Sing, O Barren One! The Good News of the Covenant of Peace, Its Mediator, and Its Blessings

Invite you to turn your Bibles now to Isaiah 54.

You can find Isaiah 54 on page 614 in the chair Bibles.

We'll actually start reading a few verses back in Isaiah 53,

Isaiah 53:10

verse 10, since there are some really important connections

between Isaiah 53 and 54. And I want us to refresh our

memories of the profound prophecy of the suffering

servant in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 54 is a proclamation that

just explodes out of Isaiah 53. It's like when President Harry

Truman announced that World War 2 is over and there's finally

peace, causing the streets to be filled with rejoicing.

As a preacher, I kind of feel like in a lot of ways, Isaiah

5354 and 55 for next week, that they all kind of preach

themselves in a way. They're all proclamations of

good news and in in a style and tone of what a sermon should be,

inviting all to come in faith to Jesus to just receive his

abundant blessings. That being said, I'm going to do

more than just read Isaiah's preaching as there is much for

us to slowly consider and savor and receive.

So Isaiah starting starting chapter 53 verse 10 that it was

the will of the Lord to crush him.

He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for

guilt. He shall see his offspring.

He shall prolong his day days. The will of the Lord shall

prosper in his hand out of the anguish of his soul.

He shall see and be satisfied by the knowledge.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make

many accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I'll divide him a portion with the many, and he

shall divide the spoil with the strong.

Because He poured his soul out to death, and was numbered with

the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many, and makes

intercession for the transgressors.

Sing, O barren, one who did not bear, break forth into singing,

and cry aloud, You who have not been in labor for the children

of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is

married, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent,

and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out.

Do not hold back. Lengthen your cords and

strengthen your stakes, for you will spread abroad to the right

and to the left, and your offspring will possess the

nations and will people the desolate cities.

Fear not, for you will not be ashamed.

Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will

not forget. The shame of your youth and the

reproach of your widowhood will be remembered.

You will remember no more, for your Maker is your husband, the

Lord of hosts is His name, and the Holy One of Israel is your

Redeemer, the God of all of the whole earth.

He is called for. The Lord has called you like a

wife, deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth

when she is cast off, says your God, for a brief moment I

deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you in

overflowing anger. For a moment I hid my face from

you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,

says the Lord your Redeemer. This is like the days of Noah to

me. As I swore that the waters of

Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I

will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you.

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my

steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of

peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on

you. All afflicted, one storm tossed

and not comforted. Behold, I will set your stones

in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

I will make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles,

and all your wall of precious stones.

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great

shall be the peace of your children.

In righteousness you shall be established.

You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not

fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me.

Whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.

Behold, I have created the Smith who blows the fire of coals and

produces a weapon for its purpose.

I have also created the ravager to destroy.

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and

you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in

judgment. This is the heritage of the

servants of the Lord, and their vindication from me declares the

Lord. Let's pray.

Oh God, as we come to Your word, we humbly ask that You would

teach us your children that you might true, that we might truly

know You and genuinely love you as a faithful bride and receive

and rejoice in all the blessings of your covenant of peace as we

pray in Jesus name, Amen. Well, what a beautiful gospel

proclamation. I love this passage.

Today. My aim is for us to consider

three things from this message. The mediator of the covenant of

peace. 10 blessings of the covenant of peace.

And then we'll ask So what? And make a few applications.

But first, before you get into that, let's consider a little

bit of the background and setting of Isaiah 54.

Isaiah was a prophet who lived in the 7th and 8th centuries BC,

and he prophesied during the destruction and exile of the

northern Kingdom of Israel. As many of you know, we've been

in the, the, the prophecy of, of Isaiah here, this book on and

off for about a year, a little over a year now.

And we've heard just so many things from this majestic book.

