Well it's good to see you this
morning and I want immediately to turn our thoughts to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus Christ in
his ministry, for he was a preacher, the Lord Jesus Christ in his
ministry as that great prophet that was sent into the world
to declare the holiness of God and the way of salvation to sinners. He often, in his ministry, directly
contradicted the prevailing opinions of the men and women to whom
he spoke. especially the religious people
of his day. The received teaching that we
might imagine was simply to be continued was contradicted by
the Lord and he set his own word in opposition to it. He would
say, you've heard it said, but I'm going to tell you something
different. And while it is true that our
blessed Savior, our precious Redeemer, exhibited that greatest
of love, that love which is the love of one who lays down his
life for his friends, yet that love was not a weak love. It was not a complicit love. It was not a malleable love that
could be changed and altered and depended upon the audience
to whom he was speaking. It was not that he flattered
men in the things that he declared. but rather it was a strong love,
a determined love, a single-minded and a challenging love. Because out of his love he brought
the truth to men's hearts and minds. And he called upon them
to hear the truth, even if that truth was unpalatable. even if that truth would cause
them offence. Because the Lord, out of a heart
of love for those to whom he was preaching, declared those
things which ran contrary to the received wisdom of his day. The purpose of the Lord was to
move men, to move men and women from their fleshly assumptions
to consider their spiritual state, to expose the sham of outward
righteousness, of outward religion, and to aim a dart right at the
sinner's heart, right into the hypocrite's soul. that that individual
would be caught up short and caused to reflect upon the truth
that he spoke. Often the Lord Jesus Christ used
a phrase, I think a dozen, 15 times we encounter this in the
Gospels. He would say, ye have heard it
said, but I say unto you. Ye have heard it said, But I
say unto you, and thereby the true nature of the sinner's heart
is revealed. He would say, ye have heard it
said, whosoever ye have heard it said by them of old time,
thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery
with her already in his heart. For again, it hath been said,
whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing
of divorcement. But I say unto you, that whosoever
shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced, commiteth adultery. The world says, do what makes
you happy. Follow your heart. Find your
satisfaction and your fulfillment here and now, while you have
the opportunity. But I say unto you, but I say
unto you, true happiness is not found in these things of the
flesh. True happiness is found in honoring
Christ. True peace is receiving His gospel. True fulfillment is in serving
His cause. In the passage that was read,
that we have read together, the Savior declares of a city and
of its people, because it is people that populate a city. It is people that are around
us in our society and in our communities and in our families.
And it's people that the gospel addresses. And it's to the heart
of each one of us individually and personally that these things
come. The Lord says to them and of
them, if you will not hear the gospel, Nowrah, if you will not
hear the gospel, friends today, if you will not hear the gospel,
but despise the gospel preacher, it is the same as despising me,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you despise me, you despise
God who sent me. Indeed, he says, it will be more
severe for you than for Sodom. Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah, the
cities of the plains, so-called, have gone down in the thinking
of this world as an epitome of the worst kinds of sin that can
be imagined. Listen, says the Lord, I'll give
you a perspective. You despise me. You despise my
word. You despise this gospel. You
reject these things which I speak to you out of a loving heart,
out of a care for the truth that is revealed. You despise these
things and it'll be better for that city of Sodom than it will
be for you in the day of judgment and the day of accountability. The gospel that we preach is
not a take-it-or-leave-it offer, despite the way in which it is
often presented by the religious people of our age. You cannot
simply accept or reject these things any more than God is a
take-him-or-leave-him God. or that the Lord Jesus Christ
is a take-him-or-leave-him saviour. These things stand true, and
they stand against every one of us. And as we hear the Gospel
preached, God give us grace not to despise these things, but
to hear them with ears that are open and with hearts that will
receive the truth. You cannot reject the Lord's
message without rejecting the Lord. You cannot despise the
Lord's messenger without despising him. If you reject the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you reject Christ himself. And in rejecting him who is the
only way of salvation, you condemn yourself to hell and to a lost
eternity. I fear for this society, this
world. I fear for many of you here this
morning. I fear for your soul's eternal
well-being. The reality is, the reality of
our day is this, that the same cry is on the lips of sinners
now. as has echoed down through the
generations of mankind. Away with this man. Away with
