Well, I want to thank you all
for taking care of us so well. We really were overwhelmed at how good
the Lord is to all of us through you. And we just are so thankful
to be here with you. And forgive me if we sing that
song a lot. I know Brother Chet loves it.
I love it too. It's just one of those songs. Boy, it just
lifts you up. When we have a conference, we'll
definitely be hearing that one, because we'll be singing it.
It has a wonderful message, and it just lifts us up and points
our eyes to Christ, who's most important. And it's a way we
rejoice, right? It's a way we rejoice in song.
We rejoice in song. Actually, tonight our message
is called, Reasons to Rejoice in the Lord. Reasons to Rejoice
in the Lord. Philippians will be our text.
Just one verse. Now Paul was in prison during
Philippians. He was in prison. A lot of the
epistles he wrote, he was in prison either in house or in
a prison. And look what Paul tells us to
do and think of the circumstances that he was in. And he tells
us in verse 4 of chapter 4. And we'll just look at this one
verse. God's Word tells us to rejoice.
Rejoice. Look at Philippians 4, verse
4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Now,
it's hard for us to be rejoicing all the time. But if we fix our
eyes upon Christ, it will bring us joy. Even in the midst of
trials and tribulations, we'll be lifted far above those. And
we'll fix our eyes upon our great King. And we rejoice when we
think of what He's done for us, what He sacrificed for us. It
brings us great joy. And we rejoice. And so Paul says,
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. So we who are born again are
encouraged and exhorted by Paul here to rejoice in the Lord. And now think of that too. We
can't rejoice in ourselves, can we? And sometimes we're in circumstances
where we can't rejoice in the circumstances, but we can always
rejoice in the Lord. In the sense of when we're going
through something, like I say, just look to Him. He already
has planned and purposed whatever's coming. And He will give us the
grace. He'll give us the grace and the
strength to make it through. Sometimes it looks like a mountain,
but we saw in Scripture before, He turns mountains into plains.
He just takes them right out. And this is what our great king
does. So Paul exhorts us to rejoice. And we're, as humans, we're very,
very easy to get down. We are. It happens all the time.
We're humans. We can't, this mountaintop Christianity
that people talk about, and trust me, when I'm talking about this
too, I'm not talking that we're always going to be. Paul's saying,
I believe it, it says that because we have a tendency not to rejoice
all the time, right? Because when something happens,
we get down. We do. We're human. We have emotions.
This mountaintop Christianity that's promoted by people that
are always way up here. What? David, why art thou cast
down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God. See? But see, there's his hope,
right? He's in God. Now, he was cast down. He was
down. He was... So we go through things. We do.
We're humans. But think of this. Think of this,
beloved of the Lord. You are now closer to heaven.
Brother John says this all the time, too. You're now closer
to heaven than you were last year. You're closer to heaven. You're closer to going home to
be with the Lord, further along than when the Lord saved you.
We're further along. We're closer to beholding our
great King face to face. Oh, this brings us great joy. And as one commentator said,
is this not enough to make every regenerated child of God rejoice?
And to rejoice always? Because when we start to think
about that, one day we will be in his presence. And we will
be absolutely sinless. Wow. We can't even... That just... We can't fathom it, can we? We
really can't. But it's the truth. And it makes
us rejoice when we think of that. This one day, we'll have a glorified
body that doesn't sin. We won't even think about sin.
It won't plague us ever. There'll be no tears. No sorrow
in heaven. It'll be marvelous. And it's
all because of what he's done. It's all because of what Christ
has done for us. We're clothed in his righteousness.
He died in our room instead. And this brings us great joy,
although it was a situation where he went through and he paid everything
God demanded, but what benefits we have as believers. Oh, this
makes us rejoice. Think of this. Is God my Father,
who hath chosen me in Christ, that I should be holy and without
blame before him in love? Yes, if we're a child of God,
We're holy and without blame before Him alone. That'll cause
us to rejoice. We're sinners, but yet before
God in His presence and in His eyes, we're clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. Think of this to help us rejoice. God is from everlasting predestinated
me. And you, believer, you who are
trusting in Christ, with the church to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, It causes us to rejoice. We know
what we are. We know what we are. I ask you
this. Are you accepted in the beloved?
