God had told Abraham, you guys
remember that, that of your seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed. Now don't get stuck on the nation of Israel.
The seed he was talking about is who? Jesus, Christ. But Christ would come through
that physical seed, wouldn't he? So therefore that physical
seed had to come into the world. They had to go through the experiences,
through the troubles, through the trials, through the wilderness,
into the land of Canaan in order for Jesus to himself be born
of a woman made under the law to redeem those who were under
the curse of the law. We believe in history. We believe in the
historicity of scripture, and we believe in the purposes of
God being worked out in the historicity of scripture. And so what happened
was in the appointed time, as God told Abraham in the fourth
generation, in the fourth generation, shall your people come out of
Egypt. This was when Abraham, Abraham
didn't even have Isaac yet. And God told Abraham, your children
will come out of Egypt in the fourth generation when the iniquity
of the Amorites has come to the full. Remember that? Genesis
15. So God is telling Abraham about things that have not occurred
yet because that's the kind of God he is. He speaks those things
that are not as if they were. Cause he sees the end from the
beginning, you know that. And so he tells Abraham they'll come
out. And they came out just when God said they'd come out. They
came out under the hand of a man named Moses and they were brought
into the wilderness specifically as God said and we have now entered
into the 12th encampment. There were how many encampments
42 don't forget it numbers chapter 33 tells us there were 42 encampments.
We are at the 12th encampment. At the 12th encampment, we received
the law from Mount Sinai. This was a phenomenal historic
event where no people group in the world, like the nation of
Israel, together, collectively, every man, woman, and child heard
from God themselves. No other people group in the
world could say that. No other people group in the world could
say we heard the audible voice of God without any type of mediation,
no angel, no cherubim, no prophet, no priest. God himself spoke
his word to them. Now, this is where we are right
now. So what happened? Israel was redeemed by an outstretched
hand, a mighty arm, a powerful God. Then Israel received the
revelation. That's what our outline says.
Do you see it? Redeemed? Revealed and then regulated. Let me explain. And this happens
to us in our life, too. When God redeems his people,
he redeems them by his power. Isn't that right? When God redeems
his people, he redeems them by a mighty arm and stretched out
hand. When he redeems his people, he
draws them out of darkness into his marvelous light. When he
redeems us, he shows us that we are in a pit. and that we
are slaves, that we're trapped and we're headed to hell. He
opens up that revelation to us and he he causes us to call out
to him. Isn't that right? And then we
call out to God and then he delivers us. And when he delivers us,
that is God's work. God is known by the judgments
which he executes. This is Psalm nine, verse 16.
So when God saves a sinner, listen to me, when he saves a sinner,
He is saved experimentally. He knows he's been saved. Salvation
is not only a doctrine or a concept that we derive from the scriptures.
It's an experience. The children of Israel were literally
delivered out of Egypt. That was an amazing feat that
God accomplished. But God had to do something more
than redeem them in terms of their experience. He had to reveal
himself to them. And that's what God does to us
through the gospel. He makes himself known to us.
In fact, I've said it time and again, John 17 3. This is the
essence of saving faith that we might know him. the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. The object of the gospel
is to shed light in the hearts of men and women so that they
might see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isn't
that right? So you can't say you know him until you know him.
And you can't say you know him until you have seen his glory.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that all that seeth
the sun. Got it? and believeth on him
may have everlasting life. And I'll raise them up at the
last day. The objective of the gospel is to have men and women
see Christ. And so the children of Israel
have received on Mount Sinai a revelation of God. After having
received that revelation, God set down a system of regulation. God told them how they are to
worship him. We saw this in Exodus 20. God
told us that the altar, which is the central essence of worship,
the place where the sacrifice is offered. The altar must conscribe
to a biblical pattern. The altar must be according to
the word of God. The altar must reflect the character
of Christ. The altar must point men and
women to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The altar must never
be commingled with the works of man and the works of God.
The altar must be according to the principle that God showed
Moses. It must be earthly. It must be unhewn stone. It must
come from God himself and men and women must not get caught
up in the altar They must see the sacrifice on the altar And
so when we worship God and we preach the gospel and we do what
we're called to do in the New Testament Everything we do listen
to me. Everything we do is to point
sinners to Christ Then it's Christian worship As long as there is an
iota of anything that we do that draws attention away from the
savior to the center, we have stopped preaching the gospel.
We have stopped preaching the gospel. So gospel revelation,
as we're going to see today, always points us to Christ. True
saving faith is like a honing device. It lands safely on the
person of Christ. and Christ alone. But what God
does to the children of Israel after having revealed his will
to them in the Ten Commandments and the establishing of the proper
sacrifice at the altar. He gave them a number of codes
of ethics and morals to follow Exodus chapter 20. 21, 22, and
23 about property rights, about relationships with persons, as
you saw in chapter 23, about how they are to deal with the
land when they came into Israel. Listen to me. If we took every
verse in every one of those chapters, we'd find that there is a great
and profound gospel truth that applies to us. We won't do that
because we're not here to be that minute. I am trying to give
us an overall essence of the gospel and we're landing on chapter
23 because I want to address something very relevant. to the
mind of God and therefore should be very relevant to the people
of God after he gave them three chapters of how they ought to
conduct themselves. And our elder rightly said, you
can read the law of God in the Old Testament and you immediately
get a sense of how righteous God is. Isn't that right? You
can read these precepts, these statutes, these stipulations
and commands. And the only thing you can come
away with unless you reprobate is that God is a just God. Not
only that, he's a patient God and he's a good God and he's
a holy God. He's righteous. And God would
have his people to reflect his character in their dealings with
one another. Isn't that right? That's what we see. And see,
again, the gospel is this God's objective. And we'll see this
today is that his people reflect his character. that's why he
brought Israel out to be living epistles written and known on
the hearts of men it would only come to reality however in the
life of true believers yet those those precepts are just as valid
for you and I today I was thinking about one of these precepts in
chapter 3 I it struck me strange it struck me strange in chapter
23 look over at verse 3 neither shall you countenance a poor
man in his cause do you see that I said, you know what? We have
a huge difficulty with respecting rich people, isn't that right?
James said that in James chapter two, he says, go to now, you
folk, you see the rich when they come in and immediately you make
a way for them to come to the upper seats. You want them to
sit up front, isn't that right? So the offering basket can go
to them first. No, that's how you do it in church. That's how
you do it in church. And then you keep the poor people way
in the back, isn't that right? Because you presume that they're
only going to do is drop in a couple of dollars or a couple of quarters.
But you know what God will say to us, according to his law,
don't even respect the poor person. Don't presume upon the poor person,
particularly in the year 2006. The poor person is rich in wickedness. You missed that one. He's rich
in deceit. He's rich in facade. He's rich
in his capacity to manipulate you because he's poor. So what
God would say to his people, don't be deceived by the poor
person. Don't be vulnerable to the poor person. Don't be vulnerable
to the rich, but don't be vulnerable to the poor. They all have a
scheme. Watch them all. You know what
he's saying? Watch them all. Oh, he's so poor. Give him everything.
