Well, as we look at our own lives,
what is it in the last week that has given you the most joy? What
has given you the greatest sense of happiness? All pleasure. And at the same time, what has
caused you to have the most grief? I see there's a there's a there's
a division between what we would coin the world in its view and
the Lord in his view. We may even say it this way,
that there is a biblical worldview. In other words, the view in which
we look is biblical at the world, the world in which we live. We
look through the lens of Scripture. And so when we see the world
as Christians, we look through and see the world and we view
the world through Scripture. And not just through Scripture
in the sense of this is what we do A-B-C, but the transcendent
theology and the truths and the doctrines that we find in Scripture
then cause us to change the way we think, to change the way we
perceive, to change the way we speak and act, and so therefore
we act and speak and respond differently than those who look
at the world without Scripture. So that's the difference in a
secular, worldly, fleshly, human worldview and a biblical worldview
in the context of how we see it. And so we're looking at things
from a biblical worldview if we are Christians. But yet what
I've seen in my own life and what I see in the world around
me and what I see in the church before me and around the communities
in which I minister, is I see a worldview that is non-biblical
when it comes to joy and happiness. I see that people, by nature,
and this is what frightens me about it, are enamored with depression
and depravity and frustration and anger and resentment and
bitterness and hate. And I see joy fleeting. And I
hear these terms of saying, well, if I could only do this or if
I can only have that or if I could only overcome this, If, if, if,
if, and then there's a big fat then at the end of that in this
condition. Then, it's usually unspoken, I would be happy. But
is that not the way we think? Happiness, joy, pleasure, exhilaration,
bliss, contentedness, delight, satisfaction. These are things
that we look for. We look for satisfaction when
we go out to eat on Fridays. We want to be satisfied with
several things. Number one, the temperature of
the room. Number two, the pleasantness of the atmosphere and the employees
and the cleanliness of such place and people. We want to be satisfied
and the content of the food and the preparation of the food and
the taste of the food and somewhere deep within some of us, we do
try to discern that we want to be satisfied with the nutritional
value of such items into our physique. Sometimes. Depends on where that
is. Some places should put on the
sign, it will kill you to eat here. Come on in. And we would
do that. But the point is, is that we
look for satisfaction in everything. We go to shop for shoes. We try
them on. We look at them in the mirror.
We pull our pants above the shoe. We let the pants drop below the
shoe. We walk in them. Then we ask
people who could care less. What do you think about these
shoes? Do they look good? And that man is just trying to
shop for himself. He doesn't even know you. And you ask him, do
these look good? And then we go to the person who definitely
wants them to look good, the person that makes commission
on them, and say, do these look good? Why? Because we want to be satisfied
with how we look in these shoes. more so than how they feel on
our feet sometimes. We go to church. We want to be satisfied. We want
to feel right. We want to be pleased. We want
to be content with the pleasure that comes from the satisfaction
of what we gain. We want a place. Notice I'm saying that with emphasis.
We want a place that satisfies our needs and our needs are A,
B, C, D, E. And if these aren't met, then
we're out of here. We're away from there. Away from those people. The reality of it is this. We
all want joy. Do we not? In every aspect of
life. None of us go anywhere in life and look for the third
or fourth tier of anything that would cause us frustration. Say,
you know, I'm going to go get this and I want to find something
that I'm utterly disgusted with because I don't want to be proud
and self-centered and joy-seeking. None of us do that. And Bibles. I don't know how many of you
have a Bible that you absolutely hated, but you bought it anyway.
because you really wanted to get the worst Bible that could
possibly be afforded to you. You bought the Chinese version,
and you can't even read Chinese, but you didn't want to be prideful
and self-seeking, pleasure-seeking. No, you got the Bible that you
liked. And most of us in this room probably have dozens of
Bibles. Some of them we've never opened, maybe in the box. Maybe
we did and we didn't like the color. Some ladies, I've actually
had them say, well, I can't wear that Bible today because, oh,
excuse me, see, I said it. I can't carry that Bible today
because it doesn't match the purse that I'm carrying. I'm not picking
on them, I'm just wanting us all to see, all of us here listening
to what I'm saying are seeking joy in everything. We are. We may not think we are, but
we are. Some of us are seeking joy today as we sit in service
to worship. We want to experience God. We
want to feel God. We want to know God. Is that
wrong? Absolutely not. John Piper calls
it Christian hedonism. A hedonist is someone who thinks
all about himself or herself for the sake of their own happiness.
