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Isaiah 54, and we're kind of, you know, last week Isaiah 53 was clearly about Jesus and His sacrifice. Isaiah 54, we go back in many ways to what most of the book of Isaiah has been about. And I recognize that as we go through these chapters, they are many times repetitive. Like what I'm going to teach is primarily things that we've already seen in the book of Isaiah. Now, I don't try to be a pastor that is ultra repetitive with the teachings that I teach, different doctrines, I want to be able to teach all the topics, all the doctrines that are found in the Bible. But when God is the one repeating the information, of course, this is stuff that we need to understand very well. Why does God repeat it? It's because sometimes we don't understand it, we need to hear it. God wants us to understand. These are all important teachings. And so I don't want you to walk away going, man, Isaiah 55, 54, just like the other ones, where it's going to be like this to Isaiah 66 and like, ah, man, it's going to be, you know, it's God's word. It's God's word and we need to understand that this is something that God wants us to hear on repeat. But verse number one is really interesting. Verse number one, it says, Sing, O barren, thou didst not bear. So it's saying about a woman that is barren, a woman that can't have kids or hasn't had kids, to sing. Now, this is quite an interesting, it says break forth into singing. It's quite an interesting thought because, you know, normally if a woman, especially a married woman, is unable to fall pregnant, it's a heavy burden on her mind. Because, you know, God's created us to be fruitful, God's created us to be productive. For women, you know, as much as society tells you it's not what you want, you know, as much as society tells you you want to work for another man and at some job and pay off someone's mortgage that is not your husband, that's not true. Actually, what is inbuilt in the desire of a woman, God given is a desire to be fruitful and to bear fruit of the womb. And for men, it's for us to be productive and bear the fruit of our hands, to labor hard and be, you know, take care of a family and to provide for them these desires that we have that God's inbuilt into us. And so when God says to sing, O barren, it's kind of, you know, it's a little contradictive to what a woman would desire. That, you know, a barren woman is often upset and sad and we know the story of Hannah in the Bible when she could not have children and she wept and went to God in prayer and begged him essentially for a child. And, you know, God blessed her with Samuel. So it's that, you know, that's the natural response of a woman. And so God is telling this barren woman to sing, can tears break forth into singing, and cry aloud the doubt that it's not travail with child. So it's like, look, be happy that you didn't go through labor pains. And then it says this, it's so interesting. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. So God is saying, this is why you need to rejoice. Because the desolate woman, or the barren woman, has less children, sorry, has more children than the woman that is married with her husband. You're like, well, that doesn't make sense. You just said she's barren. How can she have more children than the one that is married? You go, this is like, what is this, you know, like what is this riddle here in the Bible? Now, I take the title from the sermon here in verse number one which says the children of the desolate, the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife. So the title for the sermon tonight is the children of the desolate. The children of the desolate. Now, are you guys familiar with this verse? Has anyone heard this verse before? Pretty familiar with it? Where have you heard about it? Do you remember? Oh, just from reading? Oh, just from the Bible. It does. This verse actually gets repeated for us in the New Testament. So I want to show you where it gets repeated in the New Testament. Come with me to Galatians 4. Keep your finger there in Isaiah 54. So Galatians 4. Now, this is so important because it's such a riddle but then, you know, when you get to Galatians 4, Paul teaches us what this is all about. So it makes it easy for me. I don't have to work out the riddle. It's already taught to us from Galatians 4. Now, look at Galatians 4 in the New Testament. Galatians 4, and just to show you the verse and look at verse number 27. Galatians 4, verse number 27. It says, So there it is, right? There's a repetition of this verse here in Galatians 4, 27. Now, what is this about? Let's start with the teaching in verse number 22. Let's get the context of what is being taught here in Galatians 4 and verse number 22. Galatians 4, 22. It says, Do you guys remember the story of Abraham? He had Sarah his wife and Sarah was barren. Remember, she had a promise that she would have a son which was Isaac but she had gone barren for so many years even she'd gone past menopause and she physically should not be able to have children and so she gives her handmaid Hagar was it Hagar? Yeah, it was Hagar, yeah, right. Bond woman Hagar to be the woman by which she would produce a child which became Ishmael and so what we learn here in verse number 22 is the story of Abraham and his two sons Ishmael from the bondmaid and Isaac from the free woman being Sarah his wife. Verse number 23 was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise. So we know that Isaac was the promised son. Okay, so the promise by which he was born was his promise that came from God that Abraham would have a seed and verse number 24 it says this Now what is an