The sermon, titled 'Warning for Complacent Women,' delivered by Scott Brown, centers on Isaiah 32:9-20. It addresses the specific sins of complacent women in Isaiah’s time, highlighting their ease, complacency, and disregard for God's voice. The speaker draws parallels between these women and the church, emphasizing that such complacency leads to spiritual barrenness and judgment. The sermon also discusses the broader context of woes against Judah, particularly the danger of seeking help from Egypt, representing worldly solutions. Despite the dire warnings, hope is offered through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, which can turn barren wilderness into fruitful fields. The sermon calls for repentance, urging women and the church to rise up and embrace the peace and righteousness that come from trusting in God rather than worldly comforts. It concludes with a call for personal and communal revival, emphasizing the role of women in spiritual renewal.

Reading from Isaiah 32 verses 9 to the end of the chapter. Rise up, you women who are at ease. Hear my voice, you complacent daughters. Give ear to my speech. In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women, for the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come.

Tremble, you women who are at ease, Be troubled, you complacent ones. Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, And gird sackcloth on your waists. People shall mourn upon their breasts, For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful wine. On the land of my people will come up thorns and dryers, yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city. Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted, the forts and the towers will become layers forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks, until the spirit is poured upon us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places, though hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in humiliation. Blessed are you who saw beside all waters, who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your mercies upon us. Lord, we are a forgetful people, but you remind us. Lord, you remind us of your promises and you remind us of your warnings. Lord, I pray this morning that we will take heed, Father, that we will listen keenly to your voice once again. Lord, I pray for Scott Brown that you would give him such unction to open your word, to break open the nuggets, to feed us richly from above.

May his words be your words, Lord. Father, I pray that the bread of life indeed would give us life today. In Jesus' name, amen. Well this passage brings us to the end of five woes against Judah. The sixth woe is against Assyria itself.

But here Isaiah has been speaking to us of five particular woes, particular sins of Judah. And we've been dealing with these woes for many, many weeks. In fact, the woe that we have been engaged in now, and we're coming to the end of now, is really the woe of trusting in Egypt, the woe of going down to Egypt for help, going down to Egypt for advice, and how harmful it is to do that. And now in Isaiah 32, 9 through 20, there's an identification of a particular sin in the women of Isaiah's day. And as we examine this sin, we'll find, you know, that It's very apparent that the sins of the women in Isaiah's day didn't end in the seventh century.

They're common to all women. And God speaks directly to these women and He calls them to repent, But he doesn't stop there. He gives the cure, as he always does, the power of the Holy Spirit. There is hope. The story does not end with a woman who is trusted in herself and who's, as a result, lived in her complacency.

You know, God, I feel like God has been wrestling with us for many, many weeks. This will be the sixth sermon on woe to those who go down to Egypt for help or advice. And I can't help but think that God is jealous for our souls. One of the beautiful aspects of the jealousy of God is that He longs to wean us from everything that would harm us, everything that would take us away from the blessings that He has for us. He really does desire for his people a life of living under the shadow of his wings.

People like in a weary land under the shadow of a rock getting living water from heaven. This is what we found really in the first part of this chapter. You have this king and he reigns in justice and righteousness and what what happens to the people Who trust in him? Well, they're protected from the wind like in a hiding place they're they're covered from the tempest in verse 2 and and they're enlightened God opens their eyes to see what's going on around them so it's a beautiful picture but God is jealous for our souls and so in his jealousy he uses many different things to bring us into a better place. And He does chastise us.

This is why trials come into our lives. Because He's jealous for our souls, He wants to wring that thing out of us that's poisoning our hearts, causing us to think wrongly about everything. And there's so many of those things innocent so he spends a lifetime you know bringing one thing after he might bring the Word of God and it's preaching he might bring a song he might bring a rib very very difficult, heartbreaking thing into your life. It is true that God will bring heartbreaking things into your life, but He does it so that He might express his love to you, that he's jealous for your soul, that he desires to have your whole soul to be fixed upon him, that he would, in this case here, that he would deliver you from Egypt, he would deliver you from the advice of Egypt, He would rescue us from the bankrupt and unprofitable ways of Egypt that always disappoint you, they always tear you up, they always put poison in your soul. And your only hope is to turn from Egypt.

And this passage shows that, particularly with sins of women, and how God will rescue women from Egypt. It's the power of the Holy Spirit. So it's a chapter that's really very frank, it's very upsetting and detailed, you know, in that way it shows us who we are. We don't like to see that very much. But on the other hand, you know, as God is so kind, in His jealousy, He not only holds out the rod, he also holds out his hand of blessing so that he might cure, so that he might draw us to God.

