Rejoice Always, Part 1

Introduction to Paul's Exhortations and the Command to Rejoice

0:03 Let us turn, please, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and I assure you that I have not developed a ministerial tone, but if I speak with a little kind of unusual distinctness and rather slowly this morning, it's because of these acoustics, and I know if I can hear my own voice bouncing back in my ears, it must be doing the same in yours. But we'll do the best we can, and I trust we'll be able to hear clearly that which we consider from the word of God. The general theme of these last two chapters of Paul's letter to this infant church is clearly set forth in the first two verses of the fourth chapter. Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as ye received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more. For ye know what charge or charges we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

1:17 The apostle is giving in these two chapters what we might call a manual of the kind of conduct that is well-pleasing to God. God, nowhere in his words, indicates that being in...

1:32 being dwelt by the Spirit is all we need in order to know how to walk in a way that is pleasing to him. The Holy Spirit's presence gives us power to please God, gives us the desire to please God, but it's the precepts that give us the directive. Jesus did not say, if ye love me, do what your heart tells you. He said, if ye love me, keep my commandments.

1:59 The Holy Spirit provides enablement and motivation. But the precepts provide direction. And so the child of God needs to know how to please God. And for that purpose, among others, these two chapters are given.

2:17 Having dealt with several areas at some length, first of all, the area of sexual purity, and then the area of brotherly responsibility, and then the area of our emotional life in the face of the death of our loved ones, then in chapter 5, verses 1 to 12, the area of preparedness for the Lord's return. It's as though the apostle knows that either he's running out of papyrus, upon which he's writing, or he's running out of ink, or he's running out of time, and he's got to bring his letter to a conclusion, and so he then groups together various and sundry exhortations, each one of which, in a very real sense, stands completely on its own two feet. There is very little logical connection between the exhortations given, beginning with verse 12 and concluding in verse 21. There is some connection with a few of them within the paragraph, but this is one of those paragraphs that you could very easily lift out almost any verse and study it, meditate upon it, or from the preacher's standpoint, exegete, expound and apply it, and you would need very little reference to the immediate context. There are not many passages in which that is true, but these are more like the Proverbs, where the writer of the Proverbs moves from one pithy statement of moral conduct to another. So here, the apostle gives us such exhortations.

The Simplicity and Complexity of 'Rejoice Always'

3:45 This morning, our attention will be focused upon verse 16. We have come in our regular course of study to this verse, which is the first in this trilogy that are usually tied together, where, rejoice evermore, or better translated, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to the word, or concerning you. Rejoice evermore. Rejoice always.

4:26 Now let me say by way of introduction that these are very simple words. In fact, in the verse division of our Bibles, this is the shortest verse in the Bible. You say, well, I thought Jesus wept was shorter. Well, the words in the original are longer, more letters.

4:42 And if you're going to go by the letters in the original, this is the shortest verse in the Bible. Rejoice evermore. Easy to remember. The youngest child should be able to go out this morning and have his mommy or daddy say, what was the sermon about?

4:56 You ought to be able to give back the whole text. Rejoice evermore. It isn't often that the child can do that. Most of us, usually couldn't give it back verbatim, but there's no reason why anyone here could not go out this morning and remember the text.

5:09 Rejoice evermore. Simple little text. Two words, rejoice and always. But not so simple to understand what he's talking about.

5:20 For when you take this precept and begin to compare it with passages such as these, you have problems. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Well, if the blessed man is the mourning man, why are we commanded to rejoice always? You read the words of the Apostle Paul who said, sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

5:51 How do you fit that together? We read in James, be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Contradiction, isn't it?

6:07 In one passage, we're told to rejoice always. In another passage, God says, stop rejoicing and start weeping. Simple little text, but not so simple to understand what it means so that we see no conflict in the duties incumbent upon us as the children of God, but understand clearly what the Apostle meant. Second thing we ought to observe by way of introduction is that this is a duty.

Rejoicing as a Divine Duty for Believers

6:37 Generally, we take it as sort of a little moral suggestion. It would be nice to rejoice always. It would be nice to rejoice evermore, but this is a command. It comes in the imperative mode.

6:47 The strongest way we could translate it would be, you must rejoice always. What is the will of Christ for us? Here it is. That in every situation, in every circumstance, the child of God be found rejoicing.

