Rejoice evermore If you look at the context there
Paul is saying we exhort you brethren We exhort you So this
is an exhortation Verse 14 now we exhort you brethren Then he
gives these final exhortations So we exhort you to rejoice And what a beautiful thing that
is. Spurgeon once said, what a gracious
command that the Lord requires us to be happy. And that's just the truth. You
know, I was in religion for years, and religion is almost like some
kind of boot camp. It's rules, always rule, always, It's the whip of the law. It's,
you know, live the Christian life. Tithe, tithe, tithe. Walk an aisle. Rededicate your
life. There's always something you
should be doing. Go on visitation. I don't know if they have that
anymore. I hope not. Some do because we've had them
come to our house. Don't drink, smoke, or cuss.
You know, that's constantly harped on. tithe, read your Bible in a year,
and tithe. It just was constant. That would
be their list of exhortations to what they call the church.
Paul's list and the Lord's list begins, it sort of begins with
this really because he gives some warnings He's exhorting
us in those things, but the list kind of begins with live like
salvation is of the Lord. Live like God makes everything
happen for your good and you can't mess it up even if you
wanted to. Live like that. Rejoice. Don't, it's not do this, do that,
don't do this, don't do that. It's be happy about what he did. Such a comforting and glorious
exhortation. Just enjoy being plumb saved. Listen to what Paul said in Philippians
3, 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it's safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil
workers. Like in our text, in the verses
prior to our text this morning, he warns against these. Beware
of the concision. For we are the circumcision,
Covenant people of God which worship God in the spirit and
Rejoice in Christ Jesus And have no confidence in the flesh. This
is who we are That's what he's saying those four thing this
is who we are we rejoice in the Savior alone We have no other
Hope no other comfort And what other would we need? We rejoice
in Christ. That defines who we are. Rejoice that you're His and He
is yours. Rejoice that He took your sins
away. Rejoice in that if God spared
not His own Son for you, then all things are yours in Him.
That makes me happy. That makes me happy. I don't
see anywhere in the word where it says, be sure and be stoic. Be sure now and be solemn. Be gloomy. Be downhearted. Don't come into the church fellowshipping
with one another and talking like friends. Come in and be
kind of a stick in the mud. Be sure and do that now. I don't
see that in the Scriptures. I'm not seeing it. When the disciples were on the
road to Emmaus in Luke 24, the Lord asked them, why are you
so sad? What are you talking about that
would make you so sad? I believe that's a question that
all believers could apply to ourselves, to many, many times
in our lives. Knowing that the Lord asked them
this question, I don't think it's stretching the scriptures
to think that this is a question for us. Why are you so sad? Your sins are gone. You can't
mess up. We know how it ends and we win.
What are you sad about? That would apply to so many circumstances
when we're upset over problems in this world. It's always something,
isn't it? And it may have something to
do with the world, or it may have something to do in your
family, or just in your own heart, just being downhearted. But there
are times I recently, you know, just thought to myself, I'm happy. I've got no reason to be concerned
about anything or worried about anything, but that doesn't last
long, does it? It just doesn't last long. We're upset over problems in
this world, and I know that there are legitimate reasons to be
sad, but in light of who is walking with you, these disciples on
the road to a mess, they had the Son of God walking with them.
Do you, don't you, as a believer in the Lord? Did he say, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you? Can you hear the Savior asking
them, why are you sad? And can you hear Him asking you
that? In their case, they were sad because they had lost their
master. And there He was walking with them and talking to them. Are any of your sad times as
unnecessary as that? considering that we're in the
hand of the Son of God. And no man can pluck us out,
considering that God has hedged us about so that a dog can't
move its tongue in our direction, seeing that he's given his angels
charge over us lest we dash even our foot against a stone. seeing
that no weapon formed against us shall ever prosper, seeing
that he himself will never leave nor forsake us, seeing that to
be absent from this body is to be at home with him. Why are
you sad? I have to ask myself that. I
need to ask myself that a lot. Romans 15, 13, now the God of
hope fill you with all joy and peace. In believing, oh, that's
a key right there, isn't it? Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing. The more we look to him, believe
on him, trust him, the more we're gonna be able
to rejoice. The more we look at ourselves,
our own circumstances, our own resources, our own inability,
our own sinfulness. We're never told that in the
scriptures either, are we? Make sure you remember all your
sins today and dwell on them. I don't see that in there either. We're to confess our sins to
the Lord What are you doing when you do that? Does the Lord need a report on
how bad you are? No, you're giving them to Him.