No, no, no. Don't do that. Don't do he needs
Christ like you need Christ. And so I delight in these precepts,
but God does something in chapter 23. That's up. This has been
of great interest to me. And I hope it's of great significance
to you. In fact, you here at Grace Bible, and I don't know
about any other church because I'm the pastor of this church,
have exhibited what is set forth in the doctrine that we're going
to talk about today. And I'm thankful for, you know, sometimes
when you have to work on a passage of scripture and you have to
deal with what it's saying, God is dealing with. And then you
have to reflect on the congregation and the temperament and attitude
of the people of God. You get a little worried sometimes
that you're going to have to offend them and chastise them
because we have not come up to par with that which God has revealed
in his word. Well, I'm pleased to say that
today and I'll explain this a little later on as we go on into the
text that I have been able to delight in what I'm going to
talk to you about, even though you aren't conscious of it. It
is exhibited and practiced among God's people today in this church. And that is the feasts of the
Lord. The feast of the Lord, here's
what God did. He redeemed his people. Then he revealed his
glory to them. Then he regulated their conduct
because they were his. You read these precepts again.
It sounds just like a father talking to his children. And
you know what? He doesn't bring in any kind
of real adjoinders or injunctions or threats or punishments. He'll
say something like one of these verses again. It was so wonderful
to hear it said. This is what he says over in
verse five. If you see the ass of him that
hates you lying under his burden and what is forbear to help him.
In other words, you really don't want to help him because he hates
you. And this is what God said, look,
you're gonna help him. You're gonna help him. Did you get that?
That's how God talks to us. Look, you're gonna help him.
It's no ifs, ands, and buts about it. Your job is to help him.
You love the sinner, isn't that right? You just love the sinner.
There's no qualifications to it. There's no argument, no debate.
God says love the sinner. That's all. I love it. Now, here's
what God does to his people. Bringing them out of Egypt into
the wilderness to teach them dependence. Isn't that right? To teach them dependence. That's
what the wilderness sojourn is about. The problem with us here
in the year 2006, we're too independent. And a gospel of dependence is
alien to us, but God is going to teach us dependence on him.
And when he teaches us dependence, he's also gonna teach us as we
make our way through the wilderness, as he's doing with Israel to
do something else. Here's what he's teaching us.
You probably already know this. I hope you do. He wants us to
understand that as believers, we've been called, watch this
now, to a feast. We've been called as believers
to a feast. You believe that? We've been
called to a feast. That's a joyful thing. Look at
your outline. The purpose of God is to produce
in that people God's character and God's kingdom. Point one,
to be saved. To be saved by the grace of God
is to be called to a feast. Isn't that so? To be saved is
to be called to a feast. You and I are living epistles
written and known on the hearts of all men. We are his witnesses
and we are those who have been called to a feast. It's replete
through the Old Testament and the New Testament that salvation
is a feasting. Isn't that right? You remember
when our Lord came on the scene and he began his ministry? In
John chapter two, the gospel of John is a very purposely prescribed
book. The gospel of John deals with
seven particular miracles that Jesus performed during his last
year and a half ministry in the gospel of John, seven particular
miracles. Each of these miracles were an
escalation of his power and his glory leading up and culminating
with the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. because salvation
in its quintessential form is the redemption of sinners from
the dead. It's the raising of dead sinners
to life. It's giving them life and faith
in Jesus Christ, bringing them out of the darkness of death
into the light of life. That's what salvation is. Isn't
that right? That's what he did for you. That's what he did for
me. He called us and like he called Lazarus, come forth. We came forth by the power of
the gospel. Is that what happened? All right, the first miracle
that Jesus did in the Gospel of John, you remember that? I
love this. The first miracle he did was
at the wedding of Cana in Galilee. You remember that? In John chapter
two, I just want to show you a couple of things that go there
for a moment. In John chapter two, this was so marvelous because
what he's teaching us is something about the character of God, the
character of the kingdom of God and the character of God's people.
And I don't want you to miss this. This is very important.
What is God like? What is his kingdom like? And
what is his people like? Isn't that a good question? Now,
see, the reason why I'm raising this is stressing this is because
it's very important that you know what God's character is
like, since you say you are God's child. It's important for you
personally, but then it's also important for God's honor and
reputation among his people. Because you see, if we get God's
character wrong, we will misrepresent God. If we get God's attributes
wrong, we will misrepresent God's attributes. And I want to show
you today a prominent character of God that is extremely important
to our success as God's people in the manner of the kingdom
of God. It was not an accident that one of the first things
that Jesus does was to be invited to a wedding. not an accident. This was divine providence to
set forth the typology of Christ in the church. John chapter 2
opens up and says, and in the third day there was a marriage
in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Got it? Both
Jesus, watch this now, was called and his disciples to the marriage. See the typology there? They
were called to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the
mother of Jesus said unto them, we have no wine. Now you know
what happened, right? Place was without wine. They
had drunk up all of the wine. All they had were water pots
at that time. Just water pots. And you know what Jesus did being
there, right? He told the servants to take those six water pots
filled with water, which were waters of purification, which
were used for the washing of the Pharisees and the Sadducees
and those who were part of the ceremonial system. They were
water pots all around Jerusalem. The holy folk, the holy folk,
The holy whose feet don't touch the ground, you know, the holy
folk, every time they came close to a sinner, they would wash.
They would wash. Remember, we talked about that
the other night. One of those Pharisees had a fit when Jesus
went straight to the meal and didn't wash his hands because
we don't believe that that cleanliness is next to godliness. Now we
know godliness produces cleanliness, but cleanliness does not produce
godliness. Who can clean his own hands?
Who can make himself clean? Who can say, I am pure from my
sin? No one. Who have clean hands
and a pure heart? has not lifted up his soul to
vanity. Not you, not me, only him. Isn't that right? Only him.
So at this wedding feast, our Lord has accommodated the needs
of the people. And you know what he did? He
turned the water into wine, didn't he? He turned the water into
wine. Now, why did the Lord do that?
He knew some of those folk were going to get drunk. Why did he
do that? You know, he did know that because
that's man's nature. Isn't that so? Don't look. They
were sinners there. But why did he do that? I'll
tell you why he did that because it's a principle that you and
I must understand that that wedding feast represented the wedding
feast of God's people. It represented the marriage of
the lamb to the church, the body of believers. sinners redeemed
from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. It represents the
state and status of the fellowship that God's people have in the
context of a marriage. It represents the atmosphere
that should exist among God's people when you know that you've
been saved by the grace of God. You know what that is? Anybody
know the word? Joy. Joy. Mark that down. Joy. When a sinner is saved,
When a sinner is really saved, he should know the joy of the
Lord. Did you get that? See, now what
we're going to be talking about is the feast of the Lord. And
you're going to learn some things you never learned before. But
this is fundamental to the nature, environment, atmosphere of the
kingdom of God. And that is joy. He turned that water into wine
that they might rejoice all through the Old Testament. The wine was
given to make the heart of man glad, not drunk, glad. I need to draw that line for
some of y'all. Listen to me now, not drunk, glad. Because we got
some of our religious folk who think it's right to be drunk.
