If you have your Bibles this
morning, if you would, please turn to the book of Philippians. Book of Philippians, chapter
4. In the book of Philippians chapter
4, our text is going to be verses 4-7. Beginning in chapter 4, God's
Word says, Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful, or be anxious for
nothing. But in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your minds through
Christ Jesus." The title of our lesson today is joy and peace
in Christ Jesus. Paul said in Philippians 4.4,
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice. When Paul wrote the letter to
the Philippians, he was in jail in Rome, waiting to be executed
for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he knew that his
time was near, but he had learned at whatever state that he was
in to be content, regardless of the circumstances of his life. If you look in the same chapter,
if you look over on verse 11 of chapter 4, this is Paul speaking. He says, "...not that I speak
in respect of want, For I have learnt in whatever state I am
therewith to be content. I know both how to be a base
and I know how to abound in everywhere and in all things. I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer
need. As he said in verse 4, he said,
Rejoice in the Lord always. And he said again, I say rejoice. He said that twice because he
knows that the world that we live in, the things that we face,
that sometimes it gets very hard. It gets very hard to rejoice.
But in the book of Psalms, the Bible says that God is our refuge
and strength of very present hell and time of trouble. And Paul had learned what to
be content. Down in verse 19 of this same
chapter, he's talking to the Philippians. He says, but my
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. When Paul said here in verse
4, I wonder if he was talking about Psalm 40. If you will,
look at Psalm 40 verse 5. You know, we have happiness in
this world, but happiness comes and goes. Things change, peoples
change, circumstances change, but the joy of our Lord, it never
changes. I like it where he says that
the grass will ever and the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God
shall stand forever. But here in Psalm 40, in verse
5, Now really, try to enter into this if we can. He says, David
says, Many, O Lord my God, are thou wonderful works which thou
hast done, and thou thoughts which are to usward. He's talking
to the elect. He's talking to the ones that
God the Father had placed in the sun before the foundation
of the world. And the sun hung on that cross
for nine hours. and he died and he bled for our
sins. It says, they cannot be reckoned
up in order unto thee. If I would, listen to this, if
I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can
be numbered. Then in Psalm 6, it says, blessed
is the man who thou choosest. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that
no man can come unto the Father. except the Father growing. No
man can come unto me except the Father growing. It says, sure
blessed is a man whom thou choosest, and causeth to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in the courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of the house, even of the holy temple. The
only sure, reliable, unmovable, unchangeable source that we have
in this life is our Lord. And we thank God so much for
His Word, His written Word. If you have your Bibles, if you
turn to Psalms 1, I'm going to read the first three
verses and think about it. When David wrote these verses,
he had only five books. He had the five books of Moses,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. How many books
do we have today? We have the whole batch. We've got all 66 books. But he
says here, Blessed is a man that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth
in the seat of the scornful. But listen to this. His delight
is in the law of the Lord, and his law doeth he meditate, day
and night. He's talking about the written
word here. This is the mind and the heart
and the soul of God talking to his people. And he shall be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water that bring forth his
fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth, he shall prosper. Our faith, our trust
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that in order to have
spiritual stability, we must rejoice in the Lord. Not only
on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night, we
are to rejoice each and every day of our lives. For everything
that we have in this life, it comes from God. Every person
that we love, our children, our loved ones, all the material
things, everything belongs to God because He is absolute sovereign. He is absolute sovereign and
nothing happens without His permissive and His directive will. We rejoice
in His grace because it's always sufficient. It's always sufficient. We rejoice in His blood because
it always cleanses. We rejoice in His righteousness
which justifies. We rejoice in His works, not
our works, because the Bible says that our works is as filthy
rags. We rejoice not in our faith,
but we rejoice in His faithfulness. We must always remember that.