So we've gone through these woes that began in chapter 28. The first woe is the woe of pride, the second is spiritual fraud, and 29 secret sin, and 29, 15. And then we've been dealing with seeking advice and help from Egypt since that time. It's been quite a long, long season. So let's begin in verse 9.

These first three verses define the first section. You'll see it in your outline. The focus is on the women. So let's read verse 9. Rise up, you women who are at ease.

Hear my voice, you complacent daughters. Give ear to my speech. In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women, for the vintage will fail. The gathering will not come. Tremble, you women who are at ease.

Be troubled, you complacent ones. Strip yourselves and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists." So as it's been very apparent, the sins of Judah have mainly been tied to the men, right? I mean, for chapter after chapter, the leaders of Judah are getting hammered. God is jealous for the men. So jealous that he would command and cajole and confront and comfort them.

But now the focus turns from the men very clearly to the women. The women are also culpable. The women are not as white as pure driven snow here in Judah. He speaks of it particularly in verse 9. Now if you look at verse 9, I think it would be wise to look back at verse 8.

Because there's a contrast being made. He's been speaking about the power of the kingship of Jesus Christ on a man's life, and really on a Christian's life. And he says, behold, but a generous man devises generous things. So he's been speaking about a person who's put Egypt behind him and is Seeking the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, this wonderful King who's like a rock in a dry and weary land. What happens to you?

Well, there are a lot of things that happen to you, but he ends in verse 8, that it gives you a generosity. You're not thinking about yourself anymore. You're devising plans. Maybe it's for your family, maybe it's for your church, maybe it's for your business and your friends. You're devising plans because your king is Jesus Christ and he changes the way that you think about everybody, your business, your church, your family and everything.

So you have this picture of generous men where their hearts have been broken open. And then he turns to women. And as if he's saying, well, there are women whose hearts have not been broken open yet. And here's what they look like. So there's this contrast here between the generous men as a result of the leadership of Jesus Christ and these escapist, shallow, pampered women in Jerusalem whose hearts haven't changed yet or perhaps they really are grieving the Holy Spirit.

So this is a call to repentance and it's a repentance that's characterized by very, very specific actions and there are several verbs in this section related to women. I'll just read it. Rise up, hear, tremble, be troubled, strip off your clothes. These are verbal commands to women who are in this state. So, and all of these are signs of the trouble that they are in.

And he identifies their sins. And there are three very clearly defined sins of women that he itemizes here. And the first is that they are complacent. Second, they're at ease. And third, they're unmoved by the voice of God.

So we'll take these one by one. The first is that they are complacent. Now, before we begin to identify these and try to unpack them, We happen to be in America in a society where women are leading more than ever in men. I mean, I'm sorry, women are leading more than ever in our society. You have women in leadership far, far more than there were when I was a boy.

And actually, you know, the leadership of women is overtaking men in many industries today. It's really remarkable. You look at college education numbers and rising levels of women in leadership, particularly industries, it's pretty astonishing. So things are really changing. You know, over the years, I've spent probably most of my time talking to men and dealing with biblical manhood.

And this always has to do with dealing with the sins of men. I think I probably spent most of my life dealing with the sins of men as a pastor. And here We recognize that God also has something to say about womanhood, and particularly the sins of women. And Deborah was talking to me quite some time ago, and she said to me, Scott, how come The only thing you ever talk about is the sins of men. She said, we women need to hear some things as well about our womanhood.

So I've been thinking about that for a while. It might have been a year and a half ago she said that to me, something like that. So anyway, this first characteristic of the sins of women is that they are complacent. Now this means that they are, they're undisturbed in a negative sense. They should be disturbed, but they're not.

And they are secure, but they should not be secure. They're overconfident in their situation. Their confidence is in the wrong place they're secure without God my view is because of the context They too have gone down to Egypt for help and for advice. And they have the same problem that men have. Now this word that Isaiah employs here is almost always used in a bad sense in the Bible.

It's used in Job 12.5, it's used in 2 Kings 19.28, it's used in Psalm 123 verse 4, it's used in Zechariah 1.15 and in Amos 6.1. But it's used almost always negatively, but not always negatively. In fact, in this very text, the word is used positively in verse 17. Please look at verse 17. And it's translated in verse 17 in the word assurance.

Do you see that word assurance there? The work of righteousness will be peace. And of course, we'll get to this section in a minute, but he's talking about the power of the Spirit of God in a woman's life. The work of righteousness will be peace, so she'll be at peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever. Here's what we learn from this.

There's a worldly kind of peace. There's a worldly complacency that trusts in itself, trusts in the worldly props that she has put up. But there's another kind of complacency. And he translates it assurance here. And it has to do with a godly belief, arresting, a peace in God.

It's a different kind of security. So there's a worldly peace and there's a godly peace. Here, he's been dealing with this worldly peace and will continue up until verse 17. And So these are women who feel secure, that luxury is their end, they're arrogant, they're self-righteous, and they're not worried at all about their own self-indulgence. That's one great sin of women.

