your Bibles tonight, 1st John
chapter 1, 1st John chapter 1. And listen to these words written
by divine inspiration by this man, John, in the fourth verse
of 1st John chapter 1. And these things write we unto
you, that your joy may be full. What a marvelous statement. By divine inspiration, the apostle
tells us that this epistle was written, that our joy may be
full. I have complete confidence he
is telling us more than that. He's telling us that all that
is written in the prophets and apostles, all that is written
in the book of God is designed of God to give to those who believe
fullness of joy. That your joy may be full. That's my subject tonight. what
a subject it is, that your joy may be full. Here is a marvelous
token of our Savior's deep affection for us, of his tender care for
our welfare, having made our salvation sure. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is concerned not only for our safety and our everlasting
salvation, but for our present state. It is his delight that
our joy be full. Here, now, in this present world,
that your joy may be full. It's the desire of our merciful
Redeemer that we who are his rejoice in him and in his salvation. A melancholy spirit, a despondent
heart, are things contrary to the faith of the gospel. Our
Savior doesn't delight that we go mourning all our days. He
would not have us to be constantly downcast and looking on the gloomy
side of things. I find it remarkable how many
who claim to believe God, and I believe they do, see always
the gloomy side of things, seem never to be Delightful never
to be satisfied never to be happy as things presently are in their
own lives With God our father as their father Christ our Redeemer
as their Savior God the Holy Spirit as the comforter and instructor
It's pleasing to our God to see his children in fullness of joy
Now I know that seems strange to some You who are fathers,
I ask you, do you not want for your children joy? Want them to rejoice, to be joyful. You want their happiness. You
make great sacrifices to try to arrange their happiness. You
want your children to live in this world with peace, with pleasure,
with happiness, with joy. Our Heavenly Father delights
in our joy, the blessed joy of faith, not the joy that men and
women seek in this world. Most people seek happiness and
foolishness. Young people seek happiness,
giving vent to their unbridled lust and heap upon themselves
misery because we would not Listen to the wisdom of age and our
youth. Many of us carry scars in our
bodies and in our minds to this day for our foolishness. Chasing
after happiness and every obscene thing we could imagine. We want
to be accepted. Find acceptance with our peers.
We want to be like other folks. And so we think that would give
us some joy. Give us some joy. You young people
listen to me. You find out what's right and
you do it. And you say to your friends,
come follow me if you want to. But this is where things are
going. Or you spend your life in misery chasing after everybody
else. And you'll spend your life in
misery. But it's not just young people. Gray-headed folks do
the same thing. Happiness and joy is not to be
found in this world or the things of this world. Happiness and
joy is not to be found in giving vent to your pleasures or seeking
after material gain. Happiness and joy won't be found
in any amount of material goods, material security, material satisfaction. But there's joy to be found in
Christ the Lord. The blessed joy of faith. Everything that believers are
admonished to do, they're admonished to do with joy. We're admonished
to sing, making a joyful noise unto the Lord. When we suffer
for our Lord Jesus, for the cause of the gospel, under the hand
of providence, we should endure our sufferings with joy. Our
Lord Jesus said, blessed are ye. You know what that word is? You read that word blessed in
the New Testament? Most of the time it is happy. Happy are you
when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Rejoice and
be exceeding glad for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you. If in the days of the apostles
you were to go to Caesar's palace, you would look in vain for joy.
But if you could go to the dungeons where believers were made to
suffer, you would find great joy. You read the history of
God's church and you read about the persecutions that were heaped
upon God's people in days gone by, and you will find no joy
among the persecutors. But great joy among the persecuted.
I believe it was Latimer who said to Kramer, I may have just
backwards said, my brother, rejoice tomorrow. We shall light a fire
the world shall never put out as they were facing the prospect
of being burned for their faith. Rejoice, rejoice. How can you
rejoice in the prospect of such things? Our joy is not in life. Our joy is not in house. Our joy is not in circumstance. Our joy is in the Lord. Our joy
is knowing him. We're called upon to suffer,
rejoicing, to sing, rejoicing, to give, rejoicing. God loves
a cheerful giver. Pray, pray without ceasing. And this is the reason. Rejoice
evermore. We have hope. hope of joy everlasting. And there is a definite, clear
connection between faith and joy. Peter says, believing ye
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. In all things,
at all times, the life of the believer ought to be marked with
joy. Turn back to Philippians chapter
four. Philippians chapter 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Verse 4. And again I say rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again
I say rejoice. Peter said believing you rejoice
and yet here we're admonished to rejoice. Let your moderation,
the word is gentleness, Be known unto all men, the Lord's at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, that your
requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Now look how Paul describes this
grace of joy and his fruitfulness. Our knowledge of Christ compels
us to rejoice in him. Our joy in Christ causes us to
be gentle, to be moderate in all things before all men and
our behavior around men and with men. Our joy and moderation causes
us to be content and our joy and moderation and contentment
cause us to be at peace. True joy sets up A guard of peace
around our hearts. It's real difficult not to be
at peace when you're full of joy. It's real difficult not
to have peace when you have joy. Not only should we be joyful,
Paul tells us the fruit of the Spirit is joy. The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace. So that if God the Holy Spirit
dwells in us, if we're born of God, if we have Christ living
in us, if we've been made new creatures in Christ, he creates
in us this joy. Where there's love for God, there's
joy in God. The joy is not alike. I know
that. At all times and in all men,
we live in this body of flesh and we must deal with those things.