allegory? An allegory is a story we're looking at the story of Abraham and his two sons An allegory is a story with a hidden meaning or a deeper meaning. Okay, so Paul is saying look, remember the story of Abraham there's a deeper meaning to this okay, than just that he had two sons okay, from two different women. There's a lesson to be learned and so he begins to teach this teaching okay, and then he continues in verse number 24 which is Aga, now Aga is Hagar the bond woman. So the two women, Hagar represents the one from Mount Sinai so the Old Testament right cause remember Moses went up to Mount Sinai and he got his ten commandments and the old covenant was then birthed onto the nation of Israel well Hagar, the woman, the bondmaid represents the old covenant okay, and then it says in verse number 25 ... in Arabia ... to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children so Hagar represents Jerusalem which now is now the now is in the time of Paul was Middle East Jerusalem what we know as Jerusalem today is the now is as well in our time as it was in Paul's time and the children that live in that nation, it says here are in bondage she's in bondage, Jerusalem is in bondage with her children so Hagar was a bond woman, okay she was a servant of Sarah and so Jerusalem on the earth today, Middle East Jerusalem today represents bondage and the Jews that live on that land are the children in bondage as well okay, now this should start teaching you a few things understand that salvation gives us liberty, salvation gives us freedom, it frees us from our sins, right, it frees us to live a life that pleases God you know, it frees us from the power of sin the power of death but those children in that land are under bondage, now before I continue before someone says, Pastor Kevin you hate the Jews I'm just telling you what the Bible says here I didn't write that, it's there okay, we're up to Isaiah 54 Paul takes the allegory of the story, repeats it here for us and I'm just telling you that's what it says, you can read it in your own words but you know, you teach the Bible and what do they say, oh you hate the Jews it's like, they're just in bondage meaning, they should desire to be made free right, because their false religion keeps them in bondage that's what it is faith in Christ liberates you my desire is that those people in the Middle East find liberty in Christ Jesus I don't hate those people I hate the false religion see, it represents the old covenant bondage now look at verse number 26 but Jerusalem which is above is free so there's a Jerusalem on the earth bondage, there's a Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all Paul is writing to the Galatians Paul is writing to a Galatian Gentile church, he's writing in the New Testament he says we have a mother too not physical Jerusalem on the earth but Jerusalem above which is free the moment you trusted Christ, you've been given freedom and that is your mother, heavenly Jerusalem one day we're going to go to be with mum it's not a physical mum it's an allegory, it's just a deeper teaching it's a meaning it's not like literally that city gave birth to us like the Mormons teach, like you're a spirit baby in heaven and then when you're born the spirit baby joins the physical body and here we are it's an allegory, it's a story, it's meaning it's an illustration it's trying to teach us this truth that we don't belong to the Jerusalem of this earth but we do belong to the Jerusalem which is above which is the mother of us all so if the two represent the covenants then physical Jerusalem on the earth represents the old covenant Jerusalem above represents the new covenant and I'm of the new covenant I'm of the blood of Christ remember his blood is the blood of the new covenant and spiritually speaking we've been sprinkled and cleansed by the blood of Christ and so we belong to the new covenant we belong to the mother which is free which represents Sarah Sarah is the mother which is free the free wife and Hagar represents the bond woman and the children of Sarah are the children of promise the children of promise the promises are made to the Jews no, no, no, no I am a child of the promise you are the children of promise because we're of Jerusalem which is free we're of Jerusalem which is above which allegorically speaks of Sarah in the Old Testament then he says in verse number 27 for it is written rejoice thou barren that bearest not who was that? Sarah remember she was barren alright? break forth and cry thou that travailest not for the desolate have many more children than she which hath an husband Sarah had one child Sarah had one child Isaac and so compared to other women she had very few children she only had one which is Isaac but isn't it amazing that through Isaac through the promises given to Isaac and eventually Jesus Christ and us in Christ Jesus there are many more children that she has brought forth because we are the spiritual children of God we are of heaven we are of the free woman God's given birth the promise that was given to Sarah even though she only physically had one child spiritually she's had many children all that have believed on Christ of all time make up those children and look at verse number 28 just in case you think I'm out for lunch again verse number 28 now we brethren Paul and the Galatian church and by extension all churches all New Testament churches but we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise now I didn't make it up you see? it's right there I didn't come and write that in your Bible they're the promised people we are we are oh you hate the Jews? no I believe the Bible is what it is and then verse