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All right, another great chapter in the book of Isaiah. Lots of great truths here, we're going to dig right in, starting in verse number one. Let's look at that very first verse where the Bible says, Sing, O barren that didst not bear. Now, here we have what would be seemingly a contradiction, because, you know, normally when a woman's considered barren, it means they can't have any children, and that's a sad state. It's a sad state for that woman to be in, not just historically, throughout the Bible. I mean, when women are told that they're not able to have children, when they know they're just barren, it's a sad thing. It's not something to be rejoicing over, but the Bible's saying here, Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. And it isn't explained why. Why would you sing? Why are you speaking like this as if it's a joyful thing? For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. So the reason why he's saying here to sing is there's this teaching that he's saying, you know, the children of the desolate, the woman who's desolate is going to have more children than the married wife who's basically able to bear. Now, turn if you go to Galatians chapter four because this verse is quoted in Galatians chapter four, and this is one of the great things about the New Testament that quotes the Old Testament, we get a lot better understanding because we have the New Testament to help us understand some of these verses that might otherwise you kind of read it and you're going, I'm not exactly sure what this is talking about. Now, in the context of Isaiah 54, as we continue through Isaiah chapter 54, you're going to see a lot of reference to, I would say, the New Jerusalem. Okay, we're going to see heavenly places being spoken of, we're going to see a great time of peace and God redeeming his people fully and all this just, it's a really great picture that's being painted in Isaiah chapter 54. So just from the context alone, we can see from verse number one, he's kind of talking about a spiritual event and spiritual children more than he's talking about like physically, right, because he's saying barren is somehow physically but that, you know, the woman that's barren will have many more children and we're going to get in the context of Galatians chapter 4 where this verse is quoted and get some teaching on this passage. Look at verse number 21 as we're going to start reading in Galatians chapter 4. The Bible says, Tell me ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. Now, Abraham literally had two sons, right? He had Ishmael who was born of the bondmaid and he had Isaac who was born of the free woman, who was born of Sarah. And the Bible is going to give us this teaching about these two children. It says, But he who was of, verse 23, he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. So this is saying he was born of the bondwoman. That was Ishmael. That was Hagar, his handmaid, was given to him. His wife said, Hey, you know, God promised us a child, but, you know, I'm getting older, you're getting older. We don't know when it's going to happen. Maybe you should just go in under Hagar and see if she can carry this baby for us to have this child as like a surrogate mother, right? So she's using Hagar in her mind and then in his mind because Sarah convinces Abraham to do this and to have this child. That is man's way of fulfilling God's promise, right? Like, well, we don't know how this is going to happen. You're getting old. I'm getting old. I'm not going to be able to have children anymore, but, you know, we need to have a child because God said we're going to have a child, so maybe you just need to do this and make this. And that was man's idea and invention to try to make this happen. That's of the flesh. That was a child of the flesh, but that is not the child that God promised unto Abraham. And there's a huge distinction made about this, and, you know, I'm not going to go on and on about this. It's a relatively simple teaching, an allegory, but, you know, Galatians 4 goes into this, which is why I'm going into this a little bit. Look at verse number 24. The Bible says, Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants. So now he's going to explain that the child of the flesh and the child of promise are symbolizing the two covenants that God makes. There's an old covenant and a new covenant, right? The Old Testament, the New Testament. It says, So Moses received the law of God at Mount Sinai, right? That's where the law came from. That covenant was given there, and that gender to bondage, the Bible says, you know, the law has never been able to save people. It's always been, people have never been able to follow the law, and, you know, people who try to obey the law are in the flesh. They can't please God. They're not able to fully obey the commandment, that old covenant. That's why it needed to be replaced with a better covenant. And then verse 25, it says, And is in bondage with her children. So he's talking about the physical Jerusalem, which now is Jerusalem that was on the earth. And, you know, obviously at that time, he's saying Jerusalem and Jerusalem's inhabitants, the Jews, were in bondage because they were trying to follow and keep the old covenant and looking to their own flesh to save them, their own obedience to the law of God to be their Savior, which keeps them in bondage. Because you can't fully, completely keep the law of God. You're a sinner. You need to rely on the Savior. Now, it's making this difference between Jerusalem, which now is, that physical Jerusalem. Verse 26 says, So the new Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, is where our minds are set. That's where our inheritance is. See, we're looking for an earthly place. We're looking for an earthly inheritance. It was for a heavenly inheritance. It's that new Jerusalem, which is free, which is the mother of us all, which is the children of the free woman will receive, will be entering this new Jerusalem. And then right when it talks about this new Jerusalem, which is above being free and it's the mother of us all, is now when it quotes Isaiah 54, verse 1. Look at verse 27. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. So the quotation of rejoicing, the baron that bearers not, is talking about physical, you know, women who physically are barren, but why can they rejoice? Because the children they're gonna have are spiritual children. Because you can have many, many, many, many spiritual children that when you lead someone to Christ and they become born again, you are in one sense their parent, their spiritual parent. And people don't like this language and the terminology in churches like ours because we use language like, hey, how many people did you get saved? And people go, what do you mean? You didn't save anybody. That's Jesus. Look, we don't take any glory away from the Lord Jesus Christ at all. We know that the saving power for a person's soul to literally be saved comes 100% from God. The Holy Spirit, though, works with us. We are God's husbandry. We are God's laborers. We are the workforce that goes out and brings that gospel of peace without which people wouldn't be getting saved. So the Bible is very clear about the relationship that we have as believers with God Himself about going forth and preaching the gospel. Hey, how shall they hear except they preach? Right? How are they gonna hear the Word of God? You know, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, right? That's how people get saved. Well, how are they gonna hear except there's someone there to preach? That's literally straight from the Bible. We get in the yoke with Jesus to win souls to Christ. That's what we're doing. So, yes, and we're doing no less than using the same language that the Apostle Paul used. I become all things, all men, that by all means save some. And what is he talking about in the context there? Is he talking about saving people from a physical death? No. He's all about reaching people with the gospel. So that's why we use that language. We save people. Just like the Apostle Paul also said, you know, you have many instructors in Christ, but you have not many fathers. And he's trying to show these people that he literally led to Christ and helped start these churches, and they're getting all kinds of goofy doctrine and people screwing them up and telling them they got to have circumcision, they got to obey the law and all this other stuff in these churches that he followed. And he's saying, look, follow me. And this was with the Church of Corinth. He even was saying, you know, we've got all these people and they're trying to follow all these different leaders and stuff. And he's like, look, you have a lot of instructors. And he's not saying it's a bad thing. It's good. You can have instructors. You have counselors, right? It's great to have many counselors. It's great to have good advice and to learn from different teachers and, you know, men of God from the Bible. But at the end of the day, he's like, you don't have many fathers. He even said, you know, I've begotten you in my bonds. I've begotten you with the Gospel. And the Apostle Paul is a man saying that to another person because there's nothing wrong with using that terminology because leading people to Christ, that is, you know, like he said, we're travail in birth again. We're putting forth the work to help lead people to Christ. God is the one ultimately who has all the saving power, but we have to be part of it, too. And the reason why we even bring all that up is because you have, when you lead people to Christ, they're like your spiritual children. Now, some people take that too far in thinking they could just start lording over all the people that they win to Christ and just like you tell them everything that they can and can't do. Look, that's not the way it is. When someone gets saved, yes, in one sense they're your spiritual child, but on the other sense, they're your brother, right? And more importantly, they're your brother and sister, right? So we treat them with that regard. But what a joy it is when we're going to get to that heavenly Jerusalem and all the people that you help lead to Christ are going to be there. Yes, they're going to be on the same level as far as brothers and sisters in Christ, but you also helped bring forth that new life and that new birth by you going forth. So on the one hand, you could look at them as spiritual children. On the other hand, it's brothers and sisters. Both are true. It's just how far do you take that, right? And this is making that teaching, hey, rejoice thou barren because in the new Jerusalem, you could have many, many, many children there and you know what? That lasts in eternity. That family is there forever. The born again family is there permanently. The physical child may not, I mean, if you're saved and your child never gets saved, I mean, that's sad, but they're not going to continue on forever, but the people you lead to Christ will be there forever. Now obviously, we all hope that our children will all get saved and it's our job