You who are redeemed? Oh, what great joy. Accepted
in the beloved. Accepted in Christ. Do you have
redemption in Christ's blood? Rejoice. His blood has cleansed
you from all your sins. You who are trusted in Christ.
This gives us great joy and great peace. Do we not marvel that all our
sins are forgiven? Every single one of them? Washed
in the precious blood of Christ? That'll cause us to rejoice.
That'll cause us to rejoice in Him. And you notice, it's all
in Him. It's all in Christ. We can't
rejoice in any of our doings, because our doings is like filthy
rags, right? Our works, or anything we do
to try to gain merit and favor with God, but He's done it all,
beloved. It's finished. It's perfect. He did it all. Now the question is, are you
regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God and sealed unto the day
of redemption? That'll cause us great joy too.
Remember what we looked at earlier this morning, that no matter
what our standing was, rich or poor, sickness or well, our standing
with God never changes because it's in Christ? We can rejoice
in that. So Paul throughout this epistle
Let's go to chapter 1, and we see that this is a vein by Paul,
okay? To rejoice in the Lord is a vein
that Paul weaves through this, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
of course, weaves through this epistle. To rejoice in the Lord. Now, the Greek word for rejoice
means this. To rejoice, be glad, be joyful,
be full of joy. Now, remember his situation.
He's in prison, and he's writing this. Rejoice in the Lord. Now, the word rejoice is used
ten times in this epistle in eight verses. Ten times in eight
verses. Philippians 1, verse 18. What
then? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. So there's two of it, but he's
saying Christ is preached. He's rejoicing in the preaching
of Christ. He's rejoicing that Christ is
preached. Look at Philippians 2.16 next.
And I put them in order so we won't be going along here. Philippians 2.16. holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not yet
run in vain, neither labored in vain." So he rejoiced in the
second coming of Christ. We rejoice that the Lord is going
to come back. He's coming back. We don't have
a clue when it is, but He's coming. He's coming back. Look at verse
17. Yea, and if I be offered upon
the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all. He was rejoicing if it was God's
will that his life would be taken for the cause of Christ. He was
rejoicing. Look at verse 18. For the same
cause also do ye rejoice and rejoice with me. Now he wanted
them to rejoice when they heard of his death. He didn't want
them to be sorrowful. Because he's with the Lord. He's
with the Lord. Now we do, we are filled with
sorrow when a believer goes home. But like a dear friend of mine
said when, I've told you guys this often, when Paul, who was
a dear friend of mine and a dear brother in Oregon, when he went
home to be with the Lord, Norm Wells, preacher Norm Wells, and
I were talking on the phone, he says, he's not worried about
you anymore, brother. And that brought me great comfort,
to be honest with you. It really did. It brought me great comfort.
Although I was sorrowful with the fact that he had gone, I
wouldn't see him again until I get to heaven with him. But
I could rejoice that he wasn't worried anymore. He wasn't in
any more pain. Cancer was eating him up, but
he wasn't in any pain at all. He's home. He's home with the
Lord. His traveling through this world
and this wilderness was finished, and it is finished, and he's
still in the presence of Christ. And I know there's been many
brothers and sisters through the years who are home right
now, who you fellowship with. They're home. So Paul wanted
them to rejoice. He wanted them to rejoice. Look
at verse 28, same chapter, verse 2. I sent him therefore the more
carefully, that when ye see him again, ye may rejoice, and that
I may be the less sorrowful. So he rejoiced that the Lord
had sent Epaphroditus back to them, and that the Lord had healed
them. He was rejoicing. See, it's a
constant vein we're seeing through this epistle about rejoicing.