number 29 but as then those that were born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now so who persecutes? those that were born after the spirit those that were born after the flesh meaning the Jews the physical Jews are the people that persecutes the people of God and you just need to understand that is the teaching of the Bible I did not make that up that's the teaching of the Bible so I want you to understand Paul is expressing or expounding this allegory using the verse that is found there in Isaiah 54 now that we understand that understanding Isaiah 54 is going to be much easier so let's go back to Isaiah 54 let's go back to Isaiah 54 the reason this is super important is because I am confident I am so confident about this just go to Kurong and pull out a book of dispensationalism somewhere if you've got no books don't buy one just pull one out look up what they speak about in Isaiah 54 I guarantee you what they're going to say about these verses is that God is speaking about Jerusalem which now is I guarantee you and that God's going to make them renewed all the Jews are going to get saved the moment Jesus Christ comes back and they're going to look upon him whom they've pierced there's going to be a national conversion of the people of Jerusalem which now is I guarantee you 100% if you go to Kurong and pull out a book of dispensationalism about this verse that's what it's going to say and they're just going to completely ignore what is taught in the New Testament and the reason it's important is because as we continue we know this is not talking about earthly Jerusalem it's talking about spiritual Jerusalem and believers of all time that have been cleansed by the blood of Christ so with that in mind speaking of Jerusalem which is above this is in verse number 2 enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes I guarantee you that book in Kurong will say, well this is why we need to support Israel today we need to give them all the land all the land that was promised to them today because the Bible says enlarge your tent stretch forth the curtains that was all fulfilled in 1948 when they came back together as a physical nation and now you know, hold on, that's not what it's about this is about heavenly Jerusalem do you see what the difference it makes when you understand the clear teaching of the Bible rather than trying to force your biases in there but you teach the truth and people hate you for the truth and I don't know why it's just, it's the Bible I mean Christ says the world hated him and we're going to be hated, but I still don't understand I know it's true, I know people hate you just for believing the truth, but I just don't understand like you know, to be a pastor and say look I'm going to be a pastor, I'm going to be a Bible preaching pastor, and people think okay that's fine, but when you start preaching the Bible they hate you so why? I'm being honest, I'm going to preach the Bible I'm going to teach you what it says I'm not going to make things up right? But you teach it and people hate you for it, they call you anti-Semitic they think you hate the Jews and they're like I can't be part of your church because the way you look at the Jews, I'm like well what way do we look at them differently? Don't you believe they're damned and going to hell? Yes, so do I Don't you believe they need Jesus Christ? Yes So do I If we both knocked on a Jewish door and they opened and we had to give them the gospel, wouldn't we both give them the gospel? Yes? What's the difference? Why get so heated and upset about what the Bible clearly teaches? And it makes no difference how we're going to interact with these people Anyway Christ is saying that he's going to enlarge and we know, number one, because there's going to be more children There's going to be more children One of the definite things that we need to be doing as soul winners is bringing more children into the kingdom Making them make Jerusalem above their mother as it was in the allegory story We're enlarging in the tents, we're bringing more family into the fold we're bringing more children these promised children that were given to Sarah Verse number three For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more Alright, so we see this seed that was promised all these children that will be born of the barren woman it says this seed shall inherit the Gentiles When does this take place? Once again we've gone back to the promises and the prophecies of the millennium The millennial reign of Jesus Christ When Christ comes back, the Bible's clear He's going to reign from Jerusalem But those that rule and reign with Him are not the children of the flesh The ones that are going to rule and reign with Him are the children of the promise Okay? And so That's why the Bible teaches us we're going to rule and reign with Christ Remember the word Gentiles means nations And so the Kingdom of Christ is going to rule over all the nations of this earth Okay? And who's going to be part of it? Oh, the physical Jews Only the physical Jews believe on Christ But as we learnt in Galatians 4 the people that make up these children are the believers are those that have trusted Christ Now, a few interesting things in verse number 4 So we're looking at Isaiah 54 What is the 54th book of the Bible? Brother? 