I don't, it's not right to be drunk literally, and it's not
right to be drunk in the spirit. Don't have me get started on
this drunk in the spirit business. Do you hear me? Happiness does
not mean you lose your senses. You don't lose your mind. You
don't start acting a fool. You don't act unseemly. The Holy
Ghost is not about you being drunk. He's about you being sober,
but full of joy and full of gladness. This is fundamental fundamental
to the kingdom of God. And that's why he did that miracle
just a look at verse look at verse 11. I want you to see this
11 and 12 of John chapter 2. This is true this beginning of
miracles this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee. Do you see that and manifested
his glory and his disciples believed on him. Got it? How did he manifest
his glory? Turning the water into wine,
turning that feast into a place of joy, causing the people to
be happy, joyful, jubilant, thankful, glad. Is there something wrong
with that? Is there someone not at all?
And in fact, you're going to see that this is what God has
called his people to a sphere of feasting, banqueting, festivity,
jubilance, satisfaction and pleasure. Romans 14, 17. Listen to it.
I quote it all the time. This is one of the three fundamentals
of our church charter. The kingdom of God is righteousness.
Peace and what joy in the Holy Ghost. Isn't that right? Joy
in the Holy Ghost. It's essential that you understand
that when God saves his people, he means for them to manifest
that salvation by rejoicing. And that's what the feasts are
all about. The doctrine then today under consideration is
of extreme importance. Listen to this, the person or
persons who misses this point has yet to understand what we
call the essence of the word gospel. You hear it all the time,
the word gospel. I want you to mark the word gospel
down, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. See,
the word gospel runs in the Old Testament and the New. You just
didn't know that. Let me help you. In the Old Testament, it's
called good tidings. Everywhere you read the word
good tidings in the Old Testament, it's synonymous to the New Testament
Greek word, gospel. Did you get that? Good tidings
and gospel synonymous. And wherever you read the word
good tidings, always mark what those good tidings are about.
because then you will see a gospel truth that's relevant to you.
And let me develop that. There are three things that you'll
see in the Old Testament, wherever the word good tidings are used.
It's the it's the word that's used for a messenger when he
comes with the message of good tidings to the king or to the
people about something God has done. are something that God
allowed, are something that was a result of God's providence
and power. Here are the three things. First of all, you will
hear that the messenger will come and say that God had triumphed
over our enemies. Is that good news? You'll see
this often. The messenger will come and say,
God has defeated our foes. He has destroyed our enemies.
He has vanquished our adversaries. That's good news. particularly
when the people look and see that they have been outnumbered
ten times to one. And then all of a sudden God
has done something to destroy their enemies. That's good news
because that's what Christ has done for me, destroyed my enemies.
Secondly, the second thing you will hear God say is that he
has delivered his people. He has delivered his people.
His people were either in captivity or in some form of bondage, and
God, by a miracle of grace, has actually delivered his people.
That's the good news. The servant will come to the
king and say, God delivered us. He set us free. He brought us
out. That's good news. That's good
news. The third thing you'll see when you read the Old Testament
and you hear the word good tidings used, you'll hear where God's
people will have been told God has poured his blessings upon
them. God has poured his blessings
upon them. God has given them blessings
beyond degree. I remember the time where there
were a couple of lepers sitting outside the Syrian camp. You
remember that? About to die. They were, they were Hebrews,
Jews. They were outside of the Syrian camp about to die. They
didn't know what to do. They said, you know what? If
we sit out here, we're going to die. If we go in there, we're
going to die because the Syrians are going to kill us. But hey,
if we sit out here, we know we're going to die. We go in. We don't
know. Perhaps who knows what might happen. They go into the
camp, find out that God has wiped out all the enemies and all the
spoil is there for them to feed on. They go in and they're feeding
on the spoil and they're thinking about starting bank accounts
and businesses and fortune 500. Then they stop. You know what
they say? Now, we can't rejoice in all this by ourselves. Let's
go back and tell the brethren what God has done for us. Now
that's called the gospel. That's the gospel. That's good
news to undeserving sinners who are lepers by nature brought
into the blessings of the kingdom of God. That's what I'm talking
about with the gospel. All right, the point that I want
to bring to our table is that the believers feast constitutes
three things. It's a gospel feast. You have
that in your outline. First of all, it's a gospel feast.
It's a good news feast. It's a feast that's based upon
what God has done for us in Christ. Is that right? The second thing
I want you to know about this feast is that it's a feast of
grace. That almost sounds like it's
begging the point, but I want that distinction to be made.
See, because some folks will acknowledge the gospel, but they
will not acknowledge the grace that brings the gospel. See,
the gospel is only the gospel when it's brought to us by grace.
That means God gives it to us freely apart from anything that
we do. It's called the grace of God.
So it's a grace or a feast of grace. We feast on the grace
of God. Isn't that right? Now I want
you to think about that because this is something that's deeply
and profoundly experimental. When we feast, we are eating.
When we feast, we are partaking. When we feast, we are engaging.
When we feast, there's a dynamic in the surrounding and all of
our senses are engaged. Isn't that right? The believer
then is to learn to feast on the grace of God. The gospel
is the content, the grace is the me. Watch this now. The feast
of God's people, I want you to hear this because I'm going to
develop this as we go, is God himself. Did you get that? The feast of God's people is
God himself. All right, the feast is the gospel
is the grace of God and it's God himself. And God wants us
to understand that he doesn't want us rejoicing in being satisfied
by deriving pleasure from anything but him. You got that? Very important. And I want to develop the next
point, the nature of that feast. The nature of that feast, we
just talked about it. Joy. The nature of the feast
is joy. What is joy? What is it? Because we're going to be we're
going to be thinking about now an attribute that I think that
sometimes we exhibit it. And sometimes I think we either
take for granted the importance of this grace that's been given
us called the joy of the Lord. And I think sometimes we allow
our own human temperament, our human propensity and inclination
to to shroud this virtue, this attribute or characteristic.
Does anyone agree with what I'm saying? I think sometimes we
can find ourselves minimizing the significance of this concept
of joy. But what God had told Israel
was this three times in the year. I want you to come up to feast
with me. He said in Deuteronomy in Exodus
chapter 23, in Deuteronomy 16 and Deuteronomy 30, I want you
to come up three times a year. Now, let me lay the foundation.
This is very important. Three times in the year. Now, three
times in the year is quite frequent. for a whole people group to travel
from wherever they live to Jerusalem. Did you get that? Three times,
he didn't say one time in the year. We have a conference once
a year. If we did it three times a year, we would gorge ourselves. However, God wanted his people
to come up three times a year, not three times, listen to me,
in 12 months. three times in seven months.
