Turn back with me to Psalm 4. As the Lord gives us direction,
we go through different books of the Bible. We're going through
Romans in the Bible study, we're going through John on Sunday
night, and we're going through Acts on Wednesday night. And
what a precious thing it is to have the privilege of going verse
by verse through God's Word. Is that not a great privilege?
It's a great privilege to dig in deep to the details of everything
He has to say. But every now and then we just
need a peaceful pause. That's what we need. Just a moment to say thank you.
A silah, the scripture calls it. That means just stop there
for just a minute and think about that. Sometimes it's nice to
just have a pause and just think about what the Lord has done
for us and in us. Psalm 4 verse 7 says, Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. And he has, hasn't he? He really has. No matter how
the world pulls us down, and this world does pull us down. It does. But even when the world pulls
us down, Even when we feel that we are
on the bottom. Knowing that the Christ of heaven
awaits us. Knowing that a sinless eternity
with Christ awaits us. Knowing that even though relationships
in this world are tough. Even though there's so many things
that we fear. Even though there's so many things
that we dread. Just knowing that in Christ,
God is not angry with us. And he's reserved a place in
heaven for us, will make us say with David, thou has put gladness
in my heart. more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased. More than that. You don't have to turn there,
but over in Psalm 37, David talked about being envious of the wicked. And our flesh does get envious
of the wicked. My flesh does. It really does. It gets envious of the wicked.
But it only gets that way when we are not looking at Christ. You know that? That's the only
time it gets that way, which is most of the time because of
our flesh. The reason is because when I
see Christ, when I get a glimpse of heaven himself, when I see
the beauty of His purity, His perfection, His holiness. When I see the reality of His
love, the reality of His kindness, His tenderness, when I see through
the eyes of this Word the things that He has prepared for those
that love Him, When these eyes of faith see all His wisdom, and the spiritual house that
He has built, and the meat of His table, and the sitting of His servants,
and the attendance of His ministers, and their apparel, You know what
that is? That's a robe of righteousness.
And His cupbearers. And His ascent by which He goes
up to the throne of God. Are you looking forward to watching
Him walk up and sit down on His own throne? Happy are His men. Happy are
His servants which stand continually before Him and hear His wisdom. When I become consumed by the
fact that because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made
he Christ King to do judgment and justice. When I see that,
I don't envy anybody. Nobody. Nobody. What I just quoted to you was
what the Queen of Sheba said when she saw Solomon. She went to go see Solomon. She
knew he was a great man. And she brought all of her spices
and her goods and her money and her gifts to Solomon. But when
she saw Solomon, it says there was no more spirit in her. Kill
me now. When I see all that a greater
than Solomon has done for me, I can say with David, thou has
put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn
and their wine increased. This world wants this world. This world wants the corn of
this world. I am the world, I admit. But our Lord said, Be of good
cheer, I've overcome the world. He has overcome me. This world wants the wine of
this world. Neither one of those things will
satisfy. Neither one of those things will
last, but there is something that will. There is some one
that will. Let me show you who it is. Turn
over to Psalm 9. Psalm 9 verse 1 says, I will
praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth
all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in
thee. I will sing praise to thy name,
O thou most high. What I want to give us tonight,
the message for us tonight is this. Reasons to be glad. We've got some really good reasons
to be glad. When we're reminded of these
reasons, we get glad. We do. I'm already glad. So what I want to do is go through
a few scriptures and remind us of some reasons to be glad. The
first one is right here in Psalm 9. Verse 2 says, I will be glad and rejoice in
thee." We get to be in Christ. We get to be in Christ. I wish I could get a hold of
that. If this book plainly told us
that we were outside of Christ, And it gave us no hope of being
in Him. If it laid out the facts, we
are what we are. By nature, we are outside of
Christ. If it gave us no hope of being in Him, we would have
no reason to be glad. Not one reason. I don't care
what we have. I don't care what I bought. I don't care who I'm
with. I would have no reason to be
glad. I don't care how much corn came. Death is right around the corner.
As I was writing this out, I was thinking about right around the
corner. I am young, I think. I got some gray hairs, but I'm
still pretty young. But do you know I graduated from
high school 20 years ago? I feel like a kid. I still feel
like a kid. Hannah wanted to have children
and I thought, I'm too young. 20 years. That was right around the corner.