to teach them well and to teach them and train them in the way that they should go and of course, we don't treat that lightly, but at the end of the day, that second birth, those people are going to be the ones that are with you forever that's going to be there in the new Jerusalem. Verse 28 says, Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman in her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. I'm going to read for you now just real quickly from Mark chapter 10. You go back to Isaiah 54. Just one more note on the barren, the barren that bearest not. In this rejoicing in a spiritual family. In Mark 10, 28, the Bible says, Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive in hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life. The woman that can't bear children, right? Well, you can still, while it's sad because you want to have children in this lifetime, and I totally understand that, you can still devote your time to serving the Lord, and you will have more time, if you're not able to bear children, you will have more time to serve the Lord. And dedicate to gathering more family members to be with you in heaven. You'll be able to receive, Bible says, you know, if you leave, you know, you give up your family, you give up other things in order to serve, to serve Christ and serve the gospel, you're going to receive in hundredfold. That's a lot, a hundredfold is a lot. I mean, you give up one, you get a hundred. He says, now in this time, houses, brother and sisters, mothers, children and lands with persecutions, that's not going to be easy, and in the world to come, eternal life. But the good thing about those sisters and brothers, they're going to be with you forever. That is eternal. So there's a reason to rejoice. And as we continue to get into this chapter now, in Isaiah 52, we're going to see more and more reason to rejoice too. It's just, it's a great, I was almost going to say Psalm, because it almost reads like a Psalm, Isaiah 54, a great chapter about just the redemption of God and the victory that He's going to bring. Verse 2, Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. He's basically saying, just spread out, you know, enlarge, your house is going to be a lot bigger, don't hold back. You're going to be able to just spread out, enlarge, lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left. What does it mean to break forth? It means you're just going to be spreading out. You're going to be able to just open up and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Now when it's all about inheriting the Gentiles, it's another spiritual application to basically the unsaved, to just the rest of the world, right? The worldly land, the people of the world. You're going to inherit their land. And the Bible says that, you know, we're going to inherit the earth. Ultimately, when Jesus Christ comes back, he's going to set up his kingdom. And the unsaved of the earth are going to be serving the saved. They're going to be serving the righteous. And you're going to have all the lands and all the stuff and everything that right now the world has all the best things. It's going to be turned around when God starts to rule and reign. And you're going to inherit all of the lands. And he says he's going to make the desolate cities be inhabited. Verse number four. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. And this instruction we've seen in other places in Isaiah earlier on, this command to fear not, because you're not going to be ashamed. What does it mean to be ashamed? You know, we often think, like, embarrassed. But why would you be embarrassed? Why would you be ashamed? The only way it would be is if God doesn't follow through on his promises. If God's not going to be there to save you, if God's going to leave you hanging high and dry, that's why I say, you know what? Don't fear because I'm there for you. I'm going to be there. I'm going to fulfill my promises. You will not be ashamed. There's no way that God's word is going to fail so you have no reason to fear. Because God tells you that he's going to save you. He tells you he's going to redeem you. 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. And this is good news, too. I mean, you think about, you know, all of us here probably in general are leading a different life, hopefully a more holy, righteous life than you were prior to salvation. And look, it's a process that takes time to continue to work on the sins and try to get sin out of your life. But you are a different person. Now, don't freak out about that. It's not like, oh, if you can't see any changes then you're not saved. That's not what I'm teaching. We know that there are, that the possibilities there, as long as you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you're saved. But I do want to clarify this because there is a change that takes place 100%. I do believe in the gospel that changes, and if there is no change then you're not saved, but I'm not talking about someone else being able to see an outward manifestation of that change. The change happens within. The change happens with the Spirit. The change happens when you're born again. The change happens when the Holy Spirit moves in. Okay? That is a significant change. It is. And with most people, you will see an outward manifestation of that. It will happen. For most people, I would say that. Not all, and you know what? You're not around people all the time, and you don't know everything that's going on, and you can't see the inner turmoil and struggles, and I know this as well as anyone