And most recently we heard of we heard four songs of the

Suffering Servant, these prophecies of the suffering and

death of the Lord Jesus Christ, with Isaiah 53 being the final

Suffering Servant song. A prophecy so clearly pointing

to Jesus that many who hear it for the first time think that

it's something being read from the New Testament.

As if Isaiah 54 was not randomly placed after the 53rd chapter.

They are inseparably connected with the the hope filled

proclamation of chapter 4054 being the response of what

Christ accomplished with his sufferings in chapter 53.

If you look at the center of Isaiah 54 in verse 10, you'll

read the pinnacle of the chapter, a proclamation of the

covenant of peace between God and his people, a covenant of

never ending love. This whole passage is a

proclamation of that covenant. Now look at the end of chapter

54, the last sentence. This is the heritage of the

servants of the Lord. This is the heritage that Isaiah

is saying is that that that this chapter is a proclamation of the

heritage, the the many blessings that the servants of the Lord

will receive in this new covenant of peace.

So before we consider ten of those blessings in this chapter,

let's consider the mediator of the covenant of peace.

The mediator. I had us read a portion of

Isaiah 53 so that we would remember who inaugurated and

established the covenant of peace.

The covenant of peace is none other than the new covenant or

another name for the new covenant is the everlasting

covenant, a name for that we that we see God use that title

for it when He makes His covenant with Abraham in Genesis

17 and then that name is also used in our very next chapter

that we'll see next week, Isaiah 55, also the prophet Ezekiel and

Ezekiel 37, he says this, this is the Lord speaking.

I will make a covenant of peace with them.

It shall be an everlasting covenant with them.

The New Covenant, the covenant of peace, is an everlasting

covenant of God's grace, a covenant first established with

Abraham and fulfilled with Christ's first and 2nd comings.

Jesus Christ is the mediator of the covenant of peace.

He established it and inaugurated it with His perfect

sinless life and His atoning death.

And as we read of the prophecy of Jesus bloody crucifixion and

Isaiah 5053, it says that he was smitten by God and afflicted.

He was pierced for our transgressions.

Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, that

brought us peace, peace with God.

The relationship between God and His people was broken because of

sin. We saw that all throughout the

book of Isaiah. We saw, you know, God's judgment

was upon Israel for their sin. And the northern Kingdom was

exiled by the Assyrians. But the suffering servant has

brought peace between God and his people by taking on himself

their sins. Jesus has brought us peace with

God. His death is the guarantee of

the covenant of peace. Jesus is, as the book of Hebrews

says, the mediator of a new covenant.

He's not just some sinful priest that will just die someday.

He will always be our mediator. So this gives us unshakable hope

that the new covenant, the new, this covenant of peace, will not

be broken by God's people like the old covenant of Moses was.

As the end of Isaiah 53 says, Jesus bore the sin of many and

makes intercession for the transgressors.

Who's the transgressors? That's us.

We transgress the covenant. We sin against God, but we have

a high priest whoever intercedes for us, who has borne our sins

and accounted us righteous. The New Covenant of peace isn't

just another covenant. It is an everlasting covenant of

peace between God and man, a peace secured with the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the mediator of this

covenant of peace. Let's now walk through Isaiah 54

and consider the heritage of the servants of the Lord. 10

blessings of the covenant of peace for all who put their

faith in the suffering servant. These 10 blessings are by no

means comprehensive. There's so much more.

So first the the there's the blessing of joyful singing.

Joyful singing. Let's look again at verse one.

Sing, O Baron, one who did not bear, break forth into singing

and cry aloud. You who have not been in labor

for the children of the desolate one will be more than the

children of her who is married, says the Lord.

The immediate response to the work of the suffering servant is

to sing and rejoice. But who?

Who's called the saying who that we see this this one, who is

who's barren, who's never had any children?

Who's this barren woman? That's called the sing.

It is Jerusalem, the city of God's people.

In verses 11 and 12, it speaks of the adornment of the

foundations, pinnacles, gates and and walls of this city.