7:06 Ah, but you say the Bible didn't bless today, didn't it? I know that. And the Lord willing. In the subsequent study, we'll try to reconcile and show how in the midst of the deepest form of spiritual mourning, there is the note of Christian rejoicing.

7:27 This is a duty. Child of God, you are sinning. I am sinning if I am not rejoicing always, for this is a clear command. And unless I'm convinced it is, I will not apply myself with the mental diligence and spiritual energy, first of all to understand what it means, and then to experience what it means.

7:51 As long as I feel this is something that's just for somebody, but not me, or as long as I feel it's just for some circumstances and not mine, I won't feel the pressure to grapple with what the apostle means, and having understood what he means, to cry to God for grace, to walk in obedience. Then the third thing I want us to consider by way of introduction is that there is a way of understanding. There is a way of understanding. There is a way of understanding.

8:15 This passage, like everything here, comes only to those who are savingly joined to Jesus Christ. There are certain duties incumbent upon saints and sinners alike. Every sinner ought to love God with his whole heart. Every saint ought to.

8:33 Grace does not change the demand that we love God with the whole heart. May I say, God doesn't address this kind of a duty to unbelievers, to rejoice evermore. In fact, God tells sinners to love God with the whole heart. In fact, God tells sinners to love God with the whole heart.

8:47 In fact, God tells sinners to love God with the whole heart. In fact, God tells sinners to love God with the whole heart. In fact, God tells sinners to love God with the whole heart. And He tells them to stop the kind of rejoicing they're doing and to get serious about their relationship to Him.

8:53 In Isaiah 22, verses 12 to 14, God appeals to sinners in Israel and He tells them to stop their mirth and their rejoicing and to begin to experience heaviness and sorrow for their sinfulness. For you see, the unbeliever is living in a fool's paradise based upon false joys, and And God calls him to forsake his false joys in true sorrow that he might know true joys. Joys born by the ministry or as a result of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. No, this text is addressed to those who are joined to Jesus Christ.

9:35 This is a redemptive responsibility. So much then by way of introduction. Understanding that though the text is simple, to understand it is not so simple. Understanding in the second place that it is our duty.

Defining Biblical Joy: Not Giddiness, but Affection for Suitable Good

9:48 And thirdly, it is the duty of a believer and a believer alone. Now as we think our way through the text. First of all, let us consider the duty to which we are directed. What is it?

10:02 If we're to rejoice evermore, we've got to know what it is to rejoice. And then in the second place, and this is as far as we'll get this morning. The duty to which we are directed. How do we do it?

10:13 It's one thing to know what it is. Then it's another. It's another thing to know the path that leads to the performance. The duty to which we are directed.

10:21 What is it? Well, let me start with the negative. It is not an exhortation to giddiness or to levity. The idea that the Christian must always go around with a 32-toother.

10:35 You know, this thing. I think I may have mentioned on one occasion. I was in a meeting. I didn't know how long I'd stay in it.

10:42 Where the song leader stood up and said, You people look sad. And we need to rejoice.

10:48 Everybody hold his fingers up. Everybody held their fingers up. Now he said, put them to the corners of your mouth. And everybody did.

10:52 Except this rebel. Now he said, pull it this way. And this was supposed to help us have the joy of the Lord. That's not what he's talking about.

11:00 If so, he'd have sent somebody there who could go through this gymnastics, you see. And help them to have a 32-toother. None of them. It's not talking about giddiness.

11:09 It's not talking about levity. It's not talking about that lightness and frivolity. Which God. Condemns.

11:16 He says, the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

11:22 Well, then what is he talking about? He says, rejoice always. Well, what is joy? There's the problem.

Joy in the Natural Realm: Anticipation or Possession of Good

11:30 Coming up with a definition of biblical joy. Well, I'll start by giving a definition of joy in general. And then we're going to narrow it down to the very thing that the apostle, I trust, I understand him rightly, is pressing upon us. Joy is an affection of the soul.

11:48 Which springs. From the anticipation or possession of some suitable good.

11:56 Now listen again and then we'll enlarge on it. What is joy? It's an affection of the soul which springs from the anticipation or the possession of some suitable good.

12:11 You find this both in the natural realm and in the spiritual realm. Think of it in the natural realm. This is common of men and animals. There's your little dog.

12:20 And you hold up a bone. And you say. You say to him, Fido, you want the bone? And he experiences joy.