else. I knew I was saved. I always knew I was saved after I got saved, but I didn't always live the life, and if people looked at me from the outside and some of the things I was doing and where I was hanging out and how I was spending my time, you wouldn't just be like, well, that guy must be a Christian. The exact opposite. I was living like the world. I was living like anyone else. You wouldn't be able to separate me at all from anyone else if you'd be like, yeah, that guy's, like, whatever. But I knew that I was saved inside, and there was times where I would try to do what's right, and I would try to go to church, and I'd try to read my Bible, but that wasn't really in front of anybody. So no one else would necessarily know that, but there definitely was these times of trying to do that, and also times of the remorse and the guilt of doing things that I knew were wrong, I shouldn't be doing, but no one sees that. So obviously we can't just look at other people to see, like, oh, well, they're saved, but here's the thing. Just because we can't do that, I don't want people to get the wrong understanding and be like, just think that the gospel doesn't change you or being born again doesn't change you. It absolutely does. It absolutely does. And I know for myself, even though I live really worldly, there is a dramatic difference between the unsaved me and the saved me. Dramatic difference. Not always externally manifested, but 100% inside, absolutely without a doubt. And it says, thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth. And I think of the, you know, sins that you've done earlier now in general, a lot of people sin a lot more when they're younger than when they're older. It's just kind of the way things are because there's not as much wisdom and knowledge with the youth. But also just prior to salvation, you know, he's talking about the shame of thy youth and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. Now, specifically, he's talking to his people. He's talking to the children of Israel as a group, as a whole, because he's put them, he's talking about, and we're going to go into this a little bit further, how he kind of put them away for a while because they strayed from him and he had to rebuke them and chasing them and everything else. And he's saying, look, don't fear, don't be ashamed because that's all done. That's all in the past. You're going to forget the shame of your youth. You're not going to remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. And, you know, while this is primarily being applied to that group of people, we apply this personally knowing that because we're saved, when God comes and redeems us, you know, when this old flesh is put away, there's going to be no more remembrance of sin. Your sins of your youth, they're not going to be brought up to you anymore ever again because God has separated us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. And that's awesome to even, to just know that that day is coming. Because right now, you know, you could think back and be like, man, I'm so ashamed or embarrassed of myself. I can't believe I do those things and feel bad. I still feel bad about things that I've done, you know, decades ago. Because it was just not good stuff, right? It was just bad. You just kind of feel bad about it, like, man, I can't believe I did. Now, it's not like I dwell on that all the time, but I'm just saying from time to time, you could think back and just be like, man, why did I ever do that? That was so stupid. But there's coming a day where that's not going to be a thought anymore. It's just going to be gone. We're going to be able to forget the shame of thy youth and not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore Verse number five says, For thy Maker is thine husband. You know, God saying, God is your husband. You're married to God. 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, keep your place here. I want you to turn over to Jeremiah chapter 3 real quick, because this, again, the teaching that we're getting right here in Isaiah chapter 54, I think ties in perfectly with Jeremiah chapter 3. This great illustration of God being your husband, it's real similar to God being your father, right? These real basic concepts that the Bible brings up over and over and over again for us to understand God's love for us and God's, how much we can trust the Lord and everything else. God being a father, first of all, right? We know that we could go to him with all of our needs to keep us fed, to keep us free from evil, to be able to look to him in all of our troubles. Similarly, isn't that also a real similar job of a husband, to look out for, to protect, to nurture, to love, to care for, and looking to God as a husband? Now, the good thing about God is that God is a perfect husband. You know, if men and women were perfect, there wouldn't be any divorce, because people would keep their vows, and husbands and wives, when they vowed to stay together until death do us part, would actually stay together. And even though mankind, and in the Scriptures, we see God referring to his people, saying, hey, look, you know, you are going around and whoring around and committing adultery with these other gods and idols and everything else, but I'm still married to you. Return unto me, and, you know, God is perfect in that regard. Now, we are going to see where he allows them to be punished, and he punishes the children of Israel, but he's still always there for them, and that's the key takeaway here is that God is always there. Look at verse