Because in the Jewish system, you had two calendars. You had
your astronomical calendar of the lunar solar months, like
we have 12 months in a year. That's a lunar calendar, 12 months. Then they had what was called
the agricultural calendar. The agricultural calendar was
only seven months. You had the first month, which
was our beer of our Nissan, which is when the children of Israel
were delivered out of Egypt. That was May or April or April
or May is right around where we are. This is one of the reasons
why it is just coincidental. We've always tried to have our
conferences around April or May. That was the time the children
of Israel were brought out of Egypt. out of the house of bondage
by a mighty hand when God slew the firstborn of Egypt and brought
all of his people out, having told them to put the blood on
the doorpost. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you and I will not bring the plagues and the judgments
which are upon Egypt upon you when I see the blood. And we call that what Passover.
That's the first feast. That's the first piece. God wants
us to constantly rejoice in the fact that he has delivered us
from sin, from Satan and the devil. Is that okay? Is it okay
for God to tell us to rejoice? Is it all right for him to tell
us that I want you to feast to me because of what I've done
for you? Well, listen to me. That's exactly what he wrote
down. It doesn't matter how far you
are from Jerusalem. You can be in the farthest ends
of Jerusalem. At that time of the year, God
expected all the male children, all the male men to be there.
all of the males and then later on he wanted the males and the
female and then later on he wanted the males female and the children
he wanted everybody in jerusalem three times a year to feast to
the lord He wanted them to rejoice in what he had done for them.
Joy, joy. We read this all through the
New Testament. I think I heard my elder quoted this morning.
And you guys can think of passages in the New Testament, which is
resplendent with this same truth. Paul said in the book of the
book of Philippians, I think it's chapter four. He says, rejoice
in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Isn't
that what he says? It's in what we call the imperative verb form. You know what that means? It's
a command. It's not an option. It's a command to rejoice in
the Lord. And then we read in other places
where he talks about rejoicing in Philippians chapter three,
verse two. He says this is the character of God's people. Watch
this. We are the circumcision. We are. We're talking about this
morning. True Jews are believers in Christ. That's it. Now watch this. We
are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. We worship
God by the spirit. We worship God through the spirit. It is a spiritual dynamic. It's
a spiritual unctioning, a spiritual quickening. That's how you really
worship God. Now watch this. We worship God
in the spirit. Now we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Did you get that? We rejoice
in Christ Jesus. This is how you can tell the
true circumcision. They worship God in spirit. They rejoice in
Christ. Do you rejoice in Christ? You
can't rejoice in Him if you don't know Him. See, so we need to
hear the gospel all the time. We need to have Christ made known
to us. He needs to be taught to us, expounded, explained. I need to see him in all of his
glory, all of his attributes, all of his characteristics. Tell
me everything about him. Talk to me about his head and
his breast and his feet and his legs and his heart and his mind.
Show me what he's done for me. That way I can rejoice in him.
But if you don't preach Christ to me, I can't rejoice in a Christ
I don't know. Isn't that right? So see, listen
to me now. We are rejoicing in Christ who
is the object of our joy. He's the object of our joy. He's the object of our joy. Did
you get that? Rejoice in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. That's
a whole message in itself. That's a New Testament teaching.
Go with me in your Bible to Revelation chapter 19, verse seven. Show
you one more verse and then we'll go on to develop some of these
thoughts that are extremely important to the whole idea of feasting.
Revelation chapter 19. Now, if you don't understand
the book of Revelation, we did something around the number of
about 70 messages on the book of Revelation. And you can see
Ms. Dolly and she can muster up those
Revelation series for you so that you might properly understand
the theme of the book of Revelation. But in the 19th chapter, which
is four chapters from the end of the book, three chapters rather,
the book closes in the 22nd chapter, we have the collapse, the demise
and the destruction of the Babylonian system. Is that right? Revelation
18, commands that we rejoice in that Babylon has fallen. Look
at Revelation 18, verse 20. Rejoice over her, you heavens
and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. Do you see that? So he tells
us to rejoice at the destruction of Babylon. at the destruction
of her who persecuted you, at the destruction of her who hated
my gospel and hated Christ, and the one who was the means by
which Christ was crucified. Rejoice in her destruction, because
now that she is dead, what emerges is the new Jerusalem. What emerges
is the bride of Christ. Look over in chapter 19. I want
you to see what it says. Look over at verse 7. Are we
at verse 7? Chapter 19, verse 7. Let us what? Be glad and rejoice
and give him honor for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife
had made herself ready. Isn't that good? Look at verse
9. And he said unto me, Right, blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. You see it? He said unto
these are the true saints of God. So you're blessed if you
hear the gospel call, you're blessed if you call to the marriage
supper of the Lamb. And this is what he says to us
to do. It's in the verb form in the imperative to be glad
and rejoice. Isn't that good? Be glad and
rejoice. So I'm under command. I don't know about you to rejoice
in Christ. I'm under absolute command to
rejoice in Christ. Now, let me talk about this.
Joy is a delightful, pleasurable satisfaction. It's a contentedness. And why is it important? Because
of three reasons. It's in your outline. The first
is that joy is the character of God himself. I'm gonna show
you that here in a moment. God himself is joyful. God himself is joyful. Secondly, it's the character
of the kingdom. We talked about that. The kingdom
of God is joy in the Holy Ghost. That's the character of the king.
Thirdly, it's the character of God's people. It's the character
of God's people. This is what makes it so important.
Here's a proverb. I want you to think about you
can write this down. Proverbs 23 24, you know what it says. A father who begets or has or
produces a wise son shall be filled with joy. Isn't that what
our heavenly father did? Watch this now. This is my beloved
son and who I am. I am well pleased. I'm happy. I'm joyful. Do you know God is
rejoicing in Christ? Did you know that? See, I want
you to understand his attribute. This is so good. Proverbs chapter
eight. Don't go there. Listen to it. It's around verse
33, 34. Jesus is speaking in the personification of wisdom.
And he's speaking concerning his connection with God, the
father, before the world was and how he and the father as
wisdom created the world. We know the Hebrew writer says
by wisdom, God created the world. Isn't that right? Who is that
wisdom? Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. Isn't that right? And
Jesus is speaking. And so he says, I was with him
before the world was daily. before him. Watch this, rejoicing
always in his presence. In my mind, I get the idea of
the Lord Jesus dancing and leaping and having a wonderful time in
eternity past before his father. So you don't have to have that,
but I do daily rejoicing before him. Watch this. I was his delight. Do you know the son is the father's
delight? Now watch this. And my delight, my delight is with the sons of
men. My delight is with the sons of
men. This is very important. God is happy because of Christ
and Christ is happy because of me. Are you a child of God because
of you see the Hebrew writer puts it this way in Hebrews chapter
12 verse 2 for the joy that was set before him. He endured the
cross despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of
God the father. You know what that means Jesus. voluntarily, joyfully
assumed a human nature, joyfully lived in this godforsaken world,
joyfully suffered what he did, joyfully died, joyfully came
under the wrath of God, joyfully rose again from the dead, joyfully
ascended into heaven just to have us with him. See, this is
what you do when you love somebody. Did you get that? This is what
you do when you love somebody. I'm reminded of Jacob. Remember
Jacob? When Jacob fled from Laban, not Laban, but Jacob fled from
his father because of the scheme between him and Esau. And Jacob
set his eyes on Rachel. Boy, that's trouble, isn't it?
