Philippians chapter 4, and our
text will be found in verse 4. The Scripture says, Rejoice in
the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Rejoice. The title of the message
is Causes for Joy. Causes for Joy. Now, the word rejoice that the
apostle uses here in chapter 4 of Philippians in verse 4,
rejoice, he says it twice even in this one verse, but throughout
the book of Philippians, these four small chapters, this word
joy or rejoice is used no less than nine times. Nine times in
this small four-chapter book is the word joy and rejoicing
used. This is a book of joy. This is a book meant for the
rejoicing of God's people. Consider this, that this was
one of the last, if not the last, letter that the apostle was to
write. He was writing this letter while
he was in prison in Rome. He was writing to this church
that he had not seen for a long time. And he was writing to comfort
them, to give them causes to rejoice. I'm going to ask a rhetorical
question. Do you need causes to rejoice? Do you need a reason to rejoice?
Because I find, seem to find, more reasons to be upset. When I look around me, I find
a lot of reasons to be upset. I find reasons to be downcast. I find reasons to be... I find them very easily. I don't
even have to look real hard to murmur. Do you? I mean, I just
don't. It doesn't take much for me to
complain. We are so easily prone to complaining
about our circumstance rather than rejoicing or finding causes
to rejoice. Now, let me give you... And a
word of exhortation. You're not going to find causes
in this world to rejoice that will sustain your joy. Now you might find a little joy
here, you might find a little joy there. You might find a little
comfort here. You might find a little comfort
there. But they're like a mirage. They're like something that you
grab into your hands and you think it's going to do well,
you think it's going to be good, and then when you put it in your
mouth, it's bitter. It turns bitter very quickly. So the things of this world,
the wisest man other than Christ said are vanity. Vanity of vanities,
all is vanity, saith the preacher. Well, my family, that's vanity. My pleasure, that's vanity. This
world is vanity. And so this morning I want to
give you causes to rejoice that are lasting. I want you to have something
that's going to cause you great joy that's going to last. First of all, the apostle in
this letter, he gives us, if you'll go back to chapter 1,
look over in chapter 1, he gives us a good cause to rejoice in
Philippians 1 and verse 6. He says, being confident of this
very thing, that he that hath begun a good work in you will
perform it. unto the day of Jesus Christ."
Now is that not a good reason to rejoice? He that hath begun
a good work in you, this is the promise, He will finish it. He'll finish it. You see, Jesus
Christ has already finished the work of our salvation, although
we've not realized the completeness of it. Have you seen the fullness
of it? Have you seen the fullness of
love, faith, joy, peace, meekness, temperance, all the graces of
God? Have you seen the eternal glory that waits for you? No,
we haven't seen it yet. But this is our joy. This is
our joy that we rest in the promise, I will finish it. That's a reason
to rejoice. Consider this, you who believe
on Christ. All our security, resurrection,
and resurrection are absolutely certain. Absolutely certain. There's no question concerning
our salvation. There's no question. Questions
may arise in your mind, but that does not have anything to do
with the facts. you that are in Christ are safe
secure because the work is done Jesus
said I know my sheep and I give unto them eternal life and no
man he said all that the father given him no man shall be able
to pluck them out of my hands as I'm not sure If you are in His hands, there
is no way, no means, no method, no enemy that can pluck you out. Not even our own full self. Isn't
that comforting? That gives you cause to rejoice.
You should rejoice in that. You should find great joy in
that. Second of all, every believer shall persevere unto the end. Every believer shall persevere
unto the end. Not only shall we be preserved,
but we shall persevere. Jesus said this, he that believeth
unto the end, the same shall be saved. Now I got a question
for you who believe. Do we not often come to our minds,
will I continue to believe? Oh man, that comes so often.
Will I continue? If your faith is genuine, I promise
you it will endure to the end. And you will persevere to the
end. No matter what your trials, no
matter what your circumstances, no matter how hard the enemy
presses against you, you will persevere to the end. How do I know? Because Jesus
Christ is both the author and finisher of our faith. The author
and finisher. Notice what Paul says in verse
7 of Philippians 1. Look at that, what he says next.
He says, even as it is meet for me to think of you all, because
I have you in my heart, in is so much as both in my bonds and
in my defense and confirmation. I'm sorry, I got the wrong verse. He says that you are made partakers
of the same grace. There it is, it is in verse 7.
