We turn back in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 54. We can read again at the beginning of the chapter. Isaiah chapter 54. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, 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. And so on. How would you describe the outlook of the church today? You have to characterize the outlook of the church today in one or two words. How would you describe it? Would you describe it as upbeat and optimistic? I ask that question because I suspect that you wouldn't. The answer would be pessimistic, wouldn't it? That's generally the outlook of the church today. There may be gatherings of believers like this, small gatherings here and there, where there is an ongoing faithfulness There's a determination to stand on God's Word. There's a resistance against a prevailing ungodliness. It's a determination not to surrender, to give in, to be driven by the spirit of this age, to depart from the orthodox understanding of God's Word, from faithfulness to God in the detail. But even though there may be that faithfulness, isn't it true that there's generally little expectation of success? In many ways it's like a soldier who may find himself surrounded by his enemies. And he'll keep fighting until he can fight no more. He will not surrender, he will not give in. But it seems obvious that he cannot overcome. It seems obvious that he cannot triumph. And I wonder if that's how we are inclined to think in the church today. We feel surrounded. And we will not give in by God's grace, we will not give in, we will stand on the truth. We will not depart from the scriptures. But there is a tendency to pessimism, isn't there? Pessimism is a terrible thing. And a person who's pessimistic is nearly always right. Because pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, doesn't it? Because when you expect nothing, when you look for nothing, when you seek nothing, you end up with nothing. I ask that question at the beginning of the service as we look at this passage because these words are given through the Prophet to speak into a situation which was very pessimistic or a situation which would encourage those in it to be very pessimistic in their outlook and their expectation and yet what is the message? of the prophet. What is the Word of God? The Word of God is this, you are to anticipate gospel blessing. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. Who's been addressed? It's those who are absolutely broken. There's a deep and enduring grief here. Now, there may be a sadness today when there is a couple who do not have a child. There may be a disappointment, but it's not a disgrace. And yet, there was a time when It was considered an absolute disgrace. It was considered as evidence of God's having forsaken. Because the promises of God were all bound up in the expected birth of the seed of the woman, the deliverance, the deliverer. To be barren. To not prevail with child. was to be utterly forsaken by God. What did that feel like? That discouraged, that hopelessness, that sense of being forsaken. I think you know what it feels like. I think in spiritual terms you know what that feels like. To be overwhelmed with a sense of your own sin. That lack of zeal. The coldness of your joy. Mechanical in prayer. We rejoice as we read of God's faithfulness over the generations. We rejoice as we think of church history. You can think of this area and your forefathers in the faith. And those who were faithful even unto death. And yet, do you ever wonder what they would make of us today? Would they recognize us? Would they embrace us? It's little growth, isn't it? Little growth as individuals. Little growth in congregations. Little growth in the church. Instead, it's decline. An absence. And that fear that, will they come back? Will they persevere? Can I keep going? And then of course, there's the apathy of the world around. There's the antagonism of the world around. It's tangible, isn't it? The advance of godlessness. The lack of shame. Triumphing. The world triumphing in the very things that should be the cause of their greatest shame. What's the feeling of those who the Lord is addressing? The barren, the empty, the broken, the forsaken. It's hard to believe, isn't it, that things will change. It's hard to believe because the church is so small, the opportunities are so limited, there's no one to hear. The gospel goes out but they do not give any heed, they do not listen, they do not even notice. And so it almost seems unreasonable to believe because we cannot reason in our minds how God can work it. And also we have in Scripture, isn't there, solemn words of warning. The Lord has told us that if we will depart from His Word, if we will prove unfaithful, there will be judgment, there will be consequences. And is that not where we find ourselves then? Barren, broken, empty. And yet here is the word of the Lord to the barren, to the broken, to the empty. And what is the word of the Lord? Sing! Break forth into singing and cry aloud. To rejoice, to anticipate gospel blessing. To sing in anticipation of the blessing that is to come. This is not speaking to the Jews. nationalistic, of geopolitical, of ethnic progress, or domination. But here is the Lord and He is speaking to the church in its lowly state, in exile, broken under their own sin, broken because of the brutality of those who are around them. What's the Word of God? The Word is this. There are better days ahead. Surely what's spoken of here is looking to Pentecost. It's looking to the expanding of the Gospel. The Gospel which had been largely contained to the Jewish people. And yet there's a day coming. When the gospel is going to go out to the nations. It's going to go out to the ends of the earth. And you see that beginning at Pentecost, don't you? As the preaching is heard by all these different people in all these different tongues. And you see the advance of the gospel rapidly through the apostolic age. You look back in church history and you can see how