Turn with me if you would now
to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. Our text tonight is verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Always, always, always. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Most Monday mornings I get to
my study and I sit down at my desk and I open up this word
wondering, now what? Most Monday mornings I sit down
and I just think, now what? What is the message that the
Lord would have me to say now? What do I get to tell my brethren
now? I think about, I immediately think about Wednesday night And
a message is a message. You don't just say what you want
to say. So many times I've thought, well, I'm going to preach from
this, and I'm not preaching from that. It's not the message. And I sit there wondering, what
would the Lord give to me? What would he have me to say?
We only have one message. We only have one message, the
message of Christ. the person and the work of Christ. That is our message. But I wonder
what text that message will come from. And I wonder what we will
see in light of that message. I wonder what the Lord will impress
on my heart. That's what goes through my mind
as I sit there thinking, reading, what will the Lord give me to
say to my dear brethren? Monday I was thinking about right
now, thinking about all of us coming back. You know, we were
just there all day on Sunday and coming back and I thought
it would be so nice if we could just rejoice in the Lord. Sometimes
we look at deep things, hard things, and I thought it would
be so wonderful if we could just simply, just very simply, Rejoice
in the Lord. Just be so glad and just rejoice
in the Lord. So if the Lord is willing, that's
all we're gonna do tonight. Rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always and
again I say, rejoice. Now I titled this message, Reasons
to Rejoice. But a believer who loves Christ,
a believer who is truly looking to and trusting in Christ, he
does not have to go searching for reasons to rejoice in the
Lord. We do not need a reason to rejoice in the Lord. We just
do. The heart of a child of God just does. We rejoice in him. But I found some scriptures that
will remind us of why we do. Some of the wonderful reasons,
wonderful, we may change the title, wonderful reasons to rejoice. So this is a reminder of the
reasons, that's what this is, this due in remembrance. All
right, turn with me to Psalm 97. Psalm 97 verse 12 says, Rejoice
in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. He said, I'm speaking to the
righteous. I'm speaking to those who he, the one who knew no sin,
was made sin for. that they might be made the righteousness
of God, made righteous in Him. He said, that's who I'm speaking
to, and this is what I have to say. Be happy. Be happy. Rejoice in the Lord,
ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. Does it not put a smile on our
hearts? Every time we remember that the
Lord our God is holy. The Lord is holy. The Lord is
so, so pure, so perfect. This world is so unpure and this
world is so unperfect. We're just dragging through the
slough of despond. But to think, just to remember,
oh yeah, the Lord is holy. He is holy, He's perfect, He's
right. It gives me so much comfort,
I know it does you too, at the remembrance of the fact that
everything He does, period, everything He does concerning us is perfect. It's good, it's right. The judge of the earth is only
gonna do right. He's perfect, he's holy. Deuteronomy
32 says, he is the rock. His work is perfect. For all
his ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. He's holy. It has never been
said, and it will never be said. It has never been said, it will
never be said, he shouldn't have done that. Never. Never. Never. In all things concerning us,
in all things concerning all things, every situation that
he handles, And He handles every situation. Every one of them
is yea and amen. Every single one of them. God's people will be crying for
all eternity. If you want to know what we're
going to be doing for all eternity, it's this. We're going to be
crying. He hath done all things well. He's done all things well. For a soul who's ready to be
done with the presence of sin, that's good news. That's good
news. Something to rejoice in. All
right, go with me to 1 Samuel chapter 2. 1 Samuel 2 verse 1 says, And Hannah prayed and said, My
heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn, that means my strength,
is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. I rejoice in thy salvation. Everything in this world is tainted
with sin. Therefore, everything in this
world will give us a reason to be sad. Everything in this world
is going to give us a reason to be sad. But let's take just
a minute to remember this. Oh, may the Lord cause us to
enter into this. Our God has saved us. Do we ever really enter into
what that means? Our God has saved us. Our God has saved us from the
sin. Our God has saved us from this
world, everything in this world. Our God has saved us from ourselves. He saved us from the wickedness
that is constantly raging inside of us. Wickedness is just thriving
inside this old, stony, hard heart of mine, the heart of this
flesh. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way. And I was wretched and vile as
could be, but my Savior in love gave me peace from above when