I'm sorry, I didn't read far enough. You all are partakers
of my grace, of my grace. This is how we know we'll endure
to the end because we're all partakers of the same grace.
You see that? How many men have you seen and
you look up to that are in the faith and you say, wow, now that's
a saint. Well, you're just as much a partaker
of the grace of God as he is, just as much as Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, just as much as David, just as much as Samuel, You are
just as much as the apostle. He said, you are partaker of
my grace. This grace of God is mine, but
it's also yours. You who believe, you'll persevere
because the same grace that saved me saves you. It's the same grace. And rejoice because, rejoice
in the sufferings that we have because God will cause it for
the furtherance of the gospel. Look at that in verse 12. It
says, But I would that you should understand, brethren, that the
things which happened unto me have fallen out rather for the
furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest
in all the palace and in all other places. The apostle was
telling them in the midst of his suffering he rejoiced in
this, that the word of God went forth. So when you are suffering
When I'm suffering, I isolate, seem to isolate myself. I like
to just don't want anybody around to kind of just... But know this, whatever you're
suffering, it is for the furtherance of the gospel. Well, I can't
reconcile that. You don't have to. Because God
is furthering the furtherance of the Gospel. He is using our
suffering. He uses our affliction. He uses these things for the
furtherance of His Gospel. The Apostle said to Timothy in
2 Timothy 2.9, he says, I'm bound, but the Word of God is not bound.
You see, the Word of God is not dependent upon me, and it's not
dependent upon you. The furtherance of the gospel
is dependent upon God Himself. And God uses the afflictions
of His people, the bonds and imprisonment, the sufferings
of His people, for what purpose? To further His gospel. So even
though you can't see the reason for your suffering, rejoice in
it. Rejoice in it for the furtherance of the gospel. You may not be
able to see it now, but God'll make it plain. God'll make it
plain. And fourthly, rejoice. Rejoice
in the unity of believers. Look at chapter two of Philippians
in verse one. He says, if there be therefore
any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, If any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any vows of mercy, fulfill you my joy, that
you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord
and of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem other
better than themselves. If we truly have any comfort
in Christ, Do you have any comfort in Christ? Do you have any hope
in Christ? Is there any love that comes
from Christ? If so be you have true faith,
true love, then this will be the result. You'll love one another. And I'll tell you, there is nothing
more satisfying, nothing more joyful in the eyes of believers
than unity. We have unity. I love that. Very thankful. Blessed be the
tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. I'll tell you,
to have unity among the brethren is a great cause to rejoice.
Sometimes we get presumptuous in it. Sometimes we take it for
granted. We shouldn't. We should enjoy
it. You should enjoy it and give
thanks to God for it. Because this is not always the
case in the church. This is not always the case in
the local assembly. Sometimes there's strife. Sometimes
people come in and try to disrupt. Sometimes the enemy's allowed
into the church and causes great trouble. So while you have unity, if there's
any bond of love between you and Christ, then esteem each
other better than you do yourself. I'll tell you this, I know that
we think we have a self-esteem problem. But I'm telling you
what, we esteem ourselves greatly. We do. And if we think we have
low self-esteem, it's usually because we're thinking of ourselves
anyway. If I've got low self-esteem,
it's because I'm running around thinking about how low I am.
I'm thinking about me. If I was busy thinking about
you, then I wouldn't have a self-esteem problem. I'd esteem you better
than me. I would esteem your problems
bigger than my problems. That's how Christ did it. Let this mind be in you. which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, being God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, yet he made of himself no reputation." That's the mind that would be
in us. That's the mind that should be in us. And you want joy? Then
esteem your brother better than yourself. I'll tell you, if you
have no time to think about yourself, then you won't have time to pity
yourself. And I'm saying this from experience.
