I want to speak this morning
on verse 4. On verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord
always, and again I say, Rejoice. This is quite a text indeed for
the people of God. This is certainly directed to
those who know the Lord and are in Christ Jesus. I'd like to begin by saying that
the Christian is not required to rejoice in nothing or in an
inadequate cause. A child of God truly has something
to rejoice in. I want to begin, I guess, this
morning by saying that there is a marvelous, medicinable power
in joy. Most medicines, I guess, are
distasteful, but this which is the best of all medicines is
sweet to the taste and very comforting to the heart. Rejoice in the
Lord always, and again I say rejoice. We noticed in the reading
here this morning that there had been a little tiff between
two women in the church at Philippi. We read about that here in verse
2, and they're told here to be of the same mind in the Lord. Now we don't know what it was
that they differed about, and the scriptures don't tell us,
and it's just as well as that it didn't tell us what it was
that they were into it about, but a cure for disagreement I
think the Apostle Paul would say is to rejoice in the Lord
always. And so to these two womenfolk
who were having the tiff, he would say, rejoice in the Lord
always. Now people who are happy in the
Lord, especially those who are very happy in the Lord, are not
apt either to give offense or to take offense. They're very
slow to give and to take offense because they're rejoicing in
the Lord and their minds are occupied with higher things and
they're not easily distracted and disturbed by the little troubles
which naturally arise among such imperfect people as we are. We get our minds on the Lord
and upon the goodness of God and the grace of God and the
truth of God, And we somehow or other are just raised a little
higher than what we were, and we're just not as disturbed,
and we don't take offense at every word that's spoken. Now,
joy in the Lord, then, I believe, is the cure for discord. And
so if you're tempted this morning to be somewhat vexed and put
out with somebody else here in the church, or if you ever are,
then think a little bit about the Lord Jesus Christ and your
position in Him, and rejoice in Him, and I believe that it'll
cure your discord. Now further, brethren, I want
you to notice also that the apostle, after he had said rejoice in
the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, He commanded them here,
these Philippians, to let their moderation be known unto all
men, in verse 5. In other words, if you are happy
in the Lord, and if you're rejoicing in the Lord, then you won't feel
the need to get out and get a hold of everything that the world
has to offer. You won't feel the need to live
to the full. in this world and to have everything
that the world promises on the surface. You won't feel the need
to grasp and to be greedy and covetous. You'll be able to be
moderate in all things because the Lord is at hand. Your Lord
is at hand to provide all you have need of, and he's made plan
for you, and he performs all things that are appointed for
you, and so you can be moderate. And so I believe that to rejoice
in the Lord, as Paul states it here, is the cure for covetousness
and greed. And then further here we see,
where that he said to them also, he said, be careful for nothing.
That's in verse 6. That means don't worry about
anything. Don't be fretful. Don't be anxious. Don't worry
about everything. Now it seems to me that joy in
the Lord is one of the best preparations for the trials of this life.
It seems to me that the cure here for care is to rejoice or
be glad in the Lord. If you're tempted to worry and
fret and stew, Then if you're joyful in the Lord, if the Lord's
pleased to give you and to fill you with the gladness and joy
of the gospel, then brother, you'll have to give up your fretfulness. You can't keep it, you can't
hold on to it, you'll have to give it up. And sister, you'll
have to give up. All those worries that you have
that drain you of your strength, you'll have to give it up. Because
I believe that joy in the Lord and gladness in the Lord is the
cure for all these problems that we are facing. Now if we're satisfied
with God, we can say with David, why art thou cast down, O my
soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for
I will yet praise him for the health of his countenance. Well, what is there on earth,
really, that's worth fretting over for five minutes? There
really isn't anything here that's worth fretting over, certainly
not for a child of God, certainly not somebody who believes in
the grace of God, not somebody who believes in the absolute
sovereignty of Almighty God and believes that God have all things
in His hands and that He is working out all things for the good of
His people and for the glory of His own name. Surely there
wouldn't be anything worth us fretting about and worrying about. Therefore, let us be thankful
and let us be joyful in the Lord. It's the way to begin, I believe,
our heaven here below in this world. If you want heaven to
begin in your soul, right here in this world, then rejoice in
the Lord and rejoice evermore in Him. It says here in the seventh
verse, in the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall
keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. The Lord
will keep your heart. The Lord will be pleased to keep
you in a state of peace as your mind has stayed on Him and as
you rejoice and are glad in the Lord. Now the first thing I'd
like to say in my speaking on this today will be very simple
as we go along and I hope the Lord is pleased to help me and
the Lord is pleased to bless you with these truths that we
want to point out to you today. This is a most needful message. It's a message that every one
of us here need to take to heart. Doesn't make any difference how
old you are. It doesn't make any difference
how old in the Lord that you are. You need this morning to
hear what these words have to say to us. And I hope the Lord
will give you a hearing ear as he gives me a word for you. Well, let me say that this is
an authoritative command of the Apostle Paul concerning our Lord. What a gracious God that we serve,
who makes delight to be a duty, and who commands us to rejoice. Now these Christians, like the
people of God in every age, were living, I think, in trying and
difficult and testing times. Now we know this by reading out
of the book of Acts and also by the internal evidence that's
given here in the first chapter of the book of Philippians in
verse 29. where it says, it is given on our behalf not only
to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. Now these people
were a tried and suffering and afflicted and tested people.
