The sermon titled 'Do Not Mourn Nor Weep' by Jason Dohm focuses on Nehemiah 8:9-12, where Nehemiah and Ezra instruct the people not to mourn upon hearing the law but to rejoice. This passage occurs during the Feast of Trumpets, a holy day meant for rejoicing, not mourning. The sermon explains that the people's weeping signifies their awareness of sin and condemnation when confronted with God's holiness through the law. Drawing parallels from 2 Chronicles 34 and Galatians 3, the sermon illustrates how the law reveals sin and leads people to seek refuge in Christ. The joy of the Lord is described as a source of strength and refuge, emphasizing that true rejoicing is found in God’s mercy and forgiveness. The sermon also highlights the communal aspect of rejoicing, where everyone, including the poor and unprepared, must partake in the feast, reflecting God's corporate blessings. Furthermore, the sermon encourages self-examination of sin, the nature of one's rejoicing, and increasing joy in the Lord, especially through observing the Sabbath as a delight.

Our sermon text this morning is from Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 9 through 12. I'll be beginning in verse 1 for context. Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate, and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Mosul, which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the first day of the seventh month. Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Watergate from morning until midday before the men and women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.

So Ezra the scribe stood on a platform of wood, which they had made for the purpose. And beside him at his right hand stood Matathiah, Shema, Anea, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Measeah. And at his left hand, Padeah, Michelle, Malkijah, Hashem, Hashpedana, Zechariah, and Meshulam. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people, and when he opened it all the people stood up. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, then all the people answered, amen, amen, while lifting up their hands.

They bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Jeshua, Bani, Shariabiah, Jamin, Akab, Shabbathai, Hodeja, Measeeh, Kalita, Azariah, Jezebad, Hanan, Peleah, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place. So they read distinctly from the book and the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, And the Levites who taught the people said to the people, this day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn nor weep.

For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared for this day is holy to our Lord do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength so the Levites quieted all the people saying be still for the day is holy do not be grieved And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them." The title of the sermon this morning is, Do Not Mourn Nor Weep. It comes right out of verse 9, and it's an exhortation that Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites who have been teaching the people are going to give to the people. They're essentially going to forbid the people to mourn or to weep, which is interesting. So, but we'll get there.

Last week we had this wonderful text. There's a beautiful scene where there's a special day. It's the first day of the seventh month. It is not just any other day. It is the Feast of Trumpets.

You can find it most thoroughly explained in Leviticus chapter 23. It is a special day in God's calendar of worship. Ezra brings out the book and he worships God. The people rise in honor of the Word of God to listen. When Ezra worships God, they say, Amen, Amen.

They're not about to let Ezra worship alone. They lay claim to the worship. They enter into Ezra's worship. We find, as Ezra is reading the law from daybreak until midday, that the Levites are there giving the sense. They're instructing the people, helping the people understand what the law means.

So what a beautiful scene we're coming out of. This week, it makes it sort of strange that the people are weeping, but so it is. As we go to the text, let's go to the Lord in prayer. O God our Father, I pray that we would be a people who feel acutely our sins, and that in feeling the weight of them, we would run to Christ for relief, and find ourselves free, cleansed, and that we would be a rejoicing people who then live a life of gratitude and thankfulness. That you are a God of mercy who has dealt with sin and made a way in Christ that sinners could be reconciled with you.

Pray that you would use this text for this great purpose in our hearts, in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to begin with verse 9, then we'll look at verse 10 and 11, and then finally we'll look at verse 12. So we're in Nehemiah chapter 8 beginning in verse 9, which reads, And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn nor weep.

For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. So if you're taking notes on the handout it's all the people wept. Wept goes in the blank. All the people wept. Again it's the first day of the seventh month, a really busy month on God's worship calendar.

The first day is the Feast of Trumpets. The tenth day is the Day of Atonement. And the fifteenth day of the month begins a week of the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths. So We're in the feast of trumpets. We don't associate feasting with morning and weeping.

Why the morning and weeping? To explain this, I think it's somewhat obvious, but I think to explain this well, there's an Old Testament text that really drives it home, and there's a New Testament text that really drives it home. So I want to go to both of those texts. So here's the first text, and it's another place in Scripture where I believe the same thing is happening. Turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 34.

