I invite you to turn in your
Bibles, if you have one, to the book of Romans, chapter 5. I'd like to read the first 11 verses. Romans 5. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
we have now received the atonement or the atonement. Amen. I want to speak to you for a
little while this morning on the joy that never turns to grief. The joy that never turns to grief. I think that most everybody dreads
to grow old, but age is not without its blessing. If God is pleased
to abide with us, the Holy Spirit of God filling our hearts with
the love of God, old age can be bearable. I would like to
say that Maybe a few years ago. I might have said that old age
could be the best time of life but I found out that the golden
years do turn to lead and I found out also that growing old It's
kind of like the lady said the other day over at the market
She was quite elderly she was getting in her supply of groceries
and I having a difficult time doing it. The lady at the checkout
counter was complaining, she was probably in her forties,
about how tough life was and how tough it was to get up early
in the morning to get over there to work and all of that, and
this old lady said, growing old is not for sissies. And I think
that she hit the nail on the head. And while a few years ago
I would have said maybe that old age can be the best time
of life. Now I say it can be bearable.
Bearable by the grace of God. And I believe also that we began
to learn the meaning of some scriptures when we grow older
and we experience some things in life. We have had these scriptures
in teaching, in doctrine, in some sort of mental understanding
of them, at least, through the years, maybe for many years.
Paul told Timothy, you recall, in 2 Timothy 3 and 15, that from
a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. And as we grow older, and as
God dwells with us, and the Holy Spirit teaches us, We begin to
experience our doctrine. We begin to feel the meaning
of what we've learned through the years. It begins to come
out in our lives. It is something you cannot produce.
It goes with age and wisdom. It goes with trials and tribulation. And as we've said, experience.
We begin to experience what we believe through the years. Our
doctrine is no longer just a creed that we can defend, but it's
a life that we experience. Now expect this in your life,
you younger folks, middle-aged folks, expect it to be so as
you grow older. When we get older and we run
into people who don't agree with our doctrine, we say to ourselves,
Just you wait a while and God will teach you this by experience.
You'll know what I'm talking about by experience. All spiritual
truth is learned experientially. You only know what you've experienced.
Somebody said, well, I've read some good books. Well, that's
wonderful, but you only really know what you have experienced. A man is the sum total of his
experience. For an example, in 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 19, Paul says, if in this life only we have hope
in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. We are of all
men most to be pitied. We are of all men most miserable
if in this life only we have hope in Jesus Christ. In other words, is this all there
is? And if it be all there is, then we're truly miserable. Now this doesn't mean very much
to a young person. When you tell a young person
this, they might say, well, I don't really know what he's talking
about. Because young people, you know, they have the world
in their heart, and it is right, I guess, that they do so. And
they're having a pretty good time in this world. Like they
say, they've got the world by the tail on a downhill pull on
the shady side of life. Therefore, they don't understand,
maybe, what we're talking about. Miserable? They say, we know
very little about true misery, but when you get a little older,
then you know it is so. You're looking for that city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. You're
looking for something beyond this vain world. You're looking
for something besides what you have here, because you have grown
by experience to understand that this, if this is all there is,
then really and truly we are miserable people indeed. Well,
we know it when we get a little older, first because Paul taught
it, and then when you get a little older, you know it through your
experiences. If this is all, then we've missed
out. Now, there are joys in life,
and there are pleasures in this world. There is the joy of youth. and there's the joy of beauty,
there's the joy of attainment, there's the joy of success in
this world, there's the joy of marriage, and there's the joy
of children, and there's the joy of watching our children
grow up, and then there's the joy of watching them as they
go on and as they have children, our grandchildren. We have joy
in all of that. And there's a lot of joy in this
life. But what we need to learn and understand is what we heard
this morning out of the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and
2. And so I say, hold on. Hold on. We need to learn some things
here. This is only for a season. This
joy that we have in this life is only for a season. These joys
are only temporary, these joys that we have. They will someday
turn to grief. Let me say this, that everything
in this life that has the potential of giving joy and satisfaction
has the same potential of bringing grief. If you're a child of God
and make anything in this world a basis of your joy, I promise
you, sooner or later, it will turn to grief. Your marriage,
your husband, your wife, your human relationships, your children,
oh, such a delight they are. But they can break your heart.