And when we find that happiness in anything else, we're a secular
hedonist. We're looking at the world and
our joy through the eyes of culture or our own sin and depravity
and our own human flesh and our own desires. But we who are Christians,
who are walking in the Spirit by the power of God's grace through
His Word, then we are seeking ultimate joy and happiness in
Christ. So what gives us that? I mean, really. When you think about the Grinch
who stole Christmas, the only reason he did it is because he
wanted to feel the joy that everybody else had. Well, I could sit here and share
with you nearly 40 years of ups and downs and pains and sorrows
and joys and delights and death and depravity, but we all have
the same story. We all have the same story. We
all lost. We've all gained. We've all sought joy in other
things and that those things have been taken away from us.
We've all bought something new today. And a week later, it's
just as if we should have bought it from a thrift store. We've
all had relationships that have failed. We've all had relationships
that have hurt. We've all had relationships that
have been great. Our relationship with Christ has been the same
way. We've failed and we've succeeded. We've felt high on life and just
like the Lord was with us every step of the way, and the next
time we turn around, we can't even know if we can see the nose
in front of our face, much less the face of Christ. And so we
look to the happiness of the world. We think sometimes we
fall into this depraved state of thinking as Christians. And
notice when I preach, I preach to the church, okay? So I'm talking
to believers. Always am I preaching to believers.
Always. Unbelievers do not understand.
They do not hear. But now, do I share the gospel?
Do I preach to unbelievers? Absolutely. But for the fullness
of the word of God, it was written to believers and that unbelievers
in their midst, as we go out into the world, when we share
our faith, we make disciples teaching all those even unbelievers
to obey Christ, for it is not an option. They do not have a
choice whether to obey Christ or not. If they disobey Christ,
they will be judged. They will forever be cast into
hell and God's righteousness will be displayed in their destruction.
If they obey Christ, if they submit to Christ, It is because
Christ and His sovereign mercy has given them the grace needed
to do so. And so the same will be true
in our joy. If we seek out joy in everything but Christ, chances
are we're probably not in Christ, though we will look temporarily
to the worldly pleasures, usually blindly. And so we should own things and
possess things and love things as though they are not ours because
they're not. There are many ways to happiness
in the world. Some people like to tell you that your attitude
can determine happiness. I used to subscribe, and I believe
that attitude is very important. I believe that one of the greatest
problems that we see in the church today is that everybody professes
Christ, professes the power of the God of the universe who created
all things for His glory and for good, who the ultimate display
of His intrinsic worth is His holiness and His self-pleasure.
And then He bestows that nature onto His people, and we ought
to in turn have joy And so when our attitudes reflect anything
but joy, it's not a reflection of what God has done. So we ought
to check our attitudes. But changing our attitudes is
not going to determine our happiness, because as we're taught in Dale
Carnegie schools of sales and how to win friends and influence
people, if you want to be influential in the world, you've got to have
a good attitude. So fake it till you make it.
My friends, you can't fake joy. You can put a smile on, but it
doesn't mean you're joyful. You can act happy. You can even be
excited about the possibility of that thing that is yet to
come that might give you joy. And you put your eyes on that.
But ultimately, when you get there, you realize it's just
another rung in a ladder going nowhere. Some people think that our actions
can determine our happiness. Well, if I could just do this,
if I can walk this way, if I can go here, I will straighten myself
out. And then in turn, I'll have joy.
I'll have happiness. And as we've already looked briefly,
just through example, people think possessions give us joy.
Well, if I could just get that. If I could just get rid of...
Have you ever had a possession that you had that if you just
got rid of it, it would give you joy? Like the car? If I could
just get rid of that car, it would give me joy. If I could
just get rid of that dog, it would give me joy. If I could just
get rid of this whatever, I'd have to get rid of the flu. You
have a possession. It's yours. It's yours. You received it,
but you didn't go get it. A lot like the Holy Spirit. You've
received the flu, but you're like, if I could just get rid
of this flu, I'd have joy. How about our relationships? And if my marriage was just better,
I'd feel better. If I could just find someone to marry, I'd feel
better. It's a lack of contentment. Our health, our physique, our
places and positions in life, our choices. We often hear that
they can determine our happiness, but friends, they cannot determine
our joy. They cannot have any effect at all on our joy. Bobby McFerrin, back in the 80s,
had a song that was very simplistic. Don't worry, be happy. Sound good? Well, that doesn't
work that way. Don't worry, be happy. However, from a biblical
worldview, that is a very good command, because the Scripture
teaches us that we ought to be happy, we ought to be joyful.
