I want to attempt to preach on
the joy of the gospel. And indeed, the gospel is joyful. In thy presence, the psalmist
said, is fullness of joy. And I fear trying to manufacture
joy. I don't want to do that. I want
to have joy in response to the gospel, not me feeling like I
need to produce something, but just hear the truth and enter
into the joy of salvation. And it's also possible for a
believer to lose the joy of salvation because David said in Psalm 51,
restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And so I pray that
God will use this to give us this joy in him. And if we've
lost the joy of our salvation, that the Lord would restore it
unto us. In verse 50, and he led them
out as far as to Bethany and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them. Now I want you to think of his
power to bless. He's all powerful. There's no
lack of ability in him to bless me and you in any way he sees
fit to do it. He's sovereign. Whatever his
will is, it takes place. He's gracious. He's merciful. He's kind. And I want you to
think of his power to bless. You know, I like to think about
those infants that he laid his hands on them and blessed them.
You've seen that. Wonder what those kids' lives
were like after that. He blessed. Oh, I understand
exactly what Jacob meant when he said, I will not let thee
go except thou bless me. I must have his blessing. It's over for us if we don't
have his blessing, but you think of his power to bless. He lifted
up his hands and he blessed them. And then I love to think of them
watching him as he began to ascend up into heaven. They saw him
go up into the clouds. They saw his ascension power
and I have no doubt that they knew what this meant because
he was on the earth for 40 days instructing them in the things
concerning the kingdom of God after his resurrection. He told
them he was going to ascend. He told them why he was going
to ascend. And he told them that they were all going to ascend
with him. He's the Lord of hosts ascending. What that must have
been like. And the scripture says they worshiped.
And anybody who sees the Lord with a spiritual sight will worship. Anybody. I don't care who it
is. Anybody who knows who he is.
I think it's interesting the way those men who were even demon
possessed, when they saw him afar off, they were made to worship
him. Anybody who sees who he is, I
don't care if it's a demon, they're gonna be made to bow the knee. And they worshiped him as they
watched him ascend back into the realms of glory. And then
we read, they returned to Jerusalem. He said, go back to Jerusalem
and tarry and wait for what's going to happen in Acts chapter
two, when the Holy Spirit came upon them. He said, return back
to Jerusalem and wait. And they returned to Jerusalem
with great joy. with great joy. And we're continually in the
temple praising and blessing God. Amen. Now the gospel is a thing of
joy. It is always a thing of joy. God is the joyous God. You know, He's a God full of
joy, full of happiness because of who He is. Turn with me to
Proverbs 8 for just a moment. Proverbs chapter 8. This is about
the joy of God before there was ever a creation. This is such
a glorious passage of scripture. This is the Lord Jesus speaking
as wisdom in Proverbs chapter eight, verse 22. The Lord possessed
me in the beginning of his way before his works of old. Verse
23, Proverbs eight. I was set up from everlasting
from the beginning or ever the earth was when there were no
depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills, was I brought forth? While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass
his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth,
then I was by him. As one brought up with him and
I was daily. His delight, rejoicing always
before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of the earth.
And my delights were with the sons of men, even then, before
creation. The rejoicing there is between
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. There's joy in thinking
of that. And you know, when Christ went
to the cross, The scripture says, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Know the next line? Who for the
joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising,
counting as nothing, the shame. Who for the joy that was set
before him, he went to the cross for the joy that was set before
him. The pure joy he received in glorifying
his father and doing his will. He said, my meat is to do the
will of him that sent me and finish his work. Oh, the joy
of Jesus Christ, obedience to his father and the joy he received
in saving us. When he went to the cross, the
names of all of his elect were on his heart. My name. He was aware of me. He was aware
of you. Every one of his people, what
joy he received in going to the cross in order to save me from
my sins. That's astounding, isn't it?
The joy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Entering heaven is described
as entering the joy of thy Lord. Come thou blessed of my Father,
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Now listen to these scriptures. Zephaniah 317, he will rejoice
over thee with joy. Now that is true of every believer. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will joy over thee with singing. But he's the one that's doing
the singing over us. We read in Nehemiah chapter eight,
verse 10, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Does it give
you joy to think of his joy? He's the absolute joyous God. He doesn't have any worries.