They're just not all that worried about their indulgence. They're not all that worried about trusting in Egypt. Alex Motyer, the commentator on Isaiah, explains that they quote, they had no thought beyond their wardrobes. That's how he says it. There was, it was a complacency characterized by the inaction of self-satisfaction.

That's what he's talking about here. And they weren't seeing the urgency to turn from Egypt for advice and for help. They were not taking action. They were not rising up. Their husbands were going down to Egypt for advice.

They were doing nothing. Thank you. They had a comfortable home. Thank you. They were relying on their husbands, thank you very much.

And so they're careless and they don't see what's happened to them. You know, this is kind of unusual for women. Because women usually have some sense when things are going wrong. And the best women will talk to their husbands about it, right? And the nicest women won't be too mean about it with them when they talk to them.

But women are gifted by God to see what's going on and what's going wrong. And many of the wonderful actual even movements that have happened in this world have happened because women have spoken to their husbands. And they've said, this is not right. This is one of the great blessings of womanhood. There's an insight, there's a perception that's remarkable.

It's very, very different compared to a man's perception. This is why it's not good for a man to be alone, because there's this need that men have for this perception. You know, we hear a lot about the passive male, don't we? We've seen much of the passive male over the years if you're a male you you've seen the guy you know you know who he is you you talk to him every day you know you you deal with him every day he is you and he's just like Adam you know he's the passive male we used to call it passive male syndrome PMS you know and it's a problem. Passive males are a real problem, but guess what you have here?

You have a passive female. How about that? And so they're not only complacent, they are at ease. That's the second characteristic. They are at ease.

They are at ease. This is the second manifestation of this sin. They're carelessly arrogant, they're sitting on the couch, confident that everything is right and there are, these women are living in Jerusalem and their hope is not in the Lord at all. And you have to ask, you know, well, yeah, of course they were living in Jerusalem, but are they living in Wake Forest? Like, how about on my street?

Is that possible? You might be married to one. And God has called you to, you know, to wash her and cleanse her by the sanctifying of the Word of God, you know, to help deal with her sins, to deal with her spots and her wrinkles, to work out the wrinkles and the spots that are there. Maybe her husband, you know, who lives with the woman, who has some of this in her soul, and somehow, you know, you see it. You have responsibility, you know, as a husband.

You're the head of the wife. Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. For the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. And guess what? He is the Savior of the body.

So he comes alongside his wife to help her, whatever, when she's living on that street with him. And here, here, these, you have these women who, who are at ease. And what, what, you know, this, this happens to women, it happens to men as well. It starts small. You become interested in worldly things.

These interests blossom. They become the theme of your life. And you embrace these misplaced obsessions and they plunge your whole life into unwise interests. And though you might be actually really busy, but you're really busy about nothing, you are at ease. So Isaiah's revealing the tragedy it is to have shallow and self-absorbed women in your nation.

One of the commentators that I've read a few times on Isaiah is Ray Ortland. It's kind of a devotional commentary. And he explains it this way, quote, The men of the royal court were wringing their hands over Assyria, fretting over a danger that God had already promised to take care of. The women at home can't see beyond the great bargains in their marketplace. They're not worried about anything.

They represent the happiness that will kill us. Earthly contentment with no longings for God." I think Ortland nails it on this here. So the whole world is revolving around her comfort. She's obsessed with her ease. And she hasn't really rejected the world.

John said, do not love the world nor the things of the world. For the world that's characterized by the lust of the flesh, which has to do with these passions and cravings for worldly things, the lust of the eyes, in other words being gripped by images, the things that you see, just like Eve when she saw the tree, it was good for food and it was pleasurable, like Achan when he saw and he coveted, like David when he saw the woman. To see is often to covet. And to covet is often to make yourself irrelevant. Because what you've coveted is nothing.

Which is why the Bible uses the word for idol is really the word for nothing. And so this is what has happened to these women. And then the third characteristic is they are unmoved. They're undisturbed by the Prophet's voice. The voice of one crying in the wilderness.

And she has one great need, and that is to listen to the Lord, but she's not listening. And that's why in verse 9 the prophet says, hear my voice, hear my voice, and give ear to my speech. He's not listening to the voice. You know, the voice is a word that is used in Isaiah over and over again. You know, we're memorizing this one.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, the voice. I think it's a very dramatic phraseology because it helps us to understand the seriousness of the matter but also that God is calling. God is, God does have a voice and He's speaking and He here, I think this morning, desires to speak to women, particularly. But they would not listen. They've been commanded to listen to the voice, but they've been going down to Egypt for advice.

