Isaiah chapter 66 Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her Rejoice for joy with her all ye that mourn God Almighty has great regard for those who mourn in Zion. Our Lord Jesus speaks to the souls who mourn over their sins, says, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

If God calls you to mourn your sin, to mourn what you are, to mourn your evil nature, as well as your evil deeds, If God causes you to mourn yourself as you hunger and thirst after righteousness, God will graciously cook for you with the blessed knowledge of the removal of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus specifically tells us that he was sent into this world to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

But in this text, in Isaiah 66, 10, the Lord God speaks to another class of mourners. Not those who mourn for themselves, but those who mourn for others. These are men and women who mourn not so much for their own sins as for Jerusalem, for the church and the people of God. Those who love God's church share her joys, and when she passes through the fires of persecution, the troublesome waters of discord, the deep valleys of spiritual declension, and the weary nights of heretical darkness, they mourn for her.

Whenever the church of God languishes, they Those who love Zion carry in their hearts the care of the church and the kingdom of God. Loving Christ, they love the church. And loving the church, they mourn for her when she's in trouble. Just like any of you parents would mourn for your children when you see them in trouble, no matter how old they are, no matter what their lives have been. They're your children and you mourn for them because they're yours. You have a special relationship with them. And those who love Christ, loving his church, mourn for her when she's in trouble.

Gracious souls bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ. So that We don't live unto ourselves. Believers do not live isolated, self-centered lives, but rather they live as a community of believers in the kingdom of God, and they mutually carry one another's loads, and they mourn for those who are in trouble. Mourn for Zion when she's enduring difficulty. Gracious souls, mourn for Zion when she languishes. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That is to say, we pray for the peace of God's church and kingdom. And we mourn when that peace is disturbed.

It is to you who mourn in Zion that our text is addressed. This is God's word to you, here in verse 10. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice with her, rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her.

Now, as I read this text over and over and over again in the last few weeks, I'd read it and I thought, this seems such a contradiction. How can we both mourn for Jerusalem and rejoice for her? How can we both at the same time mourn the circumstance of the church and yet rejoice with her as we rejoice in the promise of God? And yet the text clearly gives us a call. It is a call for mourners in Zion to rejoice. Though we have great calls to mourn for the church of God, great calls for lamentation, great calls to experience grief, as we deal with things as they really are in this world. Yet we are called of the Lord to rejoice and he assures us that we have reason to rejoice with Jerusalem. There are three things clearly established in this text of scripture. I want to deal with them clearly. I trust God will give me grace to deal with them with efficacy to your heart and mine and to those others who shall hear this message.

Let me begin by showing you that all who are born of God love the Church of God. The Lord speaks here and says, Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her. I don't need to remind you, I'm sure, that Jerusalem in the Old Testament, that city called the Holy City, was but a type and representation of the Church of God. We are nowhere commanded in the Scriptures to rejoice in and to love that physical city Jerusalem over in Palestine. That is utter nonsense to talk like that. We are commanded of God to love his church and Jerusalem represents the church of the living God, the kingdom of God.

Matthew Henry very properly wrote this. All that love God love Jerusalem. They love the Church of God, and they lay its interests very near their hearts. They admire the beauty of the Church, take pleasure in communion with it, and heartily espouse its cause. Certainly this was the case with David. Turn to Psalm 84, if you will. As you read this Psalm, remember what the probable circumstances were. David, by Absalom's revolt, was now banished from Jerusalem. By Absalom's revolt, he was now driven from the worship of God and from the people of God.

This man who was so accustomed to being in Jerusalem, the city of God, where the tabernacle and the altar of God were established, where God was pleased were accustomed to be seen. But now David is banished from the outward communion of God's saints. He's banished from the fellowship and the worship of God in his tabernacle. And look at what he says in Psalm 84, verse 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts.