12:27 Anticipating the bone, he wags his tail. He has this affection of his doggy soul in the anticipation of some good. When you actually throw it to him, he may do a little jig for glee or he may wag his tail a little bit more until he gets engrossed in his bone. But either the anticipation of or the possession of that suitable good causes him joy.

12:50 This is true of human beings. A family has a son in Vietnam. And they receive the letter. I'll be putting my feet on the pavement of the hometown on such and such a date.

13:04 And the parents experience joy in the anticipation of this blessing. Then when they actually see their son, their tears flow down with joy. They have the possession of that blessing. Or it may be a snowy morning and you kids wake up and the snow looks heavy enough and you turn on the radio.

13:23 And it says, all schools in New Jersey will be closed. And you say, yippee, what? Well, you see, here's some suitable good that causes joy. The anticipation or possession of some suitable good causes joy.

13:38 Our Lord uses as an illustration this kind of joy. In John 16, 21, he speaks of the woman who labors in the pangs of birth. But then when the child is born for the joy of the possession. Of the child, she forgets her sorrow.

13:55 She possesses this blessing. And it brings joy. Our Lord uses it again in Matthew 18, 13. Same word in the original.

Distinguishing Spiritual Joy from Natural Joy

14:04 Where the shepherd, having found the lost sheep, he returns with the sheep upon his shoulder rejoicing. So much then for joy in the natural realm. Certainly Paul is not admonishing us to rejoice evermore in terms of natural things. In fact, scripture continually admonishes us to a moderation of our joy in natural things.

14:33 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 30 is a text which admonishes us to moderation in those joys rooted in the possession or anticipation of natural blessings. Notice verse 30. Those that weep as though they wept not. Those that rejoice.

14:54 Those that rejoice as though they rejoice not.

14:59 Now he's not talking about spiritual rejoicing. When it comes to spiritual rejoicing, he says rejoice evermore. Jesus said, I've said these things unto you that your joy might be full. When it comes to natural joy.

15:13 The joy that we have when all the bills are paid and the kids are well. He says, you better have your joy moderated. Don't get carried away because those things can end in a moment. You see?

15:26 Natural joy. Then there is spiritual joy. And it relates to present spiritual possessions or to anticipated spiritual blessings. That's the joy described in passages like Philippians chapter 4.

15:44 Rejoice in the Lord. And again I say rejoice. Is he your possession? Can you say from the depths of the heart, my God?

15:55 Then he says you have every ground. For you possess all that a creature needs to possess. And as the words of the hymn so beautifully state, I must have all things and abound since God is God to me.

16:12 Rejoice in the Lord. That possession, if you have him as your God, this should cause joy. Joy is that affection of the soul springing from the possession of some suitable good. And God is the highest good.

Spiritual Joy in Present Possessions and Anticipated Blessings

16:26 So having him, we should have the highest. Rejoice in the Lord. Jesus uses this in the fifth chapter of Matthew. He says, when you're kicked around, persecuted, afflicted, rejoice and be exceeding glad for who persecuted they, the prophets that are before you.

16:46 Well, why should that make me rejoice? I get kicked around like the prophets. Well, it proves I'm in good company. Here's a man who's had trouble with assurance and salvation.

16:57 He says, boy, at times I wonder when I see what's still in me. And I see all the ground that I've yet got to cover. Am I really in the way? Am I fooling myself?

17:06 Do I have the marks of a true Christian? And he begins to get buffeted at work. And he begins to feel the pressure. Fellas ostracizing him because he won't listen to their latest dirty joke.

17:19 Maybe in the neighborhood he finds some of the rub that comes because when he hears foul language, he rebukes it as being displeasing to God. And he begins to experience at least a little. A little bit of opposition in persecution. The Lord says, rejoice.

17:33 Why? Because he says, that shows you possess that life which the prophets possessed. So in the assurance of the possession of life, rejoice. What is joy?

17:46 Joy and affection of the soul springing from that possession of some suitable good. Jesus said the same thing in John 16, 24. Hitherto you've asked nothing in my name. Ask and receive.

17:59 Why? That your joy may be fulfilled. In the reception of answered prayer, joy is full. Luke 10, 20.