They like the voice of Egypt. And I think one of the things that we learn here from Isaiah is that there are times when women need to hear a jarring voice. And I mean, is it true of any women here today? Is it possible that there are any women here today that need to hear this voice about ease and complacency? And just sort of, well, I've heard this so many times, I don't really need to listen to this.

I believe the scripture is sufficient. I've heard all this stuff. I'm a scholar. I'm here to just sort of gather more information. Well, God actually is dealing with these women because they will not listen to His voice.

And they've gotten so far satisfied with their own lives and their own families and their own ease and they're just enjoying life. But the humble spirit that hungers for holiness and repentance has been dimmed. And I think this is a picture of women who are just kind of going along for the ride. They're not necessarily directly seeking the voice of God for their own wives. It may be that they're the kind of women who are just waiting for their husbands to do something.

You know, if something's going to get done around here, you're going to do it. But they don't really see themselves as forces of spiritual life, as you see in holy women of God. And they're waiting, they're just waiting and waiting rather than seeking the Lord with all of their hearts, rather than displacing the complacency of Egypt to the activity that God has really called them to. Now, you know, there's much more for a woman than simply to be taken care of by a husband. And I hope that this passage makes that very, very plain.

But let's, I think it's important to back up a little bit, to sort of pull back a little bit and look at this whole subject of womanhood. And the truth is that these women, they're only representatives of their society. Egypt is in everyone. And the men have then become experts at looking to the world for help and advice. That's the whole thrust of the culture and these women that Isaiah is addressing, They're just products of their cultures in many ways.

That's why in Isaiah 22 verse 13 we learn that it was a culture of ignorance, self-indulgence. What were they saying? Do you remember those words? Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. The whole culture was doing this.

They were just doing what everybody else is doing in the culture this also is a great trap for women just to have a womanly life just like everybody else rather than to look to the Holy One of Israel for your cues, to very personally and carefully look to the Lord, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, not just your husband's mind, but your mind, so that you would rise up, just like Isaiah is calling these women to rise up, rise up, oh women of God. That's really the call that's here. What could God do with the generation of women who've thrown Egypt away and turned to the Lord with all of their hearts being filled from heaven. We'll get to that later. It's an amazing thing that he says about what can happen to a woman.

It's remarkable. But they have this false sense of security. And you know the truth is that every person, every person seeks security, every person seeks for happiness, every single person does that. But the only hope is that if you seek it in the right place, you seek it in God, you seek it in Jesus Christ. But these women had lost the sense of this.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 3. We'll go back there because this is the second time Isaiah has spoken about the sins of women. And in chapter 3, Isaiah has already spoken here. Find verse 16, if you will, with me. And he's speaking to the very women in Isaiah's day.

The root cause of the problem is in verse 16. Moreover, the Lord says, because the daughters of Zion are haughty, they are haughty, they're high and they're lifted up And they think much of themselves, they desire to exalt themselves, and of course the sin exists in men as well. But you can see their haughtiness and their pride by the way they hold themselves and walk without stretch necks. The way they use their eyes, in verse 16, their wanton eyes, the way they they look when they walk, they're walking, ninsing as they go, and the way they sound, making a jingling with their feet, they're trying to draw attention to themselves they want they want people to appreciate them through through the way that they look they're trying to draw men through their outward appearance So Isaiah has already spoken about this kind of self-indulgent, shallow womanhood in chapter 3. But the Bible speaks of the sins of women.

I'm just going to give you a quick survey of just a few of them, okay? Since Isaiah has introduced the topic, I think it's worthwhile to consider at least some of them. First of all, 2 Timothy 3.6. Here you have a picture of women who are weighed down by their sins. They're just weighed down.

And as a result, They're weak. They have a burden of sin. The sin is overwhelming them. They're hopeless women being burdened with their sin. And they're burdened because they're not repenting of their sin.

And it makes them vulnerable to men. It makes them vulnerable to these men that are being spoken of in 2 Timothy chapter 3. And Paul uses the perfect tense in this about these women who are weighed down by their sins, which illustrates the burden is ongoing and it's seemingly permanent. There are many sins that they're cultivating in their own hearts. And it weighs them down.

And it makes them vulnerable. And then it says, they are led away by their lusts and their impulse. In other words, they're swayed by their internal motivations and reactions and things like that. So when a woman is not repenting of her sins, she finds herself in a cauldron of her own motivations and her her own intentions and she's exalting her own thoughts all the time. But what it does there is it just weighs her down and her only hope really is to repent of her sins.

You know, another sin of women is vainglory. 1 Peter 3, Titus 2, 1 Timothy 2 all address this. This has to do with an over concern for outward appearance and an under concern for the hidden person of the heart. They stand in front of the mirror and the only thing they can think about is themselves. They don't think about God.