We ought not confuse the idea of joy being with happiness,
because I like to say that they're different things. I like to say
sometimes happiness as an expression of our mood. And I can't say
that as Paul was being whipped and as Jesus was being crucified,
that his mood was that much happy. He was in agonizing pain, but
the joy in him was full. He was perfectly content to be
where He was for it was the will of the Father and it was the
fullness of His desire to be obedient. That's Christ's, as
you talk about it in theological circles, His passive obedience
on the cross. He passively obeyed and died. He didn't have to. With a word,
He could have vanished off that cross and ruined the world in
one swap. But He didn't. And friends, our faith can't
make us happy. We can't exercise our faith to the point where
we're starting to find joy. Our church cannot give us joy. Our
religion cannot give us joy. Our ministry cannot give us joy.
And what I've come to find out is that all the things that the
world teaches us that will give us joy are lies. They're lies.
They're lies. I would say that even our salvation
The abstract idea of our salvation cannot give us joy. I want to
show you today that Christ alone is joy. Christ is joy. Nothing else. Not things about
Christ. There's a whole series here,
but you've got to think with me for a moment. Christ, in His
fullness, is our joy. Christ doesn't give eternal life. He is eternal life. He says,
I am the resurrection and the life. There's a definite article
in front of those things when He speaks and when they're written
down by the Gospel writer, John. I am the resurrection and the
life. I am the truth and the way. And
so Jesus, in the fullness of who He is, is the joy. As John writes in chapter 1 of
his first epistle, and we write these things that our joy may
be complete. Jesus prays in John's Gospel
that your joy will be full in Him. So now, can we discern that there are
some things in our life, the whole reason I gave you that
introduction is that you would discern there are things in your life
that give you false joy. Even spiritual things give you
false joy. So now the question is, how in
the world am I supposed to find joy? All those things that gave
me joy, you just threw in the trash. So where is the joy? From
where does it come? Turn with me to Scripture in
1 Peter 1. Probably my third favorite passage
of all Scripture. 1 Peter 1. And what I will read here for
you is the first nine verses. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge
of God, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience
to Christ Jesus and for sprinkling with His blood, may grace and
peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy. He has caused
us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's
power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now
for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various
trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious
than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be
found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him,
you love Him. Though you still do not see Him, you believe in
Him and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with
glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation
of your soul." The translation may have changed a little bit
for some of those words, but I have a hard time not paraphrasing
because I quote that so much, paraphrase-wise. In this now
we see, And why do I start with the first two verses, though
it seems like an introduction? Because here we are, the Apostle
Paul, very important to understand we're reading Scripture, who
wrote it and who it was written to. You cannot interpret any
Scripture unless you know the audience and the author. It's
impossible. So what that means to me, well,
you're wrong. Peter didn't write this for you to tell him what
it meant to you or to me. He wrote it to the Jews, to the
Christians who were exiles in dyspersia of Pontus and all these
places. And so we must know what it meant
to them in order to say what it means. Here are these Christians
who now have been exiled from their home and they have been
suffering because of their faith in Jesus Christ. They refused
to renounce the gospel of Christ and therefore they were kicked
out of their culture, out of their society, out of their home,
out of their livelihood, out of their treasures, out of their
children. They were kicked out of these places and they were
just living in this just barrenness like nomads. And Peter says here, that all of this took place according
to verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now, we understand if we do a
study and we know what the idea of foreknowledge, it doesn't
mean that God knew what would happen. It means that God had
intimacy in the planning and purpose and the procreation,
if you will, of what did happen. It doesn't mean like we know.
