I pray tonight that the Lord
would make somebody astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
That would be a good, good thing. Philippians 3 verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. No matter how bad things are for a believer
in this world, no matter how good things are for a believer
in this world. We have always great reason to
rejoice in the Lord. Always great and greater reason
to rejoice in the Lord. Greater reason than we have to
murmur or complain or be depressed or be sorrowful. We have greater reason always
to rejoice in the Lord. Now, understand this. Look with
me at Genesis 3. Understand this, that due to
sin, this world is a cursed place. Due to sin. Since the fall, this
world has been a cursed place. Genesis 3.17, unto Adam the Lord
said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
is eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat
of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake, and sorrows shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life. Thorns also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground. For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt thou return." All
men come into this world with only a sin nature. And even for
those born again of God, who God's given a new nature, we
still have our sin nature with us. And because this world's
a cursed place, We're going to have sorrow and tribulation because
of our nature's sin. We're dwelling amongst sinners.
We're going to have sorrow, thorns and thistles, the sweat of our
brow until the day we die. That's just how it's going to
be. That's how it's going to be. For believer and unbeliever
alike, that's how it's going to be. None can judge by providence. whether we're a child of God
or not. You can't judge by providence alone whether you are a child
of God or not. Now that's what prosperity preachers
would tell you. If bad things happen to you,
it's just because you don't have faith. You tell, ask Apostle
Paul about that. He's in prison when you're writing
this epistle. You ask Peter about that. You
ask Moses and David. any messenger God used. Look
over at Ecclesiastes 7. By God's good providence, sorrows
come to the believer the same as they come to the unbeliever.
Ecclesiastes 7, verse 15. Solomon said, all things have
I seen in the days of my vanity. He's talking about in the days
of my life, that's what he called it, the days of my vanity. There
is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there
is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Look at Ecclesiastes 9 verse
1. For all this I considered in
my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and
the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth
either love or hatred by all that is before them. You don't
know the love of God or the hatred of God based on what you see
with your carnal eye in providence. All things come alike to all.
There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked. to the good
and to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrificeth and to
him that sacrificeth not. As is the good, so is the sinner.
And he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. There is an
evil among all things that are done unto the Son, that there
is one event unto all. Yea, also the heart of the sons
of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they
live, and after that they go to the dead. That's what our
Lord said when he said, this ground's cursed. You're going
to have sorrow, you're going to have suffering until the day
you die. He said just what Solomon said
right there. You're not going to be able to look at providence
and tell who's God's and who's not. The things God speaks about
that he's going to do for his people and the blessings he gives
us, they're not things seen with these eyes. They're spiritual.
They're eternal. They're everlasting. Brother
Scott Richardson used to say, life begins with a slap on the
behind and ends with a shovel of dirt thrown in your face,
and in between it's just bumps and bruises the whole way through.
For those who believe not on Christ, there are some carnal
earthly joys the same as there is for the believer. In fact,
a lot of times wicked men have more carnal joys than believers
do. The difference is for the unbelievers,
those few carnal joys that they have in this short little season
called life, those few carnal joys they have, sadly, that's
all they have. But even more sadly, that's all
they want. That's all they want. That's
the madness in men's hearts that Solomon's talking about. All
they want is a little bit of joy right now. Look here, let
me just read this to you from Jerobe 21.7. Wherefore do the
wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power, their seeds
established in their sight with them, and their offspring before
their eyes. They have plenty of children. Their houses are
safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. They are
productive, their cattle produce. They send forth their little
ones like a flock, their children dance. They take the timbrel
and the harp and they rejoice at the sound of the organ. They
love the world's music. They spend their days in wealth
and in a moment go down to the grave. They don't even suffer
in their death a lot of time. Therefore they say unto God,
depart from us. For we desire not the knowledge
of thy ways. What is the almighty that we
should serve him? And what profit shall we have
if we pray unto him? But then when he dies, the wicked
man's going to meet God in judgment without a righteousness. And
then he'll spend eternity cast out of God's presence. Look over
at Luke chapter 6. In hell, I don't know what that will all involve, but
I do know this from this scripture right here, hell will be, you
know how terrible it is to have a desire and want something and
you cannot have it. Hell will have something to do
with having the unquenchable desire from beholding heaven
and everything a person could have had and not being able to
have it. Because they chose joys for just
a moment in this world. Look here. Luke 6.19. Luke 6.19. Have I written the wrong verse
down here? I have. Where's the, anybody know
where verse it is where the rich man in hell? I wanted y'all to
read that. What is it, eight? One six, there you go. Luke 16. See, I didn't put the 1 in front
of the 6. Luke 16, verse 19. There was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fed sumptuously
every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores, and
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it
came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried. And in hell, he lift up his eyes,
being in torments, and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus
in his bosom. He saw what he could have had. And he cried and he said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I'm tormented
in this flame. You reckon how many times the
rich man passed by Lazarus when Lazarus was just begging, please
just give me a crumb. And now the rich man's in hell
begging that they send Lazarus to just put a drop of water on
his tongue. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest
thy good things. You had your good thing, you
had your joy in life, and likewise Lazarus' evil things, but now
he's comforted and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you, there is a great gulf fixed." You know what fixed
that great gulf? The righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ fixed it. Fixed it justice, set that gulf,
fixed it in place. So that they which would pass
from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would
come from thence. And he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for
I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they
also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him,
They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Let them
hear the preaching of the gospel. And he said, No, Father Abraham.