So 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Chronicles is right before Ezra, so we're really near it. In 2 Chronicles chapter 34, Josiah has become king when he's eight years old. Now, by the middle point of the chapter, it's in the eighth year of his reign, so he's something like 16 years old. He's still essentially a boy king.

He's a man. He's a 16 year old man. He's a very young man. He's king. The temple has been neglected and the temple needs repairs.

Josiah is raising money for restoration of the temple. This is where we pick it up in 2 Chronicles 34, beginning in verse 14, and I will read through 21. When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord. Hilkiah the priest, he is the high priest, found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shafen the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord." Hilkiah gave the book to Shafen.

So Shafen carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, All that was committed to your servants they are doing. They have gathered the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen. Then Shafen the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. Shafen read it before the king. Thus it happened when the king heard the words of the law that he tore his clothes.

Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahakam the son of Shafen, Abdon the son of Micah, Shafen the scribe, and Asiah a servant of the king saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and Judah concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do according to all that is written in this book." There's a book that's found as they're endeavoring to restore the temple, repair the temple. And it's the book of the Law of Moses. As unbelievable as this sounds, it's been lost. It's a forgotten book.

And they find it as they're in the temple. And Then Shafen, the scribe, reads it to King Josiah, the 16 year old king. He realizes what it means, what the law means. He realizes the great guilt of these people. Hearing the law, the law coming into his ears, causes him to realize how condemned they must be before the holy God that is described in this book that they found in the temple.

And he rends his clothes, he tears his clothes. The other night we had a family over and as we were having extended family worship, I think we counted something like 13 Bibles around the circle. So we are drowning in Bibles. It is unthinkable to us that the Word of God would have completely fallen out of use, that it would be a lost book back in a dusty corner in the temple. But so it is in the time of Josiah.

And it may not be completely like that in Nehemiah chapter 8. They have Ezra, the man who had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. So surely the book of the law isn't a lost book in this time. But it's not like our family worship where everybody has their copy of the Bible. A copy of the Bible has been copied down by hand.

You don't have your own copy. Probably your family doesn't have its own copy. So there are some familiar texts that you might be reciting regularly. But as for opening up the law of God and reading from sun up to midday, That's not happening very often. That's happening every seven years to the extent that they're obeying the law of God.

And so Josiah in 2 Chronicles chapter 34, He hears the law of God and it hits him like a ton of bricks. That's what's happening in Nehemiah chapter 8. They gather together for this great reading, this great honoring of the law of God. And as they're hearing the God of the Scriptures describe what He's like, this holy God, and they're hearing what He requires of man, then it is dawning on them how they have to be condemned before this holy God. So the people hear the law of God and it hits them like a ton of bricks, just like it does Josiah.

They are brought face to face with their condemnation. When God is so holy, They are hearing this holy God described. When God is so holy, and then they hear what He requires, and they haven't obeyed this, and they haven't obeyed this, and they haven't obeyed this, and they haven't obeyed this, and they haven't obeyed this, How can it be other than that they stand condemned before this holy God and they begin to weep? They begin to weep because they know that God is holy and they are not holy. That is the first text.

I think 2 Chronicles 34 tells us us what's happening in Nehemiah chapter 8. Secondly, the Apostle Paul explains this phenomenon very clearly in Galatians chapter 3. So now turn to Galatians chapter 3. I had to pick between Galatians 3 or Romans 7. I could have gone either way, so I'm going to pull a little bit from Romans 7 and stay predominantly in Galatians chapter 3.

In Galatians chapter 3, Paul tells us what the purpose of the law is, particularly for unbelievers. Galatians chapter 3, I'm going to begin in 19 and read through 25. Paul writes, What purpose then does the Law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the capital S seed, this is Jesus, should come to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. In Romans chapter 7 verse 7, Paul says, I would not have known sin except through the law. In other words, the law has a very valuable purpose in raising our awareness of sin.

We play with sin, we discount sin, we think little of sin, and the law counteracts that in every way. It raises our awareness of sin. It won't allow us to play with it. It thunders forth the sanctions of God. In Romans chapter 7 verse 13, Paul says that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.

