back in your Bibles if you will
to the 144th Psalm. If you would please look at verse
15. Verse 15, happy is that people
that is in such a case. The case has been described in
the reading of this chapter this morning. Yes, happy is that people
whose God is the Lord. I want to speak this morning
on the subject of happiness. Happiness. And I'm sure that
every one of you is interested in this subject. I believe you're
interested. Happiness, a state of well-being,
a state of well-being, a state of contentment. I'm sure all
of you would like to have that sense of well-being, that all
is well, and a state of contentment. Well, the scripture says, happy
is that people whose God is the Lord. There was an infidel that was
once addressing a crowd of people out in the open air, and he was
trying to persuade them that there was no God, that there
was no devil, that there was no heaven, there was no hell,
there was no resurrection, no judgment, and no life to come. And he advised the people when
he was speaking to them to throw away their Bibles. He recommended
them to think as he did and to be just like him. He talked boldly
and the crowd listened very attentively. It was the blind leading the
blind and both of them, of course, were going to fall into the ditch. And as he was coming to the end
of his address on this day, an old woman suddenly pushed her
way through the crowd to the place where this infidel was
standing. And she stood before him and
she looked him in the face and said, Sir, in a loud voice, are
you happy? Are you happy? Now he looked
scornfully at her and gave her no answer to her question. Sir, answer my question, she
said. Are you happy? You want us to
throw away our Bibles and you want us to believe what you believe
and you want us to be like you. Now my question to you is, are
you happy? Now before we take your advice,
she would say, we have a right to know. We have a right to know. Does what you believe, what you
believe, what you're saying, does this make you happy? Are
you content? In soul, do you have a state
of well-being, a sense of well-being, believing what you believe? Well,
he stammered and he stuttered and he fidgeted and he tried
to change the subject, but finally he said, I didn't come here to
preach about happiness. But it was of no use, the old
woman just stuck to her point and insisted that he answer.
And the crowd took up her part and they joined in insisting
that the infidel answer the question, are you happy? And at last he
just had to sneak away in confusion. He could not reply to the question
because his conscience would not let him reply. He dared not say that he was
happy. He dared not say that he had
a sense of well-being. He dared not say that he was
content. Now the true test of a man's
faith and religion, I believe it boils down to this. Is he
happy? Is he happy? Are you happy? A
true test of your faith, a true test of your convictions about
the God of the Bible is Do they give you a sense of well-being?
Do they give you happiness? Do they give you contentment? Now, happiness is what all mankind
is really looking for. Men desire happiness. They desire it deeply. It's deeply
planted in the human nature. Men want happiness. All men naturally hunger and
thirst after it. Just as the sick man longs for
health and the prisoner of war longs for liberty, just as a
tired traveler longs for home, just in the same way does poor,
immortal man long to be happy. Do we know happiness when we
see it? Would we know happiness if we
looked upon it? Would we recognize it if we were
to meet somebody that truly were happy and manifested the characteristics
of a sense of well-being and contentment? Would we really
recognize that? Well, do we know it when we see
it? Well, these are questions that I hope this morning we can
answer. We think, when we look at some
people, that they are indeed happy. We look at them and we
think, well that's a very happy or contented individual, when
in reality they are miserable. They're miserable people. And
we look at others who seem very sad and very gloomy, who in reality
may be. truly happy down in their souls
and let me try if I can to throw a little bit of light on this
subject. Notice first of all that true
happiness is not perfect freedom from sorrow and discomfort. True
happiness is not perfect freedom from sorrow and discomfort and
don't ever forget that because there's a lot of people that
believe that before they can ever be happy that they'll have
to have a life that's completely free from discomfort and from
sorrow and from trouble in this world. Now if that was so, there
would be no such thing as happiness in this world. Such happiness
is for angels who have never fallen and who have never left
their first estate. Such happiness is not for mortals. Now the happiness that I'm talking
about today is such as a poor, dying, sinful creature may hope
to attain to in this life. That's why I'm talking about
a happiness that men and women like you and I, that people who
are sons of Adam but yet have been converted through grace,
Those of us that have been born into this world, those of us
that have a sinful nature, such a happiness as we can attain
to. There isn't any need of me getting
up here talking to you this morning about the happiness the angels
can attain to. I'm interested in the happiness
that I can attain. I'm interested in a sense of
well-being in my own soul. I'm interested this morning in
being content in a godly way. I'm interested in something that's
for me. Our whole nature, beloved, is