number 12. He's always there for his people, right? Jeremiah 3, verse number 12, the Bible reads, Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord. And I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. So they're still backsliding. He's like, look, just come back to me. Just return. I'm merciful. I'll show mercy on you. Just come back. Verse 13, Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. All he's asking is just saying, Admit you were wrong. That's it. Come back to me and admit you were wrong. And for some people, that's too hard to do. Verse 14, Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord. Look at this. For I am married unto you, and I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And again, that Zion, he's not referring to the physical Jerusalem that then was. He's talking about taking them to the heavenly Jerusalem, to that heavenly Zion. That's the, you know, in a spiritual sense, that's what we're looking to God for, being married to us. At least in Isaiah 54, that's definitely the context here. Look at verse number 15, And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding, and it shall come to pass when ye be multiplied and increased in the land in those days, saith the Lord. They shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come to mind. Neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done anymore. At that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. Look at this. And all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem, neither shall they walk anymore after the imagination of their evil heart. So this is definitely talking about future events that haven't happened yet. When all the nations of the world are coming to Jerusalem. This is talking about the time when Christ is ruling and reigning that he's going to give these pastors. And then verse number 18 says, In those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? A goodly heritage, a heritage is an inheritance. So, and he's talking about giving them a heritage of the hosts of nations, of all the multitude of nations that run about, of the Gentiles, right? This is similar to what we just saw in Isaiah 54. And I said, Thou shall call me my father and shalt not turn away from me. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 54. Verse number six, the Bible reads, For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. So God's saying, Look, I forsook you for a small moment and it wasn't utterly forsaken. He's like, it's because they needed to be punished, right? They needed to go through the chastising. They needed to understand, you know, as a people, as a group, you're not, you know, you need to turn back to me. You need to repent. You need to get right. Verse eight says, In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment. He said, you know, the small moment, I had to do this. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. You know, the children of Israel, the children of God went through this time where they had to understand and get right, and God's basically hiding his face from you, but you know what? He didn't just utterly forsake them and leave them. And this same type of teaching is taught in Psalm 89. If you want to turn there, Psalm chapter 89. The Bible reads in verse number 30 of Psalm 89, If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes? Of course, they're going to be punished if you don't obey God. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. So yes, even for a moment, it may not seem like loving kindness, right? The moment while he's chastising, while he's disciplining, while he's meeting out the punishment, it's not going to sound, it's not going to be very kind, right? But he's not going to completely remove his loving kindness, and he's not going to allow, that's what suffer means, his faithfulness to fail. He is there. So the same way, he's like, yeah, you know, I forsook you for just a moment in a little wrath, for a little while. I had to discipline you. It's what he's saying in Isaiah 54. But my everlasting kindness, I'll have mercies, and I'm there for you. Verse 34 here in Psalm 89, the Bible says, my covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever and is thrown as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven, Selah. And amen to that. You know, don't ever think that even if you are being chastised by the Lord, maybe you're backslidden and have gotten into all kinds of sin and God is punishing you and chastising you. You know, don't feel like God's just gone and just completely turned his back and he was gone forever. He's gonna need to be, you know, maybe he'll have a little wrath for a moment, but he has everlasting kindness and is ready to show mercy unto you. So don't think that God's just completely departed from you and is just never gonna be there because he's there. And this whole chapter in Isaiah, he's trying to stress that and show, like, look, you're not gonna be ashamed. I'm here for you. I'm not going anywhere. You may have had to deal with some problems, you know, with some correction in the past, but I'm still here for you and that's good news. Verse number 9 in Isaiah 54, back in Isaiah 54, he's likening this now to the flood on the whole earth, Noah's flood. Verse number 9, 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. He's basically saying the time of your punishment and everything else you had to deal with, it's over. It's done. Just like he's, I'm never gonna flood the earth again, never gonna have that happen, that destruction, that wrath, that's not gonna, that