They don't seek the work of the Spirit of God to help them understand how they ought to dress and how they ought to present themselves. A third sin of women is found in Ephesians 5, 22 to 33. This is the domineering woman, the woman who is constantly rejecting her husband's authority, constraining her husband's direction, trying to wield so much power. And God has made the head of a woman, a wife, to be a husband and of course that this passage defines what that headship looks like. It looks like the love of Jesus Christ that sacrifices himself for her.

Now men, you know, husbands find that very, very difficult to come to that perfect standard. But the prayer is that they would see when they're not that way and they would turn to the Lord and change their method of headship. Another sin of women is covetousness. The tenth commandment, they see another family or another husband and they wish their families and their other husbands were just like them and they're not content. And they want to try to reproduce somebody else's life rather than just looking to the Lord and crying out to God for holiness in her own heart, in her own home, and in her own world.

There's sins of the tongue, not just in women, but women who move conversations to things that cause unnecessary division, talking about questionable things, making too big a deal about things that really aren't that big of a deal. They sometimes talk to other women and their friends about the failings of their husbands. They dishonor them. So there are many sins of women, just like there are many sins of men. But one of the issues I think here is that you find probably a lack of leadership in the men here, or maybe it is a good leadership, they're leading their women the same way that they are going.

And then I think we should also recognize that this is a sin of the church. If this is a sin that's common to women today, then this would be a sin common to the church. So we wouldn't want to just stop with women. Women are figurative of the Church, because the wife plays the role of the Church. The wife is a picture of the Church.

So when you find a sin of women, you will find also the sins of a Church. So we can't just stop with women here at all. We would be so irresponsible to just stop with the sins of women. Because these sins also are the sins of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The complacency, the ease, the rejection of the voice.

These are the sins of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are our sins here in our church. As we read what Isaiah is saying here, we've got to examine ourselves to ask, how is it that we participated in any of these sins? Is there any kind of complacency in our church? Is there any kind of desire for ease in our church?

And that's what's driving our very schedule, our lives, our thinking, complacency and ease. And we really kind of already heard it. We've heard it, haven't we? You know, we've heard so many sermons, you know, you know, we do believe that Scripture is sufficient. We've, you know, we're kind of different than those other people out there, you know, that don't really have their heads screwed on as straight as us, right?

But we know, no, no, no, the sins, the sins of the church are very, very much like this. And I don't believe for one moment that this message should be directed to all the other churches out there. I think it's supposed to be directed to Hope Baptist Church. I think this is us. I think this is what we do all the time.

We grew up loving Egypt. And Egypt gets into you, and it takes so long for Egypt to come out. It really does. It takes a lifetime. You know, I've been looking at Egypt, different parts of Egypt, and my life for a long time.

But I pray that God would give us such a season of sanctification, of taking another step of recognizing these sins that are so clearly identified here. And then in verse 10, there's this, the reasons to repent are here. In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women, for the vintage will fail, the gathering will not come. So there's a time marker here, you know, in just some time under two years, a year and some days, all of this is going to end. You know, Isaiah doesn't give very many time markers.

This is one of them right here. There's something that's going to happen in not too very long of a time. We're sitting here in probably 702 BC and within a year, within a few days, these things will happen. And the invasion is coming now. You know, Sennacherib is probably at this very moment destroying city after city.

By the time Sennacherib gets to the gates of Jerusalem in 701 BC, he's already destroyed 46 cities. So the people in Jerusalem are quaking in their boots. I mean, they are running down to Egypt to try to get some military support. But now Isaiah is saying, it will all fail. It will all fail.

Snacchor had already carried away everybody in the northern kingdom. Now the southern kingdom is next. So that's this time marker. The vintage will fail, the gathering will not come. And so the abundance that they've been looking for will be taken away from them.

And in verse 11, he issues another command, tremble you women who are at ease, be troubled you complacent ones, strip yourselves and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists." And this is just a call to repentance. If you see any of these things in your life, recognize what you should do. There is something you can do. You're not hopelessly lost in this. Tremble and be troubled and repent.

You know, this matter of stripping yourselves and making yourselves bare and girded in fat cloth, that's a sign of mourning. In other words, what Isaiah is saying is mourn. In other words, identify what you should mourn about. Recognize what you've done and make your way back. It's not hopeless, but it is hopeless if you do not mourn for your sins.

Everything is hopeless unless you identify the sin. There's no healing without identifying the sin. It will not happen. You can try food, you can try whatever you want. What works is repentance.

That's how we are refreshed. And then the sad result is communicated in verses 12 through 14 in the next item here in your outline. This is a time of mourning for the lost prosperity and He speaks, it's a deep mourning. You know, God does not bless the complacency of these women. And interestingly enough, in verses 9 through 11, he's been talking to the women, right?

