Sing, O Barren!

Isaiah 54:1-3
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, February 27, 2000
Copyright © 2000, P. G. Mathew

“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD. “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.”

Isaiah 54:1-3

In Isaiah 54 we read a glorious exhortation of God to his people to sing and shout for joy because of the wonderful things God would do. The proximate reference of this chapter has to do with the return of the Jewish people from the exile. Earlier in the prophecy of Isaiah God said Cyrus would issue a decree and the exiles would return to Jerusalem. This was fulfilled in 538 B. C. and the following years. But the ultimate reference has to do with the salvation of the Jews and Gentiles through the death of Jesus Christ, which is spoken of in the fifty-third chapter. Isaiah 53 is a chapter of great sorrow, but Isaiah 54 is a chapter of great rejoicing. Christ died for our sins; therefore we, the mother church, are to rejoice and become spiritually fruitful. So God exhorts, “‘Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,’ says the Lord.”

Let me apply this right here and now. If you are desolate, if you are rejected, if you are lonely, if you are miserable, listen to the imperatives of our God: “Sing! Shout! Burst into song!” Why should we do these things? First, because Christ died for our sins, and, second, because God is making a promise that we are going to give birth to many spiritual children.

The Barren Made Fruitful

In this chapter we read that God was about to perform a miracle in the life of the mother church, that is, in the life of Zion. Whenever you find the word Zion, it has reference to the people of God–the true people of God, the mother church.

The mother church had been barren, bereaved, desolate, and rejected. Through the prophet Isaiah God was calling out to her to sing, to burst into song, and to shout for joy because she was going to experience a miracle. This barren woman was going to conceive and give birth, to not just one spiritual child, but many.

As we study this passage, we must ask ourselves these questions: How long have I been a Christian? Have I ever had the privilege of seeing a sinner converted and brought to worship our Savior? Or have I been so self-focused and interested in meeting my own need that I had no interest in getting pregnant, giving birth, nursing a child, and rejoicing in the life of that child?

Am I barren like Sarah? Do I intensely desire to conceive and give birth to a true believer in Jesus Christ? Do I greatly desire to nourish and care for a brand-new Spirit-regenerated person? Have I ever prayed for that? Do I desire to hear the cry of an infant Christian, perhaps my own son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother, neighbor or friend? Do I desire spiritual babies? If so, God says to us, “Begin singing! Burst into song! Shout for joy! Why? What God has done for barren Sarah long ago, he will do it for you.”

In Isaiah 51:2 we read, “Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many.” Without a miracle of God, without God’s blessing, we will remain single, and expect everyone else to meet our needs. But when we start desiring children, we have to think about other human beings. It requires great sacrifice to be parents who nurse and provide for their children. If we are selfish, having children can cure us of our selfishness.

Let me assure you, God’s hand is not shortened and nothing is impossible for him. It was the will of God that Sarah be a mother of many, and in God’s time, God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son. In Genesis 21:1 we read, “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.” The Lord visited Sarah and Sarah became pregnant; she gave birth to a son and named him Isaac, which means “laughter.” In verse 6 we read, “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter.'” Through Isaac and his descendants, Sarah became the mother of many.

The Joy of Spiritual Childbearing

If God could bring Sarah laughter through granting her a child, he can do the same for you. The words, “Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy. . . .” will be true of us as well as we bring others to Christ.

Bearing spiritual children brings great joy to a Christian. It is pure joy to hear the cry of a new convert–to see the smiling, singing face of a new child of God! What a joy it will be for us to say with the apostle Paul the words he said about the Thessalonian church: “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy” (1 Thess. 2:19-20).

What about you? Have you borne spiritual children, or are you going to heaven alone? Wouldn’t you like to bring some believers with you–your children, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, your friends–people fathered and mothered by you? Yes, we know that only the Holy Spirit can give spiritual life to a sinner, as Jesus himself said in John 3:6, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” But God uses human instruments in his process of raising people from the dead.

The Necessity of Human Agency

Some of us have a tremendous desire to have physical babies, and there is nothing wrong with that. But I wish we would demonstrate at least the same degree of interest in having spiritual babies. Let me tell you, if you have physical babies, you may rejoice and be happy for a time and work very hard for these children. But sometimes these nice children will grow up to give you the pain and misery of your life, especially if they remain unconverted. Why don’t you try sharing your faith and asking God to give you some spiritual babies? Then you can say with Paul, “They are my joy, my crown, and my hope,” as you meet the Lord.