Now we we might Now this this next question might seem like an

odd question, but which Jerusalem is called to sing?

Throughout Isaiah we've had a had a contrast between two

cities 2 Jerusalem's 11 wicked and rebellious Isaiah 3 and the

other forgiven and comforted Isaiah 40.

It can be confusing reading Isaiah because in one chapter

you'll hear of judgment upon Jerusalem and in another chapter

you'll read of mercy and forgiveness and everlasting

love. So which Jerusalem is this?

Thankfully, the Apostle Paul quotes this very verse in

Galatians 4 and interprets for us who this Jerusalem is.

In Galatians 4, Paul is comparing 2 women, Sarah and

Hagar. He's doing that to illustrate a

point about the freedom Christians have from the law.

He says that Hagar, a slave woman, is symbolic of the

present Jerusalem, which is in slavery with her children under

the Mosaic covenant, the Old covenant.

But Sarah is symbolic of the Jerusalem above, which is free,

and she is our mother. Then Paul quotes Isaiah 54 verse

one, that the barren one will rejoice for her children, and

because your children will be more than the one who is

married. Now this Galatians 4.

It's not the easiest passage to interpret, so I'm not going to

go into all the details of Paul's argument.

But what we do know is that the barren one of Isaiah 54 is

Speaking of the Jerusalem from above, the heavenly city, the

city of God from all ages. The church that Jerusalem is

like Abraham's wife Sarah, who was barren and was so old it was

impossible for her to have children, in the same way it's

impossible for the people of God, the church, to have

spiritual children on its own. God must act.

God must graciously bring about children for her, and Isaiah 54

promises that He will. This is just a great cause for

rejoicing for Jerusalem, for the church.

The new covenant makes abundant joy a distinguishing mark of

God's people, just as we read a few weeks ago in Isaiah 51, it

says, And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to

Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon

their heads. They shall obtain gladness and

joy and sorrow and sighing, shall flee away, receive and

rejoice and savour the everlasting joy of the Lord or

Christian bought for you this joy, this rejoicing that was

bought for you with the sorrows of Jesus suffering sufferings.

That's the first blessing we see.

A second blessing of the covenant of peace is the

blessing of abundant children. As we just saw.

The reason for the joyful singing is because God promises

to give an abundant number of children to barren Jerusalem.

Just as Sarah was barren and then became the mother of

offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, so also

Jerusalem, God's faithful city, the church will have children as

numerous as the stars, children that she cannot bear on her own.

So read with me starting in the middle of verse one.

For the children of the desolate one will be more than the

children of her who is married, says the Lord.

Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your

habitations be stretched out. Do not hold back.

Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, for you

will spread abroad to the right and to the left.

Your offspring will possess the nation's and will people the

desolate cities. This is kind of like the famous

line in the movie Jaws. You're going to need a bigger

boat, except here in this case, Jerusalem will need a bigger

tent. Children are moving in and these

offspring will spread across the world.

As verse 3 says, your offspring will possess the nation's The

children of Jerusalem from above the heavenly city will find

their dwelling in places all around the world as people from

every tongue, tribe, language and nation, as they put their

faith in the suffering servant and become true offspring of

Abraham, the man of faith. The word offspring here in verse

3 is the same word for offspring as we read in Isaiah 53, verse

Isaiah 53:10

10. When the suffering servant makes

an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring.

He shall see His offspring. So this is a prophecy of the

resurrection of Jesus, that although he would die on the

cross, he would still see his spiritual offspring, the reward

of his suffering that would come through his resurrection.

The children of Jerusalem who will spread across the world

will be the offspring of the suffering servant, those who are

forgiven of their guilt and accounted righteous.

God will bless the church throughout the ages with

abundant children from every nation, not just the nation of

Israel. 1/3 blessing of this new covenant is fearless peace.

Fearless peace. Let's look at verse 4.

Fear not, for you will not be ashamed.

Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will

not, for you will forget the shame of your youth and the

reproach of your widowhood. You will remember no more.

This is not the first time that Isaiah has said those comforting

words. Fear not right.

He God planned to comfort his people, to take away their fear

through the New Covenant. In verse 14, God promises that

Jerusalem will not need fear any oppression.

It will be far from terror. So many people Live Today with

this undercurrent in their souls of fear of of fear, perhaps of

of even, maybe even terror because they have they have no

God who promises to be with them and for them, whatever they

face. They have no clue what happens

after after death. And so they just avoid thinking

about their inevitable death. They try to silence their fears

with drugs, alcohol, work, sex, sports, entertainment and so

much more. But it doesn't work as we read

in Isaiah 48. It says there is no peace, says

the Lord for the wicked. But in Jesus there is peace.

Fear can be replaced with hope. Jesus faced his fear of the

agonies of the cross so that you and I could receive his comfort

and peace. Also in verse 4 we see a fourth

blessing, shame, free honor. Jerusalem faced shame for her

rebellion against God. Like a barren woman who was

ashamed of her childlessness, her exile out of the Promised

land and the death of so many of her people from the hand of the

Assyrians and the Babylonians brought about great shame and

dishonor for Jerusalem and and she was mocked by the nations.

But the suffering Servant has exchanged Jerusalem's shame with

honor. He has given her, as Isaiah 61

says, He has given her a beautiful headdress instead of

ashes, like a seesaw, because Christ was brought low in shame.

And Isaiah 53, the church was lifted up out of her shame in

chapter 54. Here, because Christ has won

offspring through his crucifixion, Jerusalem from

above will not be barren, but like Baron Sarah, she will have

the honour of the abundance of children.

What shame do you carry? We all carry shame.

Things that we did that we shouldn't have done, things that

we didn't do that we know we should have done, maybe

something shameful, something evil that happened to us,

somebody else did to us. We all have that.

Christ bore the shame of the cross so that your shame would

be but a temporary burden, a burden that cannot define you in

this life, and a burden that will be forever cast off you in

the Kingdom of the new heavens and new earth.

Shame. Free honor.

Let's now look at verses 5 and 6, where we'll see a fifth

blessing of the covenant of peace.

Renewed marriage. Renewed marriage.

For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name,

and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the

whole earth. He is called for.

The Lord has called you like a wife, deserted and grieved in

spirit, like a wife of youth, when she is cast off, says your

God, Why was Jerusalem barren, desolate, and ashamed?

Because she had been unfaithful to her true husband, her Maker,

Yahweh, God had in a sense divorced His adulterous people.

We read this just a few chapters ago in Isaiah 50, verse one.

Thus says the Lord, where is your mother's certificate of

divorce with which I sent her away?

Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?

Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your

transgressions your mother was sent away.

Isaiah 54 and the covenant of peace is like a marriage renewal

between God and His people. Through the work of the

suffering servant, the relationship between God and His

people be would be forever mended.

Jerusalem would be rid of her shame and her childlessness

because her marriage with God would be forever restored.

It is He who will give her children and no other.

The sovereign God of heaven and earth will be Jerusalem's

husband. He is her Redeemer, the One who

pays all her all the costs to have her as His bride and to

provide for her every need. The story of childless Ruth and

how she is redeemed by Boaz and given children.

That's a beautiful picture of what God's redemption of His

people is like. How He is their husband faithful

to provide for them and protect them in every way.

Now we come to 1/6 blessing. No, no husband's love matches

the love of God for His redeemed bride.

We see this in verses 7 through 10.

We see the blessing of everlasting love.

For a brief moment I deserted you, and with great compassion I

will gather you and overflowing anger.

For a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I

will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.

This is like the days of Noah to me.

As I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the

earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and

will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and

the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart

from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says

the Lord, who has compassion on you.