him. Crucify him. We will not have
this man to reign over us. And I ask you, give me 30 minutes. Give me a brief hearing this
morning and ask yourselves where you stand. Ask yourselves how
you are reacting and responding to the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not for my sake. You can think
of me whatever you want, whatever you will. But for the sake of
your never-dying soul, ask yourself, what think ye of Christ? Ask yourself, where do I stand
as far as this gospel is concerned? For I warn you, despise this
gospel, and you despise the Saviour. Despise the Saviour, and you
despise God himself. I thank God that I have something
to say to you this morning. I thank the Lord that he has
revealed a way of escape for sinners in this world. He calls
it a great salvation and it is the work of a great Savior. When a sinner is saved, things change. That's why we
call it conversion, because things get changed around. In Acts chapter 15 verse 3, the
writer Luke says, the conversion of sinners caused great joy unto
all the brethren. There's a change happens when
the Lord Jesus Christ comes into someone's life, when the implications
and consequences of the death of the Savior, Jesus Christ,
begin to affect the heart and the soul of sinful men and women. A conversion takes place. And
it's not that our lives become perfect, or that all our weaknesses
disappear. The Lord's people still, I'll
be honest with you, the Lord's people, and many of you know
this, still struggle with sin. And I dare say that perhaps we
struggle more with sin as the Lord's people than we ever did
in our unconverted condition. We will struggle with sin until
the Lord sees fit to allow us to leave these fleshy bodies
beside. There's nothing good in this
body, nothing good at all. There's nothing good originates
in this head. Nothing good is pursued by this
heart. Nothing good is accomplished
by this fleshy, worldly hand and foot. But by God's grace,
He makes a change and a difference. He brings life where there is
death and He brings glory where there is damnation. And there
is something to seek after in Christ. We still struggle with
sin. The testimony of Scripture shows
it to be true. Peter, the apostle, bold and
brash as he was, denied his Saviour. Martha, we were thinking about
her the other day, she couldn't keep a civil tongue in her mouth. Abraham, he lied even to the
danger of his own wife. David lusted after those things
that he saw around about him. Thomas doubted. James and John
were so full of their own self-importance that they succumbed to pride
and ambition. The Lord's people are a catalogue.
of inconsistencies and contradictions and difficulties and hardships.
But the reality is this nevertheless that they are a saved people
and they are a changed people and they are a people with a
different motivation and a people with a different view because
they see Christ and they know that he has effected a change
and a conversion in their souls. Nor indeed do the Lord's people
have all the answers. Shame on us if we think we do.
And you can remind me that I said that. And we're certainly no strangers
to troubles and problems. The illnesses of this world,
the illnesses of this body are ours. They're part and parcel,
part and portion of our life. And they say every weakness of
mind and body that afflicts men and women in this world afflicts
the Lord's people too. No, the change that takes place
is this, that the Lord's people are a thankful people. The Lord's
people are a grateful people in the midst of their trials
and their troubles, because they have been made so by the grace
of God. They are thankful to God the
Father for choosing them out of all the multitudes that live
and have ever lived on the face of this globe. They have been
specifically chosen by God the Father and they are thankful
for it. They are thankful to God the
Son because He came into this world and in His redeeming love
He endured and He suffered all the opposition of men and He
went to the cross and He carried the sins of His people there
in His own body on the cross. And the Lord's people are thankful
to Him for it. They are thankful to God the
Holy Spirit for calling them by the Gospel and by bestowing
the gift of faith and opening their hearts that they might
see Jesus Christ. And in the midst of all their
weaknesses, in the midst of their faults, in the midst of their
failures, they possess a joy in the Lord and a joy from the
Lord, a joy that transcends the earthly state and the earthly
condition. so that they can be grieving
at their outward experiences and yet retain a deep joy and
satisfaction because they know that their Lord nevertheless
is in control of all that is going on and happening in their
lives. That's why it's called a peace
that passes understanding. Because you can't explain why
it is. You can't reason this peace with
those who have never felt it, with those who have never tasted
it. But it has a meaning and a depth in the soul of those
who are converted by the grace of God to embark upon that way
which is Christ. and His mercy and His grace and
His goodness is their portion all the days of their life. Surely,
goodness and mercy had followed me all the days of my life,"
said David. And the testimony of the Lord's
people is that in the midst of all their troubles, the goodness
and mercy of God belongs to them. So I've got a question for you
this morning. It's this. What makes you happy? Let me
put it this way. What makes a Christian happy?