The Bible says all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved by him. But no one calls upon the Lord without faith, and faith comes by hearing the gospel, spoken, not by angels, but by believing human beings–the mother church, in other words. God uses human agency in the conversion of sinners.

In Philemon 10 Paul wrote, “I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.” In the Greek we read, “whom I fathered when I was in prison, Onesimus.” In this statement Paul dared to use the Greek word genaô, to beget, to refer to his role in Onesimus’ conversion. It is the same word used in Matthew 1, beginning in verse 1, “Abraham was the father of Isaac,” or “Abraham begat Isaac.”

We find another daring statement by Paul using genaô in 1 Corinthians 4:15, where he says, “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father,” meaning Paul begat them, “through the gospel.”

Think about the serious implications of this idea. God is the primary Father, and without him no one comes forth from the dead. Secondarily, we can be spiritual fathers and mothers. But without our sharing of the gospel, no one will come to faith in Jesus Christ. That is why Paul was correct when he spoke about fathering Onesimus while he was in prison and fathering the whole church of Corinth.

So again I must ask you: Have you ever fathered someone spiritually? Are you like those we read about in Daniel 12:3, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever”? Are you a winner of souls?

Pray for Babies

Sadly, the prayer of many evangelicals today goes something like this: “Take care of me God. Meet my every need. I am full of need; take care of me.” This is called self-absorption, a total focusing of our energies upon ourselves, but it is not the type of prayer God desires of his people.

Isn’t it time that we prayed another prayer, such as, “Lord, make me pregnant. Give me some babies. Make me a father or a mother. Help me to nurse, nourish, bring up and care for some sinners who will be converted by your Spirit through my instrumentality.”

It is the will of God that every believer lead many others to righteousness, meaning to Jesus Christ. And as a result of this, Daniel says we will shine as stars forever and ever. I don’t know how much we will shine if we go to heaven alone, not having led anyone to Christ. God wants all of his people to bear spiritual children and shine as stars forever and ever.

Believe and Rejoice

In Isaiah 54:1, then, we find these exhortations: “Sing, O barren. . . . Shout. . . .Burst forth into song.” God is saying that we are supposed to do this before we get pregnant and give birth to spiritual children. We are to do these things in faith, in other words. God is making a promise to give us many children, and so he tells us to rejoice and believe in his promise now, before we see the fulfillment of it. He is exhorting us to get rid of our selfishness, our self-centeredness, and all our need-based prayers, and begin to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. He is telling us to believe in him, in other words!

But not only does God tell us to rejoice, but he gives us the reason we can do so. In Isaiah 54:1 we read, “‘because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,’ says the Lord.” When we look at the Bible and see these promises of God, we can believe in them and begin to rejoice even before we see the visible signs of spiritual pregnancy and birth. It will happen. We will have children.

Have you ever brought anyone to Christ? Or are you a dry tree, a spiritual eunuch? If so, do not get used to your miserable life of loneliness. In this passage God has good news for all spiritual eunuchs. He is saying, “Sing and rejoice, because you are going to father and mother many children. Don’t walk in unbelief, as Sarah did when she reasoned that God could never give her children. Forget your miserable, unfruitful life. The days of bereavement, of rejection, of desolation are over. Your barrenness is ended. Just as God blessed Abraham and Sarah, so he is going to bless you, his church, and you are going to become productive.”

The Certainty of God’s Promise

We read about this plan of God also in Isaiah 49, beginning with verse 13: “Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains!” Here God is asking the environment to join the church in rejoicing in his great salvation. “For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”

Now, notice what God’s people say in verse 14: “But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.'” This is a complaint. But what is God’s response? “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast,” meaning a baby that is totally needy and dependent upon her, “and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” This is a description of the highest possible love in the world. But God continues, “Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” We have all heard stories of babies being thrown into dumpsters or abandoned by their mothers. Even this type of highest human love is affected by human sin. But God says to his people, “Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

Think about that. Then God says, “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” God is always seeing us. To us, God is out of sight and out of mind, but God sees us all the time. God has a great plan for our lives–a plan to prosper us, not to harm us, a plan to bless us and make us his servants. This plan includes making us spiritually productive.