Set your eyes on a woman and that's it. That's what happened
to me 25 years ago. A couple of weeks from now. Set my eyes on that girl, that
was it. She just threw that judo chop and I was done. You know
what Jacob had to do? He had to work for Rachel for
seven years. Remember that? He was in so much love with that
woman. You know what he said? These seven years was as nothing
to him. See, now that's love. And that's
the joy you have knowing after those seven years, you get to
embrace her. That's the joy Christ has when
he embraces sinners that come to him. That's the joy he'll
have on the day when he comes again to receive us as his bride,
holy and spotless and without blame before him in love. Did
you get that? See, that's a joyful anticipation of the Savior. It's
a joyful anticipation of the Father. But I want you to see
that it's the characteristic of God to be joyful. You can
go in your Bibles to Zephaniah 3, verse 17. Zephaniah is a minor
prophet. If you have your Bible, I'm just
helping you exercise your pages of scriptures. In the minor prophets,
it's before Zechariah, it's after Habakkuk, it's before Haggai.
I know that helped. Listen to what God says. I'm
in Zephaniah chapter three. Are we there? I'm gonna start
at verse 15. The Lord has taken away your
judgment. Isn't that good? He hath cast out your enemy.
Isn't that the gospel? Isn't that good tidings? The
King of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of you. You shall
not see evil anymore. Isn't that the redemption of
sinners? Isn't that good? Are we in the right place? I
see some of you with your eyes and your eyes like deers in the
headlight. Are we there? All right. Now listen to this
now. Verse 16. In that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem. Now, we're the Jerusalem. The
Jerusalem which is above is free and the mother of us all, right?
Children of promise, children of grace, that's Jerusalem. That's
us. Our citizenship is in heaven
where Christ is, from which we look for him. Isn't that right?
I don't want you to miss this now. Watch what he says to Jerusalem.
Fear thou not. And to Zion, let thine hand be
not slack. Verse 17. The Lord your God in
the midst of you is mighty. Is he mighty? He will say will
he say listen to me this passage was read written several hundred
years before Christ came and the angel said to Mary in Matthew
chapter 1 verse 21 and they shall call his name Jesus for he will
what save his people from their see see we would say today to
Zephaniah God not only will say God has saved Isn't that right? See, we've read it in the men's
meeting the other night, 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, God hath saved us
and called us. with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
he gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Isn't that good?
God has already saved his people. When? When Christ died on Calvary
Street 2,000 years ago. When he said, it is finished,
God's people were saved. Do you believe that? This is
the truth. This is the truth. The Holy Ghost
just has to come to chosen sinners and say, God saved you. You know
how you say, I need to get saved. No, no, no, no. God did the saving
already. You don't get saved. God saves
you. And then when he saves you, what
you tell people is, God saved me. Salvation's not an accident.
You don't get saved. You know, I went to church and
got saved. No, you didn't. You got religion. If God saved you,
listen to me, you'll say, God saved me. I went to church and
he revealed his glory to me I went to church and I saw Christ for
the first time never saw him like that before I went to church
and God dropped my burdens off my shoulder I was never the same
since God did it God saved me and then he let me know he did
that long ago in Christ 2,000 years ago when my representative
died for me on Calvary Street now listen to what he says listen
to this He will save and he will rejoice over you with joy. I want you to get this now because
this is important. We sing about God's love to us.
But do you understand what that means? He is rejoicing over us
with joy. That's amazing to me because
I'm telling you, we don't do that to him like he does it to
us, but we ought to. Do you hear me? Because that's
what he's done for us. He's rejoicing over us with joy. Notice what he says here. This
is emphatic. This is clear, unambiguous. He
makes no bones about it. He will rest in his love. You
know what that means? His love is settled on his people. It's
not going anywhere. You know how you make your home
there and you unpack your bags and you take out your slippers
and you're lazy boy. You're there. I'm here. I'm home. This is it. We are
his footstool. God rests his feet on his people.
This is my home. This is my, you know how you
get mad when somebody else sitting on your footstool dance, get
off my footstool boy. This is mine. That's God's people. That is God's people. It's very
important that you know that because see you need to know
how how thoroughly God has entered into the fullness of what Christ
has accomplished for us for himself. I mean, you know, if we want
to be penury, if we want to be poverty stricken about the blessings
God has given us, I want you to know this. The father is it
he's fully engaging in all of the benefits that Christ has
afforded us by what he's did for us to the father. The father's
rejoicing over us with joy. I'm going to show you that again
in a New Testament text. He will rest in his love. He will joy
over you with singing. God sings. That's why I like
singing. I may not be able to sing, but
I like singing. You know why? Because my God
sings. Yes. God sings. Did you know that?
God sings. Can he sing? Yes, he can sing.
The Lord Jesus sang. The Lord Jesus sang to him before
he died on Calvary Street. Remember that? He sang with his
boys. They sang to him. They were singing. The Lord sings.
Do you sing to the Lord? He sings about us. Do we sing
about him? We ought to and I'm talking about from the depths
of our soul. We ought to be singing to God
the way God sings about us. Isn't that good? Give you another
example. I just want you to get this now because you read it,
but it doesn't come home Luke chapter 15. You don't have to
go there three parables of lost sinners the lost sheep. The lost coin and the lost son. You guys remember that? These
are three parables of one story. Now let me tell the truth about
that parable, because folk lie about it. It's not about the
lost sinner. It's about the sovereign savior.
All right, do you hear me? Those three parables are one.
It's not about sinners seeking Christ. It's about Christ seeking
sinners. Let's get that right, right now. See, as a lost sheep,
we've told you before, lost sheep don't find their way home. It
has to be a successful shepherd who go finds the sheep and puts
him on his shoulder. Isn't that what the text said?
Now watch this. When he finds the sheep and puts him on his
shoulder, he goes back home with joy having found his sheep. Did
you get that? See, the Lord Jesus takes joy
in bringing sinners to himself joy. Now, the second one is the
lost coin. Have you ever seen a lost coin
come from under the rug back to his master? No, I have to
tell you this, because you see, being debtors to the flesh, we
tell sinners to do what they cannot do. And in doing so, we
veil the glory of God. Our objective should be to exalt
the Christ who seeks sinners. finds sinners, saves sinners,
and bring them home. That woman, she swept the house,
didn't she? Turned over the furniture, she
cleaned the house up good. She found her coin, went and
got all her friends, and what'd they do? They had a party. She
found her coin. See it? Do you see it? That's
the church rejoicing in the lost sinner that's found. Because
you see, God uses that woman, the church, to find lost sinners
by the preaching of the gospel. Well, we sweep, we sweep with
the word of the gospel until that coin rolls out. God in his
providence tickles that coin and it rolls out. There it is,
the lost sinner. God saves him. And then we finally
get to the last parable of the prodigal son. You remember him?
Knucklehead? That's his name, Knucklehead.