We've got a thousand ways in our minds to rationalize sin so that sin is no longer exceedingly sinful. The law comes against that with full force, and it makes sin exceedingly sinful to a conscience that has become dull. It raises our awareness and it sharpens up our conscience again. Paul says here in Galatians 3 that the law keeps unregenerate people, people who have not repented and believed the gospel, under guard, it confines them, it puts them in a prison cell where they can only know that they are condemned. The law condemns.

It is a tutor. The King James Version says it is a school master. It is a teacher to teach you that you stand condemned before God. Why? So that you can wallow in condemnation?

No, so you will flee to Christ. So you will run to Christ. It's your teacher to teach you your desperate estate, so that you will abandon any thought of righteousness by law keeping. When you think little of sin, when sin isn't exceedingly sinful, you think you can get over the bar. The law is sent to crush you so you'll give up that false hope.

It's a false hope. You'll never get over the righteousness bar. You cannot be righteous by law keeping. So the law comes and crushes and condemns so that you flee to the cross for mercy. It's a tutor to bring you to Christ.

That's why righteousness by law keeping is such a deadly heresy. Because Paul says it in just black and white, in the clearest terms, the law was never intended to impart life. Oh, you can live if you can keep it perfectly. But that is so far in any of our pasts that it's not even worth mentioning. It was never intended to give life.

It was intended to know that you're already dead. It was intended to condemn you, so that you would flee to Jesus for pardon and life. If you just read Galatians 3, you'd say, well that's the end of it for the law. Once you come to Christ, the law doesn't have any purpose. In Romans 7, that other chapter, at the end of the chapter, Paul makes it crystal clear that that's not true, that the law continues to have a purpose in the life of the believer.

It's this famous portion of scripture where Paul talks about, as a believer, as an apostle, his increased awareness of sin. Paul says, I can't understand my life. I delight in the law of God in my inward man, but I find another law at work in my members so that the things that I want to do, I'm not doing those things, and the things I don't want to do, I find myself doing those things." And he ends the chapter saying, Woe is me! Who will save me from this body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ." So, Romans 7 makes it completely clear that there is a delight of God, a delight in the law, in the inward man, in the life of a believer.

But there is another law at work in your members so the law keeps keeps sending us to Christ not once and done but the law keeps sending us back to Christ for mercy and help in time of need. So what we find in Nehemiah chapter 8 is the law doing its job. When the people hear the law and they weep, the law is doing its job. Undoubtedly there is a mixed multitude there. There are some who believe and are saved by faith, and there are some who don't yet believe.

Both have a reason to weep, perhaps, when they hear the law read. It's safe to say that Nehemiah and Ezra, the Levites who are teaching the people, are not rebuking the people for their mourning and their weeping, but they are redirecting. Not rebuking, redirecting. When they say, Do not mourn nor weep. We get to chapter 9, and chapter 9 verse 1, all the people are assembling together again on the 24th day of the same month, so three weeks later, and They are fasting, and they are in sackcloth, and they have dust on their heads.

There is no word from Nehemiah, Ezra, or the Levites that they should stop at that time. Which brings us to verses 10 and 11. Back to Nehemiah chapter 8, verses 10 and 11. So, back to Nehemiah 8, verses 10 and 11. Then he said to them, Go your way, Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.

For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." So the Levites quieted all the people saying, Be still for the day is holy. Do not be grieved. If you're taking notes on the handout, it's eat and drink on this holy day. Eat, drink, holy.

It goes in the blanks. The key to understanding this is that the day is holy. Holy means set apart for a purpose. You are holy to the Lord. You are set apart to be the Lord's.

Lock, stock and barrel. All of you to be the Lord's. That is holiness. To be other, to be set aside for a very specific purpose. Verse 9, you have already heard said, this day is holy to the Lord your God.

In verse 10, that's repeated, this day is holy to the Lord. That is the point of why they're told not to mourn or weep. Because it's God's day. God's laid claim to the first day of the seventh month. He said, that's my day, it's a feast of trumpets.

It's going to be a blowing of trumpets, and it's a holy day to me, and it's a day for feasting. Leviticus 23 verse 24 calls the feast of trumpets a Sabbath rest. It's a day for resting and feasting and rejoicing. Now Leviticus 23 verse 27 talks about the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. And that verse says that the Day of Atonement is a holy convocation.