You see, men in hell are still going to argue that they're right. I still don't have a broken heart. He argued, no. If one went to
them from the dead, they'll repent. And he said to them, if they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. One already rose from the dead,
and men aren't persuaded. The worst thing about hell would
have to know that if one would have used this little season
called life and sought Christ, He sees everything he could have
had, and he knows if I'd have used that season called life
to seek Christ, I'd be there with him. But instead I chose
the pleasure of sin for just a brief season, and now will
suffer forever. I don't know the man, so I'm
not going to speak of his spiritual state, but a few weeks ago Jacob
Rothschild died at the age of 87. You know the Rothschild family. His family's had generational
wealth for hundreds of years. And the reporter said at the
time of his death, he was worth over a billion dollars. But that's
not so. At the time of his death, he
was worth exactly what he came into this world with, nothing. And if a man spent 87 years accumulating
wealth and honors of men and billions of dollars and died
without Christ, his entire 87 years were worthless vanity. He accomplished nothing. Nothing. For a believer, It's even dangerous
to judge by providence alone. It's dangerous to start looking
at what unregenerate men have in this world. You know, that
hurt David at one point. He said, ìI was envious at the
foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.î He became envious. He said, ìTheyíre not in trouble
as other men are.î He said, ìPride just surrounds them everywhere
they go like a chain.î He said, ìThey set their mouth against
the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth oppressive
upon men.î And he said, ìI felt like I washed my hands in vain.î
He said, ìI felt like I believed in vain.î And then the Lord showed
him how foolish that was to even think that way. believers have many earthly things
for which we rejoice in the Lord. We have earthly things, and we
rejoice in the Lord for those earthly things. But we have something
far greater. We have spiritual joy in the
Lord. And here's the good thing about
that is, you see, if all you have is carnal joy, if all you
have is joy from good things that we call good in this life,
that's all you have. Well, when those good things
are taken away, and you're where Paul was, Paul's in prison. He's in prison writing this epistle,
and he knows that any minute Caesar might give the order for
him to be executed. Every time he hears the keys
of the jail jangling on the jailer's side, he thinks this might be
it. He's probably sitting there starving,
wants some bread, and the jailer has all he can bring him the
bread, but he don't want the jailer bringing him the bread
because that key's jangling, you know, and he might be executed.
But yet, in the midst of that, he still had joy in the Lord. He still rejoiced in the Lord.
See, that's something the world doesn't have. What are some of
the things for which believers rejoice in the Lord? Well, number
one is that God our Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, has provided all God's people
perfect righteousness. God chose whom He would save
freely by His grace. And he trusted everything to
his Son. And his Son came forth and lived
the life that you and I could never live. He lived the life,
holy from the womb all the way to the grave, the life that you
and I couldn't live due to our fall and our sin. And so now,
because he sent the gospel to you, because he gave you spiritual
discernment, because he gave you faith, The Lord has entered
into an everlasting covenant with you and promised you. You accepted in my Son. You're
as righteous as my Son. You're as perfect as my Son sitting
here at my right hand. You're perfect as my Son. Complete in Him. And so, whenever
troubles come to your house, When troubles came to Paul and
when troubles came to David, God's people all can say the
same thing. Though it be not so with my house,
God has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
insure. This is all my salvation. What
He did, not what I did. He ordered it all and He made
it all sure for me by His perfect obedience. This is all my salvation,
and it's all my desire. This is my joy. Though we make
it not to grow. So that's number one. No matter
what, we have Christ. We have acceptance in Him. You
know when God says, that Christ is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in Him. That's a play on words.