defiled by sin. Our whole nature, I'm saying,
is defiled by sin. Romans 3 and 23 says that all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. In Romans 5
and verse 12 it says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Well, truly we have a longing
to be happy, but the question is, why are we so unhappy? Why are we so unhappy? How did
we get in the state that we're in that we're so unhappy? Well, beloved, it's because of
sin. It's because of the disposition
of sin that entered into all the sons of Adam through Adam. Adam is that one man by which
sin entered into this world. Now I want you to hear me, and
I want you to hear me very carefully. How did you become so unhappy? Let me try to explain to you
why this morning you are discontented, why you are unhappy, why you
have no sense of well-being. Well, beloved, it is because
this disposition to sin which has been passed on to us from
our parents And let me try if I can to explain what that is,
because when we understand what it is, immediately we can tell
why that we're unhappy. Now the disposition to sin is
this. It is my claim. It is my claim
to my right to myself. That's what it is. The disposition
of sin is not immorality. It is not wrongdoing, but the
disposition is this, one of self-realization. I am my own God. I am my own
God. I have a right to myself. I have
a right to my own desire. I have a right to my own will.
I have a right for things to be like I want them to be. Now
that, beloved, is what was passed on to us from Adam. See it in
Adam. Adam deliberately revolted against
God. God told him not to eat of the
forbidden fruit. And he partook of the forbidden
fruit as Eve offered it to him because he had this disposition
that said, I have a right to myself. I claim it. I want to
eat that fruit and so he did it. And so that was passed on. This desire to be our own God
was passed on to us by Adam. We were born with that desire. Sin is a thing that we're born
with and we cannot touch it ourselves. We have not the ability to overcome
that. We are struggling with that.
We're warring with that very principle in our lives even to
this day. It is impossible for a man or
woman to live in this world and not have a competition with this
disposition of sin. My right to myself. I want to do what I want to do. I have desires, ambitions, and
I want to do them. I know how I want things to work
out. I know how I feel about things. And I have a right being who
I am to exert my rights and I have a right to have things just like
I want them to be. My friend, that is a disposition
to sin and that's exactly the problem that men and women have
in this world today that creates in them this great unhappiness. They always want something that
they haven't got. They want something different
than the way it is. They want things to work out
in a way that they are not going to work out. And so they have
a struggle with this. And sometimes we get real weary
struggling with that. And the older you get, it doesn't
make any difference how old you are. That disposition sin, you
were born with it, you will die with it. And you must struggle
with it as you live in this world. Now the only way for that to
be taken care of is this. This disposition, it may work
out itself in wrongdoing and immorality, or it may not. It may work out itself in a decorous
way or indecorous way. It may manifest itself in utter
gross immorality or it may not. It may manifest itself in self-righteousness. It may in various ways. It may
manifest itself, but nevertheless it's there And there is only
one way it can be handled, and that is a submission to the Lordship
of Jesus Christ. It is bowing your knee to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ, daily turning over your life. into
His hands, submitting your will into the hands of God, giving
up yourself and the right and the claim to yourself to another,
to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, bowing unto His will,
submitting yourself. That's the only answer to this.
And beloved, as you come to see this, I believe that you will
be able to more fully understand why all the uneasiness, why the
discontentment, why there's always something raging inside of you
that makes you want something and desire to do something that
is contrary to the will of your God. Now this happiness that
I'm talking about today It is a happiness that can be ours
as we understand some things. The whole world lies in the life
of the wicked one and everybody out here in the world. They have
this desire. They want things like they want
them. Nations are driven by lust, desires. Some men and nations want power,
authority. We see it everywhere in the world
being manifested. A great desire to rule and to
have others under us and to us to be the one that called the
shots. Us to be the one in the driver's
seat. But beloved, we're living in
a world where this disposition to sin creates all of the troubles
that we have. But now listen to me. In our
little world, where we live, we are experiencing sickness
and death and changes daily in our lives, doing their work on
every side in our lives. If we expect to find any literal,
perfect happiness on this side of the grave, we expect what
we shall never find This rebellious nature of ours will not permit
it. You are not going to have a perfect,
literal happiness on this side of the grave. There's going to
be a mixture of happiness and contentment, but there's going
to be a struggle in our souls and we might as well face it.