I was one, you were one. Our children are Knuckleheads
right now. Yes, they are. We love them,
but it's so. And what we thought we could
do was abandon ourselves from being connected to our father,
break the umbilical cord of spiritual reality, and we thought we could
make it in this world by ourselves. So off he goes with his inheritance,
you remember that? And he goes out, he spends all
his money up. Isn't that how we do it? We just suck it, I
like the money, it's gonna last forever. And then like three
months later, he's broke and he's living in a pigsty. You
know what that represents? Leaving the realm of grace and
being caught up in works religion. Eating the swine of the hogs. And there he remembered how good
he had it when he was under the grace of the gospel. And you
know what God did? God turned his heart. caused
him to think about his father and he came back home. You remember
that? And as he was heading home, you know what he said? I'm just,
I don't, you know, I don't deserve any of this. I don't deserve
it. And so all I'm going to do is say, dad, look, I'm not worthy
to be your son. I'll be a servant. Just let me
work out there with your service because your servants got it
good. See, that's true repentance. Did you get that? That's true
repentance. That's the repentance that God works in the heart.
When you come to God, you don't claim anything on God. When you
come to God, God doesn't owe you anything. When you come to
God, you don't bargain with God. You don't twist God's arm. You
don't tell God, if you do this for me, I'll do that for you.
No, I just want to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. That's
all. It's better than dwelling in the tents of wickedness. And
see, that's what happens when true repentance takes place.
You don't bargain. You're just glad to be back home.
Isn't that right? Glad to be back home because,
you know, getting home was a work of grace. Now, you know what
the father did? He saw the boy afar. He started
running, didn't he? Only time God runs is when sinners
are coming to him. He ran. And he started kissing
on that boy. And he brought him home, didn't
pay the boy no attention, talking about being a servant. See, when
you're a child of God, you're not a servant, you're a son.
Isn't that right? And he said to his boys, look,
kill the fatty calf. Let's have a party. Let's rejoice. Let's make merry. God is happy. Did you get that? I don't think
you believe it. God is happy. God is happy. That's
the foundation I want to lay. The character of God is joy.
It's joy. Now this joy, because I can tell
right now, I anticipated this. The whole idea of joy is a, is
a fruit. It's an attribute that encompasses
all of our temperaments. When you have real genuine joy,
it encompasses all of our temperaments. There's some of you who are melancholy
folks. It's just, that's how it is.
There's all kinds of reasons why we are melancholy, why we
are withdrawn, why we are cold, why we are distant, why we are
hardened. All kinds of reasons. Some of them are genetic. Some
of them are circumstantial. We were raised up abused. We've
been through all kinds of troubles. We've all been there, done that.
I've been there. Been there from the womb. Know what it's like.
Know what it's like, okay? So, we all have been there. And
so, we are that kind of person because life has shaped us that
way. I want you to know the melancholy person who is saved is also a
joyful person. Do you hear me? The melancholy
person who is saved is also a joyful person, because joy is something
that's rooted deep down inside of that person, which is a consequence
of a reality that God placed there that does not necessarily
always manifest itself in an outward, overt expression of
jubilance. But it's still there deep down
in the soul. Isn't that right? Now I'm just
saying that because I care about my melancholy brethren. However,
the proverb says, a joyful heart or a merry heart produces a glad
continence. That's what the proverb said.
All right, so I'm going to work on some of you guys now. Because
this is important. This is important. Joy, Noah's
Dictionary, Noah Webster, he put it this way, and I like Noah
Webster's Dictionary. I read a lot of dictionaries, a lot
of thesauruses. You got these new collegiate dictionaries and
thesauruses which are trying to rearrange definitions and
change words and bring in all kind of new conventional terms
and stuff like that. essentially to deny biblical truth. But Noah
Webster was a believer. He was a child of God long ago,
and he was inspired to write a dictionary. It's large volume,
like an 1867 edition of Noah Webster's dictionary. Here's
what Noah said. He said, joy by definition is the passion
or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of a good. It's the joy, emotion or excitement,
the passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation
of a good. Is that a good way to put it?
It's that thing that happens in you because you're sure that
you're gonna receive some good. And to me that does produce joy.
You know how you know at the end of the week you're gonna
get your paycheck. There's a little joy that comes out of that. Isn't
that right? Yeah. Listen to this. It's that excitement
of pleasurable feelings which is caused by success or good
fortune. Now, I like that. It's caused
by success or good fortune, the gratification of desire or some
good possessed. Now, I want to ask you the question,
is the child of God successful? Does the child of God possess
good fortune? You better know it. We are more
than conquerors in Christ. Watch this now, and we have received
the highest good. Haven't we? What is that good? Christ! I thought I better answer
that before you hesitate. Mary and Martha were cleaning
up the house because they had Jesus over for dinner. And Mary
decided to sit at Jesus feet while he expounded the scriptures.
Martha was in the kitchen cooking gumbo. She was doing right. Cook the gumbo. The brothers
liked the gumbo. Cook the gumbo. But she was complaining because
Mary wasn't in the kitchen helping. Remember that? And you know what
Jesus said? Jesus said, Mary and Martha should
switch jobs. No, he didn't say that. You know
what he said? Mary has chose that one good thing. Watch this
now, and it will not be taken from her. You know what that
one good thing is? Jesus Christ. She sat at his
feet. Listen to me. Serving is wonderful. Serving is necessary. Christ
is essential. Christ is the one good thing.
When you come to church, you come to church to hear the gospel,
to sit at Christ's feet, to feed on the Savior, to marvel at his
glory, to behold his face. Sit there and feed on Christ.
That's what Mary did. Mary said, look, I'll be in the
kitchen a little later. I want to hear the gospel right
now. That's the attitude that we ought to have as people of
God when we come to worship. She received that one good thing,
which shall not be taken from her. So I surmise that joy is
the consequence of the believer having received Christ. How about
you? All right, I'm going to go on because our time is winding
down. How important is joy in the feast of God, how important
is that joy? Go with me to Deuteronomy chapter
16. Deuteronomy 16, I want to read verses 11 through 14. You're
going to hear some things now that you've never heard before.
Deuteronomy 16, 11 through 14. How important is joy in the feasting
of God? He's given us three feasts. And
he's told us to make sure we come to those feasts But now
he's telling us that in these feast observances, joy is an
essential element. Deuteronomy 16 essentially recapitulates
what is given to us in Exodus 23 in verses one through five. But I want you to see here starting
at verse 11, these words, are we there? Deuteronomy 16, 11,
listen to this. And you shall what? Rejoice. before the Lord your God, you
and your son and your daughter and your manservant and your
maidservant and the Levite that is within thy gate, the stranger,
the fatherless, the widow that are among you in the place which
the Lord your God has chosen to place his name. Do you see
that? Here's what he's saying. When you come up three times
a year, when you come up to the feast, listen to me, I want you
to rejoice. I thought that was so strange
when I read that about 20 years ago. God gave injunction for
Israel to come up to the feast three times a year and then he
commands us to rejoice. Isn't that amazing? He commands
joy. Is that fair? No, but it's right. Listen to me. God commands us
to rejoice. What are you going to do? You
understand what I'm saying? He says, I want you to rejoice.