Spiritual Stretchmarks

In verse 2 of Isaiah 54 God tells us, “Enlarge the place of your tent. . . .” This is something we must do before any children are born, and, as we said before, we must do this by faith, knowing that God said they are coming. Just as expectant parents make room before their children arrive, we also must make room for sinners–room in our hearts, room in our prayers, room in our sharing. Get some spiritual stretchmarks, in other words!

Our God is interested in bringing many people into his kingdom, which includes Gentiles as well as Jews. As he said to Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Didn’t Jesus tell his disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you”? The church of Jesus Christ is a large, international body of people, including people from all languages, tribes and races.

God wants us to stretch out the tent of the church, as we read in verse 3, “For you will spread out to the right and to the left.” This is a challenge to us to grow, isn’t it? Do you think we can grow as a church? In our city alone there is a university with about thirty thousand people and the city itself has over fifty-five thousand people. God planted us here as a church to preach the gospel. We must pray that God will help us to stretch out the church here to make room for the babies he has promised us.

In Genesis 28:14 we find a promise about stretching and spreading out and making room. There we read, “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring,” meaning the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the same idea of Jesus’s great commission, as recorded in Matthew 28:19. There is the large tent that takes in all God’s elect, who are brought to salvation through our fathering and mothering.

Spiritual Multiplication

In Exodus 1 we read about a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph and was oppressing God’s people. When we read this, we are reminded of our modern times, are we not? How often have we bemoaned the secularism and unbelief and opposition Christians encounter in today’s world. This passage reminds us that such opposition is nothing new. There is always opposition to God and his people.

This Pharaoh hated the people of God and oppressed them. But in Exodus 1:12 we read, “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.” God is for multiplication and increase in his kingdom, even in the context of opposition and suffering. It is he who said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

I hope that we will believe in God enough to come to him and confess that we are desolate and barren, dry trees and spiritual eunuchs. I pray that we will ask God to help us to experience some stretch marks by believing in his promise that we will increase. Don’t worry about Satan or Pharaoh, Caesar or the world. Jesus Christ, who died and rose again, is the builder of his church, and he will build it.

What is God’s plan for his people? Great fertility. This passage is teaching us that there is going to be a population explosion for the people of God. Do you believe that and pray for it? Or are you still praying for two more dollars and three more chairs? If you want to shine as stars forever, may God help you to lead some people to righteousness, meaning to Jesus Christ.

Now, I am not interested in false church growth. There is a model of church growth that is non-biblical and false. It is based on the idea of decisional salvation, meaning that one can become a Christian by deciding to believe in Jesus Christ without regeneration of the Spirit. I am interested in church growth that is based on the full gospel, especially the preaching of the cross, which is a scandal and an offense to many people. I am interested in a gospel that declares that man is a sinner, that Christ died in our place on the cross, and everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. I am interested in church growth based on regeneration by the mighty Holy Spirit and on faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Your Maker Is Your Husband

God tells us to shout for joy and stretch out our tents before the promised spiritual children arrive. This will demonstrate our faith, because it is the will of God that we conceive and give birth, not just to one person, but to many spiritual children.

You may begin to wonder, “How can I have many spiritual children? I am just nothing.” That is a good question. It is absolutely true that we are nothing, and, therefore, the idea of us bringing forth many children sounds impossible. But it is the will of God that we bring forth many children, and we can have faith in God’s will being fulfilled.

Additionally, in Isaiah 54:5 another mighty reason is given for the prospering and multiplication of the church. Not only will the church prosper simply because it is the will of God, but in Isaiah 54:5 we read, “For your Maker is your husband–the Lord Almighty is his name–the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.”

Did Sarah bring forth children on her own? No. Did Abraham father children in his own strength? No. The Mighty God did it through them! Abraham and Sarah were as good as dead, but God blessed them and brought forth nations out of them. Thus, if you say, “How can I be a mother to many children or a father to many children?” you must realize that this spiritual reproduction won’t be your work but the work of God through you.