True happiness does not consist in an absence of sorrow and discomfort
and trial and trouble in our lives. No, it does not. Next,
true happiness does not consist in just laughter and smiles.
We know there's a lot of people in this world, the face we know
is very often an index of the inward man, but then on the other
hand, if you really think about it, it's a very poor index of
what really is on the inside of men. I've known people that
were up to their hops in trouble, and yet they went on and tried
to smile. They smiled like a possum eating
briars. but they smile anyway because
they just had that smile on their face. Well, beloved, listen,
true biblical happiness is not just simply laughter and smiles. There are thousands who laugh
loud and seem as happy as if they were in their right mind
when they're around other people, but they're wretched and miserable
and private and are almost afraid to be left alone. There are people
that are just that with Proverbs 14 and 13 says, even in laughter
the heart is sorrowful and the end of mirth, the end of that
mirth is heaviness. There are many of the true people
of God who are brave and serious in their demeanor, whose hearts
are full of solid peace and happiness and they don't go around and
laugh and smile all day. We're told that unless you smile
all day, and unless you're happy all the time, in the sense that
the world and religion tells us that we're a bad testimony,
but there are many of the people of God that are brave and serious
in their demeanor, and they have a heart full of solid peace and
contentment and happiness. I'm interested in more than somebody
telling me I got a smile on my face to prove to me and give
me evidence that they have a biblical happiness. A man may often show
his happiness in his countenance, but one of the old writers said,
but a man may smile and smile and smile and yet be a villain,
may yet be a villain. Of all the deceptive things on
earth, I think this ranks at the very top. The ability to
cover up our misery by smiling and laughter and merriment. The ability to cover up what's
really down in here by just going out and faking it, because that's
Allah, that laughter, And that merriment and that smiling of
the world is empty, it's utterly devoid of substance and reality. There was a stranger one time,
went to a doctor about his health. And the doctor told him, said,
just cheer up. just cheer up and he said what
you need to do is to go listen to the comedian Matthew because
if you would just go listen to this comedian he is so funny
and he'll make you well and this fella listened to the doctor
and he said alas sir the patient as the patient is not laughter
and smiling. Now notice this if you will,
to be truly happy, to be truly happy, the highest wants of a
man's soul must be met. There is something about a man,
a woman, a boy or girl, there is something inside of them that
says give, give, give. They're always looking for something
to satisfy themselves in the innermost part of their being
and the requirements of a man's soul. which was made and designed
by God, it must be filled up before there can be any biblical
happiness. The horse and the cattle, they're
content if they got something to eat, if their bellies are
full, and if they're warm, if they're able to adjust to their
climate, they're very content. But listen, a man has more than
a body. He has more than a body. The
Bible says that man is a living soul. He is a living soul. And a man can do more than hear
and see and smell and taste and feel. He has this never dying
soul. And this life is not all. It's
not all. There is a world unseen. There
is a life beyond the grave. And we're fearfully and wonderfully
made, the psalmist said. And all men really know this. All men feel this. If they would
only speak the truth, they know that there's something more.
They have something more than just a body. There's something
inside that is saying, give, give. They want, they want, they
desire. This, my friend, is that soul
that God made and put in every one of us and it's utter nonsense
to pretend that mere human relationships and that good food and nice clothes
and beautiful homes can make men and women happy. That's utter
nonsense. That's foolishness. God gave
you a soul. God designed that soul. God created
that soul and there are soul wants And there can be no true
biblical happiness until these wants are met, until God provides
what your soul wants and craves when it's crying out, Gilb, Gilb,
I want, I want. And only God can supply that. To be truly happy, a man must
have a source of gladness which is not dependent on anything
in this world. Now did you get that statement?