And we rejoice because we believe. And we believe because He enabled
us to believe. And we thank Him for that. We
love Him. We love Him not only because
We love Him only because He first loved us. If you will, go back
to your text. He says again, rejoice in the
Lord. God's people rejoice in the Lord
and the fact that God, and this is something that you don't hear
a whole lot in religion, but He is absolute. And I love that
word absolute when I'm speaking of our Lord and our Savior, when
I'm speaking of the Trinity. I love this word absolute. He's
absolute in providence. If you will, turn over to 1 Chronicles
29. There are so many places in the
Word that speaks of His sovereignty in providence and salvation,
creation. But I like this verse right here.
If you look at 1 Chronicles 29, verses 11-13. It says, thine, O Lord, is the
greatness and the power and the glory and the victory. and the majesty, for all that
is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom,
O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches
and honor come of thee, and thou ringeth over all, and in thy
hand is power and might, and in thy hand it is to make great
and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank
thee, and we praise thy glorious name. And also in Providence,
when it comes to his elect, I love this verse right here, and we
all know it by heart. And we know that all things work
together to the good, to them that love God, to them that are
the call. It's not a blanket love to every
son of Adam, but to them that are the call, to them that love
God. And I thank him for that. And he says here in Revelation,
talking about creation, he says in Revelation 4, speaking of
Christ Jesus, he says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are. and were created. If you turn
back to your text, over on the other page, Galatians 1, speaking
of creation, Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ here, it says
in Galatians 1 verse 16, it says, For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether it be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before
all things, and it is by Him that all things consist. In salvation,
He is absolute sovereign, and I thank the Lord for that, because
if one of God's sheep could fall, or if I could fall, I'd fall
a thousand times every day. I would. If I'm opening my mouth,
I'm sinning. Even sometimes when I'm praying,
I'm sinning. That's just who we are. It's
just flesh. It says here in Jonah 2.9, salvation is of the Lord.
And then we love this verse here in Ephesians 2. And this is the
absolute truth of God. It says, for by grace, what is
that? God giving us something we don't
belong. What did He give us? He gave us His only begotten
Son, where He died on that cross. And through the shedding of His
innocent blood, through His perfect righteousness to the Father,
we have our righteousness. And it says, that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
And then I like it over there, I love it over there, where Parn
Barnimus, they're preaching to the Jews, and they're preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Jews reject the message of
Parn Barnimus. They go to the Gentiles. And they preached a message of
Jesus Christ and them crucified to the Gentiles, which were Gentiles. And guess what? They believed.
It says in Acts 13, 48. And it says that when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. And they glorified the Word of
the Lord. And don't miss out on what this
says right here, because it speaks to the absolute sovereignty of
God. It says, "...and to as many as
were ordained to eternal life they believed." And I thank God
for that. We rejoice in His Word because
it's absolute truth. And a lot of His Word, a lot
of His Word that He speaks, He speaks as if it's already happened,
because in the eyes of God, it has. It says here in 1 John 3,
it says, talking to His elect, it says, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, But it doeth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he shall appear, that we shall be
like him, for we shall see him as he is." Can you imagine what
a blessing that's going to be, to be at the feet of our Lord
and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We need to rejoice in the Lord
continuously. Christ should not be a part of
our life. He is our life. And regardless
of what we face in this life and the circumstances that we
face, I like what Habakkuk 3 said here. He said, although the fig
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines,
the labor of the olive shall not yield, and the fields shall
not bear fruit, And there shall be no herd in the stalls. And
yet, what does he say? He says, I will rejoice in the
Lord. I will rejoice in the joy of
my salvation, because that's where our salvation rests. It
rests in God and God alone. It rests in our Lord Jesus Christ.