Not only you, I want your wife to rejoice. I want your kids
to rejoice. I want the strangers to rejoice.
I want everybody in Israel on that day rejoicing. That's the
atmosphere that should exist in the midst of God's people.
Is that true? Is that true? It's so very important for you
to see this. Look over at verse 13, verse 14. and you shall rejoice in your
feast, you and your sons and your daughters. He said it again,
manservant, maidservant, Levite, stranger, fatherless, widow that
are in the gate. Look again at verse 15, seven
days shall you keep a solemn feast unto the Lord your God
in the place which the Lord your God shall choose because the
Lord your God shall bless you in all your increase and in all
the work of your hands. Therefore shall you surely what? Now see, this is so important.
Let me tell you what happened. Why they have to rejoice. They
were slaves. Did you get that? That ought
to be enough. God delivered them. They didn't ask for it. God just
came along, swooped them out of bondage to Pharaoh, brought
them into the wilderness and provided everything for them.
Isn't that right? Then he brings them where he
wants to bring them. And he places his name there. In other words,
he reveals his glory. He makes manifest his presence.
And then he blesses the land. He blesses the crop. He blesses
the water. He blesses the business so that
they can thrive and survive and enjoy life. And all he says to
them is rejoice. Is that reasonable? Now I want
to ask the question before I go on, because I don't want to be
unkind and I don't want to be insensitive. Is there anyone
in here today who has reason not to rejoice in Christ? Is
there anyone here who has reason not to rejoice in Christ? I thought
so. Not a soul. Now listen to me. This is important. You have no reason not to rejoice
and cry. See the joy that we're talking
about is not your Mary Kay joy. This is not your Amway joy. this is this is not your madison
avenue technique i'm not talking about church policy you know
you you've been you'd be taught to smile and invite everybody
in it and be kind to everybody because it's all about the numbers
game sort of manipulate people by this superficial and facade
of joy i'm not talking about that i'm not talking about this
this this business of policy in the church to to make people
feel like you're interested in seeing them that day people can
see through that scam look if you're not happy to see me that's
cool Don't pretend, be real, be real. God wants us to be real. Now we ought to be happy. But
don't fake it. He's not calling for us to be
to be hypocritical or superficial about this thing called the kingdom
of God. If you don't know him, I can
see why you're not happy. If you don't know the grace of
God, I can see why you're not happy. If you don't know the
gospel of Christ, I can see why you're not happy. If you don't
understand who Christ is, what he did, why he did it. I can
see why you're not happy. If you don't understand the absolute,
irrevocable, impeccable righteousness of Christ given to undeserving
sinners like me, I can see why you're not happy. But I'm happy.
And I'm happy because God gave it to me freely. You remember
the lame man sitting at the gate, beautiful? Peter and James headed
to the temple. And that fellow sitting there
laying from his mother's womb. Remember that? Laying. All he
wanted was a few coins. Peter and James broke just like
me, said this. Silver and gold have I none.
But what I have, give I unto you. In the name of Jesus, rise
up and walk. You know what he did? He kind
of just took his time and got up. Remember that? He just kind
of got up. No, he didn't. He leaped up. Isn't that what
the text is? The brother leaped up. And then
he started running and leaping. Just leaping. Happy. Happy. Just happy. Now let me ask you
something now. Is that appropriate for a fellow
that was lame from his mother's womb? Is that appropriate? Is
that appropriate? Don't y'all start leaping and
jumping going on. But I want you to hear me now.
Listen to me. Listen to me. It's appropriate
to rejoice in Christ, isn't that so? For what he's done for us,
healing our lame souls. God commands us to rejoice. Let
me see, it might be one, no, that's the last verse. He rejoices
and he wants us to rejoice. I saw this, I need to share this
with you before I wrap this up. Go with me to Deuteronomy 28.
This was so scary to me, so I need to share it with you. Do you
know the reason why God destroyed Israel? Listen carefully. The reason why God destroyed
Israel was because they did not rejoice in him. Let me show it
to you. Let me show it to you. I'm in
Deuteronomy chapter 28. Are you there? Deuteronomy 28 sets before us
cursings and blessings. And we get to the cursings now,
and here's what God says. I'm gonna start over at verse
45 and go through verse 47. I want you to think about it
with me. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you and
shall pursue you and shall overtake you. So you can't run from the
curse till you be destroyed. Why? Because you didn't hearken
unto the voice of the Lord your God to keep his commandments
and his statutes, which he commanded you. And they shall be upon you
for a sign and a wonder and upon your seed forever. Man, that's
hard. I'm so glad I'm not under the Old Testament, aren't you?
Boy, the Old Testament has cursings. Do you listen to me? The gospel
doesn't. All the gospel talks about is
blessing. I will cast their sin behind my back into the sea of
forgetfulness forever. But watch what he said. I want
you to see this. Verse 47. Because you did not
serve the Lord your God with joyfulness. Do you see it? And with gladness of heart. Watch
this. For the abundance of all things. Now I want you to hear that,
saints. And I'm gonna make a couple of applications and close down.
God gave them everything they needed. That's called grace.
There was nothing they lacked. Not when he saved them, not when
he delivered them, not when he brought them through the land
of Egypt, not when he placed them in the land of Canaan. Everything
they needed, God provided. Isn't that right? All you have
need of, God hath provided. And this is absolutely true for
us. We have all things in Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. We are complete in him. What
are we lacking? Nothing. So he cursed them because
they didn't rejoice. Now let me break that down into
practical reality for you. How did that work out? Every
time they were to come up to the feast, they were to be happy
to come up to the feast. But they weren't. Over time,
the idea of going up to the feast of the Lord, whether it was the
feast of Passover, whether it was the feast of first fruits,
which is Pentecost, or whether it was the feast of ingathering,
which is the harvest, and all three of them are typological
of Christ's death at Calvary, and then the conversion of sinners
by the Pentecost work, which is the first fruits, and then
the full ingathering of sinners, which is called the harvest.
The work of the gospel is the crucifixion of Christ and the
preaching of that Christ to the fields which are represented
by people who are like wheat that are brought into God's garnery,
his born, which at the end of time, God himself will come and
receive. So the children of Israel every
year harvested their wheat. And they were to bring the first
fruits to the Lord. And then they were to bring in
part of that harvest. And they were to rejoice while they were
doing it. Three feasts, Passover, first fruits, and then in-gathering.
Are you following me so far? All of this was God's blessing.
All God was telling them to do was bring what He gave to them
to Him. And they wouldn't do it. Come come the feast of Passover. They were slow in gathering together.
They were tardy. They were late. The theologian
John Gill says they took their time coming up to the feast half
of them wouldn't go. just wouldn't go. See they didn't
have the attitude that David had. Remember what David said
in Psalm 122? I was glad when they said let
us go to the house of the Lord. Are you following me? I was good.