1 Timothy Yeah, it is 1 Timothy Probably enough for the 2 Timothy 1 Timothy, keep your finger there and come with me to 1 Timothy please 1 Timothy Now there's a few interesting thoughts being brought up here So about this woman While you're turning there to 1 Timothy 4 I'll read it to you again in verse number 4, Isaiah 54 Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt not forget the shame of sorry, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth So, the Bible's saying here that these children are going to forget the shame of their youth They're going to forget the sins You know the sins we've committed? They've all been forgiven in Christ Jesus And when Christ forgives their sins not only does he forgive them, but he forgets them We can also apply this to Old Testament Israel if you want If you want to apply it to the covenant back then in their youth as it were You know they, of course, turned many times against the Lord God and they sinned against him Now what's interesting about this in 1 Timothy 4 verse number 12, 1 Timothy 4, verse number 12 Paul is writing to Pastor Timothy He says, let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity in spirit, in faith, in purity Let no man despise thy youth One thing that we learn by putting two passages together here is that God speaks of your youth as being a time where you make a lot of mistakes You know, and as teenagers you often rebel against your parents or you think your parents are wrong and you try to path a different way of living and I think most people acknowledge like your teenage years or your early twenties or your, you know, what we commonly refer to as youth is when we do a lot of stupid things You just, you know, you start not to, you know, feel so accountable toward your parents I suppose and you're your own woman or your own man and you sit out and just do stupid things And so, you know, many times in our youth we are maybe ashamed of what we've done Now thankfully in Christ Jesus, when you're saved, God forgives those things You know, I don't like to hold people in judgment for the wrong they've done in the past We've all made mistakes, we've all done stupid things in the past And I don't want to think of you or myself or I don't want to be judged for the things we've done in the past You know, like if I've had a fight with my wife or something like this not that we often do anything like that but you know what, if we've made peace if we've sorted out, we've moved forward I don't ever want to remember the mistakes Like if we have another argument in the future I don't want to bring up the mistakes of the past the errors of the past because it's been done away with We shouldn't, you know, despise the mistakes of the youth and understand that we have a future and a time to live together And so in many ways, God is saying about when we're reigning with Him we're not going to be concerned about all the mistakes people aren't going to be bringing up Oh, you're ruling with Christ, but what about that time you got drunk and whatever, you did something stupid We're not going to be ashamed of those sins because we've been forgiven by God So that's quite an interesting thing Timothy was a young pastor and some people hated him for his youth Obviously he was a man who met the qualifications Obviously he would have been a married man with a couple of kids at least But he's still quite a young man in comparison to many of his church and sometimes people will just despise you because you're not young but hey man, if you're preaching God's Word God's Word will always be true regardless of who is preaching it Something else there in 1 Timothy, come with me to 1 Timothy 5 1 Timothy 5 and verse number 3 1 Timothy 5 verse number 3 says Honour widows that are widows indeed You know, in the Bible, the instruction given to a church is if we have widows in the church, that we are to honour our widows Now honour, you can read this in your own time The context there isn't just like respect them, we should respect widows It's about making sure their needs are taken care of So if a widow has lost her husband and has nobody to take care of her I'm not saying widows in the world, I'm saying widows And we see there's a criteria by which widows are to be taken care of by the church It's the widows that have served in the church They have a good report in the church If they don't have a man to take care of their needs that's when the church ought to be coming together and we send brother Hayden to go cut the trees or whatever it is The overgrowth, and we send brother Ash to go fix up some of the flooring or something like that We send different people with different skills to go and help those people in need That is the proper instruction that churches have toward widows And the reason I bring that up is again, because in Isaiah 54 it says Shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more And so again, speaking about in the millennium that Christ will provide all the needs of the people You know we're never going to be without It's not like today where sometimes we might struggle to pay our bills We might struggle with different problems and sicknesses and what have you But not in the millennium, in the millennium we're not going to operate like a widow We're going to be taken care of as it were a husband Now that's why if you come back with me to Isaiah 54 Come back with me to Isaiah 54 and verse number 5 Isaiah 54 and verse number 5 and this is again, I need to debunk another teaching that's out there Isaiah 54 verse number 5 This is why she will not suffer the reproach of widowhood any more Because for thy 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 he be called Now what teaching, what funny teaching comes out of this? Well again, if you pull out that dispensational book out of Kurong And you look up the word husband or something like this You're going to learn a few things from the dispensational book It's going to say that Christ is the husband of the church That the church is the bride