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Okay, Isaiah 61 and verse number 2, it says, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. The title for the sermon tonight is, Comfort All That Mourn, Comfort All That Mourn. Now, maybe tonight you're a little upset, I don't know, a little cast down, a little discouraged. I'm not sure where you are at life, I hope everyone's rejoicing, I hope everyone's, you know, on fire, excited to be in the house of the Lord, but the truth is, when it comes to our lives, there are many times that we can get discouraged, a little cold, a little bit, you know, wayward maybe, you know, the world lets us down, or you can just let yourself down, you might find yourself in sin, and you're discouraged at the fact that you keep struggling with things that you know you should have overcome by now. Well, anyway, the chapter that we have here in Isaiah 61 is, To Comfort All That Mourn. All right, so the message today is, should bring you comfort, okay? Please take these words, apply it to your life, because it will give you comfort. Now, let's start there in verse number one. You're probably very familiar with this passage, very famous. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. All right, so when these words are being said, of course, Isaiah is saying these words, he's speaking about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him as he preaches, as he writes Isaiah 61, but the reason this verse is very famous is because this is also prophetic of Jesus Christ. When he came and he spoke in the synagogue, we're going to look at that passage a bit later on, he said these exact same words referring to himself. And so while it is about Isaiah, in a much greater context, these are words of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, so even Jesus had the Holy Spirit upon him. It says, So Jesus says, this is why I've come to this earth. Number one, he's been anointed to preach good tidings unto the meek. Now, of course, the term good tidings for us is the word gospel. The word gospel means good tidings or glad tidings. And so Jesus is preaching the gospel. Who is he preaching the gospel to? Unto the meek. See, the people that receive the gospel are not the proud. The people that receive the gospel are the meek. The meek especially speaks of yourself being lowly. Again, the proud are like, I'm good enough to go to heaven. That's what the proud says, right? Surely God will accept me when you actually realize, no, I'm a sinner in the sight of God. I've disobeyed the Lord God. I deserve hellfire. That's someone who is meek. They lower themselves compared to God's standard. You realize, boy, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. That's why the glad tidings of the gospel applies to the meek. The meek are the people that are going to receive the gospel. You know, sometimes I hear about people that say, you know, to my family, my friends, they just won't hear it. You know, it's pride. And, you know, I won't say give up on them. It's just that sometimes people need to be humbled. They need to be brought down low in order to then be able to receive the gospel. Now, if you've received the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I believe all of you have, at least not the little ones, but most of you, I think all of you have, right? Then the following should also be true for us. Christ did not just come to preach the gospel. What else did he come to do? He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted. Like I said, tonight you might be mourning. Tonight you might be discouraged. Tonight you might be broken hearted, right? Especially when people betray you, when you feel like people stab you in the back, all right? You can have broken heartedness. Like, how can these people do these things to me? You know, many things can cause us to have a broken heart. Broken relationships, you know, quite often causes broken heartedness and this is, again, the reality of life. If you've not been broken hearted, you will be. But here's the thing. Christ is the one that has sense to bind up the broken hearted. So if that's your condition tonight, you go to Christ and say, Lord Jesus Christ, I am broken hearted. I am broken. Lord, can you tend to my wounds? Can you be there to comfort me and to empower me to do something for you, to walk in your paths, to continue in life's journey? Can you please help me and can you please bind me? You know, so that is one of the, you know, not just preaching the gospel. Jesus wants to add further to our lives now that you are saved. What else does this say? To proclaim liberty to the captives. You know, the moment you got saved, you were given liberty in Christ Jesus. Now, I talk about this a lot because I believe your Christian life must be or should be a life of liberty. All right? If you feel like, man, my Christian life is just, you know, I feel like I'm just in a prison cell. I just can't do anything. You're not doing the Christian life properly. You know, I'm telling you now, I feel great liberty in my Christian walk. I feel much freedom, you know? Now, when it talks about liberty, again, we're not talking about the liberty to sin. Though you do have the liberty to sin. It's free will. If you want to do that, I mean, you're going to have to deal with the chastisement of the Lord. You understand all that. But within Christian living, there is liberty. All right? What I often say is that the boundaries that God does not want us to walk beyond are sins, right? What the Bible clearly lays out as sinful conditions, you know, breaking God's laws, transgressing His word, that's clearly sin. But if you're