That's the question that I will address. What makes a Christian
happy? The Lord Jesus Christ, in speaking
to his disciples in Luke chapter 10, gives three answers in that
passage to what makes believer happy. Three reasons why we should
have joy in the Lord. And I want to speak to you personally
who know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, because this
is how the Lord addresses his disciples. He tells them that
they have joy Because their name is written in heaven. Look at
verse 20. The disciples, 70 of them, had
been sent out by the Lord. These 70 had gone out and he
had commissioned them to go out two by two and to preach the
gospel. We're in Luke chapter 10. There
had been people sent out to go and preach the gospel. And when
they come back, these men were thrilled at the things that they
had seen happening. In verse 17, the 70 returned
again, and they returned elated. They returned rejoicing. with joy saying, Lord, even the
devils are subject unto us through thy name. They had seen things,
obvious things, practical things, things happening before their
eyes. As they preached the gospel,
they had seen changes being effected in the lives of the men and women
to whom they preached, and they were thrilled at it. Not only that, but in verse 19
the Lord says that he's going to enhance those gifts and blessings
that they had. He would give them even more. He said, I give you power to
tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. See, there's
a loveliness here in this picture which the Lord's people have
begun perhaps to taste. And it's this, that because we
are in the palm of the hand of the mighty God, nothing can touch
us, nothing can harm us, nothing can affect us that is not in
the will of God who loves us. And as we've said, these trials
and troubles and difficulties come into our lives, we interpret
them In a different way, we understand them no longer as being merely
an end in themselves, but as a means by which the Lord accomplishes
and affects His purpose in our lives. And therein is the quiet
confidence that affects every trial that we are called to face
and experience. But the joy that these men had
at the way in which the gospel was changing the lives of those
around about them was not the joy that the Lord would have
them think on. That comes in verse 20. He says, notwithstanding this,
all the power that you've seen and all the promises that I give
you, notwithstanding those things, in this rejoice not that the
spirits are subject unto you, but rather Rejoice because your
names are written in heaven. Here's the first thing then that
causes the believer joy. Their name is written in heaven. The Lord would have us understand. He says, notwithstanding, despite
this, There's a greater joy than the success that a preacher sees
when he preaches the gospel. There's a greater joy than seeing
even the gospel extending in the lives of those around. It
is to know personally that our names are written in heaven. Names written in heaven, it's
a rather interesting thought. We're told in Revelation that
they're written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That means they're
written in the Book of Life that belongs to the Lamb. The Lamb
of God. It's a name that is given to
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God possesses a book. The Lamb of God has a book. He
calls it the Book of Life. And it is a record. It is a record
that exists in heaven. And it is a personalized record. In this record, in this book
that belongs to the Lamb and is in heaven, is a list of the
names of those who have been given the gift of life. It is a personalized list. It
is an individual record of the eternal purpose of God to save
a people of his choice. And the very fact that this book
exists teaches us about election and predestination. Now those
might sound sort of like fairly big concepts and ideas, and yes
they are, but they're beautiful too. Oh, there is a loveliness