Now there's always a tendency to make our own sufferings unique
or the sufferings of another time unique. In other words,
we can say, well, the people in the first century church,
they suffered in a unique way. and or that we in our time or
that people in the dark ages they suffered in a unique and
unusual way and somehow or other we have the tendency to more
or less cast the burden of rejoicing in the Lord always and again
I say rejoice this command, this authoritative command on to some
people who live in better times or in good times and we take
away the responsibility from ourselves and from others who
have lived in testing and trying times. But let me remind you
this morning that the people of God always have gone through
difficulties. The people of God, as they've
lived in this world, as they have attempted to worship the
Lord, as John Bunyan made, I think, so clear in his explanation,
he said that the people of God have double trouble. Well, the
Bible says that as sparks fly upward, men are born into trouble,
and then we have trouble by virtue of the fact that we are Christians,
that we try to live for God in this world which is no friend
of grace, to help us on to God. This is a very trying world,
a very testing world, and Jesus said to the disciples, he said,
in the world, you'll have tribulation, but in me, you'll have peace.
In the world, you're gonna have trouble. You're gonna have all
kinds of trouble. And so, beloved, let's do away
with that. One time there was a lady that said to Mr. Hearst, the newspaper man, William,
I think, Randolph Hearst, and said to him, said, your paper
is not as good as it used to be. And he said, woman, he says,
it never has been. And so the truth of the matter
is this. The truth of the matter is that
God's people, as they've lived in this world, have never been
without trials and afflictions and tests and difficulties and
adversities. It's never been any other way. God's people are a tested and
afflicted and tried people and they've been left in the midst
of the land by the Lord our God. Now then, I believe that the
first century church actually lived a very simple life compared
to ours. It is true that the persecution
was real in their day, but beloved, some of the temptations that
we have today in this world are more complex and trying than
I think that even they had in their day. And this is in keeping,
of course, with the teaching of the New Testament. that evil
men shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Well, we're living in a world
that's not getting any better. And the message of the Bible
is that the world is not going to get better and better and
better and better until the heavenly kingdom is ushered in. But the
message of the Bible is that men are going to get worse. and
that situations are going to get worse and more difficult
in this world as long as we live in it until that day of the Lord
comes when the day dawn and the day star arises in our hearts. Well beloved, these people were
affected by their trials as we are by the trials and the afflictions
and the difficulties that we have in our lives and sometimes
we begin to droop and we lose courage, and we lose the zest
for life, even the Christian life, and we seem to lose hope,
and we just seem, as it were, in the midst of our afflictive
circumstances to want to give up, and we don't have anything,
as it were, to rejoice in or to be glad in. We just somehow
or other want to throw in the towel and give it up, and we
become fretful, and we become very, very God dishonoring, in
our attitude. So the Apostle Paul says, I hear
it to them and to us and we need desperately to hear it and that
is rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. But you say this, as some have
said it, this is just another preacher talking is what it is.
This is really just another preacher talking. Well, that's easy for
preachers to say. Somebody will point out when
they're in afflictive circumstances and when they have real tests.