not transgressing God's word, you're not sinning. All right? And the reason I bring this up is, I've been an independent Baptist since I was about 20 years old, right? When I attended my first independent Baptist church. I love independent Baptists. I love the honor that they give to God's word. I love that so many churches, you know, strive to preach the gospel to the lost. You know, I love the traditional methods of worship rather than bringing worldliness into the church and trying to promote, you know, the church through worldly means. I love the honor, like I said, that's given to God's word within the independent Baptists. But sometimes within the independent Baptists, I find almost like a cultish mentality. I'm not saying the independent Baptists are cults. I'm not saying that whatsoever. And I don't believe, at least the good pastors, I don't believe, at least the good pastors, they don't want to turn their churches into a cult. But sometimes, you know, you come across certain circles within the IFB and you feel like people are stuck in a cult. And what I mean by that is, it's not, again, not that the church is a cult. The way they conduct themselves in Christian life is cultish. It's like the pastors are this. So I have to do that. No. Look, if God's word says do this, you do God's word. Sometimes, and I know, I talk about this a lot, because I see it's a problem, so I have to talk about it, because no one else does, you know, where sometimes I might be preaching, right, and then I say, about that passage, I say, you know, in our family life, we apply that passage like this. Sometimes that we, pastor's family applies it like this, sometimes people interpret that as, oh, that must be God's command. So I have to apply my family like that. All right, and you start becoming followers of men. And your wives try to be like pastor's wives. And your husbands try to be like the pastor. And then you look at your kids, and you try to measure your kids to the pastor's kids, which, by the way, is a huge pressure on pastor kids. It's weird, all right? It's cult-like mentality, and I see it all the time. And then these same people, it's like they can't move. They're too afraid to step out of line, you know, out of fear of being called a reprobate or something, right? Being called out or something. Look, and sometimes brethren come up to pastor, I'm struggling in this area, and, you know, what do I do? And I say, what are you doing? It's like, well, this. And I'm like, dude, you're struggling, and you're trying to maintain this position in your life or what have you. And sometimes they ask, so if you don't do that, do you think you're in sin? Oh, yeah, I'm in sin. Okay, show me in the Bible where it's a sin. Oh, it's not there. Again, what is sin? The transgression of God's laws. Show me in God's laws that you are transgressing. I'm not transgressing. All right, you've got liberty. You don't have to do that, or you don't have to not do that. There is liberty. Stay within the boundaries of God's laws, God's commands, and you'll find much freedom, much liberty in your Christian life. But if you're just trying to be like a pastor or a pastor's family, it's not liberty, okay? Because I'll give you another example. I believe in homeschooling. I believe it's the best thing you can do, all right? I used to go to a church where many of the mothers did homeschooling. Now, before we chose homeschooling, it wasn't even a biblical idea. This is before I even got married, before I had any kids. I listened on the radio, because, you know, back then, and there was this American former high school principal that was promoting homeschooling in Australia. He was going around doing talks. And I was listening, and it was talking about all the benefits on homeschooling, and I said, you know what, man, after all those benefits, you know, your kids don't have to deal with the peer pressure. They don't have to be taught junk. You know, it's not as costly as well. You don't have to worry about uniforms, and you don't have to worry about, like, many aspects of the school system. I said, you know what, based on these positive attributes, I want to homeschool my kids. You know, this was a decision that I made because I think it was the best thing before I even got married. And to this day, we still homeschool our kids, right? Well, sometimes, you know, well, eventually I went to a church where pretty much every parent was homeschooling their kids. And you'd find mothers, and they're in tears, because they're homeschooling their kids. And they're struggling. And they're like, you know, what course do you do? And my wife and I, we just create our own course. We say, okay, what's the best math course that we can find? Let's do that. What's the best English course that we can find? All right, let's do that. Like, we don't have this one school or this one curriculum that we use. We just look at the subjects and find which best of those subjects are best for us. Well, you know, what was happening is that because, you know, I don't want to go into too much detail, one of the pastor's families were homeschooling their kids, and they had a certain curriculum, then many of the mothers felt like, well, if the pastor's kids have been homeschooled, then I'm going to homeschool. Now, I'm not against homeschooling. I'm all for it. Okay? And by the way, there's liberty of how you homeschool. Like I said, the way we do it is we look at each subject, and we determine what's the best out there to use for our subjects for our children. All right? There's liberty. Or you might decide to put them into a long-distance education where they maybe learn online or, you