of her husband Jesus Christ And then they'll say, but Israel also has a husband The Israel which now is, the Israel of the flesh has a husband And that husband is God the Father Have you guys heard that one before? Yeah, okay, well number 1 We've already gotten the context, this is not talking about earthly Jerusalem is it? It's talking about new Jerusalem, heavily Jerusalem So just by context, this is not correct But it's funny that they say that, well the son needs a wife and the father needs a wife And I'm like, well who marries the Holy Spirit? Is it the Charismatics? They have these strange teachings And it's like, well you need to understand there's a difference between the Israel and the church And I'm like, no, no, no, no It's an allegory of the church or the New Testament believers You know, I'm not making this up, this is the apostle Paul that is teaching these things And so again it's using the example like widowhood Where we have troubles in life today and we have needs today But in the millennium it's like we have a husband and all our needs are taken care of Because Christ will rule and reign over the whole earth And we will not suffer any needs during that time of the millennium But there's more to it So keep your finger there and come with me to Revelation 21 I know there's repetition here, but Revelation 21 please, Revelation 21 Revelation 21 and verse number 9 Revelation 21 and verse number 9 And this is going to be consistent with what we've seen earlier We know that we are children of promise And our mother is Jerusalem which is above So does our mother, Jerusalem which is above, have a husband? Well, Revelation 21 verse 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials And they were full of the seven last plagues And talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain And showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem Descending out of heaven, Jerusalem which is above, descending out of heaven from God Isn't that consistent? That the husband, the maker which is thine husband is actually the lamb The lamb is Christ And the lamb's bride is holy Jerusalem Jerusalem which is above, which will descend out of heaven When God creates a new heaven and a new earth That is the bride And we are children of that city Because we're going to live in that city In the new heavens and the new earth So is this teaching us that Jesus has a bride, the church? And God the Father has a bride, Israel? No Because when you look at the description of this holy city You've got 12 gates that represent the 12 tribes of Israel Old Testament believers And it's made up of the 12 foundations which are named after the apostles of the lamb New Testament New Testament, Old Testament saints that are in Christ Jesus Of the children of promise, those that have believed in Christ They will indwell that holy Jerusalem And as an image, a picture, that city is the lamb's wife And the lamb of course is Jesus Christ So there's no That's Israel We're all one in Christ Jesus And you know what's so funny about these books and these teachers? I've seen presentations, I've been in church sitting in a pew And they're like, you know, the pastor's like How do people not understand that Israel is not the church? And so they'll show on their slide For Israel they have a map of Israel Like modern day Israel, right, they have a map And so you can see the land, geographic land of the map And they say, so that's Israel And over here they'll have the church And in the church they'll have like a church building Like with a cross And they go, how can you not understand this building is not the land And the land is not the building It's like, no, hold on, you don't understand, pastor Israel is not the land The land is the land of promise It's the land of Canaan Israel are the people Because throughout history Israel's land size has, you know, depending on enemies and captivity The land size has grown, has shrunk, has grown, has shrunk But it was always Israel And the Bible speaks about Israel coming out of Egypt Before it had any land Because Israel are the people God is not married to a piece of land That's not what his priority is The whole point of the Bible Is that Christ came to die for man And woman, just in case it's feminist Man, I mean everybody, mankind, all right He died for all And the people that live on that map, on that land You know, they should just draw a head Two arms and two legs That's Israel And then over here, the church The church is not a building The church is the people Whether we meet in a building Whether we meet at the park Whether we meet like Israel in the wilderness That is the church And so for the church, what they should do A head, arms and legs And so when you have a head, arms and legs and a body A head, arms and legs and a body I say, can't you tell that Israel is not the church? No, it's the same thing It's a human being They have trust in Christ It's one and the same The Israel of the millennium Is made up of all believers That have lived on the land of Israel Those that attend the church Those that are saved in Christ Jesus We are all one The wall of separation has been destroyed by Christ Ephesians chapter 2 Is it Ephesians 2? I think it is You can read it in your own time But I'm telling you I don't know if Isaiah is interesting to you But I think we all read it And we understand it's quite deep It's quite complex And so these preachers take advantage of it being complex And not expecting that you're going to compare Scripture with scripture And those are telling you God the Father is married to Israel Which now is Bless those people if you want to be blessed in return Now I'm going