“Everlasting
Love”
[Isaiah
54:1-10]
May
2, 2021 YouTube
As we open chapter fifty-four of Isaiah, we see that he
moves from talking about the Servant Savior and now turns to the results of the
Servant Savior’s work and the comfort of the people of God – the Church. Let us notice that there is a change from
speaking of Jerusalem and Zion to the people of God – who are larger than
Jerusalem and Zion. This is a covenant –
an agreement – of God to His people.
We see first, the dead will explode with life.
The Lord speaks to those who are
barren – those whose womb – for all intents and purposes – is dead. He says that those who have never been able
to bear children will have more children than the married woman. This will cause the formerly barren woman to
cry aloud and sing praise to God.
Now, we know from Elizabeth and
others in the Scripture that God opens and closes the womb as He wills and
while that is still true of God, we must be careful not to interpret this text
to mean that God will cause every barren woman to bear many children. God can,
but that is not the promise here.
The Lord is saying that there are
certain results to the Suffering Savior’s work.
We remember when God brings Ezekiel
to the field of dry bones – the remnants of an enormous army, now laid out as
so many bones:
“And he said to me, ‘Son of man, can
these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy
over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus
says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and
you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come
upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live,
and you shall know that I am the LORD’” (Ezekiel 37:3-6, ESV).
Paul writes, “And you were dead in
the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this
world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions
of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in
mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead
in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been
saved— (Ephesians 2:1-5, ESV).
So, while God certainly opens the
womb and causes children to form in the womb, what we see here is by the work
of the Savior, Jesus, God causes the spiritually dead to explode with life. God grows the Church by sending the Holy Spirit
into all those He calls and brings them to spiritual life, so they believe that
Jesus is God the Savior. God sends the Holy Spirit, and He causes the person to
come to spiritual life, and then believe and repent and live a life of obedience
and faith.
“’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.’”
The Suffering Savior sends the Holy
Spirit that God’s people would believe in the Savior – and the number of people
who believe will grow – the Church will affect all the nations.
As God sent seventy people into Egypt
and brought over two million out in the Exodus, so the Church grows to numbers
that only God knows – and among all peoples.
God promises Abraham, “I will
multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring
all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed,” (Genesis 26:4, ESV).
Peter preaches, “Now when they heard
this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the
apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is
for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
Lord our God calls to himself.’ And with many other words he bore witness and
continued to exhort them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked
generation.’ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added
that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:37-41, ESV).
And so, God tells them – the Church
– to make their tents larger – to stretch them out, to add more rope, and
strengthen it, because God is causing the multiplication of His people. He is bringing them to life and multiplying
them.
Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many
rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place
for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will
take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3, ESV).
Jesus is preparing a place in the
Kingdom with many rooms – the tents are stretched out – the mansion is expanded. Everyone He intends to be in the Kingdom will
be there – the work of the Suffering Servant secures that promise.
God sends the Holy Spirit to the
spiritually dead who are His and raises them to new life in Him.
Second, the Lord has everlasting
love and compassion for His people.
“Fear not, for you will not be
ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget
the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember
no more.”
God tells His people not to be
ashamed and not to be confounded. God
will not leave them in disgrace, nor cause them to dwell unceasingly on the
shame of youthful sins, nor feel reproach for being a widow.
How?
By the work of the Suffering Servant.
All those who believe in Him – the Promised Savior – will be made
righteous and have all their sins forgiven by the work of the Savior.
David writes, “The LORD works
righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to
Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he
keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor
repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the
earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the
east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a
father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those
who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust (Psalm
103:6-14, ESV).
If we believe in the Servant Savior,
we no longer have to be ashamed of the things we have done. Our sin has been removed by the Servant
Savior’s work, and our sins have been cast away. We are forgiven in Christ because He loves us
with an eternal love.
Even more than that, Jesus makes the
Church His bride.
“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.”
In case we are unsure of Who the
Servant Savior is Who loves His people with an everlasting love, we read that
He is our Maker. He is the Lord of
hosts. He is the Holy One of
Israel. He is the God of the whole earth. He is the One God Who loves us with an
everlasting love.
“For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life” (John 3:16, ESV).
“’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.”
“For a brief moment I deserted you.”
God momentarily hides His face from
His people when discipline is necessary – sin must be punished. Ultimately, all our sin has been paid for by
the Suffering Servant, but we still have suffering in this world because we are
sinful, broken, and corrupt, until Jesus returns to restore the Creation.
Jesus – in His humanity – suffered
for a brief moment, but as all the Wrath of God came down upon Him for all the
sin of every person who will ever believe throughout time and space:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried
out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46, ESV).
Paul encourages us: “For this light
momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are
eternal” (II Corinthians 4:17-18, ESV).
God has made the Church His
wife. Even though we were deserted, cast
off, and full of grief – so we have nothing to add to our salvation – we have
nothing to give to God, God chose to love us and to make us His bride.
John gives us a glimpse into who we
are becoming as the bride of the Lamb:
“Then came one of the seven angels
who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying,
‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away
in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like
a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall,
with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of
the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates,
on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three
gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the
twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9-14, ESV).
This is good news for the whole world
– for every nation and people – all those who believe.
The Lord has everlasting love and
compassion for His people.
Third, God makes a covenant of peace
with believers.
“’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.”
“This is like the days of Noah.” What is like the days of Noah? God promises
that He will never be as angry or rebuke as strongly those who believe as He does
in sending Jerusalem into the Babylonian exile.
We remember that God is exceedingly
angry when He decides to wipe humans from the planet, except for Noah and his
family. And so, God rains on the earth and drown all of humanity, except for
Noah’s family who are in the ark. And
when the flood recedes, we read:
“And God said, ‘This is the sign of
the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is
with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it
shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds
over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant
that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the
waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is
in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God
and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah,
‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all
flesh that is on the earth’” (Genesis 9:12-17, ESV).
Notice, God does not promise that
there won’t be floods or that people won’t die in floods. What He promises is that He will not destroy
all flesh with a flood. The floods that
occur after Noah will be “a light, momentary affliction.”
Similarly, God promises in our text
that He will not be as angry or rebuke His people as strongly as He does in the
Babylonian exile. The punishment due to
the people of God will be mitigated – the fullness of the punishment for the sin
of God’s people will fall on Jesus, the Suffering Servant.
God promises that it is more likely that every mountain
and hill – things that seem immoveable – will fade away than God’s mercy
towards His people should fail. God’s Mercy
towards His people is stronger and more eternal than the very fabric of the universe.
God makes a covenant of peace with all those who will
believe in which God will forever have compassion on His people and love them
with and everlasting love.
What is the covenant of peace that God makes with His
people?
Listen:
“And
in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the
angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you
will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God
and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with
whom he is pleased!.” (Luke 2:8-14, ESV).
The
covenant of peace is the Gospel – Who Jesus is and what He has done to secure
the salvation of all those who will believe.
All we who believe are no longer at war with God, but at peace.
All
mere humans are born dead in sin, but God has raised we who believe to life
through the work of Jesus and by the Holy Spirit. God has everlasting love and
compassion for His people. And God has
made a covenant of peace with His people.
We
above all people ought to be filled with joy and thanksgiving.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, You sent Your Son, and He incarnate to live to make us righteous and to
die to free us from sin. Help us to
understand the immeasurable and everlasting love and compassion You have shown
us. Help us to show the world the peace
you have given us and draw many to Yourself.
For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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