know, there are many different ways to homeschool your kids, but what was happening is there were parents that were struggling, in tears. They just wanted to give up. And we go, why did you choose to homeschool? I can give you the reasons why. I can list all the positive attributes. I can tell you exactly why we homeschooled. We made a free will decision to homeschool. Okay? We weren't following a pastor. Anyway, the response would be, well, pastors does that. And, you know, their kids are turning out pretty good, so I want my kids to turn out pretty good, so we're homeschooling. No. Okay? You have to figure out why are you making your decisions for your family with the free will that God has given you, make those calls, understand what's right, what's the best for you, best situation, because we're not all the same. We don't have to function the same. But what I found was the mothers who were just trying to follow the pastor's wife and her system, they were failing and they were giving up. Okay? And this is a problem within independent Baptists, because everyone wants to be exactly the same. You know, and sometimes, and look, I'm all for ladies dressing modestly. I am all for that. But sometimes ladies get so obsessed. You know, is it three centimetres from my neckline, or is it strapped too thin here, or does it have to cover up to... It's like... Just... There's liberty. Calm down. Don't put yourself in a prison. Alright? Just be modest. Understand that men are physically attracted to women. That's how God made us, so you don't want to show parts that men find attractive. Cover that up. Alright? Follow some basic principles. Cover your thighs, like the Bible says. Make sure your buttocks is covered, right? Make sure your breasts are covered well. You know, don't worry about how many four, five centimetres, three centimetres here or there, about one issue or another. Just relax. I'm being like, there's liberty in the Christian life. Okay? Honestly, there is. And if for you it's just rules and regulations, and you're too afraid to step out of line, you're not doing it properly. Christ came to, became liberty to the captives. And what else? And the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Alright? Of course, when you're being bound by the power of darkness, power of sin, you know, now that you're saved, God gives you the power, the ability to overcome sins. You know that? You know, I know that repenting from sin is not a condition of salvation. Never has been and never will be. But now that you are saved, you've been given the power to overcome sins in your life. You have power to repent from sins. You know, with the strength of God. He delivers those that are in prison, those that are bound, and gives us that power to break free from these things that keep us, you know, in prison. Now, we're looking at Isaiah 61. So what is the 61st book of the Bible? Nah. Well, last week it was 1 Peter, so it should be an easy one. Anyone want to say? Second John. Second John. Second Peter. So, keep your finger there. Come with me to 2 Peter, please. 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. Now, last week we were looking at Isaiah 60. And Isaiah 60 started with, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. So Isaiah 60 started this idea that we were in darkness, but the light of Christ has come, and he delivers us from that darkness. Well, when you look at 2 Peter chapter 1 and look at verse number 19, it says, The day star there is a reference to Jesus. He arises, here's a light that lights up this dark place of sin in our lives. But it continues, so verse number 19 there is kind of like Isaiah 60, but when you read verses 20 and 21, it's kind of like Isaiah 61. So verse number 20 says, So there's nothing that was written in the scriptures where someone just privately came up with their own ideas. Now, before I read the next verse, Isaiah 61 verse 1 started with this, Well, verse number 21 here in 2 Peter 1 verse 21 it says, So the Holy Ghost here is what moved men, gave them the words to speak and to write, and that's what gave us the scriptures. Well, Jesus, when he came on this earth, functioned the same way. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and that gave him the utterance to preach the words that God the Father had him to preach. And so you can see the similarity there in 2 Peter. Keep your finger there in 2 Peter. I'm going to show you some other parallels with Isaiah 61. Now, back to Isaiah 61 and verse number 2. Isaiah 61 and verse number 2. It says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So that's one thing, to proclaim that. And the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. All right, so again, if you're mourning, you're brokenhearted or something like that today, these are two things that I want you to rejoice in. The acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance. These things are supposed to brighten your day. All right? Now, like I told you, these are words of Jesus Christ. So let's have a look at that now. Come into Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, please. Luke chapter 4. And while you're turning to Luke chapter 4, I'll just read it to you again from Isaiah 61, verse number 2. The two things that are to comfort those that mourn. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. Well, look at Luke chapter 4 and verse number 17. Luke chapter 4 and verse number 17. So this is a day where Jesus goes into the synagogue. And it says in verse number 17, And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet, Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel. There it is, right? The glad tidings or the good tidings. Preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. And look at verse number 19. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he ends there. What about and the day of vengeance of our God? So he gets up to verse number 2. Back then, it wasn't divided into chapters and verses. But still, Jesus did not finish the sentence. He got up to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and stopped. But we know that he continues and the day of vengeance of our God. So it's not that Jesus did not want to preach something controversial, but he was making a point that these words that were spoken about of Isaiah was about him. And we know that, well, we have the hindsight of living after Christ, so we know that not only did Christ come 2,000 years ago, but that Christ is coming again. His second coming. And you know, in the Old Testament scriptures, sometimes the coming of Christ, the first coming and the second coming, kind of were blurred. And in many ways, Isaiah 61 is blurred. So now we understand when he reads to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, we know that's his first coming. We know that's Christ's coming. This is what is acceptable to God. This is the time when the Messiah must come and give his life for us. But then we know there's a second coming and the day of vengeance of our God. So what brings Christ to start that millennial kingdom that we looked at last week begins first with a day of vengeance. God pouring out his wrath on this earth. All right? So, let's go back to 2 Peter, the 61st book of the Bible. 2 Peter 2, please. 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 and verse number 9. 2 Peter 2 and verse number 9. The Bible reads, Until the day of judgment to be punished. All right, so the day of vengeance of our God is also a day of judgment where these ungodly people will be punished. Come with me to 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3 and verse number 10. 2 Peter 3 and verse number 10. The Bible reads, But the day of the Lord will come. Remember it's the day of vengeance? For the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. The elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. All right, so we start to understand, boy, Christ's coming is a big deal. All right? This is not some mild man of birth in Bethlehem's manger. No, Christ is coming and before he sets up his kingdom, it's a day of vengeance, a day of wrath, a day of punishment, okay, for the ungodly. Now, again, this stuff, I don't know if it cheers you up, but it's supposed to, okay? It's supposed to comfort all that mourn. And the reason it's meant to comfort you is because living in a wicked, sinful world is hard on our souls. It's hard on the new man, all right? And it's bothersome. I don't know about you, but I get bothered. I don't even like to think about abortions because it makes me sad, honestly. I don't even like to think about the LGBT crowd that's out there doing it. I don't even want to defile my mind thinking about it. Like, if I start thinking about the wickedness in this earth, you know, and the love of money and, you know, the lack of care for God and the lack of care for salvation and eternal things, it just, it can make me sad. And so, hey, you know what? Instead of worrying about the wickedness in this world, I know one day God's going to come and sort it out. His judgment's going to fall. His wrath is going to fall. It's going to be his day of vengeance, and he'll sort it out. And then we have the blessings of a thousand years where we don't have to deal with all the garbage that we see today. So that should cheer you up, all right? And I've already explained to you last week that you're going to be there for a thousand years. You're going to walk this earth, this wicked earth, all right, being blessed by the presence of Jesus Christ, and it's going to be wonderful. It's going to be a wonderful thousand years on this earth. Even if all your 70, 80, 90 years on this earth is miserable, if you're saved, you're going to have a great thousand years on this earth with Jesus Christ. So this is why it's supposed to give you comfort, not just that Christ came and saved us, and that gives me a lot of comfort, but one day God's going to sort out this mess, this mess of a world that we live in. Can you come back with me to Isaiah 61? Keep your finger there in 2 Peter. Now this, man, I never really, I never even, I didn't know this until I started this chapter, you know, for the sermon today. But this is really interesting. Verse number 3. So again, the day of vengeance about God is when it's after the rapture, God begins to pour out his wrath. The seven trumpets and the seven vials, okay, that causes a lot of destruction, okay, like it says the heavens are going to burn with a fervent heat. It's just going to be scorched earth, okay, when Christ comes back. And then in verse number 3 it says, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes. Now, you know what, before I keep reading, I just want you to remember that. So those that are mourning, we're going to go to Zion. Christ is going to rule from Zion for a thousand years, Jerusalem, okay? And he's going to give to them beauty for ashes. Because when the day of vengeance comes, when God's wrath gets poured, it's going to be ash. The earth's going to be really destroyed, okay? Now, what's really interesting about this, like we're comparing 2 Peter, right? Come back with me to 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2, please. 