Now he's talking about the women. It's almost like Isaiah stands back and now he's going to talk about the whole scene. He's been speaking to them, now he changes. And he's making a commentary on what these women are going to be feeling. And This should terrify women and the church who caught in complacency or ease or are not listening to the voice of God.

It's a deep mourning. People shall mourn upon their breasts. This is a prophecy. The judgment has not come in full force yet. It could mean that the breasts are dry and as a result there's no milk for the nursing babes.

It could mean that the children mourn because there's no milk or it just could be figurative of depriving of the natural things of nourishment. That you know, you don't have the bread of life, you don't have the water of life. And what will you do? What will you do? Women who've loved your complacency, it will be like either a dry breast or a hungry child not able to eat.

That's where you end up. The devil is not very good to his own children. He hurts them so terribly. And the reasons for the morning, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, Verse 13, on the land of my people will come up thorns and briars. Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city, because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted, the forts and the towers will become lairs forever.

A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks." Now, he gives nine really graphic images of what happens figuratively to a woman who will not repent of her complacency. The harm that's there as a result of the vanity and the shallowness. Number one, the pleasant fields will no longer be. The fruitful vines will no longer be. Number three, the thorns and the briars will come up.

That's in verse 13. The happy homes will be saddened. That's also in verse 13. Fifthly, that the joyous city will be turned into mourning. That's in verse 13.

Remember, this was the city, the joyous city, full of noise. Remember back in chapter 22? And Isaiah said, what ails you now? What are you thinking? But the joyous city will be turned in the morning.

They have an appearance of happiness. Number six, the palaces are forsaken. Verse 14. Number seven, the bustling city is deserted. That's in verse 14.

Number eight, the towers are layers forever. In other words, there's just no defenses. This is what happens in that society. Number nine, the wild donkeys in the pasture will be compromised. That's in verse 14.

So this is a picture of the unrepentant. They will mourn. They will not always be at ease in their times. You may be safe today, but you will not be safe in the future. This is very, very much like Revelation chapter 3 in the Church of Laodicea.

They were lukewarm, and the Lord says to them, because you say, I am rich and become wealthy and have need of nothing, do you not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked? I counsel you to buy for me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich in white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. And anoint your eyes with ISAB that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent." So this graphic picture there up to verse 14 just shows the result of it all.

And this is what every woman needs to know. Her vanity will take her to a place. She does not want to live. But God doesn't leave his people in this condition. And he uses a word here in the next verse, in verse 15.

The word until. Until. And this is where all the hope is. Until, until God pours out His Spirit. This is their only hope, the pouring out of the Spirit of God.

You know, these words in Scripture, like the word until, are so wonderful. You know, the Apostle Paul uses a similar word. He uses the word but, in the book of Ephesians. You are dead in your transgressions and sins, but God, but God. And here it's until the Spirit comes.

And this is really the heart of the hope that really is here. Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest, then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. Here is the most wonderful element of God and the word of His grace and the whole message of the Bible it's this your reversals are not final your reversals are not final and he's he's speaking about the Holy Spirit of God.

They're not final because of the Spirit of God. And he is speaking here about the Day of Pentecost. He's speaking about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He's speaking of the fulfillment of Joel chapter 2 verse 28. And he's speaking of what John the Baptist spoke of in Matthew 3, 11 where he said, Indeed, I baptize you with water under repentance, but he who is coming is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is a picture of the person who has turned to the Lord and who has been filled with the Holy Spirit. This is why Acts 1-8 says, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth." Now in this passage is also an itemization of the images that describe what the Holy Spirit does. Now we saw in the previous section about what happens to a woman when she goes down to Egypt for help and she's complacent and at ease and it's a terrible result.

Now we get a completely different kind of list. I've counted 11 of them. 11 graphic images that speak of the power of the Holy Spirit. And the first is in verse 15, until the Holy Spirit is poured out from on high. First of all, it is the Holy Spirit.

It is the Spirit that makes holy. Secondly, it is the Spirit, and the word here he uses is ruach, or breath. And the word is used of the giving of life. It's the same word that Moses used to describe how Adam became a living being, that the breath of God came upon him and he became a living being. It's the breath of God that gives life.

This very word, Ruach, has to do with life. It brings life. It brings things back to life. It makes things alive that never even were. It's a marvel.

This is what God does. He's so kind. He takes the senseless, irrelevant woman and He breathes life into her. The term is used for replenishing the earth, all manner of newness of life in the Bible. And so I think what he's saying is that it can be made new.

Breath, where you had no breath, and the breath makes you alive. To be alive to God, dead to sin and alive to God. That's really a woman's only hope. That's our church's only hope, to be dead to sin and alive to God. Thirdly, it is poured out.

Do you see that? It's poured out. And the terminology that Isaiah is using has to do with exposing something. Like when you pour something out and it goes all over everything, you know, somebody bumped their glass yesterday at our table. It just went absolutely all over everything.