To be truly happy in a Bible sense, a man must have a source
of gladness which is not dependent on anything in this world. Now there is nothing upon earth
which is not stamped with the mark of instability and uncertainty. All the good things in this world,
everything it has to offer to mortals are just but for a moment. Just here for a moment. They
leave us, so we're obliged to leave them sooner or later. They
don't last long. Death may come at any time today. It may come today! And take away
and cut off the sweetest relationship that you have in your life. Just
cut it off! and it'd be gone and gone forever.
No man can be happy who depends entirely on things here below,
things in this world. He's like the man who built this
house on the sand. Built the house on the sand and
when the rains came, of course, the house was gone. It was swept
away. And if a man depends upon the
things of life and the things of this earth, and human relationships
and nice things that can be purchased and bought with money in this
world. A man, listen to me, a man, his
happiness, whatever of it he has, is going to be swept away. I want to tell you this, I want
to tell you this, we really need to think about this a whole lot.
because there's a lot of things in this world that we'd like
tied to for just a little while that we'd like to think about.
Well, every one of us would like to have a little more money than
what we got, probably. I know people that live day by
day hoping that they'll win the lottery. They just hope that
they can. And I know there's people that's
looking for a windfall somewhere or another sooner or later in
their life. And the philosophy of the world is make money, make
money, make more money. And we gotta have more money.
But one fellow said, another word for money is trouble. And
I guess the fellow knew what he was talking about when he
said that the word acres, that the very letters that spell the
word acres spell the word cares. It's true, beloved, there's no
question about it, and we've got to be careful what we're
trying to anchor to in this world, because I'll tell you this, they'll
all be swept away. We're going to leave them, or
they'll be obliged, or they will leave us, or we'll be obliged
to leave them sooner or later. Your rivers of pleasure, they'll
dry up, they'll dry up. And listen to me, your present
joy, while it may be a very deep and it may be a very earnest
joy in what you have, in the things that you have worked hard
to secure for yourself, may be a very deep and earnest joy. But listen, they are fearfully
short-lived. They have no root. that can furnish
you with a true happiness and with a true contentment and beloved
in order. Listen to me, if our happiness
be derived from these things, then my friend, it's not at all
true happiness and it will shortly be gone. To be really happy,
listen to me now, to be really happy, a man must be able He
must be able to look in every direction without uncomfortable
feelings. Now you think about it just a
little bit. You just think with me a little
bit. A man must be able, if he's going
to be truly able to be happy, to look in every direction without
being uncomfortable. Well, he must be able to look
back to the past without guilty fears. He must be able to look
forward without dread to the future. He must be able to sit
down and think calmly about things, past, present, things to come,
and feel prepared. He must feel that all is well. You cannot have a sense of eternal
well-being unless the past has been taken care of. You cannot
have a sense of well-being and contentment unless you know that
the future has been provided for and that the very present
in which you live, that there's a God that looks upon you and
looks over you and a God that's for you and with you in every
event of life and the things that are taking place in your
life today. Now the man who has a side, a
man who has a side that he does not like looking at, or considering
that in a man is not happy in his soul. Is there some direction
you could look this morning and say, I'd just rather not look
in that direction? Is there some way you could look and you say,
well, preacher, I don't want to think about the future. I
just don't want to think about it. I don't want to think about
my sickness and my final illness and my demise. I don't want to
think about my departure from this world. I don't want to think
about it. You can't be happy, my friend. You say, well, I'm
haunted to death by the past, by things that happened in the
past. Oh, the things that I just can't get over, the things in
the past. I'm haunted about these things,
and I cannot get over them. There's no way that I can get
past all that's happened in the past. My friend, let me tell
you something. You cannot be happy if there
is a side that you cannot consider. There is a side that you cannot
look at. Listen, what about your past?
What about your past? Is it under the blood? Is your
past under the blood? Has your sins been put away?
Has all of your past been blotted out? Has God cast your past behind
His back? As far as the East is from the
West said, I'll never remember it again. Has God taken care
of your past? If He has not taken care of your
past, you will face it again and you will face it at the judgment
and you do well not to have any rest until it is taken care of. Well, think of your death. Think
of meeting God face to face and ask yourself, can I look forward? Can I look forward to death and
not be greatly troubled? Can I look forward to meeting
God and standing face-to-face with Him? Do I feel secure on
the ground that I'm on now? Am I secure? Am I prepared to
meet God face-to-face? Am I? Can you look forward to
those things without alarm? Can you do it? If you cannot
look with comfort to any time but the present, your boasted
happiness My friend, it's unreal. You don't have any happiness.