See David loved the worship of God. He loved to see the gospel. He says when I come to the sanctuary
God reveals himself to me. I see your power and your glory
in the sanctuary. How? Through the types in the
shadows, through the sacrifices, through the offering, through
the incense, through the table, the menorah, the candlestick,
through the curtain, everything in the temple pointed to Christ.
David loved it. That's a gospel church. That's
a gospel church. And the child of God, the child
of God should find it a great joy and enthusiasm at the prospect
of being with the saints under the preaching of the gospel.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? That's what he's saying. Now,
I want you to get that now. So how important is it to God? He
commands us to rejoice. He disciplined Israel for not
doing it. And I'll leave that alone, I'll
let you meditate on that. But as I said earlier in the
message, and I'll begin to wrap this up here. I've been part
of fellowships that didn't know what it meant to rejoice in Christ. How about you? I've been part
of groups of people, whether it be churches or just individuals
who missed, who missed the glorious benefit and prospect of simply
wallowing, wallowing, you know, doing backstrokes, you know,
just, just, just breaststrokes in the grace of God, you know,
what that brother doing, what that, just wallowing in the grace
of God, they missed it. They missed it. And when that
happens, it's like a contaminant that affects everyone else. You
understand what I'm saying? And only God can stop that leaven
when it starts to work its way in a congregation. Now, most
of the time that happens in churches where the gospel is not preached.
See, if we're not looking to Christ, we're looking to self.
And that's right. If we're not looking to Christ, we're looking
to self. But it can happen where orthodoxy is, too, where everything
is top heavy with knowledge and the heart is not engaged. And
the heart is still bent on its own agenda or its own pet peeves
or its own issues. Getting caught up in small, minute
details. And this is why Paul warned in
the book of Galatians and in the book of Romans and in other
books, be careful that you don't walk after the flesh, but walk
after the spirit. Because if you walk after the
flesh, then these things will emerge. jealousies and strifes
and contentions and envies and backbiting and gossip and all
of that old carnality which destroys the fellowship. Isn't that right?
You've been there. Have you been there? Absolutely. Listen to
me. When God establishes an environment
where the kingdom of God is present, where God himself is present,
where the gospel is exalted, where the people love the gospel.
Listen to me. The folk are happy. Isn't that true? The folk are
happy. And I can give report, just as I said earlier, that
our fellowship is a happy fellowship. It is a very happy fellowship.
I get letters all the time. Just want to share it with you.
Get letters all the time from people who come and visit our
fellowship. And you know what they say? I
want you to hear this. It was a pleasure worshiping with you
at grace Bible church. The people were so kind and nice
and joyful, so kind and nice and joyful. And I didn't induce
that. I didn't induce that, but I do
take a little bit of credit for it. I didn't induce that, but
I'll take some credit for it because they say, well, now that
reflects on your pastor. I said, good, good. It's true. Listen to me. It's true. Leadership. Leadership better exhibit the
joy of the Lord as we preach the gospel. Leadership better
be first partaker of the fruit. Leadership better be thankful
and joyful and glad for Christ because that's called gospeling
the gospel. Did you get that? You can write
that down. That's called gospeling the gospel. When you gospel the
gospel, you're joyful in teaching it. You're joyful in preaching
it. You're joyful in declaring the gospel. Isn't that good?
And see, when we as leadership set that pattern, that's husbands
in the household, that's moms in the household, your children
gonna be happy. Don't miss that. When your parents
are happy, the kids are gonna be happy. I'm telling you, my
kids get loose when I'm loose. They get tight when I'm tight.
So I like to stay loose. Get to get a chance to see what
they thinking to see. So if you when you lose their
loose, you don't care. Oh, that's what you're thinking,
huh? We can work on that now because otherwise they're hiding
stuff, you know that right? But when you loosen just hanging
out and just kind of chilling with them. Oh man, I got to work
on that. But that's how God is with us.
That's how he is with us. He just wants us to be real.
with him and with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now there's
one last statement in our text. I want you to see this because
this is going to help you the source by which go back to our
text the source by which we are the strength the means go back
to Exodus 23 the means by which we are able to accomplish this
atmosphere of rejoicing in Christ. The source, the means, the element,
the instrumentality by which the people of God are brought
into a state of joy as they love the Lord and walk with him and
serve him is given to us in verse 21 through 23. I wanna help make
the correspondence and then close. After God gave them the stipulations
for the feast days, he says in verse 20, behold, I send an angel
before you. You got it? Behold, I send an
angel before you. to keep you in the way. I love
that. And to bring you into the place
which I prepared for you. Isn't that good? You know what
he's saying? I'm going to tell you what to do. Then I'm going
to send my angel and make sure it happens. This angel. Corresponds to the Holy Spirit. This angel is Christ himself
in the Old Testament, in the midst of his Old Testament saints
representing the father. Listen to me now, this is good
doctrine. The Son in the Old Testament, as the angel of the
Lord, is there representing the will of the Father to bring Israel
into the land of Canaan, to bless them with all of the typological
blessings that we have in Christ. As the Son was there to represent
the Father, the Spirit is present to represent the Son. Are you
with me the spirit is present with us and when he the holy
ghost the comforter shall come He shall lead you into all the
truth. He will take the things of mine
and he will show them unto you He will guide you. He will keep
you. He will convict you. He will instruct you. He will
conform you to christ He will make you successful In the work
of the kingdom of god. How do we know go to the book
of acts chapter 5 verse 31? I just want to read that and
that's it. We're done acts chapter 5 31. I want you to see the correspondence
very important See, we can always talk about how things ought to
be idealistically and we should never deny the idealism has to
be real. Idealism is how God sets it up. But to accomplish those ideals,
we need the grace of God. And God has always provided for
his people a means to accomplish that. Listen to what happens
in Acts chapter five. Now, you know, the book of Acts,
as we said before, corresponds with the entering into the land
of Canaan. Acts is the actual accomplishment of that which
is typified in Israel going into the land of Canaan and destroying
all of the Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, and what have you,
and possessing the land. Acts corresponds to that as the
gospel is spread to every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, right?
That's what the Acts account is about. That's the power of
the gospel to draw sinners to Christ. But the church needs
the power of the spirit to accomplish this task. It can be told what
to do, but if we don't have power to do it, nothing avails. Now listen to this. I'm going
to start in Acts chapter 5 at verse 20, verse 29, and go through
verse 32. And I want you to listen to this.
Peter and the other apostles are answering the Sanhedrin because
they've been persecuted for preaching Christ. And here's what they
say in verse 29. We ought to obey God rather than
man. You got that? There it is. Isn't
that simple? Obey God rather than man. What
did God tell them to do? Preach the gospel. Isn't that
simple? Jesus said here, fellas, I'm
going to give you the Holy Ghost and I want you to preach the
gospel. And then, you know what Peter said? We're going to do
what God says. Do now watch how this goes. The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. There's
your antithesis. He's speaking right to them.
Him have God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and
a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. Isn't that good? Verse 32, listen to this saint
and we are his witnesses. Are you? Of course you are, I
am too.