How does this happen? First, your sin must be dealt with. You have a husband, who is your Maker. God didn’t divorce you or sell you, but because of your sin, you were rejected, as we read in Isaiah 50:1.

When you are sinful and are pursuing worldliness, you cannot be united to your husband. It is only when you are united to your husband that you will reproduce. If we are going to love sin, we will be affected by the parasite of worldliness, and we will not be able to reproduce. Our own sin is the reason for our infertility.

But there is a solution for the problem of our sin. In Isaiah 53:5 we read, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” In Isaiah 43:25 God says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself, dying for us on the cross.

What is the result of Christ’s atoning death on the cross? We are no longer rejected but received. Our name is changed to Hephzibah, which means “My delight is in her,” and to Beulah, which means “Married.” As long as there is sin, we cannot have union with the Lord Jesus Christ, the husband, our Maker. But, praise be to God, by his stripes we are healed!

Our Heavenly Bridegroom

“For your Maker is your husband,” Isaiah says. Paul says Christ is the Head of the church, the heavenly Bridegroom. He is the Mighty One, our Creator. He will receive us back to him because he has dealt with our sins once and for all on the cross.

In Isaiah 54:5 we read, “The Lord Almighty is his name.” We serve a God, El Shaddai, who is almighty, whose arm is not shortened, and for whom all things are possible. Nothing is too wonderful for our God.

In verse 5 we read some other things about our heavenly husband. He is the Holy One of Israel, the high and lofty One, and because he is holy, he will make us holy also. Additionally, he is our Redeemer. Our God paid the highest price–his own precious blood–to redeem us; and therefore we are his forever. God did not redeem us with silver or gold but with his own blood shed for our sake.

Are you still wondering how you can conceive and give birth to many spiritual children? You must again realize that this will not come about by your own doing but through the work of your husband, who is your Maker, the Lord Almighty, the Holy One of Israel, your Redeemer God.

Union with Christ Produces Many Seeds

If you want to have spiritual children, the first thing you must do is to say goodbye to sin, which is selfishness. Then you must pray that God create within you a desire for babies–spiritual progeny–that you can take care of, nourish, care for, and sacrifice your life for their sakes. As you pray in this way, God will give you children.

God has received us because Christ died, and this union with God must, by necessity, produce children. In John 12:23 we find a profound statement by Jesus Christ: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.” Jesus was speaking of his death on the cross. When the Seed fell and died, what was the result? “But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” So according to this statement, there will be many seeds produced from Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross.

In Isaiah 53:10 we read, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days.” Again, this is speaking about many seeds–spiritual fruit–resulting from Christ’s atoning death in our behalf.

This is why God could say, ” Rejoice, O barren woman.” Christ died and he is going to have many seeds, many offspring, and we will father them and mother them. And in Isaiah 53:11 we read, “By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.” There are many people of God–many chosen ones from the foundation of the world–who are the seeds of God.

We must be united with Christ to produce spiritual children. In John 15:4 Jesus instructed his disciples, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” This is what union with Jesus Christ is. We must forsake the world and worldliness and sin and the devil and everything else to be united with Jesus Christ. And in verse 5 Jesus spoke about the result of union with him: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Spiritual babies don’t come apart from Jesus Christ.

May God give us such intense love and longing for this husband of ours that we will be united with him! Then when we look for babies, they will come. As we will look to the left and to the right, they will be there.

In Romans 7:4 we read, “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.” What is the purpose of this relationship between Christ and us? That we might bear fruit. I believe that includes spiritual children.

“Here I Am and the Children God Has Given Me”

In Hebrews 2:10 we read, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” God’s purpose in sending his Son, Jesus Christ, was to bring many sons and daughters to glory. Christ accomplished this by his death on the cross.

In Hebrews 2:13 we read, “And again, ‘I’ll put my trust in him,’ and again he says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.'” This is what Jesus Christ can say, having fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that he would see his seed and prolong his days. But what will we say when we appear before God? We may say, “Here am I,” and stop there. But the text says. “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” God’s intent for us is to appear before him along with others whom we have brought into the kingdom of God.

God wants people to be saved. In Luke 15:10 Jesus said, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of angels of God over one sinner who repents.” This is not speaking about angels rejoicing. It means that God himself rejoices when one sinner repents and becomes his child. God the Father rejoices and God the Son rejoices, as we read in Isaiah 53, “He will see his offspring and prolong his days.”