to bless the real people of God The children of promise which are my brothers and sisters in the Lord Which is you The reason I come and fly here every week Is because I want to bless you And teach you God's word And you guys bless me in return and I love it And we know that whatever we do to one another We've done it unto Christ So look I don't know how the Bible can't be any clearer on this topic And people that are trying to teach you otherwise They're just deceiving you Best case scenario They're just ignorant and they don't know any better Or they feel pressured to preach what Is acceptable in the dispensational world But it's contrary to the scriptures I'm not telling you If you look at this yourself And compare the scriptures and read the scriptures for yourself You'll see how contradictory it is to the teaching That comes out of many Baptist churches It's a real shame that we live in a time Where our pastors have been so heavily deceived By the doctrines of dispensationalism Alright let's continue Verse number, back to Isaiah 54 Isaiah 54 And verse number 6 For the Lord have called thee as a woman Forsaken and grieved in spirit And a wife of youth When thou wast refused Sayeth thy God So God says So God says look I've called you even as a young wife And we're going back to the Old Testament times Okay So I say well is the land No not the land, the people, the people that are saved Okay the people that lived in that land That are saved They lived in a nation which was like a youthful wife Okay But that youthful wife was very barren Okay We understand We start to understand that in order for this wife To bring forth these people That live on that land or live in New Testament times They need to get saved Okay they need to trust Christ Now again this plays into This is really interesting because it plays into Again 1 Timothy 5 You've probably turned away from there but I'll just read it to you In 1 Timothy 5 which again is the 54th book of the Bible 1 Timothy 5 14 says I will therefore That the younger women marry Bear children Guide the house Give no occasion to the adversary To speak reproachfully For some are already turned aside After Satan So the Bible says younger women they ought to marry And bear children Okay so The problem with the youth The wife of the youth Representing the Old Testament and these allegories Is that it wasn't fruitful It wasn't bearing fruit You know most people in the time of Isaiah You may recall when God caught Isaiah To preach in his ministry God told Isaiah they're not going to hear you They're not going to listen And I don't know if I'd want to be a pastor If nobody wanted to listen Imagine I get ordained as a pastor And we start Blessed Hope Baptist Church or whatever church And nobody's here And I'm just preaching No one's here What am I doing? But that's exactly what Isaiah was called to do You're going to preach and no one's going to hear you Because he lived in a time Where things were just so bad in the nation And of course we know that God's judgment Would fall by the hands of the Babylonians Okay when they're taken to captivity This is why I say there's a lot of repetition Of the previous chapters That have come before Now We're talking about that young wife Okay so again Old Testament times Verse number 7 For a small moment Have I forsaken thee But with great mercies Will I gather thee This is really interesting God is saying I have forsaken thee Okay that's for Isaiah that's the nation of Judah Verse number 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment But with everlasting kindness Will I have mercy on thee Sayeth the Lord thy redeemer Now these are really interesting things Because we understand in verse number 8 When it says a little wrath have I hid my face God says I have wrath A little wrath But we know that as believers we are not appointed to wrath We're not appointed to his wrath The other interesting thing In verse number 7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee And yet Jesus Christ says in Hebrews 13 5 For he hath said I will never leave thee Nor forsake thee So this is when We can understand these words that have been spoken here Are not speaking about New Testament believers Do you understand that? Because we've got these promises That we're not appointed to wrath And that Jesus Christ will never leave us nor forsake us So we understand this young wife is talking about Them in that current time Okay because there are some believers But most of the nation has rejected him So he's got some wrath He's going to forsake them And of course that will come like I said In the form of the Babylonian captivity Okay God has forsaken unsaved Judah The prophet Jeremiah calls them A reprobate nation At that point in time Okay rejected by God Now let's continue verse number 9 So God promises no no Even though I've got wrath Even though I have forsaken you That he's got this everlasting kindness And he will have mercy And of course that mercy came in the form of Jesus Christ Okay that everlasting kindness His everlasting love came in the form of Jesus Christ Verse number 9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah Should no more go over the earth So have I sworn That I would not be wroth with thee Nor rebuke thee Okay just like God destroyed The old earth with the flood Okay and promised to never do it again Well God destroyed the Old Testament nation of Israel But promises us That if we are of that spiritual nation The children of promise That he would not You know be wroth with us And not rebuke us You need to understand and apply These two teachings okay The transitions from the Old Testament to the New Testament And the