You're saying, Lord, without you, I'm vile. I need you every hour. I can't
believe on you. I can't look to you. I can't
trust you. I can't do anything for you. I can't love you. Don't leave me to myself. All joy and peace in believing
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
The God of hope fill you with that. So I would ask, don't you
think we should ask you, Lord, take my tears away. I've got
nothing to be sad about. Teach me that. May your presence
cheer my heart. Cause me to be the servant that I should, cheerfully
serving the Lord. Philippians 4.4, 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 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 minds through
Christ Jesus. Rejoice in him and he'll keep
your heart and your mind Verse 17 in our text pray without
ceasing How simple these exhortations
are But how hard for us to heed these simple things I Rejoicing is hard for us, isn't
it? It's hard to get beyond. I mean, how do you sing in the
prison? We'd have to ask Paul and Silas
wouldn't we? Or maybe we understand that a
little bit. Praying is hard for us. especially to heed the exhortation
in our text, pray without ceasing. We tend to think that that means
to just all the time be praying. But let me share my experience
with you. And what I believe the Lord teaches
me here, and I think it'll be pretty similar to your situation. Pray without ceasing. It doesn't
mean to go around muttering under your breath, you know, prayers
about things all day long and every day. But without ceasing
is key here, though, because we tend to just cease, don't
we? You think about this with me. See if this is your experience. When I have a real problem, a real problem, there's a problem
in my personal life, in the church, whatever, I tend to pray pretty consistently. And then what happens when that
problem is resolved? We cease. We cease, we just quit for a
while. That's me now. And maybe more often, I pray
when I'm feeling spiritual. I'll go through seasons where,
you know, the Lord is just speaking to my heart and the gospel is
so clear at times. Maybe there's fewer distractions,
which is not an excuse, because nothing should distract us from
the Lord. But we go through periods where
we just, we sort of buckle down in a spiritual
sense, you know. And we'll be consistent in prayer
for a time, but then that seems to pass, and we cease to pray. I'm pretty sure that's what he's
talking about. Don't quit. You know, he says preach the
word in season and out of season. I think prayer is kind of like
that. We need to pray in season and out of season. We get caught up in the vanities
of this world and we just cease to pray. Have you ever gone a
week without praying at all? Did you stop needing God? Did you run out of things to
be thankful for? I believe this is what Paul is
dealing with here. And don't say your prayers, don't
ever say your prayers. It's okay maybe teaching a child
to pray, to have a prayer. I've got mixed feelings about
that. I think we should teach them
from very young to pray from their heart. If you teach them
who God is and what he's done, and then teach him to pray to
him, just who he is teaches you how to pray, doesn't it? To a
great extent. But don't say your prayers, it's
not a ritual. If you were actually physically
in the throne room of King Jesus, and you were bowing before his
actual throne, would you ramble off memorized sayings in front
of him? That wouldn't even make sense,
would it? It don't make sense. It doesn't make any sense to
do that. It's not some religious incantation. You're talking to a person. You're
talking to the king of glory who made you and runs you. If you were in his throne room,
would you spill your heart to him? Is there anything you'd like
to say to the one who made you from dust? And who gave you everything you
have? And who is the salvation of a
sinner who puts sins away, who loves sinners? Is there anything
you'd like to say to him? The one who has mercy in his
hand, and he said, I'll have mercy on who I want to. Anything
you got to say to him? Maybe. There'd be nothing wrong with
being speechless. But we'd say it in our hearts,
wouldn't we? You couldn't be in his presence. And just be. Inert lackadaisical. Would words fail you not knowing
how to thank him sufficiently? I kind of like that song. Thank
you Lord for saving my soul. But doesn't that sound so pathetic? That's like somebody given their whole life for you,
and you just say, I appreciate it. It just doesn't seem sufficient,
does it? I mean, it's fine, there's nothing
wrong with that, but it just seems so short. Or has the Lord shown you beyond
just your circumstances? Is your prayer just about your
circumstances and changing your circumstances? Or has He shown
you beyond that that the best thing is not always the thing
that's most expedient to the flesh? The best turnout is not
always what you think it is. Has He shown you that? Do you
pray with that awareness? In so much that you're not even
sure how to pray? Because only He knows the right
thing, the best thing, the good thing, the good outcome, the