A healthy church rejoices just as much at the sight of spiritual babies as it does at the sight of physical babies. Such a church rejoices in their cries, their giggles, their smiles. It rejoices when people are baptized and brought into church membership. It gladly does whatever it can to take care of these spiritual babies so that they can grow.

I pray that God will drive us away from our self-centeredness and give us a love for babies. May the Holy Spirit produce some stretch marks even now. Always keep in mind that your husband who loves you desires to give you the children. That husband is your Maker, the almighty God, the Holy One of Israel, your Redeemer, and he will do it.

There is no question that we are all going to die and meet the Lord. But I want to spare you from embarrassment and shame. I want all of us to be able to say, “Look at these children I have brought with me. They are my glory, my joy, my hope, and my crown. They are the ones I fathered while I was on earth. Oh, yes, I am not denying that God is their Father, but I also know that God always uses human instruments, and he enabled me to father these.”

Would you like to have at least one spiritual child so that you can be delivered from the disgrace of saying only, “Here am I” when you stand before the Lord? Oh, then you can say, “Here am I and the child you gave me.” And if you have already had the privilege of leading one to the Lord, I hope you will say, “O God, give me one more. Give me several more.” Why? The more you have, the more you rejoice, and the more you shine as stars forever and ever.

Therefore, may God help us to believe his declaration that we will have many children! May he help us to stretch out to the left and to the right that we might make room for these children. Yes, we thank God for the good news to sinful beings like us–the desolate, the bereaved, the rejected, the nothings. Because we trusted in Jesus Christ, by his stripes we are healed. Now God tells us he loves us, calling us Hephzibah and Beulah. But may he also pour out his Holy Spirit upon us that he might save some souls through us!

God’s Plan for Growth

God’s desire is that his church grow and multiply, but that is not always reflected in the attitude of the people within the church. In an article written by Roger S. Greenway, professor of world missiology in Calvin Theological Seminary, we read about the attitude of some Christians towards evangelism and how that affects their evangelistic endeavors. Professor Greenway writes,

For about a year I attended a church that had very little outreach to the people of its neighborhood. The members were generally skeptical about evangelism. Their reasoning ran like this: “Around here, some people already have a church, so it’s no use talking to them. For the rest, they’re not interested in church. You waste you time with them too.”

I discovered that the church members held a similar attitude toward the possibility of catching in the pond at the old farm where they held their annual picnic. “There aren’t any fish in that pond, they told me. “Just frogs and weeds.”

They laughed when I took a fishing rod from my car and attached a lure. But they stopped laughing when after a couple of casts, I landed a 40-inch Northern Pike. The big fellow had been lying there in the weeds for years, probably chuckling to himself as one church picnic after another came and went without anyone trying to catch him.

I find an interesting parallel between the church people’s attitude toward the possibility of there being fish in the pond and there being winnable people in the neighborhood. They were skeptical about both! As a result, the congregation had become an ingrown and inward-looking group, with no spirit of creativity or innovation. “Leave your rod in the car, ’cause there aren’t any fish in the pond,” summed up their attitude in more ways than one.

(Roger S. Greenway, There Are No Fish!” The Outlook, [February 2000]: 7)

It is the will of God that his church increase, and that is clearly stated in this fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah. It is God’s purpose to save sinners, mighty sinners, and add them to his church. As we said before, this is not false kind of church growth. God is interested in the authentic kind of church growth where the full gospel is declared and the mighty Spirit of God causes people to be convicted of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ who died on the cross in behalf of sinners.

Jesus often spoke of this authentic kind of church growth. In John 12:32 he told his disciples, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” And in Isaiah 53 it was said of him that he would see his seed and prolong his days. Through the death of Jesus Christ, then, sinners are saved and brought into the church. When he sees the church growing, Jesus Christ rejoices because he is seeing his offspring. Not only that, there is great joy throughout heaven. The Father also rejoices, because it is the fulfillment of his eternal plan to save sinners.