the world has been brought. Such a measure under the dominion of the Lord. Isn't there a danger that we look at that? We read this passage, but then we look back and we say, well, yes, God's Word's been proven. God's Word is true. God's Word's come to pass. There has been blessing. And we rejoice in that blessing. People, nations, continents brought under the sound of the Gospel. But here we are today. These days are are now gone. Our land saw great blessing. Our community saw great blessing, but now it's declined, it's declined, it's declined until the end. Maybe you feel it's inappropriate, it's wrong to be optimistic, it's wrong to anticipate gospel blessing. Rather, surely, we should humble ourselves and seek to be content that the Lord has not absolutely forgotten us. We are to seek to be content that the Lord is preserving our eminent, and that God's work will continue in some measure. And it's certainly true. We must learn to be content. We must not grumble against the goodness of God and providence and His outworking of His purpose. But isn't there a danger that we have forgotten what God's purpose is? What is God's purpose? What is God's great purpose? From all eternity, in creation and in redemption, what is God's great purpose? It's to glorify himself through the saving of a people. It's to make himself known. And is to call it a darkness. Sinners to be saved. This is why the world is made. This is why the world endures. And the world will continue to endure until this great work is complete. And when this great work is complete, when the harvest has been gathered in, then this world as it is, has served its purpose. And the end will come. For this is God's great purpose. And we have then His promise to accompany this. What did He say? I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It speaks of advance, of increase. We read in Ephesians, of the absolute supremacy of the Lord Jesus. It speaks of Him being placed at His own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body. The fullness of Him that filleth all in all. That speaks of His supremacy. It's speaking there of the fullness of increase, of blessing. It's not something that will be subdued. It's not something that will be small. It's not something that will be spoiled. It's the Lord's great commission. His disciples go out to make disciples. following the nations. Doesn't the Lord also speak? He speaks of the Gospel going to the Gentiles, yes. And the Apostle tells us in Romans that the Jews, because of their unbelief, they were cut off, weren't they? That the Gospel would go to the Gentiles. And yet, we're told that that's not the end of God's purpose. It's not the end of God's purpose with the Jews. But we're told that there will be a day when they will be brought in again. Speaks of their foolness. And he speaks in comparative terms. If he says they're cutting off of the Jews because of their unbelief, if that brought blessing to the nations, how much more when they will be brought in again? What blessing that will be to the nations of the earth. That's why he says anticipate gospel blessing. Because God is at work. There is His purpose. There is His promise. But also there is His providence. You see, you can make promises and be sincere in your promises and yet fail to deliver in your promises because you don't have the power and the authority to make that all come to pass. Frustrating, isn't it? You meant well, but you cannot do well because it's beyond you to do it. But God's providence is the outworking of His promise with all power and with all authority. And what God has spoken has not been spoken in vain. It does not fall dead and empty. It does not fall short. He has power and He has zeal to accomplish this. Well, you're burdened with a concern for the Lord's cause. And so you should be. But His zeal for His cause far exceeds your zeal for His cause. And He has the power to accomplish. God's purpose, God's promise, God's providence, friends, we must allow that. We must grasp that. Or allow that to grasp us, to grip us. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud. That's how you are to be. Singing with joy in anticipation of what God will do. But not only are you to anticipate gospel blessing, we are told here you are to advance gospel blessing. Verse 2, Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. There is work to be done. You have a responsibility, there is a command here to action. You are to prepare. Seems misplaced, seems inappropriate what we have here. The baron is to extend their tent. To make space in their tent for the family that they do not have. Doesn't just seem inappropriate, it seems to invite ridicule and mockery. It seems to emphasize the emptiness, doesn't it? For the barren to make room for the child that has not come. And yet this is the command of God. You're to anticipate gospel blessing and you're to advance gospel blessing. It's a bit like Noah building his ark. There's no rain, no flood. Noah's building his ark, building his ark, building his ark. And there they are mocking Noah building this boat. How redundant, how vain, how foolish. And yet there he is preparing for what God will do. We have a children's Bible story book at home. And there's a picture of Abraham and Sarah waiting for the birth of their child. And there's Sarah and she's now an old woman. And she's sitting there, she's knitting children's clothes. It's a wonderful picture. Because you see there her anticipation. And you see there that she's doing what she can for when the blessing comes. Enlarge the place of thy tent, let them stretch forth the curtain of thy inhabitation. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes. It is to be large, it is to be big, because the blessing of God is to come in, to advance gospel blessing. It is simplistic for us to relate this to simply buying more seats, buying a bigger building, buying a bus so that when people come you can go and collect them and bring them here. It's simplistic for us to think of this in simply materialistic terms. But what does it mean to enlarge the tent? What does it mean to stretch forth the curtains? To lengthen the cords, to strengthen the stakes? Surely it means possessing the promise and going out with the promise. This is speaking of preaching the gospel. You are to preach the gospel, friends. Preach the gospel. Because it is not vain, it is not foolish. But it is God's Word and God's Word will be blessed. We are not to adopt a siege mentality. So easy to adopt a siege mentality where you close the doors, you build up the walls and you hold on as faithful until the end. Rather we are to go out To go out with His Word. Why? Why are we to advance gospel blessing? Why now to enlarge the place of the tent? Surely, when God brings blessing, there will be plenty of hands to do that work. Why is that demand placed on you and me today, when there's not many hands to do that work? Well, that command requires a response, and that response is an outworking of faith. But not only is it an outworking of faith, but it is a means of strengthening faith. You see, God will bless obedience. Obedience will bring a reward. We sang in Psalm 81, I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. God will bless obedience. That Psalm contains this thought where the Lord says, Oh, that my people had listened! Oh, that they'd been faithful! Oh, that they'd done as I'd said! Will it be said that we have forfeited blessing? That we have not prospered? Because we have not obeyed? Because we've hidden away with unbelief? Advance Gospel Blessing, because God blesses obedience. But also, because as you seek to advance Gospel Blessing, as you seek to go out with the Word, you know what it does? It brings you to a greater dependence upon the Lord. Because what's the first thing you're going to see? Your own inability, your own lack of power, your own lack of wisdom. How small you are! How vain it seems! How hauntingly empty this enlarged tent is! And where does that bring you? That brings you to Christ. That brings you within a renewed sense of dependence. If you enlarge your tent, you also enlarge your cries. You enlarge your prayers. I believe also that it will increase the unity of the church. It will bring greater appreciation. It will bring greater love amongst the members of the church. Where there is that working together, where there is that striving for the glory of God. It will bring healing. It will bring wholeness. It will bring a happiness. I think to some measure you have that as a congregation. I agreed to come here a long time ago. I spoke to your previous minister. I invited him to come to my congregation. He couldn't fit in. He invited me to come to his congregation. I couldn't fit it in. And we tried to find a date and we couldn't find a date. He says, I'll be gone, but why not come after I've gone and we chose a date a year ahead. And here I am. And I thought, what am I coming to? You've lost your minister, you didn't just lose a minister, you lost a family, you lost a large family. What impact does that have on a congregation? How disheartened and how discouraged might you be? And yet, because of the responsibilities that have been forced upon you perhaps, because you don't have a minister, And because things are hard, there's a blessing that follows. Because you're not here as spectators, but you're here as participants, you're here as working together. And then what you do to advance gospel blessing has brought gospel blessing. Not in terms of great numbers coming in, but there's blessing here, isn't there, in the congregation. And as you continue to be faithful to Him, to labour for Him, to give your all for Him, can we not look to Him to bring others in? To bring in a fuller expression of that blessing? And it's a testimony, isn't it? A testimony to the world out there, that our God is able. Our God is able. Why are you here? Because God is able. Because God, He will do it. So maybe you say, but what more can I do? If I had a minister, I would follow the minister's lead. If we have a good minister, we have a good minister who will be able to show us what to do. And that may be true. But you're not to wait till then. Who does this word come to? This word comes to the church. Not to the leaders of the church. It comes to the church. It comes to the members of the church. It comes to everyone. Now, no, you don't all, of course, have the responsibility to preach. But yet, there's another sense in which you do all have a responsibility to preach by your lives. and to show forth the gospel. It's very simplistic to say, well, I'm not called as a preacher, I'll just sit quiet. It's an advanced gospel blessing. to 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." You're to pray, to pray that the gospel will be prospered amongst you and Gentile. In a prayer meeting, such an important part of church life, to be here, and to pray together and let me say to the ladies you might never be asked to lead in prayer but your presence here is important because it is hard to pray alone and those who are called on to pray will be conscious to some extent of whether there's a prayerful spirit in the meeting or whether there's not And your being here is a way that you can help and to pray. It might not be your voice that's heard, but your cries will be heard. And your cries you may find expressed and articulated by the men that are called to pray. But also to commit your resources To spend and to be spent. It's not exclusively in financial terms. It's easy to give money in some senses. But it doesn't... I'm not ignoring financial terms too. There's a need for that. To give. But to live well. To commend the gospel. To adorn the gospel. And to speak. To speak as opportunity is given. To seek these opportunities. To prayerfully seek these opportunities. And just to say a word. Just to say, well, we had a good day in church on the Lord's Day. We were reminded that Jesus Christ is a wonderful Saviour. It's all you have to say. And to sing. That's the