Well, I know tomorrow will be such and such a date. No. God
knows intimately and has purposed with his divine decree that these
people would be persecuted for their faith. If you want to sit down and go
over that, it would take about an hour. Don't take my word for
it. Do your own study. But why? Look at verse 2. According
to the foreknowledge of God, in the sanctification of the
Spirit, 4. Unto obedience to Jesus Christ
for sprinkling with His blood. And so you see what Peter's writing
there? Then he says, may grace and peace
be multiplied to you. You know what that means? That
means that God, before the world began, purposed for people to
suffer greatly and to be extremely disposed of, so that through
that suffering, the regeneration and the revelation of Jesus Christ
under their salvation might have full effect. so that His glory
would be seen and revealed in such a way that these people
would have an overwhelming, inexpressible joy, as we see in verse 6, that
cannot be described based on the circumstances that are there.
There is no such thing as joy in Christ without suffering.
But sometimes we can rejoice in Christ. Unbelievers rejoice
in Christ. And they'll say, oh, things are good. Thank you, God,
for this. And thank you, God, for that. And thank you, God,
for this. And when those things disappear, God, where do you
go? You know what the Scripture teaches and shows us, as we'll
see with just this introduction, is that when things are worse,
God's at work greatly. That's the way God works. God
promises. The Bible promises. The apostles
promise us death, persecution, poverty, and everything that
comes along with that when we follow Christ. So if you are
not living in that way, praise God for His continued grace,
to provide those things for you. Hold loosely these things. Christ
is your greatest treasure because God may and probably will take
those things from you that He may see your worship without
the world. John, in chapter 2 of his first
epistle, commands the church to do this, do not love the world
or anything in the world, for the one who loves the world,
the love of the Father, now get that, how do we love God? Because
He first loved us. So the love of the Father is
not in them. The things of the world are the
lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the pride of possessions. The lust of the eyes, the things
we see and want. If our love is for the stuff
of life, the love of God is in us. Wow, what are you talking
about? I'm just sharing with you what
the Scripture teaches. And all of us in the sound of
my voice, including the one whose voice I hear, are guilty. of loving the things of the world.
So what in the world are we going to do? We fight the fight of
faith in the grace of Jesus Christ. We fight the fight of faith to
get God to continue, not to get Him, but to pray that God would
continue to work in us affections for Him and help us to have no
more affections for dying things. Because John says there in that
chapter 2 of 1 John, he says the things of this world are
passing away. So we have living, Glorious affections
for garbage that's decaying and dying. So in this text. In this text, the question now
is how if you just knock everything that I love out of the park,
how am I supposed to have joy? Well, first, I want you to see
that joy is commanded. Just listen, you don't have to
write these down, you'd never get them all. I'm just going
to. Throw them all out there. Psalm 37.4, delight yourself
in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm
33.1, shout for the joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise
befits the upright. Psalm 32.11, be glad in the Lord,
O rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, you who are upright
in heart. And John 16.20, truly, truly,
I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.
You'll be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. The
prophet Habakkuk. But the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit on the vines, the produce of the olive field, and the fields
yield no food. The flock be cut off from the
fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice
in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of
my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength.
He makes my feet like the deers. He makes me tread on my high
places to the choir master with stringed instruments. Please
sing this. Do you realize that about the
Psalms? As David wrote Psalms and as these prophets wrote Scripture,
they would take and construct these things and give these words
to the choir master that they might play the instruments and
sing this stuff in public worship. Psalm 51 was most likely a public
worship psalm. Would you like to put your confession
of murder and adultery and fornication and every other kind of sin and
deceit on display and sing it to the church? Joy is a command of God. Well, there's a reason for joy.
How are we to be joyful? Why is it commanded? Because
God is a merciful God. I mean, think about it. It's
commanded to be joy, to have joy, to rejoice in the Lord.
Why? Because God is a merciful God. What else do we want? What
else do we need? Is Christ not enough? Oh God,
take away this thorn in my flesh. I'm enough, Jesus says. My grace
is sufficient for you. So in that, what are we looking
for? Mercy. We find true joy in mercy. We
find a reason for joy in mercy. We have been given a new life.