18:09 Jesus said, rejoice that your names are written in heaven. But this joy to which Paul admonishes us, not only relates to present possessions, but to anticipated spiritual blessings. That's why our Lord in the parallel passage with Matthew 5 says in Luke 6, 23. And this is true.

18:31 If anyone took this literally and began to do it, I wonder what we'd think of it. I think some of us would get out the yellow pages and start looking for, not the nearest institution, but the nearest Pentecostal church. And we'd say, now you're a little bit out of place in our circles. There are places where they allow this.

18:50 But now listen to what Jesus says.

18:55 Luke 6, 23.

18:58 Having said, blessed are ye in verse 22, and men hate you and separate you from their company and reproach you as evil. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. When's the last time you've leaped for joy?

19:15 Well, again, I don't believe the Lord is pressing upon us a literal physical leaping. If that's the way it comes out in us, we ought to not quench the spirit. But what he's saying is be utterly abandoned.

19:32 Trade in heaven. There's a future, the anticipation of which should make you drunk with joy. That's the source of joy. Not just the present possession.

19:44 That you know you possess the same life as the prophets. Bless God you have the same reward as the prophets. Therefore, leap for joy. The anticipated blessing should cause joy.

19:56 Romans 5 in verse 2. The apostle uses this terminology.

20:03 Romans 5 in verse 2. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access by faith into this grace, where when we stand and rejoice, we rejoice in hope. Biblical hope is not wishful thinking, but confident expectation. We rejoice in the confident expectation of the glory of God.

20:27 What are we rejoicing? This anticipated blessing that we will behold the glory of God undimmed by our sinful eyes. And we will actually share in that glory. Down in verse 12 of the same, I'm sorry, of chapter 12.

The Nature of Biblical Joy: Independent of Circumstances

20:44 Romans 12 and verse 12, he uses a similar phraseology rejoicing in hope. There is that confident expectation of future blessing that should fill us with rejoicing. Same thing in 1 Peter 1, 3 through 6, where he says to these Christians that are being persecuted, he says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though if for a time you're in heaviness, you have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and it fadeth not away. Now, we've spent all this time to do what?

21:22 To set before your minds a concept of biblical joy in order that we might understand the duty of rejoicing always. What is joy? It is not something that you reach out and somehow stuff into your soul. It's not something that is pumped up out of a vacuum.

21:42 It is that reaction of the soul upon the contemplation of present or anticipated blessings brought by the redemption of Jesus Christ.

22:00 Now, in that sense, then, joy is only known by the child of God. That's why it's called one of the fruits of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. Romans 14, 17 said it's one of the indispensable, marks of the presence of God's kingdom.

22:19 The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. It has no relationship whatsoever to favorable circumstances. It has nothing to do with circumstances. That's why Paul could say of the Thessalonians in chapter 1, ye receive the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.

22:45 Natural joy is dependent upon circumstance. Take the bone away from the dog and he sulks.

22:56 Let the sun break through the snow after it's only dropped an inch and the kid will pout.

23:04 Let the mother hear that the boy was killed the last day of his duty before he came home from Vietnam and her world comes to pieces.

23:14 Those were natural joys based upon the possession of natural blessings or the anticipation of natural blessings. Therefore, hide in with circumstances. This joy has nothing to do with natural circumstances. In fact, it is most helped by adverse circumstances.

23:36 Because when the child of God looks out and sees nothing sympathetic in the world he can see and touch, it drives his spirit upward to lay hold with firmer grasp upon the world which cannot be seen and touched. And if you'll read the context, the context of the most clear passages on Christian joy, it's the context of suffering. Blessed are you when men kick you about, leap for joy. Peter says, you have an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled.

24:09 We greatly rejoice, though if for the time we're in heaviness. Romans 5, he says, you rejoice in hope. And then he moves right into saying, and your glory and your tribulation. Tribulation worketh patience, patience experience.

24:23 The context of the clearest passages, the passages on joy, show that it is not related whatsoever to favorable circumstances. Secondly, it's not related to material possessions. There's a strange text, but very illuminating on this subject in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 34. Hebrews 10 and verse 34.

24:47 For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions.

24:59 Now it's one thing to stand by and take stoically the spoiling of your possessions. Here's a Christian who sees all the fruits of his life's labors taken away from him. He's left absolutely destitute and what does he do? He dances a jig for joy.

25:18 Why? Because you see, his joy was not rooted in material possessions. It was rooted in possessions that no human hands could ever touch. And the devil and all of hell could not touch.