Now if you could get a visual picture of the tabernacle, there wasn't a pretty desirable thing about it. It was just a tent. That's all it was. It was just a tent and not even an attractive tent. It was just an ordinary tent with a tent-like fence around it that could be picked up and carried from one place to the other. But David saw more than that tabernacle. He saw God in that tabernacle. He saw what that tabernacle represented. It represented God Almighty incarnate in Jesus Christ the Lord and the sacrifice by which we are redeemed was represented there. And there God was worshipped there. God met men between the cherubim upon the mercy seat. God met men in the forgiveness of sin.

And as David was banished from this blessed privilege of public worship, he cries how amiable Oh God, how desirable are your tabernacles. The fact is, none of us here, none of us here, the preacher included, will ever really understand what a blessed, blessed privilege we have in this place, in this house, to come together and worship God Almighty until God takes it from us. I pray that he never shall. But only when we are withdrawn from the privilege do we understand what the privilege was. So many times you will hear a man or a woman when their husband or wife is deceased, God's taken them. They will say, I never really realized how important she was to me. I never really understood how important he was to me. And the fact is, until men and women are robbed of the privileges, they seldom understand the greatness of the privilege.

David says, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth. for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a nest, found a house, and to swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, my God." He expresses himself in such a way as to indicate that he envied the sparrow and the swallow who could fly into the tabernacle. and nest above the altar of God.

Blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will still be praising thee. Look in Psalm 122. Psalm 122. The psalmist says, I was glad. I was glad. When they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. We're determined not to be moved from the house of God.

Jerusalem, the church of God, is built as a city that is compact together. She's built by God's hand and thus built properly. Whether the tribes go up, the tribes of God's chosen, The tribes of God's Israel. The tribes of God's elect. The tribes go up to Jerusalem to the church of God. The tribes of the Lord under the testimony of Israel. acceptance with God and the forgiveness of sin. All the tribes of God's elect come up to Jesus Christ and they come through the tabernacle of God. They come through Jerusalem, the church, the city of the living God.

The tribes go up as a testimony to give thanks under the name of the Lord. There are set thrones of judgment. The thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's not talking about asking God to give peace between the Jews and the Arabs. That's just not likely to happen except in Christ. They're not going to cease the body. It's just not going to happen except in Christ. He's talking about praying for the peace of God's church. Pray for the peace of the church. They shall prosper that love thee. peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and my companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. I remember years ago, Brother Mahan preaching from this passage. We were together in a conference, I forgot where, but I jotted down what he said. He said, I was glad there was a place to go. Glad there was a house of the Lord for me to go to. I was glad somebody asked me to go. Somebody cared enough in my soul to ask me to go with them into the house of God. I was glad God gave me a will to go. And then he said, I was glad God gave me the ability to go.

I was preparing this message this afternoon, working on it, and I thought about Bobby. He's always here. He's laid up with that bum leg now with arthritis in his knee. Just imagine what an aggravation it'd be to that man. Never to be able to come again into the house of God. Never again to be able to go. Oh, I was glad I had a will to go and the ability to go, and I was glad I did go. I met God there. I heard His voice. I saw the Savior there. I met with His people there.

You see, the fact is all who love God love His church. All who love Christ love the church which He purchased with His own blood. All who are indwelt by the Spirit of God and love the Spirit of God love the church which is a habitation of God through the Spirit. I've said this before. but it will bear repetition and I'm not in the least fearful of being contradicted. The most important aspect of your life and mine as a believer, now listen to me, the most important aspect of your life and mine as a believer is the worship of God in the public assembly of his saints. Let me give you six or seven reasons for that statement. Reasons why all who love God love his church.

Number one, this is the place where the Lord God has promised in the person of his son to be. Larry Chris, there's nowhere else in the world where God said, I'll be there. And nowhere else Noel said, well he's with us everywhere. Yes, but he promises that where two or three are gathered in his name, there am I in the midst of them. So that whenever we come together as the assembly of God's saints in the name of Christ, Jesus Christ meets with us as we gather in his name.