A new life in Christ. Therefore, we desire joy through
a new life. We desire Christ above all things. This is a commandment of God. Look at verse 3. Don't believe
me? Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to what? His great mercy. He has caused
us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. So God in His mercy has what? Caused us to be born again. It doesn't say God in His mercy
has provided for us the opportunity to be born again. And so we continually
try to seek out and try to weigh and measure. That's the Muslim
way. That's Islamic theology. We weigh and measure the joy
of Allah to the joy of the world, and we try to do more for Allah
than we do. That's a paganistic way of thinking. That's an absolute damnation
approach. That's guaranteed to die in your
sin. But God in His great mercy has
caused us to be born again. So He's taken we who are dead,
who love the world, who love everything in it, and who desire
it and who run after it with zeal and fire and fireworks and
everything else, and we pursue the world so that we can find
the fullness of success and the fullness of joy and the fullness
of reward and everything we can put our hands and minds and heart
on, and then all of a sudden we turn around and we've been
created anew. And the heart that used to love
all that doesn't love all that anymore. We don't love all that. We love
Christ and we look and we say, what in the world was I digging
up all that manure for when Jesus is the glorious treasure of my
heart? So you may test yourself and say, well, I don't love Jesus.
Then you've not been born again. And if that scares you superbly,
that's a good thing. It's a good thing. It ought to
cause us to tremble. When we consider the reality
of the judgment of God, we ought to tremble. And I believe that
if we don't tremble, something's amiss in our salvation. Something's
amiss in our faith. Our faith in our salvation is
not of the Spirit of God, but rather the Spirit of something
else. Are we trembling? Are we grateful that God has
caused us through His mercy to be born again? And not just being
born again, but what is our hope? Our hope is not set. See, that's
what joy ultimately is, where we place our hope. I'll be happy. I'll be satisfied and pleased
when my hope is fulfilled. I hope for this. I hope for that. I hope for this. And we strive
for it. If our hope is not a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, then our
hope is hopelessness. The very last core belief of
our church is that we believe in holiness and obedience with
joy. We hold to high standard the
joy that is in the Lord. Friends, as a Christian, the
greatest measure of your walk with Christ is your joy. For out of your joy comes your
worship. Out of your joy comes your devotion.
Out of your joy comes your service. Otherwise, it's obligatory and
it's legalism and it's worthless. Well, I better serve God. I've
got to please Him. No! That's not it. Well, I better go to church so
I don't make God mad. That's wrong. I better love so-and-so
because I'm commanded to do so. Survey says. Wow. Christ is my greatest treasure
and in Him is my greatest need met. He's my satisfaction. And
if the whole world disappears, my fullness of my joy is complete
in Christ. I can't wait to love someone
else. I can't wait to be in the Word. I can't wait to serve His
Majesty. I can't wait to go and scream
and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ because God is worthy
of my praise and He is my greatest satisfaction. Christ is my joy. In His mercy, He's given me a
living hope, a new life in Christ Jesus. And so our desire is a
reason for joy in that we desire this new life, a living hope. What is that? Hope is a confident
assurance of something. Depression and dissatisfaction
and bitterness is the opposite of confident assurance. If we're
assured, if we're certain of things, and our hope rests on
something that's certain, though we can't see it, we are not depressed. We are not overwhelmed by the
world. Now, you don't know what that's
like. I do know what it's like. And I know that at the heart
of all depression is sin and unbelief. Because we think that
there's something better than Christ. But it's not just a living hope
of ambiguous whatever we want to fill in the blank there. Look
at what verse 4 says, to an inheritance. And these people here, and I
understand that, these people here lost everything. You know
how people succeeded from generation to generation to generation to
generation? They saved it and gave it to the people after them.
People in the first century of Palestine, they weren't entrepreneurs
where they could start. It's not a capitalistic society.
There's no such thing anywhere in the world, except in America
and now in Europe and some other free... We're making free countries
and capitalism. And friends, I'm telling you,
that's not how these people lived. They didn't have a right to their
land. The government could take it at any time, and did. And if they were going to have
something to give to their family for their children, they had
to leave by what? An inheritance. They had to farm and sell and
make goods and have some commerce so they could put it together
and hold on to it for the next generation. So they lost their inheritance.
Their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren
were orphans and homeless and despised by the world. They lost
it all for generations to come, twenty generations down. They
lost it all for the sake of Christ. And now Peter's saying, you have
a hope because you've been born again to a living hope, not a
dead hope. And the living hope is to an
inheritance that is imperishable. You don't have to worry about
that grain. You don't have to worry about those goats. You
don't have to worry about those coins. You don't have to worry
about the government. It's imperishable. It's undefiled. It's not a wicked gain. It's
not a gain that's selfish. It's a pure gain that God gave.