They can break your heart. There can come a day when you
go off into a room and sit in the dark and wish that they'd
never been born. That can happen because the joys
of this life can turn to grief. And when people get in trouble
is where their delight, where their pleasure and their joy
and their satisfaction is only in these things. These things
that are temporary. These things are like, somebody
said they're like soap bubbles. They're like the fireworks. They're
pretty, but they won't last. There is joy in them for a season,
but don't forget it. They're connected to this world,
and they soon will be gone. They'll be gone. There is a joy
that will never turn to grief, but it is not in this world or
a product of this world, we should say. It is not a natural joy. It is not found in human relationship
and the things of this world. It is not a fleshly enjoyment. Now men go to great lengths in
this life to maintain strength and beauty, and we know that
many are given to workouts in the gymnasium, and they are giving,
they're eating healthy foods, they're attempting to live longer
and to live more satisfying lives to themselves, but someday, Do
you know that somebody will have to take you by the arm and help
you along? Someday, you'll be asking for
your cane. Someday, you're going to be needing
somebody to assist you. The straight back will be stooped,
and the smooth skin will become wrinkled, and the strong legs
will become wobbly. That day will come, as sure as
God's sun comes up in the morning, it'll happen. That day is on
the way for you this morning, I promise you. If you take delight
and joy in this body, in your health and beauty and strength,
you're headed for extreme sorrow and grief, if that's the basis
of your joy, if that's the basis of your satisfaction. The same thing is true of men
who take pride in their education. and their certificates and degrees
and diplomas and their accomplishments, their trophies, but they're just
so much waste paper, brother and sister. We need to learn
that. Every one of these will someday
pass away. We're not against education.
We're not against your accomplishments. Not in any way. We admire you
for your accomplishments, but every one of these someday the
glory of them will pass away and this is a vain and empty
world and that's the message of Ecclesiastes 1 and 2. Now what I'm saying is this,
there are joys in this world and I would not have you to be
morbid depressed or filled with despair, going around unhappy,
being pessimistic all the time. But we must put these things
in their right place. Don't put your hope, don't put
your trust, don't put your confidence, don't put your joy in these things. Don't make them your security. Don't hold too tightly to these
things. Hold everything in this life
with a loose hand, because they won't last, they're going to
be taken away. And God is a jealous God, and
if these things come between you, your soul, and God, these
things will be taken away, sometimes a whole lot quicker than we think
they should in the normal course of life. Now, if your joy is
in God, If your joy is in God, if God is my supreme joy, and
my delight and my rejoicing. If God is my foundation and if
God be the refuge of my soul, then I can be joyful and I can
take my fill of that joy knowing that that joy will never turn
to grief. Whatever be my circumstances
in this world, whatever I have or whatever I don't have in this
world, I can have true, lasting, satisfying joy if I have that
joy in the Lord. Now, my brethren, count it all
joy. James 1 says in verse 2, when
you fall into diverse testings, diverse temptations, different
troubles, he's talking about count it all joy. And so if you're
a believer this morning, if you have hope, and if you're a true
child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, then let me encourage
you this morning that whenever you fall into trouble and when
you have difficulties and problems and perplexing situations and
distressing situations in this life, Remember that God is your
joy, and He is your strength, and He's your foundation, and
your hope, your confidence, and trust is in Him. And a believer,
oh, the joy that he can have when he's in trouble, when he
has problems, and when he's afflicted, the joy that he can have of anticipation. He can ask himself, what is God
up to in my life that He's allowing these things to come into my
life? And you see, we believe in the
absolute sovereignty of God, and we believe that all of God's
people, all those who are truly born again are called of God
according to His purpose. and that he has a definite purpose
in their life and that he's going to work that purpose out day
by day as they live in this life. So what is God up to? Oh, the
joy of anticipation. I heard the testimony of a man
yesterday who was in prison and he found the Lord Jesus Christ
as his savior in prison and he was thanking God for having taken
him out of society and placing him in this prison because he
said that if it hadn't have been so he would have never ever come
to understand and know the gospel if it had not been for the fact
that he'd been in and put away in prison. And so what is it
that God is doing in our life? I believe that He's weaning us
away from this world. I believe that He's teaching