promises to come with Christ Ruling for a thousand years Verse number 10 For the mountain shall depart So here we have Here's the setting of it For the mountain shall depart And the hills be removed I want you to start thinking about when does that take place The mountain shall depart And the hills be removed But my kindness shall not depart from thee Neither shall the covenant Of my peace be removed Save the Lord that have mercy on thee So when does this take place When do the mountains depart When are the hills removed Anyone? Sorry? There is a little bit at the rapture But primarily when Christ finishes Pouring out his wrath on the earth I'll just read it to you I'll read it to you Revelation 16 verse 20 This is after the seventh vial is poured out It says here Sorry the seventh The seventh trumpet What's first? The trumpets? After the seventh vial is poured out Revelation 16 verse 20 It says And the mountains were not found Okay So God's wrath ends up Destroying with a great earthquake All the mountains of the earth Okay And so God is saying for the mountain shall depart And the hills be removed But my kindness shall not depart from thee So we're going back to the millennium Because at the end when God's wrath is finished on this earth Christ comes back on the white horse Comes to Jerusalem Puts his feet on the mount of olives It cleaves into two And from there forward he rules and reign In Jerusalem And all the saints that have been raptured That have gone to be with Christ Will come back with him to rule on this earth with him So I want you to understand Now we've got this promise of the millennium Okay Verse number 11 And look this is clearly the millennium This is not something in the past This is not 1948 or anything like that Verse number 11 says Behold I will lay thy stones With fair colours And lay thy foundations With sapphires I will make thy windows Of agates And thy gates of carbuncles And all thy borders Of pleasant stones So where Christ I believe this is about talking about earthly Jerusalem at this point in time Because Christ is going to rule from there From the millennium And you may recall in the end times that Jerusalem Will be trodden under the foot of the Gentiles For 42 months That city is pretty much a wasteland When Christ comes But now it says it's going to be rebuilt And it's going to be rebuilt by these Colourful stones And sapphires He says and I will make thy windows of agates Let's look this up and agate is a colourful stone It says and thy gates are carbuncles The carbuncles are red stones Now this is not talking about heavenly Jerusalem In the new heaven new earth It's a different city It's talking about him ruling from this city In that thousand year period Verse number 13 And all thy children Shall be taught of the Lord And great shall be the peace Of thy children So all the children All those new generations Born during the millennium They're going to be taught of the Lord We've seen in previous chapters In the book of Isaiah There are going to be pilgrimages That the nations of the earth are going to make their way To Jerusalem to a high mount The house of the Lord And church services are going to be Coming out from that mountain So these are the promises Of the millennium Verse number 14 In righteousness Shall thou be established Thou shall be far from oppression For thou shalt not fear And from terror Behold they shall surely gather together But not by me Whosoever shall gather together Against thee shall fall For thy sake So we can clearly see this is not about the new heaven and the new earth Because when the new heaven and the new earth is created At eternal state Everybody that lives are going to be children of God This is a time Where some will still gather together And go to war Against Jerusalem Not Jerusalem 1948 Not Jerusalem of the earth A rebuilt Jerusalem It is on the earth But a rebuilt Jerusalem Beautified by all these stones Christ's ruling reign from there And there are going to be some nations That are going to try to make war Or gather themselves against that city Now come back with me to Revelation chapter 20 Come with me to Revelation chapter 20 please Revelation chapter 20 Now again I know it's kind of repetitive right We hear about the millennium again But every time These chapters kind of just bring Sort of a little bit more information New information to help us understand What that millennium is going to be like I mean I can't really understand I can't really imagine a city Built with stones Of all precious colours Like I don't really Like when I think of a city I just think of these grey buildings So we add a little bit more data To what this millennial reign of Christ Will be And I want to show you just how often this promise Or this prophecy is taught Not just from the book of Revelation But it's found throughout all the prophets of old as well But in Revelation chapter 20 And verse number 7 It says And when the thousand years are expired Satan shall be loosed Out of his prison And shall go out to deceive the nations Which are in the four quarters of the earth Gog and Magog To gather them together to battle The number of whom is As the sand of the sea And they went up on the breath of the earth And came past the camp Of the saints about And the beloved city And fire came down from God Out of heaven and devoured them So anyone that gathers Themselves against the city You know God's going to be there to protect them And we learn that at the end of the millennium Because Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years During that time Satan is loosed He's able to turn the hearts of people that hate Jesus I don't understand Like Jesus is