Secondly, this is the place where his family meets. I had the privilege this year for the first time since I was a boy, going to a family reunion with my mother's family. Every year when they have it, I always thought about it. I always thought about it, but I refused to absent myself from the house of God or from the ministry of the Word to go. I won't do that. I just won't do it. But this time, I had an opportunity to go down and preach for Rupert and go to a family reunion as well. What a blessing privilege. Meet with family. Just meet with family. But I'm going to tell you something. I'm fully aware that my relationship with those people, as far as I know, with every one of them is temporary. It's not going to end. My family. This is my family. Judy Estes is my sister forever. Forever. Bob Pache, my brother, forever. This is where God's family lives. And I want to be honest with you. God, make me honest with you. This family is a heapsight more important than that family. Heapsight more important. This is permanent. This is permanent.

Thirdly, this is the place where God's honor is maintained. This is a place where God has established his name. And where God's honor is maintained through the preaching of his word.

Fourthly, this is the place where his glory is revealed. The temple. You remember when Solomon built the temple and he prayed and the Lord came into the temple. And the glory of the Lord filled the house. This is the place which is called the temple of God. You are the temple of the living God. That's what Paul wrote to the Corinthians. And he's not talking there about individual believers, though certainly that's the truth. But in 1 Corinthians 3, 16, he's declaring that as we come together in the name of Christ, we are the habitation of God through the skin and the temple of the living God, where God shows forth his glory.

Fifthly, this is the place where God publishes his word. He speaks. sends forth his word out of Zion. I don't know how to say this in such a way as not to give the enemies of God reason to or an opportunity to twist everything I say to their advantage, but I'm going to say it for your benefit and let men do with it what they will. If ever you hear from God, if ever you hear from God, you're going to hear from God through the lips of a man preaching the word of God in the house of God. That's how God speaks to men. I know that which you read in the scriptures in your private study or as you're going down the road meditating, God calls you to hear again that which has been expounded to you. But God instructs and teaches and speaks to his people through his word in his house, in the assembly of his saints. That's the method God uses for the publishing of his word. This is the place where the ordinances of divine worship are upheld, practiced, and maintained. Every church, every assembly of truly redeemed sinners, every assembly of men and women who truly worship the living God might rightly be named Beth-El because this is the house of God. This is where God dwells. This is where God meets

Now secondly, I have to tell you this also. All who love the church of God have reason to mourn for her in these dark, dark days. This is not something that must be proved. You who love Christ and his church know it without me saying a word. I'm not sent here to persuade you to mourn for Zion. I'm here with a word from God to you.

I am not by nature a man of morbid disposition. I'm not a whiner. I'm not a naturally morose, melancholic person. I am not given to depression. So just push all those things out of your mind. Those are not the basis of what I'm saying this evening. But I am a man with a heavy, heavy heart. I carry a burden that is relentlessly increasing. A burden that never abates and never ceases. It never lets up. It never leaves me. It is a burden for the church of God in this day. I cannot imagine living in a time when the care of the churches is greater or heavier than at this day.

I know that none of you have exactly the same burden. I'm aware of that. You're not pastors. You must not be expected to sense things as I sense them. And you must not be expected to be as sensitive to things as I am. I don't expect that. And yet, I know that you, many of you, have the same concerns as I do to some degree. While we must not, and I trust we do not, despise the day of small things, we do sense that we're in a terrible mess. We're in a terrible mess. The time has come, Peter says, that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it began at us, who obey not the gospel of God.

Now I'm sure I don't understand all the full implications of that statement by Peter, but I do know this, insofar as the outward visible professed church is concerned, it is obvious to anyone who has even slight spiritual understanding and spiritual discernment that we're in trouble. Perilous times have come, not only in the world, but in the church, and we have reason to mourn.

The most obvious reason for mourning is the departure of the professed church of Christ from the gospel of Christ. I can take you in my lifetime, in my lifetime, 47 years, 46 years, and these 46 years in time that I have experienced myself just in the past 30 years.

And I can show you churches where once the gospel was preached and preached with power to the saving of men's souls, where now poison is dispensed to the souls of men for the destruction of their souls. I can show them to you literally right now. The entire denomination which were once valiant for the truth, have now departed from it altogether.