He's not pacing back and forth, hoping his will is going to be
done. He's in absolute, complete control joyfully. He is the joyous and the blessed
God. Turn to Matthew chapter 13. You
know, it's interesting. I was thinking of joy. And I
was thinking of this verse, verse 44. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a treasure. Matthew 13, 44. Again, the kingdom
of heaven is likened to a treasure hidden in a field, that which
a man hath found, he hideth. He doesn't want to lose it. He
hides it. And for joy thereof, goeth and
selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. Now, I thought,
I'd like to see what somebody's got to say about this. I listened
to the sermon, and the fellow, here's what he said. You need
to sell every half thing you have, or you're going to hell.
You got to give up all sin, or you won't be saved. And I thought,
well, if there's ever any joy in that verse, that took it out.
I mean, you know, just the way that guy interpreted that, that's
not what that means. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is like unto a treasure. Oh, what a treasure the gospel
is. What a treasure Jesus Christ is. What a treasure the forgiveness
of sins is. What a treasure it is to be justified,
to have his righteousness, to have no sin to feel guilty about.
What a treasure His precious blood is that makes me clean
before God. What a treasure His Spirit is
that reveals the Gospel to me. All the promises of God, what
a treasure the Kingdom of Heaven is. And it's hid in a field.
It's hid in the field of His Word. It's there. Not many people
see it. They look at the Bible and they
look at it as a rule book. I need to keep these rules in
order to earn God's favor. And they never see the treasure
hidden in the field. But one time this fellow, he
ran into it. He found it. I don't know if
he's looking for it. Probably he wasn't. But he found it. And he thought, this is the greatest
treasure I've ever seen. Somebody says, why did he hide
it? He was afraid of losing it. This is so great. This is so
glorious. And the scripture says, for joy
thereof, for joy thereof, went and sold all he had. And what
was that? Nothing. I love what Paul said. I count for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things, and do count it be done. That's all
I counted as having lost. That's not much of a loss. Now,
for joy thereof, he sells all he has to have this glorious
treasure, this treasure that is in earthen vessels, the treasure
of faith, the treasure of repentance, hid in the field of the Word. But notice it was with joy that
he sold everything that he had. Now, joy is different than happiness. There's a big difference between
joy and happiness. Joy. If I go to the doctor for a wellness
visit, and I don't think anything's wrong with me, and he says to
me, good news, you don't have cancer. I'm happy. Good. I'm glad. Didn't think I did anyway. But
if I come into the doctor, and I've had fourth stage cancer
of some kind, and I'm dying, and he comes in, and I have some
kind of test run, and he says, good news, you don't have cancer. Joy. I was happy that I don't
have it. But Oh, the joy, that's the way
you hear the gospel. If you're a sinner, you hear
the gospel with joy. If you're not a sinner, well,
that's good if I ever need it. But if you're a sinner, you hear
the gospel with joy. Now, like I said, joy is different
from happiness because happiness is based upon happenings, circumstances. Well, I'm happily married. My
wife's treating me good. I'm happily married. I am happily
healthy. I'm not sick. Makes me happy.
I know I'd rather be healthy than sick. I am happy in my financial
situation. I'm not under the gun financially.
I can pay my bills. I can go on vacation. I'm happy. Makes me feel good. There's no
present crisis is going on in my home. I'm happy. And then sometimes people say,
I'm unhappy. I'm not happily married. I'm
not happy in my circumstances. I am unhappy. Things aren't the
way I want them to be. I'm not happy. And whenever somebody
says, I'm not happy, watch out. They're getting ready to do something
to make themselves happy, regardless of what it costs anybody else.