Paul had some ability to do a play on words, and that was a play
on words. If you could read the Greek, what it's saying is, as
fully as Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that's
how complete you are in Christ. That's what it basically means,
that play on words. That's our joy. That's our joy. No matter what, that's what we
have. Secondly, look here in Philippians 1, we rejoice in
the Lord because of brethren. We have brethren. We rejoice
that He's given us brethren with whom we have fellowship, and
He's going to preserve us and keep us and finish what He's
begun in us. He said there in verse 3, I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you always and every prayer
of mine for you all, making requests with joy, with joy, for your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day till now, being
confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good
work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. You
know, brethren in Christ, fellow brethren that trust the Lord
Jesus and rejoice in the same gospel, they're the greatest
gift God's given us right behind Christ. The greatest gift we have in
this world behind Christ. Our confidence for one another
is Christ alone. I can't help you. I'd love to
be able to help you. I'd love to be able to take you
out of your trouble and out of your sorrow and be able to comfort
you. And I can't. But our confidence for one another
is so Lord Jesus Christ is able. He's able. We see what He was
able to accomplish on the cross and we know He's able to make
our brethren stand. And He won't lose one. If He's
begun a good work in you, He will finish it. And that's our
rejoicing in the Lord. No matter how bad it might look
for my brother, I know this. If He's Christ, Christ is going
to keep Him and restore Him and make Him stand. And I can rejoice
in the Lord. Trust Him. Trust Him. We rejoice in the Lord that He's
sending forth the gospel of Christ and His word is never returning
to Him void. These words never returned to
him void. Paul said that because he was
in prison, these men had waxed bold and preached the gospel. And he said that some were preaching
the gospel just to add to his bondage. But he said, verse 18,
Philippians 1.18, What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. You see that? He rejoiced in
the Lord. The Lord said over in Isaiah 55, He said, just like
the rain and the snow come down and accomplish, they don't go
back until they accomplish My will and My good pleasure, they
provide seed to the sower and bread to the eater, the rain
and the snow never returns to them void. If men believed God
and believed the Word of God, that would end this worry and
trouble that we're going to destroy the ozone or whatever. He said, just like the snow and
rain always accomplish my purpose. He said, so shall my word be
that goes forth out of my mouth. It will not return to me vain.
It shall accomplish the thing wherein to I sent it. And Paul
said, I don't care what a man's motive is. If he's preaching
Christ in him crucified, I rejoice in the Lord because the Lord
can bless that. It's not being blessed by men.
It's being blessed by the Lord. I hope that I'm preaching from
a sincere motive. I think I am. And I think that
my brethren pastors who preach are too. But it doesn't matter
if you have the sincerest motive of all. You can't make the Word
of God effectual in anybody's heart. But the Lord will. And
He can even do it in a man whose motive is totally vanity. So we rejoice in the Lord. We
rejoice in the Lord. We rejoice in the Lord that He's
given us the joy of faith in Christ. That's what we're talking
about here. This whole thing is the joy of faith in Christ. That's what we're talking about.
Look down here at Philippians 1.25. Paul said that he thought
the Lord would preserve him and he would continue and keep preaching
to him. for this reason. He said, having
this confidence, verse 25, I know that I shall abide and continue
with you all for your fervor and joy of faith, that your rejoicing
may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me, by me coming to
you again, preaching to you again. You see there, it's the joy of
faith. We're not talking about things that are just carnally felt and seen
and heard. We're talking about spiritual
things. These are the joy of faith, rejoicing in the Lord
Jesus. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4.18,
he said, while we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen. Those are things that only faith
can behold. You really believe Christ is
in glory at God's right hand. You believe that, don't you?
I do too. I believe He parted the Red Sea. You believe that? He did it. I believe one day
an axe head came off an axe handle and He made that axe head swim
in the water. I believe that He has accomplished
the salvation of all His people and justified us from our sins
and that we are seated right there with Him right now. so
that everything He's working in this world is for our good
all the time. You see, these are not seen with
the carnal eye, for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. We know that. And you see, that's
what the Lord is going to do. If you have to suffer for Christ's
sake, Paul said, just like you're given faith in Christ and the
privilege to believe Him and trust Him, it's also given to
you as a privilege to suffer for His sake, to suffer for standing
with Christ, maybe unto martyrdom like men have done in the past.
But if you know what He's gonna do to give you that joy of faith
so that you can suffer that, He's going to make you see with
more faith that you have an eternal house waiting for you. Look here,
verse 29, Philippians 1, 29. Unto you it's given in the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for
His sake. You see, just like faith is given
to you, this ability to suffer for His sake, the opportunity
to suffer and the ability to suffer and to stand with Christ
while you suffer, that's given to you too, just like faith is.