You could see it everywhere. It wasn't a glass, but now it was revealed. It was poured out, exposed, circulated. You know, it goes everywhere. It's poured out.

In other words, it's blessedly distributed. It has an effect. When a woman does this, when a woman's is filled with the Holy Spirit, it makes everything different for her. She is poured out. And it's a beautiful thing.

She's not hemmed in like in a glass. She's spreading out the beauty of holiness as a result of her holy affections. And then number four, it's poured out upon us. You see the word upon us, Like a bucket of water poured out upon your head. It just covers you.

And then fifth, it's poured out from on high. It's something that comes from outside of us. It's from heaven. It's Superior and it it comes from God it comes like Jesus Christ You know he was with his father and he passed through the heavens and he came and he Gathered a family together and he poured his spirit out upon them It's poured out from on high and Six it bears fruit there's transformation And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field. And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.

Here's this transformation of both forest and field. And then eighth, it brings peace, verse 17, and the work of righteousness will be peace. And the very word that Isaiah chooses here is the word shalom. Shalom, what a beautiful word. It means peace and satisfaction in every possible way you can imagine.

From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, the peace of God that passes all understanding. This is what happens to a woman who turns away from Egypt for advice. This is what happens to a woman who turns from her complacency, who turns from her ease, who turns her ear to hearing the Lord. She has peace. You know, if you're a woman that's not at peace today, I would suggest that the root cause of it is some sin related to these things that we've been talking about.

Because the Spirit of God brings peace. If there is no peace, there is no spirit of God. I hope we understand that. Jesus said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives I give unto you, because there is a kind of world that the peace the world can give you. It's a kind of peace.

It's a dark shadow that might seem so helpful, but it isn't really helpful at all, because it's not His peace. Anyone lacking peace, any woman here not at peace, any woman not at peace here today, recognize your only hope is the Holy Spirit of God as a result of turning from your sins. You know, women say, well, if my husband would change this, I could be at peace. If our income could be that, then I could be at peace. If my friend would stop saying this, I could be at peace.

But all those things are a fraud. There's only one source of peace. It comes from the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. And this is the tragedy of going down to Egypt for help. You end up knowing what it means, peace, peace, that there is no peace.

There will not be peace in any woman's heart without the power of the Holy Spirit. The night is like it. It brings quietness and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people shall dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. This quietness is the famous tranquility.

He says that they're going to dwell in quiet resting places and that they're gonna have a peaceful habitation. What does that mean? Let me help you to understand what it means by saying what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that there won't be trials in your life. It doesn't mean that you won't have to move because you lost your house.

It doesn't mean that at all. It means that when you lose your house, or when you have the trials, you will be carried along in peace because Jesus Christ is your sustenance. You're not resting on Egypt or news from Egypt or help or advice from Egypt. But God is your peace. Tenth, the Spirit anoints with a sense of satisfaction.

Verse 17, this is the word assurance from the same word of complacency. There's this sense of satisfaction, of the good side of complacency, of trusting God, knowing that God is your Redeemer, knowing that God is your Protector, knowing that God will complete all the work that He began in you, that He will carry you. Just like Moses said to the children of Israel when they were walking through the wilderness, the howling wilderness with the fiery serpents and the lions and all these things, he said, it was there I carried you. I carried you like a father carries his son. And that's this word assurance.

It's this sense of satisfaction and knowing that you you all you need to do is take the next step God will take care of the rest of them 11th it gives peace in the storm a peaceful habitation though verse 19 though hail comes down on the forest and the city is brought low in humiliation. In the midst of the harsh forces, the judgments, the troubles, God gives peace. In the midst of the hail that's thundering down the humiliation of the city, God is going to protect His people. This is the guarantee. This is absolutely true.

He will protect His people. You know, by the way, there is a command in the Bible to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. And you know when the pressures rise, where do you go? Where do you go?

Do you go down to Egypt? Now the Apostle Paul used that phrase, be filled with the Holy Spirit in a different context. Because when the Apostle Paul was speaking to the Ephesian church there at Ephesians 5, he was speaking to a people who also had trouble going down to Egypt. But Egypt has different names. I think that's one thing we've learned.

Egypt has a lot of different places, doesn't it? Well, the Apostle Paul said that, don't trust in alcohol. Don't go down to alcohol. He says, be filled, do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words, don't go to alcohol for your health.

Go to the Holy Spirit for your health. And then he speaks of the result of it. But be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. And here you find the result of the filling of the Holy Spirit to be very distinctly communicated. First, you sing to one another.

You sing. Secondly, you're giving thanks in all things. Thirdly, you're submitting to one another. Fourthly, as it moves on in the text, the husband loves his wife like Christ loved the church. And the wife submits to her husband.