This does not mean we will not encounter opposition as we try to bear spiritual children for God. The world and Satan hate the gospel and the growth of the church, just as the Pharaoh of Exodus hated the people of God, oppressing them and trying to destroy them. But just as God caused the Israelites to grow and multiply under Pharaoh’s opposition, so he also will cause us to be spiritually fruitful, despite opposition from the world and Satan.

Let me tell you, I believe in God and his word, including his promise to give us spiritual offspring. I know that God has people in this city, as well as any place where Christians are, who need to be saved. Remember what God told the apostle Paul when he was staying in Corinth? Paul had become disappointed and probably wanted to leave Corinth, but God appeared to him in the night and said, “Keep on speaking. . . . because I have many people in this city.” Therefore, may God help us to keep speaking the gospel, believing in his promise to give us children. He has many people in this city, even in our own homes, whom he wants to save. This is God’s plan and program.

Considerations about Church Growth

In the light of God’s plan for church growth, I want now to examine a few points.

1. We must have a big God. We must realize how big our God is. The prophecy of Isaiah presents to us a high and lofty God, the holy God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, who calls every star by its name and measures out the waters in the hollow of his hand. This God says the nations are nothing, less than nothing, and worthless. This God dries up the sea, causes the desert to be filled with streams, and makes a way where there is no way. This God is the Creator God, the Savior God, and the Sovereign Lord, who holds all things together by the word of his power. May God help us to believe in a big God, a great God, a God who raises people from the dead and brings them into his church.

2. We must believe in the objective power of God. The power of God comes to us through baptism in the Holy Spirit. Didn’t Jesus tell his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”? God does not want his people to go out into the world without power, meaning the power of God, not man. I hope and pray that you will believe in the biblical truth that there is Pentecostal power available for us today. It is this power that caused a fearful, timid fisherman to rise up and preach the gospel and bring in a great catch–three thousand people in one day. That is the power we also need to bring forth children for God.

3. We must practice holiness. Why must we practice holiness? Because the objective power of the Holy Ghost will not become ours until we consecrate ourselves totally to the service of Jesus Christ.

This is illustrated in the life of Jesus Christ, who was baptized in the Holy Spirit before he was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. There he demonstrated his love for his Father by obeying his Father, saying, “It is written,” in response to the temptations of the devil. Jesus was hungry and thirsty, but he refused to turn a stone into bread because it was not the Father’s will. Jesus practiced holiness by doing the will of God, no matter what. And after the temptation ended, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,” as we read in Luke 4:14.

The highest position we can have in this world is to be a servant of God. Moses, Joshua, and many others were exemplary servants of God, but Jesus Christ was the servant par excellence. We must emulate him who hated wickedness and loved righteousness. If we do so, we will be set ablaze with fire from heaven and the objective power of the Spirit of God will manifest itself in our own person, as it did in the person of Jesus Christ.

I believe that there are certain sins we love, which act in us like mistletoe. Mistletoe is a parasite that sucks up the very life of the tree it grows on, eventually causing the tree to die. That is what happens to us when we try to practice sin as Christians. The sin sucks up our vitals and we become dried up and powerless. We may even enjoy this kind of life, which is a little bit of God and a little bit of the world. In fact, this is a popular kind of Christianity in today’s world.

But such a life will not work. If you want the objective power of God to be made manifest in your life, it requires holiness–holiness of thought, holiness of imagination, and holiness of deed. It requires separation from sin and the world and to say, “No matter what, I will serve my God.” This is what it means to be devoted to God.

I pray that God will help us to consecrate ourselves in the service of Jesus Christ and delight ourselves in the great honor of being servants of the Most High God. I pray that we will put away all known sin and present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Then we will experience the objective power of God and be able to bring forth spiritual children for God.

4. We must be enthused about the gospel. In order to bring people to Christ, we need to study, understand, and glory in the gospel. We need to know what the Scripture is speaking about. We must be unashamed as we declare the gospel of God wherein is revealed the righteousness of God. We must be convinced that the gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation.

The heart of the gospel, as Paul says, is Jesus Christ and him crucified. We must speak, then, about the double imputation demonstrated in the gospel. First, we must say that Jesus Christ took all our sins upon himself on the cross, thus imputing our sins to him or putting them into his account. We must explain that if this is true, positionally, then, there is no sin in us; rather, it has all been placed upon him. Then we must explain how God imputes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to us, putting it into our account.