Look at Philippians chapter 3, verse 1. And He is pointing them to the
One who is our chief joy. He is pointing them to the One
that is our chief joy. Finally, my brethren, chapter
3, verse 1, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. He's
focusing them right on Christ. Just like that musical tuning,
right? Ting! Just keep your eyes on Him. Keep your eyes on Him. And He's
our joy. He's our joy. We love Him and
He fills us with joy. Look at Philippians 3, verse
3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. So
what's Paul doing here? He's saying look away from yourself.
Don't have any confidence in yourself. None. have confidence in Christ, who
has redeemed us. See, and this is a constant battle.
As you're reading Paul's epistles, he's battling constantly works-based
religion. He's constantly battling these
false teachers who come in and say, you've got to do this, or
you've got to do that. And this is why we see this constantly
in the epistles too, because nothing's changed, has it? Nothing's
changed. We battle the same things nowadays.
People say you have to make a decision. People say you have to pray a
prayer. I say God can save you without you moving a muscle.
And that's the truth. He can. Because it's His doing. We point people to Christ. We
point people to the One who can save your soul. You can't save
yourself. But there's One who can. If He
wills it. Oh, He's magnificent. He's a
wonderful Savior. So we have no confidence in the
flesh, no confidence in our works, no confidence that we can gain
any merit with God. None at all. None at all. So he's having them look away
from themselves. Look away from themselves and
rejoice in Christ and what He has done. And do we not do that?
Do we not rejoice in what Christ has done for us? He did that
which is impossible for you and I, believer. You and I, beloved.
He did that which is impossible for us. It's possible with God. He redeemed us from all our sins,
and He paid it all. Pays it all. Causes us to rejoice,
doesn't it? Gives us great cause to rejoice.
And in Philippians chapter 4, verse 4, where we are rejoicing
the Lord always, And again I say rejoice. And this is the finish,
right? This is the finish. Where he's
getting ready to end the letter and the Holy Spirit has him once
again focus their minds upon Christ. Once again. So it's a
constant vein through this epistle to rejoice. To rejoice in the
Lord. He keeps exhorting them. Look
to Christ. Rejoice in Christ. Rejoice in
Him. Now a lot of folks in life A
lot of folks rejoice in different things in life. A lot of folks
do. Some folks rejoice in their possessions.
Some folks do. Some folks rejoice in their wealth.
What they have. Some folks rejoice in their jobs. Some folks rejoice in themselves
and their own abilities. And they trust that. Now in our lives, I know in mine
before the Lord saved me, and I imagine it's so with some of
you, we rejoiced in many things, but not in the Lord. I never rejoiced in the Lord. I only cried out to him when
I was in trouble. But as far as rejoicing, I never
gave him the glory. Never. Never even thought of
it, to be honest with you. But oh, what a great change God
wrought in His people. Because now we give Him all the
glory. We give Him all the praise. And we see His mighty hand in
everything. Everything. We're sitting on the porch today. I just like sitting and listening
to the birds. I don't know what it is, but I get such a great
joy out of listening to those birds sing sonnet to my Lord,
because that's what they're doing. And it's so peaceful. And it's
so wonderful. And as we're sitting there, I'm
rejoicing, thinking, wow, Lord. And I kept saying to Vicki, this
is amazing. This is wonderful. And it's all
His doing. And we're so thankful. But what
a privilege, just to sit and listen. And now, I used to like to listen
to birds sing, but not like I do now. When the Lord saved me,
everything was different. And think of this, in the religious
world, things are not much different than the worldly man. Religion,
in religion, Man rejoices in what he does and what he does
not do. Right? He's proud. I don't do that. You got a little
checklist, right? We've talked about that before.
And they rejoice in the things that they do, and they rejoice
in the things that they don't, and they rejoice in the fact
that they don't do those things, but, oh, that guy over there,
man, he's horrible. He does that. Kind of reminds
you of the Republican and sinner again, doesn't it? And in religion, man rejoices
in his service too. He brags about what he does.