I'm not saying this from... I'm saying this because it's
true of me. I need to esteem you better than me. And if I
do that, I won't have too much time to think about myself. And
I'll rejoice. I'll rejoice. And lastly, I know
I've been too long on just my introduction there. It was just
an introduction to get to my point. Lastly, believers, let
us rejoice above all these things. Above all these things, let us
rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Now, there
are many things that I can say about our Lord that would give
you cause to rejoice, but I'm gonna only mention one. Keep
this in mind in your darkest times. Keep this in your heart
at your most troubling times. Consider the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Consider His person. When you're
in trouble, consider this. Consider that you were, by nature,
represented by Adam. You and I were by nature represented
by Adam, and when Adam fell, when your father fell, my father
sinned, we were plunged into ruin, completely ruined. You
think you are ruined now. We don't know the half of how
ruined the human race is. Who doesn't think the world has
turned upside down and backwards in just the last decade? I mean,
we used to know or have a semblance of what morality was like, and
then now it's just all backwards, upside down and confused. That's just the tip of the iceberg
of our depravity. This fall was not partial. This
fall was absolutely and utterly complete. Adam, who was created
in holiness, lost all ability to please God. His eyes were
opened to his guilt and nakedness and he lost all understanding
of the righteousness of God. He lost all sense of how to atone
for his sin. He could not figure it out anymore. Adam's fall was complete in that he who once willingly
communed with God, once he sinned, ran from God. And I tell you,
that's what we did. His whole posterity was born
with the same sin as our Father. All of this is a result of God's
judgment. In the day thou eatest, thou
shalt surely die. This sin did not only start the
slow process of physical death, but it also immediately caused
spiritual death. The Scripture says, after Adam
ate, immediately their eyes were opened. Immediately. Their eyes
were opened to what? Their nakedness. They knew something
that they didn't know before. They knew shame. They knew guilt. They knew sin. They knew judgment. But what did they lose? They
lost all ability as to how to get it back. Adam and Eve died the second
that he ate because he was our federal head. If God had left
him there in the fig leaves of his sins, then the whole race
would have been left. Consider that for a moment. Consider
that if God left him there, God had every right to leave him
there. God had no obligation to come
to him. Matter of fact, Adam, before
that, had no promise that God would come to him. He only had
a promise of judgment. In the day thou eatest thou shall
surely die. He ate, he died. God had no obligation to man. He could have left him just like
the angels that fell. that Jude says are reserved in
chains of darkness. Therefore, all of Adam's race
were born in complete ruin, completely hopeless, completely helpless
to save themselves. We were born in darkness and
completely ignorant of God's righteousness. All men are born knowing there
is a God, but they have no idea who He is or how to worship Him.
The depravity of man is the cause of all such foolish religions
that would make images of men and beasts and bow down to them.
How foolish is it to carve up a tree into an image and bow
down to what you just made? That is the most foolish and
ignorant thing man can do. And what's even more ignorant
than that is to bow down to self. There's the biggest idol man
has. Depraved man worships himself more than anything else. Therefore, men imagine a God
in their depraved heart. They imagine what he needs to
please him, and then they make for themselves a God of their
own making, much like themselves. Rather, they make their gods
less than themselves, don't they? So that they can, they set the
bar low. You know, when we used to jump
over things, well, you know, I always wanted to set it a little
lower than what I know I could jump over. And that's exactly
what man does. They set the bar so low on their
deity so they can make it over. And then I like to raise it when
other kids were jumping. so that they couldn't make it over. That's
what they do. They change. Their God changes.
It's low for them but high for everyone else. That's a depravity
of man. So then every man by nature goes
about trying to establish his own righteousness according to
his own opinion of what righteousness is. This is the nature of Adam's
race. This is the result of sin. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men. So then where's the hope? Where's
the hope? You think it's dark now. You
think your troubles are really bad. If God gives you a glimpse
of what you are by nature, they just become infinitely worse. What then is the hope? Well,
the hope is that God sought Adam. Isn't that hope? Isn't that some
cause for joy that God actually did come down and seek Adam?
Because if He didn't, there would be no hope for us. He did come
down. He'd come down to display His
great mercy and give Adam a word of comfort. He came down knowing what Adam
did, knowing Adam's inability and unwillingness to come to
God, and yet He gave him and his posterity hope through a
word. Here's the word. Listen to me.
The seed of the woman. I'm telling you to rejoice in
the person of Jesus Christ. And who is that? The seed of
the woman. The seed of the woman shall bruise
or crush the head of the serpent. In this word of God, the seed
plays the seed plot for the whole gospel. In this promise is the
cause of every believer's joy. The serpent seed are all those
of Adam's race who will continue in rebellion. All those who are
dead spiritually and who will not believe on the Son of God
These are who Paul calls vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction.