2 Peter chapter 2. And verse number 6. The Bible says, And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly. So the reason the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped out was because of their homosexuality. Okay, these cities were turned to ash. And this is an example to anyone that wants to live that lifestyle, that their lives are going to be turned to ash, okay? So we know these cities were destroyed. Now with that in mind, I just want you to keep that in mind until we get to verse number 4. Come back with me to Isaiah 61. Let's read that again in verse number 3. So point unto them that mourning Zion, so yeah, we're going to be there in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes. So we already saw last week that Jerusalem's going to be rebuilt. Gold and silver and, right, instead of wood, a frame made of wood, it's going to be frames made of brass, whatever it was, I can't remember all the descriptions that we had. Alright, God's going to beautify Zion. It was, it's ashes, but it's all going to be beautified. And all of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified, that they, that's people, might be called trees of righteousness. This might sound familiar to some of you. Yeah, I want you to turn there, but you guys know Proverbs 11.30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that win of souls is wise. Alright, so the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. The one that wins souls, the one that brings the tree of life to people, eternal life, as we give people the gospel. Well, for those that live in Zion during this time, it's going to be wonderful, and they might be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. So, this tells me that in the millennium, lots of people are going to get saved, alright? Like, this is going to be the best soul-winning experience that any of us have. Okay, because everybody that did not die during God's wrath, everybody that did not take the mark of the beast, okay, after they learnt not to take the COVID shots, they're like, I'm not taking the mark of the beast now, next time, whatever, I don't know, whatever, right? But those that did not do these things, they're going to go into the millennium, okay? Many of them are not going to be saved, so they're going to need to hear the gospel. They're going to have to understand who is this guy that came down from heaven on a white horse, and is now ruling over the whole earth. You know, God, Christ, is still going to need the tree of righteousness, okay, to get out there and to preach the gospel to these people in the millennium. I believe many of them are going to be saved. But, we saw that Sodom and Gomorrah, if we look at the two passages, were turned to ash. Now, it's so interesting, because if you keep going there, look at verse number 4 in Isaiah 61, verse number 4, it says here, and they shall build the old wastes. So when God's vengeance destroys the earth, all the cities that got destroyed, wiped out, they're all going to be built. They shall rise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Again, when God pours out his wrath, man, it's destruction on the earth. We know that the city of Babylon, the mother of harlots, is going to be wiped out as well, okay? These places are all going to be turned to ash. But, what I drew your attention to earlier was 2 Peter 2, verse number 6, talking about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah turned into ashes, right? Now, here's what's really interesting. Come with me to the book of Ezekiel. So you're there in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, okay? Come with me to Ezekiel, chapter 16. Alright, so just four books to your right. Ezekiel chapter 16, or three books to your right, I should say. Ezekiel 16, please. And, you know, I don't have time to go through all of this, because it's just too much information. But Ezekiel 16, again, deals with the millennium. Christ's ruin on the earth for a thousand years. And, again, I just discovered this today, as I'm looking at passages, comparing scriptures, okay? Ezekiel 16, look at verse number 55. It says here, it's talking about Judah. When thy sisters Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. This is about the millennium, okay? So Samaria and her daughters, whatever cities that were part of the Samarian area, and hear about Judah or Jerusalem, Sodom has been referred to as one of her daughters, because Judah became quite wicked itself as well. But God is saying that even Sodom is going to return to their former estate. These waste cities that were turned to ash over the years, in the millennium, they're going to be rebuilt once again. I don't know about you, but that blew my mind. I was like, what? Even Sodom? Right? Yeah, even Sodom. Now, obviously, the wicked people of Sodom, those that lost their lives, they're burning in hellfire for eternity. They're not going to return. But the people of the millennium, they're going to have all these cities to live in, to be part of. They're still going to be nations. People are still going to live their lives. They're still going to have jobs to work, et cetera, et cetera. But Sodom is going to be rebuilt. Amazing, okay? In the millennium of Jesus Christ. Again, that was new to me. I don't know if that's interesting to you. All right, let's go back to Isaiah 61 and verse number 5. Isaiah 61, verse number 5. Now, what we're about to read ties into the previous chapter. In the previous chapter, we saw that the nations, the Gentiles, the foreigners, were going to help rebuild Jerusalem and the walls of Jerusalem, right? The manpower is going to come from the nations. Well, the same thing applies here. Verse number 5. And strangers, and strangers means foreigners, shall stand and feed your flocks. And