The Apostle Paul, writing to
the Philippian saints, expressed by divine inspiration complete
confidence that his preaching of the gospel to them would not
only further their growth in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord Jesus, but also cause them to grow in that which he calls
the joy of faith. The joy of faith. Not just the joy of believing
something. Not just the joy of having a
faith. But the joy of faith in Jesus
Christ the Lord. And that's my subject tonight.
The joy of faith. There is a great joy that accompanies
faith in Jesus Christ. A joy the world cannot understand,
a joy mere religionists can never enter into, but a real abiding
joy of faith. The joy that most people seek
and experience is kind of like water in a river in the rapids. New River, you see that on television,
see folks shooting in New River Rapids. I've done it. And it
looks treacherous. And it is if you happen to get
thrown out of your kayak or out of your raft. But the water's
only about knee deep most places. It just makes a lot of noise
and runs real swift. The joy of faith is a joy like
the depths of the sea. Quiet and unruffled by things
on the surface. Easy and quiet in this world
before God. There is a joy I have no interest
in obtaining. But I have very, very much interest
in this joy of faith. There is pleasure in sin for
a season. And there's good many things
in this world that give men and women passing temporary fleeting
times of joy, short-lived experiences of joy. I'm not interested in obtaining
the joy that material prosperity and wealth brings. If you can
buy it with money, the joy it brings won't last long. And yet, we spend our lives groveling
after more. The material things, the joy
that comes from it, will not last long. You young people,
ask any man, any woman here, any here, just how much joy is there and
getting, and getting, and getting, and getting. Just none, just
none. Be warned, what shall it profit
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what will you give in exchange
for your soul? I have no ambition, no desire
for the joy of recognition, name recognition, personal glory before
men. Now, am I honest or just giving
you some words to sound impressive? I call God as my witness. I have
no desire for fame, recognition, and glory before men, none. I'm interested in you knowing
my Redeemer. You can forget my name, that'd
be all right. The preachers, self-promoting preachers are
a dime a dozen and are not worth shooting. Not worth shooting. The fact is God's servants don't
promote themselves, they promote Christ, his church, his glory,
his gospel. They promote other faithful men,
but not themselves. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was
somebody. Look what I've done. Look what
my hands have accomplished. Look at this great kingdom that
I've built. And God said, hang on, buddy, I'll show you what
you are. And just a little while, he was a madman. And finally,
when he said, my mind returned to me, my understanding returned
to me, I confessed and extolled that the most high ruleth. He alone rules. Pride cometh
before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. And yet
everybody wants to be somebody. Fame and personal glory bring
people a little joy. But boy, how sad it is when an
athlete comes along who's a little stronger than you next year.
A runner who's a little faster than you next year. Somebody
who has a little academic superiority to you next semester. I certainly
have no interest in the joy of emotional frothy religion. The stony ground hearer received
the word quickly and he grew up and had lots of excitement,
just big show. And then the sun came out, he's
gone. He's gone. I'm thankful. I am very thankful.
that God's grace experienced in the soul, God's salvation
is something that's felt in a man. God gives you life. You have
a lively hope and you have a lively faith, a living hope and a living
faith. But That which we have before
God is more than just emotion and the carrying zone of emotional
things. I don't try to stir folks' emotions. I don't try to get people in
an emotional frenzy, and that's deliberately. That's deliberately.