It's undefiled. It's holy. And it's unfading. It's not losing interest. It's
gaining interest. It's the fullness of Christ.
We have all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. We have all
spiritual blessings. There is nothing else to get
from God. There is nothing more that we
need to seek out. There's nothing more that we
need to grasp. God's given us everything He's got in Jesus
Christ. through His Word, and nothing
can take it away." And these people understood that. Unfading,
undefiled, imperishing, kept where? In heaven. Kept in heaven
for you. In other words, it's out of this
world. God is keeping. Look at verse 5. "...who by God's
power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time." Hear this. This is what we call eternal
security. Eternal security. This inheritance,
this eternal life, this promise in Christ is kept in heaven,
apart from the hands of men. Nothing can take a Romans 8, the very last two verses or three
verses of Romans 8. For I am convinced, Paul says,
That height nor depth. What else does he say? Nor darkness,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor any other created thing can
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Nothing. It's because it's untouchable.
God is the God who created it all and owns it all, and his
creation cannot touch his glory. And this inheritance of security
is kept for us, who we, they, who are in Christ, verse 5, by
God's power, and look at this tense, are being guarded. You are being guarded. You know,
when they received this word where they were? Exiles, lost
it all, dying. And Peter says, you are currently
being guarded to an imperishable inheritance. Can you imagine
an unbeliever sitting amongst them going, this is an imperishable
inheritance. This is an unimperishable inheritance.
I'm lost here. That's what the world looks like
when they look at us. I saw so many people don't want to hear
this. They want to hear something they can take home and do rather
than see the glory of the invisible security of God's guarding. Through faith, what is their
prize for a salvation? When is it revealed? At death.
The last time. We persevere as the church unto
death, and one day Christ will return. We who are alive will
be transformed. We who were dead will be raised
to life. All the world will be raised to life and judged in
an instant. It'll be over. And we will receive the full
reward by God's mercy. So with all of that, in comparison
to all of the other things that we think is so great and glorious
in our lives, look at verse 6. In this, you rejoice. You see that? In this, you rejoice. Rejoice. In what? In that guaranteed, powerful
God who has promised salvation to you and you love all that
He is and not all that you've lost. You know the reality for us right
now? We may be experiencing the nature of some of these things
through our lives, but none of us have experienced this. The
closest thing that could be in a physical sense of those people
who experienced complete loss and death and devastation by
natural disasters. But it's still nothing like this. To be ranked among the lowest
of low because you have faith in Jesus Christ and be dragged
out and be put to death and be dismissed and disposed of like
garbage because of your faith. There's nothing lower. There's
nothing worse. Nobody that I have ever shared
fellowship with has ever had that to this degree. And as you rejoice, though, now
for a little while, if necessary. Now, how would it be necessary?
Back up to the first two verses, unto sanctification, to obedience
to Jesus Christ, faith, Well, don't take my word for it. There,
let's keep saying what Peter says. If necessary, you've been grieved
by various trials. Verse 7, why does this take place? So that. It's very easy. This takes place and you rejoice,
though now for a little while you're going to suffer, so that. You're suffering, so that. The
reason for your suffering is now here. That's what that means.
So that what the tested genuineness of your faith. Here's a test
search. Suffering is the only way your
faith is tested. How else are you going to have
your faith tested? If you depend on you, you depend
on all that you've got, all that you have, all the people around
you, you're not depending on Christ. Your faith is in all
this and not Christ. Now you may thank God for it
because things are easy. Things are comfortable. But the
tested genuineness of your faith. Now look at that. The genuineness
of your faith. You may have faith, but is it
a genuine faith? Is it placed in Christ Jesus?
The outcome of that test is that in the trial of losing all that
you have, what's the outcome of true faith? Joy! In this now, you rejoice when
you're tested by trials. You rejoice if your faith is
genuine. You rejoice. This is the outcome. This is the passing of the test. And your faith, of course, this
parenthetical there, Peter says, is more precious than gold. The
gold perishes, though it's tested by fire. If you heat it up too
much, it just dissipates. It ruins it. But that your faith, the tested
genuineness of your faith, may be found. See, we don't have
to go backward to prove this, even though the argument moves
backwards and then comes forward again. It's just, wow, see, that
was talking in the air, and how we're going to come forward.