But the joy is ours. This is the thing I want us to
understand. This is the thing that I want
for you, my brothers and sisters, my sons and daughters in the
faith of Christ, that your joy may be full. That your joy may
be full. I can't tell you. Over the years. How my heart
has grieved For friends I love dearly, men and women I try to
pastor and serve, young people, and I see them make choices from
which they cannot be deterred by anything I say or do that
I know will bring them pain and sorrow. It's my desire that your
joy may be full. that your joy may be full. Now
we have many encouraging examples of this given in scripture. We're
encouraged to be joyful and we have examples that ought to teach
us something about this spiritual joy. The whole history of God's
church tells us that the people of God are a joyful people. Abraham, we saw this morning,
a man whose life was marked by trial, disappointment, heartache,
was a man who walked before God with joy. David was betrayed
by his own household, betrayed by his own familiar friend, betrayed
by his trust given to another. And yet David is the one who
constantly urges us to walk before God with a joyful heart and sing
with joy and meditate and rejoice in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Isaiah
prophesied to a rebellious people, a people who would not hearken
to his voice, would not hear the word of the Lord that he
proclaimed. But that old prophet had seen the Lord and his heart
was full of joy. Peter. when he was cast into
prison for Christ's sake, counted it worthy of all honor to him
that he should be counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake and
rejoiced. Paul and Silas, when they were
in prison, in prison for the gospel's sake, rejoiced in saying
God's praises. When Stephen was being stoned
to death, he rejoiced before God and rejoiced in the Lord.
That's what I'm talking about. Joy. Joy that's found outside
anything the world can appreciate or understand or experience.
The world has their happiness. That's not really what I'm talking
about. Happiness depends on happenings. Joy is found in Christ the Lord. Let me try to answer a few questions
that might be of help. Why are we admonished to this
joy? Where is the joy to be found? What are the characteristics
of this joy? When John says that your joy
may be full, what's the characteristics of the joy he's talking about?
And what can we do to increase our joy? Here's the first one.
Why are we admonished to be joyful? John says, these things write
I unto you that your joy may be full. But in doing so, he's
writing to promote this fullness of joy. It's as though he's telling
us that the design of the apostles in giving us the books of inspiration
was to promote true joy, spiritual joy. And so it becomes evident
that our joy needs to be carefully guarded. Because we tend naturally as believing people, we tend
naturally taking things that are serious seriously, dealing
with ourselves honestly, dealing with our sin honestly. We tend
naturally to be downcast. How often we must repeat Newton's
words in that hymn, how tedious and tasteless the hours when
Jesus no longer I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds,
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. It shouldn't
be so, but regrettably, our outward circumstances often diminish
our joy when we have sickness, pain, domestic trouble, business
trouble, financial difficulties, those things affect our joy.
There's no question about that. But that which makes this joy
even more difficult to maintain is what's in us. The corruption within. We read
earlier this week of Rebecca when she had Esau and Isaac,
or you saw Jacob struggling in her womb as two nations warring
against one another. She cried, why am I thus? And
that's our constant cry, struggling with flesh and spirit, struggling
with what we are by nature and what God's made us by his grace.
Some of God's saints added to that are prone to fits of depression.
and despondency and melancholy. We all have specific weaknesses,
besetting sins that trouble us. And for all these reasons, we
constantly are admonished by our God to be joyful, to rejoice
in the Lord. And he teaches us, he sends his
servants to proclaim to us a message, a message of free grace that
ought to give us fullness of joy. Turn back to Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah chapter 40. Here the prophet, writing by
divine inspiration as the very voice of God to our souls, It
tells us what preachers are to preach. All preachers, every
time they preach, to whomever they preach. It's what they preach. I find it remarkable that sometimes
fellows seem to have as their goal in preaching to get folks
to feel bad. And their object seems to be
to make a deep wound, pour in some salt, and rub it real hard.
Why? Why? Listen to this. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Cry unto her, that is, constantly
tell my people, constantly remind my people, constantly remind
them, her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned, and
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Constantly remind them that I'm
not angry with them. Constantly remind them that there's
no obstacle between me and you. Constantly remind them that Christ
has put away their sin. Christ has made them righteous.