us that in Him truly there is happiness and satisfaction and
joy. And this is God's way of sometimes
slowing us down by bringing trouble and affliction into our lives,
and by bringing sickness upon us to slow us down, that we might
be able to look up. Because you know, we just won't
look up until we get down. We must get down before we're
gonna look up to God, and before we're gonna trust Him as we ought,
and to hear the voice of God. My friend, God works His will
and His way and he put strength in weak vessels and sometimes
he must bring us down until we feel keenly our weakness in order
that we might feel his strength and then we can even rejoice
I believe when we're approaching that time when we're leaving
this world we can rejoice even in death because for the believer
we know that death itself is not a penalty but it is a promotion
it is not a loss It is gain for a believer, a true believer,
to die. You remember what Paul said in Philippians? He said,
for me to die is gain. It's gain for me to die. He said,
it's far better that I should die and be with the Lord than
that I should be here in this world. And so a Christian then
has their joy, but their true joy, they have their joy many
times in the things of this flesh, and they appreciate what God
gives them and what God blesses them with, but their true joy,
their lasting joy is in the things of our God. And our sorrow here
in this world, the Bible says in John 16, will be turned to
joy. The world's sorrow, the world's
joy will be turned to sorrow. But the sorrow of believers will
be turned to lasting joy. Psalm 73 and 26 says, my flesh
and my heart faileth. But God is the strength of my
heart and He is my portion forever. The believers to understand that
all things are indeed without question working together for
their good and for the glory of God. I told you several times
that the things in our life that are working out for our good,
not 500 out of a thousand, But 999 plus 1, God said all things
work together for the good of those who believe. Now here in
Romans chapter 5, Paul talks about joy, and this joy that
he talks about here in Romans 5 is not just a feeling. Not just a feeling, it's not
just an emotion, and it's not just a religious claim, but it
is based on some facts. Now what is the joy of the believer
based upon? What is true joy in God? I can only scratch the surface
of this subject because it is a big subject. What is joy? The joy that a believer has in
his God. I can do more, as I said, I can
do no more than skim the surface of the subject, but I know that
there is to the believer a joy, first of all, in the very fact
that there is a God. in the very fact that there is
a God. Now it would please the ungodly
if it could be proved that there is no God. Because the Bible
says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. And ungodly, the wicked, the
vain, wicked people of this world would like very much to believe
that there is no God. Because they're troubled at the
very thought of God. but he knows if there be a God
then sin must be punished. The wicked know that if there
be a God in heaven, if the God of the Bible truly exists, then
sin must be punished. The wicked, the Bible says, shall
be turned into hell with all the nations that forget God. Isaiah said in Isaiah 58, and
the very last verse of the 58th chapter, he said, there is no
peace, saith my God, to the wicked, none whatsoever. But the child
of God, The very nature of God and the
power of God and kinship to the most... idea of there being no
God. Atheism is a black Egyptian... has once known God. If we ever come to have joy in
Him, anything which... makes us grieve. but to prove
that there is no God would be to prove and that we don't really have
a heavenly father. It would prove to us our everlasting life to know that there is a
God and that God is everywhere and that he's the sovereign. First of all then we have joy
in the fact that there is a God. Now if you ever find out that
there is no God, which I know you're not going to, but if you
would ever find it out, don't come to my house. I wouldn't
let you in. I would not. Don't tell me if
you begin to entertain doubts that there's no God, I really
don't want to have anything to do with you. because the great
fact that there is an eternal everlasting sovereign ruler of
the universe is to me a source, a foundation of joy and satisfaction. Now Paul takes steps to arrive
at the joy that he mentions in verse 11. He says in verse 11,
and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. Now as he arrives
at this we know that in verse 1 he talks about us being justified
by faith and he says we're justified or have a standing before God
just as if we'd never sinned we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ so we've been forgiven of our sins and
this is a basis for our joy and are rejoicing, we have peace
with God. Now the Bible says that there's
no peace, no peace to the wicked, but those that are in Christ
Jesus, there's peace between them and God, and we'll explain
how that took place. But the Bible says in John chapter
14, I think it's verse 27, Jesus said, my peace I give unto you,
not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. My peace I give unto
you, my peace I leave with you. I leave it with you, my peace.