Well, that's just preacher talk is all that is. Rejoice in the
Lord always. And again, I say rejoice, but
listen to me this morning. I want to say a word here for
the Apostle Paul. Because the Apostle Paul, and
I think we need to know this, I think we need to be aware of
it, that this man who made this statement here, under the inspiration
and the authority of God's Holy Spirit, he is not on a riviera
somewhere passing out tracks to some kind of a beach ministry,
I can tell you that. He is not. This man Paul, in
all likelihood, is chained to a Roman century when he speaks
these words and when these words are pinned down. And in all likelihood,
he has less than accommodating circumstances. He is in pressing
circumstances here, and he has a trial before him, and he has
a defense that must shortly be made. And this man Paul is a
preacher. He's been called of God to preach
the gospel, and he wants to be up and about it, and he wants
to be out, and he wants to go on to the West. and preach the
gospel and he has that burning desire in his soul and here he
is chained down and he says to the people of God, he says rejoice
in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. This is not just
preacher talk, it's from the Lord and you need to desperately
hear it this morning as a word from the living God to your soul. Now let us look at this, like
we said, in a very simple way. I want to talk about the doctrine
of it and then give the application as we go along. We'll just mix
it all up. It'll be very simple, but I want
you to get it this morning. Let's talk about this a little
bit more. The Greek word here is kairo,
C-H-A-I-R-O, and it simply means just be glad. That's what it
means. It means be glad, rejoice, be
glad. Now my friends, Christians are
meant to be, they're meant to be glad and they're meant to
be joyful people. Now you say, well I don't know
preacher whether that's healthy or not. for me to get too glad
and for me to be too happy. Well, beloved, it all depends
upon what you are glad about. And it all depends on what you're
so happy about. It all depends on what you're
rejoicing in. If you're rejoicing in that which
Paul told us to rejoice in, then, brother, sister, you will never
get intoxicated on that kind of joy and on the wine of the
kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but it's righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy
Ghost, and you can't get too much of that. And if a man or
a woman, a boy or a girl knows the Lord and is rejoicing on
the foundation that Paul puts us on in this text, then it is
a healthy thing indeed. Now these are times when we grieve
in this world, we weep, we suffer, and we hurt in this world and
we cannot help it. And the scripture says there
is a time for weeping. And that we're exhorted to weep,
does it not? With those who weep is not an
exhortation of the Word of God. And also we're to rejoice with
those who rejoice. But the basic characteristic
of the child of God generally is that of gladness. That of
gladness. Now that, I think, is a miracle
of the grace of God itself. It is a miracle of God's grace
that anybody with his eyes open, anybody that's got ears to hear,
living in an unhappy world like we're living in, can ever rejoice
or be glad. It's a miracle of the grace of
God that anybody can be happy. I say this because the common
things that make us glad in this world do not outweigh the things
that hurt, that wound and depress and make us worry in this world. The common things of life that
are good don't outweigh the bad. I mean, there's many, many. Well,
I believe that the child of God will have to say with old Jacob,
many, he says, are my days in this world. But he said, few
are my days. How do you put it? And they're
full of trouble. They've been full of trouble.
They've been few and full of trouble. And so, beloved, this
is the way it is with the child of God. And so we must understand
that, that there's not going to be enough good that's going
to happen in this world, in common things, to outweigh the bad,
to make us to obey this exhortation. Now, they generally don't. There
are some people who seem to be free from a lot of real afflictive
circumstances and real testing situations, and everything seems
to come up rosy for them in life. But most of us, it's not that
way with us. We grieve more than we smile. We groan more than we laugh.
We're more vexed than we are at peace in this world, especially
with the people that we live with, and then with ourselves. Are you not vexed with yourself?
You vex with people around you and you vex with yourself. Some
people can't get along with themselves. I have a little trouble with
that in my own self, getting along with myself. You know,
there's a lot of trouble right there. You say, well, my trouble
is everybody else. Well, if you examine a little
closer, you might find most of your trouble is with yourself
and not with everybody else. But don't, listen, don't ever
lose sight of it. A child of God is a miracle of
the grace of God living in this world. They're overcomers and
they're more than conquerors in Jesus Christ that loved us,
but we're miracles of the grace of God if we can ever smile in
this difficult and testing world. Because, listen to me, a child
of God is a miracle of grace because he's been brought in
to a place of being glad, joyful, and full of hilarity and mirth. He's been brought into a place
where he can be full of these things because he's in the Lord. He's been put in the Lord. Now,
this rejoicing in the text is not considered here as an option. It is not considered as an option.