You don't find that in grace. No. We do what we do to God's
glory. Give Him all the glory. Give
Him all the honor. And in religion, I hit on this
earlier too, but in religion, with the do and the do not, And
they look at people as lesser Christians because they don't
do those things. Beloved, it's just a bunch of rubbish. It really
is. It's just garbage. Because in
grace, we're all just a bunch of sinners who are saved by God,
saved by His grace, not saved by anything we can do. And therein
do we rejoice. We rejoice in what our mighty
Savior, Christ, has done it all. Rejoice in the Lord always. And
again I say rejoice. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the glory. So Paul would have us look away
from those things. Think of this too. People rejoice
in their possessions. People rejoice in their wealth.
People rejoice in their jobs. People rejoice in all kinds of
different... in their selves, in their abilities. But think
of this. Think of this. They're all temporal. They're
all temporal. All temporal. But who's eternal?
Christ. Christ is salvation, is person,
is redemption, is eternal. We focus our eyes upon the one
who is eternal. We're resting and trusting in
Christ and Him alone and what He has done No confidence in
the flesh. He's the chief object, too, of
our rejoicing, isn't He? He is. He's the chief object. We can't rejoice in ourselves.
Any gifts we have, we can't rejoice in our gifts because He gives
them to us and they're for His glory. We don't want to rejoice
in them. We're just thankful. Oh, what
a great God. What a great God. We have abundant
reasons to rejoice in Christ, don't we? Let's look at a few
of them. We'll just touch on a few of them here. Turn, if
you would, to 1 Timothy 3. We rejoice in His glorious person. We rejoice in His glorious person
and who Christ is. Oh, we rejoice in His glorious
person. 1 Timothy 3.16. He's the God-man, isn't He? He's
the God-man. He's God and man. He's God and yet He's identified
with our flesh. He became a man. The God-man. God was manifest in the flesh.
God became a man, wonder of wonders. Wonder of wonders, and this should
cause us to greatly rejoice. Look at 1 Timothy 3.16, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God, now think
of that, the sovereign of the universe, the king of kings and
the lord of lords. What condescension. God, who's
far above in the heavens, was manifest in the flesh. justified
in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, and received up into glory. Oh, do we not
rejoice in His glorious person, who He is, God, manifest in the
flesh. Our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, and preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on into the world, and received
up into glory. Oh, you who believe on Christ,
rejoice. Your Redeemer liveth. He liveth. The second reason we rejoice
is in His perfect righteousness, which He worked out for His people
as our mediator and Redeemer. He is the Lord our righteousness.
He is the Lord our righteousness. Jeremiah 23.6 says this. If you
want to turn there, you can. Jeremiah 23, verse 6. Oh, Jesus
Christ is the Lord our righteousness. And we rejoice in this because
we know what our righteousness is. We know. It's filthy rags. But Jesus Christ is the Lord
our righteousness. He weaved the perfect coat of
righteousness for us. Jeremiah 23, verse 6. In His
days, Judas shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And
this is His name, this is His name, beloved, whereby He shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. Oh, this should give us cause
for much rejoicing. We need a perfect, spotless righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. By His life and by His death,
we need the perfect righteousness for us to be clothed in. The
perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God lived the perfect life
and died before God's law and justice for us who believe. And He's the only mediator between
God and man too. He's the only mediator. There's
only one, and that's Christ. What a mighty Savior He is. What
a mighty Redeemer He is. What a mighty mediator He is.
This is Jesus Christ, our Lord. What a mighty God. The one true
God. Becomes a man. and dies in our
place. Oh, is this not great cause for
us to rejoice, which leads to our third point, which is we
rejoice in His glorious sacrifice. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
9. We rejoice in His glorious sacrifice, which eternally puts
away all our sins. All of them. Is this not cause for us, we
who are sinners, By birth, nature, and choice, is this not cause
for us to rejoice? Hebrews 9, and then go over one
chapter in verse 10. Put your finger in verse 10.