It rests in His grace, not our works. John, then when it comes
to his, when it comes to the knowledge that he's coming back,
you know, we look back at his coming, but we also look forward
to his coming. God's people look forward to
his coming. He says in John 14, one through
three, he says, and he says this a whole lot to his people. He
say, you know, the world that we live in and the circumstances
that we face and see each and every day of our lives, you know,
He says, let not your heart be troubled. If you believe in God,
believe also in me. That's Jesus talking. He says,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. And listen to this. He says, I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That's
a promise from our Lord. I thank Him for that. And then
in Titus, looking for His coming again, he says, looking for that
blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from all iniquity
and purified unto Himself a procurier of people, zealous of good works. We rejoice in the Lord at all
times and in all conditions. It says here in Job, I like what
Job said. Job said, for I know that my
Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon
this earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy his body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. That's a promise
from our Lord. I thank him for that. It's a
blessing. Let's go back to our text, if
you would. Verses 4 and 5, it says, Rejoice in the Lord always,
and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Let your
moderation be known to all men. It's not necessarily talking
about eating and drinking there, although that is important, but
it's talking about let all men in and out of the church, whether
you're at work, at school, or wherever you're at, whether you're
among people that are believers or non-believers. It says that
we need to let them recognize our gentle spirit. We should
have consideration of others. We should have a forgiving spirit.
Galatians 3 says, Forbid one another, and forgive one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgive you, so also do ye. We must remember
that the Lord is always near. He's always with us. The Bible
says, Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost?
He is always with us. And we need to realize that.
And He gives us strength to handle adversity and trials when they
come our way. And we need to handle them in
a way that the Lord would handle them. And not allow the flesh
to get in the way. If you would, sometimes I'm so
guilty of forgetting this, but look at Ephesians. If you read
Ephesians 6, it's over just a few pages. Ephesians 6. Verse 10, Ephesians 6, 10 through
13. Well, think about this, you know.
It says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his mind. That's why we need to rejoice
in the Lord every day. He says, put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wells of the
devil. Listen to this. He says, for we will not against
flesh and blood, but principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Therefore taken to you is the
whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day and having done all to stand He says, be careful. He says,
be careful. Don't be anxious. You can't help
but be concerned about things that we face. But he's saying,
don't let anxiety take over your mind. Don't fret over things. He says, I'll take care of it
for you. The Lord is near, and he will always be near. He says
here in 1 Thessalonians, pray without ceasing. Everything should
be taken to the Lord in prayer. Everything. And that means everything,
no matter how little or how small. We need to take it to His love
and care. And we should have the mood of our life should be
a prayerful mood. And when he talks about supplication
here, he's talking about specific needs that we need. And you know
what? We're a very needy people. We
need things every day. And we need those. And God, we
need to know that God is always with us. And we need to do it
with thanksgiving. You know, a lot of times we think,
you know, we forget that everything that
we have in this life, He provides it. And you know what? He always
will. He said, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. When it comes to God's elect,
there never was a time that He did not love His elect. And there
never will be a time that He will not love His elect, nor
take care of them. It's forever. You know, sometimes
when I think about God, you know, I can think, well, you know,
when I pass from this life, I'm going to be present with the
Lord, and I'm going to live forever, and He's going to be with me.
But think about this. There never was a time when Christ
Jesus wasn't. There never was a time when God
the Father wasn't. There never was a time when God
the Holy Spirit... They've always been, and they
always will be, and they have a people. The father picked a
bride out for his son, and he died on the cross for him. It says here, to set your affection
on things above, not on things of the earth. For you are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him
in glory. That's a blessing. And I want
to finish with one thing, because It is a blessing. If you will
turn to Romans, just for a second, Romans 8. We're so blessed to have the
Word of God. It's got so many wonderful promises in there for
us. But in Romans 8, verse 33, Romans
8, verse 33, it says, Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is Christ. It is Christ that
died, yet rather He's risen again. Who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ, your tribulation, distress? Do we
not all experience those things? Persecution, famine, nakedness,
pearl, sword, as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all
the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors. Through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall what? shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. We, God's elect, are the most
blessed and the richest people on the face of this earth. I
thank Him for that. Let's rejoice in the Lord. Let's
rejoice in the Lord every day, because He gives us a joy that's
deep down. Like I said, happiness changes,
but that joy, we know that the Lord does not change. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.