perfect path. Only he knows that. Now you're
on to something. If we can pray knowing that,
so that we don't even know how to pray, that's okay. Romans 8, 26, likewise the spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. That doesn't mean the spirit
is groaning. The spirit within us causes us
to say things not with our lips or even words forming in
our mind, but with our heart. We speak with our heart by the
Spirit of God. We've got to come to the place
where prayer is necessary for us. And then verse 18 in our text,
everything Give thanks For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you He hasn't changed the subject This is very much in context
with the two verses we just looked at. In everything, give thanks. Pray
without ceasing. Whatever God does is deserving of thanks, even
if it was the opposite of what you prayed. It deserves his It
deserves gratitude unto him because he did what you need. Not what
you wanted necessarily, but he did for you what you needed. May God open our eyes so that
we see beyond our circumstances, beyond what seems best to us.
And it may be obvious, Lord, this needs to happen. Well, who
are you to say that? Remember who you're praying to. He knows what needs to happen.
You know what you would like to see happen. Pray that way. Pray that way. God give us grace
to pray that way in everything giving thanks. You see how that's,
it's not a change of the subject. Give thanks knowing that he doeth
all things well. give thanks, acknowledging, acknowledging
that we don't even know what's good. Seems good to me for it
to work out this way. Maybe, maybe not. When it comes to the way that
things play out in this world, the way things happen in our
lives, we don't know good from bad. A lot of things that I would have
called bad have been some of the best things that ever happened
to me. And we're selfish in our prayers,
aren't we? I can think of several examples
of that, can't you? We pray, Lord, don't let that
happen. but it's the best thing for somebody
else maybe. Is that okay with you? Please don't let this person
die, but if they die, they'll be with the Lord. We gotta make some effort not
to be selfish when we pray. And you know, I'm talking to
myself, And you know there there are
two ways to read this in everything give thanks For this is the will
of God in Christ Jesus concerning you The first way to read that
is that it's God's will that you give thanks and I'd say that's absolutely true,
wouldn't you? I'd say that's consistent with
the Word of God. It's His will for you to be thankful. You remember Romans 1? It's verse
21 in Romans chapter 1, where the Lord shows that not being
thankful is part and parcel to a refusal to glorify God as God. It's a refusal to bow to Him. Did God choose you to salvation
before the foundation of the world? Is he sovereign in salvation? Be thankful. To boast in your own decision
is to refuse to glorify God as God, is it not? And it's to refuse to be thankful
for that. That doesn't inspire gratitude
in my heart to think that God chose me before the foundation
of the world. Then you don't know him. You
don't know who he is. You're refusing to glorify him
as God. And the way that's manifesting
itself is you're not thankful. I'm thankful God chose sinners
because by his grace, I know that if he hadn't, no one would
be saved. There'd be no hope for me. You
see how this, instead of being proud of your
own self-righteous will, be thankful to him for salvation. The other way to Understand verse
18 is that whatever it is that you're giving thanks to God for
That thing He says in every thing give thanks So the other way to understand
this is that that thing whatever it is it's God's will for you
In Christ Jesus In other words, if you pray, Lord, don't let me fall flat
on my face. Don't let me fail. And then you fall flat on your
face, be thankful. Because that was God's will for
you in his son. in his son. Let's try to grasp
this and pray God will give us a grasp on this. Whatever God
does in our lives to us, for us, or seemingly against us,
all that he does with us, all that he does that concerns us,
it is his will for us in Christ Jesus. God's will concerning us all
has to do with and is consistent with us being in Christ. Think
about this with me. Our brains are gonna smoke for
a minute here and then we'll be through. Think about this. God's will concerning us is whatever happens to us. Because he works everything for
our good. He even turns our sin around
and makes it good for us. The results of it, the consequences,
earthly consequences of it. We mean it unto evil and God
means it unto good for all of his sheep. And that's really, really good
news. What does it mean to be in Christ? Well, we're loved of God in Christ. God's love is in Christ. To say
God loves everybody is blasphemy because what we need to be telling
sinners is God's love is in Christ. I would run to Christ if I were
you. God's love is in the ark, not outside of it. God's love
is not manifest in destroying you and throwing you in hell.