in the knowledge that God's choice prevails in this world. This
world isn't simply the random collection of connected circumstances
or unconnected circumstances. It is fulfilling a plan and a
pattern and a purpose that God has set in place. And it has
an end which has already been settled in eternity. Because
God has written a book and in that book are the names of all
those that he has determined and decreed and promised to save. It speaks of a particular people. It's not just a general, everybody's
name. It's a name that is recorded
and written in the book of a personal nature. People are individually
named. And the fact that this is written
speaks to us of its certainty and of its unchangeability. The
Lord doesn't have scored out names, nor use an eraser in order
to change the names in his book. It's a book that is written and
it is a book that declares that such whose names are written
there will be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ has possession
of that book. that record, and in that book
are the names of every blood-bought sinner written down. They say that record-keeping
is the basis of every civilization. You can't have a civilization
unless you keep records. Well, here are the records that
the Lord Jesus Christ has of those who are His. Every record that the Lord has
is pure. And these named individuals, some of you are parents. I guess
you thought when you were parents that you gave your children the
names that you chose they would have. Well, even the names of
men and women in this world are already decreed by God, because
he has written them down in his record-keeping book. The very
names of these people are recorded from eternity. That has so much
in the way of consequence when we think about living and dying. We think about when and where
children are born. We think about the relationships
that we have with one another. We think about what happens with
sickness and mortality. We think about abortion and all
the issues that have to do with that. God knows exactly from
all eternity those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. The Lord Jesus Christ had these
individuals committed to them. They were chosen before time.
They were given to Christ in covenant purpose. They were committed
into his care and his keeping. And he was given the express
task of going to earth and fulfilling everything that was necessary
for the salvation of those who were written down in that book.
Everything needful for their salvation, for their eternal
well-being was committed into his hands and completely provided
for. There was no doubt, no space,
no room for question allowed in this great transaction. And I'll tell you something else
about this book. This book, according to verse
20 here, is a book that's not a secret book, but it's open. It's open to examination. The
contents of this book are known. You can tell whether your name's
in this book. The key to knowing if your name
is written in this book is the faith which allows us to see
the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. Faith opens the book
to those who seek the Lord Jesus Christ and to know His greatest
gift. Faith, it is, that discovers
the foundation of our relationship with God, the source of our assurance
and the promise of all the blessings of grace and glory to sinners. They'll wonder then that the
Lord Jesus Christ tells us to rejoice in the knowledge that
our names are written in that book. Our personal salvation
and the everlasting happiness of our souls is not subject to
any doubt or uncertainty because our names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. The second reason why the Lord's
people should be happy is this. that you have a sovereign God
who is accomplishing these things day by day in your life and in
this world. Something we don't read about
very often in Scripture is the Lord Jesus Christ rejoicing.
I don't know whether you've ever thought about that. Isaiah calls
him the man of sorrows, a man that was acquainted with grief.