Look at chapter 2 and verse 17. This is why he said this, he
said, so if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of
your faith, if I'm killed for preaching the gospel to you,
I'll joy and rejoice with you all and for the same cause also
you joy and rejoice with me. That's some rejoicing in the
Lord right there, isn't it? If I'm killed for preaching Christ,
I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. You see, God's saints are immortal
and carnal men think they can do something to us But the only
thing they would do by killing us would just be the instrument
in God's hand to bring us into His holy presence. It wouldn't
hurt us at all. And here's why we rejoice in
the Lord, because the Lord's at hand. Always, all the time,
present at hand with His people. Right by your side, in your heart,
protecting you on all sides. Look over at Philippians 4.4. Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say rejoice. Think about it. Think about where
he's at now. He's in prison. A lot of brethren, most brethren
have forsaken him. Some preachers are preaching
against him. And that's where God put him to write three-fourths
of the New Testament. That ought to tell us something
about suffering. And he said, Rejoice in the Lord always, and
again I say rejoice. Let your moderation, let your
patient trust in the Lord be known to all men. The Lord's
at hand. The Lord's at hand. Be careful,
be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Thank
you Lord for letting me suffer this. You ever thank God for
that? You ever say, Lord, thank you.
We normally murmur, don't we? And get all depressed and want
somebody to feel sorry for us. When we ought to be calling on
God and saying, Lord, thank you for this. Thank you for this. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. We have a tendency to focus on
the negative things and we get ourselves all wound up in a knot
and bound up and turned backwards and sideways and we can't even
behold the Lord. Paul says, don't think on those
things, think on these reasons we have for rejoicing in the
Lord. Look here. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things have a good report, if there's any virtue,
if there's any praise, think on these things. You know where
you're going to find those things? In the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where you're going to find those things. Those things which you both learned
and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace
shall be with you." And when it comes to your brethren, he's
saying there, if there's any virtue at all, just like he said
back in Philippians 2, if there's any fellowship of the Spirit,
if there's any inward mercies, just a hint of faith in your
brother, no matter how fallen he is, you've got just a shadow
of hope that, that's my brother, he's the Lord's. Think on those
things that the Lord's done for him. Unregenerate man, just so wealthy
in this world, rejoicing in carnal things. They see a little flock
like us right here, meeting service after service, and they think,
what utter foolishness. Sunday's another day I can get
one up on the man that's going to the church house. I can work
that day and get ahead. Turn over to Ecclesiastes 11.
Ecclesiastes 11. I'm just about done. Ecclesiastes
11, look at verse 7. Truly the light is sweet, talking
about natural earthly light, the light is sweet, and a pleasant
thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun in the sky. But if a
man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember
the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that cometh
is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth. Let thy heart cheer thee in the
days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in
the sight of thine eyes. But know thou that for all these
things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow
from thy heart, put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood
and youth are vanity. Remember now, thy Creator, in
the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, or the
years draw nigh, when thou shouldst say, I have no pleasure in them."
He's saying, seek the Lord while He may be found. Seek Him today. I tell y'all a lot about a dear
relative of mine. And I loved him dearly. And he
always, you know, if you talked to him about the gospel, he'd
always say, I got time for that later. And he was a good Tom
Charlie. I got time for that later. And
he never had time for it. He never did. The older he got,
I got time for that later. The time's getting smaller. I've
got time for that later. Time's getting smaller. I've
got time for that later. Down to the last day. Never had
time. Believe on Christ today and you'll
rejoice in the Lord today and forever. That's what he's saying.
Trust Christ today and you'll have rejoicing in the Lord today
and forever. God's saints have earthly joys
just like the unbeliever. We rejoice in the S-U-N. It's
been a beautiful, beautiful week this week. Great weather. I went
to the golf course. I've enjoyed it. I had a great
time. But we don't just rejoice in the S-U-N. We rejoice in the
S-O-N who sent the beautiful day. And then when tomorrow,
when the rain comes, we still gonna rejoice in the S-O-N. Even
when we cry real tears, God's saints have this inward joy that
the world knows nothing about. Paul called it there, the peace
of God which passeth all understanding. What is it? It's this simple.
It's having peace with God, by God, by His Son Christ Jesus.
That's what it is. That's what it is. It's knowing
when this short, brief life is over, we're gonna leave this
sin-cursed world, this sin-cursed flesh, and we're gonna enter
into eternal bliss with our Lord Jesus Christ, where there is
no sin and no curse, only joy in the Lord forever. That's a
good hope. Well, you gotta be trusting in
something that you've done to get that. Not one thing, not
one thing. I'm not trusting one thing I've
ever done for that hope. It's all, my hope is entered
in within the veil. My anchor's right there. My anchor's
not in this boat. My anchor's outside of the boat.
Isn't that where you throw the anchor? My anchor's outside of
the boat. It's in the holiest of holies. I pray God bless that
to you. Amen.