This is the gospel by which we become children of God, and therefore we glory in it. We cannot deny the gospel and talk about salvation. That is why we denounce false church growth based on a gospel of entertainment. The true gospel will not entertain us; rather, like a two-edged sword, it will cut us and will convict us of all our sins. But then it will do one more thing: it will assure us that, as we trust in Christ, our sins will be forgiven and we will be saved by his righteousness.

We must be literate about the gospel. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel; glory in it! Delight yourself in it, so much so that you will get up early in the morning to study, to read, and to immerse yourself in it. Eat the gospel, and let your spirit be strengthened and nourished by it. Listen to the gospel and allow yourself to be rebuked, corrected and adjusted by it. Believe the promises God makes in the gospel and practice its commands. Do these things so that you can bear spiritual children unto God.

5. We must have faith in God and his promises. What is faith? It is dependency upon God–total negation of ourselves and total embracing of our God, so that we trust in him, embrace him and believe him. If we have faith in God, then, when he says, “Rejoice, O barren. . . .burst forth into singing,” we will rejoice, knowing that God is speaking to us.

Every promise in the Bible is a promise from God to us. We must receive them and make them our own. We must tell ourselves, “God is speaking to me and he cannot lie. This God is my God, my Savior, and my Redeemer, and I will believe what he says is true.”

Do you believe the testimonies of men who lie? How much more we should believe the testimony of our God who cannot lie! We must have faith in God.

I believe in the God who took care of Elijah. Remember how God provided for this man? First, he commanded the ravens to feed him because he was a servant of God. Then God commanded a Gentile widow–a poor, miserable woman of Sidon–to provide for him. Later, God commanded the angel to provide for him.

Our God is for us and we must believe in him. God is not a man, and he will not lie or equivocate. He will not make a promise and then deny that he said it. We can count on his promises and so, like David, we should pray, “O God, do what you have promised!” and expect him to act.

6. We must pray. I was reading C.H. Spurgeon the other day, and he said, “If you do not pray, you are not born again.” The first sign that a person is born again is prayer–not the public prayer when people are there, but private prayer to God.

I am not speaking about praying like the child who prays because his father wants him to do so or even makes him pray. I am speaking about one praying because he is born of God. It is like breathing. If you are alive, what will you do? Breathe. If you are alive in Christ, you will pray, crying, “Abba, Father.”

If you are born again, you have a heavenly Father and the first thing you will do is talk to him, with full assurance that this heavenly Father is very much interested in you. May God help us to pray with passion and inspiration, praying specific prayers, asking God to help us. And when he does help us, let us pray again, thanking God for his help and care for us.

Let me tell you, I’ve been praying all these years, and know that God is certainly a heavenly Father. He cares for us, so we must not fear or be anxious. God himself wants to hear from us and answer our prayers.

7. We must share the gospel. If you love Jesus Christ, you will share the gospel because the gospel speaks about Jesus Christ. Jesus told us, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” As Moses lifted up the brazen serpent upon a pole so all people could see and be saved, let us preach Christ. Let us share Christ as the one who was crucified in our place–the God/man. Oh, the love of God demonstrated in behalf of us! So we must lift him high by sharing the gospel.

How do we share the gospel? There are some things we must understand. First, we must love people. Start loving your children, your friends, and your neighbors. Love them, in spite of all their problems. Yes, they are not Christians. They are wicked sinners who may do all kinds of crazy things. But God loved the world, and so we must first love sinners in our hearts.

You may ask, “How can I sympathize with sinners?” Just remember the words, “Simul iustus et peccator.” This is a description of a Christian: justified, yet, at the same time, a sinner. If that is true of us, then certainly we can sympathize with sinners and love them in our hearts.

Second, we must pray for sinners. Pray for them on your knees, beginning with your own children. Pray earnestly, asking God to have mercy upon them and save them.

Third, we must do some good to sinners. Do something that is tangible–some good deed–because love is not just theoretical. It should manifest itself in some good deed done to unbelieving people.