And so we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And beloved, that's a great basis.
for joy in the Lord is that our sins are forgiven, they're blotted
out. And then we have the joy of assurance based on four things
here. In verse 6, we have no strength
of our own. And so we cast ourselves upon
the Lord and He has become our strength and our hope. We've
come to the end of self. Have you ever come to the end
of yourself and cast yourself upon the Lord and believed in
the Lord Jesus Christ? And we've been saved from wrath
in verse 8. through Him, saved from wrath,
that is the wrath which is to come, that wrath that we fear,
all men fear, surely fear the wrath of God. But we've been
delivered from that, we've been saved from the wrath of God. We've not been appointed, Paul
said, to wrath, but to obtain the salvation that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. And the Bible teaches that all
unbelievers are under the wrath of God right now. They stand
condemned before God. If you're outside of Christ this
morning having no hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work,
my friend, you're under the wrath of God. And the Bible says, flee
from the wrath to come. Flee from it. Where do you go?
You go to Christ, upon whom God's wrath has already fallen on Mount
Calvary. Go to Christ. He is the deliverer. And so we have then the assurance
in our hearts because God has been pleased through Christ to
deliver us from His wrath. Now then, in verse 10 he talks
about how that as enemies we were reconciled to God. Now I
like this, and this is something that we really need to think
about in a light of this joy that we hope
to achieve that is never going to turn to grief. This is the
real joy, and that is the fact that when we were enemies, and
we all were enemies of God by nature, every one of us were
born that way into this world, born at enmity against God, not
being subject to the law of God, neither indeed could we be, and
we were at enmity against God, and we needed to be reconciled.
Friends don't need to be reconciled. It's enemies that need to be
reconciled. And we're told here, for if when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Now,
this reconciliation took place when God, when He numbered His
Son with the transgressors. When Jesus Christ willingly,
voluntarily became sin for us. He willingly took upon Himself
our sin. And the Bible says that He laid
down His life for us. We were reconciled through the
death of His Son. It was the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ that satisfied the justice of God on our behalf. It's always been a blessing to
me and I'm sure it has been to many of you down through life
to be able to go pay off a debt. If you had a debt, go pay it
off. Wonderful blessing. Well, it's a wonderful thing
to be able, for me, an old sinner saved by grace, to be able to
stand here before you this morning and tell you that I do not owe
the justice of God one red cent. I don't owe the justice of God
anything, and the reason is because our Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior,
my Lord Jesus Christ, that through His death on Calvary, He paid
the price and paid off my debt of sin that I owed to God. He shed his blood and paid off
that debt in full. Somebody said, make your peace
with God. You cannot make peace with God,
my friend. God must accept the satisfaction
that came through his son's death on your behalf. The Bible says
he is the propitiation for our sin and that word means satisfaction
He is the satisfaction for our sin now if you know that Christ
died for you if you believe it with all of your heart if God
has been pleased to give you the Assurance in your soul that
his death his life laid down was on your behalf and that you're
saved by his life By his you know the Lord Jesus lived a perfect
life when it was in this world lived a perfect life and somebody
might say well you know it'd be wonderful if I could live
like Jesus lived and that if I could have a perfect life just
like Jesus had, my friend, you can have that life. You can have
that life through faith. The Bible says that when we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that our sin is laid on him and his
righteous life is accredited to our account on the books of
God. And so if you're a true believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are as righteous as Christ himself. You have the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Oh, vain world! Oh, let it go,
my friend! You have the basis of true everlasting
joy in the fact that you've been reconciled unto God by the death
of God's Son. Are you a believer on the Lord
Jesus? Do you believe He lived and died
on your behalf? Do you believe it with all your
heart, all your soul? There's no salvation apart from
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he goes on to say here,
if when we were enemies we were reconciled, and we're now reconciled. We're reconciled. God has brought
us together. And how can two walk together
except they be agreed? We can walk with God now like
Enoch did. Hallelujah. We can walk with
God every day of our lives because we've been reconciled. Reconciled. That which was in
the way has been removed. What was it? Our sin. And it
has been removed. And now we are reconciled unto
God. Now, Paul goes on to say something
here Verse 11 he says and not only so other words. I've got
some other things to add to this he says I've got something more
to add to this He says we also joy in God Through our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom we have now received this atonement I have God's favor
and we have been reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus and
it is through him that we have received this at-one-ment. At-one-ment. That's what the
word atonement, break it down, at-one-ment. Now there's nothing
that comforts the soul like knowing that they're one with God. The
Bible says that they that are joined to the Lord are one spirit. They're one spirit. There's a
union between the believer and the child of God, or between
God and the believer. There's a union in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Paul says, we also joy in
God. Our joy is in the Lord. Our true
joy is in the Lord. Our real joy is in the Lord because
we have this at-one-ment with God. We have been brought to
where we're reconciled to Him. Nothing is between us. Now, I
want to say as we come to a close here this morning that He's the
believer's joy because He is worthy to be rejoiced in. Now, beloved, I cannot rejoice
in myself. I've tried to show you how fickle
life is, and really and truly we all know that we're all as
a leaf fading away. And every generation, as the
book of Ecclesiastes told us this morning, one comes and another
goes, and the same event happens to all, and we're going to soon
be leaving this life. And we recognize that we're fickle
and feeble in ourselves and we cannot rejoice in ourself. I cannot find any cause to rejoice
in myself. Can you? Can you find any real
foundation? Now I'm saying to you here that
our God is worthy of rejoicing in. He is worthy of it. He's
the everlasting God from everlasting to everlasting. He is God. Now
you and I are the chief of sinners. We're sinners. All in God's tribe
are all chiefs. And we're all the chief of sinners. And we cannot trust no self.