the sons of the alien, and alien is a non-citizen, okay? Not aliens from space, I mean. And the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vine dressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles. And in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. All right, so again, the other nations, the Gentile nations, are going to come and bring their best and they're going to labor for new Jerusalem. Rebuild earthly Jerusalem and also the Gentiles, they're going to send their servants, they're going to work and they're going to do the blue collar work, right? For the people that live in that land. Now, keep your finger there and come with me to Revelation 5. Come with me to Revelation 5. We must show this. We must show this. Because we live in a strange time where, again, every time I talk about this, people think I hate the Jews. I don't hate the Jews. All right? I want to see them saved. All right? That's all. But many Baptist churches will say, well, see, this is the Jews. The Gentiles, I'm sure you've heard this, the Gentiles of the millennium, they're going to be worshiping the Jews. They're going to be blessing, like it's all about the Jews. Right? All right, well, I get where they're coming from because this is all about Zion. People living in Zion. I already proved last week that's believers of all time that live there and reign from there. But anyway, while you go to Revelation 5, I'll just repeat what verse number 6 said. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. All right? And men shall call you ministers of our God. And ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles. All right, look at Revelation 5 and verse number 9. It says here, and they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain, Jesus was slain, and has redeemed us to God by the blood. Look at this. Out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. All right, before we keep reading, verse number 9. These people that are saying these things, they've been redeemed by God. They say it. By the blood of Jesus, right? Of all kindreds, from all different families and tongues, all different languages that we speak, and people and nation, all different peoples, all different nations, we're all singing this song that we've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. And look at verse number 10. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests. Well, that makes sense. And ye shall be named the priests of the Lord, we saw in Isaiah 61. Okay, hast made us, of all nations, kings and priests, look at this, and we shall reign on the earth. So who's ruling the earth? All peoples that have been saved by the blood of Jesus. All right? It's God's people. God's saved people of all kindreds, of all nations, of all tribes, of all tongues. All right? How many nations do we have even here tonight? There's not even that many of us, but I don't know, there's at least five. Five different nations, maybe more, represented. You know what? And when we rule with Christ, we're going to be made kings and priests, and we're going to be the rulers. All right? And so of course the Gentiles are going to come and work in our vineyards. Of course they're going to come and rebuild our city that we're going to rule from. Makes perfect sense. It lines up with Scripture. Come back to me to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61 verse number 7. For your shame ye shall have double, and for confusion shall they rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess the double, everlasting joy shall be unto them. Okay, double. So for every shame, every persecution that's come your way, you're going to receive double. It's like when you work a job and you get double time. You don't just get your hourly rate, you get double your hourly rates. All right? Well that's what it's going to be like in the millennium. You get your double rates for all the sufferings that you suffered for Christ. You know, I'll just read it to you. Luke 6 22. Jesus says, Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the son of man's sake. Verse number 23 says, Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. So whoever hates you for the name of Christ, you know when we rule, Christ is going to pay you for that, for that effort of going through that suffering, and then he'll pay you double. All right? So, look, serving Jesus is worth it. Okay? He doesn't just pay minimum wage. He pays the double. All right? And Jesus also said that whatever we give up for Christ, we get a hundredfold. Okay? A hundredfold. Not just double. A hundred times your salary Christ is going to repay you. Man, earning rewards in heaven is a good investment. Guaranteed. It's not going to go to zero. Okay? Stock market's not going to crash in heaven. All right? Those mansions last forever. All right? So, man, look forward to building up your treasure in heaven, please. Look at verse number 8. The Lord says, For I, the Lord, love judgment. What he means by that, like you've been persecuted, you've been shamed. God's going to balance the books. All right? God doesn't miss anything. How you've been mistreated. If you're mourning, you're brokenhearted, God sees it. He knows. All right? He'll sort it out. He balances the books. All right? He'll balance the books on this earth or he'll balance the books in eternity. One way or another, the books are going to be balanced and you're going to get double or a hundredfold the rewards. Okay? But he says this, I hate robbery for burnt offering. So, you know, when people brought their burnt offerings, let's say they were to bring the best lamb without spot, right, representing Christ. Well, you might say, well, I don't know. My neighbor's got a really nice looking lamb over there. I don't want to sacrifice it in your mind. So you steal your neighbor's sheep and you offer that as an offering. I'm right with God. Look at me. I've done the right thing. I've done the offering. Yeah, but you're robbed. You know, it's not just a sacrifice. It's your heart condition that God wants. God wants your heart. And he says, I will direct their work in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Just in case you still don't know who's going to rule in Jerusalem, in Zion, during this time. It's the ones that God makes an everlasting covenant with them. They say, who are they? It's the Jews. Come with me to Hebrews 13, please. Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, verse number 20. I mean, it can be the Jews if they get saved, obviously. Okay? But Hebrews 13 and verse number 20. What is the everlasting covenant? Hebrews 13, verse 20. See, some churches will say to you the everlasting covenant is something that the Jews receive in the millennium. No, it's already here. Okay? It's the everlasting covenant of the blood of the Lamb, of Jesus Christ. Okay? Jesus says these words in Luke 22, 20. Alright, so the blood of Christ is this everlasting covenant. Christ also calls this at the Last Supper, the New Testament. And the New Testament began at the death of the testator. But now that Christ has risen from the dead, the everlasting covenant is available today. Don't have to wait for millennium. The moment you get saved, guess what? It's everlasting life. Once you enter the covenant with God, the New Testament, you cannot exit. It's everlasting. It lasts forever. Eternal life, everlasting life. Once saved, always saved. And look at verse number 9, Isaiah 61, verse 9. I hope if anyone's mourning tonight, I hope you're getting excited for the future. I hope it excites you. You're saved. It's everlasting. There's nothing that you can do to ever lose your salvation now. That gives me a lot of joy. You know, when I'm mourning, when I'm sad, when I'm cast down and discouraged, well, I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. Man, whenever I suffer Christ, I'm going to get at least double pay, 100 pay sometimes in some of these areas of my life. And one day all this wickedness is going to end. The day of vengeance is coming. God's going to sort it out. He's going to balance the books. Everyone that hated me for Christ's name, you know what, all that, hey, I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to have eternal riches. Verse number 9. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people, all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Who is the seed that the Lord has blessed? Oh, the Jews. Oh, man, I just don't know. I don't know what to do with these brethren. I love them. If they're my saved brethren, I love them. But, boy, you know what, instead of just reading the Bible, remember I talked earlier about Christian liberty? Christian liberty is for you to read your Bible with the Holy Ghost that God has given you. You all can read and learn the Bible and understand the Bible. And for you to make the right decisions in your life, you don't have to check with Pastor Kevin. And you look at the doctrines and you compare the Scriptures and you can understand the Word of God. That's my goal tonight is to show you and compare Scriptures so you can walk away with a better understanding of Isaiah 61. But unfortunately, many of my brethren that are pastors, they don't have the liberty of doing this. They go to a Bible college system. They do the courses. They have to answer the courses according to how the lecturer wants them to answer. And that's the expectation of how they're going to preach. They preach based on their Bible college, how their Bible college, how their lecturers, how their teachers taught them to preach and how to interpret the Bible. That's what they do. They don't have liberty. You know what, they're so afraid to step out of line because if they just step out of line somewhere in their doctrines, they're going to get rejected by their Bible college and by their brethren. That's not liberty. But Pastor, if we have liberty, we're going to teach crazy things. Does it sound like I'm teaching weird and crazy doctrines? Isn't everything I'm preaching clearly what the Bible's saying to us here? Anyway, let's reinforce this again. I know we've gone through it again. But we talked about this seed that will be known by all the Gentiles during the millennium and this seed is going to be the one that's blessed. Come with me to Galatians 3, please. Galatians 3. Galatians 3. I already showed you that those that are the priests of the Lord in the millennium are believers of all tribes and all nations and all tongues. Galatians 3, 28. Just in case people keep thinking the Jews are the seed. Well, Galatians 3, 28. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Are you in Christ? Then you are Abraham's seed. Are the Jews in the Middle East today, are they in Christ Jesus? No. They are not Abraham's seed. But what we saw earlier is that the seed of the Lord will be blessed. In the same chapter, look at verse number 9. Galatians 3, 9. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. The seed of Abraham is blessed. Jew, Greek, whatever, man, woman, whatever. If you're in Christ, you are the seed and you are the ones that are blessed. So when we get to the millennium, again, confirms the truth. People of all nations are going to make up these people. There's a reason why Abraham was called the father of many nations. Because today, most churches will teach you he's the father of one nation. Israel in the Middle East today. 