We're not to suppose that there is the Christian life And then
there is the Christian life, which is one of happiness and
joy and gladness, that there is two kinds of life that is
acceptable for the Christian. This is not so, beloved. We told
you that that the Christian life is not meat and drink, it's righteousness
and joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. Now here Paul is exhorting
all believers to rejoice in the Lord and this is not an option.
This is the very essence and it's the very being and life
of a child of God. That's what it is, gladness and
joy. I said it's the very essence,
it's the very being, it's the very life of the child of God. I said earlier that this is an
authoritative command. But you say, well, preacher,
you just simply don't understand. You don't understand. I don't
have a glad temperament. I don't have a glad temperament.
Well, there may be some truth in that. There may be some truth
in that. And there are times when we get
up in the mornings and it's evident we don't have a glad temperament.
And the wife, she knows it, the children know it, and they take
cover. And there are days when you get
up, you'd like to just screw that day out of the calendar
altogether and give it up. You can't do anything right.
Everything you do, if you tie your tie, you tie it three times,
and the back is always an inch longer than the front. And if
you tie your shoe, you break the shoelace, always something's
out of place, something don't work, and the whole day is shot.
And you can't do anything about it. You just simply don't have
a glad temperament. And there's some people are just
the absolute opposite. They're born to grin. They're
just born to grin. They may have the grin of a possum.
But they're born to grin. Doesn't make any difference if
they're in a bear trap up to their heart. Don't make any difference.
How are you? Well, I'm just fine, thank you.
I'm just fine. And they got that smile on their
face. And they're just real happy,
you see. Everything's just fine. Now listen to me. And there are
other people that even when they're happy, they don't grin. They
don't grin. They just simply don't have a
grin on their face. They just don't go around grinning.
But what Paul is saying here, In this text, the scripture has
nothing whatever to do with our temperament. It has nothing to
do with our birth. It has nothing to do with our
personality type. It's got nothing to do with that.
And we need to keep that in mind. How you were born, don't enter
into this. How you are. You say, I got off
on the wrong foot. Preacher, you might have, but
that don't have nothing to do with Philippians 4.4. It has
nothing to do with it. And I'm going to try to explain
that to you. Rejoice, be glad, not because you're made this
way, but because you are in the Lord. And we'll talk more about
that in a minute. I wouldn't give that up for nothing.
We'll talk more about that in the Lord in a minute. But another
will say, Preacher, you just simply don't know my circumstances.
Do you mean that we're to rejoice in the Lord always in spite of
our circumstances? Precisely! That's exactly what
always means. That's what always means. Now,
when it says that we're to always rejoice in the Lord, that doesn't
mean that's the only thing that can be going on in your heart.
While you're rejoicing, you can be rejoicing and you also, there
can be some other things. Well, you must hurt. Listen to
me now. You say, how can I do this? Well,
I'm hurting, I'm hurting, I'm hurting because of this and because
of that. I'm hurting. Well, listen to
me. You must hurt because of this. that's in your life. And some people have very difficult
and very, very trying and very hurting experiences in life,
and it's no fault of their own, but they're just hurt. And there's
been all kinds of things happen to them in their life, and they're
miserable to one degree. And somebody described the child
of God as being the most miserable, happy person this side of heaven. Because there are a lot of things.
There's a lot of hurt. And these things are real in
the heart. And we know something about that.
But listen to me this morning. Paul said that he was sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing. Sorrowful, and listen to me,
I want you to understand this, joy and sorrow in the same heart
is compatible. It is. As a child of God, you
can have hurt, and you can have weeping, and you can have grief
in your heart. And you can act like a man, you
can act like a human being. And at the same time, be joyful
and be rejoicing in your heart at the same time in the Lord. Well, you say, what's this about? Well, we must, and we must, and
I want to say this. The command of Holy Scripture.
We must resist. Did you get it? Deliberately.
Resolutely. The tendons of the old man. to
find loopholes and escape hatches from the command of the scripture
because that's exactly what they'll do. That's exactly what your
old heart will do. Listen, we must avoid doing this.
We're constantly saying, I know I ought to do this. I ought to
rejoice in the Lord. I ought to be happy in the Lord,
but I ought to be something more than I am, but We're Billy Goat
Christians, as someone I heard one time call us. But! We ought
to but! Now listen to me, and this brings
us to see this sphere. It brings us down to see this
fear in which this command is to be carried out. Rejoice in
the Lord always and again I say rejoice. It is not only joy that
we're to have but it is joy over again. Rejoice. Now the re usually signifies
the reduplication of a thing. We are to joy and then we're
to rejoice. So it's not recording. Listen
to me now. I'm getting to something here
that I want you to see. It is not because of temperament. It's not because of our circumstances. Because things change in this
world and there's no denying it. Because we may be like Job. Old Job was the richest man in
the East. Job was a perfect and upright man. But one morning
Job got up and he had everything. And before he went to bed at
night, he was stripped of everything. He didn't have anything before
he went to bed. And so, beloved, things can change.