25:31 So they took it joyfully. It just reminded them as they saw these material goods plundered. It just reminded them they had goods that no human hands could plunder. And it made those spiritual.

25:49 When the physical possessions were taken from them. So this joy has nothing to do with favorable circumstances. It has nothing to do with material possessions. And it has nothing to do with a congenial climate of friends and friendship.

26:05 That's why our Lord says in Matthew 5, the passage we've referred to earlier, when men revile you and persecute you. Well, don't we all love to be loved? A person who doesn't want to be loved has had something snapped inside of him. A person who deliberately goes about getting people to hate him.

26:26 Something is snapped.

26:30 Something that's functioning right here. Or he's been given over to some terrible form of corruption in his own heart. We all want to be loved. And we feel good.

26:41 And we're happy. And we're loved. But when we're rejected, the Lord says, leave for joy. This joy has nothing to do with the possession of earthly friends.

Christ as the Example of Full Joy Amidst Suffering

26:53 And our Lord is the beautiful example of one who possessed this joy to the full. I tell you one of the most problematic texts in Scripture. One that used to bother me. And it's bothered me in the preparation of our study this morning.

27:07 Is when our Lord said, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be in you. And that your joy might be full. Well, I thought he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. There's no record in Scripture that he ever laughed.

27:23 I'm not saying he didn't. There's just no record that he did. There is a record that he wept. That he groaned in his spirit.

27:32 That he was weary. That he was amazed. That he marveled. All of these words are used.

27:39 I believe our Lord did laugh.

27:43 One of the reasons I believe it is he was a true man. And laughter is part of a true man. A man in whom the ability to laugh has been killed is not a full man. He's not a true man.

27:53 Little children came to him. They don't come to people who are dour and sour.

28:00 There's no record that he laughed. And yet he says, I'm telling you these things that my joy may be in you and your joy before. Well, what was our Lord's joy? It had nothing to do with favorable circumstances.

28:14 A man of sorrows acquainted with grief. No place to lay his head. Nothing to do with material possessions. The son of man hath not where to lay his head.

28:23 Little reddy fox has got a little hole that he can call his own. Little Jimmy Sparrow's got a nest that he can call his own. Not a place in the world I've made over which I can hang a shingle. This is Jesus' property.

28:39 I've got to live in borrowed bedrooms. And out beneath the stars. No possessions. And it's certainly in our Lord is obvious that his joy had nothing to do.

28:52 With. With even his friends. Because in his hour of greatest need, his intimate friends, the little circle left. What'd they do?

29:00 They forsook him and fled.

29:03 And yet he says, My joy in you, your joy. What was our Lord's joy? It was the possession of present spiritual realities and the anticipation of spiritual realities, which was his joy. Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God.

How to Perform the Duty of Rejoicing: Inform the Mind and Exercise Faith

29:30 Therefore, as God's people, we are commanded in all circumstances and all times to have that delightful affection of the soul based upon the possession or anticipation of spiritual objects and realities. So much for the duty to which we're directed what it is. Now, in the second place, the duty to which we're directed, how do you perform it? That's all right for you, Paul, to say rejoice always.

29:59 If you had my circumstances, you would have written a little different.

30:03 If you had my wife, or if you had my husband, or if you had my boss, or if you had my neighbors, or if you had my employer, or my whatever it is. No, this is not Paul, off in an ivory tower, just binding the conscience of Christians to an unrealistic standard. This is the Lord Jesus, through his inspired servant, exercising his prophetic office in his church, showing us his will and his purpose for us. How do you do it?

30:32 May I suggest two things. Number one, you must, I must, continually inform our minds with the facts, and secondly, we must continually exercise faith with respect to those facts. What is joy? We go back to the definition.

30:52 It's an affection of the soul, springing from the anticipation or possession of some suitable good. Well, if I'm to rejoice always, then it means in every circumstance, I must remember what suitable good things are, which are mine now, or will be mine hereafter, and then I must exercise faith with respect to those objects. Now, what are your present possessions? You've got to know them.

31:25 This is a matter of the understanding, and a matter of understanding, of the mind. James says this so clearly in James 1, 2. He says, Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing. You've got to know something, or you won't count it joy.