That's another one of God's days. He's laid claim to the tenth of the month and it says, you shall afflict your souls. Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites who were teaching the people would never restrain the people from mourning and weeping on the tenth day of the month. That is the day for afflicting your souls. The tenth of the month, the day of atonement.

Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse four, Solomon says this, There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. Solomon makes the case that there is a time for everything under the sun. Sometimes you should weep, and sometimes you should laugh. Sometimes you should mourn, and sometimes you should dance.

God's laid claim to the first day of the seventh month. He said, this is the feast of trumpets, and he says, this is a time to laugh and dance, so to speak. So stop mourning, say the leaders. The tenth day is going to be a time to weep and mourn. You can believe if there was laughing and dancing on the tenth day, Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites would come and say, stop laughing and dancing.

Stop your feasting. This is the day of atonement. This is the day to afflict our souls. There's a phrase when you look at the feasts of the Lord in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. There's a phrase that appears over and over and over and over again.

Here's the phrase, rejoice before the Lord your God. That is what is supposed to categorize the feast days, the feasts of the Lord. Rejoicing before the Lord your God. So there is a particular kind of rejoicing that is appropriate on the first day of the seventh month, on the Feast of Trumpets. Rejoicing before the Lord.

So it is rejoicing, but it's not disconnected. It's connected to being before the Lord. It is that kind of rejoicing. It is not a gluttonous flesh-fest. Me, me, me.

Grab hold of everything that sounds good to you, and just jam as much of it into your mouth as you can, until you can't eat another bite. That's not the kind of rejoicing it's called for. It's not a gluttonous flesh fast, where you just Serve yourself as much of the best things you can get until you are just out of space. It's not to be that at all. But it is rejoicing.

It's not to be undertaken gluttonously, but it is real rejoicing. You're supposed to have the best food. Eat the fat. All the fatty foods that I love, that is for the first day of the seventh month. You're supposed to have the best drink.

Drink the sweet. That is what it means. Eat the fat, drink the sweet. Eat the best food. Drink the best drink.

That is what it means. So they are to rejoice before the Lord their God, and it is to be as shared rejoicing. Listen to verse 10, send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. No one is to be left out of the feast of trumpets. Not the poor, not even the unprepared.

That's what verse 10 says. Not even the unprepared. For whatever reason they are unprepared, if they don't have, they still have to be part of the rejoicing. They still have to eat the fat and drink the sweet. It is to be shared rejoicing.

This is so well established in the law. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 16. Deuteronomy chapter 16. We're actually going to read a portion about the Feast of Tabernacles. It gives us principles that apply to the feasts of the Lord.

There will be more about the Feast of Tabernacles specifically next week. Our text takes us there. Deuteronomy chapter 16 verses 13 through 15. You shall observe the feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your wine press. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.

Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice." So You're supposed to come during the Feast of Tabernacles and rejoice before the Lord, but not just you. Your sons and your daughters come to rejoice too. Your male servants come too, and they rejoice. Your female servants come too and they rejoice and the Levites come and they rejoice and the strangers come and they rejoice and the fatherless come and they rejoice and the widows come and they rejoice and everybody has to participate All who are within your gates have to take part in eating the fat and drinking the sweet. I can't read Deuteronomy 16.

I can't read Deuteronomy 16 and the commanded comprehensive participation. Everybody has to participate in the feasting and in the rejoicing. I can't read that and not think about Paul rebuking the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11. Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 20-22. We're in this text a couple of times a month during the Lord's Supper.

Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others. And one is hungry, and another is drunk. What do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. Paul, the Pharisee of Pharisees, has been through a bunch of feasts and knew that everyone has to participate in the rejoicing. You can't be shaming the poor and the unprepared.

Everyone participates. Because God has blessed his people corporately. We have such an individualistic evangelicalism in the United States. Knee, knee, knee. But God blesses his people corporately.

Are there blessings for you individually? Of course. But don't lose sight of the corporate blessings. The greatest blessings are the corporate ones. God has purchased a people, not a person.

His people are to celebrate his goodness corporately. There's something beautiful about corporate rejoicing before the Lord. That's what you see in all the feasts. Corporate! Not you go off and have your little mini-feast with yourself.