If you can't look in every direction and feel prepared and comfortable,
you're not happy. Your soul is not happy. To be truly happy, and let me
sum this up now in the best way that I know how to do it. Let
me just sum it up. The wants, the needs of your
soul, they must be satisfied and God and God alone can satisfy
the wants and the needs of your soul. Your joy, your contentment,
your sense of well-being must be founded on something more
than this world can give you. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6
and 6, that godliness with contentment is great gain. And then in verse
7, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
we can take nothing out. Therefore, with food and raiment,
let us therewith be content. Brought nothing in, we can take
nothing out. Oh, listen to me, my friend.
Nothing in this world can give you a foundation for true Bible
happiness. You must be able to look behind
the before. These are things that we've said.
And know and feel that all is right. Well, how can all this
be possible? How can a man have his needs
met by God, his soul needs? How can a man come to the place
where he can let the things of this world drift off and not
feel bothered about it? How can a man ever come to the
place where he can really feel that he can look in any direction
and that all is well? Where is the path to such happiness? Where is the road to real contentment
and happiness? Well, there is but one way, but
one way. It is the only path and all that
have ever been happy All that has ever been happy since the
days of Adam, they journeyed on this road that I'm about to
describe and point out to you this morning. The way to be happy,
here it is, the way to be happy is to be a true-hearted believer
in the God of the Bible. Happy is that people whose God
is the Lord. It's to be a true-hearted believer
in the God of the Bible. Now the converted man, and that's
what a true-hearted believer in God Almighty is. He is a converted
man. He's a believer in God's Christ,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a child of God by faith,
and he alone is The happy man. The converted man. The believer. The man who has faith in the
God of the Bible. The man who trusts God is the
truly happy man. Now what do I mean when I speak
of a true believer? Of a true believer in the living
God? A true Christian? Well, do I mean everybody who
goes to church? No, I don't mean that. Do I mean
everybody who makes a decision? No, I don't mean that either.
Do I mean everybody who professes to love God? Do I mean that? No, indeed, I
do not. All are not Christians who call
themselves Christians, and those who I'm talking about are those
who are truly in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been put into
Christ by a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit and they are
joined to the Lord Jesus with a living, loving, lasting union
and they're in Christ and in Christ forever. They're in Him. He is their hope of eternal life. He is their support and stay. Christ is their all in all. And
they're able to rest all their hope on the Lord Jesus Christ,
on His glorious person, and on His finished work, on His glorious
person. Ah, listen to me. I got such
a blessing, I didn't know whether I was going to get down to come
here to preach this or not, when I thought about His glorious
person. My friend, do you know who the
Lord Jesus Christ is? He is God's well-beloved eternal
Son, and He had no sin in Him. He is absolute perfection, and
God accepts all of His people in Him. Don't you know that God
imputed unto the Lord Jesus Christ all that you were and imputes
all that He is? His glorious person, His merit
and righteousness and His holiness and all that He is in His person,
God imputes that to you and to your account. And God accepts
you in Him. He accepts you in Him. Now this
is the way to happiness. This is the way to a sense of
well-being. My friend, when you think about
youse having a standing before God, and having been accepted
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and God looking no longer upon you,
but looking upon the glorious person of His Son, and saying
to you, you're perfect in Him, and saying you're complete in
Him, does that not give you a sense of well-being? It does me. I
can think of the judgment and not tremble anymore, because
Jesus Christ has already been judged in my place. The judgment
of God fell on my substitute. And He suffered in my behalf.
He suffered in my place. He paid for my sin. And my sin has been put away.
Glorious thought, it has been put away. And I need not worry
or fret anymore about sin. Because sin has been paid for
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He finished the work.