That everything's all right. Constantly tell them that. God
would have us to speak to the heart of his people this blessed
comfort and joy. Besides all that, joy. This blessed joy of faith. makes
us strong to deal with those things we face in this world.
This is John's desire for his brethren. It's the desire of
every gospel preacher to see God's saints established in the
joy of Christ. When our joy is full, when you
walk before God with joy in Christ, the blessed joy of faith, your
pastor's joy is full. Here's the second thing. Where
do we find this joy? First, take this book right here and ask God to teach you what's
written here and make you familiar with the doctrine of this book.
We live in a day when folks belittle and deride doctrinal preaching. Don't want to hear that doctrinal
preaching. If you hear any preaching at all, you're going to hear
doctrinal preaching. If you hear from God's servants, doctrine
is teaching. And if you don't want to be taught,
why are you reading the book? Doctrinal preaching is just preaching
that teaches you something, teaches you the things of God. The great
central theme of the Bible is Jesus Christ crucified. If you
could take this whole book We always want the digested version
of things. You wanna find out what this
book's about? One word will do it. Christ. It's all about Him. It's all about Him. Everything
in the book is written concerning Him, that you may know Him. The
joy I'm talking about is joy of life in union with a person. How can I express it? I live with that lady. I don't mean by that I just live
in the same house she lives in. I mean that our lives are welded
together and that gives great joy in itself. She's just a woman. She's just
a woman. I live in union with the Son
of God. My life and his are welded together. Can you get hold of that? Larry
Brown, we live in union with the Son of God. Look at verse
3. This is specifically what John's talking to us about with
regard to this joy. He's talking about our union
with Christ. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. I'm telling you this, that your
joy may be full, that your joy may be full. We rejoice in the
very person of our Savior. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. We rejoice
to know him and live in union with him who is God. And man, the God-man, my mediator,
we're one with him. Because he lives, he said, because
I live, he said, you should live. As long as he is accepted in
the Father, we're accepted with the Father. We live with Christ,
in union with Christ, by Christ. And we're living in him, and
by him, and with him. are assured by the sweet experience
of God's grace of the Father's everlasting love for us. Jeremiah
is known as the weeping prophet. He wept because of what he saw
going on in his day. He wept for Israel and for Jerusalem. He wept for God's people, for
the captivity they were about to face. He wept because of the
prophets who led them astray. And yet he said, the Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved thee with everlasting
love. And in the middle of the book
of lamentations, that book of sorrows, lamentations, he said,
this will I recall to mind. It is the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Now, that's enough to rejoice
your heart. His everlasting love fixed upon us. Knowing our Savior's
person resting in His everlasting love, we rejoice in His good
providence. What He does, He does for us. He performeth all things for
me. And we rejoice in everything
connected with his great salvation. Saved. Sam, that's just about the best
word in the English language. Saved. I'm saved. Christ saved me. Saved from myself. Saved from
what I am. Saved from my sin. Saved from
hell. Saved from corruption. Saved
from damnation. Saved into everlasting life.
I'm saved. I'm a saved man. Now tell me
why I shouldn't rejoice. Whatever happens, whatever pain
I feel, rejoice. Christ Jesus is mine. It's written
in the prophet Isaiah that We look for Christ our savior and
he being our salvation. We're accepted of God and we're
justified and forgiven of all sin. This prophet Isaiah, he
speaks to us in Isaiah chapter 25 and says, it shall be said
in that day, lo, this is our God. We waited for him. He will save us. This is the
Lord. We've waited for Him. We will
be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Zacharias says, Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, thy King cometh to thee. He is just and having salvation. Jesus Christ saves sinners. His salvation is entirely free. He's a Savior who meets every need of our souls
and gives us everlasting life. And this all because of a covenant
made with the Father on our behalf before the world began, an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure, which is all my salvation
and all my desire. Our Savior spoke to his disciples
and said, You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. He said,
rejoice because your names are written in heaven. God chose us as the objects of
his favor before the world began. Oh, that ought to make your heart
dance before God. It did, David. He danced before
the ark and he said, I'm dancing because God chose me, not your
daddy. Spoke to his wife, Michael. redemption,
substitutionary redemption, effectual blood atonement. I understand why the religious
world around us knows nothing about this kind
of joy. I'm not talking about giddy, pretense, whoopee, clap
your hand, and this happy, clappy religious age, you know, it's
all pretense and show. I'm talking about real joy, joy
that's steady. Joy that the world can't take
away. I'm talking about joy that nothing
in the world can remove. Nothing. Nobody and nothing. It's joy because of redemption
in Christ Jesus. I'm redeemed by blood divine. Glory, glory, Christ is mine. Alan, he put away our sins. I've
got no sin before God. How can you say that preacher?