The toxic waste of Arminian free will works religion is everywhere promoted in the name of God, in the name of Christ, in the name of preaching the word of God to the destruction of men's souls. And many who give lip service to the truth of the gospel never bother to preach it. and are going to do all they can to avoid being identified with them.

I can give you a crystal clear example. A few years ago, the fellow moved down here, another denomination, claimed to believe grace. So I looked him up. I've talked to him a number of times, visited him a number of times. Encourage him to come and fellowship with us at conferences. Encourage him to come around. He won't miss a meeting at the local ministerial association for anything under the sun. But he's not about to be identified with this message.

And I know why. Because he just gives lip service. And I may just send him this tape tomorrow. He just gives lip service. Just gives lip service. And lip service is no service. No service.

Men say, well, I thought my pastor, he said he believes that. I wonder what does he preach? What does he preach? Those who are God's servants declare God's truth. They don't just talk about it in the coffee shop or in the study. They talk about it in the house of God. And they talk about it plainly so folks can understand it.

The fact is, if there's any hope for this generation, if there's any hope for the church in our day, there must be, God give us, there must be a return to the foundational truths of Holy Scripture. Let's quit talking about nonsense and find the place where this book has its proper authority. This is the Word of God. This is our creed. Now we say we believe the book. We say we believe the Bible from cover to cover. Preach it. Make certain that the Church of God is ruled by it. It's our responsibility to do so. Make certain that this book is held in highest honor and esteem by bowing to its doctrine and bowing to its precepts.

We must return to the plain forthright declaration of the gospel doctrines of God's sovereignty, man's depravity, Christ's effectual atonement, the Spirit's irresistible grace, God's unconditional election, and the certain preservation of God's elect and infallible security being saved by free grace. We must return to declaring it. People say to me all the time, well, you've gone overboard. And I say it's time somebody did. It's time somebody did. The Word of God must be declared with clarity and with power in our day.

When the pulpit is weak, ceremonialism is always strong. And the ordinances of the Lord's house are perverted into idolatrous sacramentalism. Yesterday, Doug and I were out in Lexington, yesterday afternoon, We drove by, we were going out for lunch, and we drove by a church close by to where they lived. I said, I never noticed that church there, but I did read the sign as we went by, just kind of quick. And Doug said to me, he said, that's the radical liberal Presbyterian church in town. I said, you didn't have to tell me that. First time I read the sign, I knew what was wrong with that place. They were advertising communion. We're having communion service tonight.

That's the central thing. in the idolatrous worship of men when the Word of God is pushed aside. The ordinances become sacraments and men presume that by experiencing and practicing rites, rituals, and ceremonies, they draw near to God and have communion with God. You folks remember when we rented the church over here for Faith's Wedding, the church building over there, they call it And that pulpit over here, another little one over here, right in the center. Huge communion table. Oh, that's not what they call it. They call that an altar. Because the ordinances have been perverted into sacraments by which sinners obtain grace.

Now, please understand me. It needs to be understood in this day. Baptism is not a sacrament by which grace is conveyed to your soul. Baptism is the confession of faith in Jesus Christ by whom grace has come to us through God's hand or by God's spirit from God's hand alone. You understand that? By baptism we're simply confessing our faith in him. Getting into the waters of baptism does absolutely nothing for you if it is not preceded by faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is confessed in baptism.

We're about to eat the Lord's Supper. We're going to take the bread and the wine. Each of you for yourself. Each of you who believe. This is for you. This is for you.

I deliberately try to avoid having anything to do with that more than is necessary. Pass out the elements and I don't normally even speak concerningly for one reason. I don't want you to ever have any idea that somehow there's priestcraft involved in this. Only the holy preacher can come and give us this. I'm not your priest. I am not your priest. These ordinances are established and It is nothing other than the remembrance of Christ. Oh, it is the blessed remembrance of him who loved us and gave himself for us.

But don't ever imagine that by eating the bread and drinking the wine, you are eating and drinking grace. It's not so. Don't ever imagine that by eating the bread and drinking the wine, you are eating and drinking the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Other than symbolically, it simply is not so.