he reached down his hand for me." He reached down his hand
for us. Hannah described this salvation
in verse 6. She said, the Lord killeth and
maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. Physically speaking, the Lord
is the one who kills and makes alive. Verse 7 says, The Lord
maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. The economy doesn't make people
poor. God does. And hard work does not make a
man rich. God does. But spiritually speaking,
she said, this is why my heart rejoices. This is the reason
my heart is rejoicing. Verse 6, the Lord killeth. Who does he kill? This old man
right here. He slayed this old man right
here. He slayed the flesh of this old
man. He slayed this man on the cross. He slayed this man when he opened
my eyes to see the truth of the matter. He slayed me. He slays
me every time we open this word. Every time I open this word,
it slays this old man. The Lord killeth. The Lord killeth. But she said the Lord maketh
alive. He puts life, he puts his spirit, The Spirit of Christ,
the life of Christ in His people, in Him they live and move and
have their being. She said in verse 6, He brought
me down to the grave with Him. And He is the one who brought
me right back up. She said in verse 7, The Lord
makes poor. I'm gonna tell you, blessed are
the poor in spirit. Blessed, blessed, they're so
blessed. Blessed are those who are emptied. Blessed are those who are brought
down and humbled. Why, why is that? It's because
that's who he makes rich. Blessed are the poor, that's
who he's gonna make rich. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. That's the riches that God's
people desire. Verse 7 says, He bringeth low
and He's the one who lifts up. He brings low that He might lift
them up. Verse 8 says, He raiseth up the
poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill
to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne
of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them." What a
reason to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. Look with
me at Psalm 130. This particular verse does not
say the word rejoice. but all of God's people sure
do rejoice in this Psalm 130 verse 7 says let Israel hope
in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is
plenteous redemption plenteous redemption there is
plenty of blood This is what makes me preach one more time.
Knowing and declaring to people there's plenty of blood. There's
plenty. With the Lord is mercy and redemption
and there's plenty of it. There is plenty of it. Here is
a reason to rejoice. This honestly is a great reason
to rejoice. This thing is not us four and
no more. This is our club and you can't
come in. No, sir. No, sir. There is plenty of mercy. There's
plenty of mercy. God said, I am gonna save so
many people, you will never be able to count them. I'm gonna
save so many people. If God says it's an innumerable
company, it's an innumerable. God cannot lie. Spend eternity trying. You'll
never count them. You'll never count them. That's a reason to rejoice. There
is plenty for our children. There's plenty. If he is willing,
if he's willing, it's not our will, it's thine to be done.
But if He is willing, there's plenty for our families. There's
plenty for our friends. There's plenty for our neighbors.
There's plenty. Does anybody need mercy? Does anybody need
mercy? There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn straight from God's own veins. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
and by God's grace, shall be till I die. There's plenty. There
is plenty. With the Lord there is mercy,
and with him is plenty of redemption. Rejoice. Rejoice. Go with me to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. He said in verse 1, the spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound. to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Verse 10 says, I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth
her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it
to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise to spring forth before all nations. The fullness of
everything that he has accomplished for his people is about to be
seen. It's about to be seen. The fullness
of the acceptable year of the Lord is about to be seen. God says to all of his people,
Your broken hearts are about to be bound up. All of them. All of them. Forever. They're
all about to be bound up. Eternal liberty is almost here. The experience of it. I'm about
to put away all of your mourning. I'm about to put away all your
sorrow. It's almost gone. Get ready to trade in your sackcloth
and your ashes and your spirit of heaviness for the garment
of beauty and praise. Do you ever carry around the
spirit of heaviness? Does anybody ever carry? I think
I'm the only one sometimes. The spirit of heaviness. He said
that's about to go away. That's about to go away. Almost
over. It's almost over. Rejoice in
the Lord. It's almost over. Your holy God
has saved you. His abundant mercy has redeemed
you. So just hang in there. It's almost
over. It's almost over. Now with all
that being said, with a reminder of all those reasons to rejoice,
let me give you one more and then let me illustrate it to
you. Turn with me to Psalm 33. Psalm 33 verse 1 says, Rejoice
in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the
upright. He said rejoice in the Lord.