1948 Israel. The father of many nations. Many nations, including Australia. You are the children of Abraham if you're saved in Christ Jesus tonight. And you will be blessed. So, man, I don't know, the Bible's consistent. It's true. This doctrine is true, but again, you teach the truth, people think you're anti-Semitic or something. Anyway, whatever, whatever, doesn't matter. Hate speech. Huh? Hate speech. Oh, bring it on! Okay, because I want the double when I get to the millennium, all right? Double pay, bring on the double pay. All right, let's go back to Isaiah 61, verse number 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he have clothed me with the garments of salvation. He have covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom, decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride, a daughter herself with her jewels. And so, just like when someone, a bride or a bridegroom, gets ready for their marriage, they look their best, right? And the brides fix their hair and they put in a nice white wedding dress and whatever garb, whatever, I guess jewel, whatever. Whatever's nice to be presentable on her wedding day. And the bridegroom ought to, by the way, Ramzan, you know, put on the deodorant, eye in your shirt, all right? It's a special day that's coming up. Look the best. It's ought to be the prime Ramzan on his wedding day, right? Just like we've been clothed, we clothed ourselves on a beautiful day like that. Well, God has clothed us with his salvation, the garments of his salvation. I love what it says, and it covered me with the, God's covered me with the robe of righteousness. It's not my righteousness. I need a robe of righteousness. It's not my righteousness that gets me to heaven. It's the righteousness, we know that, righteousness of Christ. And if you're still in Revelation, I want to show you this again if I can. Come with me to Revelation 7. Revelation 7. In fact, let me just turn there myself because I haven't got all the passage here. Just to show you that the Bible is very, very consistent. Revelation 7, and let's read from verse number, let's see. Verse number, yeah, thank you. Verse number 9. So this is after the rapture, everyone gets to heaven, after the great tribulation. Verse number 9. So, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, same thing as before, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, look at this, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. Now, let's drop down to verse number 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? So the question gets asked to John, Who are these people, this great multitude of every nation, tongue? And verse number 14. And I said unto him, So, thou knowest, and he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, look at this, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So when we're clothed in salvation, and in the robes of righteousness, that is the blood of Christ. That is the righteousness of Christ. So we rejoice because we're saved. Not because, man, my blood's tainted. My flesh is tainted, it's got a sinful condition. But thank God for Jesus Christ. I always reflect on this, because we often talk about how Christ took our sins, and that's important, he did. He was condemned in his flesh with our sins. But the exchange took place. We gave him our worst, and he gave us his best. He gave us his blood and his righteousness. So, you know, when I mess up in life, when I walk this earth and I sin or do wrong or go through difficulties because of my own doing, whatever, I'm not like, ah, man, I must not be saved. At that point, I'm like, man, I'm so glad I'm saved. Because if it was based on my performance, I'm done for. I'm going to heaven because of the blood of Jesus, because of his righteousness, what he did for me. And I don't know about you, I just rejoice in that. That helps me when I'm mourning, remembering what Christ has done for me. And then back in Isaiah 61, the last verse, verse 11. Again, we spoke about this last week. Can you imagine every nation on the earth just praising Jesus Christ? It's going to happen. And we're going to enjoy that for a thousand years. Because we can't see it happening now. I don't know about you, I can't see it happening. I can't imagine right now, you know, what's a country that's falling apart right now? I don't know. Syria. Syria, I can't imagine Syria right now just praising Jesus, can you? I can't imagine even Israel praising Jesus right now. I can't even imagine. Can you imagine Albert Abl-Nisi praising Jesus, our Prime Minister? Can you imagine our Prime Minister saying, all right, you know what, we're going to dedicate the month to Jesus Christ. A month to the Bible. You know, as a nation we're going to pray to God and ask him to bless our nation. I can't even see that happening. But in the millennium they'll all be doing it. But in the millennium they'll all be doing it. So, you know, God's vengeance and his day of wrath will bring forth the beauty of the millennium to come. And we're going to be part of it. The title of the sermon tonight was Comfort All That Mourn. So anyway, brethren, if you're mourning, maybe meditate on this chapter, think about it, think about the great things, the great future that's still ahead of us. And I'm looking forward to ruling and reigning with you. That's going to be a wonderful time. And for a thousand years, praise God. Get used to me, brethren. Get used to each other. Let's not argue, let's not bicker, let's not fight. We're going to have to put up another thousand years with each other. And then eternity! All right, let's pray.