And when the day ends, how will it be with you today? Now, circumstances
change, but there are no escape hatches. There's no loopholes. There is no way, no path in which
we can retreat from this text. And the reason there is not is
because of the sphere in which this is to take place. And this
is so very important. We're not to be glad because
we feel like it or because our circumstances warn it, but we're
to be glad in the Lord. In the Lord. Now, beloved, when
Paul says this, He is using a theological statement of tremendous significance
in the Lord. Well, you'll take note here,
he says in verse 21, he says, Salute every saint in Christ
Jesus. Well, why, Paul, should I go
around saluting saints? Well, salute them because they're
in Christ Jesus. They're in Christ Jesus. And
my brethren, dearly beloved, for I long for my joy and crown,
so stand fast in the Lord, he said in verse 1. In the Lord. In Christ Jesus. Now, beloved,
we're to rejoice by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is a living, loving, lasting
union formed between Jesus Christ and all of his people. Every
one of the children of God are in Christ Jesus. And they're
in Him, they have this union with Him in all His saving mercies. In 1 Corinthians 1 and verse
30, it says, Of God's doing are you in Christ Jesus, who is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The whole of salvation we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ from election to glorification. We have it all. Everything we
have in Christ Jesus because of our union with Him. Now we
read in the scripture that children are to obey their parents in
the Lord. And we read also that men and
women are to be married only in the Lord. Now we must, no
child of God must ever go outside of that wing in the Lord, in
the Lord, in the Lord. Now that's where you are if you're
a child of God. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you have been born of the Spirit, if the Spirit
of God comes and has indwelt you, then you are in Christ. You're in the Lord, and that's
where you ought to be, and that's where you must be, and you cannot
truly rejoice if you get outside of that ring in your thinking
and in your meditation. You must keep inside of this
ring, I am in the Lord. I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this is the sphere of our
joy. We have all in Him. Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 3 and 21, for all things are yours in Christ. Everything is yours. Now, Christ
is our treasure house. We're poor, but He makes us rich. He who was rich became poor that
we through His poverty might be rich. Say, well, preacher,
I don't see it that way. Well, you see, you're not looking
at it in the right way. Paul said he was poor, but he
made many rich. And Jesus Christ was rich. He
became poor when he went to Calvary's cross to make me rich. And I
have all that he had. I have inherited along with him. I am joint heirs with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he has all, the Father has
delivered all things into his hand, and I'm joint heir with
him. I've been predestinated to an
inheritance according to the purpose of Him who works all
things out for the counsel of His own will, in whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
in Him, in Christ, in the Lord. Now then, Christ is our banqueting
hall and we're all starving, but we go to Him. and we're fed
from the table that's laden with all gospel blessings. God's people
feed at the table of the Lord. He's the bread of life and He's
the water of life and we partake of Him and we're enriched, we're
in the Lord. Now this is it. This is the sphere
in which we're to do this rejoicing in the Lord. This is it. This
is where we're to do the rejoicing. It's not because the neighbor
is not cantankerous. It's not because that everything's
going our way and because the bank account is growing and we
don't have any place for our money. It's not that. It's because
we're in the Lord. and because Christ is ours and
we are his. Now the devil says, come and
follow me and I'll give you the keys of all things. Well, the
believer says, I don't need anything, I have all already in Christ. I don't need anything you got.
You haven't got anything. You can't interest me in the
things of this world I have the greatest blessings and he that
has blessed me with the greatest blessings He's my God and I you
have nothing to offer now We have all and everything in Christ
because he is all in everything Christ is all In all. He's all in everything. And again the devil says, if
you don't do thus and so, I'm going to take all this away from
you. And the believer says, well, you can't take anything away
from me because I don't have anything in the first place.