He restates it. He repeats it. He recapitulates
it. In this you rejoice, though your
faith is tested to be genuine, and if it is, it may be found. It will be found to result in
praise and glory and honor. And this is a specific time.
At the revelation of Jesus Christ. When is that? At the day. At
the day of judgment. At the day of the Second Coming.
At that day. But until then, we rejoice anticipating
that day which is our ultimate what? Hope. Christ. He is our hope. Rejoice always. Paul says rejoice always. That's
a command in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16. 2 Corinthians 9,
7. Each man must give what he has
made up in his mind to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful, joyful giver. You want to give? You
only give what gives you joy. That's what the New Testament
teaches about giving. If you're bound to a specific time, you
are under the law, and you'll be judged by it. It's beautiful stuff. See, the
sun sets, it's free. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into His presence with singing. Serve the Lord with joy. So joy
is cheerfulness, and joy is gladness, and joy is thanksgiving. Romans
12a, the one who exhorts in his exhortion, the one who contributes
in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one who does acts
of mercy with cheerfulness. We rejoice. It's found in the
praise and the glory in James chapter 1. Count it all joy,
my brothers, when you face trials of any kind. And the reality of this that
Peter is teaching us is that joy will be the outcome of those
who have genuine faith. Here's the kicker. The worst thing that could happen
is you leave this service and go, oh man, my joy stinks. I stink. I better work on my
joy. I'm so depressed about not having
joy. I mean, that's what's going to
happen. I just can't do it. I'm going
to play the peanut song and you'll walk with your head down. And you're going to work on it. How is our joy complete? It's
in Christ. How is our joy tested? How do
we rejoice when we see God's hand in suffering? When we know
the truth. Here's what I believe about joy. First of all, we must count the
cost of what it costs to live in Christ. And get away from
this Americanized Satanic theology that being in Christ is a bag
of tricks and some cake. Quit looking to fit the image
of Christianity in America. And look more at our brothers
and sisters in other places that are getting their tongues cut
out right now because they sing Christ songs. And keep that in our mind. And in that we rejoice. We don't
walk away depressed. Those people rejoice. They're
thankful for persecution. Don't mourn those who are being
persecuted, mourn us who are easy going in our faith. We are
the ones who should weep for ourselves, for we who are dead
should bury our own dead. Not only do we count the cost,
but we need to count the comfort. This is going to cost, this is
going to be uncomfortable. How comfortable do you have to
be to follow Christ? How comfortable do you have to be to worship?
How comfortable do you have to be to study God? How comfortable?
Well, you know, I can't do that because I do this on such and
such. Well, you know, I really should
read my Bible, but I'm going to go fishing. I haven't read
my Bible all week, but I'm going fishing Saturday. Something comes
up, car breaks down, well, I'm not going to fix that today because
I'm going fishing. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with going
fishing. I'm using an example. Go fishing. But just take note
of all the times you've put off intimacy. And we do it, friends,
we do it. Don't pretend like we don't.
We do. The comfort. And so we see here,
as we close this out today, that the outcome of this test is that
we are thankful. Thanksgiving. You don't get the
spiritual gift of Thanksgiving. It's not a spiritual service
of thanksgiving. I heard somebody tell me one
day that their spiritual gift was praise. I said, no, that's the
essence of your entire being. That's the outcome of God's mercy
and God's grace and God's new heart and His new life that He's
put into you and the life that you now have that you were dead
in and you are now alive and a new birth, a new person, a
new creation. You are now a thanksgiver. You
rejoice and you give thanks. Thanksgiving is really when people
say, hey, well, how am I supposed to be joyful in the midst of
suffering? We thank God for the suffering. When we're clawing
our eyes out and when we're pounding, you ever kicked the floor? You
ever laid on your face and kicked the floor? You ever been that
low? It's a bad place. You punch the floor and kick
the floor and you scream and you cry out to God and you don't
know why. And in the midst of all that,
you can say, thank you. And if people looked at you,
they'd say, wow, that's a crazy, crazy person. And they're not joyful,
but you can be joyful when you recognize the absolute sovereign
control of our God in the midst of the worst floor-kicking opportunities
and experiences that your life could ever see, and then there's
worse. And you can say, thank you, God, for that. for this
circumstance. You are working it in me, and
I hate every minute of it. My flesh fights, but I want to
fight against it. So with Your grace and Your mercy
and Your Word, and see, here's the close. I can't feel that. I can't get that. You are not
going to get that apart from the Word of God. You need to
hear it. You need to be taught it. You need to study it. You need
to learn it. And you need to teach it. You need to always have the Word
of God in you and through you and working out of you. You'll
never find it. I got a text message from a church
member from California yesterday, and she's yet to find a church.