But look at verse 12 of Hebrews 9. We rejoice in His glorious
sacrifice, which eternally puts away all our sin. Verse 12, neither
by the blood of goats and calves. All those sacrifices in the Old
Testament could never take away sin. But they appointed the one
who could. by His own blood, there's the
price, entered in once into the holy place. Look at this, beloved,
having obtained, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Oh, do we not glory in the fact
that He obtained eternal redemption? If He obtained eternal redemption
for us, that means He paid for all our sins. And He did it by
His own precious blood. causes us to rejoice. He died
the great substitute upon Calvary's cross, paying the sin debt that
his people owed. We owed it. He paid it. Oh, what a wonderful Savior.
He paid it before God's law and justice. He is the Redeemer of
his people. He did it. He did it, beloved. His blood paid the ransom price
for all who would believe on Him, for every single one of
His sheep. And He did it. Our great High
Priest entered in once into the presence of God and made atonement
for the sins of His people once. He did it. He obtained eternal
redemption. Turn, if you would, over to Hebrews
10. He obtained it. by the sacrifice of himself.
This causes great rejoice for God's people. Causes us to rejoice
greatly. I can't pay for one my sin, can
you? Just one. Christ paid it all for us. It's
paid in full. Done. It's finished. Finished. It's a work that's accomplished,
beloved. Praise to His mighty name. Look
at Hebrews 10, starting in verse 12. But this man, Christ, after
he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God from henceforth expect until his enemies be made
his footstools. For by one offering, and he offered
himself, He offered Himself. The perfect, sinless, spotless
Lamb of God. Our sins were laid upon Him. For by one offering He hath perfected
forever. Sorry, I got ahead of myself
there. From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected. Look at that.
He hath perfected. Forever, them that are sanctified,
cleansed, spotless, washed in the precious blood of Christ.
Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for after that
He had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their hearts and in their minds and I will write them.
Oh, here we go. Look at verse 17. Does this not
cause us to rejoice who believe? Right here. And their sins and
iniquities. Well, I remember. No more. No more. Now, where mission of these is,
there's no more offering for sin. No more need for any offerings
of sins. For sins. Because Christ paid
it all. and their sins and iniquities,
I will remember no more." Boy, that makes this old sinner rejoice.
I'll tell you, he did it all. He did it all. It's just not
reason for us to rejoice. Now, lots of folks in various
religions say they have to make an atonement for what they've
done. Well, there's only one atonement
for sin, beloved. Only one. And there's only one
that God will accept. And it's not you and I. It's
Christ. God will only accept the sacrifice
of His Son in the place, in the room and place of sinners. And in Christ there is absolute
remission for the sins of His people. Absolute. There are sins and iniquities
I will remember no more. That's God saying that. Oh, what cause for us to rejoice? If we are in Christ, we've been
redeemed by Christ. And is it not dishonoring to
the Savior? Not to rest in His grace and His atonement? Not
to just rest? I'm redeemed. How I love to proclaim
it. Oh my. Another reason we rejoice is
this. We rejoice in his powerful grace
that he can transform us out of the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of his dear son. Now we could never do that within
ourselves. Never. You got a whole bunch
of folks in religion that religion tells them just come on up and
make a decision or they do this. They say everyone bow your head.
And they say, repeat this prayer after me. And they say, well actually before
that, they say, anyone here want to receive Christ? And people
put their hand up and they say, well, we're going to
pray for you. Repeat this prayer. And when I was in religion, they
did this. I always wanted to look up. When
they tell you to keep your eyes closed, you always want to look
up. But I never did that, but still.
But they do. They say this. They say that.
They say, everybody bow your head. Put your hand up if you
want to receive Christ. The music's playing quietly.
And then they say, repeat this prayer. And then they have the
audacity to say, after they've repeated that prayer, they say,
now you're part of the kingdom of God. God, by something they do. If Christ saves you, you will
pray, you will flee to Christ, but you don't have to repeat
someone else's confession. No, that's sham, that's a sham
what they're doing. Oh, if we've been redeemed by
Christ, if we've been transformed out of the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of His dear Son, we will attribute it all
to Christ. We will give Him all the glory
and all the praise. Now, we looked at this text.