And secondly, you can't take away what I've got. You can't
lay a hand on it. You can't touch it, devil, because
it's in my Lord. I have it in Him. Have it in
him. Yeah, I have it all in him and
you can't get your dirty hands on it And you can't take it from
me. I have all spiritual blessings
in Christ Jesus now beloved when we realize this When we really
realize this we can rejoice in it because he can't change We
have everything in Christ. We're full in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have received of his hand
every spiritual blessing. He's our treasure and he's the
reservoir of all spiritual blessings and we have it all in Christ
and the devil can't get his hands on it and nobody can get his
hands on it to take it away from us. It's secure in the Lord Jesus. But now we must be honest with
ourselves about these loopholes and these escape hatches and
these excuses. Because we all make them, don't
we? We all make them in self-pity and in times of hypersensitivity. We're all trying to find a loophole
to get away from having to obey this command, rejoice in the
Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Some
way to get away from it. Now we begin to say Ourselves,
in the words of the old Negro spiritual, nobody knows the trouble
I've seen. Nobody knows but Jesus. Nobody
knows. My problems are unique. My problems
are different. I don't know how many times I've
told myself that. I can't expect you to act like
a normal Christian with all the problems and the troubles I've
got. How in the world could I act that way? How can I go around
rejoicing in the Lord all the time when I've got the many problems
and troubles and difficulties that I've got? The scripture
says in 1 Corinthians 10 and 13, there hath no temptation
taken you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tested above what you are able,
but will with a temptation make a way of escape that you might
be able to bear it. And then again the scripture
says, the same afflictions that we undergo are suffered by our
brethren who are in the world. And so, brother, sister, you
cannot, listen, your attempt to make your situation and your
case unique, regardless of what the scripture says, it won't
do. You absolutely can't hide in that cage. It won't work.
You've got to quit making these loopholes. You know the hymn
that we sing often? There is a fountain filled with
blood. Drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
sinners plunge beneath that blood, lose all their guilty stains.
Well, the man who wrote that was a man by the name of William
Cooper. It's spelled C-O-W-P-E-R, but
it's pronounced Cooper, the man who wrote that. Now, he was a
man who from the very earliest age was a very hyper-nervous
person. He suffered several bouts of
insanity. He tried to commit suicide a
number of times. And then one day, by the grace
of God, he was reading Romans chapter 3, verses 21 through
31, and God marvelously saved him. And he wrote that great
hymn of the faith that I just mentioned, There is a Fountain
Filled with Blood. And then he wrote this hymn, God moves in
mysterious ways his wonders to perform. He sets his footsteps
in the sea and rides upon the storm. I want you to listen to
the words of all of that. That's just the first verse of
it. Let me just read these words to you. Ye fearful saints, he
says, fresh courage take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face." Now these were the words that were
written by Mr. Cowper. And as I said, he wrote
these hymns, and then as he wrote this last hymn, and this is very
significant, and this is what I want to point out to you. This
last hymn, it's very interesting because This was written on the
eve of his last period of insanity. The very next day he wrote this
hymn and then he went into this period of insanity that lasted
for months and months and months. But this man, according to his
letters, that he wrote. He did just what everyone else
seems to do, and that is that no one else, as he says, has
ever gone through what I have went through. No one has ever
suffered what I suffered. And that was what he believed.
Now, there's another interesting part to this story, and that
is that John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like us. This John Newton, he was
William Cooper's pastor for over 12 years. And all the time that
John Newton was in the area where Mr. Cooper lived, he spent time
with him every day trying to encourage him and trying to help
him and trying to, as it were, to wean him away from this idea
that my situation is unique. And I have a right for self-pity
and I have a right to, you know, to be so downcast and so discouraged
and I have a right to go around all the time, you know, as if
the world had dealt me a terrible blow and that I'm just worse
off than anybody else. But he never could. He never
could wean William Cooper from saying my situation is unique. But now, beloved, when we say
that, When we say that my problems are different than everybody
else's, when we say that my problems are more distressing and more
discouraging and more disheartening than everybody else's, what we're
saying is, I've got a right. I've got this right to be unhappy. I've got this right to disobey
Philippians 4.4. I got a right not to rejoice
in the Lord. This is for somebody else. Now
then, we're looking at the wrong thing, beloved. We're looking
at the wrong thing. You've got to quit looking at
all your problems and all your difficulties and all of the distress
that you've got, and you've got to look away from that, and you've
got to look to the Lord. We must look at things in the
Lord and as they are in Him, as they are in the Lord. Now,
I'm not saying that circumstances are not real. I'm not saying
that they're make-believe. No, I'm not saying that the call
that comes in the night is not real. I'm not saying that the
letter that you get in the box is not real. I'm not saying that
the betrayals that you experience in life, that the bereavements
and the sufferings that you have in life, they're not real. I'm