will never take place again. He's saying this is the same way and this is what happens, all the correction for the sin and his children straying from and everything else, that all is gonna come to an end at the end of days when we have that new resurrection, we have that new body at a time which is described in verse number 10, for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. Right? It's an allusion to the future event of before the coming of Christ when these things start to happen. But my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, have mercy on thee. And, you know, once saved, always saved. This is eternal security again, you know, here in the Old Testament. My peace never gonna be removed. The covenant is never gonna end. It's never gonna stop. Verse 11, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires. Now, I believe, again, what we're gonna see here with the different precious stones is just a real small description of what we see in Revelation when it's talking about the new heaven and new earth. It's talking about that new Jerusalem that comes down with the streets of gold and the pearly gates and the foundations of the city that are set and you see a lot of the similar stones being referenced here that are referenced in Revelation. He says in verse 11, O thou afflicted, thou tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires and I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones. He's talking about just the beautiful stones he's gonna use for their habitation, which I believe is talking about the new Jerusalem here. Verse 13, and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. What? I mean, that alone is huge for me. All of your children being taught of the Lord, like what better teacher? You know, as parents, my wife and I, you know, we struggle trying to teach our children all the right ways because we're not perfect and we don't all have, you know, we don't have all the understanding of the Bible. You know, we make mistakes. We don't always teach things the right way or, you know, we fail, but what a great thought that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, that God's just gonna teach all of your children and you know what comes with that great wisdom and knowledge coming directly from the Lord? Great shall be the peace of thy children. They're gonna know peace unlike any other because the Lord is teaching them directly. Verse 14, in righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come near thee. What a great time. I have a great time to be alive. You'd have nothing to fear, nothing to be terrified of and in your righteousness you're gonna be established. Verse 15, behold, I shall surely gather together but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. So, anyone who would think to harm you or come out against you, God's saying that's not gonna happen and, you know, during the millennial reign of Christ, we know that there are gonna be people who are unsaved on this earth at the end of those thousand years when Satan is loosed until that he's going to deceive the whole world and get people to try to fight against the saints and against Jesus Christ but they're not going to touch a hair on your head because they're gonna be swallowed up and devoured from the mouth of the Lord. Like, they're just gonna be consumed in a moment and this promise stands that, you know, whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. And 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. Verse 17, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And that's a pretty famous verse there, a pretty famous passage and it's because what a great promise. What a great promise of God. I don't care what weapon they try to bring against you, it's not gonna work. And, you know, I still, I honestly, I believe this is talking about like end times of there just being, you know, this time of great peace and prosperity and everything like that. But tie this in with verse 14, it says, in righteousness shalt thou be established. You know, God is fully capable today of making sure that no weapon formed against you is gonna prosper also. It doesn't just have to be in this end time scenario. If you're living righteously, God can establish you to do more work for him and anyone who's gonna try to do the evil, God can 100% just make that a non-issue for you. And we have no reason to fear. Even today, no reason to fear. If God be for us, who could be against us? Let's keep reading verse 17. And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and the righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. And I'm gonna just real quickly here kinda cover that last phrase there. Their righteousness is of me. It means it's from him. So our righteousness that we have is from God. The righteousness that we have, it's not really of ourselves. Now we do have a will to kinda walk in the spirit or walk in the flesh. But any of the righteousness that we have on us was imputed unto us. And turn, if you would, to Romans 4. Romans 4 explains this wonderfully. And I'm gonna read from Philippians chapter 3, verse number 9. The Bible says, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. We receive that righteousness unto ourselves through putting our faith in Christ because it's Christ's righteousness that we receive. What's cool about being saved is that on the one hand, your sins are all forgiven. Right? So the things that we've done that are wrong, those are all forgiven. But see, just by breaking God's commandments of doing things we're not supposed to do, that's