I'm not interested in psychologically manipulating folks. I want to
declare the gospel of God's grace to you, and I want you to hear
it and consider it and weigh it and believe it because God
convinces you of it. Emotional religion and the joy
that it brings is only temporary and spasmodic at best. have to
constantly get folks whoopied up. Stir folks up. That's so fake. So fake. And I don't want you
to have the joy of false faith. The faith The joy of the hypocrite,
Job said, is but for a moment. False faith. False faith. That's the kind of faith, Rex,
that somebody else talks you into. That's the kind of faith
that somebody else tells you you have. That's the kind of
faith that somebody else assures you of. I get letters almost
every day, almost every day. And you folks know better, but
folks couldn't be wanting me to tell them whether or not they're
saved. You've come to the wrong fellow, I'm not going to tell
you. Not even if I think I know, I'm not going to tell you. I'm
not going to tell you. That's not for me to do. If I
can convince you you're saved, somebody else can convince you
you're not. And if I can convince you you're lost, somebody else
can convince you you are. I'm not interested in you enjoying
that joy of a temporary sensation of false faith. I want you to
know the living God. Now turn with me, if you will,
to Habakkuk chapter 3. And Lord willing, this will be
the concluding message in this series on Habakkuk. And I trust
God will Blessed to your hearts. I'm very much interested in what
God the Holy Spirit calls the joy of faith. Now here in Habakkuk
chapter 3, I want to show you exactly what it is. Except for
the scenes at Mount Calvary, except for that which transpired
when our Lord Jesus was crucified as our substitute, I don't think
I have ever read anywhere a scene that is more sad and sorrowful
than that which you have in Habakkuk chapters 1, 2, and 3. This prophet
Habakkuk, he prophesied during difficult, difficult times. The
nation that he loved And that nation in that day was the church
of God, the nation of Israel, the nation that he loved. The
people of God had so departed from God and mixing idolatry
with the worship of God and substituting idolatry for the worship of God
that the Lord God Almighty warns them through Habakkuk of the
certain judgment that was impending and would sure fall upon them.
Judgment that was well-deserved by these people. Habakkuk saw
iniquity in Israel. I see nothing but iniquity. Nothing but iniquity. What do
you see in the land in which we live? Shelby came to me last
night. I forgot even what it was. It's
so common, something on television. When was the last time you saw
somebody, a man and his wife, actually go to bed together?
Walk in the same bedroom together? Or with somebody else? Or with
Brother Don? That's just acceptable today.
Not with God Almighty, it's not. Not with God Almighty, it's not.
And yet, adultery, fornication, homosexuality are things as common
today as A fellow sneaked off smoking
when I was a kid. But it's common. Accept it. Accept it. That's
exactly what Habakkuk saw. Nothing but iniquity. A constant
perversion of justice by corrupt rulers, both in the political
realm and in the spiritual realm. Habakkuk saw in his day, in the
whole nation of Israel, the spoiling of the nations by corrupt people,
men who ought to have been serving the people, taking from the people. And he saw a perversion of justice
everywhere so that the law was slapped, the law was stopped
altogether. And God told him that he was
going to send the idolatrous, heathen, ungodly Babylonians
to carry away Israel into captivity. And yet Habakkuk, who stands
forth in this passage, Seems to he seems to take us by the
hand you remember in in chapter two right in the middle of his
prophecy He said the just shall live by his faith Man whose hearts
lifted up his heart's not upright in but the just Shall live by
his faith and now Habakkuk comes to the end of prophecy and he
says come on children Let me show you what I mean Let me show
you what I'm talking about. Read with me beginning at verse
16, Habakkuk chapter 3. When I heard my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness, entered into my bones,
and I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day
of trouble. When he cometh up unto the people,
he will invade them with his troops. Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor
of the olive 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 I will 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. And he will make me to walk upon
mine high places to the chief singer on my stringed instruments. And with those words, Habakkuk
ends his marvelous song in this third chapter. All right, here's
the first thing. Understand this, the joy of faith
is joy in God our Savior. It is joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Joy in our Redeemer. Told you
hands here in Habakkuk and turn over to Philippians chapter 3.
Philippians chapter 4, I'm sorry. Chapter 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. What a great God. He commands
us to rejoice. He commands his children to rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord always. Brother Don, that's not reasonable.