I know what I am. Far better than you do. You know
what you are far better than I do. Nothing but sin. Got no
sin before God. Perfect righteousness before
God. Because Christ is mine, forgiven, pardoned, justified. As I said earlier, living in
union with Christ, having the certainty of absolute preservation. Brother Don, aren't you afraid
you might fall away? No. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. And God alone knows
whether I'm being presumptuous or truthful. No, I'm not. How come? Because Christ is my
Savior. Christ is my Savior. I trust
Him. I trust Him. If I should perish, James, all
I'd lose is my soul. He'd lose His glory. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Our salvation
is a matter of certainty. We who believe on the Son of
God. It's true, the gospel of Christ
is good news. Good news of salvation by Christ.
And when men see the beauty of the gospel, they rejoice in the
gospel. Oh, how beautiful are the feet
of them who bring good tidings. This joy. is a joy of experience. So that as we experience life
in this world, we experience this joy even in
the midst of bitterness. Let me see if I can make you
understand what I'm saying. I have a great sorrow for my
sin. But Bob, that sorrow gives me
joy. Not many folks have it. I have a great sorrow for what
I am. Not because I got caught, not
because I made a mess in my life, not because I did this or that
or the other and messed things up. Oh no. I have great sorrow
for what I am. And that's godless sorrow. that leads to repentance, which
is the gift of God. Even in our bitter trials, when our hearts are heavy and
our cheeks burn with tears, our sorrows are sweetened with the
promises of our Redeemer. His purposes will ripen fast
Unfolding every hour, the bud may have a bitter taste, but
sweet will be the flower." Well, Brother Dunn, can you give
us some traits, some characteristics of this joy? What's this joy
like? It should be a constant joy.
Paul says rejoice evermore. He said in everything give thanks. In everything give thanks. Now
how can that be expected? What reasonable human being would
expect folks to give thanks in everything? In everything. In
everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Men's that don't have any idea
what phone calls you will get tonight or I will get. Whatever
we wake up to tomorrow, that's God's will. Give thanks. It's the will of God in Christ
Jesus specifically concerning you. The men of this world are
happy because of happenings. Believers Rejoice in the Lord. Our joy then ought to be constant.
This joy of ours comes not from what we have, but from what we
are. Not from where we are, but from
whose we are. Turn back to the book of Habakkuk,
chapter 3. This is the kind of joy I'm talking
about. Verse 17. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vines. The labor of
the olives shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The
flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and
he will make my feet like hinds feet. He will make me to walk
upon mine high places. This joy, I repeat, is something
the world knows nothing of. But it's the most reasonable
thing in the world. I look at your eyes and your
faces We've shared our lives together now for 32 years. And the things I'm aware of that
break your heart have broken my heart. And the things I'm
aware of that cause you to rejoice have made me rejoice. But our
joy, our joy in Christ is reasonable, the most reasonable thing in
the world. Why shouldn't you rejoice? God's forgiven you of
all your sins. God's made you accepted with
the beloved and in the beloved. Accepted before him as Christ
is himself. And heaven is our secure home. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. And this joy is permanent. Your joy, our Savior said, no
man taketh from you. This is something God gave you
and it only increases. But what can we do to walk before God in this joy?
How can we increase in joy? I'll begin, I'll finish where
I began. Read this book. not just with
a desire to read it, but with a desire to know it, to understand
it. If you want joy in your life,
meditate much upon Christ and his work of redemption. Go often. Go daily. Go constantly back to Calvary. and sit down at the foot of the
cross and worship God, your savior, and walk abroad in joy. You want joy? Want to live in
this world in joy? Meditate on his sufferings, his
accomplishments, his majesty and exaltation. Mr. Spurgeon, when he was just a
young man, was preaching at the Crystal Palace. I think there
were estimated 23,000 people, 21, 22, 23,000 people. And some
fool thought he'd have a good time, and he screamed, fire,
fire! There was a stampede. Two people
died. Spurgeon was devastated. He was just devastated. He couldn't
preach. He couldn't think about preaching.
He thought he would never preach again. And then two weeks later,
he came to Philippians Chapter 2,
reading the scriptures, and God spoke to his heart. Wherefore,
God also hath highly exalted him. And the thought of his Redeemer's
exaltation quenched his sorrow and flooded his soul again with
joy. Meditate often upon Christ with whom we live, in whom our
lives are hid. Think often of his finished work
and the promises that are ours in the gospel. If you would live
in joy, children of God live in constant
anticipation of death. in constant anticipation of death. Oh, how sweet to fall asleep
in the arms of our Redeemer and then anticipation of Christ coming. Behold, he cometh. His eyes shall
see him. And there'll be no more sorrow,
no more sickness, no more pain. Former things passed away. All
things made new. These things are written in the
book of God that your joy may be full. Oh God give you faith
in Christ and give you fullness of joy forevermore. Amen.