Turn, if you would, to Colossians 1.13. We looked at this text
a couple weeks ago. And it means to be rescued and
delivered. Well, usually if you're rescued and delivered, you can't
save yourself. If you need to be rescued, you're
usually drowned, or you can't help yourself, you're going to
die. You see the fallacy of the whole
bow your head and repeat a prayer aspect? Sinners who God has saved, they
cry out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. They beg God
for mercy. They beg him for mercy. Colossians 1.13, Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. We who are saved have been rescued. Rescued. We were drowned in the
sea of sinfulness. Drowned in. We couldn't get ourselves
out. And He rescued us. That gives us great cause to
rejoice. To be translated is to be taken from one place to
the other. And it's by His power, beloved. It's all by His doing. Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. And in the Greek, translated
means to transfer. Transferred into the kingdom
of His dear Son. We were once held by the power
of sin and the power of darkness. Now we've been translated. Now
we still have the presence of sin, don't we? We all know that,
we do. But it doesn't have the power
over us it once had. The power's been broken by Christ. Oh, what mighty power this is.
And it is all in Christ. He has all the power. Again,
I ask, is this not cause for we who believe to rejoice? To
rejoice. Another reason we rejoice is
we rejoice in His good and wise providence and His dominion and
sovereignty. We rejoice in His good and wise
providence in His dominion and sovereignty. Turn, if you would,
to Psalm 145, verses 13 to 17. God's kingdom, beloved, is an
everlasting kingdom. Everlasting. We find great peace in this,
and much to rejoice in the fact that our great God never changes.
His kingdom is eternal, it's everlasting. Psalm 145 verses
13 to 17. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. Our God is eternal, therefore
his kingdom is eternal. He's everlasting, he dwells in
eternity. And thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. He's king right now. He was King
in eternity. He was King when He created all
the worlds and the stars and everything. Christ was born King. He'll be King when we're all
gone. And if the Lord tarries, He'll be King. And then He's
King in eternity. In the eternity future. His dominion endured throughout
all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall,
and raises up those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon
Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. He feeds
all the animals. He feeds us. Thou openest Thy hand and satisfyest
the desires of every living thing. Everything comes from Him. We
rejoice in His wise providence. We rejoice in His dominion. And
we rejoice in His absolute sovereignty. And then it says the Lord is
righteous in all His ways. All His ways. And holy in all
His works. Beloved, He who upholds us and
He upholds all things by the Word of His power, by the Word
of His power, and He takes care of His people all through this
life, all through this life, and we can trust that what He
works for us is His ways are righteous and His works are holy. We can trust Him. And may we rejoice in our great
King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Another reason to rejoice is
we rejoice in His glorious resurrection by which we are justified. We
can't justify ourselves, can we? But Scripture declares He's
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
Romans 4, verse 25. We can rejoice in this. He was
raised for our justification and therein do we rejoice. We
rejoice in Him. God, again, God is satisfied
with the sacrifice of Christ. He is. He's absolutely satisfied. If He wasn't, Christ would never
have raised from the grave. But He was satisfied with the
sacrifice of Christ. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1
and 2 says this, Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children, and walk in love. as Christ also hath
loved us, and hath given himself for us, he gave himself for his
people, in offering, in the sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Who were our sins against? God. It's against Him we sin, and
His law. in His justice, so it has to
be satisfied. Oh, praise God. It is in Christ. It is in Christ. So we rejoice
in His resurrection by which we are justified. Turn, if you
would, to Hebrews chapter 7, verse 25. The next point is we rejoice
in His eternal intercession for us as the surety of the covenant
of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ is able
to save the most vilest of sinners. He's able to save the most vilest
of sinners. And those He saves, He's going
to keep. He will keep. Scripture says this in Hebrews
7.25, Wherefore He is able also to save them, being His people,
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. The darkest sinner. He's able
to save those who come to Him. Seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them. So we rejoice in His eternal
intercession for us. Why is He able to save them to
the uttermost? Because He has all power. He
has all power. It's all in Him. It's all in
Him. All that come to Christ shall
be saved. All of them. Because He has all power, beloved.