not saying that. I don't want anybody to think
that, but I am saying that there's something else. That even though
you can't see it with the naked eye, even though you can't see
it, it's more real. And that is in the Lord, in the
Lord, that we are blessed in the Lord, and that we are lifted
up in the Lord, and that we have permanent blessing in the Lord
that far outweighs all of the afflictions and trials that are
in this life. The scripture says, give thanks
in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Now what does that mean? It says
you can give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus. Meaning that in that sphere,
in Christ, there isn't anything that happens to a child of God
that's not sent by a loving Heavenly Father with purpose behind it. And that whatever it is that
he sends, if you're in Christ, you can give thanks for it. You
can give thanks for it. It can't be anything that is
going to be a permanent damage and hurt to you. It is not going
to be from eternity standpoint. It's not going to be hurtful
to you. And so give thanks for it because it's from the hand
of a loving Heavenly Father. Now you've all heard of Matthew
Henry, or most of you have. Matthew Henry. He wrote the most
famous commentary in the history of English interpretation of
the scriptures. He wrote six big volumes that
he wrote over a period of many years. And he has a diary. Not very many people have it,
and I don't have it, but I have some excerpts from it in other
books that I have. And he wrote in his diary, he
says, of his little girl. He has a little girl, about the
age maybe of Sheila's twins. And he says, my little girl dies. And then he says, I have been
doing a strange work today. He says, I've been burying my
child. And then a little while later,
his wife dies. And he chooses for a text, for
the message Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 17 through 19. I want
you to turn there if you will this is in the Old Testament
It's right before the book of Zephaniah and if you would turn
there in the Old Testament Then we will read these verses between
the book of Micah and Zephaniah Habakkuk and verses 17 through
19 of the third chapter this is the text that he used to preach
his wife's funeral and And let me just read this to you. Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall
yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and
there shall be no herd in the stalls. Yet, yet, I will rejoice
in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and
he will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk
upon high places to the chief singer of my stringed instruments. Now then we see here that though
everything is taken from this man that makes life worth living
from a human standpoint Yet, he took this text, verse 18 primarily,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. You see, it's a matter of determining,
it is a matter of resolving to rejoice in the Lord. It is spiritual
discipline that I'm talking about. Spiritual discipline. Now we
need to be doing this every day, even when things are going very
well for us, we need to discipline ourself and to find out where
our joy really is. Now, beloved, listen to me. We
rejoice, generally speaking, in the gift, but not the giver. We rejoice in circumstances rather
in the God that brings the good circumstances into our life. We rejoice in the good circumstances. And then also it seems to me
that we rejoice in good health rather than in the one who gave
us good health. Now that's the way we are. That's
our tendency. And that's the reason why that when the gift
is gone, we're unhappy. and we're so discouraged. That's
the reason why that when the circumstances change, we're fretful
and murmuring and we just worry ourselves to death. And then
when the health is gone, that's why we're so cast down is because
we never looked at the God that gives health, we never looked
to the God that gives the good circumstances, or to the God
who gives the gift. And we rejoice when all is going
well in the family rather than rejoicing in the one who keeps
the family intact. Except the Lord keep the house,
they that keep it labor in vain. But yet we don't look to the
Lord. We just thank God for the good family and everything's
well. But brother, sister, it's because God keeps it in that
state and we ought to keep our eyes on that. So in the best
of times there ought to be this discipline. this stripping away,
this sitting alone somewhere with God, and to remind ourselves
that all of this can be taken from us. Every bit of it can
be taken, and one day, beloved, it will. And one day, I shall
stand with God in a naked universe, just me and God. And there's
coming one day whenever I won't have anything to rejoice in except
God and God alone. And I need to be disciplining
myself now and getting myself to the place where I won't be
taken unawares when these difficulties come. I need to be rehearsing,
Larry. I need to be practicing on this
situation of rejoicing in the Lord because the day is going
to come whenever you're going to be alone in this world and
when things are going to be different And that's why Charles Spurgeon,
that's what he meant when he said you ought to write mortal
upon the forehead of every one of your children and write mortal
upon the forehead of your wife and your husband and all of your
close kin because one day they're going to leave. The wheels of
mortal life is going to stand still one of these days and we
need to be aware of it. and right now begin to rehearse
and practice this business of rejoicing in the Lord alone,
being glad because of our standing in Christ, our acceptance in
the beloved, rejoicing because of that. Well, the Lord and our
relationship with Him by the grace of God through grace will
never change, but all human relationships are bound to change. Well, one
day all shall pass. We must stand alone and rejoice
in the Lord. Could you do that today? If you
were called upon to do that? You say, Preacher, I don't know.