But here is one of the few occasions where the Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced. Verse 21 says, In that hour,
that is the hour that the 70 returned. In that hour, Jesus
rejoiced in spirit. and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Here's another reason for the
Lord's people to rejoice. We do not worship a pretend God. We don't worship a God of our
own imagination. We don't worship the idols of
the heathen. Something that we can form ourselves
and make in our own image. but we worship a powerful king,
a king who decides what he wants to do and does it, a king who
follows his own path and goes his own ways. That is why the
Lord Jesus Christ is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords, because
the kings of this earth, they get in behind him, he's the head. Because He is Lord over all the
events and circumstances in this world of all time and eternity. And I find it amazing that so
many professing Christians struggle with this concept. They use the
words, but as soon as they've said the words, they deny the
implications of those words. Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
teach his disciples to pray, Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven? Now who is it that stops the
Lord doing what he wants to do in heaven? Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. The will of the Lord is being
done constantly. in our world, messed up as it
is, troubled as it is, the Lord is bringing all these things
in this fallen world exactly to the end which He has determined. Look at the context. In this
hour, when these men came back, when the success of the gospel
had been revealed, The success being typified by Satan falling
from heaven. That fall of Satan speaking,
I believe, about the fact that the gospel was about to go out
into the Gentile world. From that small beginning there
are these few being sent out. The Lord Jesus Christ commissioning
his people to preach the gospel in every land and amongst every
tribe and nation. The elect of God from all over
the world were about to be gathered in. And Satan's wings were clipped
and he fell to the earth. He was under the control of God. The Church's accomplishments
in this world is not in its, or the Church's pleasure is not
in its own accomplishments, but rather it is in this fact that
God is doing his will, and he is bringing about his purpose,
and all that the Lord Jesus Christ does will find a good and a seemly
end. In Matthew chapter 5, the Lord
says, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. Our God is doing all things well. And so we have joy because our
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And we have joy
because we know that God is accomplishing His purpose here in this world.
And then finally, we have joy because we are privileged above
prophets and kings to see the things that we see. We gather on occasions like these
and we open the word of God amongst us and we look to see what the
message might be that the Lord will give us. We see things,
we see things that the world has no knowledge of. Indeed,
the Lord Jesus Christ goes further than that and he says that the
prophets of God all down through the ages, those faithful men
and women who brought the Word of God to their contemporaries,
to their communities, their societies. They looked forward with hope,
with anticipation, with expectation as to the things that God was
promising to do and in some way revealed to them in their prophetic
office. that he was going to work, that
he was going to accomplish. And they looked forward with
anticipation to these things happening and they told the people
around about it and they said, something great is going to happen,
something wonderful is going to take place, there is one coming
in the future. I'm sure about it, I'm certain
about it, I'm longing for it, I'm looking forward to it. Prophet
said that. Kings. Kings that could do whatever
they wanted. Kings that could satisfy their
every desire. Kings that were answerable to
no man. If they were hungry, they ate.
If they were thirsty, they drank. If they wanted to, bring down
someone, they got rid of them. If they wanted to satisfy the
lusts of their desire, they just called out and somebody gave
them everything they wanted. And we're happier than those
men who have satiated every desire that this world could give. Because we have seen Jesus. We have seen that which was promised. We've seen that which was anticipated. He has come, and in his coming
we see all the fulfilment of the purpose of God laid before
us. Those things which the church
possesses, as the Lamb's Bride. Those things which we now see
of the Lord Jesus Christ's achievements and accomplishments are a source
of joy in our hearts and in our lives. These common men, just
common 70 gathered. Some of them were fishermen.
Some of them were tax collectors. These were just the clerks. These
were just the working men of their day. They were given more
than the prophets and the kings of a previous era. The Lord says
to them, blessed are the eyes that see the things you have
seen. Blessed are the ears that have
heard the things that you have heard. We've seen things and we've heard
things that transcend the common things of this world. Our God
has put this world in place with all of its wonders, with all
of its beauties, with all of its potential. He has thrown
the stars into the sky. He's created the universe and
it all redounds to His glory. And we have the key. We have
the key to understanding all of these sins, the wonders that
are all around us because we see the purpose in it all. The
salvation of His people and the gathering in of His brightest
church. We have seen The revelation of