God and his undying love for his people doesn't pretend as if

nothing bad never happened. Israel's rebellion was evil and

caused God to overflow with anger in comparison to his

everlasting nature, the everlasting nature of God's

love. God's angry judgment seems like

a brief moment, as we read in Psalm 30 at the beginning of the

service, the God's anger is but for a moment, and His favor is

for a lifetime. God's love is expressed here as

steadfast, never departing. God compares this situation with

Jerusalem, as with the the time of Noah, with the waters of

Noah. Just as God's anger overflowed

with the waters of judgment, and just as God's judgment was

satisfied after the flood, and and then God covenanted with

mankind to never flood the earth again, so also God in the

covenant of peace has had His justice satisfied when God's

overflowing anger for sin was poured out upon Christ.

And so God has promised to never bring condemnation and judgment

upon His redeemed people. Even the mountains and the hills

may crumble, but God's love will never crumble for His people.

His new covenant will never be removed or broken.

This should give you great assurance for your salvation

because God is faithful to His side of the covenant, and

because Jesus is the mediator of the covenant, our representative

head for our side. Therefore, the new covenant will

never be broken, just as surely as Jesus will never sin.

Our covenant of peace with God will never break, although we

sin against God. If you are in Christ, when you

sin, God's steadfast love does not depart from you, because you

are graciously forgiven in Christ.

He bore the sins of many. Isaiah 53.

If you could send your way out of the covenant of peace, then

it wouldn't be an everlasting covenant and Jesus wouldn't be

the mediator. It would be the covenant of

works, a legal covenant dependent on perfect obedience.

But in the New Covenant, Jesus has satisfied the perfect

requirements of the law. So and so all who are found in

Him, united to Him by faith. They are counted as perfect as

He is, and their sins are removed from them as far as the

east is from the West. God's love will never let you go

though you stray from Him. He pursues his lost sheep and

brings you back to His loving home.

Rest assured of God's love for you, dear Christian.

If the Father ever stops loving the Son, he'll stop loving you.

But that will never ever happen. Look now at verses 11 and 12.

Here is a 7th blessing, A beautiful city, all afflicted,

one storm tossed and not comforted.

Behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your

foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of

agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your wall of precious

stones. God will transform the desolate

city ruined by destruction into a beautiful city adorned with

wealth. This description of Jerusalem is

likely the foundational text for John's vision in Revelation 21

of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, described as the

Bride, the wife of the Lamb. The New Jerusalem's 12 walls are

adorned with precious stones, and its gates and foundations

are also adorned with wealth. So this speaks to the abundant

wealth and riches that God, the Husband of the Church, will

provide for her in the new heavens and new earth.

We will be heirs of all things, infinitely wealthy, having no

lack of provision or desire or beauty.

Because Jesus was stripped of his clothes and of all earthly

worldly possessions. Because of Isaiah 53, we will be

forever adorned with splendor and wealth.

So, dear Christian, you may struggle financially in this

life, you may have many desires left unsatisfied, and your youth

and your beauty will fade. But when heaven comes down to

earth and Jesus sets up his forever Kingdom, you will reign

with him in glory, with beauty unimaginable, and with wealth

abundant and unending. So put away all your hope in the

riches of this life. They're so transient.

Be rich in good works and invest in the Kingdom that will last

forever. In verse 13 we see an eighth

promise, a promise quoted by none other than Jesus in the

Gospels. It's the promise of divine

instruction, verse 13. All your children shall be

taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your

children. Here the the topic of

Jerusalem's children comes back into focus.

Her children will be taught and discipled by none other than

Yahweh Himself, and his teaching will be learned and received by

all his students without exception, resulting in great

peace for Jerusalem's children. That's a beautiful promise,

isn't it? As I just said, Jerusalem Jesus

quotes this promise in John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention

So thankfully we get his interpretation, his

authoritative interpretation, something that us pastors just

absolutely love. When the when the Bible

interprets itself like this and John 6, Jesus is talking to

people who just want him to do another miracle.