We must do good deeds in the context of sharing the gospel. Constructing hospitals and running orphanages are good things. Feeding the poor is a good thing. Starting educational institutions is a good thing. However, always be aware that such good deeds will not save anyone. You must also share the gospel, and that is why I said you must be literate in it and glory in it. When you do that, you will speak about Christ so easily. Share the gospel.

In Ecclesiastes 11:1 we read, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days, you will find it again.” This is speaking about farming and the time it takes to produce a crop. The writer is not saying to take the seed, throw it upon the waters of the field, and expect a crop tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. No, he says, “after many days.” Our job is to share the gospel and God will give the increase in due season.

In that context, I would encourage you to use certain tools as you share the gospel. Some of the tools we have recommended here include the booklet, Ultimate Questions, by John Blanchard (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press, Darlington England: 1999), which is available in many languages besides English. Then there is Basic Christianity by John R. W. Stott (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), a well-written book for those who are interested in serious investigation of Christianity. I also recently read again a book, The Soul Winner, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (New Kensington, Pennsylvania: Whitaker House, 1995), written by a man who baptized about fifty thousand people during his lifetime, not as a result of preaching a false gospel but as a result of preaching the Reformed faith in nineteenth century England. There is no better book about soul winning.

If you don’t have these tools, there are other tracts that are available also. Have something with you always and stamp it, or write in it, a name and address or telephone number. Pray over these materials as you put them into the hands of people. Ask God, “O God, use this little paper or booklet or book to save people. You alone are the Savior. You alone are the one who can speak to the decomposing Lazarus, ‘Lazarus, come forth,’ and he came forth. Use these materials to speak to those who are dead in their sins and trespasses, that they also may be raised from the dead.” Salvation is nothing less than raising the dead.

Be Serious About Sharing the Gospel

Charles Spurgeon once asked the question, “Have you ever gone into the bedroom of your daughter–let’s call her Jane–and knelt down, sharing the gospel and praying for her salvation?” I want to ask you that also. Have you done that–going into the room and privately praying just for that child, consistently, and regularly, saying, “I am going to pray now for your salvation?” Imagine what that child is getting into her mind as she sees her father and mother praying for her salvation. Why must we do this? Because heaven and hell are true, and so in this life we must make preparation for the life to come. This is serious business, brothers and sisters.

When Spurgeon asked this question, there happened to be a woman present who had a daughter named Jane. Right after that sermon she went back to her home, went into the bedroom and said to her daughter, “Jane, I want to pray for your salvation.” The girl said, “Mother, I received Jesus Christ six months ago, and I was wondering when you were going to share the gospel with me.” Oh, there was great hugging and kissing then, and later on as well, when the mother brought Jane to Spurgeon to share the good news.

Parents, have you prayed for salvation with your children? Or are you too busy working hard to buy designer jeans and shoes and everything else, while depriving them of that which is of eternal value? May God help us to change, and begin to pray for our own children’s salvation!

Give Me Children!

Finally, let us consider a statement found in Genesis 30:1: “When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children or I’ll die!'” Now, that is a foolish statement of Rachel’s, but I think we can change that and say to the Lord, “O God, you promised, ‘Rejoice, O barren. Sing, burst into song, you who never travailed.’ I am a barren person, but you have made a promise to me in your word. Give me children or let me die.”

Do you think God will not hear that prayer? He will give you children, and you will hear their cries and laughter. And when you bring them for baptism–oh, what joy! What joy, when you hear them singing with you, when you hear them praying with you, when you see them taking Holy Communion with you. Then you are reminded of what Paul said to Philemon, “I appeal to you in behalf of my son, whom I fathered when I was in chains–Onesimus. Yes, he was unprofitable before, but he is profitable now.”

May God bless us with children–sons and daughters in Christ–in the days ahead. Oh, you will have to stretch out to the left and to the right to accommodate the crowds, but what a joy to rub shoulders with born again people, people of God, who are set ablaze by the Spirit of the living God.

May God–the Holy One of Israel, God Almighty, our Maker and Husband–perform a miracle and grant us children. This is not about our ability but his. May he deal with our deficiencies and cause us to conceive and give birth. May he help us to rejoice as we see the church grow. May he enable us to be counted among the wise who lead many to righteousness and shine as stars forever and ever. And when he does this, may we sing and shout and praise our wonderful God for whom nothing is impossible. Amen.