Now I would like to rejoice in you, but it wouldn't last long.
I know that it wouldn't last long. The arm of flesh, we're
told in the old hymn, will fail you, and you dare not trust your
own. So therefore I cannot find any
source of joy and rejoicing in myself or in you. So why not
look to him I can rejoice in him because he's all that a poor
sinner needs He is all God demands of a sinner and to have Christ
Hallelujah, what a treasure to have Christ. He's all that God
demands Now somebody might say well now. You know I've broken
the commandments. Well. He didn't and But he didn't. Hallelujah. Somebody said, well,
you know, I've made a lot of mistakes. Well, I'm sure you
have. And all of us would say, amen, we have too. But he didn't
make any. The Lord Jesus Christ, beloved,
listen, if His righteous life is not accredited to me, I must
go off into eternal darkness. I must be lost forever. I must
suffer the eternal torment of hellfire if His righteous life
is not imputed unto me. There is nobody going to be in
heaven who is not as righteous as Jesus Christ Himself. And don't you forget it. And
there ain't but one way to get that righteousness, and that's
through faith in the Son of God. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Life is through faith in this
One. I say to you, He is all that
you need as a sinner, and He's all that God will ever demand
of a sinner. Christ is all that He'll ever demand. Now nothing
is of any importance or consequence or value in comparison with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Would you say amen to that? Nothing. He's the foundation of all true
joy that will never, never, ever turn to grief. Now a friend of
mine, as you're seated here this morning, under the sound of our
message, no words can express our sorrow, our concern, and
our fear for you who are without, without the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Christ, you're without
life, eternal life. Without Christ, you don't have
any hope. Without Christ, you don't have
God. Because no man can come to God
except he come through the Lord Jesus Christ. If only you could
see things as they really are. Without Christ, you have nothing
upon which to base any joy or any satisfaction in this world. And your days are running out. The sand in the hourglass is
about gone. Only God knows when the last
grain will fall through for you. Only God knows. But my friend,
listen to me. You're nothing apart from the
Lord Jesus Christ and you will come to even, you will come,
you say, well I think that I have something. What do you have?
What do you have? Well, I have this or I have that. I have done the best I can. That's
not the gospel. Doing the best you can won't
get it, won't cut it with God. It must be a perfect life. God will accept nothing inferior
to a perfect life. And that perfect life is in the
Son of God. Why do you think we sing? Why
do you think we rejoice and praise the living God for a Savior for? If our works was going to get
us home, if our works were going to get home, we'd just come around
and have a meeting and congratulate each other. But that's not what
we can, we can't do that because Christ only is our hope of everlasting
eternal glory and He is our joy this morning. And joy in Him
never will, like joy in this world and the things of the world
will never ever Turn to grief. Hallelujah. Father in Jesus name,
bless this message and use it Lord for your glory. There be
a poor sinner here who has not in this life yet found hope in
Christ. I pray that this day they shall
be brought to rejoice in a full salvation in the Lord Jesus. May they turn their life lock,
stock, and barrel over to Him and become a worshiper of the
Lamb of God, bowing before Him day by day, and hoping in Him,
trusting in Him, and relying upon Him, and never turning their
eyes away from Him. We pray it in Jesus' name, and
for His sake alone, amen.