer to God you'll also make us more humble you will make us less judgmental kinder to other people during our worship service every Sunday we try to allocate a time for confession because confession and repentance strengthen our spiritual posture and this is the first point the second impact of the Cross this is from
00:50:26 my personal experience the second impact of the Cross is that we will become more grateful as we constantly remind ourselves of of of Paul's words in Romans 58 but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us our hearts will be filled with Thanksgiving to God for the wondrous things they has done for us in these letters Paul often wrote thanks be to God thanks be to God gratitude deepens our spiritual Roots When we are grateful to God we acknowledge His Marvelous deeds and his
00:51:05 perfect will because of that we enjoy more peace and contentment in our lives it makes us more resilient we will also complain less the critical spirit in us will be diminished making us more likable May the word of God in Isaiah 54: 1-10 continue to resonate in your hearts shall we close in prayer Our Father in Heaven your son was abandoned on the cross so that we wouldn't be abandoned he bore our shame so that we need not face shame lead us to respond to the cross in a manner that is profound and
00:51:55 lifechanging for the this pleases and honors you as we make this petition in the name of our savior our Lord Jesus amen in our closing song uh we will uh respond uh by acknowledging how our shame our disgrace have been borne by Jesus and now because of that you know when we are weak we also strong shall we all stand for the closing song [Music] and You Are My Strength when I am weak you are the treasure that I Seek You Are My All In All seeking you as a precious Jew Lord to give up but be a fool You Are My All
00:53:15 In All Jesus Lamb of God Hoy is your name Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your name taking my sin my cross my shame Rising again I bless your name you are my holy [Music] when I fall down you pick me up when I am dry you fill my cup You Are My All In All Jesus Lamb of God wory is your name [Music] Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your name Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your name Jes Jesus Lamb of God Worthy is your Jesus L of God Worthy is your name Jesus let of God Worthy is your name [Music] stand may you draw ever closer to God
00:55:54 knowing that he has not abandoned you may you live in confidence and faith in God knowing that Jesus has borne all your shame may you live the Abundant Life In Jesus knowing that God has taken away your barrenness and may you become more and more Christlike knowing now the meaning of his cross and his gospel go now in the love and joy and peace of the Lord and all of God's people say amen God bless you in know in the coming week uh you may uh be dismissed after a time of quiet meditation do stay back and join
00:56:38 us for fellowship at the Garden Cafe if you need prayers please come forward uh the leaders and uh pastors and Elders will be in front