I'm like, what are you looking for? Don't be so picky. She says,
I want to know the Word of God. I want to grow. It's the Word
of God that gave me eternal life. It's the Word of God that gave
me peace. And then when these things happened in my life, it's
only the Word of God that was there to hold me together through
it. She couldn't put her faith in
the people of God because we as human beings are going to
let each other down. So we fight the fight to rest
in the sovereignty of God and the rest in the grace of God.
And you ever slept but not rested? That's every night. You sleep,
you wake up, you're like, oh, I'm still tired. So we medicate
with coffee or with vitamin B or whatever we can do or cold water. But we're still tired. We're
not resting. We need to learn to rest in Christ. We strive
to keep our faith in Christ and rest in His sufficiency. And
the only way that's done is through the Word of God. To sit there
and be constantly reminded that though you suffer and though
you are going to be grieved by various trials, you rejoice for
the tested genuineness of your faith. may be found to result
in praise and glory and honor and thanksgiving at the revelation
of Jesus Christ. And you look at those people,
and you look at Peter's words, and the Holy Spirit of God that
resides in you, the fullness of God's glory and power that
is indwelling you as a believer, fills up with the well that overflows,
as it says in John 4. If you knew who it was that was
asking you for water, you'd ask Him and He'd give you living
water that welled up into eternal life. It's not a feeling, it's truth. It's the truth of the Word of
God, empowered and ignited by the Holy Spirit of God in the
hearts and the minds of His children. And nothing puts that fire out.
And it may smoke and it may get close, but the fire never goes
out. And it's our responsibility to
fan, as Paul talks to Timothy in the letter to Timothy, fan
into flame. Continue to blow on those embers. Study to show yourself approved.
Preach the gospel when it's not in season. I've looked for the
end season of gospel preaching and it's never been shown to
me. End season, out of season. Well, we're out of season all
the time in my mind. And we must fight to rest, but
we also must fight for joy. Listen to Paul in closing. Through honor and dishonor, through
slander and praise, we are treated as imposters and yet we are true.
We are treated as unknown and yet are well known as dying.
And behold, we live as punished and not yet killed, as sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having
nothing yet possessing everything. That means God is enough. He
is enough to affect our joy as Job screams out, Blessed be the
name of the Lord. The Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Job cried those words after his
home by the hand of God, through the agent of Satan, crushed his
children and killed them. And he says, Blessed be your
name. How could he do that? because
he was a child of God by His mercy. Hold fast to Christ. Repent of
unbelief. Repent of being dissatisfied
with the world. And seek His face through the
Word. True joy will not fail us. He
is eternal. He is Christ. Let's pray. Thank you for your love, for
your mercy, for your joy. God, pray. I pray, Lord, that you would look into the
hearts of all of us here and you would see and then show us
what you see. Help us to see where we are and
how we've fallen short so that our faith could be in Christ.
Help us to see the affections that we have for this world,
the silly things. Lord, help us to see that if these things are above you
or beside you, Lord, they are idols. Help us to walk away from
them and take them and throw them out. Help us to stop loving
everything but you. For we who are yours, God, are
fighting that fight. Lord, give us a heart to be pure,
give us a heart that we might have clean hands. And we not put something else
or someone above you. Will help us to be a people for
your glory, by your grace. So that there is no boasting
in our hearts or minds. Father, thank you for saving
unrepentant, dead, wicked people and causing them to be born again
unto repentance and joy and holiness and fellowship and glory. And we pray these things in the
name of Christ, our eternal and perfect and certain King and
Savior. Amen.