Well, I don't know either. And nobody will know, maybe,
until it happens. But beloved, listen to me. This
is real what I'm talking about. It's real. You can go and talk
to the widow, and she'll tell you it's real. You can go and
talk to the mother that just buried her child last week. She'll
tell you that what the preacher's saying is real. There's coming
a time when you're not going to have the crutches that you're
leaning on. And you need to learn to discipline
yourself while you got them. And rejoice in the Lord and be
glad in the God of your salvation. Now we're living in a very unhappy
world and men must have another fling. Men must have another
drink. Men must have another snort of
coke. They got to have something. This
is an unhappy world. Well, may the Lord, when we're
in the midst of all of the griping and all the complaining and all
the worrying and the fretting in this world, may the Lord be
pleased to give us this ability to rejoice, knowing that God
that controls all of this and knowing that he's made eternal
provisions for us in the covenant, and he will not leave us without
sufficient. God in Christ is mine, and we
need to remember what Vance Havner said, because we're so prone,
you know, to go around saying, well, I believe in the sovereignty
of God. Let me alone. I'm having a bad
day. Leave me be. Well, we need to
remember what old Vance Havner said. He said, God preserves
his people, but he don't pickle them. He don't pickle them. And
that's true. God's people need to be happy
and glad and rejoice in the Lord. There ought to be a countenance
of joy and peace upon us. Now, beloved, we can hurt and
we can rejoice at the same time. Let's do it. We have a treasure
that nothing can touch. Let's do it. Now, this depends
upon faith, whom having not seen, we love. Yet, believing, we rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The God of hope fill
you with all hope and joy and peace in believing. Romans 15
and 13. This is through faith. We believe
this. We practice it because we believe
what it's saying. Now listen to me. I want you
to repeat this often to yourself, and I want you to repeat it to
each other. Now there's one thing about the
early church, well there's several things about the early church
that really strikes me when I read the book of Acts. There's three
things right off the bat. One is that these people here,
they was always talking about what the Lord had done for them.
Two, they was always getting in trouble. Number three, they
were always rejoicing in the Lord. They were always glad that
they could suffer for His name. They were rejoicing all the time.
Now listen to me, my friend. There is no room in this world,
and one of the things that's characteristic of New Testament
Christianity is that brethren and sisters in the Lord never,
never, never did they encourage self-pity. They never did. They'd walk up to you and stand
in your face and say, Rejoice in the Lord, brother. Again I
say rejoice. They would say when you lose
a loved one, don't sorrow with others who have no hope. Be comforted
by these words. The Lord himself is coming from
heaven with the shout of the archangel and with the trump
of God. And the people of God are going to be raised incorruptible.
They did not encourage self-pity, and I don't want you to encourage
it in yourself, I don't want you to encourage it in each other,
and I don't want you to encourage it in me. I want you to tell
me that I'm to rejoice in the Lord. And again, as Paul said,
do it over. Just do it again. You say, I've
done it once. Do it again. Rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice. Well, may the Lord be pleased
to own this message. With a lot of difficulty, I prepared
this message. A lot of difficulty, I preached
it. But I know it was God's will. I believe the Lord's in it. I
believe it's what we need. I believe it's exactly the message
for the morning. And I hope that God will bless
it and give you remembrance of it. I mean, it's right where
we all live, isn't it? It's right where we live. We've got to have
something. We've got to find out what this is all about and
get this thing straight in our minds. Because you're not going
to be exempt. in any way, shape, or form from
the common troubles of life. No way. A child of God is not
exempt from sickness, not exempt from death, not exempt from the
trials and troubles that come to everybody else. And you've
got to know how to handle them. And what I'm telling you today
will be here when we all get around the throne in glory. The
Lord will say, well, that's what I told you to do. I told you
to rejoice. I told you I had everything all
under, in hand. I told you it was okay. I told
you, I told you it was all okay. How many times must God say something
before we believe it? How many times? He said it today,
rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. May
the Lord