Another cause for grief and mourning is the increasing worldliness and spiritual declension of those who profess faith in Christ. Now I've come close to home. I'm not talking now about folks in other churches. I'm not talking about the Arminian free willer, the works monger, the legalist. When I talk about the liberal, I have great concern for you. If I speak out of order, I beg your forgiveness. What I say now in the next few minutes doesn't apply to you. There's no need for you to take offense. If it doesn't apply to you, it's not intended for you. If it does apply to you, it is intended for you. God help you to hear it. These are things I see. Things for which I mourn, things that cause my heart constantly to cry out to God for you.

I'm neither refusing nor condemning. Speak to you as a father would his children. I see far too much. far too much. I started to say too much worldliness because that's what I mean, but I don't want to be misunderstood. I'm not talking about the way you dress. I'm talking about where you go. And that love of the world has led to far too much neglect of the worship of God. Seldom ever do we meet All of those are members of our assembly here, Sunday morning, Sunday night. And usually the reason is not because they've got to work. Usually the reason is not because somebody's sick and they just can't make it. They just chose to be somewhere else. I wonder, I wonder if you would choose to be somewhere else if you knew that tonight, the last time you'll ever get to meet in the assembly of God's saints and hear the word of God preached. Maybe you would, I don't know.

And I see far too much half-heartedness in the gathering of God's saints to worship. It concerns me greatly. that folks rush in and rush out rush in last minute rush out as soon as things are over so little discussion of the word so little comment about message to one another but immediately as soon as the seed is sown it seems that satan scatters other things around so that the word that is spoken is quickly forgotten so Let us take the things of God seriously. And I don't mean come in here and have a pretense of being sobriety in my soul. I hope you know me better than that. But I do mean we're coming here, we've come here tonight with the hope and very real possibility of God speaking. whether he speaks a word of great comfort or whether he speaks a word of terrible rebuke. If God speaks, let us hear God.

I see far too much self-centeredness. Let's not be careful for our own things. Don't be nearly as concerned about how things affect you as how they affect other people. Don't be nearly as concerned about how this is going to look upon you as how it's going to look on somebody else.

While God has given us, and I'm so thankful for it, and thankful for the love he's given us, one for another, let us pray. I mean, love each other so that we are as quick to come to one another's defense as That's what I'm talking about. So that we're as quick to jump to one another's aid as you would be if one of your children had fallen down and was hurt. Just speak a word of encouragement, kindness to one another. There's far too much evil speaking and far too little edifying speech.

And help me. God help me, to speak an encouraging word, to speak a word to lift them up, to speak a word to help them along their way.

I see far too little concern for the souls of men. I'm thankful I've seen some stirring in that regard. I hope in my own heart as well as yours I pray God will give us a heart of compassion, far too little concern for the kingdom of God around the world and the presence of the gospel. We have a responsibility, a privilege and a responsibility to the kingdom of God and to our generation, not just to the folks who lead in these walks.

God has given us opportunity, as Rex mentioned when he prayed a little while ago, God's given us such opportunity. Oh, I know that. But with every opportunity, God gives tremendous response. And my soul mourns as well for the barrenness of the church's womb in our day. I'm fully aware that all around us churches are swelling every day, I know that. I know that hundreds of thousands have this day been brought into religion by slick soul winners who have made them twofold more children of hell than they were before.

That's too blunt for you, I'm sorry, let's just wait here. If everybody in Danville saved who made a profession of faith this morning, if everybody in Danville saved who's named on a church roll, who've been talked into some kind of decision, Danville, Kentucky would be a different place to live. I got news for you, the religion of this world is utter nonsense. It is an utter delusion, an utter delusion.

But where the gospel of God's free grace is preached, where the gospel of Christ conversions of you in our day. Real, genuine conversions of you. Either that's the case, or you and I don't know God. One of the two. One of the two. No possibility. There's no possibility that two men worshipping at different altars and worshipping different gods are both saviors.