Corporately, we're acknowledging, as the people of God, God has been bountiful. So it's a privilege to share the bounty with the poor and the unprepared. We wouldn't dare leave out the fatherless and the widow and the stranger. God has been too bountiful for that. Finally, we're given the basis for them saying, Do not sorrow.

Here is the basis. The joy of the Lord is your strength. The Hebrew that is translated strength here literally means place or means of safety, protection, refuge, stronghold. That's the whole range of what the Hebrew word means. So God is your refuge.

The joy of the Lord is your refuge. Strength is good, but it's not broad enough. The Hebrew term is actually broader. God is your strength. God is your refuge.

God is your stronghold. Now think of the context. We're in the first day of the seventh month. Now the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month, less than a week earlier, what has happened? The wall is finished.

The doors are hung. The work is completed. Jerusalem is fortified for the first time. But now Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites come and say, it's not the wall that is our refuge. It's not the wall that is our refuge.

It's not the wall that is the stronghold. It's God. Rejoice! God is your strength. Rejoice!

God is your refuge. Rejoice! God is your fortress, your stronghold. So come at the feast of trumpets and rejoice before the Lord that you are His and He is yours. God is your God and you are His people.

Rejoice that you are under the shadow of His wing. He is your refuge. Rejoice that He is merciful, that though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Stop weeping. Rejoice!

He'll cleanse away your sins. He'll wipe away the sorrow that you've experienced when the law was read to you, and you saw a holy God, and you understood your condemnation. Now verse 12. Back to Nehemiah. Now verse 12.

And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. Taking notes on the handout, a people rejoicing greatly, rejoicing greatly, fills in the blanks. This is the response of the people. Actually here, Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites who were teaching. They go, they eat, they drink, they send portions to those who didn't have.

They rejoice greatly. You can be sure they rejoice greatly before the Lord. It's in the presence of God. It's for the bounty of God. What's the source of this great rejoicing?

It's explicit in the text. Because they understood the words that were declared to them. That's why they're rejoicing. They understood the words. Now which words?

Is it the law of God that has been read beginning at daybreak and ending at midday? Or is it the instructions to stop weeping and feast? I think we should say it's both. I can't think of one good reason to separate them, and both are great reasons for rejoicing. The book was brought and read and honored and explained, and the sense was given by the Levites.

And then when they were mourning over their sin, the instructions came to stop and feast. Both of these led to this great rejoicing of people going away and eating the fat, eating the best food, drinking the sweet, drinking the best drink, sharing, rejoicing before the Lord. I want to close the exposition with Psalm 30, verses 11 and 12. A superscript at the very heading of Psalm 30, this is part of scripture, it's even before verse 1, that says, a song at the dedication of the house of David. So this was sung at the dedication of the house of David.

Psalm 30 verses 11 and 12, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. To the end that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. David's testimony is that God had taken his morning and he turned it into dancing that God had taken his sackcloth and clothed him instead of being clothed in sackcloth he's clothed in gladness and then he says You did this so I would praise you.

You did this so that I would give thanks to you forever. We have so many reasons to rejoice. And God has made it that way. God has given us so many reasons to rejoice so that we praise Him. So that we would give thanks to Him forever.

Friends, this is what the Gospel does. The Gospel takes mourning and turns it into dancing. The Gospel takes sackcloth and clothes you in gladness. If you've repented and believed, then you've been cleansed. That is on the authority of Scripture.

If you've repented and believed, then you have been cleansed. Your great burden is gone like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress. He's groaning under the weight of the burden, and he comes to the cross, and when he comes to the cross, his burden is loosed. He continues on his way to the celestial city. It doesn't mean that he doesn't encounter trials.

He encounters plenty of trials, but he's not carrying this great burden anymore. He's free to march towards the celestial city. Applications. I have three. All in the form of a question.

Here's the first application. When was the last time you were heartbroken over your sin? It's very refreshing to read in verse 9 that the people, when they heard the law, wept. They were affected. They were pierced to the heart, in the words of Acts 2.

Acts 2 is the day of Pentecost. Peter preached the gospel and condemned them. And the text says they were pierced to the heart. This is what's happening in Nehemiah chapter 8. When was the last time you were pierced to the heart?