I hope you see what I have done tonight, that the most reasonable
thing in this world is that you rejoice in your Redeemer. Rejoice
in the Lord always again. I say rejoice The joy I'm talking
about is a peaceful Satisfaction a calm ease of heart that arises
from faith in Christ Look at this in its context Philippians
4 verse 4 again What is faith What is face but
but the calm? resignation of my life to Christ
my Lord. That's what it is. Losing your
life to Him. Giving up your life to Him. What
is faith but the resigning of my will to His will. The giving
up of my way to His way. The yielding of my wants to His
purpose. Faith is the constant, calm resigning
of ourselves to God our Savior. Look here in Philippians 4. Rejoice
in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. What does that
mean? Let your moderation be known
unto all men. Moderation. I've told you many
times, the only other place that's translated in the New Testament,
the only other place that word is used, is translated gentleness. speaking of the gentleness of
Christ, so that Paul is saying to us, the Spirit of God is saying
to us, as you believe on the Son of God, resting in Him, joying
in the Lord, don't let things ruffle you. Don't let things get under your
skin. Don't let the way of this world
and the course of this world and the path of this world and
the providences you experience disturb you. Let your moderation
be known to all men. How come? The Lord's at hand. The Lord's at hand. He is God at your elbow, ready
to help. The Lord's at hand. He's God
at your elbow, ready to help all the time. So be careful for
nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
to God. Pour out your heart to God. And
if you pour out your heart to God, you don't have to pour it
out to a priest or to a psychologist or to somebody else. Pour out
your heart to God. That your request be made known
to God and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. All right,
back in Habakkuk, here's the second thing. When Christ comes
in saving grace to his chosen, when Christ comes to a redeemed
center, one bought with his blood, he brings joy with him. This
is spoken of as joy. I will rejoice in my God and
the God of my salvation. The joy of God's salvation is
that which Christ brings with him when he comes to his own.
Look in Isaiah chapter 12. This is exactly what Habakkuk
is talking about. I will rejoice in the God of
my salvation. Isaiah 12. In that day, that
is the day that Christ comes to you. When the Lord Jesus makes
himself known to you. Thou shalt say, O Lord, I will
praise thee. Though thou wast angry with me,
thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Your anger is turned away. I'll
rejoice in you. Behold, God is my salvation. I'll trust and not be afraid.
For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become
my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you
draw water out of the wells of salvation. Oh, this is our God. We've 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. The
blessed experience of salvation. Oh, what joy. God chose me. Before the world began in everlasting
love, God chose me. That's how God saves sinners,
is by electing love. The Lord God sent His Son here
to redeem me, bought me with His blood. God sent His Spirit. called me by his grace, giving
me faith in Christ, sprinkled my heart and my conscience with
the blood of Christ, and declares I'm forgiven, justified, sanctified,
accepted, and to be loved. Why shouldn't I rejoice? I love
the story. I've told it many times. Dr. A.J. Gordon, he's One winter
day walking down the streets of Chicago by the church where
he's preaching, and he saw these boys in the alley. Fiddler was
something. He walked over there and he said
to them, said, boys, what y'all doing? He said, oh, we caught
this blackbird preacher. He said, would you play with
him? He said, what you going to do with him? Oh, we'll play
with him a little bit. Kill him, I reckon. Just an old
blackbird. Preacher looked at him, he said,
I'll give you $2 for him, cage and all. $2? Okay, do what you
want with him, but here he is, handing a blackbird, cage and
all. And they walked down the alley, dividing up their money,
just laughing. And they got out of sight. That
preacher picked up the cage, held up the blackbird, and he
said, I bought you, and you're mine. and open the door and shoot
him out, and said, now you're free. He said, as they flew off
in the sky, I could hear them sing, redeemed how I love to
proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed,
I'm His and He's mine. You understand that? This is
the joy of faith. It's the joy of God's salvation. God Almighty Pick me up from
the depths of hell and set me in the kingdom of his dear son. Now, please tell me what really
should disturb me. Here's the third thing. The joy
of faith. Is always a bittersweet joy. As long as we live by faith,
the joy, Don, that it brings is a bittersweet joy, because
it's mixed with pain and sorrow. Habakkuk uses words in our text
to describe this wonderful, blessed joy, and yet he precedes it in
verse 16 and says, when I heard my belly tremble. My lips quivered. At the voice, rottenness entered
into my bones. I trembled in myself, because
God came in like a troop. Convinced by God the spirit of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, heaven-born souls are made to
discover something about themselves they could never know otherwise.