Now I want you to remember this, don't even think. I hope God
will give us the grace to not even think about whether or not
we're happy. You look to Christ, everything
will be okay. You rest in Him, everything will
be okay. I love what somebody said to Walter Groover. Walter
Groover, he said, Walter, are you happy? He said, what's that
got to do with anything? I'm where the Lord would have
me. and there's peace, there is joy in that. And listen to
this, you can have absolutely no happiness and have fullness
of joy. Paul put it this way in second
Corinthians chapter six, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. You can be sick, You can be miserable. You can have terrible crises
going on in your home, in your family life. You can have all
kinds of bad things happening to you. And you're not very happy. But if you know the Lord, you
have joy. A true joy that comes from knowing
that he's on the throne and that salvation's in his hand and that
you're in his hand. and everything that happens happens
only because of him. Joy has nothing to do with circumstances. I can have great sorrow in my
circumstances and yet have great joy in the Lord. And Paul put it this way in Philippians
3, 1. Finally, my brethren rejoice
in the Lord. There's somewhere I can rejoice
in the Lord. I can rejoice that he is who
he is. You know, right now I rejoice
in my heart that God and that he's in control of everybody
and everything and everything that comes my way. He's in control.
I can rejoice in it. I might not enjoy it. It might
not make me happy, but I can joy in it. because our rejoicing
is in the Lord. I can rejoice in His holiness. I can rejoice in His justice. I can rejoice in His power. I can rejoice in His goodness.
He's always good. He's always kind. He's always
great. I can rejoice in who He is, all of His attributes. I
love to think about this. Every one of His attributes,
and they're all manifest on the cross. That's the glory of the
cross of Jesus Christ. We rejoice in all of his attributes.
He is the one, I said this recently, he is the only being, he's the
only being, who we wouldn't change him if it was in our power. Everybody
else, everybody else, if you know him at all, there's things
you'd change about him, including yourself. Somebody once said
to me after I said that, said, I wouldn't change anything about
you. And they said, you don't know me then. If you knew me, if you
spent an hour around me, you'd find all kinds of things to change.
But the one being, who knows no change, is the God of glory. We can always rejoice in who
he is. We can always rejoice that our standing is in the Lord.
I love that passage of scripture in 1 Corinthians 1.30, but of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I have all that
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm wise enough to have fellowship
with God. God desires fellowship with me through Christ. I have
perfect righteousness so he can embrace me and hug me tight.
I have sanctification. I have holiness. I have full
redemption, full payment for my sins. Who's not going to rejoice
in that? I rejoice in who he is. I rejoice in salvation being
in him. And no matter how difficult circumstances
may become, I can always rejoice in all things. work together
for good to them that know God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. And you know, we have examples
of this in the scriptures where people weren't necessarily happy,
but they bowed to the God of glory and rejoiced at him. You
know, the Lord speaks to Samuel. He said, tell Eli, I'm going
to kill both of his boys. Pretty severe. Samuel speaks
to Eli, God's going to kill both your boys. It's the Lord. Let
him do what seemeth him good. Whatever he does is right. David is being cursed by Shimei,
you're a bloody man. Abshai says, let me go take his
head off. He said, no. The Lord said to Shimei, curse
David. Somebody curse you this week?
Somebody mistreat you this week? The Lord told him to do it. He
caused him to do it. And it was for your good and
his glory. Can you rejoice in that? This
is the glorious Lord that we're called upon always to rejoice.
And this thing of joy is unknown to the natural man. No natural
man has this kind of joy because this joy is the fruit of the
Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. But this joy is the product of
the new nature. No natural man knows anything
about this joy. John chapter 15 verse 11. Listen
to these words. These things have I spoken unto
you that my joy might remain in you. Now you think of the
joy of Jesus Christ, the Lord. He's got the joy of knowing he
has perfect obedience before the Father, and the Father's
completely pleased with him. He's got the joy of knowing his
will is always done. He's in absolute control. The
reason control freaks are so miserable is because they don't
have any control. But he has control, and he's got the joy
of having complete control. Oh, and he says that my joy might
be fulfilled in you. He said, and now come out to thee that
they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now this joy,
this joy of Christ is a spiritual joy that the natural man is a
stranger to. Turn with me to Romans chapter
14, very important scripture. Verse 17, for the kingdom of God. Now, how much do we read in the
scriptures about the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven? I know the kingdom of God and
the kingdom of heaven is mentioned almost 130 times. How many things
in the New Testament are mentioned that many times? What were the
Lord's first words? kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, believe the gospel. The gospel is about the kingdom
of God and the kingdom of God is the place where He rules,
which is everywhere. The subjects of His kingdom are
the people who love His rule. The folks who don't love His
rule, they're not in the kingdom. The folks who love His rule,
who love His kingship, who love His kingdom, They're in the kingdom.