And notice it also says, He liveth to make intercession for them.
What a glorious salvation we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He always exists. He always exists. And He lives
right now as a high priest for His people. For His people. He's our advocate right now,
right now, before the Father. He's sitting right now at God's
right hand. He's our mediator, we who believe. Again, is this not cause for
us to rejoice? What a wonderful Savior. Everything
we need is in Him. It's all supplied in Him. All in Him. The last point is,
the last reason for us to rejoice, turn if you would to Titus 2,
verses 13 and 14. The last reason we rejoice is
that our great King is coming again. He's coming again. And we look for His return, not
knowing the hour or the day, but we know that He will appear
the second time. Titus 2, verses 13 and 14. And what hope this brings the
believer. What hope this brings the believer that our Lord Jesus
Christ is coming again. Looking for that blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God, notice this, the
glorious appearing of the great God, there's his deity, proclaimed
right there. And our Savior, Jesus Christ,
he's God. And he's our Savior. God is our
Savior. Wonder of wonders, eh? Look at
what the verse says again, who gave himself for us. Remember,
He's sinless, spotless. He's the perfect Lamb of God.
He gave Himself for our sins. Why? That He might redeem us
from all iniquity. All. All of it. Isn't it amazing? Isn't that a cause for us to
rejoice, beloved? All iniquity. And purify unto himself, or purify,
I don't know, purify unto himself a particular people. Oh, it's amazing. It's incredible. No human mind could think this
up. This plan. and purifying to himself a particular
people zealous of good works. We desire to serve Christ. We
desire to see the gospel go forth. We desire to see people come
to Christ. We rejoice when the Lord saves. Oh, it's marvelous. What hope this brings the believer.
The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. Rejoice, our great God will return.
Although none of us know the hour or the day, but we look
for it and we wait for His glorious appearing. And He may take us
home before He comes again. And we'll see Him face to face. So what are we looking at tonight? Oh, we who believe are looking
to Christ. and we rejoice in Him. And all
these reasons we looked at cause us great comfort, give us great
comfort and cause us to rejoice in Him. It takes us away from ourselves,
doesn't it? We say this is an oasis for us. We come here and
we rejoice in our great King. And the carriers of the world
pass away and we can look to our Savior. Oh, turn if you would
to 2 Corinthians 1. We look away from ourselves and
our circumstances, and we look to our great God, who is the
God of all comfort. Our God is the God of all comfort. He gives us comfort knowing that
our sins are all forgiven. He gives us comfort knowing that
we're going to be with Him one day. Oh, what a glorious day that
will be. He gives us comfort when we're going through trials.
And when we're going through, whether healthy or sick, He takes
care of us and He watches over us. And He gives us strength
and grace and comfort and peace. Is this peace? It can be a hurricane
going on around us or a tornado, and we have peace. And I mean
of life. A storm of life. And we have
peace in Him. We may get anxious at first.
Now, come on, we do, don't we, sometimes? But when we focus
on Him, when we look to Him, He causes us to rejoice and He
gives us peace. I know for me, the minute I get
my eye off Him and on the circumstance, I'm in trouble. Oh, when I look
to Him, it just fades away. It's still there, but I know
that He's in full control. Look what it says in 2 Corinthians,
and we're closed with this. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy. Oh, is He not merciful? Is God
not merciful to us in Christ? And then he says, and the God
of all comfort. All comfort. who comfort us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.
Now remember that too. When we go through things, we're
able to comfort people after we come out of those usually
that are going through the same thing. Because we know what they're
going through. We know the pain that they're
experiencing. And we know that God was the
God of all comfort for us through that time. that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort..." Look at this.
"...wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God." There it is. He gives us comfort. We can't
find comfort in ourselves, can we? Oh, but what comfort we can
find in Christ. In the Father of mercies. Flee
to Christ. He's the sinner's only hope.
No hope in ourselves, say. Look to him, look to our great
king.