Inward, utter corruption. That's all. What's in you? Just corruption. That's all. Before God reveals
himself to you in grace, you think there's a little spark
of good in everybody. Before God reveals himself to
you in grace, you think the spark's bigger in you than anybody else. Before God makes himself known
to you, you have complete confidence that you can obey him at your
will. You can surrender to him whenever
you want to. You can obey his law, obey his
gospel, obey his word just as good as anybody else. You're
convinced of it until Christ enters. And when he steps in,
suddenly something happens inside a man that causes rottenness
to enter his bones. Brother Joe back there, you can
talk to him about the possibility of a man standing up on legs
with rottenness in their bones. What's that mean? Suddenly, just
suddenly, unexplainably, all strength is gone. God, I can't
do anything. I can't obey your word. I can't
obey your law. I can't believe. I can't even
pray. There's nothing in me but corruption,
rottenness, utter without strength, utterly without strength is my
condition. When Christ comes into his ransom,
he invades like a troop and he conquers them. He comes into the strongman's
house and he binds the strongman. And war is never pretty. It's
never pleasant. He binds the strongman and cast
him out and sets up his throne. And suddenly, the chosen redeemed
sinner, who just a little bit of coal He had his face shoved
in God's face. He said, Lord, please rule me. Lord, please take me as your
own. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Men can scare you. Men can, as it were, shake you
over the fires of hell and make you think you're going to drop
off any time. Men can stir your emotions and get you to make
a confession of faith. But I'll tell you when you will
bow to Christ the Lord. When he enters in and bows you.
Not till then. Here's the fourth thing. The
joy of faith is joy in spite of myself. The joy that is not
at all dependent upon my goodness, my evidences, my fruitfulness,
or my anything. It's joy not in me, but in the
Lord. Now I could spend a while here. Preachers have a terrible tendency,
even preachers who understand and really do believe that we're
free from the law. They have a tendency, when folks
aren't behaving like they want them to, to get the whip out
and put them back under the law. If you was really a Christian,
you'd be here every Tuesday night. If you was really a Christian,
you'd pray so much time every day. If you were a real believer,
you'd read these many chapters every day. If you were a real
believer, you'd give so much money. And so they make folks
think, well, I can convince myself now that I really am a Christian. I really am a believer if I spend
this much time in prayer and read these many chapters and
go to church this often. And so convince folks of works
while talking about preaching grace. The joy of faith is joy
in Christ. And Merle, if we have joy in
something outside Christ, it's fake. It's as fake as a $3 bill. It's just fake. Well, boy, I
sure feel close to the Lord now. I've been doing this. I've been
doing that. I really feel close to the Lord.
Boy, I don't know whether I'm His or
not. I feel so bad. Don't have any of the fruits
and evidences a Christian ought to have. Well, let me ask you
what it is you look to that gives you evidence of you being a believer. I've got your eye, Larry Brown.
Just exactly what is it in you that gives you evidence that
you're a believer? Well, I love my pastor. Not like that you
don't. I love my wife. Not that good
you don't. I love my Redeemer. Not like
that. Well, I've been in church for
35 years. Never missed a service. I read
my Bible every day. I pray. I give generously. I support the missionaries. I
have lots of fruit. Look at these evidences. If you've got something in you,
or done by you, that gives you joy of faith, you've missed Christ
altogether. The joy of faith is joy when
there are no figs on the fig tree. And there's no oil in the olive. And there's no fruit in the field. This is exactly what Habakkuk's
telling us. The joy of faith is found in Christ. Flows from
Christ and always turns us to Christ. You see, the believer
understands. Yes, God's people love him and
love each other. Yes, God's people love him and
love his word. Yes, God's people seek after
His ways and walk in holiness and uprightness. Yes, they do.
Yes, they do. But what you see me do outwardly
and what I know I am inwardly are worlds apart. Worlds apart. worlds apart. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom, neither shall the fruit be in
the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields yield
no meat. The flock shall be cut off from
the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Now, those
words are primarily to be understood Spiritually. How do you know
that pastor? Because fig trees never blossom. They never blossom. And the grass
in the field has never provided meat for your mate for man. Never. So primarily these words would
be understood spiritually. These are spiritual expressions
about spiritual things. Certainly, the ordinances of
the gospel are intended for our soul's good. And how blessed
we are to have the privilege of gathering with God's saints
to worship, sing his praise, pray, read the word, hear the
word preached. Often. How often you come in here and
you hear the first song, you just can't enter into it.
You can mouth the words, but there's nothing there. And you
hear the scripture read and someone leads us in prayer. You shut your Bible and you wonder,
what did he just read? And God speaks nothing to you.