He told the Father that He had finished the work that He had
been given to do. A finished work. Oh, that's glorious
for a believer, somebody who believes the Word of God, to
know that the work to secure the salvation of all the elect,
that that work has been accomplished, it has been completed, and that
you and I are not working on it and adding the finishing touches
to it. It's all been done, done by Christ,
finished! The work is finished. So those
who are believers, they rest all of their hope on Christ,
who does not change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. There's no change with Him. And
you can trust His glorious person. You're not going to heaven because
of who you are. You're going to heaven because of who He is.
And God is not going to deal with you on the basis of who
you are. He's going to deal with you on the basis of who He is.
And that, my friend, that will lift you up. That will make you
happy. That will make you content in your soul to know that God
Almighty will accept you and accept you wholly on the basis
of who His Son is. Well, what do I mean when I say
they are happy? Do I mean that they have no doubts
or fears ever? Do I mean that? Do they have
no worry and do they have no trouble, the people of God? Am
I saying that? Have they no bereavements? Have
they no disappointments? Do they have no pain? Do they
shed no tears? Is that what I'm saying? Well,
far be it from me to say anything of that kind. I will not say
that, that is not true. That is not true. The believer
has a body that is weak. and frail just like other men.
He has affections and he has passions like every one born
of woman. And he lives in a changing world.
He earns his living by the sweat of his brow. A child of God,
living in this world, he experiences all these things, but deep down
in his heart, yea, in his soul, he has a mind of solid peace
and substantial joy based on the promises of God Almighty
in his word in the gospel. He has something, he has a foundation
under him. He believes God and he's on a
rock! He's on a stable rock. And all believers are on the
rock. All true believers. Now listen
to me. Are all believers equally happy? Well, the answer is no. There are babes in Christ as
well as old men in the family of God. They are weak and strong
members in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are degrees
of grace and degrees of faith And those who have most faith
and grace will have most happiness because they'll believe what
God says. Believe and be happy. Believe
and be blessed. But all, listen to me, the weakest,
even the weakest of believers compared with the men and women
of this world, those who have no hope, those that are without
God and without Christ, Compared with the men of this world, even
the weakest believer, listen, is more happy than the men and
women of this world. We all have ebbs and flows of
comfort in our lives. We all do. Our cup runneth over. There are times And I'll tell
you what, I wish that we could just capture them and it always
be that way, our cup running over. just being blessed of God,
our souls rejoicing, and just keep on running after the Lord.
And I pictured myself there a few nights ago, and I know it's the
truth. Just like an old cur dog that's
been running for over 40 years after the Lord's wagon. And every
once in a while I get on it, and I fall off. I follow up, wind up in the ditch,
roll over several times, get up and take off again. And for
over 40 years, I've just been after the Lord's wagon, if you
please. And I'll tell you this, there are times when I was able
to catch up. as it seemed to me. And that the Lord just blessed
me and loved me and showed me His mercy and His grace and His
kindness and poured out upon me. I mean, great blessings. Our cup runs over. But then there
are seasons of special anxiety that every one of us experience.
There are seasons, listen to me, when we're overtaken in our
faults, And sometimes we give way to inconsistencies and besetting
sins in our lives and we lose our sense of pardon and we lose
our sense of acceptance with God. We lose it. And as a general
rule though, but as a general rule, The child of God is at
peace. He has happiness and he has gladness. His conscience is at peace. His conscience has been purged
from dead works so that he can now serve the living God. He
can sit down and think about his soul and say, it is well. It is well. Oh, what a blessed
privilege it is to be able to think and not be afraid to be
able to face it all I mean to look at every bit of it to face
it whatever it is that has come into our lives whatever be the
situation face it all and let the devil take his best shot
and to be able to say Christ reigns the will of God be done
And whether I sink or swim, I'll cast myself every day anew and
afresh into the hands of my God. And every burden and trial I
have, I'll just keep on taking them to the Lord. Because you
know, James said, we have not because we ask not. And he said,
if you ask, ask and you shall receive. There'll be one of these
days when I'll go to the Lord. And I'll ask Him, and brother,
sister, He'll give it. He'll give it. One of these days
it'll happen. The Lord will give it. The Lord