And fifthly, the slaves submit to their masters and honor them. That's in chapter 6. But the Apostle Paul began in Ephesians 5.18 to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Everything after it is an illustration of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit in your marriage?

Read Ephesians 5.22-33. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit in your marriage? Read Ephesians 5, 22-33. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit in the church? Read verse 18 in Ephesians 5, and 19, and 20.

So we find here that the Spirit of God brings hope. And then finally we find the blessing of sowing and sending. Verse 20. There's this great reversal that's taking place. The field has become fruitful.

The wine is good wine. Because Jesus Christ always gives the best wine last. Right? The fruit of repentance is so communicated. And then he says this in verse 20, the final verse, The final verse, blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.

This is An illustration of the people of God, what they do during times of calamity. They sow and they send. They're working. These are two forms of work. The people of God are at work doing the work for the kingdom.

And there are two kinds of work that are identified. Sewing beside all waters. Sewing beside all waters. Sewing has to do with working for the harvest. It's figurative of the work of the church to seek and to save the lost, to heal the brokenhearted, to practice hospitality, to love the brethren, to create a family life that's consistent with the kingdom of heaven.

This is sowing. You do that every day. You know, what does a complacent woman do with her life? She sows. She gets back in the game and she sees the beautiful elements of her calling that she's to be sowing, sowing these marvelous things beside the waters, sowing in good soil.

What's good soil? It's the soil God gave you. And then it's sending out the feet of the ox and the donkey. These are work animals. They're sent out to labor.

In the midst of the judgment, the people of God are to keep on working. A woman should be like doing what Solomon said, cast your bread upon the waters. Keep casting it out. I mean, do we have any women who are weary here today? I mean, there are any tired women in this room?

My guess is, like, if you're over 18 or 25, you probably struggle with weariness and tiredness. I've never met a mother that didn't really struggle with being tired. I've never met one. That's just like the church, isn't it? We get tired.

We get tired. Our only hope is to be enlivened by the Spirit of God, by turning our ears to the voice of God, by loving His ways and His commandments, by working in His vineyard. You know, here are a few things that I think we should consider from this. As a church, are we anything like these women? Are we longing for our ease?

Do we just want to have as little resistance from the Kingdom of Heaven and the Church of Jesus Christ, and maybe the elders that are forgiven to you, as least resistance as you can get from that? Is that possible? Now, I've never felt like this was a lazy church at all, by the way. I don't. But we're here in this text.

I'm supposed to preach this text, right? So, cast your bread upon the waters. I mean, you just never know. Maybe somebody seems like they're really serving, but really in their heart it's not real. They're back in Isaiah 29, woe to those who have fake worship.

But are we anything like that? You know when people are like the church, the church becomes a place of entertainment and consumption, rather than a place of labor. People would rather be entertained and fed than work. But the church really is designed for work, to cast its bread upon the waters and to send out the work animals into the streets. This is what God has called us to do.

You know, I mean, is that here's here's another consideration, you know, is there a need for the for the women of our church to be to rise up, rise up the women of God? How How do you do that? Oh, we'll give you five more jobs and rise up to the occasion. I don't think that's what we're talking about here. I think the rising up happens by an internal power of the Holy Spirit in a woman's heart.

It doesn't happen by giving her more jobs and say why don't you be more faithful with that. I don't think that's the message here at all. It's why don't you be filled with the Holy Spirit And then let God lead you. He will lead you. Turn to Him.

Trust in Him. Hunger for Him. If you're not hungering for Him, cry out, Oh God, give me hunger. Replace the hunger I once had. Give me hunger that I've never had, O God.

And then finally, women, don't forget your role in the revival. Don't forget that God has appointed and anointed you to be filled with the Holy Spirit in a time of calamity. I think it's been very plain to us that Isaiah is speaking to a nation that is very much like our nation. We're in a time of judgment and we need a time of revival. The only hope for the church, the only hope for your family, the only hope for this nation is that a revival will take place.

And I just encourage us to recognize the important place of women in a time of revival, that they have husbands that are going down to Egypt, they should not be going down to Egypt. They should take responsibility for their own souls and cry out to God to be faithful in every way that they can. Maybe that their husbands would be one without a word, but at the same time, there is at least something that their husbands can be one too. Because the heart of a faithful woman who so longs to be a daughter of Zion, who longs for the work of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of Jesus Christ in the world. And this is the call of Isaiah to the women.

It's the call of the women of Pope Baptist. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, your word is so jarring, it's embarrassing, it's difficult, it's exposing. But I thank you, oh Lord, that you show us who we really are so that we with unveiled faces can behold the glory of Jesus Christ to be transformed from glory to glory. Oh Lord, I pray that you would give that to us in our church.

Amen.