ruling on the earth I mean it's a utopia The earth is flourishing Right, people have all they need Everybody's learning of Christ You know we're ruling on the earth You know we're going to get rid of the sodomites And all these wicked people off the earth Are going to enforce the laws of God In a righteous world Yet somehow Even with all of those blessings There are going to be people that have not Trusted in Christ Where the devil can take their hearts And bring them to battle against the saints of God Into his holy city I don't understand it But I do understand it Because we've already seen it play out in the scriptures Because when Christ came the first time He did no one wrong He was a good man He preached wonderful message He laid down his life He sacrificed himself He performed miracles He did amazing miracles He brought the dead to life And even some people that saw him bring the dead to life They hated him And they rejected him So man does it And we talk to people We go door to door soul winning And sometimes people hate Jesus I worked on someone's door just this past Saturday And trying to give him the gospel And it's like you know what I'd just rather go to hell I want to go to hell I'll be there with my mates And I'm like yeah you're definitely going there I mean if that's where you want to go That's where you're headed I guarantee it I mean we want to go soul winning I did a bit of soul losing that day There are people you know You come with a good message And look it's not of works and Christ has done it all And he loves you Okay And so it doesn't really matter You know it's hard to understand But we see it today It's happened in the past Doesn't matter what Christ does He does good and he loves you and he gave his life You know like how thankful are we For what Christ has done Like we're so thankful that we're saved And we have the peace of God in our lives We're not worried about what's going to happen in the future When we pass away we're with Christ Our sins are forgiven And that's what he's done for us And so it's hard for us to understand why the people hate him But in the millennium Satan's going to be less loosed out And he's going to be able to find these people that hate the Lord It's amazing because The number as the sand What did it say there? Yeah the number of whom is as the sand of the sea Okay But again, thankfully the saints don't have to go to battle Fire comes out of heaven And just wipes out that army And Satan is then cast into the lake of fire Look at verse number 16 God says behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire And that bringeth forth an instrument for his work And I have created the waster to destroy So this is why we don't have to be worried in the millennium about these other armies The smith, the one that's actually making weapons God says I created him And the one who's coming to destroy I created those people that are in the army Okay I'm the creator of all people Okay then he says this in verse number 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment Thou shalt condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord And their righteousness is of me Sayeth the Lord I love that And their righteousness is of me Isn't it great that we're not saved by our own righteousness? Now we're saved, we're servants of God because of his righteousness And so no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper Let's apply that, that's about the millennium we understand We can apply that today Because we're not physically at war today We're not being physically dragged out and killed or anything like that But we know that in the New Testament That our weapons are spiritual weapons We know that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood But against principalities and powers And the forces of Satan The forces of darkness And we're constantly at battle with this enemy And I love the promise that God gives us That no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper You know the enemies of God They're not going to prosper They might hurt you a little bit They might throw a few fiery darts at you And you need to make sure you're armed With your shield of faith to block those arrows And you've got to make sure you're ready and prepared With the gospel of Christ shot on your feet And you've got the helmet of salvation And the breastplate of righteousness What else am I missing? Sword of the Spirit Breastplate of righteousness, helmet of salvation Or girded about with truth Make sure you've got the right belt on If you want to throw on the cloak of zeal Put it on, it's fine But don't just put on the cloak of zeal Because I've met a lot of Christians that put on the cloak of zeal And they're completely naked underneath They forgot the rest of the armor We've got a spiritual war to fight And the Lord God promises that we're going to have victory And again that victory is in Christ Jesus In His righteousness So Brevin that's the end of Isaiah 54 I told her the children of the desolate The desolate woman representing Sarah Because she was barren And she had a promise that one day she would have a son And that son was Isaac But that son Isaac Well that story is an allegory about us That we are of the barren woman And that woman is the city of Jerusalem Heavenly city Jerusalem I should say And that's the mother of us all And she gives birth to these spiritual children We want to be able to enlarge the tents We want to be able to enlarge this church And invite more people to know Christ as their savior We are the children of promise And we ought to be able to afford this great promise To other people that we come across Alright Brevin let's pray