will give it as you ask. Just believe this. Now hear me
out. Sickness and death, these are
solemn thoughts. The judgment day is an awful
thing. It is an awful thing. And I don't
minimize that when I'm standing up here talking to you about
this this morning. But do you know what? It's a
privilege. It's a blessed thing. It's a
happy thing to be able to sit down and think about it. To think
about it and to face it. And yet, be able to look in every
direction as we say. Look in whatever direction. It's
a blessed thing to be able to say, well, The Bible says there's
no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. No judgment
awaiting those that are in the Lord Jesus, Romans 8 and 1. No
judgment. God's already poured out the
judgment on the Lord Jesus. Lightning struck at Calvary and
the judgment fell on Christ there. And it's not going to fall on
me. But listen to me. But having Christ for us, having
Christ with us, And Jonathan Edwards on his comments on that
verse of scripture there in Matthew 1, Immanuel, speaking about Immanuel,
the word Immanuel means God with us. And he said the best part
of it all is God with us. God with us. Now, having Christ
for us we have nothing to fear. I'm making a statement. I'm telling
you that if Christ is with you, if Christ is for you, hallelujah,
you have nothing to fear. The believer's happiness is entirely
independent of this changing world. Entirely independent of
it. You can't touch it. The believer
has something which cannot be affected. by sickness, by death,
by losses and crosses, and by public calamities. Have an earthquake,
shake it all down like the folks over in India. That can't touch
your happiness. Not your happiness in the Lord. Not your happiness as we've described
it here this morning. The peace of God Paul said in
Philippians 4, passeth all understanding. Our hope is laid up in heaven.
Rust and moth cannot eat, and it cannot corrupt. We have a
portion like which nothing can hurt. A portion, that portion
is the Lord. The nether springs may fail,
But our upper springs, they never will fail. They never fail. This is real Bible happiness. This is real Bible contentment. The plain truth is that without
Christ, there is no happiness in this world. That's the plain
truth. Now you listen to me. Jesus Christ
alone can give the comforter who abideth forever. He is the
sun, S-U-N, and without him men never will feel warm. He is the light, without him
men are always in the dark. He is the bread, and without
Him men are always starving. He is the living water, and without
Him men are always thirsty. Without Him. You take a man and
you place him wherever you will, and you give him, you surround
him with all the comforts that you can possibly find in this
world, and it makes absolutely no difference, separate from
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. A man can never be
happy in this world. If a man doesn't know Jesus Christ,
he cannot be happy in this world in a Bible sense of the word.
You must know God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So the question
is this, are you happy? Are you happy? Are we happy?
The question deserves an answer. And you must answer the question.
If your thoughts and your planning have been all for this life,
And you plan for everything in this life, but you have not planned
for eternity. Let me tell you this, you're
not happy. You're not happy. There has got
to be, the sole need must be met. God must show you his provision. You must know Christ. Christ
is God's provision. is that one who satisfies the
needs of a man's soul. And the reason he can satisfy
the needs of your soul is because he has satisfied God on your
behalf. God is satisfied with all those
who are in his sign. And this is the only way to happiness. So you must seek happiness. where it may be found. Jesus
Christ is synonymous with happiness. Christ is happiness. Now brother, sister, I know what
I'm talking about. I've been, I'm no novice. I'll just tell you that right
now. I know what I'm talking about. I've lived in this world
long enough to know these things that I'm telling you here this
morning are true, absolutely true. I'm telling you the truth. If you would be happy, know your
God. Know your God. Trust your God. Believe Him. Rely upon Him. Bow your knee
every day to His Lordship. Keep on struggling and fighting
against that which tells you that you've got a right to your
right to yourself. You've got a claim on yourself
and you've got a right to be happy however and wherever it
takes you. You have no rights. If you belong
to Jesus Christ, He has first claim on your life. You've been
bought with a price. And you'll never be happy until
you bow your knee. And those who are most bowed
are the most happy. Bow your knee. War with the flesh. Fight it out. Keep on. Only God can give you the victory.
Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this privilege
of preaching. May it please you, our Father, to use this message.
May it bear fruit. May lost souls take hope, and
may they look to Christ who can give them happiness and joy of
soul. And may thy people be encouraged
to know that they're on the rock. We pray it for Jesus' sake, in
his name, amen.