And you were heartbroken over sin. Have certain sins become so routine that the prick of conscience is now dull? This is such a dangerous position to be in when you've sinned so persistently in a certain way that it used to be that your conscience would kill you over that. Your conscience would press on you and the pricks were sharp. But over time they've become so dull because of the searing of your conscience, because you've been suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

If that's true, cry out to God, Oh God, don't remove your spirit from me. Bring back the sharp pricks of conscience that I should have. Here's the paradox. A paradox is something that seems like it can't possibly be true. It seems contrary, but somehow it's true.

Here's the paradox. The more you feel your sin, the more joy there is in Christ. The more you feel your sin, as long as You've got your arms around the Gospel and you understand what it means to be free. The more you feel your sin, the more joy there is in Christ. So don't wallow in the sense of sin.

Don't wallow in self-pity. Don't wallow in self-loathing, because you're still a sinner. You're going to be a sinner Until you die. Don't stay there. Don't be afraid of self-examination.

We should be a people of ongoing self-examination. We have nothing to fear. It will increase our joy if God will reveal it to us and we will flee to Christ. We will look to Him. We should have periods of time.

We should be heartbroken over our sin. Sin shouldn't be a small matter to us. Jesus died because of sin. It cannot be a small matter to us. Jesus died because of sin.

It cannot be a small matter to us. So that's number one. When was the last time you were heartbroken over sin? Certain sins become so routine that you don't even feel the pang of conscience anymore. Number two, what is the nature of your feasts?

What is the nature of your rejoicing? Are your feasts flesh-fests, where you are grabbing all you can get and gorging? Or are your feasts rejoicing before the Lord? When Our rejoicing is just loaded up with the world. It's self-defeating.

Our rejoicing is meant to refresh us, strengthen us. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Go have joy in the Lord. Go rejoice before the Lord. But when our Rejoicing is just loaded up with the world.

It doesn't have that effect at all. It doesn't have a strengthening effect at all. It has a weakening effect. What is the nature of your feasts? It's a good litmus test.

Can I do this before the Lord? Okay, I have rejoicing planned. Can I do it before the Lord? If Jesus were here, could I do it right here in His presence with thanksgiving? This is our rejoicing past those tests.

I hope that it does more and more. That was the second question. What's the nature of your rejoicing? Here's the third and final. In your life, is there enough joy in God?

Is there room for more? I know the answer to that question. But how is the joy of the Lord going in your life? How's it going? Here are a couple of pointers we should always give attention to these.

First, count your blessings one by one. Count them. God has been so good. Jesus said that God is even kind to the evil and unthankful. Even the evil and unthankful can count their blessings.

How much more is people? And make sure that you're counting right. Remember to count your trials. James 1, 2-4, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." Your trials are a declaration that God is at work in your life to help you.

To make you complete, lacking nothing. That's what your trials are. Count them. All joy. Count them all joy.

Secondly, make this day a delight project. The Lord's Day should be a delight project. What do I mean? I mean Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14. Listen to Isaiah chapter 58, 13 and 14 and see the connection between the Lord's day and our joy in the Lord.

Isaiah 58, 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken." The Lord's Day is intended to be a day where we increase our delight in God. So we say, okay, I'm setting aside my words, my pleasures, my ways for this day, and I'm trading those in for God's ways, God's words, God's works, and I'm going to call this day a delight. I am going to keep it and hold it honorable. It is an honorable day.

Then the promise of God for making that exchange is an increase, is a growing delight in the Lord. If you want the joy of the Lord to increase in your life, Here's one of the ways you can do it. Trade in your thoughts, your pleasures, your ways for God's one day a week. And watch your joy grow. That is the promise of God.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Our Father, I'm thankful you keep giving us these nuggets all throughout the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Things we hadn't seen before in the Old Testament, or things that had never occurred to us. Thank you for the wisdom of Genesis through Revelation, that every word is profitable.

I pray that you continue to teach us. God, I do thank you for an awareness of sin and the weight of sin that sometimes very acutely presses on us. And I thank you for the great purposes that you have for that. Pray God that you would never leave us there. I know that you don't.

But that you use it to send us to Christ for mercy so that we can be free, we can repent, turn, trust, believe. Make us a people who experience that day after day, always repenting, always turning, always trusting in Christ. And then may it be like Psalm 30 where this launches us into rejoicing, launches us into thanksgiving and praising you. May your praise be on our lips, God, in Jesus' name, Amen.