31:42 You've got to know something. Romans 5, 3 through 5, same thing. He says, We rejoice in hope, and furthermore we rejoice in tribulation. Why?

31:53 Knowing. We know certain things. Do you know what your present possessions are? Do you continually remind yourself of those things that you have that circumstances, possessions, and people have nothing to do with?

32:08 You've got to continually remind yourself of these things. You must inform yourself to yourself. As we heard last Sunday night, someone mentioning how this exercise has been a great help to them. What do you have here and now if you're a child of God?

32:28 You have God Himself. Well, He is the portion of His people. The infinite, eternal God who didn't need His creatures has made them. And when they foully rebelled against Him, He puts forth the initiative to redeem them, and in that redemption He gives us nothing less than Himself.

32:50 So the psalmist says, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there's none that I desire upon the earth but Thee. And I come back to the words of the hymn writer, I must have all things and abound since God is God to me. Having Him, I have the greatest good.

33:11 Do you believe that, child of God? Does anything of God go when your bank account goes? Does anything of God go when your dearest loved one goes? Does anything of God go when your reputation is kicked around in the mud?

33:27 Does anything of God go when the circumstances are adverse? Of course not. Well, you need to tell yourself that. Talk to yourself and say, Why have I lost my joy?

33:39 Well, my circumstances have become unfavorable. So ask yourself, alright, now look at that circumstance and all the factors of it, and say now, What in that circumstance has changed God? Circumstance has caused God to be something less than my God. You need to talk to yourself.

33:57 Remind yourself. We not only have Him, but we have His dear Son by whom we approach Him. He who has so joined Himself to His people that He calls Himself something that I've never been able yet, with liberty, to call myself. He calls us our elder brother.

34:15 I find it borders of irreverence for me to think of Christ as my brother, yet He says in Hebrews, He says to the Father, Here I am. I am the brethren whom Thou hast given me. He calls us His brethren. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father the same is my mother, my brother, and my sister.

34:37 Christ, our elder brother, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the pledge and assurance of seeing Him face to face, all of these present blessings. Child of God, you have all the ingredients for all the joy that little mortal frame of yours can contain. The problem most of the time is you're not filling your mind with the thought of your present possessions. It's one reason why God's given us this day.

35:10 Because all of the affairs and concerns of the weak pressing upon us in such a way that the mind begins to lose its grasp. And what a terrible thing to allow that world in which you must move by necessity to crowd itself in upon you on the Lord's day. This ought to be, as we sing in the words of the hymn, an emblem of eternal rest. And we ought to take time to fill our minds afresh with all those possessions that are ours.

35:39 You won't need to have the song leader standing up there saying, now everybody put his fingers up, put them in here. You'll come into the assembly tonight with the glow of God upon your countenance. Joy will be the fruit of the contemplation of all that is yours in Christ Jesus. And, this is the wonder of it, the best is yet to come.

35:59 God's blessings to the Christian now are like the part of the iceberg that shows above water. It's only one tenth of it. And scripture says all you've gotten now is a little pittance, a little down payment. All that I have now, God is my God, Christ is my advocate, the Holy Spirit as my indwelling, present, sanctifying companion.

36:25 All that I have, yes, God says all you've got now is a little smidgen of what you're going to have then. So, I think of what are my future blessings? That inheritance undefiled and corruptible that fades not away. I'll look upon him with undimmed eye, love him with an unsinning heart, be in his presence to do his will, never weary, never weary again.

36:50 That to me is one of the most thrilling prospects of glory, to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth and never get weary in it. Never get weary in it. Never feel the dullness of this old indwelling sin and corruption. That's coming if you're a child of God.

Faith Makes Spiritual Realities Tangible and Joy Full

37:08 That's yours. It's coming. The inheritance undefiled that fadeth not away. Now in the anticipation of that, filling the mind with those facts, then secondly, exercising faith with respect to those facts.

37:28 Romans 15, 13, Now the God of all peace fill you with joy and peace. How? In believing. Now what does faith do to these things?

37:37 Hebrews tells us. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. What does faith do? Faith takes those blessings of the unseen world of spiritual reality and makes them as tangible as the wood on this pulpit.

37:58 It puts the very substance in my hands so that I know as really as I know I'm holding this pulpit that I cling to a Savior who has me written upon His heart and had me there for more eternity. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That's why the Apostle says, we look not on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal. The wood shall decay, but that relationship to God in Christ is eternal.