the mystery of godliness. We have seen what it's all about. God manifest in the flesh. God manifest in the flesh. A man who is God. God come as a man. The Incarnation of God. Incarnation just means that He
came in human flesh. And the Lord Jesus Christ had
a body prepared for him. It's nice sometimes how the readings
of Scripture come together. We had Psalm 40 read for us. I didn't know that was the passage
that was going to be read, but it speaks about the body prepared. The fact that that body was set
apart for the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal God, to come in human
flesh. and here to reveal himself to
this world as the way, the truth, and the life. Lord Jesus Christ,
we're reading from 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, was manifest in
the flesh and we're told justified in the spirit. What does that
mean? Well it means that he successfully
accomplished every covenant, a covenant is just a promise,
or a contract if you like. It's one person saying to another
person, tell me what to do and I'll do it. It's a contract,
and contracts are binding, contracts are legally binding. The contract
or the covenant as it's called in Scripture was this, that the
Lord Jesus Christ had to come in the flesh and he had to satisfy
every requirement of a holy God with respect to the people that
were placed into his care and keeping. And to be justified
in the Spirit is to say this, that He fulfilled everything
that was required of Him, down to a T. Down to its absolute
end. Nothing was left undone, which
is the reason why He said, as He hung upon the cross, it is
finished. It's done. It's all done. Every
contract obligation has been satisfied. And the Lord Jesus
Christ was justified. in his spirit and by God the
Holy Spirit. He was seen of angels, says the
writer to Timothy Paul. He was seen of angels. Angels
attested his birth. Angels were there at his suffering. They saw him in his death. They saw him as he was resurrected
from the dead. What is this telling us? You
know, if I said to you, I'm going to bring you in someone here,
maybe I've got a visitor standing outside and at this moment I
bring him in, I say, here is the man who saw it all. You would
say, I don't believe you. You would say, how do we know
it's true? And so what the Holy Spirit has
done is He has told us that those eternal beings, or those beings,
created beings who dwell in the eternal presence of God, they
They attest to the reality of these things which have been
done. They will stand as witnesses
in days to come when every human mouth is shut up. When no man
can say anything in the presence of God, these angels will say
it's all true. We've seen it. We've been there
from the very beginning. We saw the baby. We saw him there
in the cradle. We saw because it was our job
to protect him. The angels were given charge
over him. We saw him grow up. We saw him
enter his ministry. We saw him suffering there. We
saw him die. The angels saw their God die. And they saw him raised from
the dead and they saw him ascended up into heaven. The scene of
angels preached unto the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus Christ was preached
to the Gentiles. The message of the Gospel went
out into the world. It had been constrained, it had
been restricted there amongst the Jews for centuries. But at the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that restriction was burst. And the Lord sent
out his disciples and he said to them, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. And as that great tide,
that great force, that great power went out, so the Gentile
kingdoms in all their darkness and Gentile hearts in all their
wickedness were brought into subservience to Christ. He proved
himself to be the Lord of men's hearts. And he was believed on
in the world. The spread of the gospel, despite
the hard hearts, despite the wicked flesh of men, the Lord
Jesus Christ was believed on. Men were brought and women were
brought into the experience of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ
was received up into glory, set on high to reign over this world,
to accomplish all of his purposes of gathering his people and bringing
them in as the beautiful bride of Christ for all eternity. And you saw it. You saw it. You saw it. You saw what prophets
and kings longed to see. You saw it. And it's revealed
for us here today. And it's attested and it's witnessed
and it's true. You saw it. Joyful people, happy
people. people whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, people whose God is in control of this
world, people who see the accomplishments of all their great Saviour's
work. Most people, when they're asked
the question, what do you want out of life? What do you wish
for your families? What do you wish for those that
you love? The answer is very often that we want them to be
happy. I don't mind if they're poor.
I just want them to be happy. I don't mind if they're really
intelligent. I just want them to be happy.
What do you want? I just want to be happy. You are happy indeed. if you know that your name is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You are happy, indeed,
to know the success of God in accomplishing His purpose, that
He is in control and that all the vagaries of your life are
in the palm of His hand and you in His safekeeping. And you are
happy to know the mystery of godliness through faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. that the blessed Son of God has
come and that he has achieved and accomplished everything that
was required in order to bring his people to himself. May the
Lord Jesus Christ give us cause to rejoice in these blessings,
to his glory and praise. Amen.