If I really stop and think about it, it was this way right around
the corner. I don't care how much wine comes
in this life. If that's all I have, death is
right around the corner. That's it. But according to the Word of
God, according to what He's put in our hearts to believe and
love and cling to, we're in Christ. We get to be in Christ. We believe on Him, don't we? We hope in Him. I'm telling you,
all of my hope is in one person. And if that one person is not
able, I have no hope. That's it. I've got all my eggs
in one basket. That's it. The amazing thing
is this. Our Lord said straight is the
gate and narrow is the way that leads unto life and few there
be that find it. But we found it. We found it. How do we know? How do we know
that we found it and multitudes haven't? Here's how we know. We know He has caused us to know
that we didn't find it. That's how I know. I know I did
not find life. Life found me. I know for a fact
I did not find him. He found me. Right after our Lord said that,
he said that over in Matthew 7, few there be that find it,
he said, many are going to say to me, we have, we have, we have,
right? We've prophesied in thy name.
We have cast out devils. We have done all these wonderful
things. Not us. He's caused us to say, we didn't. He did. And we believe it. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us, but unto thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and
thy truth's sake. Only believers believe that. This word says, Whoever says
that from the depths of their soul has found life. That's what the word says. I don't care how little the corn
is. I talk to all of you, and I know
when things come your way. I know when the rear end falls
out of your Jeep. I know the things that happen. I know when
the radiator blows up on the interstate. I know about all
that stuff. How are we getting by? Well,
barely. We just got a little bit of corn. I don't care how
little the corn is. I don't care how few drops of
wine there are. We're in Christ. Doesn't that
make you glad? When it's all said and done,
when this thing is all said and done and the shift work is over, we're in Christ. Here's another reason to be glad.
Turn over to Psalm 14. The last half of verse 7. Psalm
14, the last half of verse 7. When the Lord bringeth back the
captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall
be glad. We have been set free. We have
been set free. And we are going to be set free. We have been set free from the
penalty of sin. You know that? There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And we're
in Christ, aren't we? We have been set free from the
penalty of sin. But soon, I mean real soon, right around the corner, We're going to be set free from
the presence of sin. We already have been set free
from the penalty, but soon, soon, soon, it is coming soon, we are
going to be set free from the presence of sin. Run, run, the
law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. The gospel bids
me sweeter things. It tells me to fly and it gives
me wings. Right around the corner, we are
all, all of us who are in Christ, we're going to be set free. Just
like right here, right now, we are together. We are going to be there together. But we're going to be free from
one drop of sin. We're going to be there together.
You're going to be you, and you're going to be you, and you're going
to be you, and I'm going to be me. That makes me glad. Makes me
glad. Look at Psalm 16, verse 9. Psalm 16 verse 9 says, Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall
rest in hope. The Word of God has given us
hope. We have hope. Some people go through this life
with no hope. They go through this life with
no spiritual hope. They go through this life with
no physical hope. Some people are in the gutter.
They have nothing. They have no one. They're miserable. I wish the gospel would cross
their paths. But they live this life with
no hope. We have hope. Our hope is in
Christ. The man, Christ Jesus, He is
our hope. As we go through this Word, we
come here on Sundays and Wednesdays and we open up His Word and we
see His ability, we see what He's able to do. He is able to
break the proudest heart. He is able to lift the lowest
sinner. He is able to save to the uttermost. When we see His power, When we
see His authority, we have hope. We have hope. Look at Psalm 31. Verse 7, I will be glad and rejoice in
Thy mercy. For thou hast considered my trouble
and hast known my soul in adversities. Knowing your own sin, everybody
knowing in this room their own sin, how glad are you that God
is merciful? Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. That's what mercy is, not getting
what you deserve. How thankful are you for God's
mercy? What is the source of God's mercy? Where does it come from? The
blood of Jesus Christ. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now think about this. We know
how holy God is. We know how just he is. We know
how right he is and how pure he is. And we know how wretched
we are and how sinful we are. Doesn't it make sense for God
to not be merciful? Really? What if God didn't have
mercy? What if God was not a God of
mercy? How much sadness would that put
in our hearts? Thanks be to God, He has put
gladness there instead by showing us His mercy. Mercy is who He
is. Mercy is who He always has been. Before the foundation of the
world, before any of this started, when He was with no beginning,
He was a God of mercy. He is a God of mercy and He will
always be a God of mercy in the blood of Jesus Christ. In the blood of Jesus Christ.