The fact is real conversions of you. And I'm not just talking about one or two churches here and there. As you know, I travel the length and breadth of this country every year. And I preached in numerous, numerous foreign countries. I correspond with preachers and believers literally around the world every week. And I have to tell you that things are the same everywhere. Few in our day are being converted. And I know it grieves you as well. We have reason to mourn.

Much more could be said, but that's enough. I want to close my message with a better thought. In our text, the Lord God calls for all who are born in Zion, for all who are born in Jerusalem to rejoice. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her. All ye that love her, rejoice for joy with her. all ye that mourn for her.

Now if God calls for us to rejoice, then we may be assured of this last thing. All who mourn for God's church have reason to rejoice and be glad with her.

In this text, In the context, I have shown you that the prophet Isaiah was talking specifically about the deliverance of Jerusalem from her Babylonian captivity. And that's what the prophecy is about in its immediate historical context. And yet, the deliverance didn't come for many, many years after this prophecy was made. But while Isaiah writes the word, God is speaking in advance of the actual deliverance and says, REJOICE! As though the deliverance had come already?

The prophecy in its spiritual context is talking about the coming of Jesus Christ, the accomplishment of redemption by his shed blood, and the gathering together of God's elect in Jesus Christ the Lord. And that didn't happen for many hundreds of years after the prophecy was made. to rejoice as though it were already done.

Now how can that be? How can Jerusalem, in the midst of her bondage and captivity, rejoice as if she were delivered? How could these people be called upon to rejoice in the accomplishment of redemption when it had not yet been accomplished?

Faith takes those things which are not as though they were and rejoices in the promise of God. These folks were here commanded to believe God and thus to rejoice. And in exactly the same way, you and I, believing God, call those things that are not as if they were, because we have the security of God's promise that they shall be.

Notice what he said in verse nine again. He says, shall I bring the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord? Shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb, saith thy God? Verse 11, he says, Rejoice now that you may suck and be satisfied with the best of her consolations, that you may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

In the text God has given us his word of promise, and he calls for us to so thoroughly trust him, to so completely believe him, that we look upon his promise as already accomplished, and rejoice in its fulfillment while we yet wait for him to do what he promised.

In the light of that, let me show you that we must mourn for God's church in her present circumstances. Though we must mourn for her, we must not be despondent regarding her. While we lament our present condition, we must never despair of the success of Christ and his gospel. The battle is not ours, it's the Lord.

This much is certain. God has not changed. name, as compassionate a name, as he was on the day of Pentecost when he died. God's purpose has not been frustrated, it has not been hindered, and it never can be. What if the Jews believe not? What if some believe not? Has the purpose of God fallen to the ground? Oh no. God's purpose is being accomplished.

The providence of God is still at work for us. All things still work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose, and His purpose is still the salvation of chosen sinners. That's what God and His providence is doing. That's what He's doing. I don't know what tomorrow holds. I don't know whether the Lord may be pleased to split the skies and come right now to gather us into glory. or whether we shall be left upon this earth, his church left on this earth another hundred years or another thousand years, I have absolutely no idea. But I know this, everything God is doing, he's doing according to his purpose of grace to save his people. And all God's elect shall be saved.

Other sheep I have, our Lord said, them also I must pray. They shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold of shepherds. This is what I'm saying to you. God's kingdom will come. God's will shall be done on earth, even as it is in heaven. God's name shall be hallowed, shall be sanctified everywhere by everything. And I want no more than that. No more. I want the salvation of God's elect. The establishing of His kingdom. I want His will done. His name honored. And I can settle for no less. Nothing else will satisfy me. Nothing else will cause me to rejoice.

And blessed be God, I know these things shall be done. So while we mourn our present condition, and recognize the evil of our own lives, and ask grace to repent and turn from the evil, rejoice, ye that love Jerusalem. You who mourn for her, for all is well. And God Almighty is doing His will. He is saving His people. He is glorifying His name. And in the end, everybody shall see it accomplished according to His purpose. Amen.