They aren't interested in the gospel or in following Jesus.

So Jesus gives a reason why these Jews are not responding in

faith and obedience. He He says this in John chapter

John 6:44

6, verses 44 and 45. No one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the

last day. It is written in the prophets,

and they will all be taught by God.

Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to

me. Why did so many of the Jews

reject Jesus? Because they needed to be drawn

and taught by God in order to come to Him.

But they rejected Jesus teaching because, as Isaiah 6 diagnosed

them, their ears were spiritually deaf, their hearts

were hard, and they were spiritually blind.

They were living as those who were citizens of the earthly

Jerusalem, not the heavenly Jerusalem.

But the promise of the New Covenant is that God will

disciple His people, the children of the New Jerusalem.

He will open hearts like He did with Lydia, the seller of purple

in the book of Acts. He will open hearts to receive

the gospel. He will teach His children by

His Spirit. All his sheep will hear His

voice and follow Him. John 10.

All who belong to the new Jerusalem, the city of heaven,

they will all know God. Jeremiah 31 For God himself will

teach them. So Brothers and sisters, this it

is a promise, it is this promise of divine instruction that

should give us hope and move us to pray for those we are

disciple. So parents, pray that God would

teach your children by His Spirit and with His word, that

He would reveal Himself to them in their inner being.

Sunday School teachers, pray that God would teach your

students that He would convict them of sin, reveal to them

their need of a Savior and, and, and, and, and show them the

infinite value of this free offer of the gospel.

For those of you that that are so faithful to pray for the

preached word, we so appreciate that.

Pray that God would teach His children and open hearts to hear

the gospel as He did for Lydia. I can say words in this pulpit,

but I cannot teach in the way God teaches.

Only God teaches the heart effectually with spiritual

revelation. Pray for that to happen as we

preach. And for those who are sharing

the gospel with others in so many different contexts, pray

that God would teach those you are witnessing to that they

might become children of God, children of promise, and

citizens of Jerusalem. Divine instruction.

Now 9th promise comes in verses 14 and 17, the promise blessing

of permanent righteousness, verse 14.

In righteousness you shall be established.

And then if we jump down to the last sentence of the chapter

here, we get the word vindication and it's the same

word as righteousness. So it's it's probably better

translated as righteous righteousness.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their

righteousness from me declares the Lord.

Isaiah 5311 proclaimed that the suffering servant, the righteous

one, would make many to be accounted righteous.

And so here we see the promise of righteousness promised to all

who share in the covenant of peace.

We cannot produce righteousness on our own, just as the barren

Jerusalem cannot bear children on her own.

And so we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ counted for us,

and so to just. And so just as just as Abraham

believed God and is counted righteous, so also we too, when

we believe God's promise, the same covenant of grace, when we

believe in Jesus Christ, we too will be counted righteous.

A 10th and final blessing here is promised.

Promised is divine protection. Let's read through the end of

the chapter here. In righteousness you shall be

established. You shall be far from

oppression, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it

shall not come near you. If anyone stirs up strife, it is

not from me. If anyone stirs up strife with

you, they shall fall because of you.

Behold, I've created the Smith who blows the fire with coals

and produces a weapon for its purpose.

I've also created the ravager to destroy.

No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and

you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in

judgment. This is the heritage of the

servants of the Lord, and their vindication for me, declares the

Lord. In the heavenly Jerusalem, we

will be forever protected from all our enemies, for they will

be forever separated from us in hell.

No more oppression, no more terror, no more strife, no more

war, no more weapons, no more false accusations.

We will be forever protected and we will dwell in the Shalom of

our true home, our better country, our promised land.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, of those

who take refuge in the servant of the Lord Jesus.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

for your covenant of peace, that although we were unfaithful,

that you called us, you had mercy on us.

It's amazing that we can be called your bride.

Help us Lord, to live in light of these promises, in light of

these blessings. This we pray in Jesus name,

Amen.