But, praise God, there is a seed. There is a seed who was to come
and destroy the works of the devil. There is one who was to
come, not of the seed of Adam. That's us. We're of the seed
of Adam. That couldn't talk about any
one of us. Anyone. It only had to talk of someone
else. Not the seed of Adam, but the seed of the woman, which
we know is Jesus Christ. God says by His prophet, the
Lord hath created a new thing in the earth. A woman shall compass
a man. Behold, Isaiah said, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name what?
Emmanuel. What does that mean? God with
us. God with us. Behold and see,
this is only true of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit of God overshadowed
the Virgin Mary and a daughter of David and Abraham, and she conceived and bears son."
Now, why is this joy? Why is this joy? Because we needed
another representative. If in Adam all died, There was
no hope in Adam. Do you see? We need some other
cause, some other representative man to represent us before God. Adam failed. But God has promised
to send another man, another representative. Wherefore, by
one man sin came. Even so, by another man righteousness
came. Do you see the joy? When Jesus was brought into the
world, they said, you shall call his name Jesus. Which means what? Jehovah saves. God with us. Jehovah saves. And he shall save
who? His people. His seed. His race. His posterity. All those he represented from
their sins. By one man came sin. Even so,
by one man comes righteousness. Behold God, even before there
was sin, before He created anything, before time, He elected a people
for His own glory. He chose them that they should
be born into Adam's fallen race, they would be born depraved and
corrupt even as all other men were, yet in eternal, immutable
love for them, God purposed to save them by a representative,
even Jesus Christ. So in love He gave us to the
only sufficient One who could save us. He gave us to His Son. He gave us to His Son, and His
Son said, I will be their surety. He promised. He swore. When He could swear by none higher,
He swore by Himself that He would do it. I will be their surety, their
Redeemer. The Father purposed that in Him should all the fullness
of the Godhead dwell, and by them should all the elect be
saved. Behold then you who are in trouble, you who are in pain,
in difficulty, behold the person of Jesus Christ. He's the only
joy we could have. Behold the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ and rejoice for you. were chosen of the Father, and He has come to represent
you. He has come to be your federal
head. He's come to do what you could
not do. He's come to fulfill the law
of God in your place. Well, see, that's good news for
me because I couldn't do it. And you know what? I still can't
do it. But that's good because all the
law is fulfilled perfectly in Him. Even if I could fulfill
the law, I would only be doing what was necessary, what was
right. I would still just be a servant.
I couldn't be a son. Now, because He has done it,
as my representative. I have done it. I did it. People say, well, I don't like
this representative thing. When Adam sinned, that means
that I didn't actually do anything. I was represented in him, and
man, I died in him. I think that's a good thing.
You know why? Because now I'm represented by
Jesus Christ. And as He did all righteousness,
and I've not done any righteousness, yet He's done all righteousness,
and it's counted as mine. It's counted as mine. That's
a pretty joyful thing. And not only that, but Jesus
Christ was made sin so that we might be made the righteousness
of God. Do you not see why He was made flesh? God couldn't
die. God could provide righteousness,
but God couldn't die. And my sins deserve death. Your
sins deserve death. God's not gonna sweep them under
the rug. They have to be paid. We live
in a time where people don't really, debt is nothing to people
today, isn't it? You owe something, you really
don't need to pay it. You know, that's what society
tells you. You shake on something, you agree on something, and then
you say, well, I don't wanna pay it. And you just walk off
from it. Man, there's no debt. It used
to be debtor's prison, didn't it? It used to be something people
give a sense of what debt is. But I'll tell you this, whether
you feel it or not, you owe God for your sins. I owe God for my sins, and the
only debt that I should pay is eternal damnation. What gives me great cause of
joy is that Jesus Christ endured it and paid the debt. for me. That's the joy of a representative
man. So then, he has provided all
my righteousness, he has provided all my payment for sin, and God
has accepted it. So what's the trouble? What's your trouble? If you are
accepted in the Beloved, what's your trouble? What causes you such great pain?
Are you not accepted? Are you not beloved? You bet you are. You are loved
with an everlasting love. And I tell you this, underneath
you are the everlasting arms of the Father, and nothing shall
separate you from His arms. Matter of fact, whatever he's
doing to you, he's doing it to cause you to come closer. That's
what he's doing. So when you find yourself in
doubt, when you find yourself not finding any joy in this world,
good. Because you'll find infinite
joy, solid Lasting joy. Rejoice in the Lord. How often? Always. And again, in case you missed
it, you should rejoice. You should find joy in the God-man,
Jesus Christ. I pray God will bless us.