And your heart's unmoved by the word preached. You take the bread
and wine every Sunday evening. We observe the Lord's table.
You eat the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, remembering
the Savior, and how often totally unaffected. Well, what then? What then? Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will rejoice in Him. How can you say that? He's all
I've got. He's all I've got. And when you get down to all
you've got, you rejoice in it. He's all I've got. I've got nothing
else. Church of God is pictured in
the book of Zacharias and myrtle trees in a valley. You notice that most of the time
in the scriptures, the church is portrayed in a valley. In
a valley. People act like we live on the
mountaintop. Mountaintops, the air is real
thin and you get dizzy and folks act a little crazy. The valley. where there's darkness and a
cold chill and dampness. The land is fertile and that's
where you grow. And God's people, I can't speak
for the people, I'll speak for me. This man, in these years
I've known something of God's grace. I've had a few sweet,
blessed mountaintop experiences. But I spend most of my days clawing
at the bottom of the mountain, trying to get a little light.
Most of my days. Most of my time. That's just
fact. That's just fact. Well, brother
Dodd, That seems to give no reason for joy at all. Oh, you missed
the whole point. You missed the whole point. God
so fixes it that his people can't rejoice in anything but Christ. He so fixes it that you've got
nothing to lead on but Christ. And if you try to grab a crutch,
you'll take it away. The sooner the better. Now, Bacchus'
words then are expressions of strong faith of a man living
wholly upon the Lord when the fig tree of ordinances and the
fruit of the vine in all the means of grace seems gone. And there's a famine in his soul
for the hearing of the word of God, yet he says, joy in the
God of my salvation. And the joy of faith is often
a joy of absolute solitude. Sometimes God does send a famine
of the hearing of the word. And sometimes God does seem to
isolate his own, as Elijah was, and Elijah thought he was the
only one left. And you can say what you want
to about Elijah, but I'll tell you something about Elijah. When
he thought he was the only one left, he was still worshiping
God. He didn't need somebody else
to lead on. He was still worshiping God.
I had a fellow write to me, scolding me the other day with regard
to the message we preach in this place all the time, and strictness
with which we worship God. And he said, you know, this fella
and that fella and this group and that group, they're all against
you. And I said, I've known that from the beginning. I've known that from the beginning.
Well, you're all out there by yourself. Well, As far as these
fellows are concerned, you're right, I am. All by myself. Well, historically, you don't
have any group that you can pin yourself to. I don't need them. I don't need them. I don't need
them. Oh, no, no, no. I believe God. If you approve, that's fine.
If you don't, that's fine, too. I believe God. If you like it,
that's fine. If you don't, that's fine, too.
I believe God. Well, folks are going to talk
this. They will say that didn't matter. I believe God. And I'm
delighted to walk with Christ hand in hand with you, hand in
hand with other brethren, hand in hand with other congregations,
hand in hand with other preachers. And if it is so, God's will.
altogether alone, still walk with him. Still walk with him. I said to Athanasius, Athanasius,
the whole world's against you. His response, then it is I, Athanasius,
against the world. The joy of faith is joy in solitude
with Christ. And the joy of faith is joy often
in the midst of adversity. It doesn't depend on circumstances
in which we find ourselves, but upon God our savior whom we trust. The joy of faith is a joy that
circumstances can't destroy. I don't know when I had read
this verse, these words from our Redeemer so clearly as he
allowed me to read them today. In John 16, 22, he said, Your
joy no man taketh from you. Your joy no man taketh from you. Now, man can take my wife and
he can take my children. A man can take my house and take
my automobile and take my clothes. A man can take my life, but he
can't take my joy. He can't take my joy. Your joy,
no man taketh from you. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received
the atonement. One more thing. This joy, this
joy of faith is a joy that gives strength in the day of trouble. The Lord God is my strength. The Lord God is my strength. What does that mean? He maketh
my feet like hind's feet, swift and sure, swift to flee away
to him in the day of trouble, and sure to hold to and stand
firm on the rock. He is my rock. His work is perfect. He is my strength. He will make me to walk upon mine high places. They that wait on the Lord shall
renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. This is the joy of faith. Oh God, teach me so to believe
on your side. Amen.