Oh, the kingdom of God. Now here, Paul is going to tell
us what the kingdom of God is. And first he tells us what it's
not. You know, the Bible starts that
way a lot. It starts out with what it's
not. And the reason the Bible starts out with what it's not
is because we always think that's what it is. And we have to have
that straightened out right off the bat. So look what he says
in verse 17. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's not do's and don'ts. It's not eat this and drink this
and don't eat this and don't drink that. It's not made of
that kind of thinking. That's not the kingdom of God.
That's man-made religion. That's touch not, taste not,
handle not. That's trying to figure out a way I can please
God more if I do this and if I don't do that. The kingdom
of God has nothing to do with that kind of thinking. That's
the thinking of the natural man. That's all it is. It's fleshly.
It's sinful. It's raw. And the kingdom of
God is not about that. What is it about? The kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. A joy inspired by the Spirit
of God, not just manufactured, but a joy inspired by God. Now,
one of the most important words in the Bible, maybe the most
important word other than Christ himself, righteousness. Now why would
I say that? Listen to this scripture. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first
and also to the Greek for therein in the gospel is the righteousness
of God revealed. Now, if you would ask the average
person, what's revealed in the gospel concerning the character
of God? First thing they say, well, it's his love, his love,
his mercy, his grace. And indeed, the gospel does reveal
his love, his mercy, and grace. But if that's the first thing
you say, you don't even know what love, mercy, and grace is. The first
thing the gospel reveals is the righteous character of God, how
he can be righteous and yet righteously save somebody like me or you.
How he can be just and justify the ungodly. How I'm saved by
the righteousness of Christ. How Christ's righteousness, that
perfect obedience of Christ, is my personal righteousness
before God. Perfectly. The righteousness
of God. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. That's my righteousness. You know what that gives me?
Peace. A genuine peace. Everything God
requires of me, I have, having the righteousness of Christ.
If you give me one work to do, one thing I need to do to complete
what he did, my peace is gone. I'm miserable. I'm listening
to that message, I think, maybe I'm unsaved. Maybe I've just
been fooled myself. When I hear preaching like that, I'm not
hearing the gospel. I'm not hearing the gospel. Oh, the peace that comes from
salvation being all of grace, complete in Christ. Peace. The peace of justification. The
peace of knowing that I'm just before God, not merely that I'm
forgiven. I like being forgiven, but here's
something I like even better being, it's better being forgiven,
being justified. being justified, standing perfect
and righteous before God. What peace there is there. And
what happens next after peace? Joy in the Holy Ghost. What joy there is. This is what
the scripture calls in Romans 15, 13, the joy and the peace
of believing. The joy and the peace of believing. Believing that Christ is all
in salvation. I have joy and I have peace. The joy of knowing that Colossians
2.10 says I'm complete. Right now I'm complete. I don't
need anything else. I'm complete in Him. Plumb full. I stand perfectly righteous.
There's absolutely nothing. I'm not missing anything. I'm
not missing any parts. There's nothing I've left out
or didn't do. I am complete in him. That gives me peace. That gives
me joy. You take any part of that away. You say, well, you need to do
this. I got no peace. I got no joy. But being complete
in Christ, being accepted in the beloved, There is peace and
there is joy. I have joy and peace from hearing
him say, it is finished. And you know I get joy and peace,
we're talking to somebody about this. You know when the scripture
says, wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name
which is above every name, the name of Jesus, every knee is
gonna bow. things in earth, things under
the earth. And every tongue is going to
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. You know, that makes me joyful.
Makes me at peace. Everything's going to be fine.
Here's the way it's all going to end up. Every knee is going
to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, some willingly, some unwillingly.
but every knee is gonna bow. And what joy that gives us, what
peace that gives us. Turn with me to Luke chapter
10. I think this will be helpful. Luke chapter 10. This is the 70 that the Lord
sent out to preach the gospel. And we read in verse 17, and
the 70 returned again. How? with joy, with joy. They had joy. And look what they
said, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through
thy name. You've given us such spiritual
power that even demonic beings, devils, are subject to us. They've
got to do what we say. We have this kind of spiritual
power. Wouldn't you love to have spiritual
power? Power in your life that makes you think that the Lord's
blessing you? There's so many different ways
you could take this. I'd love spiritual power in order
to enable me to walk above sin and to enable me to always conduct
myself the way I should. And that's a good thing to desire. I'm not saying it's not, but
look how the Lord responds to what they said. Very interesting.