Why do we do that? Because it is becoming of a believer. It's becoming. of a believer,
considering all the reasons that Christ gave us to rejoice, just
thinking for one split second on some of the reasons that Christ
has given us to rejoice. Rejoicing looks very appropriate
on a believer. It looks very, very appropriate.
Happiness and praise is a beautiful thing for a believer to wear
around. It's just a beautiful, becoming, comely thing for a
believer to wear. I love illustrations. I love
hearing illustrations. I love telling illustrations.
But the illustrations that I have, I only have a handful of illustrations.
Every now and then, one more gets put in the pile. The ones
that I have, I have to space them out. Because I would tell
them all the time. I'd just tell them over and over.
And so it dawns on me, OK, I've told that one enough. It's time
to set that aside for a while. And we'll pull it back out later.
Well, this one has been sitting aside for a while. I've told
it to some of you many times. Some maybe haven't heard it.
But I'm going to pull it back out. Because this is a wonderful,
wonderful, example of what it is to wear happiness, wear rejoicing, how becoming it is. Eleven years ago, Hannah and
I had the privilege of going to Mexico, and we stayed with
the Groovers, and we stayed with Cody and Winna, And we were having
breakfast at Walter and Betty's house. And over breakfast, Brother
Walter started telling some of the stories of things that happened. These just these amazing things
that happened through the course of his ministry. He got extremely
emotional. Left for a minute. On this story. Came back and he apologized,
but he told the story. But he said one of the things
he'll never forget is back in the early days, he would go village
to village, and he would set up a slide show. He would show
a movie of some type, I guess, to get everybody's attention,
and then he would preach. And I don't know if he did it
once or if he went a few times, but if he got any response, And
if somebody wanted him to come back, he would come back, or
go to their house and preach to their family, he would do
that. If there was no response, he'd go to the next village.
So a woman heard him preach and wanted him to come preach to
her family, wanted to come preach in her home. So he traveled out
one day, and the roads, he said, were not really roads, they were
wide walking paths, and he had a Jeep or something like that. And he said the wheels were on
both sides of the road. It just barely fit. They didn't
clear it much. And he said it was rocks, it
was holes. There would be very few places
to turn around. You couldn't go around anything.
If you came to a tree or something, you deal with it or you drive
backwards until you can find a place to turn around. Well,
he came up on these two native men who both had muzzleloader
rifles. And he said things could be hostile
back then. They did not like people coming
in and preaching a new religion, turning people from the religion
that they had. And so here, these two men had
muzzleloaders. And he pulls up to them. They
didn't get out of the road. Each one of them each came to each
window. He had his windows down. It was hot. This one asked him,
are you a missionary? And he said, I was worried. But
he said, I told him, yes, I am. And the man said, my daughter
was 16 years old, and we just finished burying her. And he said, I'm so sad. And he said, I know that there
is a God, but I don't know where he is. I don't know who he is. He said, will you come into my
house and tell me who God is? And Brother Walter said, I can't.
He said, I have an appointment with a family in a village. It's
a long journey. It's going to take me all day
to get there, and I don't have time to stop. But he said, I'll
be coming back this way tomorrow, and I'll be here about this time,
and I'll stop, and I'll see you then. So he went on his way.
And the next day when he was coming back through, he got there
about the time that he said he was going to be there, and he
stopped at this grass hut, dirt floors. It was a grass house.
And he said when he pulled up, He couldn't hardly get in the
front door. Because that man had gone into the village and
told everybody that would listen to him, there is a man coming
to my house tomorrow who is going to tell us who God is. And if
you want to know who God is, you better get to my house. And
here they came. And Brother Walter made his way
into that house, and he preached the gospel to them. And God's
spirit flooded that grass hut and brought mercy in. And he
said, God saved that man. That man's name was Felice, which
in English means happy. His name was happy and Walter
said he was happy. That man was so happy. He said
every time you saw that man, he was happy. He's always just
happy. Happy in the Lord. You know, we may not be able to rejoice
in anything that's going on in this world. We may, we usually
can't, but we can always rejoice in the Lord. Always, we can always,
always rejoice in the Lord. So again, I say one more time,
rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Lord, flood
our hearts. Flood our hearts with your spirit.
Cause us to rejoice. All right, let's all stand together.