That's not how God loves. So we're loved in Christ. We're
blessed eternally in Christ. Always remember a blessing, things,
individual things that happen are not a blessing or a curse.
God's blessing is something you either have or you don't. And
it doesn't have anything to do with good things happening for
you or bad things happening for you. If you have his blessing,
there are no bad things. And if you don't, if you're under
the wrath of God, if you're a child of his wrath by nature, and there's
no but God for you, then there's nothing good. You can say, hallelujah,
you know, whoo-hoo, I won, or I succeeded. No, you didn't. Everything works for good to
them that love God. What do you think everything
works for that don't love God? To those who are not called,
be called according to his purpose. It's all or nothing. You see
what I'm saying? It's not, oh, that was a blessing,
and then, oh man, I wish that hadn't happened. We can't have
that attitude as believers. We're blessed in Christ. We're righteous in Christ. That's
what it means to be in Christ. To be perfectly righteous in
the sight of God. And once we understand that,
what we do or don't do in this life, we will see it as, yes,
we want to honor our Lord, But if that has anything to do
with our righteousness before God, we have no hope. Our righteousness before God
literally is His Son. We're righteous in Christ, we're
sinless, without blemish in Christ. We're one with Christ and all
of God's will towards us which is acted upon and affects us
every moment of every day in this life is consistent with
that. That's what our text is saying. Everything that happens
to us is consistent with the fact that God has put us in his
son. That's really good news. Whatever it is, it's the will
of God concerning you in Christ Jesus. As he is, so are we in this world. And every detail of our lives
is integral to that oneness with the Lord. It's by God's will
that we're in Christ to begin with. Listen to First Corinthians
127. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence, But, now he just pronounced a pretty good description of
what we are by nature. Base, idiots, foolish, weak,
despised. So that no flesh should glory
in his presence, but of him. God he said God hath chosen so
the of him refers to God But God hath chosen and of him are
you in Christ Jesus? Who is made unto us wisdom? Righteousness Sanctification
and redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth
let him glory in the Lord The glory in our weakness and
our foolishness is vanity and evil. We glory in Him who has
made unto us wisdom. The word but in verse 30, but
of Him are you in Christ is a reversal on the fact that we're foolish,
base, weak, and despised. You're not taking it back, but
it's a reversal in this sense. In spite of that, in remedy to
that. God put us in his son and he
is our righteousness who are based by nature. He is our wisdom
who are foolish by nature. He is our sanctification who
are chosen. In other words, being chosen,
set apart, by God, a difference being made between His people
and the world. We're chosen in Christ and set
apart. That's not a goal of living right. Sanctification, some people teach
that sanctification is us living right and doing better. No, no. We're chosen in Christ and
set apart for His glory. He is our set-apartness, our
sanctification. And He is our redemption. He
has made unto us sanctification. He has made unto us redemption.
Who are despised by nature, children of wrath, even as others, but
God. So it is of God that we are in
Christ, and that we are righteous, sanctified, have the mind of
Christ, and are redeemed by His precious blood. And our text
says that all that ever happens to us in time and eternity is
part of that same will that put us in Christ to begin with and
made us everything we're not in Him. Our lives bear that out. The way He directs and guides
and His providence in our lives, moment by moment, Deals with
us as being in Christ And all that that means Can we
rejoice Can we give thanks God help us to make it a priority. Amen. Let's pray