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from
heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and
scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall
by any means hurt you, notwithstanding in this rejoice not. That the spirits are subject
unto you. You see, if you rejoice in your
spiritual power, Who are you rejoicing in? Yourself. We're so stupid we take glory
in it. The Lord must be doing this for
me because of something I've done. Some kind of something
in me. And the Lord forbids them to
rejoice in this. But what's he telling them to
rejoice in? Notwithstanding in this rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice
because your names are written in heaven in the Lamb's book
of life. That's what you rejoice in. You
rejoice in what I have done for you, not in what I have enabled
you to do. There's only one thing to rejoice
in. in the Lord, that your names are written in the book of life
of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Turn to Matthew
chapter 5. Verse 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Now, when
he's talking about being persecuted for righteousness sake, you know
he's not talking about being persecuted because of your good
deeds. He's talking about being persecuted
because you maintain that the only righteousness there is,
is the righteousness and merit of Jesus Christ. There is no
other righteousness. All other righteousness is nothing
more than filthy rags. Now, you maintain that, somebody's
not going to like you. because you're taking away what
they're hoping in. They're going to say bad stuff about you. They're
going to say they don't care anything about their life. They're
immoral. That leads to all kinds of, you
can imagine all the things people say from that. What's the Lord
say to do? Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. I think of Acts 5.42. And when they had called the
apostles and beaten them, they commanded them that they should
not speak in the name of Jesus. And they let them go. And they
departed from the council rejoicing. that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for his name. Wouldn't you find that a great
honor? Something you don't deserve?
To be allowed to suffer shame for his name and to rejoice in
it. Now, as long as God is God, as
long as salvation is all in Christ, As long as Romans 828 is true,
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to his hope, according to his
purpose. We have reason for fullness of
joy. We might not be happy, but we
have reason for joy, don't we? And as a matter of fact, if happiness
is my goal, I'll have no happiness. Let me show you that in scripture.
That's what we're going to close with. Acts chapter 20. Verse
22. And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit into
Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save
that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds
and afflictions are waiting on me. I know everywhere I go, I'm
either going to get thrown in jail. I'm going to get beat with
the cat of nine tails. I'm going to get stoned. I'm
going to have people take rods and beat me up with them. Paul
knew that was his end. But, verse 24, none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy. Now you know the way you're going
to finish your course with joy? by not counting your life dear
to yourself. That I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry which I've received of the Lord Jesus
to testify the gospel of the grace of God. There was a little
man named Zacchaeus. Y'all know the story. Zacchaeus
was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. The scripture says he sought
to see Jesus who he was. And that is when salvation begins. When you want to know who Jesus
Christ really is. Zacchaeus knew he didn't know
him and he wanted to. That's a blessing. He didn't
know him and he wanted to. So this little man ran ahead
of the crowd and climbed up in a sycamore tree because he knew
the Lord was to pass that way. And when that crowd passed through,
all of a sudden the Lord Jesus Christ stopped. And he was on his way to Jerusalem
at that time. This was at the end when he was going to the
cross and he knew exactly what he was doing. But at that time
he stopped and he looked up in that tree. And I know he smiled. He said, Dracias, make haste,
come down. For today I must abide in thy
house. You know what the scripture said
Zacchaeus did? He made haste. If the Lord ever tells you to
do something, you're going to do it quick. You're not going to wait. And he came
down. You know, whenever the Lord speaks
to you, you're always going to go down. You're going to go down. He came down. And the scripture
says he received him joyfully. May the Lord Jesus Christ enable
us to make haste, to come down in whatever our proud, arrogant
thoughts are of ourselves. Come down, come down. You can't
see him unless you're down and receive him joyfully. They returned to Jerusalem with
great joy. Let's pray.