38:39 So then the end of all of our hearing of the Word of God and the reading of the Word of God should be just this, to make these facts more real and so strengthen our faith in the reality of them that our joy may be full. These things have I written unto you, John says. Why? That your joy may be full.

38:59 Jesus said, I've given you these promises of prayer. Why? Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full. Now, what can change those facts of the present possession of a child of God or those anticipated blessings?

39:14 What can change them? Well, Paul goes through the whole list in Romans 8. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine. No, they can't touch them.

39:24 Why? Because they are spiritual in nature. Circumstances change. Friends leave us, betray us, drive a knife in our heart.

39:35 And the dearer and deeper the friendship, the more pointed the knife, the deeper the disappointment. None of these things, he says, shall move us. Why? Because our joy is not related to circumstances, not related to possessions, not related to people, but related to those present and anticipated blessings brought to us by the grace of our Savior.

Practical Application: What Causes Your Joy?

40:04 The Lord willing in our subsequent study will try to see what relationship there is then between the proper place of the Christian mourning over his sins. Blessed are they who mourn. Is it consistent with holy joy? What's the relationship?

40:19 I want to consider all of that. This morning my main purpose was to set before you, first of all, what is that joy to which we are called? Secondly, how do we exercise it or how do we experience it? Now as I close this morning, I want to do so by this very practical application.

40:39 Perhaps there is no clearer indication of the state of your soul than this. What causes genuine joy for you? If joy is that affection of the soul in the presence of some suitable good, what do you regard as good? What makes you genuinely joyous?

41:02 Does God want us to experience some legitimate joy if we get a new home, a new car, find a new friend? Sure. God doesn't want us to be less than human beings. I still get joy out of a new pair of shoes.

41:19 I've never gotten over the thrill of getting a new pair of shoes. And I go around and I look at them for the first month or so every time I sit down. Anything wrong with that? Not a thing wrong with that.

41:29 If you receive them as God's gifts and accept them as from His hand, you enjoy a new pair of shoes, what's your new pair of shoes? Whatever it is. Car, home, what are the things that make you really joyous? Getting an ice cream?

41:46 You kids, huh? What is it that makes you happy? Well, let me ask you something. If you don't know what it is to be genuinely joyous, don't know what it is to have your heart leap for joy at some new discovery of God in the preaching of the Word, some new sight of your Savior in the study of Scripture or in meditation.

42:04 If you don't know what it is to have true joy in spiritual objects, it's an indication you're a stranger to grace. A stranger to grace. And the reason why there's so much intrusion of carnal joy into the church is because it's a feeble effort to substitute for the absence of those spiritual joys that come from a discovery of Christ. The early church was drunk with joy and nobody was there to pull the teeth back.

42:37 The Holy Spirit was present giving such evidence of the presence and power of Christ that the heart delighting in Him could not help but be drunk with joy. Dear child of God, perhaps there's no clearer indication of the depth of your attachment to the world of spiritual reality than this. What shakes your joy? What shakes your joy?

43:03 Somebody doesn't look at you quite right at the door as you go out on a Sunday morning and your joy is gone. Is your joy primarily in the smiles of God's people or in the smile of God? Which is it? Now bless God when you've got the smiles of His people.

43:18 I don't like it when you frown. Once in a while I've got to look out into some frowning faces and I don't like it. But what is the source of your joy? How deep is your attachment to the Lord?

43:29 Here's the test. What shakes my joy? Do I spill grease on my new shoes? Do I lose my joy?

43:37 When I get the first dent in my new car do I lose my joy? If so, I'm living in a subnormal standard. I'm too attached to things. When I accept them this way and rejoice when they're there, I can rejoice when they go.

43:59 It's when I begin to hold them this way that I have problems. Simple little text, isn't it? Rejoice always. You set yourself to obey it and see how simple it is.

44:08 The same God who gave it to us is the God whose grace is available and has set before us the ground of that joy. Don't go out and try to bring joy out of a vacuum. Set the mind to think of all you have now in Christ and all that you shall have then. And then mixing faith with that which you know is yours.

44:33 You'll have all the joy you can contain. You may have to pray as some of God's servants have done. Lord, stay your hand. This poor frame can't take anymore.

44:42 Rejoice always. This is the will of God for you and for me. Let us unite in prayer.