Turn with me over to Psalm 51. Psalm 51 verse 8 says, Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Aren't you glad you've been broken? I am so glad. Here's why. An animal that is broken means
he belongs to somebody. That's what it means. Why did you break him? Because
he belongs to me. I bought him for my glory. Whose animal is that? I have
no idea. You want to break him? No. Aren't you glad God broke
you? Aren't you so glad you belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ? The song says, Jesus, my Lord,
will love me forever. From him no power of evil can
sever. He gave his life to ransom my
soul. Now I belong to him. Now I belong to the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus belongs to me,
not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. That has put
gladness in my heart. Go to Psalm 100. Psalm 100 verse 1. Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with
singing. Because we belong to him, we
are allowed to come before his presence. We're allowed to come
before His presence. Over in Hebrews 4 it says that
all of God's people who are in Christ are allowed to walk right
up to the throne of grace. Right now we do it in prayer.
Real soon we're going to do it in person. Right now in prayer. If a sinner does not belong to
the Lord Jesus Christ, his prayer will not make it past the ceiling. He said, I will not hear. Isaiah
1. I will not hear it. Pray all
you want to. I'm not listening. We are allowed
to come before Him in prayer. And real soon we're going to
be allowed to come before Him in person. I just asked, you know, the thought
of watching him ascend his throne. I think about that all the time.
I think about that all the time. Can you imagine? I mean, real
soon. I mean, for people, it's any
day. It could be any day, any year, any decade. Real soon,
in person, We are going to be allowed, if we're in Christ,
if we're in the blood of Christ, if we were broken, if we belong
to Him, we're going to be allowed to walk right up to the throne
of God. Right up to the throne of God.
We're going to see God sitting on His throne with a smile on
His face. Why a smile on His face? Because
He's going to be looking at us in Christ. That's why. Not unto us, O Lord. Not our
works that we have done. There's nothing in me to be worthy
of a smile from God. But everything in Christ is.
And if I'm in Christ, when God smiles at Him, He smiles at me. is daily his delight. He's the
one with whom he's well pleased. I don't need any more reason
than that to be glad. Is there anything better than
being reminded of the reasons to be glad? I wish that I could
come back Sunday and do this again, and then come back Wednesday
and do it again. That's why David said what he
did in Psalm 122, and that's why we say the same thing. Go
over to Psalm 122. Psalm 122, verse 1, it says,
I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house
of the Lord. We get to worship God. We get
to be in Christ. We get to worship God in truth,
in His Word. I am so glad that the Lord has
laid it on your heart. And I'm so glad that the Lord
has laid it on my heart to come here to this place together and
worship God together. Worshipping Him with you is my
greatest encouragement in this life. It really is. It brings
me encouragement and it strengthens me. And in just a few minutes,
this is my last page of notes, in just a few minutes, We're
going to walk out of those doors right there. And we're going to go back into
what Pilgrim's Progress called the slough of despond. Back to our worries. They're
right out that door. Did you miss them? They're waiting. Back to our fears. Back to our
troubles for three more days. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and
then Sunday morning is going to roll around. And we're going
to wake up and it's going to dawn on us today is Sunday. We
get to go worship God. I get to go to the house of the
Lord today. I'm so glad. I am so glad. Look right here in Psalm 126,
verse 3. It says, The Lord hath done great
things for us, whereof we are glad. Great things. How could we count them? Innumerable. Well, let me give us one more
scripture. Alright? One more to walk out with. I
believe this will make us glad. Turn with me over to Isaiah 25. The first five verses here in
Isaiah 25 tell us about the destruction of strangers, those who are outside
of Christ. But for all of God's people who
are in Christ, verse 6 says, and in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things. a feast
of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines
on the leaves well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain
the face of the covering cast over all people and the veil
that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces. And the rebuke of His people
shall He take away from off all the earth, for the Lord hath
spoken it. And it shall be said in that
day, Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He
will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. Every sinner who waits on Him can wait with gladness in his
heart because He will come and He will save us. He will come
back. He hath spoken it. He said, I've
said it. I will do it. I will do it. Those are reasons to be glad,
aren't they? All right, let's stand together.