command first and foremost here, isn't it? It's to sing. That singing is a joyful response to the anticipation, but that singing is actually a way of advancing that blessing. Friends, if we could sing sweetly and if our lives were then in tune with that song. Isn't this what our nation needs to hear? Some of the nations of the earth and their hopelessness and their darkness, their depravity. To hear this glorious, pure song. They say they are mocking, foolish, empty songs. All the noise. You know when there is a large measure, there is a lack of joy in the church. Not because of the difficulty of gospel work. It's because of the absence of gospel work. That's why I think there's a large measure, in large measure, a lack of joy. Because there's not a faithful laboring. And that brings an emptiness, a futility. It feeds into that pessimism. It fulfills that pessimism. And yet the word of the Lord is, sing. and enlarge, to anticipate, to advance. Thirdly, if we are to advance gospel blessing, we must accept gospel blessing. How can you go out, how can you advance the Lord's cause? By receiving the Lord's blessing. You say, I have nothing to offer. And you say, all that you say, minister, only increases my sense of guilt and confusion. Minister, we must just wait for the spirit to move. If better days are given, then in better days we will be more able. And there's truth in that. It's not the whole truth, is it? It can be an excuse, it can be a mask, a way of hiding. I know there's difficulties. We're promised there will be difficulties. In Psalm 126 it speaks of that man going forth with precious seed. His mourning, as he labours, it's hard work, it's demanding work, it's consuming work. I know that. But more importantly, God knows that. God knows that it's not easy work. And because He knows that, He's made provision for you in the Gospel. Because He knows, He's made provision for you in the Gospel. And that's why the Prophet has given His word to speak to broken bar and empty Israel. So that they might hear the word of God. And they might be filled. The imagery used here is looking back, isn't it? Children of Israel coming in through the wilderness into the promised land and possessing the land of the Gentiles. And prophets looking back and he's saying, see that? That speaks of what is yet to be. And we're to look and seeing God's Word. And to remember what God has done. So that we might not doubt what God will do. Sometimes, going to church is referred to as attending the means of grace. Maybe you've heard that expression. Prayer meeting is a means of grace. Prayer itself is a means of grace. Reading the scriptures is a means of grace. People say don't forsake the means of grace. The sacrament is a means of grace and we use that expression but do you think about what that expression means? The means of grace. What it means is that this is a way whereby God's grace is communicated to you. How are you to get God's grace? Where are you to find God's grace? Under the sound of the preaching of the gospel, faith cometh by hearing. Studying his word, crying out in prayer, It's not what we had this morning as we sat at the Lord's table together. Gospel blessing. And you are to accept gospel blessing. And having received gospel blessing, you are to go out and work on the strength of that. In His strength. Yes, we must lament our unbelief. We lament our unfruitfulness. Lament our forgetfulness, our fear, our sin. And yet we're to come. We're to come because He bids us to come. We're to come because He is able. And we're to receive of Him. And having received of Him, we're to go out and to serve. Isn't there a sense in which when you sit at the table you think, this is great. This is how I want it to be. Here we are and there's a harmony. Here we are and there's a peace. Here we are and here is the things of Christ. Do you ever find that you sit at the table and you think, can we not sit a bit longer? Can we not have more of this now? And yet in God's providence, you will have some of this now. But you must go out, and you must work. What happens as you go out and as you work? You have a greater desire for more, and for more, and for more. Greater hunger, and a greater hunger results in a greater appreciation. Of course you don't, by yourself, have the resources to do what is required of you. But the Lord does not send his people out with his word that they might fail. He sends His people out with His Word, that the Word might be blessed, and that He might be glorified. Isn't this what gripped our forefathers in the faith? Isn't this what gave them courage to stand? Isn't this what motivated them as they left their homes and went to other lands and preached the gospel. And isn't it true that this is the word that we are to hear tonight? We are to anticipate His blessing. We are to advance that blessing. And we are to accept ourselves the blessing that we might advance, that we might anticipate. that His praise would be advanced. That God may be all in all. We're given these times. We're given these times because we need these times. To remember the Lord's death until He comes. And He's coming. The time is short, and our time is short, and yet He's given you and He's given me today, that we might use it for His glory. Will you not then do that, wherever you are? Will you not then do that? Amen. Let's pray. O Lord our God, how we marvel that the gospel has been proclaimed to us. And not only that we have been given to see the mercy of God in Christ, but it has been given to us to tell others also of the mercy of God in Christ. Help us, O Lord, to sing, to rejoice. May our singing be heard. May those who are outside today be caused to ask why. And may in asking why, may they be given to hear and to see and for themselves in turn to believe the gracious certain promises of the Lord our God. Be pleased then to undertake for us Be pleased to sustain us. Be pleased to enable us to open our mouths wide. Fill us, O Lord, and receive our praise. For Jesus' sake we ask. Amen.