only part of the law because we're also supposed to be righteous and doing good and, you know, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth not, to him that is sin, which is why it's important that we not only have all of our sins paid for, but we have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto us because Christ did always those things that pleased his Father. So we, through Christ's sinless life and always doing right, never breaking the law in any regard, we have the sins paid for and the righteousness imputed so that we are righteous, will be righteous in the sight of God all because of Christ, because that righteousness comes of him. Romans 4 explains this. Let's start reading in verse number 1. The Bible says, What shall we say then for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Verse 3, For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. So the righteousness of God, he didn't do anything, you know, putting faith in Christ, that's no work of your own to do that. It's not like his own righteousness. Well, I put my faith in Christ, so that's all mine. You know, No, you can't brag or boast about your righteousness just because you put your trust in someone else. He's trusting someone completely different. He's not trusting himself. He's trusting Christ. But that's counted unto him for righteousness. Why? Because God imputes that righteousness unto those that believe. Verse number 4, Now to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. But it's not your own righteousness. Your faith is counted for righteousness, but it's the righteousness of Christ that gets applied to you. This is going to say this real soon. Look, even as David also described it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. So what does it mean to impute? It means he imparts that onto you. He gives that to you. He puts that on you. The impute is a kind of input, right? He's putting that on you. And he's imputing righteousness. Well, the righteousness has to come from somewhere. And if it's righteousness without your works, it's not coming from you. The righteousness came from the perfect life of Jesus Christ that gets applied to you because that's who you're trusting. Because Christ in you, right? And, you know, I can't think of the actual, the quote right now. This is taught all throughout Scripture that it's not our righteousness. It's God's righteousness that the righteousness comes from Him. Let's keep reading here. There's actually another verse I want to get you a little bit further down. Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom He imputes sin. So not only is God not going to impute sin unto us, He's also going to impute righteousness unto us. So we got that. It's kind of a double benefit the way that, depending on how you're looking at it there. Come at this blessedness then upon the circumcision only upon the uncircumcision also for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned when he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised. That he might be the father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised. And on and on. This concept is taught throughout scripture. And we need to remember that too just so that we don't get full of pride and full of ourself. It's not our righteousness. It's definitely not our righteousness that saves us. But even the righteousness we have, the only way we even have that is through Christ. The only reason we're able to please God and do right is because of Christ. It's through the power of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's through the righteousness that's imputed unto us when we choose to walk in the Spirit. Hey, that Spirit is born of God and it's given to us by God. It's, you know, yes, we need to willfully choose to walk in the Spirit but all of the credit and all the glory still belongs unto the Lord. And what a great passage. I mean, there's coming a day when no heartache shall come, right, just like the song goes. What a day that will be. And Isaiah 54, I think, describes that day really well. Just all the trust that we could have in the Lord is kind of the main takeaway here. And we could rejoice. And, you know, if you have things that you're dealing with in this life that might seem kind of sad, like the very first verse is talking about someone who's barren. You know, you may not be a woman. You may not have this problem of not being able to bear children. But that's a very sad thing to deal with. You might have something else, though, that's a grief and a burden in this lifetime. Stay heavenly-minded on things because even though you may have some grief and sorrow here that you endure, you can turn that sorrow into singing by serving God and focusing on that new Jerusalem and this life that's going, the eternal life that's before us and by making the most out of what we have here to serve the Lord so that way when we do get to this new Jerusalem, there's many children, many spiritual children, brothers and sisters that we're able to bring with us to this glorious place. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this chapter and for the great encouraging words in Isaiah 54. Lord, I pray that you would please help us to continue to understand the Scripture and just teach us and instruct us, Lord, help us to be able to focus on heavenly things and not just on the physical things, Lord, and I pray that you would just bless us, help our understanding and help us to just do what's right this week and continuing on forevermore. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.